For most of us longtime Trek fans, Star Trek was a game-changer for us. It was the show (and movies) that taught us new ways to look at the world; a narrative that wasn't afraid to delve into questions of philosophy, asking both the characters and the viewers to re-examine themselves in the face of strange new worlds and new ideas, and come away from the experience at little more open-minded, if not more educated.
Please give some specific examples from Trek history -- TV or movies. Please. Honestly. I'm not baiting you. I just want to know the basis for this belief. You're not the only one to say this about Trek, but no one ever gives any concrete examples of this as the prevalent nature of Trek.
I saw my first TOS episode on a black and white TV in 1967. I still don't know what people are referring to when they say what you did. I honestly don't. I've seen a mostly high-quality show with stories written for the sensibility of adults, but I've never noticed the show (or any of them that followed) breaking any philosophical or intellectual boundaries, or addressing any issues that were taboo on other high-quality TV shows of their times. If anything, I'd say Trek tended to play it safer than the truly ground-breaking TV shows of the 1970s and 1980s did.
For example, in the 1970s, Norman Lear's shows, plus
Soap,
Barney Miller, and
M*A*S*H broke far more new ground and raised far more adult issues than any Trek show ever did. In the 1980s,
Roseanne,
Hill Street Blues, and
Murphy Brown dealt more often and openly with weightier issues than TNG did.
That's not to play down Trek as high-quality action and adventure, but if its purpose was to make people re-examine themselves, become more open-minded, and think and be educated by it, then it was shallow water compared to the shows above.
Of course, that was never its intent. At least I never saw it.
