I am not afraiid to admit I am a Star Trek fan, although I have never dressed up like a Klingon and gone to a convention.
There are some reasons that trek has continuity problems. It has been written by dozens, if not hundreds of different writers over the years, where B5 is basically one mans idea.
Also the ST foundation was laid in the 60's and they have had to find a way to update it, without throwing out the basic ideas laid down in the past. It wouldnn't make sense for exammple, if the TNG warp drive was different than the TOS warp drive because of some discovery made in the 1990's would it?
Yeah they have an annoying habit of coming up with technobabble ways to get out of situations, and then convienently forget them the next week when they are in a situation where the same idea could have applications. No defense for that one really.
Star Trek for me has always been about the characters and personalities. The tech is just there to move the story along. To add drama, and sometimes to end it, so that we can get a sense of how these people react in stressful situations.
At its worst, it's admitadly very bad science, and even very bad fiction. But at its best, it's inspiring, uplifting, and very entertaining.
If you culled out the best 100 episodes of ST out of the hundreds that have been aired, they hold up very well against any other sci-fi series I have ever seen.
If you ask the real life scientists, astronauts, and those types, I believe you would find more than a few who would say Star Trek is one of the big influences in their lives that got them where they are today.
Geo