Star Trek was a visionary show about technology solving all of our modern problems and setting contemporary problems of its own. It had meaningful dialogue and more diverse characters. While the visual effects were rarely as stunning as the ones in Star Wars, the plot was interesting without them.

Nobody would watch Star Wars on a low budget--especially the prequels.

I would agree with the people saying Battlestar Galactica is the best sci-fi franchise at the moment. This show will set the bar for any other sci-fi that markets itself seriously.