I'm a second generation trekkie. I grew up watching TOS with my Dad, and still love it best - enough so that I'm willing to pay for a set of DVDs that costs more than all three extended edition LOTR movies combined, per season.
I like TNG, generally enjoy DS9, dislike VOY, and can't actually watch Enterprise.
And a big part of that priority is indeed the optimism present in the earlier shows. What makes (for me) TOS superior to TNG is, as was mentioned, the flaws present in the characters of the earlier shows. Kirk does stupid things, makes bad choices, and manages to win out in the end. Picard (much as I prefer Patrick Stewart as an actor) does not, and that makes him so much less approachable.
But, if we leave aside Enterprise (which I will, since I don't watch it and am therefore not qualified to comment on it), is it really that Trek has lost it's soul? Or is it simply that the story ended. That we've taken the universe, and the setting, as far as it can go (and probably a little bit farther.)
Yes, it changed. Popular entertainment is a reflection of the time it is made in, and science fiction even more so. But I think that saying "it lost its soul" is... how do I want to put this? To harsh on the producers.
To me, the story fufilled it's potential. And then got dragged on a little far; I don't think it's that the maker gave up or "sold out," simply that there isn't really a place (though there is probably a need) for an unrelentingly happy tale.
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