BlueMooner: For all their shows, Nichols was the only black female main character, and they never had any gays on, even as single episodes. Gay rights has been going on our whole lives, and they didn't want to touch it?? I didn't even watch Enterprise. The final stake in the coffin was JJ Abrams, who made that godawful reboot. I hated that movie so much that I added his name to Night Shamalan's as directors whose movies I automatically avoid.
Takei is gay, and while that wasn't necessarily widely known during the show or anything that they addressed on the show, there was a pretty much "wtf cares" attitude around it. Then in DS9 they totally blast it apart as another "wtf cares". They go "F all you uptight pricks, we're going to have women kissing and not even address it as anything, it's not a big deal, get over it!" As far as civil rights, the whole show is practically about equality among different types of people who look different who are actually very much the same as everyone else, that is the whole concept of them all being humanoid-type, that we are all actually from the same place and we need to figure out how not to be biased bigots and work our shit out together because, really, we're all one.
Hilarious, Shyamalan is one of, if not the worst, directors out there. Abrams comes close and maybe is even worse because he doesn't have original ideas he just takes other people's and ruins them.
_Slaugh_: 1) I'm not a huge fan of Star Trek, but I enjoyed the original series, TNG and Voyager. What I dislike about Star Trek: Q, the most annoying character of the series; and the fact that (almost) all races are humanoid.
DS9 is EXCELLENT, better than TNG, IMO, and wayyyyy better than Voyager (which I don't really like.) I suggest giving it another try. And Q will grow on you if you let him, you've got to take him as a growing character and see how he progresses through TNG. He's supposed to be annoying. I think Janeway is the most annoying character, I can't stand her! How they deal with Q in DS9 is pretty funny too. They totally explain why all the races are humanoid in a TNG episode, too, so it makes sense (otherwise I'd agree with you.)