I binged season 2 of The Orville. 

McFarlane is doing things with The Orville that I always wanted to see them do with TNG. Interesting character stuff.

This is because McFarlane isn't restrained by Roddenberry's dictum that all characters are fully functional heroes with nothing wrong.

A lot of the Orville Characters have issues and these come up and make stories. Good ones where the characters develop and grow and learn stuff and stuff. 

They are cannibalizing TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT for folks in front of the screen and behind the screen.  

They Borrowed Robert Picardo (EMH Voyager)  as the father of one of the PCs.  (Alara Kitan) She goes home to recover from an illness and they are visited by a neighbor, the neighbor is played by John Billinglsey, who played Doctor Phlox on ENT.

I was all "Cool!  A sort of Trek reunion."

So I was totally taken off guard when it turned out that Billingsley was playing a bad guy and the "visit" turned into a mess.

Marina Sirtis played a teacher on The Orville.

Tim Russ played a Historian on another episode

Robert Duncan McNeil (Paris from Voyager) directed an Episode.  I have seen Brannon Braga as a writer, in there. too. With McFarlane as the creative mind, it doesn't look like Braga is screwing anything up.

Johnathan Frakes directed at least one episode. 

I am noting other Trek folks involved as well as new folks.  Which is good. 

So that was 14 episodes of fun.   And a few days of processing and adding it to my box of legos for Jay-Trek.

McFarlane did the one thing I did with ST-OM.  What do "Everyman" Star Trek characters look like?

But of course, far more successfully in terms of exposure and financial success. 

One thing I really enjoy.  The Orville has, like 3 different analogs of Klingons. 

The Moclans have lumpy heads, are very strong, durable and driven by honor.  They are the Allied Warrior race. 

They also have interesting sexual politics, which drive several episodes. 

Then there are the Krill - They are religious extremists, and so are charging around being hostile and violent. 

What's fun about the Moclans and the Krill is how I thumbnailed them, there, they look really shallow. BUT the Characters we MEET from the Moclans and the Krill are three-dimensional characters, and wind up calling into question things about the Krill and the Moclans in interesting ways.  So it's much more FUN than generic shoot-em-up aliens. (I think GR would cheer about how McFarlane did that)

Episode 2X03 added the Chak'tal (Who look like Space Orcs to me) who are another warrior race, being all warrior race at the Krill once the Krill wiped out one of their colonies. 

We did not MEET any Chak'tal.  But I firmly expect meeting them to make things much more complicated and interesting. 

Oops!  There's a wiki

Moclan

https://orville.fandom.com/wiki/Moclan

Krill

https://orville.fandom.com/wiki/Krill

Chak'tal

https://orville.fandom.com/wiki/Chak'tal

Alara Kitan

https://orville.fandom.com/wiki/Alara_Kitan

So The Orville is fun and worthy addition to the modern Trek line, as far as I am concerned. 

Oooo.  1966 to 1987 - there's 21 years

1987 to to 2017  That's 30 years between TNG starting and The Orville starting.

So "Encounter at Farpoint" is closer to "The Man Trap" than to the first episode of The Orville. (Old Wounds)  by 10 years. 

Because I'm OOOOLLLLDDDDD

Well, the last Episode of Enterprise aired in 2005, so that's only 12 years between the End of "Modern" Star Trek and the beginning of The Orville.

But sheesh. To me TNG to ENT is "Modern Star Trek" and The Orville and Discovery are "New" 

I will blah blah about Discovery when I get to see it, eventually.