What do you Love/like about star trek?

[dworkin]

One of the things I love in TOS is that the optimism is implied. If you can have a society capable of building starships and everyone works together to explore outer space then things can get better. That's highly optimistic especially given the period. Compared to most other SF Star Trek is one of the most hopeful. Unlike TNG however the point is constantly belaboured and shoved in your face.

[Darth Wong]

Both shows sent the message that the future would be a better place, and that humanity would become a better species as well, but you're right that TNG sort of mixed the message at times with regards to the effect of technology.

Kirk's Trek was more along the lines of "We're flawed, but we're getting better" while Picard's Trek seemed to be "We're perfect, for the most part".

Exactly.

It's interesting that TOS had Idiot Chiefs and asshole bureaucrats. The guy from 'The Trouble With Tribbles' is comical, but I guess it did show that politicians will continue to exist and continue to be an annoyance. I can't remember anything that equivalent in TNG, maybe except for that Judge who went authoritarian in her senility in 'The Drumhead'.

That judge was portrayed as an individual bad apple in an otherwise noble institution of light. In TOS, you got the sense that the entire political bureaucracy was full of people like that self-important nitwit, which it probably was, and which real-life bureaucracies typically are.

[AirshipFanboy]

I think I like it mainly because I grew up with it and got really used to it. I've even enjoyed some of the bad episodes, although I may just watch them to giggle later at Sonnenburg's video reviews.

I also like the premise of the crew traveling space, having adventures, and doing good deeds. ST, like SW, also offers a really broad universe, and you can imagine lots of fascinating things lurking in the depths of it.

Rewatching parts of TNG recently also reminded me that I like the sheer weirdness of the dilemmas they encounter, like the artifact that transforms their ship into a bronze-age temple, the trip that Worf takes into parallel realities, the invisible parasites that give Data surreal dreams, or the Tamarians who talk in mythological metaphors. These situations may be silly and unrealistic, but are still fun and interesting.

I still like TOS the best though. It was less preachy and seemed more fresh somehow.

[Count Chocula]

It's funny...I just moved my sci-fi books from the garage to new bookshelves in the house tonight and discovered I have more Star Trek than Star Wars novels...like three times as many. I didn't see that coming!

I grew up watching TOS and Lost in Space, and later Buck Rogers and Space:1999. I saw Star Trek on TV before I saw Star Wars in the movies, and it made an impression on me. Like others here, I loved and still love the Kirk-McCoy-Spock-Scotty dynamic, and while I like the TNG characters they're not as memorable to me.

I saw TOS as an impressionable boy, and the wonder of space exploration along with the memorable portrayal of the main characters by the actors hooked me. Plus, the Enterprise just looks neat. So I guess I love the space explorers and larger-than-life character portrayals of Star Trek.

[JME2]

It's a decent sci-fi mythos, but it's not necessarily my favorite. As I've said before, I prefer the mythos as seen through the lens of DS9, with its focus on darker elements, war, politics, religion, etc.