10 Sci-Fi TV Shows We'll Be Glued To This Year

"Star Trek with dick jokes."

That's how we described The Orville when it first came out and, to a degree, it was true. In fact, even now you can probably still describe the show quite accurately like that. It's no surprise, then, that it comes from the mind of Seth McFarlane. But, while such a simplistic description can be accurate, it also diminishes what else the show brings to the floor.

While the series seems very much like Star Trek: The Next Generation in its presentation, and indeed the style of their storylines, the fact that this isn't set in an idyllic world where so many of today's social problems have been sorted out, means that we get some of the more realistic situations and resolutions that modern shows have been more willing to show.

A good example of this are the male-dominated Moclan society who, when a daughter is born to a couple of main characters, pressure them to change her gender. It seems obvious to ST:TNG fans that the crew will fix things, especially when they prove a female had a guiding hand on society. Yet things are never so simple, which leads to ongoing tension between the couple.

It's these kinds of nuances in the story that makes The Orville so subsersive.