I wasn’t being literal. Seth McFarlane had originally pitched an official Star Trek show, and afterward created The Orville. Both franchises feature mostly human crews of exploratory ships in an intergalactic alien federation dealing with social conflict, politics, alien threats, spatial anomalies and time travel shenanigans.

The Orville is directly inspired and very often an homage to Star Trek, but has built enough of its own universe to tell stories entirely unique to their characters.

They’re sci-fi peas in a pod.

I believe that was the exact attitude Original series fans had towards Next Generation fans.

It really does add to the 90’s Star Trek vibe, but there is also the quality philosophy and commentary that you’d also expect from a Trek show, just sillier sometimes.

I had a hard time getting through the early episodes of The Orville since I wasn’t a big fan of the humor, but it nailed the aesthetic, tone and even commercial break timing of 1990’s Star Trek.

The earlier seasons do lay the foundation for some big character storylines that really blossom into the most emotional and heartfelt science fiction story telling in season 3.

The humor is really cranked down for New Horizons and because every episode was at least 60 minutes, each felt so much bigger than other shows. It’s really worth a watch for folks who like episodic sci-fi but skipped out on live action “Family Guy in space;” it’s genuinely great Star Trek.

It was!

If they were going to pick a Star Trek show, it should have been The Orville New Horizons- and I absolutely loved every moment of SNW (also the rest of ST on TV).