News Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville

Well, this was surprisingly good. It was basically a classic moral dilemma and culture clash situation. The biggest drawback is that we never got to learn how Bortus's people got to be all males (who lay eggs) with only the rare female birth. Obviously they were mammalian at some point in their history, since they not only have the potential for female individuals, but the one female that we saw had mammaries.

But, that (and the male stereotyping) aside, it was a very philosophy- and dialogue-driven story. I particularly liked the scene in the lounge where the captain played devil's advocate with his own viewpoint for the sake of "policing" himself. This added great depth to a character who had been little more than a joke (or at least a joker) up until now. Also to the credit of Malloy and LaMarr, they overcome their initial revulsion at Bortus's plans and make a friendly visit in a (successful!) attempt to change his mind-- using the original Rudolph cartoon. There are a couple of interesting twists-- including Bortus's mate turning out to have been born female and the greatest writer on their planet also being secretly female-- culminating in a very Trek-style courtroom drama, and a not-so-happy-for-everyone ending. Some of the arguments proposed-- the boxing match and the strength demonstration, for example-- are simplistic, but the overall contention over cultural context is very compelling. Is it wrong for an all-male species to consider a female child a deviation? If males and females are equal, does it even matter either way? Arguments raised ranged from circumcision to infanticide, with no solid answers reached-- though the story clearly treated the resolution as a loss.

And, in the end, despite the differences and the outcomes, colleagues remained colleagues, friends remained friends, and the marriage remained intact-- with the ultimate message being that the baby would be loved in any case. This is the kind of Star Trek that we've been missing all these years.

And... no token spaceship battles or raygun shootouts... no dire threats to the world or the galaxy... no genocide or shocking deaths of a major character... just a compelling story about people with differing opinions.

 

They can always do a follow up on that as a B-plot in a future episode.

 

You know what I can't wait for. I want to see what they do with the God like alien concept you see in characters like Q,Trelaine etc. WIth this show I wouldn't even be shocked if they actually used Jesus partly because he has been a funny character on "Family Guy." Better yet how about L Ron Hubbard or both or many other earth based religious characters. It would also be fun to see how this show's view on human religion is different from what Trek has taken and that is religion is all but gone. PLus religious based figures are comedy gold IMO.

Jason

 

MacFarlane is a staunch atheist, indeed it doesn't take much digging around on Family Guy to find criticisms of religion. Hell, the episode with the TNG cast in it has an A plot which is basically just shitting on religion. If Orville ever did tackle religion, I'd expect something along the lines of Who Watches the Watchers where humans accidentally get mistaken for gods by a primitive alien culture and it's up to the Orville crew to convince them to be atheists.

 

That would work as well but you really do have tons of ways to do it. I also kind of like the idea that the blob character was Jesus and he is just hanging out on earth for the fun of it. Also you can have fun with the idea that "Star Wars" which I think is a offical religion in some countries is the only one to survive. Or you could have Patrick Stewart play himself as a God who has returned like Apollo in that TOS episode and wants the crew to worship him like humans use to only they don't want to.

Jason

 

Sybok is definitely an example in Trek

 

Great third episode with an introspective story! I honestly felt like I was watching TNG again (MacFarlane seemed to be trying hard to channel Picard -- except for the "You've been a real dick!" line).

 

I think Mercer needs a Jellico foil to help keep him straight.

All the alien ships look boxy--sharp. Orville looks like a swan--same as Enterprise

The move is towards open air preserves.

Very topical. I remember when a lot of condemnation over female genital mutilation was all the rage--before it was considered bad form to judge other cultures--sort of why the not so diverse SPLC went after Maajid Nawaz--but that's another topic.

Maybe another controversy might be in the health effects of spirit gum and prosthetics adhered to not one but two infants?

That was precious. Hey antifa!--this is how you change minds.

When I saw the captain say "that's interesting"--my mind jumped to the same conclusion:

Actually--half of all children are female--and half the populace undertook the proceedure--the part of female births being rare was an institutional lie.

THAT'S where I thought the episode was going.

When the talk about IQ came around--and they cut to Malloy--that's all they had to do--I started laughing right there.

Well said.

 

Glad people here are liking it, but after three eps I think I'm done. I'm a fan of MacFarlane's humor and respect his love of Trek that is clearly on display here... but the stories just feel like stale and tired rehashes of TNG and VOY episodes, with random crude jokes thrown in that undercut the drama and make it impossible to take the characters or what they're going through remotely seriously.

Not to mention that the design work on the show is generic as can be, and the directing style is flat and uninteresting.

 

Well, they don't do it that well, but I was able to take characters seriously in what they were going through, on certain episodes, of "Red Dwarf".

 

The humor in Red Dwarf is far more clever than The Orville and it doesn't feel artificially tacked on.

 

I got tired of Red Dwarf pretty quickly. Douglas Adams, OTOH, I could always use more of. Sadly.

 

^ Different strokes.

 

I think in each progressive episode, the humor has felt more natural, and earned. Like when Mercer called the Moclan advocate a dick. How many times have we wanted to do that while watching Star Trek?

 

I really think that is an unfair comparison. Why not just appreciate it if the humor works in the setting?

 

For me the difference between the humor in Orville and the humor in other shows such as Stargate and Buffy is which scenes the humor is in. You don't see O'Neall whining about his relationship problems when he's negotiating for his life.

Orville has humor in scenes it doesn't belong in.

Making the loveable idiot character a Captain is a hard sell. He seems more like he should be the best buddy in a romantic comedy.

 

I could see Jack O'Neill doing exactly that.

 

BTW, is it me, or does anyone else think the bartender in Orville's "ten-forward" kind of resembles Mr. Saru from Discovery?

 

Yup, I definitely thought that when we saw him in this last episode.