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The production budget makes for interesting scrutiny. At $180 million, this series averages approximately $9,200 per second of screen time. Notably, the opening text crawl alone purportedly costs around $230,000—an extravagant expense considering its negligible storytelling impact compared to the billions poured into special effects and CGI.
The series' visuals, often criticized for being over-reliant on CGI and built through CGI backgrounds, leave much to be desired. Scenes such as the alien bar where the characters gather introduce some diversity in alien species, but many are marred by stiff acting and apparent CGI shortcuts—reinforcing the feeling of insubstantial production values.