AND Y'KNOW (talking about intertextuality in media) this is one of the reasons that "The Orville" *works*, despite being, well, what it is; because it takes the super-familiar Star Trek setting, extrapolates the worldbuilding in a way that *makes sense*, and then it *takes risks* with that premise. the risks don't always work out, but when they do it's phenomenal, just by virtue of having done something genuinely risky with such well-known source material.
basically I want to see MORE MEDIA PRODUCERS TAKING GODDAMN RISKS WITH MEDIA because again, it doesn't always work, but when it does it's FANTASTIC. otherwise, you just get... more procedurally generated Media Product (TM) (R) (C)Disney