I hadn’t seen the first one that summer but in the first week of college there were some guys who were excited about it, and one guy said he had seen it 11 times at the theater. 11 times, that was a turn off. I saw the second one first, then the first one. The second had better special effects. The third one was dumb with the teddy bears. It was like a toy commercial. I thought the Star Trek TV shows had better plots.
Yes, Star Trek had some action/adventure components but also had some deeper thought provoking scenarios.
I only remember watching one or two episodes when it was in first run prime time. But a few years later it was syndicated and shown on our local ABC affiliate between 5:00 and 6:00 (back when the news was only 1/2 hour). That’s when I became a fan.