Old And New

Gene Roddenberry had a hell of a life before he got into TV. His dad was a cop. He flew bombers in the South Pacific,  was awarded the Distiinguished Flying Cross, worked for Pan-Am as a commercial pilot, then served with the LAPD for seven years.  Coming as he did from outside the loop, he had to throw a lot of scripts at the wall before one of them stuck.

J.J. Abrams is the son of TV producers. He got his first job in the movies at 16 and has been turning out product ever since.

And that- in brief-  is why Roddenberry's original Star Trek interests me a whole lot more than the Abrams' reboot.