Could anything overtake the popularity of Star Wars/Star Trek?

[Annoyed]

I think Dr Who matches Star Wars and Star Trek over all especially when considering its ongoing longevity which has now reached 35 seasons, 263 story lines and 826 episodes. What makes the difference is that Dr Who has never successfully gone on to the big screen. Its had three movie versions, two with Peter Cushing and one with Paul McGann but they were each so so efforts. If they get to the stage of making a series of successful serious Dr Who movies, it would match Star Wars and Star Trek. Mind you I loved the original Dr Who and didnt mind it when David Tennant and Christopher Ecclestone were incarnated as Who, but it lost me after that.

But I think StarGate and X Files managed to be top of the heap for a while. Problem is these two are much younger. I suspect as the years pass, producers will revisit these shows and develop new series which will add to their status.

The reason Star Wars, Star Gate, Star Trek, Dr Who and X-Files did so well is that besides having good producers and story lines, they had enormous scope to add to their adventures. One area I think could develop in that manner with the right producer and story lines, actors etc would be an undersea series like Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea/SeaQuest DSV. To me a futuristic series in that environment has great scope, but just hasnt been pulled off well enough up to now

Granted, Doctor Who is very big to its fans, and in some of their eyes, I have no doubt it is "bigger" than Trek/Wars.
But I don't think it can catch up to those two powerhouses; in fact I don't think anything ever could, unless the management of those two franchises seriously screws up for long time. Trek/Wars simply have too big a head start on them. And, those two can tap a mass audience, rather than the fan following Doctor Who has. Even if BBC decided to make a big budget film or TV series, time travel stories generally don't do well with mass audiences; I don't think they can wrap their heads around the wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff.

I would like to see a remake of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, but without the cold war era message of the original version or the environmental preaching of SQ/DSV. Seaview was supposed to be a research vessel in the first place, and there are certainly enough opportunities for exploration there to drive a series.