While I love TNG (even though the cast can’t shut up) and that was the first Star Trek I was familiar with since I was 6 and a fan of reading rainbow when it came out I would say that the original series is my favorite (can happily watch Trek through Enterprise). My dad watched Original Series reruns since as long as I can remember.
The sendoff for the original crew always gets to to me and it just contrast that with writers today who live to crap on or deconstruct the works of better writers. I saw they are making a new blade runner with a delusional man, Disney is making a new Neverending Story, and Netflix is butchering… I mean remaking the Chronicles of Narnia.
One good thing about Star Trek is that I have a lot of books to read. I was at a convention once and a guy had a bunch of Star Trek books for a quarter a piece so I left with a bunch.
The problem might be it is perfect.
A replicator is probably only going to be programmed with one way to make something, be it from disassembling a previous sample or having the programming manually entered. Regardless of the method there will only be one option for "granny smith apple", so every granny smith apple is going to be the same apple and taste identical. The imperfections between apples help contribute to why they are enjoyable. Some are crisper than others , some slightly more tart, but they are all still the same kind of apple.
The synthehol problem is also likely a result of this. Real booze is a process that produces vastly differing results, wine being one of the best examples given how vintage quality varies not just across years but even just across locations. Grass fed or corn fed steak would be another.
While it would be possible to program a selection of a particular food type it may lead to memory storage issues as well as complicate power requirements if both end up being a premium, even in a futuristic utopia like the Federation.
So while replicated food works, it may only end up being 80% as good because the various imperfections that are expected no longer exist. Which is why Picard and whoever else still make real wine, why Sisko and his father still grow and cook "real" food, and will likely be more widespread in species with far more potent olfactory senses or cultural dishes such as the Klingons and Ferengi.
Meanwhile Vulcans are almost all vegetarian, Romulans don't get much screentime for consumables beyond Romulan Ale, Bajor was literally an agrarian planet before being occupied, Andoria is a ball of ice, and the Tellarites evolved from ursine so encompass a very diverse range of species and cultures who will respond to tastes differently.
good point.
sidenote: romulans are technically vulcans who rejected the strict emotionless philosophy of the core vulcan group, though I dunno if vulcans are vegetarian by culture or evolution, lol
It's absolutely a culture thing.
Enterprise has an early episode, s01e17 'Fusion', which involves the ship meeting some very friendly Vulcans who don't follow the teachings of Surak and therefore not only don't suppress their emotions but don't adhere to logic as the rest of the culture do. In general this leads to some very Romulan like Vulcans and while dining with the ships captain he asks Archer if he may try some of the chicken the Enterprise chef has prepared.
It also includes the staple telepathic mindrape scene that almost all Star Trek series have when involving telepaths, but then a lot of sci-fi shows go that route for analogous reasons.