“Star Trek was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins not just to tolerate, but take a special delight in differences in ideas and differences in life forms. […] If we cannot learn to actually enjoy those small differences, to take a positive delight in those small differences between our own kind, here on this planet, then we do not deserve to go out into space and meet the diversity that is almost certainly out there.”
― Gene Roddenberry
I consider anything made from the mid-sixties on as modern. You may disagree with my opinion. However, this time is a good transition because writing and film styles changed around this period and a lot of new people emerged on the science fiction scene in the sixties. People like Gene Roddenberry, whose quote appears above, brought a new luster to the fading glimmer of SciFi. Later still Spielberg, and Lucas further recharged the science fiction batteries.
Gnostic Science Fiction 