By just the story of the PT, and even if the characters were cast better, wasn't it doomed for just a bit of a letdown? In the spring of 1999, I wondered about the PT alot, and this was before I knew about Jar Jar and the host of problems that would accompany that trilogy. I asked myself many times, "How is Lucas gonna strike gold with these new characters that are suppose to match up with the OT? I believed back then you can't strike lightning twice, and there was no way he was going to equal or outdue Luke, Leia, and Han.
It makes me believe that if even Lucas was going to hire a direct and a writer, he should have left well alone, and just kept the OT as is with no PT. Or in a sense created it that it wasn't one saga, and you had to look at it as two trilogies. I just believe there is too much comparing that makes fan like one or another, and in that respect it will never work as one saga. Someone said it earlier, "The OT had it, and the PT did not have it." I think that is reason #1 why they will never connect and always be perceived as two trilogies by most fans except the fanboys.