It made it possible to shrug when they took my story, "Hard Time," which was fair to good for Star Trek, and gave the emotional payoff to Julian Bashir rather than O'Brien's wife and daughter: there never were many recognizable people in Trek, post TOS, and the utter failure of the DS9 staff to understand what might drive a man returning from twenty years of prison? Didn't rate more than a shrug.
TNG, DS9, eh. Voyager, bad. Enterprise, *worse,* which I hadn't thought possible. I had brief hope for Disco, before a near fatal choking on technobabble incident in S2. I modestly enjoyed Picard S1, before a near fatal choking on Picard's idiot childhood and other bad writing in S2.
Have I mentioned the Kelvin movies? Not as stupid as Trek TV, and enjoyable enough. Not Star Trek, though.
I really enjoyed the first season of Strange New Worlds, despite their flat-out theft of Le Guin's Omelas: theft is deep* in Trek's DNA. I have zero hope for S2; if something good falls off the truck, yay. But I won't feel any upset if it goes sideways. This is what Star Trek has done, since "The Final Frontier," in 1989.
There was a Golden Age of Doctor Who, quite recently, spanning the 10th, 11th, and bits of the 12th Doctor's runs. If that fifty year old franchise can get a second wind, I won't say there's no hope for Star Trek.
* deep theft: most of you who read me know this, but Roddenberry flat out pirated Arena, by Fredric Brown, and Black Destroyer, by Van Vogt, in his pitch to NBC, claiming each as his own.
The bullshit story passed around for two generations, they accidentally noticed similarities after shooting Arena? Roddenberry claimed that story as his own years earlier.
@fatsam SNW was great until the Alien ripoff "Gorn" eps. The Number One plot is a little inhumane, but early Federation *was* less tolerant of artificial life.
The best thing in Star Trek in 40 years is Lower Decks. Jokey, and short, but they *get* the Federation the way it used to be, not like these guns-out maniacs in every other show.
@mdhughes people do keep recommending it.