Now, I'm in the camp that thinks Star Trek is one of the worst television programs to ever be created.
I can't speak to the original series. Seems to me it's one of those things where you have to be up for something campy if you want to watch it today. That said, it was pretty groundbreaking for its time in terms of some of the social issues it addresses.
TNG was sufficiently nerdy at times and really difficult to watch in its early seasons, but it really hit its stride when it did two-parter cliffhangers or the isolated episode that was a character study of one of the more intriguing individuals on the ship like Worf or Data.
DS9 is the crown jewel of the franchise, but it was also a bit painful in its early seasons. It really took off once they brought Ron Moore on board (the guy who is now responsible for running the new
Battlestar Galactica) and the plot arcs became a lot more complex. Not a lot of people watched it or had any idea that it had taken so many risks comparative to the rest of the Trek franchise, so to most outsiders it seems just as nerdy as the rest of the Star Trek universe.
Voyager had the occasional inspired and really-out-there sci-fi premise for an episode, but for the most part that show lacked direction and blew with the wind in terms of how it grabbed for ratings. "What's this, the bad guys are boring and nobody cares about them? OK, let's bring back the Borg! Oh wait, the Borg are getting old? Hey, let's invent a species that can blow away the Borg! Naw, that didn't work. We're back to the Borg again!"
And we all know what an epic fail Enterprise was. Though it was pretty good in its third season, with glimmers of hope for what could have been if the series survived long enough to outlive its many continuity faux pas and desperate ratings grabs that drew away even some of the most ardent Trek fans, but still not good enough to hold a candle to your average season of DS9 or TNG.
There's always been some entry-level amount of "nerd cred" required to really get into any incarnation of Star Trek, and while the movie looks like it'll be fun and draw big numbers due to nostalgia (like remakes of a lot of old series do at the box office), I don't think it's likely to be a sufficient enough boost to warrant a full reboot of the franchise. Shows like
Battlestar Galactica have proven to me that we've learned from the best of Trek and moved on to bigger and better things.
NP: "Coming Home", Alter Bridge
