Philosophic undertones that Gene Roddenberry brought to Star Trek. JJ Abrams is great at taking old movies and tweaking them enough that the general public will like them.

See the first two star treks. Super 8 was a reboot of ET. The force awakens was a retread of a new hope. Lost was a great project till they couldn't figure out how to adequately wrap it up.

JJ is a good director lens flares aside but his ideas are somewhat lacking. I worry that he is in for a George Lucas type treatment by Hollywood where he essentially tarnishes his name because his legion of yes men allow him to make poor choices. He played it safe with force awakens because if he had done to Star Wars what he did to Star Trek there are a lot more hardcore Star Wars fans that would want his head.