At the time Star Trek debuted (early sixties), technology itself was a new frontier, and the world was rapidly changing. We had created a bomb which ripped apart the very fabric of our world - the atomic structure. For the first time, man was talking about going to the moon as if it could really be done. Computers were metamorphasizing from the monstrosities that filled entire rooms down to a much more manageable size. Music was changing, and with it - the whole mind-altering hippie drug, freedom, exploration culture was born. And, the Cold War & McCarthyism had begun. There was a LOT to be afraid of. When a new horizon appears, there are two conflicting factors that emerge in all of us - fear and curiosity. Unlike a horror film which preys on the darker side of these emotions, Star Trek opened people's minds to the intense beauty and benefit technology could bring. It wasn't something to be feared, but to be embraced! It presented ideas bigger and better than the problems of daily life. We will explore new worlds. We will *boldly* go where no man has gone before, yes indeed. The original series only lasted a couple of years. But the ideas had touched a chord deep inside a small group who refused to let it go, and as the rest of society caught up with them, they began to embrace it as well.

It was popular because it never focused on special effects and technology to sell it's audience - it always strived for good story lines. TOS was made with a low budget and the special effects were pretty bad in those days. For true fans, that didn't matter because it was the stories and characters you tuned into each week. Since TOS was a bit before it's time (it only lasted 3 seasons) reruns in the 70's kept up it's popularity and that lead to several good movies in the 1980s. When TNG came out in 1987 it took ST to the next level. Character development in TNG, DS9 and Voyager were exceptional - giving each member of the cast almost equal time every season, which is rare for any series. The writers knew the actors and characters so well and you can tell they functioned like a family. The actors were given opportunities to make suggestions about their characters and storylines were reviewed from people all over the world. Unfortunately, with the cancellation of Enterprise - there won't be a new ST series on the air in over 18 years.

There are many reasons for the popularity of the original Star Trek series and some others have already expounded on some of them. I would like to add what I believe is an important factor: classic characters. All of us can relate in some way to Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Spock speaks to our intelligence, McCoy represents our emotional side, and Kirk demonstrates our will or ego. The characters demonstrate these three major parts of the mind so well that Psychology professors have used episodes from the original Star Trek series to teach psychology basics. I would also like to point out another thing: the fantasy appeal. In the Star Trek world, human society has moved beyond the need for money, and transportation is practically instant. Work is done not to earn a living, but for the sheer fulfillment of it. It's not hard to understand the appeal of a future that promises freedom from the drudgery of slogging off to an hour-long commute to get to work to earn your pay each day in order to survive. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just do whatever we wanted and could travel places in a flash? Again, there are many other reasons for the appeal of Star Trek, but these are the ones that come first to my mind.

I would venture to say that it probably reminds people of their past, where they have been or things that they had experienced. In the same light, people who find Star Trek type stuff unappealing may not have really enjoyed some parts of their past during those type of epochs.

I an only speak truly about Star Trek TNG, but I have watched the older ones as well. The newer ones never appealed to me. But the thing that made it so popular, along with what everything else has said, is that it could give an opinion on real life situations and not offend anyone. There are episodes that deal with so many things that are huge problems in our society. Drugs, suicide, race, you name it and there has been an episode dedicated to it. We may not all see it on a conscious level, but I can almost guarantee that we all have experienced something and then an episode will come to mind or you will behave based on what you saw in an episode. Interesting to me but wonderful in the same sense. I always think about how many people live with no honor, but the loved Commander Worf in TNG because everything was about honor. Not a true answer, just input.

It offered a hopeful outcome of the "Nuclear Age" people found themselves in after Hiroshima/Nagasaki. Humans had managed to survive that which promised global destruction. In fact, we thrived! Who doesn't like to dream of an optimistic future?? The question here is: Will We Really Survive Ourselves? Right now, there are many obstacles to our survival brewing up. This particular beast of population growth is on my mind. We are only now discovering just how polluted our world has become and with that discovery looms the exponential growth of the polluters themselves. It took the entire history of mankind to build it's population up to 2 Billion by the end of WW II. Since then, our global population has tripled. Think about that one! 60 years to go from 2 to 6 BILLION! That, and Star Trek is so super cool with thier gadgets and space craft and all that stuff! For what it's worth...

The Star Trek philosophy is what makes it popular. It asks the question, "What if material things were of no importance?" The Star Trek universe has the "Replicator," which can make anything. Therefore, there is no need to have posessions or need wealth. The only thing that on can possess in the Star Trek society is intelligence, which means that everyone tries to better themselves. That is the appeal of Star Trek...

Life is full of "doomsayers". There is this tendency of many people who have a public voice to hype the darkest vision of our future, to harp on the dark and dismal nature of man. Our press is very good at it. Apprently scaring us sells papers and attracts viewers. Gene Roddenberry's vision of our future offered something that very few others did during that time or really right up till today. Hope. Hope that we would survive our trials. Hope that mankind was not going to spiral down into complete depravity and extinction. Hope is something that our souls hunger for. The original series and NG offered a great deal of this hope in our future. I think that this declined in later offerings and I think that is why they are not as popular. [Oops - I had been talking about some a Ray Bradberry's work earlier in the day I guess it just slipped into the typing...]

While the other answers pretty much cover it, I think there's one more reason that Star Trek has been so popular: it depicts a future where everyone is accepted and appreciated.

Because it was way better than Star Wars, and it inspired many inventions and spinoff ideas.