Seth MacFarlane’s science-fiction series The Orville arrived on Fox with much fanfare in September—namely the brass-heavy sort that, like many elements of the sort-of comedic series, lets slip the heavy influence of Star Trek: The Next Generation on the show. But perhaps nowhere is The Orville’s homage to the crew of the starship Enterprise-D more keenly felt than in the fact that it’s having a choppy first season, as MacFarlane and his team show their true TNG bona fides by delving into concepts and storylines that have been deeply silly at best and inadvisable at worst. The explorational arm of an interplanetary coalition is a perfectly reasonable backdrop for discussions of contemporary hot-buttons like gender identity, but regardless of his personal politics and his retconned reputation as a speaker of truth to power, do you really trust Seth MacFarlane to handle those discussions?