When I first started this show I found it to be a really awkward mix of comedy and seriousness. It had some jokes thrown it at the most inopportune times as some kind of comic relief from a really serious situation. Perhaps the first half of the first season was actually a bit rough or maybe the show just grew on me, but by season 2 I found myself loving this show.
To me it seems as every bit as comfy, intellectually interesting and even funny as some classic Star Treks while still clearly being its own thing. I wish more comfy space shows like this would get made.
What are your thoughts on The Orville? Also I miss Alara.
This is actual reality, so you nailed it. Seth approached Paramount with a pitch for a nostalgic reboot of the TNG era, they said no, so he went to Fox who he had a great relationship with due to Family Guy and created The Orville.
Whether the producers were unaware of the slow transition to actual speculative fiction or not is unclear for the first few seasons. I think the final season shows that it was overt, however, since after changing networks the whole tone, production quality, and even the actual time length of the episodes all changed.