oh wow, this thread goes back a while. I think I remember its creation, yet I completely forgot about it.
Anyway, I watched the TOS movies and reboots a while ago, and having recently finished TOS, which is really the one show I never watched. It was a lot more fun than I expected, and to a degree more daring for its time than I believed. However, the constant use of 'love' and Kirk kiss-assaulting almost every woman he sees, from woman-A to woman-Z, does get a little on the nerves. City On The Edge Of Forever is legit the best singular episode though, but I think Balance Of Terror is the better and more important to the franchise. The Borg would not have been introduced (implied) at the end of TNG's first season were it not for Balance Of Terror laying the groundwork for it.
But while watching certainly explains a lot of thing in the reboot movies, the one thing they missed is the part that actually mattered, which is of course emancipation and feminism. Most obvious is the inclusion of Chekov in season 2, a Russian character at the height of the (then) cold war, which is a good way of getting the point across that someday we'll have our shit figured out.
The most important aspect of Star Trek in how it differs from other space show however, is the continuously reinforced aspect of due process. Logs are made, reports are signed, reading are taken, evidence is collected for the sake of a fair trial... you'd wish real people were that thorough too. That, as I see it, is the real difference between Star Trek and everybody else.
Currently proceeding onwards with The Animated Series.
