Seth MacFarlane lovesStar Trek, so he made aStar Trekshow.
Thats the sincere and pointless appeal ofThe Orville.
The point of the joke, see, was that Shatner could really overact, see.
Credit to MacFarlane for pushing this average gag where noTreknerd has ever gone before.
When he hosted the Oscars, he beamed Shatner-Kirk onto the big screen for some endless banter.
Now, withThe Orville, MacFarlanes sitting on the bridge of his own Bizarro-Enterprise.
And you sense a profound attempt here, a fan grasping toward something long lost.
This isnt a spoof ofStar Trek, nor some lacerating satire.
It only tries to be funny sometimes (and usually fails).
The Orvilleis none of that.
The series is executive produced by Brannon Braga, a keyTrekarchitect fromNext Generationonwards.
will direct another episode this season.
The United Federation of Planets is now the Planetary Union.
There are different aliens with oddly familiar forehead ridges.
(I didnt spot any hairpieces, but technologyhasevolved in 51 years.)
Im not really complaining.
You could argue copyright law all day.
Paramount actuallydid, suing the makers of theTrekfan filmPrelude toAxanar.
And to launch this the same month asDiscovery?
Fight, fight, fight!
AndThe Orvilledoesnt look cheap.
Its pilot was directed by blockbuster director Jon Favreau.
There are copious special effects and surprisingly large sets.
So: I respect the intentions.
And I wonder: Why is this show so bland?
Part of the problem is tone.
And then it skips ahead a year, the implication being that Eds performance has gone downhill post-divorce.
Hes offered a kind of last-chance mission, his own command on a mid-level ship called theOrville.
Ed requests his best friend Gordon (Scott Grimes) as his helmsman.
Peter Macon plays Bortus, a ridge-headed deadpan dude from a species where everyones a man.
Halston Sage plays Alara Kitan, super strong and super naive.
Penny Johnson Jerald is Dr. Finn, a great no-bull physician.
J. Lee is Navigator LaMarr, who seems chill.
Its a long introduction, this pilot, complete with long shots of theOrvillesetting off from Earth.
The inciting incident arrives, finally.
TheOrvilleis assigned its second-in-command and its Kelly, Captain Mercers ex-wife!
Now, Palickis had a rough go since her fine work onFriday Night Lights.
She had two superhero shows that didnt happen and had the only unfun role inJohn Wick.
The stolid formality ofTrektalk suits her well.
But the only truly un-Trek-like part ofThe Orvilleis how the crewmates interact with each other.
Gordon tells the other bridge officers that Kelly a total bh.
When Ed keeps bringing up her infidelity often in public!
But Palicki can only do so much.
MacFarlanes given himself a weird role here.
Its beyond MacFarlanes abilities as an actor.
You want him to choose a direction and stick with it.
But that would require some truly compelling new idea about what a show like this should be.
AndThe Orvilleso far just feels like some lost show from late inTreks 90s Renaissance.
The series wants to reclaim the old possibilities of a pre-serialized era, telling concept episodes with surface-level themes.
What if humans were animals in the zoo, eh?
But it also captures everything that made the latter days ofTrekTV so stale and unmemorable.
I want to stick with the show, though.
The third episode is the by-default best, and most boldly strange.
Bortis and his partner have given birth to a young female child.
(A race of men who hate women = everyone who likedDads?)
And the episode itself is horribly structured, dependent on adeussomachinait might as well come from Sha Ka Ree.
But I admire the impulse.
HeresThe Orvilletackling the politics of our moment as brazenly asStar Trekever has.
Its goofy and weightless, and requires someone to say, Dont start passing out the penises just yet.
It also pointedly sidesteps the question of what the Federation sorry, the Union thinks about transgender politics.
I think thats the show MacFarlane wants to make.
His ambition might have hit a ceiling, though.
Theres one notable departure fromTrektradition inThe Orville.
Even the Klingons quoted Shakespeare, and theNext Generationholodeck was a gateway for history nerds.
Some of this might have just been genre peacocking were not just a space show!
Inevitably, talk turns to Hitler.
Ed calls Kermit the Frog a leader I admire.
The Doctor tells a young colleague, Ill take a stab at be your Obi-Wan.
One character learns about the value of individuality by watchingRudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
I would like to switch to movie trivia!
Again, I get the idea here.
Ofcoursea new show set in the future shouldnt ignore the last half century of pop culture.
This is just like onStar Trek!
is something they might say, with good humor and grace.
ButStar Trekhas problems, and at least now we finally know dick jokes wont solve them.C
