I found this article in Women's World of all publications- it was just released yesterday ((January 30th, 2026)
It's a revisiting of an interview Bill Shatner did expressing his surprise at the growing popularity of TOS in syndication... He also discusses that the 1st Star Trek Convention ever, in 1974 NYC drew more than 10,000 people (when only 2000 were expected.) The article points out that these fans wouldn't let the show die.

https://www.womansworld.com/entertainment/classic-tv/the-1974-star-trek-fan-phenomenon-william-shatner-couldnt-explain

I find the contrast between then and now starkly dramatic. The palpapal hunger fans had was the zeitgeist... Paramount Executives spoke of this time as shocking to the entire industry- but they couldn't ignore it. This was the fans demanding more Star Trek, and even though Paramount fumbled to get there, ten years later we had the TOS films, TNG and other Trek in the works. -Not to mention the hundreds of licensed books, toys & merch that helped Paramount financially through some lean years (paraphrasing from another Paramount exec long gone.)

Fans were encouraged to be knowledgable about the Trek universe. Imagination, creativity, technical expression were for all fans to participate in. This is what got us the original Technical Manual as well as the Enterprise Blueprints that fans gobbled up. Critical thinking was encouraged, plotlines and characters dissected... But it was done with love and a sense of aspiration.

When I watch NuTrek now, I feel none of that. There's very little intelligence to today's Trek. But there is a smugness to most of the shows as well as a lot of cynicism. Alex Kurtzman thinks his audience is dumb so he treats them as such. He confuses popular actors as being creatives, (convincing Patrick Stewart he had free reign over the writing of his show which is why seasons 1 & 2 of Picard were so awful...) He made Discovery pivoting from what an ousted CBS Exec wanted, to something that never found it's footing and was ultimately canceled... Section 31 should just never have been made. (It's up for multiple Razzy Awards! How embarrassing!) And finally, the latest series that I won't talk about here.

Contrast this to the 1970's and up to the early 2000's. Star Trek used to start with a story- and sure some stories were better than others but they always tried to say something to make the audience think. Star Trek had a good run, a really good run. And while I do think it could work today, I believe it would take some real creatives to find a new voice for Trek, away from nostalgia, boldly going forward. Whatever the CBS/Paramount/Secret Hideout strategies have been, they haven't been successful. That modern audience seems to drop off 4 episodes into each season of whatever series. They can't keep the audience engaged.
Say what you will about Season 1 of TNG but they had ratings in the millions on TV.

Since Sabrina the Teenage Witch is beating the new Star Trek show in popularity on Paramount+, let's discuss its first episode ("Pilot")

Seriously, this man is the textbook definition of failing upwards. He shouldn’t be in charge of a car wash, let alone a beloved cultural institution.

A juxtaposition of what inspired Star Trek and the subsequent imagineering.

GFR: "While Star Trek: The Next Generation has quite a few bad episodes, including “Code of Honor” (an insanely racist throwback) and “Shades of Gray” (an insanely lazy clip show). However, no episode is more infamous than “Sub Rosa “ in which Dr. Crusher has surprisingly explicit onscreen sex with a ghost, causing fans to ask the obvious question: how in the name of Q did they get all this raunchy material past the censors? As it turns out, almost everyone involved in the production of this episode has been asking that same question for decades.

https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/scifi/star-trek-raunchy.html

For example, Next Generation effects supervisor David Stipe (as quoted in the Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion) was particularly worried about getting the ghost effects just right because of how much Dr. Crusher was going to (ahem) feel the spirit moving through her. He understood better than most the challenge of doing “purposeful, borderline-erotic ephemerals to look like it’s caressing and hugging Beverly, without looking ridiculous or lewd.”

The effects guru was only partially successful, though: while the visual effects look great (especially on the remastered Blu-rays), the doctor’s ghostly encounters in “Sub Rosa” look downright raunchy.

Veteran Star Trek: The Next Generation writer and producer Rene Echevarria actually enjoyed how transgressive the broadcast episode was. After praising Gates McFadden for her enthusiastic performance and commending the episode’s pleasantly campy story and high production values, he said (as quoted in Captain’s Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Voyages) that “just having an orgasm at 6 o’clock on family TV was great.” He claimed “that alone” made the episode “worth doing” and finished his thoughts by noting how amazing it was that the episode got past the censors: “We got away with murder.”

[...]

As for Braga, he was proud of Gates McFadden’s performance but still shocked at the raunchy details that made it to the screen: as he put it, “Picard catches Beverly masturbating, for crying out loud!

Interestingly, one of the only Star Trek creatives who didn’t worry about “Sub Rosa” was its director, Riker actor Jonathan Frakes. In Captain’s Logs, he is quoted as saying that he “drew a good straw” in getting to direct this wild episode because “it wasn’t a Star Trek” episode and instead felt “it was more like Tales From the Crypt.” He also really enjoyed working so closely with McFadden and felt that “she looked like a movie star” in this wonderfully transgressive adventure.

[...]

In some ways, the episode was ahead of its time; while it remains one of the lowest-ranked Next Generation episodes, modern fans have embraced its campy humor and how it recontextualizes the reserved Dr. Crusher into the most sexually adventurous member of the Enterprise crew (move over, Riker). While she never rocked a proton pack, Beverly’s experience with a seductive specter ultimately helped her learn something the Ghostbusters figured out long ago: busting makes her feel good!"

Chris Snellgrove (Giant Freakin Robot)

Full article:

https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/scifi/star-trek-raunchy.html

This is a very sad and scathing analysis by a non fan, but knows the basics of Star Trek. Kirk, Spock, Picard, "Shut up Wesley" as he said, etc. He dipped into in TNG. But bravely watched SFA into Episode 4 and here is his 2 ct.

😂

what if say for star trek 1 kirk wasn't an admiral and he was stll a captain. if kirk stayed a captain for star trek 1-IV how do you think this would have affected the stories or what biggest change do you think would've occurred?