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 o

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.