The Orville

The Orville from The Orville

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The Orville is Star Trek fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off a comedy drama sci-fi television series that began as a homage to Star Trek, created by and starring Seth MacFarlane of Family Guy infamy-- No wait, come back!

The guy's a huge Trekkie, to the point of having a few cameos in Star Trek, who went to the FOX execs and pitched his idea for a loving comedic sendup of The Next Generation because he felt too many shows sunk into a quagmire (pun intended, and ours not his) of grimdark. Many of the executive producers and developers are notable industry Trekkies such as David Goodman (who wrote the Futurama Trek parody episode), or Trek alumni such as Brannon Braga. First airing in 2017, the series is about the strung-out not-Picard protagonist Captain Edward Mercer, played by MacFarlane himself, of the eponymous not-Enterprise spaceship "The Orville" (likely named after one of the Wright Brothers). His ex-wife Kelly is the first officer while the crew includes the beefy gay not-Worf alien Bortus, asshole not-Lore android Isaac, and John LaMarr and Gordon Malloy - an even more ridiculous parody of Harry Kim and Tom Paris. They explore the galaxy while dealing with personal problems and fighting various bad guys. The show has a mix of drama, comedy and commentary on real world issues.

Can you play in this universe or what?

There is no dedicated RPG for The Orville. But that hasn't stopped elegant/tg/entlemen from trying. As a Trek knockoff it's Trekkies who've mooted systems for it. For those interested in the (dysfunctional) character-relations: GURPS. TRAVELLER, for those with a hard-SF bent. And then there's always Far Trek. Here's a 2017 discussion.

And, yes, servants of the Divine Emperor: you can buy miniatures, through WizKids.

The Show

Season One

The first season was supposed to have thirteen episodes but The Suits didn't like the episode revolving around (gay) porn addiction, so that got pulled, leaving the first season with twelve episodes.

The pilot episode (creatively named "Pilot") introduces Ed and the ship, with the story about how he and ex-wife Kelly begin their posting on the Orville while trying to build a professional relationship. A later episode reveals why Ed and Kelly divorced in the first place, and it involved a slimy (in the "disgustingly immoral" sense, not the "covered in slime" sense... until you make him happy) alien playboy. As the crew learn to work together, one of the better episodes sets the stage for this; "Majority Rule", an episode with good (albeit heisted from Black Mirror) commentary on social currency systems. "About a Girl" is a Bortus-centered episode that explores his relationships during a vital part of his race's life cycle.

Since this is a Star Trek homage, the show has to have a bad guy faction the protagonists alternate between killing and studying. Between this and who The Orville's showrunner is, they're also a representation and strawman of something said showrunner opposes in real-life. That's where the Krill come in; Nosferatu-looking reptilian aliens with a fatal weakness to UV radiation. The Krill are villains because they follow a violently xenophobic religion that claims all non-Krill are soulless abominations to be killed or subjugated. Also, the god of this religion and one of its religious phrases were named for throwaway jokes about the car rental company Avis and Katniss Everdeen from "The Hunger Games" franchise.

This brings us to the subject the show is most preachy (pun intended) about by far, its anti-religion slant. A quarter this seasons episodes around beating the "religion bad" drum - "If Stars Should Appear", "Krill" (named for the above aliens) and "Mad Idolatry" (essentially Star Trek's "Who Watches the Watchers" with the serial numbers filed off). If that wasn't unsubtle or one-sided enough, every religion is replete with visual references to Christianity - the Krill places of worship look like chapels complete with pews, for one - and there's also a poke at Islam (the Krill's "Temeen Everdeen" is both a blink-and-you'll-miss-it wink at The Hunger Games and their equivalent of Islam's "Allahu Akbar"). All this results in a show pushing anti-religious atheism hard enough to make Star Trek look like The Chronicles of Narnia (even non-religious viewers have complained about this heavy-handed slant). Hey, if Seth can bog down a season of a TV show with it, we can bog down a paragraph of a webpage talking about it.

The critics did their best to tank the show this season, but most viewers liked it, a few recurring complaints notwithstanding. In light of positive reception it received, the show was greenlit for a second season.

Season Two

In the second season, the network got a little more confident in the show so, to save money, they aired Bortas' porno, held over from the previous one.

The main change here was writing out Alara a couple eps in. The character's actress, Halston Sage, was rumored to have briefly dated Seth MacFarlane, although it is just as likely that other factors such as her role on Prodigal Son or a desire for a pay increase could've contributed to or caused her departure. The dating rumor may have got the oxygen it did due to a later episode where Captain Mercer dates a too-young version of his own First Officer, showing that dating a co-worker and subordinate 20 years younger than you rarely ends well. This all may come back to haunt the showrunners as Alara was one of the better received characters. Don't worry though, Alara's character was immediately replaced with another alien of the very same race, gender, and profession... despite the lore establishing that Alara's career path as a security officer is unusual by her species' standards. Alara's final episode is a good sendoff for the character.

The next big change is the Krill, who become the "lesser villains that need to team up with the good guys to fight worse villains" cliché. Given all the villainous setup the Krill have, this is jarring, the more so because this season pulls it out its own butt twice.

At first Ed and crew were caught between some contrived race of Space Orks doing WAAAAGH against the Krill while Ed's dating a new woman. Then... surprise, Ed's new woman turns out to be Teleya - a female Krill POW he captured in Season 1 - disguised as a human to get close to Ed and kill him (resulting in plot holes because Teleya was last seen imprisoned on Earth and she's a schoolteacher not a solider or a spy), but they're forced to work together when trapped on a death world. We don't see the orks again in this season. Then the real team up with the Krill happens because the rest of Isaac's robotic race, the Kaylons, have gone Full Skynet against organic life. While throughout the Season Isaac gradually turned good, becoming the crew's not-Data member, the rest of his race aren't so friendly. The Kaylons attempt to invade Earth and look set to become the show's Borg equivalent (minus organic parts and assimilation).

The cast seems to be gelling better - Halston's departure and rumored situation between her and Seth aside, the writers have a better idea of what the show should be and the humor is now used in service of the stories; again, Alara's loss aside, it's a step up overall.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

The show is slated for a third season, but was cancelled by Fox and moved from TV to the streaming service Hulu. However, filming was delayed by the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Some commend The Orville as a well-made, witty breath of fresh air in an overly stagnant genre with a side of nostalgia. Others denounce The Orville as a derivative, sophomoric, uncomfortable vanity protect (some consider MacFarlane stunt-casting himself as the main character the height of vanity, especially when the show pushes his views on the audience - at least Roddenberry let others play Kirk and Wesley). Some think both sides have a point. Trekkies are equally divided on the show; many Trekkies butthurt over Discovery endorse The Orville, a significant number of Discovery fans hate The Orville, and a small and overlooked group quietly enjoys both.

As always, stay tuned for how this turns out.

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