Author: Jonathan Klotz | Published
Seth MacFarlane is probably still best known for his animated shows, family guy and American Dadbut in 2017 he launched his greatest creation yet, The Orvillea science fiction series that was originally marketed as a Star Trek parody. Fox’s marketing for the show relied heavily on jokes from the first episode, which included the introduction of the Moklan, a species that only urinates once a year, but as long-time viewers of the show already know, things that sound like jokes end up leading to great character moments.
That’s the greatest trick of the MacFarlane series so far: it’s not a parody; It’s a loving tribute that gets darker and more serious as the series progresses, and might even be better than modern Star Trek.
A better version of TNG’s worst episode
in the first scene The Orville In the pilot episode, we see MacFarlane as Captain Ed Mercer enter his home and find his wife in bed with a blue alien and his blue discharge. Star Trek captain James Tiberius Kirk was known for being obsessed with lust, whether human, Orion, or something in between.
MacFarlane’s show, which begins with Ed depressed, drinking, behaving badly and in danger of losing his job, makes it clear that it doesn’t take things as seriously as Star Trek did. The second episode makes this even clearer, as muscular Moclan Bortus asks who Kermit the Frog is before announcing that Kermit the Frog is hatching eggs, and diminutive security guard Alara saves the world with a little help from a reality TV show.
The Orville Season 1 contains an episode that mocks social media (“Majority Rule”), which is one of the worst Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Cupid’s Dagger,” “The Naked Now,” and ending the season with “Mad Idolatry,” a reminder of why Star Trek’s Prime Directive exists. Star Trek: Into Darkness Plays with the idea of a primitive species seeing the Enterprise take off and starting to worship it.
“Crazy idolatry” has always accompanied a planet that is constantly in and out of the universe, forming a religion based on First Mate Grayson (played by Ed’s ex-wife Adrienne Padalecki). It’s both a ridiculous premise and something that every Star Trek fan has started thinking about at some point, so it was fun to see it play out considering how many alien civilizations Starfleet has encountered, and by that point in the season, it was clear that McFarlane was a huge Star Trek fan.
In fact, Seth MacFarlane was such a big Star Trek fan that he didn’t want to make a comedy version of the classic series, but wanted to make another Star Trek series and use the comedy angle The Orville Season 1 as a Trojan horse to get what he really wants. It works.
Season two ditches the more ridiculous plot points of season one in favor of character-driven drama, which once again includes an elevated version of a TNG episode in which “Happy Refrain” does for cybernetic Isaac and Dr. Finn what “theoretically” did for Data and Jenny. The difference is that “In Theory” was a one-off, but “Happy Refrain” not only pays off a year of character development, but also marks a permanent turning point for the character.
From comedy to emotional punch
On Rotten Tomatoes, The Orville Season has a perfect 100% rating from critics, and for good reason, because while it’s still entertaining throughout its three seasons, MacFarlane does a better job with low-stakes character-driven episodes than any writer working today. Season three’s “Twice in a Lifetime” is considered one of the show’s best episodes, combining time travel with callbacks from season two to create an emotionally powerful ending that most sci-fi shows today can only dream of achieving. If you start watching the show and find it hard to get through the first few episodes, stick with it because if you know where the cast is starting from, it will be more satisfying when you see where they end up.
This is what ultimately makes The Orville It’s a work of mad genius, born out of a love for Star Trek but not beholden to the legacy of the series. although Star Trek: Discovery When Seth MacFarlane was struggling to find an audience, he was there to honor him next generationwhich quietly showcases some of the sharpest, most profound, and surprisingly emotional writing of any sci-fi series of the past decade.
