People who hate JJs Trek seem to focus on the positove vision of the future/thoughtful story telling piece, which they feel is not present. But TOS was also popular because of great characters and good stories.
I don't know if I covered it here or somewhere else, but after reading thedigitalbits.com's review of Season 2 of TNG, it actually got me thinking about what Star Trek is to people and it's fans.
Some will say it's about how awesome humanity has become.
Some will say it's about tolerance and accepting those who are different.
Some will say it's about exploration and seeking out the unknown.
Some will say it's about ideas and doing things that have never been done before.
There is so much variety in Star Trek that spans it's six series and soon to be 12 movies that it's impossible to nail down one idea as being the absolute representation of Star Trek, because each series tends to do things differently. Deep Space Nine was more about the conflict between the Cardassians and the Bajorans, while The Next Generation was built to be the perfect, non-conflicted crew who always agreed with each other and conflict only came from the outside. But if I was asked what I think Star Trek is about, it wouldn't be anything that Trek09 represents.
No. I would say that Star Trek is about a massive, diverse galaxy and how each race fits into it. What I mean by that is that other races besides humans can be the center of a Star Trek story without relying on the human race to be the center of attention. Gene Roddenberry once said that if we're not going to make a story about humans, what was the point? I always found that saying offensive because it openly paints us as the superior race above every other race in the galaxy simply because... we're humans I guess. The Next Generation would often preach this point in many of it's earlier episodes.
Picard:
I know Hamlet. And what he might say with irony I say with conviction. "What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty. In form, in moving, how express and admirable. In action, how like an angel. In apprehension, how like a god..." I see us one day becoming that.
Well, what about Worf, your Klingon officer? Would you honestly say that openly to him? Or what about Deanna Troi? Are you going to tell her that her human side is what makes her special and that her Betazoid half is holding her back from greatness? I find this portrayal of Star Trek quite irritating and offensive, and you know what? JJ's Trek does it as well.
Throughout Trek09, pretty much the entire Vulcan society is portrayed as arrogant, selfish and flat out racist towards everything that is not a Vulcan. Even the adults go so far as to call the human wife of their ambassador to Earth a "disadvantage". Quite a big change since their motto is "infinite diversity in infinite combinations".
Plus the film portrays Spock's sense of logic to be more of a hazard rather than a benefit to the crew. Logically, yes. The Enterprise should meet up with the fleet in order to engage the Narada, but the film keeps portraying this as the wrong thing to do because Kirk wants to go in guns blazing without so much as a strategy. Even in the end when Nero is at their mercy, Spock completely abandons logic in favor of ensuring the deaths of every Romulan onboard the Narada. And it still doesn't end there! Spock Prime tells NuSpock that he should put aside logic and do what's right by sticking around with the Enterprise.
Well, maybe JJ and the high court will finally be able to let Spock's logic actually be a benefit to the crew's mission rather than-
*9 minute preview*
Nope. It's still being portrayed as a pointless hazard and even sets up yet another "Spock must put aside logic and accept his humanity" by having Bones tell Kirk that if it was Kirk in the Volcano, Spock would certainly have left him to die. Anyways, screw this new planet. Let's go save Earth again.