She directed episodes of both "Enterprise" and Star Trek: Enterprise", which each lasted two seasons. The stealth name change was surprising back then.
There was a spinoff pitched during TOS called Hopeship featuring M'benga. The pitch for NBC/RCA was that instead of introducing expensive colorful sets, they could stay shipboard and have expensive alien makeup and costumes.
And the TOS theme does have lyrics, though they're terrible and Roddenberry just wrote them to unapologetically steal half of Courage's royalties.
Ilia's theme from TMP also had lyrics.
The new producer took over for season 2. Season 3 is clearly what he imagined 30 years after All Good Things to be like, undoing Generations, and in season 2 he focused on changing the parts of Picard's character that were too major to stuff into season 3.
I've always thought the Romulans weren't just the Vulcans who rejected Surak's teachings, but also any who didn't have the physical ability to follow them.
Originally it was just based on Romulans not expressing any psychic abilities, but Picard also established that sharing personal details publicly as a major taboo. That would track with them being a mix of former enemies who are concerned with suppressing the rivalries that lead to nuclear war.
I thought that point about the season finale was the whole point of the episode. Pike and his style weren't right for the situation. He was like a caricature of Picard without the tactical superiority to back it up.
It also might be another reason Enterprise was the ship kept out of the Klingon war.
I'd say TNG mostly stopped exploring new frontiers halfway through season 1. Farpoint promised exploration, but soon the ship is ferrying diplomats and scientists and answering Federation distress calls. The worlds are new to the audience, but not the characters.