"I met people twenty years later who would sooner dine on deer turds and rabbit fur than miss a Trekkie convention."

You may not have meant to do it, but I think you summarized my feelings about why Star Trek is such an overated show. What an amazing statement and summation about Trekkies.

Sure, the show touched on some themes that weren't being dealt with in general, but to crown the show as the ONLY one doing that is absurd.   Shows like X Minus 1 did it a generation before on radio. Utopian societies, as much of a fairy tale as they are, were also touched on in shows like The Twilight Zone and even Lost in Space.   

It is also interesting that while the show dealt with "a future society NOT run by money" and "a society NOT dominated by commercial advertising", the existence of Trekkies have been certainly dominated by money and advertising. Think those Star Trek conventions are cheap?

When I worked at CNBC a few years ago, Shatner was a guest on one of our talk shows. The producer thought it would be cute to bring in a bunch of memorabila from Star Trek. Before the show, Shatner took one look at it and said something to the effect of "get that crap out of here".   I admire him for that, if not for his acting.