In the sense that season 1 and 2 were like devouring large plates of fast food slop, and season 3 was the diarrhea the morning after.
They had to go back & reshoot after the season wrapped because they were unexpectedly and suddenly told their show would be ending. That is cancelled. Albeit a classy one, allowing them to try to make it a farewell. Unless I have that wrong? They knew it was the Final season going in? TOS got cancelled. ENT did as well, though they knew mid season & could at least do a conclusion. DISCO jas nothing to prove. It spawned 2 spinoffs and a TV movie. It kicked off a huge Trek revival. And SMG engineered the best cast camaraderie since since TNG. BOOM! I hope S5 knocks it out of the park. And I bet we get DISCO crossovers on Academy.
TOS wasn't canceled abruptly or denied a finale. They'd barely gotten the show renewed for Season 3, they knew the show was living on borrowed time. Series finales just weren't at all common in those days.
For sure, the Picard show has put the early 25th Century as a natural place to continue the Prime Timeline. SNW will be continuing as well however, so that point in the 23rd Century is also an open possibility for a spin off.
Give me the awe and wonder of the 23rd century anytime over the 25th century. I love that sense of early exploration.
To me, the 23rd Century always felt more adventurous in that you got the sense they were truly witnessing the unknown. That every light year could bring on a new adventure or challenge. This obviously applies to the 22nd century as well In that Starfleet didn't feel like this omnipotent force that's too big to fail. There was a vulnerability and a true sense of isolation. By the 24th century, space just started to feel..... safe. Clearly this is all opinion based, but I just enjoy that feeling of space truly being the Final Frontier.
Spoiler: Spoilers for too many 'World Ending Threats' in Star Trek - Alien Bug Creatures almost hi-jack the upper brass of StarFleet - Borg Cube ALMOST makes it to Earth and whoops StarFleet @ Battle of Wolf 359 and the USS Enterprise was lucky as hell to have stopped it - The Dominion nearly takes out the UFP & conquers the Alpha Quadrant if it wasn't for "The Sisko" calling on favors from "The Worm-Hole Aliens". - Borg Cube almost assimilates Earth AGAIN! and time travels back to mess w/ Humanity's "First Contact" - Remans along with Shinzon almost makes it past the USS Enterprise and threatens to wipe out Earth with a Thaloron Weapon. - Soji almost summoned Sentient AI Machine Race into our Dimension that could've wiped out organic life. - Borg pulled off a Galactic Level Threat that required Alternate Time-line Borg to come in and hi-jack StarFleet Vessels to create a Impromptu Shield Wall to stop a Giant Energy Burst that would've taken out several sectors. - Borg ALMOST pulls off a Assimilation Coup by using a new form Biological Assimilation that it spent decades planning for. How is the 24th Century UFP Safe? If anything, it's just a series of very different threats that are just as scary, if not scarier than previous century threats. Spoiler: Galactic Map showing how Isolated the UFP is location wise The UFP is basically out in the boonies / suburbs. Spoiler: UFP Territory relative to the 100,000 ly Thin Disk Diameter/Square Planar Area UFP Territory covers < ½ of a % of the total 2D Planar Area along the Thin Disk. It's TINY in terms of 2D Planar Galactic Real-Estate since the 100,000 ly Diameter of the Milky Way only really applied to the "Thin Disk" section of the Milky Way galaxy. Spoiler: Thin Disk structure of the Milkway Galaxy from Side Perspective. (NOTE: NOT to Scale!) This is how big the major structures of our "Milky Way Galaxy" seems to be from my basic research over the internet. Spoiler: Size of of our Milky Way Galaxy's larger Natural Galactic Structures. We still have ALOT of the Milky Way Galaxy to explore, not just on a 2D planar level, but also in 3D. Remember in space, we can go Up/Dn on the Z-axis to other Star Systems. If you think the Final Frontier isn't big enough, here's all our nearest neighbor Galaxies Spoiler: Here's our Local Galaxy Map and our nearest Galaxies. We have ALOT of neighboring Galaxies just near by. Spoiler: Laniakea - Our home Supercluster We are part of a MUCH larger SuperCluster of Galaxies. That's just "Space Alone". We're not counting Time-Travel, Parallel Universe, other Dimensions. Those all need to be explored as well.
As I stated, it's my opinion. Let me try putting it this way..... the 22nd and 23rd centuries felt like exploring during the age of sail, while the 24th century feels like exploring with a Nimitz class carrier.
Maybe it's an minority opinion, but for me at least, nothing beats the sense of exploration and mystery in TNG Season 2. Not even TOS (or SNW). Nothing ever since then ever came close to it imho. Really wish we would get something like that again in a new season or show.
One of my biggest issues with Disco and SNW is that their version of the 23rd century completely loses the frontier aspect of TOS. Too much real-time communication, too-fast travel, recurring characters casually dropping in.
I agree and even Voyager acknowledges this. I think Trek could find this again but it would take a different effort, including not revisiting the familiar.
Nothing wrong with having a Nimitz class carrier Full Complement Air-Wing on your side ^_^ Just Saying =D I'll gladly take 75x F-35C's and it's support Planes & Staff to explore the wild unknown using modern tech =D
My theory is that this is one of (not the only) byproduct of the shorter seasons or longer arcs. More to service, less time to get experimental...
The thing about this is that it's less tied to a time period and more to choices made by the creators. TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT, and various Streaming Trek shows have all had varying amounts of "frontier-eque" vibes. I think people go back to TOS as having the most because, well, it probably did, mostly thanks to the fact that the overall universe/canon/whatever weren't as established (hence a lot of inconsistencies across those 3 seasons) so it feels different. By S7 of TNG a lot more of the universe was established and DS9 really turned the Federation/Alpha Quadrant in to a much more "real" place, so we approach the franchise that way now. SNW might take place chronologically before Captain JTK but the creators and audiences are so much more aware/knowledgable about the canonical universe. This is actually one of the reasons I like some of the retcons/changes SNW makes. Scary XenoGorn are new and cool and add a new, very intense dimension, for example.
Indeed, and much like the observer effect there isn't going to be the same feel to SNW as TOS because TOS already exists.