[cmccuist]

POP, good point. I think the show works/worked for exactly that reason. There was a lot of "what does it mean to be human" type episodes. The star of the show wasn't the Enterprise, but the interaction between Captain Kirk, Spock and Bones - and a lot of humanish aliens that were ugly.

To me, good science fiction writing has to have rules - how do you kill a transformer, how corrosive is that alien's blood, how fast can the Enterprise go, what are the limits of the transporter...

As long as I know the rules, and the show/movie is consistent in following those rules, I can enjoy the show.

However, I will never understand why they used those ridiculous, 1960's CRT monitors (that were basically 12" black and white TV's) instead of envisioning flat screens.