“We Need No Longer Fear The Banana”

Space….The Not So Serious Frontier

I’ve never really been a fan of the work of Seth MacFarlane.  Outside of Cosmos:  A Spacetime Odyssey, there hasn’t been much that he’s cranked out over the years that I’ve truly come to love.  Yes, I’ve seen a few episodes of Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show, and I’m aware of his work as a producer, writer, singer, and cartoonist, but his style of humor just doesn’t sit well with me.

With that being said, I was pretty excited whenever I saw the first teaser trailer for The Orville.  It looked like it might be a tongue-in-cheek nod to classic Star Trek and perhaps even Galaxy Quest.  With Star Trek:  Discovery not really impressing me with its first looks, I hoped that The Orville would fill the ever growing void in my life for decent science fiction that wasn’t all doom and gloom all of the time.

While I’ve only seen the first episode, “Old Wounds,” I’ve already been pleased with what I’ve witnessed.  The brightly colored sets, diverse characters, humor, and cast inject some much needed happiness in a genre that seems to only get bleaker with each year. One of my biggest gripes with modern science fiction is that too much of it focuses on the negatives in society and makes those negatives even more despicable.

The Orville still seems to be willing to deal with current issues, but on a much lighter plane of existence.  The original Star Trek series gave us hope for a brighter future.  Most science fiction that has followed that series (including some episodes of the many Star Trek shows and films that followed) shattered that hope.  The first episode of The Orville tackles failed relationships, and does so with laughs and understanding.

The episode deals with Captain Ed Mercer (MacFarlane) being cautiously given command of the Orville despite having a terrible year.  At one time considered a top notch prospect for command, Mercer’s inability to come to terms with his broken marriage completely derails all of his prior successes.  Once in command, he soon learns that his first officer is none other than his ex-wife, Kelly Grayson (Adrienne Palicki).  This leads to immediate tension between the duo.  There’s so much tension that it boils over into their regular work days aboard the ship.  It even spills over into their first confrontation with a villain, the Krill race, whose looks remind me a lot of the primary villain, Krall, from Star Trek Beyond.  Whether the Krill and Krall are intentionally similar, I do not know.

As the episode played out, I saw plenty of nods to the original Star Trek series and TNG as well.  A research facility that is actually researching things for the betterment of all people, crew members that reminded me of characters such as Data, Worf, Bones, and even ol’ Tom Paris, and that light humor that seemed to bleed through every episode of the original series without getting in the way of whatever moral Gene and company was trying to get across each week.

I’ve already grown attached to some of the characters despite only getting to know them in less than an hour.  Scott Grimes (my childhood hero from Critters) portrays Gordon Malloy, a hot shot pilot that ends up ruining his own bright career (sorta like Paris, right?) but gets a second chance on the Orville. I really enjoyed his character.  He’s the likeable jerk that I’m sure will turn into a hero sooner or later.  Then there’s Halston Sage as Alara Kitan, a member of the Xelayan race, who is extremely young (Chekov?  Maybe Wesley Crusher?) and inexperienced, but manages to save the day a couple of times.  She also has a whole Superman thing going with her strength and leaping abilities.  Then there’s Isaac (Mark Jackson), an AI that sounds an awful lot like Data.  Instead of wanting to become more human, though, he seems to be content with thinking himself better than the others.

Other cast members include Penny Johnson Jerald as Dr. Finn, who has a bit of an attitude with the captain that hints at Dr. McCoy from ST: TOS, Peter Macon as the no nonsense Lt. Commander Bortus (who looks sort of like a Klingon but with the mentality of a Vulcan), J. Lee as John LaMarr, the ship’s navigator, and Victor Garber as Admiral Halsey, the man who gives Mercer a second chance after being convinced by another character in the series.

I also want to add how impressed I am by the production of this show.  The special effects are top notch and the music is wonderful.  It is apparent that time and care was taken with the production of the show.  That shows me that MacFarlane put everything into this show.

Will the series succeed?  In all honesty I cannot say because I’ve only watched one episode.  What I saw showed a lot of promise, but it’s going to take a few more episodes for the show to really find its groove in my opinion.  The audience should be interesting considering the fact that MacFarlane attracts fans of sophomoric shows like Family Guy and his more grounded and intelligent work on Cosmos.  I can’t wait to see the next episode and I hope that this show flourishes.

Thanks for reading my post.  If you saw The Orville and want to chime in, hit the comments section.  I’m headed to Louisiana Comic Con this weekend in Lafayette, so say hello to me if you see me at the event!  I plan on writing another post this week with more info on this event!