The Orville

I’m happy to say that my wife and I have been fans of Seth MacFarlane’s tv series The Orville right from the start, but neither of us was willing to admit it. Happy, and a bit proud of bucking the mostly negative reviews it got from critics in its first season, many of whom thought it would fall flat on its si-fi-ish face. “I mean,” many of them snorted, “a sort of kids’ parody of Star Trek? How dare it, how dare MacFarlane poke a stick at one of the most venerated television series of all time?” Well, we both found it so amusing and intriguing that we admitted to liking it a lot. In fact, MacFarlane must be some sort of genius to have come up with this idea and then written most of the scripts as well as starred in them.

Although the reviews for Season One weren’t so good, those for Season Two were much better. And despite the reviewers, the show right from the start must have appealed to a lot of actors who guest-starred on it, even if it was for only a brief spot (Ted Danson was on for about twenty seconds as the regional director of the galactic force, speaking to Capt. Mercer via a future Skype). But others seemed equally eager to get aboard: Charlize Theron with a fat part about a time traveler with evil intentions, Rob Lowe as a sexy blue guy, Liam Neeson delivering a message from a dead commander, Jeffrey Tambor (from Transparent and Arrested Development) as MacFarlane’s father, Holland Taylor (from Two-and-a-Half Men) as MacFarlane’s mother, and Jason Alexander (obviously, from Seinfeld) as Olix, the horny bartender. I’m guessing that most of these cameos were grabbed eagerly by those who got them and we’ll probably see many more in future episodes.

The humor lies mainly in the varying alien beings who are aboard their galactic ship, The Orville (named for MacFarlane’s interest in original flight and one of its originators, Orville Wright). But the humor and crazy diversity of the aliens is never intended as a cruel parody of those on Star Trek’s Enterprise. In many cases, these people (Can I really call them as well as think of them as people?) are not only identifiable but are also charming. Even Yaphit, the blob, one of the ship’s engineers, is a nice little fellow who likes to crack jokes as he oozes his way around the ship. And the Spock parallel, Isaac, the ship’s science and engineering officer, is a humanoid computer aboard to study human behavior, to see what makes humans human instead of artificially intelligent fellows like he and the other inhabitants of his planet. But humor is only part of MacFarlane’s intent; he also includes plot elements that speak to current and universal human concerns. For example, in one episode (“All the World Is Birthday Cake”), they receive a first contact with a planet whose inhabitants have sent out a microwave message to the cosmos, “Can anyone hear this?” Capt. Mercer and his crew respond and go to the planet to meet them, to discover a society that seems advanced enough for consideration to join the Planetary Union. But when two of their crew, Cmdr. Grayson and Lt. Cmdr. Bortus, mention that they are celebrating their birthdays, the planet prefect (played by John Rubenstein) screams to have them taken prisoner. It seems that this race believes that anyone born during this astrological period is dangerous and criminally insane and must be imprisoned forever, thematically pointing the finger at all our present racist beliefs.

In the episode “A Happy Refrain,” Dr. Finn (Penny Johnson Jerold) realizes that she is becoming romantically attracted to Isaac (Mark Jackson), an android, and wishes there were some way they could connect, even though romance between them, with a robot who doesn’t understand human emotion, is, if not impossible, at least unlikely. The whole episode might have been played for its humor, but instead it was a very appealing examination of love and romance as good as, if not better than, most of what Hallmark produces. The serendipitous use of the ship’s simulator allows them to consummate their relationship as two humans instead of human and robot, and may give us more plot lines for future episodes.

The success of The Orville will depend on how well MacFarlane and the other writers can maintain a balance of humor, Star-Trekian adventure, and interesting themes. I hope it can last at least one or two more seasons.