I especially liked this part:
...Paramount was not happy with the direction that the story was headed and that it's not completely cancelled but that they are reworking a few things and that to be rest assured, Star Trek will never be totally cancelled.
Sounds to me like the Studio, in it's outstandingly sluggish fashion, has realized that Berman is slowly (because it's been going on for 15 years or more now) killing their CA$H COW. AS we all know, these are an endangered species, and the Studio- in it's infinite desire to make money- has realized that it's hard to procure another CA$H COW once you have killed the one that you have.
Let's cross our fingers and hope for a NEW prequel- a total re-write of the Romulan War era that has primative looking ships, control pannels with toggle switches, dials and knobs, and lots of references to pre-Berman Trek contained therein.
I DO like the idea of Levar Burton directing an episode. He's got a lot of Trek experience, and I'm oretty sure that he has had enough imput (wanted or unwanted) from the fans over the years to know what they want to see.
Geordi might have been blind, but he's a step up from Berman.