Hmm, let me think...

Trek is so big it really represents the entire spread of space opera tv. The setting lets them do anything, and they try most of it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Writing-wise, there are some truly appalling episodes, and some truly amazing ones. Certain episodes (City on the Edge of Forever, The Visitor, Yesterday's Enterprise) are up there with the best sci-fi ever filmed. Others (Spock's Brain, Shades of Grey, most of Voyager ) we just don't talk about... A lot of episodes are made to make you think, Trek-writers don't usually shy away from heavy philosophical stuff. The character episodes are often very well written.

The acting is generally very good as sf goes, and you never see an actor looking too out of place.

The technology is ott but generally consistent. There's a moderately well-worked out interstellar politics situation.

As a role-play gamesmaster, I love it for the scope - I have so much room in which to play, and stuff to play with, and yet, everybody's familiar with the concepts.

There are downsides. A large number of dull episodes, technobabble, Voyager, bad science (Voyager's black hole episode makes me cringe!), people who dress up as starfleet officers, Voyager, characters you love to hate, too many Klingons ... did I mention Voyager yet?

But there are a lot of gems in the dross...

Anyone else gonna chip in?

(Apologies to Voyager fans - most of the ones I know hate DS9, which I love... Just goes to show!)

I went to see quite an interesting fringe play called 'I am Star Trek' recently about the life of Gene Roddenberry.

At various times, 'Gene' speculated as to the appeal of the show.

I think Star Trek is aspirational and offers hope of a wiser humanity and that that is the great chunk of its appeal.

It also draws on two immensely popular genres, the western and science fiction.

There is also now a level of familiarity that draws fans back time and time again to a world that obeys its own internal rules.

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by Incandenza
I went to see quite an interesting fringe play called 'I am Star Trek' recently about the life of Gene Roddenberry.

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Oh? Where's it on? (Definitely interested)

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by Incandenza
There is also now a level of familiarity that draws fans back time and time again to a world that obeys its own internal rules.

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Well, most of the time anyway

Blah, blah, blah ...

Cos it's good and Data is fully functional

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by Astronut
(quotes)

Oh? Where's it on? (Definitely interested)

(quotes)

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This weekend, the Shaw Theatre on Euston Road.

After that, not sure ... it was on somewhere else when I saw it so your best bet is probably to check a London local listings guide when you feel like going.

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by Incandenza

I think Star Trek is aspirational and offers hope of a wiser humanity and that that is the great chunk of its appeal.

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Aaarrrrghhh... this is one of the things that annoys me about Star Trek the most: the internal assertion that they are an 'evolved' humanity. They're not. Characters prove themselves to be as petty, morally ambiguous, self-obsessed etc. as ever. The society has changed, the people are no individually wiser.

(Not quite what you were saying, Inc, just using your post as launch for a rant )