Also the article is an iPhone ad.

I’ll bet that any TOS fans who were furious at the time probably did not go on to like the show.

As a TOS fan who wasn’t too happy with what I had heard before TNG came out, I would bet against you. Most of them probably became TNG fans eventually, because the most impactful thing a show can do is simply to be great. Canon complaints and complaints about characters not returning are mostly about nostalgia, and if the show is compelling (especially if it’s compelling in a similar way to the old show), nostalgia can’t compete. If anything I’d guess that the people in this article were more likely to become fans of TNG, because it would have exceeded their expectations, which can make things seem better than they would otherwise.

Were you really a Trekkie if you thought TNG was going to be good in 1987?

Kidding, sort of. I remember thinking it was going to be a cash grab, and I still think I was right to think so at the time. Keep in mind, you couldn’t go on the Web and instantly know everything about an upcoming TV show. I think I learned it was in production from the back of a cereal box. I didn’t even know Gene Roddenberry was involved. The Enterprise-D design was pretty weird, and the cast of characters was more than a bit out there–a Klingon? On the Enterprise crew? Come on.

It’s making search engines useless, for one thing.

I don’t think they can recognize the flyswatter, but they do seem to find a sudden increase in movement around them suspicious. Move slowly and strike from close up.

This actually brings up a good point that I never thought of before–it seems likely that if aliens have a religion, that religion will become a source of instant fascination to humans and will likely shake up Earth’s religious landscape a lot more than the simple existence of alien life would (alien life simply existing would not have much of an impact by itself IMO).