For context, it had been about 20 years since the original series ended, and about a decade since the movies started coming out. I don't think anyone really expected a return to TV or a new crew. The fifth movie, The Final Frontier came out before The Next Generation started, and the sixth one, The Undiscovered Country aired while TNG was airing, showing that they were not done with Kirk's crew. Kirk's last movie (with William Shatner in the role), Generations, released after The Next Generation ended and also featured that crew.

These days, we can't imagine even going a full decade without a new Trek show and crew. I fondly remember when it was just the original and Next Generation. Then they added Deep Space Nine and later Voyager. Even after Enterprise, it was still only five (for some reason, we never counted The Animated Series, though we certainly were aware it existed). Now, I couldn't tell you how many Trek series there are. There are a lot of them.