[Burt]

I think I tend to follow Derek more - Star Trek wasn't trying to show everything as perfect and people as flawless beings - they were more metaphors. To explore different parts of Humanity. (Racial differences, The Cold War, etc). Trying to show that there Humanity could achieve more though co-operation, and putting aside differences. And like he said, that was up till mid Next Gen. Now it's more focused on action type stories (I still like!), which I guess is in part due to the need to compete with other sci-fi shows. I suppose back in the original days and at the start of Next Gen there wasn't much competition, so they could do more slower 'moral' stories.
To be honest thought, I caught a BSG on TV today (Remake). It was the one about a Cylon suicide bombing, and then a big old trial to find out who was to blame. And as I watched it, I realized, it was very like 'The Drumhead', an old Next Gen episode. Yes, more glitz and glamour - and certainly more kissing- but they were so alike even down to the 'Captain gets Tried at the end and proclaims it a witch-hunt'. I suppose even though Star Trek never really had the sex, drugs and rock&roll in it, so long as the story had meaning, it didn't really matter.
As for Doctor Who I think this series has quite a bit of depth and sadness in it. As a companion, the Doctor seemed very close to Rose. A fair few other companions seemed rather 'throwaway'. But the way this was played, it always felt to me that there was always a worry in the Doctors head about the safety of Rose. I wonder if they’ll be able to add this to the next assistant. Plus there's him being the (So far) last Time lord. He doesn't seem too happy bout that. And while he's never been a fan of the Daleks, he's turned really quite cold towards them, with what’s happened with his race. I don't know, to me the whole thing has a much darker feel. (Again I mean against the older series - compared to some American shows it's practically the Teletubbies) Even the TARDIS is different. Darker, spookier.