You could of taken the words right out of my mouth.
I mean, it's not all 'Trek' type SF, which, btw, enough people have streotpical and prejudiced views about.
eg. Was in Geography today debating nuclear power, and my teacher patronisingly suggested 'well, you can't have nulcear powered stuff like on 'Star Trek' - refering to the main use of it for electricity. Amidst the crys of 'Who watches Star Trek?', a friend of mine corrected the teacher by saying, 'Well it's NOT 'all nulcear', actually'!
By that, I mean, it may not be accurate, but it goes far and above some of the mainstrean programmes in the likes of drama, and other fundamental aspects of a programme's genre, that make it what it is. I mean, despite the obvious difference in situations, I could find myself reacting in the same way to, uh, a usual BBC Drama series, I mean the good ones, then I would react too, most recently, the scenes beteween Daniel and Sha're in 'Secrets', and the last series episode of 'Farscape' (not going to spoil it)
Another point is that you do get the classical programmes like 'Star Trek', but then you get the ones on a different level, or POV, like 'Farscape', and 'Stargate SG-1'. If it at all counts here, think of the cult genre, that's not all the same, you get the emphasis on the teenage, like 'Roswell High' (UK), and 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'. Niether of these, I think, can be thought of as particularly geared towards 'adult' viewers, but the entertainment is still there for fans of the genre, shows, and those of the age range.
And to your last point Skip, Where the heck would we be if we couldn't question anything?