Nicholls’s bile is surely provoked not just by those elements of Star Trek that are, indeed, meretricious but by the series’ subsequent, virtually all-conquering success.

meretricious (adj) 1: (archaic) like or relating to a prostitute 2: tastelessly showy [syn: brassy, cheap, flash, flashy, garish, gaudy, gimcrack, loud, tacky, tatty, tawdry, trashy] 3: based on pretense; deceptively pleasing [syn: gilded, specious] – source: The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of, p. 99