I got to somewhat agree with you FattyPants. I remember watching the original Star Trek when I was 11 or 12 and thinking, this is how the world should be, the perfect vision of the future. This hope continued with the TNG. But just as the real world changed, so did the Star Trek Universe. How realistic is it to think that every alien met could be talked to or reasoned with? How realistic is it to think that all humans would be happy and have no problems in the universe. So the writers for DS9, the TNG movies and even Voyager, showed us a different side of Star Trek. To me it made for a more rounded view of the future. The idealism of the Federation when met by adversity, how they cope with it and go on. I wish there was a series that delt with the aftermath of the Dominion War and how the Federation copes and rebuilds (though a number of new books have delt with this, so I guess I'll have to be satisfied with that). So it comes down to an old argument Idealism vs. Realism. There is a place for both. Many days I want nothing more than, as you put it, "to escape the real world's troubles than to step into another, better one for a while", but as someone who follows all things Star Trek, I got to say I like the more rounded, fuller look at the future. So whichever way you want it, there is a Star Trek for you.
That being said, I do think it's time for a return to exploration within the Star Trek Universe. But without a current series, the best we can hope for is Star Trek books. The new Titan series is supposed to be about exploration and discovery in uncharted space, so I have high hopes for it.
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