There are two franchises counted with Trek that are not Trek. But they exist because of this sprawling mythos and pay homage to it. One is the 1999 movie Galaxy Quest. The other is Seth MacFarlane’s parody-turned-scifi classic The Orville. The latter emerged at the same time as Discovery and brought back the TNG-thru-ENT look and feel of Trek, not even updated for the 2010s other than the CGI and use of more alien makeup is better. The former is an homage not just to TOS as a series, but to the actors who made it come to life and the fandom that embraced Trek in all its forms.
Galaxy Quest
This 1999 movie centers on the cast of a 1980s television show, Galaxy Quest (Hence the movie’s title. Eh? Eh?), canceled but given new life in the form of endless conventions full of obsessed fans and hordes of cosplayers. The actors are frustrated as they can’t get jobs without being typecast. Or jobs at all. Then a group of apparent cosplayers approach lead actor Jason Nesmith (played by Tim Allen) with tales of an evil alien named Sarris (Robin Sachs, buried under tons of animatronic makeup.) Turns out, they’re aliens who modeled their society and their technology on the crew of the Protector to defeat Sarris. The cast, now the crew (Alan Rickman as a frustrated Stewartesque stage actor, Sigourney Weaver as the buxomy blonde tired of just repeating what the computer says, Daryll Mitchell as the former child pilot, Tony Shalhoub as the very zen actor playing chief engineer, and Sam Rockwell as an extra now terrified he’s going to die in the first fifteen minutes) have to take on their former roles to save the damaged Protector and defeat Sarris. Eventually, they also reveal to the Thermians, the aliens who patterned themselves after the Galaxy Quest mythos, the concept of fiction. (“Surely, you don’t think Gilligan’s Island is real.” “Those poor people!”) In the end, they realize the Thermians did an excellent job replicating their fictional universe. Controls work on hand gestures. The cast has the Protector‘s capabilities memorized. The only flaw comes from parts of the ship written in as dramatic tension, such as the chompers. (“Oh, screw that!” [Spoiler: That line is dubbed. Watch Weaver’s lips. She actually says something much ruder.] and “Whoever wrote this episode should die!”) In the end, it’s the fans, the uber-nerds writing endless technical manuals online and arguing over what the Omega-13 does, who bring our heroes home. Sam Rockwell’s Guy Fleegleman (whom I firmly believe, and Melissa Navia confirms it, Sam Kirk is based on) becomes a regular (plucky comic relief) on a rebooted Galaxy Quest.
The movie starts out showing clips of the original show, very Buck Rogers-like as it was the 1980s, a cast weary of their catchphrases and the same questions over and over again, and fans who very much, in the words of William Shatner, need to get a life. It’s when the cast is sucked up into the world of the Thermians that they’re re-energized. The casting of Allen and Rickman as cast mates who hate each other was perfect. Allen, the comedian and sitcom actor, clashes with Rickman’s Shakespearean veteran, all the while hammering on those old Trek tropes (“Oh, I see you’ve ripped your shirt again.”) The bickering even becomes a well-placed distraction, devolving into an impromptu fist-fight the pair uses to kill some of Sarris’s soldiers. Perhaps the most hilarious of all is real-life acting coach and Monk actor Shalhoub playing Fred Kwan, who is so Zen about everything that he only loses his cool once. The rest of the time, his attitude could be summed up in one line. “Now that’s a helluva thing.”
The casts of the various Treks love this movie because it sums up their shows, their experiences, and the love the fans have shown them over the years. Shatner, ever the comedian, said, with a wink, he had no idea who Tim Allen’s Jason Nesmith represented. Connor Trineer and Jonathan Frakes absolutely loved the movie and pressed their castmates into seeing it. And Stewart, apprehensive at first, snuck into a showing and sat in the back so as not to distract the audience. He had to be told to pipe down because he laughed so hard at just about everything. The movie does for Star Trek what This Is Spinal Tap did for rock and roll.
The Orville
It’s no secret Seth MacFarlane is a Star Trek fan, particularly of TNG. He had a recurring role as an engineer on Enterprise, and the TNG cast made several appearances on Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show. Stewart was even a regular for several years on American Dad as Stan’s boss at the CIA.
So when Trek rebooted in 2016 with Star Trek: Discovery, MacFarlane realized two things. Like TNG in 1987, some fans might rebel at an updated Trek, but most fans would want more, more, more! Seth’s got you covered. Teaming up with scifi stalwart Jon Farveau and legacy Trek showrunner Brannon Braga, he created The Orville.
The Orville features Captain Ed Mercer (MacFarlane), a workaholic officer who did not handle his divorce well. He’s given command of a ship not too dissimilar from the Cerritos on Lower Decks (though nowhere near as dysfunctional.) His best buddy, Gordon Malloy (Scott Grimes), a slacker, is his pilot, but his first officer is his ex-wife, Kelly Grayson (Adrienne Palecki, Grimes’s real-life wife.) The crew is rounded out by navigator (later chief engineer) LeMarr (J Lee), security chief Alara Kitan (Halston Sage), weapons officer Bortus (Peter Mocan), chief medical officer Dr. Claire Finn (Deep Space Nine alum Penny Jerald Johnson. Yes, Kassidy Yates Sisko), science officer and Kaylon observer Isaac (Mark Jackson), and a lecherous blob of protoplasm who works engineering, Yaphet (the late, great Norm McDonald.) In Season 2, Sage left the show (but returns for a cameo in the finale) and is replaced by Jessica Szor as Talia Kayali.
The show maintains the more-or-less episodic format of legacy Trek with running plot threads through the entire series. There is the never-ending conflict with the uber-religious Krill (who make better looking Klingons than Discovery‘s first and second season Klingons), the nature and threat of the cybernetic Kaylon (There’s a reason the name suspiciously resembles “Cylon”), and the inside-out gender politics of the all-male Mochlans (who also make better Klingons than those on the early Discovery seasons.) But the show is personal as well. Grayson blames herself both for their divorce and Mercer’s struggles afterward, seeing her role as first officer as a way to help her ex-husband achieve what he set out to do. The Kaylon are observing humans, and at the end of Season 2, we are treated to a four-episode arc echoing “Best of Both Worlds,” where the Kaylon determine humans are flawed and must be exterminated. Unlike the Borg, who had to wait thirty years for a Borg Queen who would add her benevolence to their biological and technological distinctiveness, the Kaylons learn of their mistake when they discover Isaac, an otherwise emotionless android, has fallen in love with Dr. Finn and bonded with her two sons. The Kaylon respond by showing up en masse to their wedding. (Oh. Um… Spoiler alert.)
The Mochlans present a conundrum for the human-centric Union of Worlds (totally not the Federation.) Mochlans are an all-male species, but what the rest of the galaxy discovers is they don’t need females to reproduce. So they force any females to undergo gender reassignment because “females are weak.” It’s the present-day angst over transgender rights turned inside out. The Mochlans go from stalwarts in the Union to becoming their enemies.
Alara and Talia are Xelayan, humanoids of a high-gravity planet. Alara, incredibly young for her lofty position, is nonetheless taken under the wings of Mercer and Grayson. Mercer’s inside joke with her is to ask her to “open this jar of pickles” whenever her strength might wrench open an otherwise locked door. She leaves when exposure to 1G gravity weakens her, much the way astronauts and cosmonauts on the ISS are when they spend months in orbit. She leaves Mercer a literal jar of pickles on his desk as a goodbye. Her replacement, Taliya, makes a more mature crew member, a better support character. Alara was terrific for leading her own storylines, but Taliya is someone you want in the picture, a very good analog to Worf, Tuvok, or the latter-day Chekov.
Norm McDonald is hilarious as a sarcastic, horny blob, Yaphet. We never learn much about his background, but he has a massive crush on Finn. In one episode, a throw-back to Trek’s “The Naked Time” and “Naked Now” episodes, he and Finn do hookup. As Yaphet is a blob, they can actually have sex on screen, since it basically involves him immersing Finn inside himself. All the naughty bits are hidden, and Jerald Johnson just has to do a toned-down Meg Ryan. (Mind you, like Tasha and Data, Finn tells Yaphet it never happened.)
MacFarlane and Bragga also sprinkle plenty of Trek cameos on-screen. Aside from Johnson, a major recurring actor on DS9, and MacFarlane, a frequent guest in Enterprise‘s final season, they landed Marina Sirtis, Robert Picardo, John Billingsley, and even F. Murray Abraham from Nemesis. Additionally, Seasons 1 and 2 had episodes directed by Jonathan Frakes and Robert Duncan McNeill. I’d have liked to have seen Roxanne Dawson as well, but she’s done even better work since her Voyager days directing episodes for Enterprise, Bosch, and Foundation.
Like Galaxy Quest, The Orville is a love letter to Star Trek and an homage to a certain era of the show. Some would suggest between his cameos on The Orville and Voyager, Jason Alexander earned his role as Janeway’s Tellarite counselor/doctor on Prodigy for establishing his Jeffrey Combs-like credibility.
But if you have doubts Galaxy Quest or The Orville are truly Star Trek, keep in mind a photo posted about ten years ago featuring all the captains. As Discovery did not have a star captain until Anson Mount’s Pike, the picture showed Shatner, Stewart, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew, and Scott Bakula, the legacy captains. But it also featured Tim Allen and Seth MacFarlane. Posted by one of the cast members, the caption read, “Don’t argue with us. They’re family.” Allen is the obnoxious uncle who ruins Thanksgiving but you’re glad is around anyway. MacFarlane is everyone’s buddy. And wherever the Trek fraternity of actors is, Tim, Seth, and their castmates are always welcome.