The Trek Movie Report asks of the fellow heading up the next Trek project: JJ Abrams: The New Roddenberry or The New Meyer?

Let’s just say that I hope, as the piece speculates, that Abrams is more the new Meyer and not the new Roddenberry. While Roddenberry deserves many accolades for creating Trek and especially for the work he did in the first two seasons of the show, the bottom line is that he never seemed capable of fully understanding his own creation–or, at least, significant elements of its magic.

For example (and as the post at the Trek Movie Report rightly notes) ST:TMP was wholly almost devoid of the Trek magic–yet, after Paramount gave the reigns to Harve Bennett and Meyer with Treks II, III, IV, the magic was clearly back. After the hiccup that was V, Meyer was back for Trek VI.

I would also note that ST:TNG was better starting in season two, after Gene was no longer able to be hands-on with the show. Certainly his desire to portray humanity as having evolved beyond petty conflicts has a serious problem with it: no conflict=no drama. As such, the characters on TNG were pretty boring at first.
Although, really, the bottom-line is that Trek needs new blood at the helm, so I am willing to see what Abrams cooks up. Certainly if Roddenberry to be considered in this case as stolid and stale and Meyer is considered fresh and exciting, let’s go with the latter.