I’m going to level with you: I was originally going to write a review of Clone Wars season 7. But seeing as how it’s been so many weeks since the show ended, it feels like I missed the window. If you must know, I’d rate the season a 9/10, giving special high marks for the final arc of the season, which was some of the best Star Wars content of any kind that I’ve ever witnessed.
I’ve written a lot of negative things lately about two of my favorite franchises. Clone Wars was great, no question, but The Rise of Skywalker isn’t getting any better with age. The sour end to the beloved saga is going to leave a sting for a very long time. Meanwhile, there’s Star Trek, which has limped along now for three seasons (two by Discovery and one by Picard). Flashes of goodness here and there aside, the two shows have failed to recapture what it is that I loved so much about the franchise.
So it was with great desperation that I sat down to binge-watch the first season of The Orville, having never seen the show before. It’s hard to say why I steered clear of it when it premiered in the fall of 2017. Maybe it was optimism that Discovery would be all the Trek I needed.
Now that I’ve come to accept that the CBS All Access shows will probably never show the kind of Star Trek that I want (though there is a new Captain Pike show coming so…hope springs eternal), I was left with two options. I could either sulk and cry and lament the loss of an institution, or I could give The Orville a shot, a show that seemed from a distance to be a mocking send-up of the franchise I’ve loved since I was a five-year-old kid watching TNG’s third season premiere.
I decided to give it a shot, thinking to myself I’d rather have a show that was silly in its attempts to ape Star Trek than a show like Discovery and Picard, which are dour and melodramatic to the point of embarrassing.
At least Orville will be in on the joke.
Six hours later I’m sitting here angry at myself for not having this in my life sooner.
The Orville is irreverent. That shouldn’t be a surprise given its creator is Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy and American Dad. His brand of humor is known for rapid-fire, reference-based wit, and a “nothing is sacred” approach to its subject matter. The idea that he would tackle a Trek spoof is not crazy. He did a Western send-up a few years ago (A Million Ways to Die in the West), after all. MacFarlane is, as a matter of fact, a life-long Star Trek fan, so the most I expected was something akin to the mostly-funny Star Wars parody specials Family Guy did years ago. I have a hunch that’s how he pitched the show to Fox, as a “Star Trek with Family Guy humor.” The first episode is basically that and little else. I’m sure Fox was eager to capitalize on Trek’s return to TV, as well as the success of other comedy-sci-fi properties like Guardians of the Galaxy. Little did we know, MacFarlane wasn’t content to have just a silly parody of Star Trek.
He wants to fill the void.
The Orville, over the course of its first season, evolved from a Trek spoof to a legitimate Trek successor. What that means is it’s a show that embraces the 90’s formula that defined six-hundred hours of TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise. Is it perfect? Far from it, but what it has that the CBS All Access shows do not is an obvious love of Star Trek. That alone allows me to overlook its flaws and appreciate what it’s trying to be. On the other hand, I can’t get over the problems I have with Discovery and Picard precisely because I see what it’s trying to be and I don’t like it.
In terms of its episode plots, The Orville is hit-and-miss. There are obvious Trek-inspired plots all over the place and while a couple are worthy of the source material that inspired them, many have the same tired feel of Enterprise Season 2, when the High Concept Well had obviously run dry. As for the dialogue, this is where the show’s biggest difference can be found from Star Trek of old. There are two kinds of dialogue on this show: Trekkian and MacFarlanian.
The former is a total ripoff, blatantly lifting phrases and terms from Star Trek’s glossary. But so what? If you’re going to make a show that everyone knows is Trek-inspired, just cut to the chase and use what you can. What else is better to call it than “red alert?” Sure you come up with your own little phrase, like “Critical Alert” or something, but everyone is going to know what inspired it, and most fans will just call it “red alert” in passing anyway, so just call it that.
The rest of the dialogue is pure Seth MacFarlane-brand comedy. He has a style and it’s polarizing. Comedy itself is naturally subjective; for me, when his style of humor hits, it hits great. That usually happens when the jokes are used to punctuate a mundane moment or add some surreal dialogue to a bizarre moment. In those cases, I find myself giggling more than not. Case in point:
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Look, the idea that a clown would be loose on the ship is not crazy, as far as Star Trek-inspired stories go (spoiler-alert: The ship is invaded by the crew’s worst fears, which is a plot that would be right at home on like a random episode of Voyager). Where The Orville works is in the way MacFarlane delivers, with a straight-face the line “pies, seltzer bottles, balloon animals. Be alert.” that just makes the joke work. That’s the beauty of this show in a nutshell. Also notice how basically everyone had a chance to be funny. This is a show that likes to share the love.
Also this:
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This clip highlights how the show uses its relaxed, natural, 21st-century dialogue to set itself apart from “real” Star Trek. Honestly, it’s not something I’m going to let bother me. Star Trek can be stuffy and uber-serious a lot of the times and I love it for its earnestness, but this isn’t Star Trek. It isn’t even trying to be a successor to Star Trek, despite how it’s viewed.
It’s trying to be a show inspired by Star Trek, but that’s it. It’s trying to be a send-up, made by people who loved old Trek, while also not being afraid to unbutton its shirt a bit. In that regard, I see it as a cousin-show to Battlestar Galactica (2003-2009). Of course, BSG was incredibly serious, dramatic, intense, and more. At the same time, the show was Trek-alum Ronald D. Moore’s answer to the many problems he had with the very “play it safe” Star Trek: Voyager. It took the same premise of Voyager and showed how it could have been told. The Orville, similarly, takes (the excellent) Star Trek: The Next Generation as its inspiration and shows how that series could have gone, had it been made by people a little more willing to play it loose.
I love it, warts and all.
I look forward to diving into season two soon, and I hope it builds off the foundation laid in season one. In just a dozen episodes, The Orville grew from being a one-note spoof to a true science-fiction, morality-play, high concept, human condition-exploring, space-adventure series. It is everything I want Star Trek to be…plus a few dick and fart jokes.
You can expect more content from me regarding this show. I didn’t say anything here about individual episodes because I plan on writing an episode-by-episode review-guide later this year. After I watch season two, I’ll have an overall review to compliment this article. I’ll also have full reviews of season three’s episodes whenever they release. According to MacFarlane, the show was halfway through production of the season when everything had to shut down for the pandemic. When they finally air is unknown at this time, but when they do I’ll be there, ready and excited.
Until then…
8/10 – The Orville’s first season is inconsistent, but the high points were enough to convince me that Seth MacFarlane and co. have something special brewing.
