Yep. Ironically season 4 of Enterprise was the only decent season, then it got axed. If season 4 had been season 1, the show's audience wouldn't have declined the way it did. Enterprise's best decision was when they developed previously established alien races that we knew little about, like the Andorians.
Voyager was better than Enterprise, especially when it came to interesting characters (like the holographic Doctor), but it was uneven. The biggest problem with Voyager is that some individual episodes were excellent, but the show overall was a disappointment and never lived up its premise. Having them stranded on the other end of the galaxy where nothing is familiar should have made the series like the X-Files of the Star Trek franchise. Instead, they kept rehashing old stuff like the Borg.
That being said, I'm probably in the minority because I don't agree with the sentiment that "Star Trek belongs on TV". It originated on TV, and I'd like to see it come back someday in the right hands, but I don't want a repeat of the 90s when some Rick Berman-type producer is oversaturing the franchise with multiple TV series running simultaneously, and giving us a bunch of soap operaish filler episodes.
Since Paramount has ignored the animated series, that basically means the "canon" Star Trek survived from 1970-1986 WITHOUT a new TV series. It prospered in reruns and on the big screen, and then there was genuine surprise and curiosity from the public when it was totally revamped as Star Trek: The Next Generation. At the time, people thought a totally new cast and ship wouldn't work, and there was speculation that TNG would be canceled after one season.
Since a lot of fans think the JJ Abrams films (which focus on fistfights and explosions) are "not real Star Trek", I'm also going to get some flack by saying I'm fine with a new TV series being set in the Abrams universe. The "old" Trek universe was beat to death by Berman and Enterprise was the final nail in the coffin, you can't revive that. That being said, do I want Abrams producing and micromanaging a new Trek TV series? Absolutely not! Hire a real producer who "gets" Star Trek and can do it justice, and add some meat to the Abrams universe. We don't want a repeat of the 90s when Berman was micromanaging the films AND the TV series at the same time. Trek should look and feel different on the small screen.
I agree 100% That's a cool looking founding race of the Federation, and they'd hardly ever been on screen at all. The beginnings of the Federation and the war with the Romulans (they could also make a movie of that war, as was considered, who doesn't want to see that?) should have been the focus of the series from the beginning. Instead they dicked around the first 2 years and then fought a war on terra' with a previously unknown race. And there was some messy time travel BS. They also criminally underused the supporting characters, and don't get me started on the theme SONG which I fast forwarded though. They had a beautiful instrumental theme they ended up using for the closing credits instead.
Voyager, what a waste, it had a GREAT premise but a lot of the episodes could have passed for bad TGN episodes you'd never know weren't set on a normal ship an hour away from Earth, and it way overdid the Borg to the point of ending any mystique with them.
The Doctor was a great character, and Seven of Nine, but A lot of the characters were boring, Chocolateday? A former rebel forced to be first officer? That could have been an awesome role. Instead he's as boring as a block of wood and a complete lackey to Janeway. Speaking of Janeway, she was written so inconsistently that mental illness was the only plausible explanation for her behavior. And a pissy latina Klingon? Who the hell thought of that? Could have used a different race for that role. Poor Harry Kim was Meg Griffin in space.
Add in silliness like unlimited use of the holodeck but not enough power to replicate food (unless it was on the holodeck, or a shuttle) so they had to get diarrhea from letting a homeless drifter cook for them. Oy.
"At the time, people thought a totally new cast and ship wouldn't work, and there was speculation that TNG would be canceled after one season."
Season 1 was balls, that's why it was almost canceled.
I don't know about a new show set in the Abrams verse, it could give an opportunity to explore the period of time between TOS and TGN like a Sulu Excelsior series would have. Some people want to do a reboot of TGN, they should be shot. If they stick with the regular universe it could work, just jump ahead a century or so. A proposed cartoon series did just that, the premise was that the Federation was crumbing, like the Eastern bloc ;p, and that warp travel had been F'ed up by major use of weapons that f up the fabric of space.
Whatever it is, Berman, Braga, and Abrams, should not be involved.