DS9 is the only good Star Trek series

The other shows didn't lack that complexity, they just weren't about interpersonal drama, war and political machinations as much as DS9 and that was the point. Next Gen and Voyager were in the mold of aspirational sci-fi. Their point was to show an evolved humanity, who'd internally solved all those problems, reaching out to the stars and encountering the wonders of the universe. Sometimes they'd encounter alien species steeped in the old problems and use that to tell those DS9 type stories, usually as morality tales meant to show the benefit of evolving beyond primitive ways. Enterprise and TOS act as the bridge shows between unenlightened humanity and humanity in TNG's era which is why Archer and Kirk's ships were more down and dirty with how they did things.

That format satisfied a rabid and ever growing Star Trek fandom for many decades and then Rodenberry died and DS9 got greenlight and staffed with all the Trek writers who hated writing in what they called "The Roddenberry Box", which were the rules GR had set down that created the aspirational sci-fi setting for TOS, TNG, VOY and ENT. The DS9 writers set out from day one to break out of the setting Roddenberry had crafted, no starship, no travel, more serialized, more interpersonal drama, more political machinations, more violence, a darker setting, etc.

And you know what, it worked. Those writers got to unleash all the tools of their trade Roddenberry's ethos denied them of when they wrote for TNG. Showrunners Berman and Pillar made sure to keep some Roddenberry spirit alive in the show but the show still broke those rules just as often as they followed them. But yeah, it worked as great dramatic sci-fi television.

Thing is there was never any doubt that Star Trek would still be awesome if it didn't follow the Roddenberry blueprint. Star trek with violence, in-fighting, darkness etc... would still mean cool ass space ships, staffed with cool people in occasionally cool uniforms encountering space mysteries and aliens and whatnot. It's like wouldn't vanilla ice cream be great with all sorts of nuts and sprinkles and cholate syrup and shit in it. Yeah it would, but it also wouldn't be the original flavor. Putting all the fixins on is great every now and again but it isn't what the original flavor is supposed to be all the time.

Lemme get back to Trek before my metaphor gets stretched too thin. This is why many point to DS9 as the beginning of the shit show we have now with JJ Abrams and Alex Kurtzman era Star Trek. They're like you, they didn't like original flavor Star Trek, but they loved the parts of DS9 that weren't like the rest of the franchise (and they just so happen to be Star Wars fanboys and some of the biggest hacks in Hollywood who've failed upwards their whole lives but I digress). Movies like Into Darkness and shows like Discovery which are Star Trek in name and setting only that are ALL about interpersonal drama, war and politics and that shit on Roddenberry's ethos, Trek lore and canon and just everything that made Star Trek stand out from the rest of the genre as something truly special.

So you say...

> that's probably why I prefer it to the rest. Not so much because it's dark or cynic, but more because it's just more interesting. With most Star-Trek shows, everything is very episodic. The crew just stumbles on a planet facing a crisis or something, do some science all over it, wax philosophical, and the move on

Which illustrates my point. Star Trek is supposed to be about being scientific and philosophical. The episodic format is so that the show can move to different settings to individually explore a large variety of scientific and philosophical issues. Trek is in the name for a reason. Anyway I'll stop blathering on, I just sat through a horrible episode of nuTrek thus the rambling.