Neither the television of the 90s nor the television of today is objectively superior to anything. These are just dueling lists of favorite shows, some of which have the advantage of being widely popular, which does not prove that they are objectively good.
All the more reason why Star Trek can cover plenty of creative ground without forgetting or denying its roots. Don't get me wrong, in nearly every practical instance of storytelling, I tend to fall on the side of those who want something new or are at least okay with something new. And I despise the attitude that the franchise's creative people should be beholden to the particulars of internet fan wishlists and the like. But I'm also not on board with the idea floating through this thread and gaining collective steam that Star Trek must completely ignore its past on principle or that any deviation from the franchise's past is a virtue in itself. There's a creative balance to be struck, in this as in all entertainment, between familiarity and novelty, between challenging audiences and pleasing them.
There have been great TV shows made since the dawn of the medium, that's not in dispute. But the sheer number and variety of quality TV series today, the amount of competing broadcast and cable and web-based outlets producing shows, the relative ease and lowered cost for smaller production companies to produce decent quality shows, the vast pool of experienced TV staff available, the wide variety of filming locations, and the seriousness with which the industry is now taken compared to the past (TV is no longer considered the bastard stepchild to films) have all contributed to making this the Golden Age of Television. It's not a dig on 90s TV, which was great, it's just saying that things have expanded and improved even more since then. There are literally too many good shows to follow them all.
I'm not suggesting it be an undefined mix of everything. As i said, its an open format that can tell a variety of story types. In practice it has done so. It can tell a murder mystery, a romance, a light comedy or a heavy drama all in the setting of a starship travelling through space.
Soap Operas.
Still TV.
It is called the "Golden Age" by people who like the programming. It is not called the "Golden Age" by people who don't. As Mr. Spock says, "Labels are not arguments"; and what something is called is inherently subjective, not objective.
In my opinion, the variety of media outlets and the ease of production has lowered the quality of television, not raised it. Television programming has increasingly become less accessible and communicative as producers with tunnel vision chase after niche markets. The niche markets love it because they're being catered to, and their love of being catered to reverberates through their echo chambers on the internet. And some TV critics love it, because some critics think everything esoteric is intellectually complex and that everything accessible is dumbed down. And the critics and niche markets are free to feel that way, but I don't have to agree with them, watch what they watch, or call it objectively better.
Lots of people prefer today's television because it is not constrained by standards they no longer share. Personally, I have standards that today's television blatantly violates, particularly when it comes to graphic violence. Again, these standards are subjective, as they're personally held; and any debate about the objective value of maintaining or violating standards, while legitimate, is too complex to be ajudicated by television critics.
None of which I object to. My point from the beginning has only been that while Star Trek can do many things, there are some things it can't do and remain recognizably itself. I'm not even saying I know what those things are or that someone should make a list of them. I'm just saying that Star Trek should not, on principle, run away from itself entirely, just for the virtue of doing so; especially if it runs away from itself just to copy some other kind of television that happens to be popular right now.
That's kind of how Star Trek got started. Roddenberry wanted to emulate the very popular and successful Adult Westerns of the day.
