Good article on Star Trek

Although I often find people ascribing this much value to a TV show to be annoying and pretentious this article does bring home some interesting points. And nails some great lines as well.

And somehow finds a way to address the always interesting conflict of Star Wars versus Star Trek. This line really captures the difference between the two:

If Lucas is defiantly pop-cultural in orientation, delivering archetypal structure and fast-paced action rather than plot and conversation, Roddenberry skews much closer to traditional high or middlebrow culture.

Which explains the point I usually try to deliver when discussing the 2 and fail to make nearly as well. Star Wars is B-movie action, the original Star Trek is theater and drama (no matter how clumsily delivered).

One other interesting point:

the original "Star Trek" still has a passion and vitality that partly stem from its cheapness; the threadbare sets and effects created a coherent, suggestive atmosphere, and forced your attention onto the storytelling and the characters.

This is an important point to realize with the new movie coming out with a full range of all the best special effects money can buy. At it's heart Star Trek is about the characters, and the story. A point that several of the movies failed to grasp (and which Wrath of Khan did grasp).