The Orville (2017)

Watchseries; 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!

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!

The Orville watchseries. JarJarAbrams officially destroyed StarTrek when he made his disgusting reboot of StarTrek in 2009. That is literally true. He purposely chose a story that literally erased all events that happened in all the years the StarTrek series and movies took place... except perhaps StarTrek Enterprise. Of course he not only erased the timeline, he erased everything good and distinctive about the StarTrek universe and everything that made StarTrek special.

The new STD (StarTrek Discovery) continues that tradition of destruction by changing pretty much everything. Garbage, just total garbage.

Seemingly to put the final nail in the coffin of StarTrek, this Orville series was released on Fox TV just a couple weeks before STD. Since the show was created by a gross comedian Seth McFarland, everyone assumed Orville would be a horrible, gross, cheap, crappy-looking parody of StarTrek designed to mock StarTrek.

##### WRONG ##### After four episodes, Orville is more like StarTrek than StarTrek! The production quality is mind boggling! No low budget here! Crammed full of the most gorgeous sets, fabulous aliens, makeup, and wardrobe, spectacular special effects, orchestra music... the works! Far, far better than anything StarTrek ever created.

Freaking awesome. How is this possible? Well, I did not know before that it turns out this Seth McFarland guy has been a long-time huge fan of StarTrek. And Orville is not a parody or mock of StarTrek but a super flattering love letter by way of imitation.

Of course they had to change the names of characters and races to avoid violating StarTrek copyrights, but they absolutely captured the essence of what made StarTrek special... the sensibility, great characters, great stories, and a positive, hopeful future.

To be sure, Orville has its weaknesses. First and foremost, now and then Orville contains a bit of crude humor. After 4 episodes they appear to be learning "this doesn't work", and the crude humor is gradually being scaled back.

In contrast, the light humor is mostly excellent. For an example, see the bit about "the dancing hombre in the holodeck" in episode 3 (and the wry annoyed reaction from the captain).

What's amazing is... they stories are excellent science fiction AND contain excellent thoughtful social situations that are not force fed down your throat (like everyone else does these days, including STD).

After 4 episodes the quality is shocking when you realize it took the other series two or three years to gain their footing. And they are approaching superb by their 4 episodes? !!! Wow.

This is a can't miss. Watch it every Thursday night, but first find a way to watch the previous episodes to get up to speed on characters and the look and feel of the show.

Gads, I so hated Seth McFarland.

Gads, I so loved this StarTrek homage.

Somewhere between ST: TOS and TNG, fleet personnel became high-minded, super-moral, flawless beings... a picture of who we should be when we're at our best, but not a true reflection of who we ARE. And then you remember how human TOS people were -- bickering, flawed, sometimes racist or rude.

The Orville's first episode is funny, but it's not a parody. It puts people with personalities of friends and co-workers you already know and love (or hate) into roles they might actually have aspired to in the future. They're a bit irreverent, unprofessional, perhaps a bit childish with a sense of office humor, drama, and politics. But, it's not over the top.

It's a little bit ST: Atlantis, a little bit Guardians of the Galaxy, a bit of Galaxy Quest, and a LOT of Star Trek. It's not Shakespeare, but it's fun, yet grounded. I've only seen the first episode, so no way to know where it will go. I recall the first episode of ST TNG was pretty rocky, and I think this is off to a better start. Give it a shot!

Seth McFarlane and the team have done a wonderful job of taking the best elements of Star Trek, lighten it up with a little comedy and telling stories that are entertaining and relevant at the same time.

Where Star Trek has become a dystopia, a dark vision of the future with unlikeable characters (especially discovery) and a focus on action and visual effects instead of great stories, the Orville focusses on what matters and really goes where no man has gone before.

This show should be called Star Trek: Orville. It's more Star Trek than anything else out there right now. And I mean it in the most positive way.

Let me preface this by saying that I am a Trekkie from way back, all the shows, all the movies, even Enterprise, even the new movies, even TOS. All of it. I know the ins and outs of all things Trek. I also love Star Wars. I used to be an avid reader of the extended universe until Lucas set it on fire. I even like Babylon 5 and Stargate. I like high Sci-Fi.

The Orville is actually pretty good. Not like mind bendingly awesome, but much better than most sci-fi that has been put out in the last decade, if not longer. It's not going for super-realism like The Expanse. It's not going for super-science like Orphan Black. It's showing us what it would look like if you put people like you and me on a starship that was capable of the things we have seen on Star Trek since the 60s, and that makes it amazing.

It's basically Star Trek, except with real people. You know those other bajillion ships in the Federation that weren't crewed by the fleet's best and brightest? The guys who were still flying Excelsior Class ships in the Enterprise-D days? Yeah, that's the kind of crew that you're following on The Orville. And, basically, that makes them infinitely more entertaining. It's not just satire, or a straight parody, or anything like that, and I'll be darned if episode three didn't just just handle transgender politics far better than anything else in Hollywood has to date. No, they didn't handle it like Hollywood left or Hollywood right would like them to handle it. They handled it like actual people would have handled it. It was pretty amazing.

So, if you like sci-fi (not sci-fi parodies), and you like snark, then watch The Orville. It's basically just some people doing some stuff in space, but doing it like real people would do it -- full of sarcasm and opinions and mistakes that come back to bite them.

The Orville is a show with potential. I liked how it didn't try too hard to be funny. In fact, it reminded me more of a Star Trek episode than Family Guy. I suspect there will be many comparisons to Galaxy Quest.

My concern is the audience. To appreciate this show, I think you need to be both a science fiction and crude humor fan. I'm one of these people, but I'm not sure if there are enough of us to support the production. Hopefully, we'll be seeing a lot more of The Orville.

Star Trek discovery was also released, and I have to say, this show comes closer to what I expect in a Star Trek series.