While not officially cancelled, the options on the cast’s contracts were not renewed, and they’ve all been released, which is usually an indicator that a show’s renewal is less likely.
Previously the Orville was in first position for its cast members, taking precedence over other roles they may be cast in. Now with their Orville commitments officially expired, they’re unlikely to wait, and if they’re able to will be cast on other series and films that could significantly limit, or even prevent entirely their availability for a hypothetical Season 04.
It’s certainly not an impossibility, by any means, but it becomes less and less likely over time.
Remember that "Doctor Who" show from 1989? It didn't get cancelled, but no new seasons were made afterward, and the actors went on to do other shows. By now, you can bet real money: I've got 75 Quatloos and 47 Yentoxq placed that season 4 won't happen, but a feature film to close out even more loose ends and killing off actors who are tired of being strung on a loose leash and/or want a cheesy and river-of-tears draaaaaaaaaamatic exit....
From what I saw of Orville season 3, right down to ironically knackered sets (once you see the corridor plating with the dent, you'll never un-notice it) that would be quite visible in even 480i SD, they were probably getting the contract that was set up before FOX sold it to Hulu and wrapping up as many elements as they could.
I still enjoy both shows, but aside from being able to directly reference "Srar Trek," LD has improved on itself vastly more than "the Orville" has.
^^this
Season 1 of both shows really appealed and, at the time, I liked Orville more... but little did I know how later seasons would go.
LD certainly knew what it was and only built on it.
Orville became too serious ("po-faced"?) for its own good.
In three seasons, "Lower Decks" has gone from meh to fantastic, while "Orville" has gone from meh to pretty good. The main difference I notice now is how damned slow "the Orville" is. I know that a sitcom has a different pacing than a cartoon, but I feel even "Seinfeld" got to its points faster.
IMHO, LD went from great to stellar.
Orville went from "nifty and interesting with some really cool ideas, I like this!!" to "Meh. This is coasting on poorly retread ideas that Star Trek did better in the 1960s, and they can't have a baddie whose M.O. is to exterminate all biological life and in giant ships where one plasma bolt destroys a Union or Krill ship, but still have the nerve to script them stating 'surrender or die' - that's too obvious, so who's the real butt of
that joke?"
Honestly, TOS did the same themes of "grandiose robot conquest" far better with
I Mudd and
What Are Little Girls Made Of. Wouldn't be surprised if they were direct riffs, but at least "Identity pt 1" was rock solid, even if they were channeling the Cylon menace (not the Borg, their premise is so utterly different that fans making those comparisons were equally head-scratchers.) Everything after and including "Identity pt 2" started to go downhill - never mind later episodes that are also poor rehashes of TOS and/or TNG episodes. Especially with the smartphone episode that's a cheap cribbing of "Hollow Pursuits", except the future people clearly act different. It's dorky for the 25th century Orville people, who act like 21st century people, now in a 21st century simulation, and act no different. The technobabble gaffes used in that Orville episode gave me a new respect for even Voyager's dullest Treknobabble too...
Giving the audience more time to predict the punchline affects how well jokes and plot twists work. "Orville" often spends so much time building up a punchline or plot twist that I'm not only predicting it, but groaning for it to just happen already. It's particularly disappointing coming from Seth McFarland, whose other works' humor came largely from their rapidfire pacing.
If "the Orville" gets another season, I really hope it picks up the pace.
Orville, if it returns, needs to go back to basics. Season 1 was refreshingly different and even allowed for some fun while playing into Trek tropes WHILE being its own thing. "Pria" is an all-time great, for one example... "Majority Rule" is somewhere between TOS's "parallel Earth development" and any given episode of
Sliders, but it's done so perfectly well that it was easy to suspend disbelief. Unlike half the times TOS did the "Captain, we are approaching a planet that's just like Earth again." followed by he crew being just as utterly shocked at the fifth time they encountered such a phenomenon as they had the first time around. Let's see, there's The Paradise Syndrome, that very first one with Miri, the gangster one, the nazi one, private little Vietnam parallel one, the Roman one, and oodles of other ones...
Lower Decks.
I like the Orville but started liking it less and less when it became clear that Seth wanted to do sci-fi and not comedy.
I liked it better when it was a life of slice comedy.
It was best as a mix. "Pria" (didn't that also have the bit where Isaac learns about practical jokes?) was a good mix of comedy and sci-fi.
Once they rammed down the Kaylon - the robot species with big giant ships where two laser bolts destroy a Union vessel who keep saying "we will kill all biological life because they are not compatible with us" - as calling up the crew on ships and demanding they surrender or else be destroyed (um...), the show lost credibility as serious sci-fi. I can handle hasty plot wrap-ups if the lead-in is good, but "Identity pt 2" feels way too much like "plot by numbers" and they already did the pointless "surrender or die" shtick despite having by far the most powerful and sizeable force. It's a farce, but not in the expected way. More, when you consider that Family Guy breaks the fourth wall in terms of the butt of the joke is in the audience laughing at a scene rather than the scene itself, it's not outlandish to wonder if Orville was doing the same thing... only not with laugher but accepting the threat no matter how farcical.
