That kind of got me thinking. In a lot of Star Trek shows, they always have small plot points about how movies used to be a popular form of entertainment and then sort of went away. This is even in pre-Holodeck Star Trek settings. Many years ago you would be hard pressed to say that one day TV shows/movies will no longer be desired and sort of stop being a thing, but I could easily see that type of media (as it exists today) becoming less and less relevant. Or at the very least, not as ubiquitous as it is now.
Trek is at its best when it's thoughtfully predicting the future (the best version of the future) with things like "we created replicators, so hunger was eliminated from the world" and holodecks replacing movies - making for an entertainment medium that requires people to think more, AND makes them physically healthier since it's keeping them busy / not sedentary. All these little advancements, and how they affect people, are just as interesting as the actual starship advancements.
Right now I'm almost done watching DS9. Started watching it for the first time about six years ago and it has been a slow process; at this point I'd be further along if I were watching them alongside their original airdates. But damn, I love DS9. Everything that happens on this show is thoughtful and self-aware. The characters are likeable and get along.
Captain Sisko is a huge bad-ass, and where I am now he's about to try to broker a deal with the Romulan Empire by "dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight". I have about ten episodes left in S6, then S7. I'm considering watching Picard S3 after that just because it's the TNG conclusion I was hoping the whole show would be, and would chronologically follow after DS9's conclusion (plus 1-2 decades).
Not once in that however many years have I felt like DS9 was ham-fisted or clobbering me with The Message. It had plenty of messages, yes, and all of them were thoughtfully contemplated and delivered. I never feel like the show is mean-spirited towards anyone, not any particular character, nothing. Except for the Cardassians of course, with their occupation of Bajor and general assholery. Even then it's reserved for the high command, not regular Cardassian folk.
Have basically no interest in Nu Trek outside of Picard S3. I tapped out on both Discovery and Picard some time late in their first seasons. I think Nu Trek died for me somewhere around Drunken Seven of Nine incinerating a guy, or maybe it was when some guy's eyeball got yanked out, or maybe it was the 80th instance of cursing.
