Agreed, and in the case of Dr. Who, the 21st century series has some strong episodes, but i've found more powerful, literate episodes coming from the original series.
All the conscious drive / focus of the Berman era. Often, TNG felt like a bad New Age seminar bolted to the noise from astoundingly bloated politicians pointing accusatory fingers at everyone through the perfect lens of the Prime Directive. It is no wonder TNG does not have as deep a cultural footprint / level of importance as its predecessor (it is not even close).
Well put.
The TOS films (with the exception of TMP) are the only ST films to date that capture the essence / heart of the series it was based on--in a successful way. That cannot be said of the NG movies. Moreover, "senior citizens" seems to assume younger viewers will not find the ages of the cast appealing, when one - from TWOK-forward, the films naturally integrated the idea of the characters aging / seeing their lives at that stage, as opposed to trying to operate like people 15 - 20 years younger. Two, ST has never been a concept where action and scant dialogue was the guiding direction. Its not a MCU movie or--to be frank--the Star Wars films.
The problem is that the JJ-Trek films are as hollow as a cartoon, and not the face a franchise would want to refer to as the best it has to offer.
Trek
isn't a MCU movie or Star Wars but consider how much more widely popular those have been than Trek has ever been, even at its height. I am talking about its wider appeal, and I do think TOS and TOS movies will lose some appeal the older they get. Doesn't detract from its heart or the quality, but I think it will be harder for younger audiences to get into it, especially if they are reared on contemporary series and films with today's special effects, action, acting/writing, and so forth. I got into Next Generation and TOS (movies first and then the series) around the late 80s. I was a teen then, but the age of the TOS movie cast didn't matter to me. I liked the stories and the characters for the most part. It took me longer to get into TOS though. I had a black-and-white television growing up and TOS looked boring compared to Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica when I was very young, so I can only imagine what it would look like to kids today (even with color television), especially when you have so many competing genre works with big budgets, great production values, and writing/acting that is more contemporary. I could see them getting more into the almost 20-year-old "new" Battlestar Galactica instead of TOS. Or what about The Expanse, Halo, Foundation, Raised by Wolves, The 100, The Mandalorian (and other Star Wars series), or epic fantasy series that are out there? And those are competing with the MCU, DC, and other superhero/comic book content.
When I was a kid, Next Generation was basically the only game in town when it came to a science fiction series with consistent, very good production values. It also had great writing, acting, and characters to boot. Now, Trek has a lot of competition, and if say New Trek isn't going to appeal to them then I don't see a large number of younger people flocking to TOS. If anything, I could see them going back to the Berman era first, and then trying TOS. If they like SNW, that might inspire them to go to TOS as well to learn what happened to some of the now SNW characters. How many people who love the Cruise Mission Impossible movies have sought out the original series, or even the 80s reboot? With James Bond, how many people who love the Craig films have seen the Connery or Moore movies, or feel they even need to? Some things get too old, too dated. Personally, I don't think that time has come for TOS yet, but I could see some people just not vibing with it just on how it looks from jump.
The very size of the franchise now, with hundreds of hours of just television programming alone, might also make sifting through all that to get to back to TOS daunting. That doesn't mean TOS isn't legendary. It's the foundation. It's the most popular incarnation in pop culture, but that's also because a lot of people who were there when it premiered are still alive. What happens by the time that say Generation Z are middle age or even older? What is, or will be,
their Trek? Perhaps it will be DISCO, and Burnham will be lionized and recognized as a trailblazer more than she is today. Or it could be Pike or Dal, and there will be the internet debates about how one of them is the best captain. Or there will be articles about how Paul Wesley is the definitive Kirk, and so forth. Or there will be focus on whatever kind of Trek is out at that time. I don't see Trek going away, though it will change, adapt, or mutate, as it were, and it has to.
When it comes to the Abrams-Lin films, personal feelings aside, made more money than any other Trek films (not counting inflation). They are fast, colorful, popcorn films, and while Trek isn't about action like that, for a short time in 2009, Abrams's first film got Trek back to pop cultural relevance in a way it hadn't been in decades. Suddenly, Trek was cool it again and it was great to see. To me, they just dragged their feet getting out a sequel, and that sequel was lackluster (even though it earned a lot of money, which also says to me that at the time a lot of people were still eager to see JJ-Trek).
