The Orville

The Orville is not only a great comedy but it's also a great sci-fi show! It's a character driven show that will suck you in. I originally thought it was going to be Star Trek parody but it's so much more than that. It stands on its own as a great space adventure show! Seth MacFarlane is without a doubt one of the funniest people on the planet!

After having seen six episodes of both Star Trek: Discovery and The Orville, I am truly baffled and very positively surprised. Baffled at how, with a budget of millions, the people who made Discovery could not come up with a single interesting character or plot, but instead basically just made The Expanse with Klingons, taking every single thing that is unique, positive, and enjoyable about Star Trek and tossing it out the window. And positively surprised, because, out of the corner I would least have expected it - the filthy, cobwebbed one with the rancid yogurt, in which Seth MacFarlane used to reside for me - comes this gem of a show that takes everything fun, positive, and enjoyable from Trek and runs with it.

It is - as nearly everyone here has pointed out - the spiritual successor of TNG, although I would actually put it somewhere between TOS and TNG. It has a bit of the "cowboy" feeling people seem to like so much about TOS while including at least some of the elements that made TNG so brilliant - people actually trying to overcome petty human concerns by looking at the bigger picture and solving problems through compassion and dialogue rather than by inventing the next, bigger gun (yes, I know Trek did that too, but big guns are fine occasionally).

Now this is still by and large a comedy, so in order for that to function, you can't have straight TNG-like characters. But apart from occasionally overshooting the target a bit, the balance of comedy and seriousness is handled excellently - something I would not have thought possible for a Trek-like sci-fi show, let alone from MacFarlane.

You will recognize the plot elements, you'll recognize character traits. After hundreds of stories of drama and intrigue among the stars, what story hasn't Trek told? Again, the idea, as far as I can see, was not to create something entirely new (which, ironically, it is, though), but to take those elements that made Trek great and combine them with enough comedy to provide a breath of fresh air. And provide it does. In fact, the comedy allows the writers to approach topics in a way that would actually not have been possible for Trek playing it straight. Without spoiling, I will here point to the Episode "About a girl", which actually touches on subjects that weren't very prominent at the time TNG ran and is therefore quite unique in itself.

I'm not really going to touch on the scientific aspects of the show except to say that, even with scientific advisors, Trek has obviously always taken huge liberties with established science at times, while at others making the science and (at them time) new discoveries a central point of the story. Naturally, scientific accuracy is going to suffer a bit in a comedy. But let me just point to "Discovery" and say (farcially): subspace mushroom network.

I don't know how long they can make the concept work, but if they keep coming up with episodes like #3, #4 and #6, they deserve to have the kind of money thrown at them that "Discovery" now squanders on a tired old war story, forgettable characters, and making everything dark and shaky. But even with its limited budget, the visuals are more than adequate (maybe barring the Ikea furniture), proving once more that you only need so much resources to tell great stories.

Finally, one more thing. THE MUSIC. This show has hands down the best music of any official or unofficial Star Trek show (including the new movies, but of course always excepting Jerry Goldsmith). But considering you have Bruce Broughton doing the theme, and John Debney and Joel McNeely scoring episodes, that shouldn't be a big surprise.

Simply put, this show saves Star Trek for me and blows any contemporary Trek movie or show out of the water - with ease.

No spoilers. I liked it. Like the original Star Trek it is character and story driven which I am sure will anger the people who think they are Science Fiction fans but don't know what science fiction is. People who have never read a book by Sturgeon or Simak and think Science Fiction is SciFi shoot'em ups with lasers.

I know there will be those who want to see "Family Guy In Space;" grow up. MacFarlane did. This is an independent, free standing piece of storytelling and MacFarlane is using storytelling elements instead of special effects or body function jokes. It is a show for grown-ups.

Ray Bradbury said Science Fiction is putting ordinary people into extraordinary situations and seeing how they respond. Sisko was the perfect embodiment of that concept and "The Orville" appears to follow that lead.

The first episode did a good job of establishing character roles and plot. They also did an excellent job of hinting as several subplots. All in all, it is like Star Trek in story but with a Next Generation maturity. Thank goodness MacFarlane does not have a Roger alien!

There have been a few times when I watched this show where I forgot I was watching The Orville. It has the true spirit of Star Trek written all over it. It's a bit more tongue in cheek, yes. But it has heart and portrays in-depth and heart felt stories. I watched the first episode of ST Discovery and still haven't gotten around watching the second, I'm just not that into it. Full of virtue signaling BS and it doesn't "feel" like Star Trek. I hang out for every new episode of The Orville, it is THAT good. Do your self a favor and watch this instead of Discovery if you want that real old feeling of Star Trek. A must!

Somebody who reviewed one of the new and frankly bizarre "Star Trek" series that are out there said that they should just hand the entire Star Trek franchise over to Seth MacFarlane as he was most suited and likely to actually do a good job of keeping the essence of Star Trek and its legacy. I could not agree more. What the new Star Trek series fail miserably at achieving MacFarlane does so effortlessly. In just one or two episodes of the Orville we already like and understand who the characters are. We care for them. In the new Star Trek series they cry all the time either when leaving each other or when being reunited, obviously they are incredibly attached to each other, however, the viewer has not partaken in the actual bonding that seems to have occurred between the characters. Must have been happening behind the scenes. Again, MacFarlane makes the interaction between the crew members very successful. For example, by understanding the importance of downtime and using an inviting dining or pub area for people to hang out. Instead of filling our screens with doomsday scenarios the Orville brings us hope for the future and the message that we can always aspire to better as human beings. At any time, but especially now, I feel the world could do with more positive messages like this. However, even though the Orville reminds us of the "real" Star Trek, it has its own personality and manages to effectively balance humour, the weird, with the serious, with the current topics of our modern world. We need the Orville and I sincerely hope we get several more seasons of this well-made, well-rounded, quality show! Also a plus for the good music and a real intro theme!