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 elegan/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 Edward "Ed" Mercer and the ship, opening with his soon-to-be-ex wife Kelly cheating on him then they begin their posting on the Orville while trying to build a professional relationship. 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. There's also "About a Girl", a Bortus-centered episode that explores his relationships during a vital part of his race's life cycle. A later episode, "Cupid's Dagger", reveals why Kelly cheated in the first place, being due to biological aphrodisiac properties of Kelly's lover Darulio, a slimy (in the "disgustingly immoral" sense, not the "covered in slime" sense... until you make him happy) alien playboy.
Since this is a Star Trek homage, the show has to have a bad guy group the protagonists alternate between killing and studying. Given both franchises' showrunners, they also represent/strawman something the showrunner opposes. That's where the Krill come in; reptilian aliens with a fatal weakness to UV radiation (and a maybe-maybe-not coincidentally similar look and name to the "Star Trek: Beyond" villain, Krall). 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 (see below) were named for throwaway jokes about U.S car rental companies and "The Hunger Games" protagonist Katniss Everdeen.
This brings us to the subject the show is most preachy (pun intended) about by far, its anti-religion slant. While Star Trek also has some "better off atheist" overtones, the Orville goes further. Not content with using the Krill to beat the "religion bad" drum, they harp on it for a quarter of Season One's episodes (including "Mad Idolatry" - Star Trek's "Who Watches the Watchers" with the serial numbers filed off). Every religion is replete with visual references to Christianity - eg; every group's religious vestments, Krill places of worship look like chapels with pews and all the religious vestments - plus a potshot at Islam with "Temeen Everdeen", the Krill equivalent of "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 made complaints). 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 season. Season One's preachiness rears its head in "All The World's A Birthday Cake", but substituting religion with astrology.
The main change here was writing out Alara a couple eps in. The character's actress, Halston Sage, was rumored (by various online tabloid publications) to have briefly dated Seth MacFarlane. It is also possible 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. In any event, if the dating rumor is true it just goes to show that dating a co-worker and subordinate 20 years younger than you rarely ends well. This 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 Talla, another alien of the very same race, gender, and profession... despite the lore establishing that Alara's career path as a security officer was unusual by her species' standards. To be fair, 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.
The first instance was when Ed, his new girlfriend and the crew were caught between a contrived race of not-Orks doing WAAAAGH! and their targets, the Krill. Then... surprise! Ed's new woman is really Teleya - a female Krill 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 was a schoolteacher not a soldier 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. The second is when the not-Federation teams with the Krill because the rest of Isaac's robotic race, the Kaylons, have gone Full Skynet against organic life. Ironically, throughout the Season Isaac gradually turned good, becoming the crew's not-Data member. 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. Season 2 was definitely a step up overall.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
The third season fell into development-hell.
Fox canceled the show, being Fox, so the franchise moved from TV to the streaming service Hulu. Then filming was delayed multiple times by the global COVID-19 pandemic. As of mid-2021 an official air date wasn't announced; now, its fans are joyous that this season "New Horizons" is scheduled for 2 June 2022. Norm MacDonald (F) will reprise his voiceover for Yaphit.
Some commend The Orville as a superlative, thrilling, 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/power fantasy (some consider MacFarlane stunt-casting himself as the main character the height of vanity, especially when the show focuses on his love life with beautiful younger women or 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.
Would you like to know more?
- Not Main Memory Alpha. The wiki.