“There were Romulans—there was a whole thing. The idea was that Guinan’s bar was presented as a normal bar in Los Angeles, but if you knew the right thing to do, you could go into the back through the telephone phone booth and that was Rick’s Café and it was a stopping point for all these different species that were actually there on Earth with a ‘Do not interfere’ thing happening. So you had a lot more Star Trek happening in the backdrop of it. Ultimately, the powers that be at that time were like, ‘This is too much.’ But there were some really good ideas there that were pretty cool.”
On the one hand, Star Trek being called "too Star Trek" is moronic. On the other hand, that is cliched as hell.
I still didn't like season 2, but I don't think that would have been an improvement. Pre-First Contact Earth has way too many aliens on it as it is.