Star Trek is on the softer side of science fiction. It’s just a sitcom in space. When you watch most series based on books (i.e The expanse), major changes need to be made because it doesn’t translate well to the screen.

Using the expanse as an example, the spacers were supposed to be deformed by our standards. They eliminated all the hard sci-fi elements of their appearance. If a book involves a realistic alien civilization, an adaptation is rarely made