The Orville

[Graham Kennedy]

Hell, it looks better than Discovery...

[Mikey]

[Nutso]

I read about this yesterday but, they said it was developing and not picked up yet. Now here's a trailer.

Whoa. Scott Grimes is in this? The kid from Critters. Whoa again. Penny Johnson Jerald. I'm not really a Seth McFarlane fan. His humor is just, "Hey, something random! Something crude. Something random again!" I'll give this a shot because its got a spaceship in it.

[Mikey]

I happen to like some of his humor, and I absolutely like Adrianne Palicki.

[Nutso]

Boiy after reading about how "gritty" STD is going to be, the sunny and bright Orville looks real good to watch. Like I'm going to watch Guardians of the Galaxy as a TV show.

[T'Pau]

Some of the directors for various episodes include: Brannon Braga, Jonathan Frakes, James L. Conway, Robert Duncan McNeill...lots of Trek influences there. Characters on the Orville, are reminiscent of lots of Trek-ians we've seen. The ship, certainly is better looking than the Discovery 'flying wedge' design, as it has some definite Galaxy Quest elements. All in all, I'm all in for this and hoping for less of Seth's 8yr old boy humor filled with potty jokes and the like. In fact, if they slip in some actual dramatic elements, and some real science, they might unseat Discovery from it's already tenuous position.

[Graham Kennedy]

Some of the directors for various episodes include: Brannon Braga, Jonathan Frakes, James L. Conway, Robert Duncan McNeill...lots of Trek influences there. Characters on the Orville, are reminiscent of lots of Trek-ians we've seen. The ship, certainly is better looking than the Discovery 'flying wedge' design, as it has some definite Galaxy Quest elements. All in all, I'm all in for this and hoping for less of Seth's 8yr old boy humor filled with potty jokes and the like. In fact, if they slip in some actual dramatic elements, and some real science, they might unseat Discovery from it's already tenuous position.

Couldn't agree with You more.

[stitch626]

Major plus IMO, the ship is an actual model. Not just CGI.

I'm hoping the comedy doesn't detract from the quality of the show, which has been my experience with some of Seth's work. Personal taste though.

[Graham Kennedy]

Major plus IMO, the ship is an actual model. Not just CGI.

I'm hoping the comedy doesn't detract from the quality of the show, which has been my experience with some of Seth's work. Personal taste though.

There are two ways this show might go.

One... the galaxy quest approach. Galaxy quest had a pretty straight and serious story which it hung humour around. If you stripped every ounce of humour out of Galaxy Quest, you would be left with a pretty damn good serious sci fi action movie. And the humour clearly came from people who really understood science fiction, and who wanted to make fun of it, but in a way that was cheeky but respectful. Look at how the nerdy kid is depicted... and then look at how he is instrumental in saving the day and gets a gesture of respect and acknowledgement from his hero. I dearly hope The Orville is something like that.

Or two... they could go for dumb situations, fart jokes, random humorous asides... the Family Guy approach to humour.

I suspect it will be the latter, because it's Seth MacFarlane. But then, Seth is also a huge Trek fan, so just maybe...

I am crossing fingers and hoping like hell it turns out to be good. I need my Star Trek, and faux Trek will do if it's good!

[Mikey]

I think a fair bit - maybe 40% to 55% - of the sophomoric humor in "Family Guy" is misconstrued as actual straight-on fart jokes when it is actually ironic fart jokes... i.e., a self-parody of that sort of humor. Baphomet knows, that when McFarlane decides to take a candidly scything but erudite look at media and pop culture, he spares nothing including himself and ends up with some funny shit.

[Nutso]

[Graham Kennedy]

source

It’s confirmed: Charlize Theron will guest star in one episode of Seth MacFarlane’s upcoming sci-fi satire The Orville on Fox. Details of her character are being kept under wraps, so stay tuned.

Interesting, it's not that often a major movie star agrees to do a TV show. I'm betting she will be another ship Captain, and the humour will come from her being hyper-competent as compared to Seth's "far from our first choice" character. Or maybe she'll be an alien of the week?

Charlize and Seth in an interview together...

[Mikey]

Sooo...

Pleasantly... well, not surprised, but glad that some of the obvious pitfalls didn't occur. First and foremost, not in any way as sophomoric as it could easily have been. Second, while some of the more obvious 'Trek parallels were both necessary and unavoidable, there were a number of more subtle homages and references that I appreciated.

On the down side, it seemed to have been missing some of the sharpness of irony and sarcasm that I had expected from McFarlane; and some of the situational set-ups seemed a bit tired. That said, on the whole I regard it as a positive start and I will continue to watch.

[Graham Kennedy]

I really liked it.

General impressions - it really felt like a Star Trek episode. You could very easily set this in the post-TNG era. The world of the Union has the same kind of clean, pleasant future that Trek does so well. It's bright, colourful, etc. Notably they use a lot more green screen to open up the sets - walk down a corridor and like as not it will have not just a window, but a big row of widows all down one wall, looking out at a spacedock.

The actors are all decent. The characters are quirky enough to differentiate them, but the actors are comfortable enough in the roles that you didn't get the stiffness that you often do in pilot episodes. And they're also a very "Star Trek" group, with the Klingon-expy, the Robot, the alien girl, etc.

The plot was also quite TNG in style. I wouldn't say it was a great plot, but it was serviceable. The crew handled the situation competently, and ultimately they won the day through cleverness and skill rather than teching the tech or having bigger guns. I like that they also tied that into the characters, showing the building trust with Klingon-expy telling Drunk Pilot Guy that he trusted him to do the impossible maneuver, and with the Captain telling Klingon-expy guy that he did a good job.

And clever use of the time ray and seeds to win the situation, though the redwood thing was foreshadowed a bit heavily.

Best of all, it was not crammed full of fart and dick jokes. I hoped for a real sci fi story with humour added, and that's exactly what they got. I watched the whole thing with a huge goofy grin on my face the whole time.

More please!!!

[T'Pau]

Having watched the first episode twice, I will stand by my initial response of : Great promise, looking forward to more, appreciate all the homage to various science fiction favs!
As with any premiere episode, it gave you just enough about the characters to hold your interest, and not so much as you would know the whole scoop about any single individual.
The overall look is pleasing, both in design and nods to elements from our own time.
Just enough "seth" humour to add to the plot for humor, but not so much to make it "Family Guy in Spaaaaaaace!"

4 1/2 stars out of 5, with room to grow