Although I enjoyed it to a degree, I'd agree the casting didnt really work too well. Biggest gripe is the two girls. Nova had the Wesley Crusher 'smart kid' problem, as did Maggi to some extent. The ages didnt work too well either. J Madison Wright was 14, yet she played a 10 year old. Elisabeth Harnois was 19, and she played a 15 year old (unless it was meant to be an in-joke that their home planet years were somewhat longer than Earth Standard) - that's a bit of a dangerous game really, she was 19 at the time, so it's ok to find her attractive, but if she's playing an underage girl.... that's not right. If she had played Maggi 'at age' this would have eliminate that problem. However I guess it may have been that the producers were aiming for the teen market with the show.
The age difference between Justin and Nova was a bit much for brother and sister (assuming Justin was played 'at age') and would have worked better as father-daughter.
I know the idea was for the thrown-together crew from different backgrounds, but it didnt really work that well, compared to Andromeda for example.
Good concept, but I'm not surprised that it wasnt picked up.
Interesting too, to note that names such as the Okudas, John Eaves and Bill Millar were all involved.
The Mechanics seemed to be a bit too obviously derived from the Borg mould (hell, they were even grey!) and it seemed pretty obvious they they were probably responsible for the fall of the Republic, so something that could have been a good twist later on was spoiled.