Star Trek is an icon in the industry. A franchise unto itself that has had more episodes and films than arguably any franchise out there. Sorry, some franchises like Doctor Who are older, and others like the MCU have produced more shows and films but none have the catalog of episodes that Trek has. None have films that have inspired so many others the way Star Trek has.
Star Trek has been influencing science fiction for nearly 60 years. Ever since Star Trek launched in 1966 there have been pretenders and contenders to the throne every year. Other entities have popped up to either try to be Star Trek or show a profound love for Star Trek in their ways. Some shows and films model themselves so well after Star Trek, that we thought it'd be good to look at some of the shows out there that embraced the Star Trek of it all.
Here are three shows we think borrowed heavily from Star Trek and did a good job with it.
Space Cases
For some of you, this Nickelodeon series went under the radar. It starred Walter Emmanuel Jones and Jewel Staite and featured a similar premise to that of Star Trek: Voyager. It's a show of a group of cadets lost in space with their instructors, trying to find their way back to Earth with each new episode. It's pretty similar to the premise of Voyager in that regard, two ships, lost in space. With no way home. It only lasted 26 episodes and Staite left the series after the first season but it's worth checking out if you ever wondered what a Saturday Morning version of Voyager would look like.
Andromeda
This is less a Star Trek clone and more of an unfinished Star Trek sibling. Originally, the show was created by Gene Roddenberry, but the IP was unused. Eventually, Robert Wolfe would pick up the property and turn it into a show that would air in syndication and later on the then Sci-Fi (now SyFy) channel. It's a show very similar to Star Trek in its set up but it focused more on war than it did on anything else. Essentially, through a series of complicated plot points, the ship ends up frozen in time and is brought back into existence with the later goal of rebuilding society after it fell. It was also the last major project Kevin Sorbo was attached to.
The Orville
If we're talking about Star Trek, we're going to talk about The Orville. The series that Seth MacFarlane started was built from the ground up to be like Star Trek. He hired former Star Trek writers, directors, and even actors and actresses to fill out the roster. The show, once a super silly version of Star Trek, settled into a light-hearted, but also serious take on classic Star Trek morality tales. The only difference is that there is far more natural humor in an episode of The Orville than in an episode of Star Trek. Yet, the concept of both franchises shares a similar design, feel, and storytelling direction.