Audiences want something good. TNG added up to 130 hours of TV. Any team of writers and actors would become burned out after telling such an enormous quantity of stories. Die-hard fans might always clamour for more, but they're the first to complain when a franchise is milked dry.

There's a reason why "jumping the shark" is a trope. No matter how popular and compelling something might be, there's always a point of diminishing returns. Once you've trashed a franchise, it's very difficult to rebuild; If you end on a high note, you leave the audience wanting more.

Rick Berman and Brandon Tartikoff saw what was being attempted with Babylon 5 and recognised the future of television - deep, complex story arcs that span across seasons. They realised that while TNG still had some mileage left in it, they had an opportunity to use familiar elements in a new and exciting way. The results were, in my humble opinion, the absolute pinnacle of the Star Trek canon.

Different times. He stated that he’s only now excited about returning to the role, and hadn’t previously been the last 20 years, because he sees how bleak many people’s outlook is about the world right now. He himself has uncharacteristically begun watching the TNG episodes for a dose of hope. So I think we will find the federation in a state of dis-unification (earth exiting the union? immigration problems?) and perhaps even Picard struggling to find and build hope.

That and the fact that his last popular role was an animated poo, which probably made a return to Trek seem like a big step up.

He is also hilarious as the CIA director in American Dad.

> He himself has uncharacteristically begun watching the TNG

Yeah. Even while I'm deluged in an ocean of pretty dman good modern tv, I find myself throwing on an old episode of TNG from time to time. It's still a joy to watch.

Different people want different things.

There are plenty of folks who will read every book in endless genre series and complain when some favorite TV program gets canceled after 10 years.

Others like me are pretty much ready to move in from a series after 5 years or so no matter how good it is. I just lose interest.

You can't take the sky from me.

It was the former fans that bright us TNG in the first place - constantly fighting for more trek throughout the 70s, to be rewarded with Trek's golden era from 87 onwards.

I was just watching Firefly yesterday. Thanks for the little moment of joy.

Nah. It may or may not hit the mark, but it's always better to see great artists strike out for new territory and new things than just serving over rehashes of earlier creative exploration.

(I grew up watching TNG and love it, btw, fwiw, etc. etc.)

This fan reaction always surprises me. It strikes me as both "looking through rose glasses" and "get off my lawn". A story needs to grow. Enterprise and Discovery both kept the cute almost naive idealism of The Next Generation, but added in exciting new ways. Both of them had campy bad episodes, but that is also true of The Next Generation.

You may not see him at all if the project is "TNG take 2". He probably doesn't want to do it. I'd much rather see an extension to the story with a different angle than nothing at all.

I enjoyed Enterprise, I am enjoying Discovery.

Discovery isn't scratching the same itch as TNG, it has its flaws but I'm still enjoying it for what it is. The Orville is pretty good too.