The Orville Season One

Old Wounds written by Seth Macfarlane and directed by Jon Favreau 

Captain Cardboard: ‘The truth is you’re nobody’s first choice for this job…’ I’m going to let you in on a little secret that may or may not get me executed for mutiny…but Seth Macfarlane is one of my weird crushes. That is, he isn’t your conventionally handsome series lead but there is something about this guy that draws me to him, especially in this role where he seems both completely at home and utterly in over his head. Clearly this is a role that Macfarlane has been eyeing up ever since he headed into the TV industry (as exemplified by the super cute video that I found on YouTube of him playing the Captain in an extremely amateur production of Star Trek in his child hood – check it out, it is the most wonderful bit of ephemera you will find online today) and you wouldn’t need to ask whether he is a fan of the genre or the Trek franchise going into this show – it screams out of every frame. Macfarlane is a proven money spinner, he’s had countless successful shows and has made enough of a name for himself to be able to take on his own vanity project in The Orville and put himself as the lead and you would think this would make him the most strutting egotist of all time. Now go and watch him being interviewed about this show. This really isn’t about him stroking his ego but trying to get in touch with a feeling that he had when he was a child when storytelling possibilities in space were endless, where the exploration of the unknown was exciting and where relationships between characters kept you gripped to the television. MacFarlane genuinely wants to make a good show. He just happens to want to be the Captain too, finally living his life long dream. It adds a rather wonderful touch to the show, knowing that in his heart this producer/writer/director/actor is simply trying to re-enact those exciting times in his childhood and put himself in the heart of it. My love for him couldn’t shine anymore. Off camera, this extremely hard-working man sounds utterly relaxed, deeply respectful of his co-workers and very sure of what he wants to create. He is quite the talent. 

Even more, he recognises his own limitations as well. MacFarlane is a terrific voice actor (as Family Guy continually proves) but isn’t going to set the world alight as a dramatic actor (although I think you see him go on a journey over the two seasons with this struggle and develop a certain gravitas as the show goes on) and so he has manoeuvred some phenomenal acting talent into his main cast who can handle the heavy stuff whilst he sits in the Captain’s chair and shouts ‘Fire!’ Maybe that’s a little unfair, but when MacFarlane is indulging in relationship drama for Mercer it feels at its most sitcom, and he brings the same comic energy that he did to his animated shows. Sometimes it works beautifully, other times it falls on its face but I appreciate him taking the genre and trying to do something fresh and interesting with it. More Red Dwarf, less DS9. I really like how he refuses to make Mercer a man of legend like Captain Kirk and instead introduces him as your everyman average authority figure, a man who isn’t sure whether he has the ability to take on such an important role (and his superiors are completely baffled at Kelly’s recommendation). He’s awkward and lovestruck and tends to think with his feet rather than his brain but that merely ingratiated him to me more because it is easy to fall in love with a character who struggles at first because you are rooting for him to succeed, despite his failings. He couldn’t look more like an average Joe sitting before his commanding officer, hands in his lap like he has been called to the Principals office and sucking on a marble.

At the heart of this series is the Mercer/Kelly romance, which fuels many episodes and might determine how you take to this show. If you are invested in this pair as a couple (I am because both actors make the cliched scenario of exes forced to work together go much further that it should) then you should have no problem weaving through the soap operatics that is thrown your way over the first two seasons. If that kind of romance movie stereotype isn’t your bag, you might be completely turned off. Essentially how you react to the very first scene of The Orville might be a good litmus test for this show as it is warm, silly and utterly cliched and yet filmed and acted with such panache.

Number Two: Along with Doctor Finn, one of two adults in the command staff on The Orville. I hadn’t seen Adrianne Palicki in anything else before and had very little reason to expect much from what felt like a thankless role as Mercer’s ex-wife. She’s actually given the weightier dramatic moments on the show and delivers some exceptional work. Somebody had to be the straight man on The Orville and Kelly is often tasked with that role. Strangely enough when this very real feeling person acts as though this cast of oddballs solving SF mysteries is the most natural thing in the world I believed in it utterly. Most valued performer, by some stretch. The scene at the end where you learn that it was Kelly who recommended Mercer for this posting and made a case for him adds a lot of depth to their situation, and the show at large, and would be followed up on several times later.

Issac: Why are the non-humanoid characters always the most engaging on these shows? The best thing about Issac (beyond Mark Jackson’s surprisingly versatile performance as a walking bag of bolts) is the mystery that surrounds this character. We really don’t know much about his people at this point and that is definitely a big question mark that is explored exceptionally well in season two. He’s a brilliant comic character because he is so innocent and deadpan, but insanely he also becomes the most poignantly handled romantic character on the show too. I love his aesthetic (its mid-50s glam robot chic), Jackson’s voice has been specifically chosen to make this character this likable. Bravo on making the robot the star of the show.

Klingon Wananbe: My initial reaction to Bortus was that he looked so ridiculous that I feared he would be a figure of mockery throughout. Oh, how wrong could I be? When it comes to humour, he is the Worf character, always there with a deadpan line to cut through all the madness. But what surprised me no end was how Macfarlane (and Peter Macon) make this character so well rounded and interesting, not only as an alien species that opens up some brilliant exploration of modern day prejudices but also as a character in his own right with failings and strengths that make him the most vivid character on the crew. The fact that this is a (mostly) all male species means the show automatically has a fascinating same sex couple involved but things go much deeper than that. Through Bortus the show gets to explore prejudice, humanity, sexuality, rage. Of the entire main cast he is the one who surprised me the most.

Dazzling Doctor: Finally, a Trek show (oops, I’ve got to stop doing that) that gets the Doctor character spot on from the very start. Penny Johnson Gerald is a terrific actress and frankly I was a little surprised to see her associated with a show like this when the cast was first announced but having seen the first two series I can see precisely what attracted her to it now. This is a show where she can really let her hair down and have some fun, but also do some respectable work. Her character is a little marginalised at first but she really comes into her own in the second season and she is a reassuring presence amongst the crew at all times. Gerald is just so sassy and smart a performer that she is always watchable, no matter what they give her to do. The fact that she appeared on one of my all-time favourite shows carries no favour here (oh no). She’s a fully formed character here, we just don’t know that until they start giving her things to do.

Bevis: Gordon is the one character that I feel they struggle with the most at the beginning of the show, and it would take until the middle of season two until he beds in properly and is treated as a guy with any kind of integrity. For most of series one he is a wisecracking jackass who flies the ship and the cause of most of the jokes that come at inappropriate times.

Butthead: LaMarr is another character that fails to ignite much interest early on, but he would gain focus a lot quicker than Gordon.

Strength of Ten Men: Young, cute and very likable, thanks to her super strength we have a little touch of Buffy in this show. Halston Sage is the youngest member of this cast but she slips into the (very experienced) cast effortlessly. Her big shot is in the next episode, where she is the central character to figure but my one take away from this episode was that she was somebody I wanted to spend some more time with.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Aren’t’ you guys legendarily racist?’
‘Is that one of your projects?’ ‘No no, that’s Dr Jorvik our chief botanist.’

The Good: Anybody who thought this show would be filmed and budgeted like a sitcom (given it is often described as a dramedy) might have had the shock of their lives when the show opened on a stunning CGI vista of New York in the future complete with hoover cars, monorails and eco-buildings bursting with foliage. I was floored by the detail in the effects work throughout this episode and the series at large. For some reason I was expecting sticky backed plastic and washing up bottles but that might have something to do with the fact that the science fiction comedy I was brought up on was Red Dwarf, which certainly boasted some impressive FX but was very much a product of its time and what could be achieved on a small budget. The effects work on The Orville puts shows like Doctor Who to shame, and in some cases could certainly hold up to comparison to the other Trek shows that are being produced at the moment. It’s not just that the money is there on screen but also that, especially as the series continues, it is poured into some beautiful and imaginative sequences. But more on that later. I’m not one to get excited about starship design but The Orville itself is a thing of beauty.

The show would certainly indulge in some very un-Star Trek sexual behaviour and opening on a scene of a blue mans head bursting with cum in the opening seconds does immediately tell you that despite the trappings, this show is definitely doing its own thing. This a show that isn’t afraid to look really silly (a lot like Doctor Who actually, and very unlike Star Trek, which is probably why I find it a perfect marriage of the two worlds) and would dare to show sequences such as a woman bathing in a gelatinous blob in a depraved sexual act, faux-Klingon men having an orgy in a park and a woman and a robot making romantic gestures to each other in public. It makes my heart sing that there is a show out there that is willing to throw caution to the wind and embrace lunacy with its sexual representation, and yet to explore it with a great deal of intelligence and heart.

All the gossiping on the Bridge feels very natural to me. If I was serving on a Starship and Captain’s love life was the topic of conversation, I would be so there. The Moclans, the Union and the Krill are all established in this first episode and so in terms of universe building the three major players of this series are put on the map straight away. It certainly sets up its characters and universe with more aplomb than several of the Star Trek pilots I can think of (far better than Encounter at Farpoint and Broken Bow, not as vividly as DS9 and Voyager). The Orville has so much fun with its CGI and prosthetics creating imaginative and out there creatures that it rather puts its science fiction contempories in the shadows when it comes to exploring the diversity of life in space in a creative way. Some might call Yaphit silly, I think he’s glorious. The location work, gun play and mass make up jobs could have come from a big budget movie. The last third of the episode might devolve into action but my goodness it looks great. As a demonstration of the resources that this show has to hand, it is invaluable. Destroying the Krill ship with a redwood tree is just absurd enough to work. It’s the last thing in the world that Trek would do, which is a good starting point.

The Bad: Mercer discovering his ex is to become his XO and dashing off the bridge in a flap is nowhere near as funny as Macfarlane seems to think it is. Brian George will always be Dr Bashir’s dad. Sorry but he just is. The concept of the week is a ray that can accelerate time but the episode only has ten minutes to do anything with the idea, which is a shame because there was a great deal of potential to have a lot of fun with it. There’s some quick discussion, the Krill show up to steal it and the concept is used as a get out clause for the plot. It’s neatly written, but far too brief. It feels so condensed that it lacks any detail or engagement, except for the ‘woah, that’s cool’ application.

Result: This is not Star Trek. Well, yes it is. Or rather it aspires to be. Instead of the Federation, we have the Union. Instead of the Klingons, we have the Moclans. Instead of the Romulans, we have the Krill. The technology, the chain of command, the uniforms, the ships, the style of shooting, the music, the fact that practically the entire team on this have worked on other Star Trek shows…this resembles mid-90s Berman era Star Trek in so many ways that to try and deny it is pointless. There’s even a holodeck and a robotic officer. However, the really clever bit is that when a show presents itself as a Star Trek knock off that you go into it with certain expectations of blandness and playing it safe and then it has far more opportunity to surprise you. Present it as a comedy and you might expect even less of it. The you deliver something like About a Girl, Majority Rule, Mad Idolatry or Identity Part One and all of your expectations are shattered and the show emerges as something completely unique. A hybrid of all those good things that make Star Trek so much fun to watch (to seek out new life and new civilisations, a huge quadrant spanning drama, space battles and technical skill) and add a gorgeous cast of actors, some really fun relationship drama, lunatic humour, huge concepts and feeling that a good time is being had by all, including the viewer. It’s a dazzling mix when they get it right. Does this show come fully formed? Not quite. They have a little way to go before they get the balance of science fiction and humour right – Old Wounds is trying to establish itself a little too forcefully as an outwardly comedic show when the series at large becomes a drama, with comic overtones and there is a massive difference between the two. Having to establish a large cast, tell a story about a spanking new planet, create this universe to play in and throw in some domestics within an hour means that all of these things fall a little short. There just isn’t the time to give them all they need and across the first season each character would get much more time to shine, the show would explore some big ideas across an entire episode and the domestics would prove surprisingly funny and poignant at times. The positives I did take here was the incredible production, the watchable pace, the beautifully chosen main cast and how at its best it does marry the action and science fiction extremely well (‘of course it’s a Derek!’). I don’t think at a first glance that Old Wounds suggests much in the way of potential (because so much of this is throwaway) but it is putting the building blocks in place for a show that has ability to surprise you more than most. Flawed, but fun: 6/10

Command Performance written by Seth Macfarlane and directed by Robert Duncan McNeill 

Captain Cardboard: There is absolutely no sense of irony or humour to Ed’s reaction to Bortus having a baby. He’s surprised, he’s curious and he’s very accepting. Just as the Captain should be. The Mercer/Kelly relationship (or rather Kelly’s infidelity) is on everybody’s lips (I still maintain this kind of gossipy chitchat is far more realistic than the conversation you hear on most Trek shows…aside from DS9 perhaps where gossips Dax, Bashir, Kira and Quark were at it all the time). Their history is the emotional backbone of the show, and also the place where it finds a lot of its early humour. At this stage it isn’t particularly clever, but over time Macfarlane would find ways to explore the relationship through some very clever science fiction ideas (namely the final two episodes of season two). 

Number Two: What’s immediately clear is that when they stop sniping at each other and just talk that Macfarlane and have a terrific, relaxed chemistry.

Issac: Gets a moment to shine as Alara’s master and does some pretty snarky talking with the zookeeper. Kaylon arrogance shines through, and that’s something to keep an eye on.

Klingon Wanabe: Peter Macon is asked to do some really silly things on this show, including wear a crazy prosthetic in this episode and sit naked on an egg. Here’s the thing and pay attention because it is the key to why this show works so well. Macon is utterly committed to making this seem as normal as possible. There is no sense of irony or taking the piss in his performance. This species absolutely sits on an egg naked. That’s how The Orville gets away with some really insane ideas because it has a production team and cast who are willing to suspend their disbelief and make ideas like a gelatinous blob in engineering the most normal thing in the world. It reminds me of Doctor Who at its best. The confidence of something absurd being perfectly natural. The final scene provides this silly subplot with a real sting and guides us neatly into the next episode.

Dazzling Doctor: Dr Finn turns up with some very sage advice in the best scene in the episode, educating Alara about command and showing how she can learn from her mistakes.

Strength of Ten Men: This is Alara’s chance to show some vulnerability as she has to face her first time in command and is entirely unprepared for it. I love the way McNeill shoots her in the Captain’s chair throughout the episode; at first from below so it seems to overwhelm her and then later, once she has adjusted to her responsibilities head on as she asserts herself and makes tough choices. Halston Sage is terrific throughout, present an Alara who seems utterly in over her head but when the chips are down seems to find a confidence inside herself that gets them out of a tricky situation. She goes on more of a journey in this one episode than some Voyager characters went on in seven seasons.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Command is all about the balance between inspiring confidence in your leadership and knowing when to trust your people.’

The Good: It is very like The Orville to have a half-baked comedy sub plot in one episode that turns out to be of huge significance to both the characters involved and the series at large. Bortus sitting on his egg until it hatches might seem like an opportunity to poke fun at the idea od men of giving birth and giving us some truly bizarre imagery but the birth of Topa actually signal a dramatic moving of the goalposts of what this series can explore in the very next episode. I remember watching Command Performance and thinking I was going to struggle with this series’ comedic secondary plots, only to have the rug pulled out from underneath me completely with this.

When I first saw the Bridge sets I was a little taken aback at how apparently stagey it looks. There was definitely Original Series vibe to it. It’s so open plan with the two command officers awkwardly placed in its centre looking a little stiff. But over time I have come to absolutely love it, mostly because the directors have found dynamic ways to shoot it but also because there are lots of hidden touches that only become apparent over time (like that gorgeous window in the ceiling that means you can shoot down into it and how it is such a large open space that you can do some stylish tracking shots across it). That staircase away from the Bridge makes me laugh every time it features. I am so used to characters being whisked away on Starships in lifts that to see characters having to scale a flight of stairs to get to Command is very funny. One poor guy is thrown from the stairs when the shuttle explodes in this episode, so it shows that heading to the Bridge can be a hazardous affair. With Engineering in pieces and the Infirmary a bustling place of wounded officers, The Orville feels far more like a functioning ship than it did in the pilot.

On Star Trek if you disobey a direct order from an Admiral it is almost treated with grudging respect with relatively little fallout. The bureaucrats of the Union feel much less forgiving, and the consequences more severe. I like that. Especially when they are being played by A grade actors like Ron Canada, Victor Garber and Ted Danson.

I was extremely impressed by the visuals that this episode commanded, especially when the second episode of a series is usually a money saver after the generally expensive pilot. Look out the window in the cell that Ed and Kelly find themselves in and you will be treated to a stunning skyline of skyscrapers and hover cars. Even better is the beautifully executed sequence where the camera pulls back to reveal that they are in a prison (or rather zoo) of epic proportions. Until that point, I was enjoying the episode whilst thinking it was nothing to write home about but that shot really made me sit up and pay attention. It’s a great twist and an impressive visual. The bizarre juxtaposition of Kelly and Ed going about their breakfast routine in their old quarters framed by the aliens wandering past and the cells opposite theirs is more quirky and memorable imagery.

The episode saves its best gag for the end as the zookeepers are introduced to the horror of reality television and consider it the best exhibit they have ever had.

The Bad: I was dying in cushion at Ed’s parents turning up on the viewscreen with their crazy comedy antics and wondering if the sub-par silliness of this show was going to bomb it for me…when this turned out to be a huge ruse and a way of luring Ed off the ship. Again, I was completely blindsided. I don’t know if that means Macfarlane is a half-arsed writer or a writer with the ability to subvert the expectations of those who come to his work thinking they know what he is going to deliver. Because these early scenes are both tragic and extremely smart.

Result: An awkward and somewhat unamusing first half leads into a pretty engaging and promising climax, making this a second episode that appears to confirm your worst fears about the pilot before whipping the series in an impressive direction. Command Performance is a winner overall because it provides a lovely character study of Alara, sets in place some essential backstory of the series (Bortus’ child) and features some fantastic scenes in the alien zoo that take a crazy concept and make it very believable. Robert Duncan McNeill seems so much more comfortable directing action than he does humour and some painful sequences in the first ten minutes aside, this is a stylishly executed piece with the money plastered all over the screen for everyone to see. Every beat of Alar’s story is predictable; the doubts, the bad decisions, losing the respect of the crew and then gaining it again when she disobeys orders but what salvages the story is the attractive performance of Halston Sage, who makes this journey into command one worth going on. Much like the first episode, this is incredible fun to watch. Unlike the first episode it has a lot more heart to it that makes it more worthwhile: 7/10

About a Girl written by Seth Macfarlane and directed by Brannon Braga 

Captain Cardboard: Macfarlane gets his first truly serious scene when he refuses to order Finn to commit to the sex change procedure and he acquits himself very well. Funny how commanding he can be when he isn’t dicking about all the time. There’s a terrific moment when Mercer says it is easy to judge another culture just because it is an alien one – that’s something that this episode had to say because the Moclan culture is so profoundly different to our own – and I’m glad it came from the top. 

Klingon Wanabe: It’s a huge stretch to ask an audience to empathise with a character that wants to take a perfectly healthy baby and mutilate it in order to conform to societies rules and for at least fifteen minutes of this hour to be stalwart and morally right to do so. The journey that Bortus goes on here is huge, taking his long held beliefs and showing that exposure to another culture can have a profound effect on not only his own identity and position but also how he views his own culture. Whilst he is willing to listen to everybody’s advice, ultimately Bortus wants to decide what is right for his child. He shows himself to be a man of great integrity by refusing to walk away from his husband and child at the end of the episode, despite the fact that things do not go his way. He has made a promise to both of them and he intends to keep it. Like Alara in the previous episode, it is more development than I have seen some characters undergo in entire seasons of their respective shows and this is just the beginning for Bortus. The most absurd looking character on this show is going to be beautifully rendered by the end of the second season, and the character that I most look forward to spending time with because of his complexity.

Dazzling Doctor: The first sign that Yaphid has a crush a on Finn, which comes into play in a big way later in the season. I should be way above the sequence where the gelatinous blob creates a tentacle to seduce the good Doctor promising ‘there’s more where that came from’ but I’m just not. Finn refuses to perform a sex change on a perfectly healthy baby girl, which is an interesting stance for her to take because morally speaking in human terms that is a perfectly reasonable argument to take but to a Moclan it is potentially the greatest insult to their society. When flying through space and mixing with other species, whose moral position do you take? She pulls the Union card and refuses the operation, firmly and respectfully.

Bevis: The fact that Malloy is put on the stand to expose the falsehood in the argument for male intellectual superiority is a terrific joke at his expense.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Why not just let the kid decide for herself when she’s old enough?’ is Mercer’s stance and a very worthy and considerate one. It is exactly what transgender individuals are fighting for in present times, the right to be who they want to be. It’s a pleasing position for the human characters in this series to take.

The Good: There is so much to unpick in this episode that I am not sure where to begin. Firstly, it is fascinating that any show should promote an all-male society where mixed gender relationships are considered an abomination. It means that gay relationships are celebrated first and foremost and that just isn’t something that is expected on mainstream television. Follow that up with the concept of women being marginalised and mistreated in society and having to exist in secret and have no impact whatsoever and you have a smart subtext of female liberation and emancipation taking place in the dark underbelly of this society. The fact that we later learn that there are far more women about than we ever thought is shocking, and that the majority of them have undergone a procedure to turn them into men and force to conform with society is a provocative. Even more intelligence is the notion of an individual having the right to hold onto the gender that they were born with, making this a study of trans rights but in reverse. This isn’t individuals fighting for the right to change their gender because they weren’t born in the one that feels right but rather claiming the original gender identity that you are born with. Promoting homosexuality, a sly investigation of women’s rights and subtle but poignant trans allegory all rolled into one. If anybody thought that The Orville wasn’t going to have anything profound to say might have been shocked by this episode. I’m not sure that it has been refined to the point where Macfarlane knows how to juggle these huge issues with any great finesse, but there is latent drama in all three of these ideas and About a Girl reveals interesting shades of them all. The episode throws in some fascinating curveballs; halfway through Bortus and Klyden are suddenly on opposing sides of the argument and Klyden reveals that he was born a female, which gives it a whole new perspective. This is somebody who has been given a chance in their society because of the procedure and highlights how the procedure can actually be a positive thing for an individual. The discovery of the female hermit living in the caves of Moclus opens out the story again, showing that some females do survive (and in their own discreet way, prosper). It is a brilliant performance from Rena Owen, dignified and unoppressed and she makes a compelling argument in her manner alone for the existence of females in Moclan society. Over the first two seasons it becomes very clear that human and Moclan societies are morally incompatible and things get ever more complex and conflicting. This is the first step in painting this society in deep, complex colours and I never thought I would say that about species on this particular show. Bravo. As a side note, the explosive and industrialised surface of Moclus is beautifully rendered in CGI. As ever, The Orville commands the finest effects work.

Three men playing cowboy in a simulator is achieved with more potency in five minutes in this episode than TNG achieved in 45 minutes in TNG. Braga directs the genre spot on; insisting on a location with wide open spaces to shoot and knocking it out of the park with an incredible crane shot that stretches the entire length of a building nestled with shooters. The Great Western Dance Off to Girls Just Wanna Have Fun is probably the weirdest and most irreverent gag yet…and also the most successful to date. It exposes the truly silly nature of this show.

The Orville’s version of Ten Forward is both a lot less atmospheric (it is brightly lit and lacks the same ambience) and yet far more believable as an area where the crew would have downtime (because it is far more populated than Ten Forward ever was). These people are drinking real alcohol and getting pissed, which I’m sure would be much needed in space.

Result: ‘You want to perform a transgender operation on a baby?’ is at the heart of About a Girl, a poignant and relevant episode that proves that The Orville has a great deal potential to make you think as much as it does fill your day with dick jokes. Indeed, this is quite the reverse, turning male and female sexuality and identity into a controversial and inflammatory subject. This is like one of those Star Trek issue shows but tackled with a lightness of touch that makes the episode extremely watchable and surprisingly impactful. The ideas it plays with sneak up on you and force you to question your own beliefs, whilst always keeping you aware that this is an alien culture that is being discussed. Whilst he was writing all those weird science and shallow action episodes of Voyager and Enterprise who knew that Brannon Braga had these kinds of directorial chops to bring to life such a thought-provoking piece of work? He does some sterling work behind the camera here and it is easy to see why he found it so challenging. There is a fine line between absurd and profound here and he judges it just about perfectly. The sequence where Bortus watches the Christmas movie and comes to the realisation that a ‘deformity’ can be an advantage is the ultimate expression of that divide and it is one of the best moments in the episode. Macfarlane’s script is perfunctory in its plotting but extremely adept at giving everybody a voice and an opinion, and having them collide to create real drama. Macfarlane is smart enough to realise that Palicki has stronger dramatic acting chops and leaves her to tackle the potentially dreary but ultimately thrilling courtroom scenes with some powerful and hard-hitting dialogue. The ending surprises in being the complete opposite of what we might expect from a Star Trek episode (it is still impossible not to make comparisons) in that the baby does undergo the procedure and Bortus makes a sensible choice to do his best as a parent despite things not turning out how he (or the audience) wanted. It’s bittersweet, albeit it leaves a seed of hope for the future of Moclan society that people are starting to question their long-held beliefs. It shows there are no easy answers and change takes time. The more I think about it, the more impressed I am with About a Girl. The performances are universally excellent: 8/10

If the Stars Should Appear written by Seth Macfarlane and directed by James L. Conway

Captain Cardboard: I love how desperately average Macfarlane is willing to make Mercer seem (the scene where he tries to work out the 24 hour clock on his hand made me laugh out loud) and yet thanks to the missions that transpire and his quick thinking and delicate touch, he is so much more than that. He deliberately goes out of his way to show that this is just an average Joe in his outlook and then puts him in situations where he has to be more than that. After hurting Kelly, there was no way that Hamelec was going to escape this episode without some kind of reprisal from Mercer. I think he needs to work on his diplomacy a little. Shooting the guy in power might be seen as an aggressive act. 

Number Two: I really liked Kelly’s refusal to be cowled even after she has been beaten and threatened with death. Her riposte that she has been through a divorce and so this physical torture is nothing made me stifle a giggle.

Issac: Mercer has to double check that Issac didn’t kill the local when he reacts with rapid fire speed to save his Captain from being blown in two. There is so much that they still don’t understand about the Kaylons.

Klingon Wanabe: How revolutionary is it to have a mainstream show like The Orville feature two men talking about their (lack of) sex life in the opening scene as though that kind of scene is the most natural thing in the world? The continuing marital and domestic issues between Bortus and Klyden (the most outwardly straightforward couple and family situation on The Orville) is one that runs through the first two seasons and has some surprising depth at points. This is a relationship of two people that have fallen in love but have made their home on a ship where one half of the couple is open to cultural contamination and the other isolates himself from it completely. Their opposing points of view often causes sparks to fly in their quarters.

Dazzling Doctor: Yaphit asking Finn if she would be interested in coming to his quarters and getting weird and sloppy some night is just about the most disgusting offer that you could possibly imagine…but to his species it is probably the highest compliment.

Bevis: Malloy and LaMarr are still gossiping about Mercer and Grayson’s relationship on the Bridge and I’m sorry but this is perfectly natural workplace gossip. Trek seems to suggest that there would be cultural conversation between colleagues in the future, but The Orville insists (and far more realistically in my book) that it would be all snark.

Strength of Ten Men: ‘You want to open this jar of pickles for me’ is what Mercer says to Alara every time he needs her to use her incredible strength to rip open a door or perform some act of destruction to get them out of danger. This is a line that is playing a long game, because the pay off in the second season was so good that it brought tears to my eyes. Alara’s hopeless love life is brought up here and is running joke until her departure from the series. It’s quite sad that she cannot find somebody who can handle her superior strength and agility. That says a lot about the men who serve on board The Orville.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘We don’t mean your family any harm’ ‘Well we did just shoot his dad…’

The Good: The Orville is one of those shows on air at the moment that tries to impress with its sense of wonder, rather than by shoving gratuitous sex, violence and profanity in your face to show how edgy it is. In that was this is a throwback to the 90s and the sort of thing that Trek was doing back then. Making the exploration of space an exciting one where the possibilities for storytelling are endless. Coming across the ship that makes The Orville look like a speck of dirt on its hull certainly qualifies and the pullback CGI to reveal the ship is exactly the sort of top dollar effects work that this show commands that shows like TNG could not achieve back in the day. Marry Trek’s flagship shows sense of awe at the universe with The Orville’s expensive production values and you have the best of both worlds. An enormous ship, 2000 years old and drifting through space into danger…this is the first real scientific find that The Orville has stumbled across and investigated. You have a director who brings the ship to life with an incredible sense of wonder and a musician who is totally on board with creating a sense of awe with the score. The most spectacular visual comes not when the crew are investigating the ship as a huge industrial construct (although the sense of scale is impressive) but when they discover the beautiful outdoors landscape with a roof. It’s the biggest bioship that anyone has ever seen and it is brought to life with cinematic aptitude.

There was a moment that completely took me by surprise. After discovering the bio dome and meeting the natives the show very quickly falls back into its perfunctory reliance on quick witted one liners and I thought we were in for a smart talking and sassy hour where the regulars run rings around the daft natives. And then one of them pumps Alara full of lead at point blank range whilst she is trying to witty and the tone of the show is completely shook. This is clever stuff, lulling you into a false sense of security by aping what has come before and then pulling the rug out from underneath you suddenly.

The Bad: I wouldn’t want to be watching this show with anybody else during LeMarr’s ‘Boom Bitch!’ moment. We don’t spend nearly enough time with the characters on the ship for them to be fully characterised. They are stereotypes, serving a plot and little more. Frankly they are pretty thankless roles for the actors. The climax features Liam Neeson turning up as Doral to explain away the plot and tie up the loose ends in a very quick speech. Do writers still rely on info dumps like that? It’s a very unsatisfying way of putting a bow around the narrative. Show, don’t tell. I think Macfarlane was hoping the shock of seeing a big name like Neeson in such a small role would smooth over the rough edges of this plot. The answers are decent, I just don’t think the way they are delivered is. The huge implications of a society being re-acquainted with the fact that they are on a spaceship is entirely skipped over once the plot is over and done with and I hope that there are consequences to all of this in the future. It would be great to catch up with this ship again and see how this society turned out after dealing with a traumatic shift in their worldview. An optimistic vision of the future is what this episode is going for for these people but I think it will be a lot more difficult than that.

Result: Probably the episode that feels closest in tone to your average Trek mystery from the mid-90s, but with state-of-the-art effects and some lovely character moments that make this uniquely The Orville. James L. Conway directed some of the very best Star Trek episodes (Frame of Mind, Duet, Necessary Evil, Way of the Warrior) and is uniquely qualified to bring this kind of puzzle to life. What we have here is a beautifully produced piece of television juggling some old ideas (the idea of science versus religion, the enormous spaceship with a bio dome) in an entertaining fashion. Because The Orville wants to please you more than touch an intellectual nerve I’m sure that these ideas are handled in as worthy a fashion as Trek would but some shocking moments (Alara getting shot, the criminal that is beaten to death) make sure that you stay alert. Later in the season the show would attack its concepts far more chillingly (Majority Rule and Mad Idolatry in particular) but as a first attempt to delve into some real science fiction ideas this is not a bad try. I like the serious threat that runs through this story, it proves that The Orville can ditch the comedy and put its characters in real danger when the situation warrants. Marrying the comedy and the threat is a tough juggling act and I don’t think they have quite gotten the balance right yet but this episode does have moments that are amusing and moments that made me wince with horror. Some television makes me feel nothing at all so to achieve both of those is impressive. Tighter storytelling is needed, but I found this an above average instalment with enough happening to keep my interest: 7/10

Pria written by Seth MacFarlane and directed by Jonathan Frakes

Captain Cardboard: Does Ed come across as a little starry eyed in the face of Pria and her apparent interest in him? Yes. Does Kelly come across as insanely jealous of this woman and the effect she is clearly having on her ex? Yes. Does this bring their relationship back to the fore in a very significant way? Yes. I wouldn’t say it is especially smart characterisation of the leads (in fact it is a little too obvious in parts) but how Pria plays on their feelings (she is deliberately whipping them up into a storm) to distract them to her true intentions is very clever. 

Number Two: As Pria and Mercer share similarities about their lives, note Kelly’s awkwardness and jealousness that Adrianne Palicki underplays beautifully whilst letting the audience know of her discomfort. I rather like the fact that Kelly’s instincts are the correct ones but because she pushes so hard (and has such history with Ed) that she comes across as the green-eyed ex who can’t handle another woman in his life. Because she is correct in her assertion, this characterisation of Kelly is entirely salvaged. The Kelly/Pria catfight makes the episode worth watching alone. Man, I love it when two women have a scrap and it gets this nasty.

Bevis: Malloy finally has a line that is genuinely funny without pushing the comedy too far; ‘Captain I respectfully suggest that the attractiveness of the ships occupant makes the rescue attempt imperative.’

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Nice sucker punch, but I’d expect that from someone who cheats on her husband’ ‘You told her?’ ‘No! She’s from the future!’ ‘But it’s in the past’ ‘I told her.’

The Good: This is one of those episodes where there is an A and a B plot existing side by side and it depends on your point of view which of these that you prefer. For me I think the B plot where Issac tries to learn about humour trumps the day simply because it has the most amusing twist and turns along the way. Opening on a scene where he tries to get his head around some sick black comedy (he calls it sadism) from a television comedy leads to one of the best gags in the entire series when he amputates Malloy’s leg in order to get a laugh. You’d think that doing that would be highly inappropriate and insulting to people who live with those conditions and it would be if it weren’t committed by Issac, who is a machine and does it with the literal motive of getting a laugh in the most unsuitable of ways. Issac coming to the Bridge wearing Mr Potato Head pieces on his face should be the most miserable of jokes but it genuinely hits the funny bone because the robot completely fails to see why it is either funny or embarrassing (and he looks so god damn funny). Malloy challenges Issac to get him when he least suspects it and be creative. Oh boy.

Not being much of a movie buff, I don’t really have much of a handle on the prominence of Charlize Theron and I have certainly never seen her in anything before but I am aware that she is enough of a big name to make some headlines for appearing in something as quaint as The Orville after a fairly prestigious list of credits. Certainly, the episode is aware of her importance to, since the cold open ends abruptly once she is revealed as the damsel in distress in the ship facing imminent destruction. At first I found it a little worrying that all everybody treats Pria as is a something to lust after or to be jealous of, like she is an attractive woman first and a capable officer second. In that respect it felt very TOS. However, this is something plays on to her advantage and does nothing to discourage because it allows her complete her real mission. Because the reveal about her character is so huge, it allows you to see those scenes from a completely different POV on a second viewing. She’s smartly using sexuality as a smokescreen to hide her true intent. The twist that Pria has comes from the future and has deliberately changed the course of history to her advantage comes completely out of left field, whilst never contradicting what we have seen. She’s a dealer who deals in artefacts in mint condition and so it was the ship that she was interested in rather than the crew.

The escape from the gravity of the collapsing star proves to be an extremely dynamic and attention-grabbing action sequence. This is just a throwaway moment of danger on The Orville’s part and there would certainly be more riveting space effects in the coming episodes but this just goes to show the level of cinematic dynamism the this show commands. There’s certainly nothing about Pria’s rescue that feels like a set-up, which is the very idea that she was going for. Keep an eye out for the incredible effects shot where the ‘camera’ swoops in on the ship and pans across several windows (where you can briefly see the activities of the crew) before swooping inside the window of the cocktail party. The Orville versus bubbles in space should be absurd but not only does it look visually striking but the affect these phenomena have on the ship is considerable.

Result: If the continuing relationship difficulties between Ed and Kelly are your thing then throwing Charlize Theron into the mix is only going to add to your enjoyment of the show. If you like an action show with plenty of pleasing space effects then you’re in even more luck. Pria is the episode that gets the drama and humour balance just about right whilst having an underlining mystery about who Pria is and what her real motive is for being aboard The Orville. This is one of those rare episodes of science fiction where the answer to the mystery is actually way more satisfying than the how that mystery is presented. Usually these stories all come down to the suspense of the puzzle that has been playing out but this time that is watered down by the sitcom antics of Ed and Kelly so when the revelation of who Pria is is revealed it comes as a complete surprise. There is a brilliant b story here, featuring Malloy attempting to teach Isaac about humour and it completely biting him in the ass (or the leg) where the gags really hit home for the first time on this show. ‘Haha, I got you’ has never prompted such a sick laugh from me. Pria is a successful episode that never quite achieves full orbit because it fails to provide any serious drama that the best episodes of The Orville achieve. If you skip ahead to instalments like Lasting Impressions and Sanctuary in season two and you will see how well they have mastered this kind of thing by then. On a scene by scene basis, this works well. The show is still learning how to walk at the moment but as a diversion this ticks all the right boxes. The last scene is very clever: 7/10

Krill written by David A. Goodman and directed by Jon Cassar 

Captain Cardboard: I used to love it when Admiral Necheyev came aboard the Enterprise and grabbed Picard by the bollocks. It’s interesting to see that Mercer is treated with a great deal more respect by his superiors, especially now his mission (which was doubted by many) is turning out to be quite the success story. To have secured a Krill shuttle for study and espionage is quite the feather in his cap. Perhaps that faith in him is misguided, as his spy techniques are basically to walk onto the Krill ship without having studied their method of behaviour and to wing it. It wouldn’t be hard to spot which two Krill on the ship could potentially by human agents. Mercer shows himself to be a man of character, dashing to save the children before taking out the rest of the Krill crew. In an unexpected moment of drama he realises he has saved a group of children who will grow up knowing that he executed their family. 

Issac: He’s fascinated by the relationships between humans and is happy to attempt sexual relations with Alara if it would ease the pain of her recent breakup. It’s nice to see this raised here (albeit unsubtly) because it is sowing the seeds for Issac’s relationship with Dr Finn.

Klingon Wanabe: I was wondering how far they would take the ‘Bortus can eat anything’ joke and having him chow down on a cactus and a glass is pretty funny.

Bevis: The best Malloy gag to date comes when he is transformed to look like a Krill and he pretends to be an armed stowaway with Mercer as a hostage. And it pleases me massively to see The Orville avoiding the ‘surgically altered’ approach and going for the ‘miniature hologram’ notion instead. It always worried me that any species could be changed into any other species on Star Trek. I always had more questions about that procedure in the episodes in question that could ever justify its use as a creative exercise.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Attention Krill ship! This is the USS Orville. Cease fire immediately or we will respond’ ‘In the history of space battles, has that ever worked?’ ‘They have ceased firing on the planet’ ‘I stand corrected.’
‘Shall we tell them their God is a 20th Century car rental company?’ and ‘Oh wise and powerful Avis, cover the loss of our vehicle!’

The Good: The series continues to chart the relationship between the Union and the Krill, who have essentially this series’ Klingons to this point (a black and white bad guy race with a penchant for violence) but this episode serves to add a lot of colour and detail to a race that has otherwise been reduced to militaristic heavies. We needed an episode like this that got us behind enemy lines and gives us a chance to examine their culture in more detail. Until now we haven’t even been entirely sure if they even have much of a culture, and what we learn is that it has some surprising parallels with our own. Krill studies their religion, their political hierarchy, their education system and their technology. I loved the moment when the religious ceremony suddenly turned blacker than black and a severed human head was revealed and stabbed repeatedly by the worshippers. It isn’t subtle but it shows how the hatred of human beings is driven into this race at every level, and especially such a visceral level during their religious ceremonies. In a moment that drops the humour like a stone, Mercer realises that the Krill ship they are going to blow up has classrooms full of children. Suddenly what felt like a heroic gesture transforms into infanticide and an obscene act. Koja is the most interesting character, because he is a young Krill who asks questions about humanity because he is curious to learn about them. If you can ignite that curiosity in just one child then maybe that will encourage others and you will have a social revolution on your hands. On the other hand, if you expose that child to violence and murder at your hands, you are confirming the dogma that his people are trying to breed within their young. That’s the most powerful message this episode promotes – Mercer has taken the inquisitiveness of one child and twisted it to hate by exposing him to violence, whatever the motive. The sunlight streaming onto the ship and burning all the Krill to death is surprisingly graphic and shocking.

The Bad: I was worried that this entire episode was going to be played for laughs, which would rather have muted the idea of getting close to the Krill and seeing what makes them tick. The first ten minutes when Mercer and Malloy are on the Krill ship is pretty awkwardly scripted and acted, with both ‘human’ actors doing very little to try and fit in.

Result: A necessary but not entirely successful episode that nevertheless has a great deal of worth to it for giving us a much closer view of Krill culture and some motivation for their hatred of humans. Where the episode loses points is in its design elements (both the design of the Krill make up and their ship is pretty bog standard) and its humour. This is perhaps one episode that should have been played straight and in the second season I believe it would have. What you have is a script that is trying to add depth to this universe but it is rubbing shoulders with the sort of comedy that makes it feel far to insubstantial. All the actors playing the Krill characters are giving this the weight that they think it deserves but MacFarlane and Grimes pratfall around the ship as though they are on a jolly. There’s added excitement in the second half when it turns out that Mercer’s mission is fortuitously timed since he has arrived during preparations for a Krill terror attack that he has to foil. As soon as that is revealed, Krill skips into high gear and the final 15 minutes are some of the best material yet in the series. I especially liked the comment that the motive of the mission was to brook peace between humans and Krill and ultimately they will commit mass murder instead. It’s the power of those final scenes that gives this episode its sting, especially when you realise that the one Krill that Mercer has found some common ground with will now take their actions and poison the minds of the Krill young with the destructive consequences of their mission. The Orville is finding its way here, trying to make a profound statement about making violent moves with the best of intentions and the fact that this episode made me wince at the climax at how Mercer’s mission has poisoned relations between humans and Krill even further revealed that I was invested in how this plays out. Now to just tone down the awkward sitcom antics and allow an episode to have appropriate weight throughout. Going from schoolboy absurdity to a graphic massacre is pretty jarring. The Orville needs to trust that it can be a drama first and a comedy second, rather than the latter intruding on the former. I’d say it is the next episode is where that mix is perfected: 7/10

Majority Rule written by Seth Macfarlane and directed by Tucker Gates 

Butthead: This is the breakout episode for LaMarr that I have been waiting for where he is much more than just a sidekick for Malloy but a person in how own right in an impossible situation (of his own making) and has to think on his feet to try and get himself out of it. I think this where the idiot ends (desecrating a statue of another situation) and the Chief Engineer that is to come begins. As a result of this episode he is just that little bit more aware of his actions, and his goofiness. In season two he emerges as a fully fleshed out character that can contribute dramatically to this show. When LaMarr has to head onto a chat show and try and clear his name I had my head in my hands. How could this guy with the smartest mouth this side of the quadrant possibly do anything but make the situation worse? 

Strength of Ten Men: It’s great that Alara’s hopeless love life has already been seeded into the series and that it is that which is the catalyst to LaMarr’s criminal act. That’s smart character foreshadowing. There’s a brilliantly tense moment when Alara is spotlighted as a wearing religious hat and they have to quickly improvise a way out of it before she is filmed and downvoted. It shows how quickly one person’s opinion can gain sympathy and spiral into mob opinion. It touches on cultural appropriation in quite an interesting way too.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘The Feed is understandably not happy about it…’
‘Are you telling me this is their legal process?’ asks Mercer about a chat show.
‘Everybody deserves a voice, that’s what we’re taught’ ‘A voice should be earned, not given away’
‘I believe you are confusing opinion with knowledge’ ‘I think what he is asking is with so many voices at once, how do you filter out the truth?’ ‘Well my Dad always says the majority are the truth. You always know what the majority wants. That’s what matters.’ ‘Well you always know what the mob wants too.’

The Good: There is something truly frightening about a society that lives with such a simple but devastating social media voting system. You either vote somebody up or you vote them down and their status depends entirely on what the majority thinks of their actions. It affects politicians, TV stars, anchors, and even the regular man on the street if you are caught doing something you shouldn’t. It means the people in control of the media are the ones with the ability to make or break people. Depending on how they portray you and your actions depends on your status in society. Stop and think about that for a moment. The media in control of everything. Petrifying. And when the outcome of somebody’s career can be boiled down to a member of the voting public thinking ‘he looks kinda shady’ and voting them down, we get to see just how uniformed this voting system. Brilliantly, our point of view character in this episode isn’t even particularly likable and she has been indoctrinated into this society at a level where she is very personal with people that she considers too low a number to be associated with. Lysella is an advocate for this system and demonstrates brilliantly the ignorance of the populace of this planet, thinking they are smart and knowledgeable and making the right choices for people. When questioned about why she votes up or down she brings a scary answer to the table - ‘majority rule.’ That’s more like mob rule. She’s not a morally corrupt character, or any moreso than everybody on their IPhones damning people online. She’s one of a herd, manipulated and powerful as a group. She needs an education on how her thoughtless actions have consequences. ‘The Feed’ is a chilling term for majority opinion. ‘Pacifying’ negative impulse is even more frightening. How they give these things such gentle names is one example of how the populace can be convinced that something evil can be twisted into something lawful. When Lysella walks in on Finn and Alara trying to cover up her heritage, that is when the cultural contamination really begins. Or rather ‘oh shit.’ The race against time to save LaMarr at the climax by introducing sympathetic memes into the Feed about him is brilliantly done. We’ve already seen the effect of the cleansing and so the stakes are high to get their crewman to be liked by this world. Lysella contributing to his freedom justifies the story’s focus on her since she genuinely impacts the narrative rather than simply being the focus character on this world. The last scene is brilliant because it doesn’t offer a sweeping reform of this planet but rather hope that things can be better. If one person like Lysella can turn her television off rather than voting then there is the potential for that to happen across this world. I hope we can revisit one day to see just what kind of impact Mercer and his crew have had.

It needs to be said that The Orville (or rather MacFarlane) attracts some seriously high-level talent to play its bit part characters. Victor Garber, Ron Canada, Ted Danson, Liam Neeson. It’s a wonderful quirk of this show that these actors are willing to come in and add a little celebrity colour to this universe with a couple of days work.

The Bad: I suppose the only thing you really have to try and get over in this episode is that this is another planet in the universe where everybody looks like humanity and the world is a spitting image of the Earth 100s of years ago. Macfarlane does give this a token explanation which works in the moment and allows us a way into the story and the planet HAS to look like Earth now in order to deliver its damning blow on majority rule…but it is very unusual just how many planets run on a parallel timeline to the Earth. I think Star trek the Original Series attempted to grapple with the idea once. The Orville could do itself a favour by thinking up a really creative reason why and blowing our minds in a future episode. Then we could have as many parodies as Macfarlane wants to tell and there would be no creative objections on that front.

Result: ‘Government by American Idol…’ Social media and the media in general gets a scathing parody in Majority Rule, my personal favourite episode of the first season. It’s a high concept show that has real dramatic legs but it also leaves room for some excellent comedy, which is a hallmark of this show. Ever joined the hordes on Twitter or Facebook and given damning criticism to somebody? That’s basically how this civilisation is set up; with a voting system that can destroy people and an ignorant audience making choices that have far consequences for those in the spotlight. It’s putting power in the hands of people who can be easily manipulated but think they are making all of their own choices. Macfarlane has jumped aboard a fascinating train here and took me on a ride that really made me think about how much of our world is constructed by those in charge, how our opinions are constructed out of the information we are fed and how we can be made to change our minds if enough of our peers are swinging in the other direction. It’s very smart television, this. People are reduced to a number determined by the opinions of others and that number indicates what you are worth in society. A bit like ‘likes’ and ‘followers’. What I especially like is how entertaining the whole piece is. Black Mirror has taken several blows at social media but those episodes, whilst excellent, are sometimes painfully uncomfortable to watch. In contrast Majority Rule is gloriously watchable, sunny and optimistic. It prods as far beneath the surface of this society as we need to go, has some damning dialogue about our own uninformed opinions online and then leaves this society in a much more positive place. Walking the tightrope of being thought-provoking and hugely enjoyable is difficult but Macfarlane makes it look effortless. If you wanted to show somebody a first season episode of The Orville to see what all the fuss is about, make it this one. Excellent direction too: 9/10