Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
If you just can’t wait for the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery, Fox has got something that’s almost like the real thing: Seth MacFarlane‘s dream project, The Orville. MacFarlane, best known for creating wildly successful animated comedies like Family Guy and American Dad, plays a newly-minted captain of a 25th century mid-level exploratory spaceship who has to deal with a misfit crew and his ex-wife as his executive officer.
A Guide to Our Rating System
Opening Shot: The opening of a pilot can set a mood for the entire show (think Six Feet Under); thus, we examine the first shot of each pilot.
The Gist: The “who, what, where, when, why?” of the pilot.
Our Take: What did we think? Are we desperate for more or desperate to get that hour back?
Sex and Skin: That’s all you care about anyway, right? We let you know how quickly the show gets down and dirty.
Parting Shot: Where does the pilot leave us? Hanging off a cliff, or running for the hills?
Sleeper Star: Basically, someone in the cast who is not the top-billed star who shows great promise.
Most Pilot-y Line: Pilots have a lot of work to do: world building, character establishing, and stakes raising. Sometimes that results in some pretty clunky dialogue.
Our Call: We’ll let you know if you should, ahem, Stream It or Skip It.
THE ORVILLE
Opening Shot: We pan down on a futuristic look at the New York skyline, complete with futuristic buildings and flying cars, but the Statue of Liberty is still there.
The Gist: The career of hotshot Planetary Union officer Ed Mercer (MacFarlane) is waylaid after he comes home to find his wife, Commander Kelly Grayson (Adrianne Palicki), in bed with an alien who spews blue when, um, excited. Cut to a year later; Union commander Admiral Halsey (Victor Garber) reluctantly gives Mercer command of The Orville, a mid-level exploratory vessel.
Mercer and his best friend, ace helmsman Gordon Malloy (Scott Grimes), meet the rest of the crew and set off on their first mission, when Mercer finds out that his executive officer will be his ex-wife. After some requisite freaking out, the mission proceeds, and in classic sci-fi fashion, The Orville crew gets in much deeper than any of them ever expected.
Our Take: We’re really not sure what to make of this show. It feels like a low-rent episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation with occasional comedic asides that are supposed to make the crew more human, but feel like they’re just there to remind people that this is a Seth MacFarlane show. In one instance, Malloy and Grayson have an awkward conversation about Mercer, and in the middle of it is a long aside about Grayson’s need to pee. In the scene where Mercer introduces himself to the crew, navigator John LaMarr (J. Lee) asks if he can drink soda on the bridge.
But, for the most part, the pilot is a straightforward, ’90s-era sci-fi drama, with action and shoot-outs and an archenemy called The Krill. The problem is, as a sci-fi drama, it’s not that good. We know MacFarlane has always wanted to play Captain Kirk, and we can see him resisting the urge to break out his William Shatner impression while he plays Capt. Mercer. If it were more of a spoof of the genre, we could accept the cheesiness. But since it’s trying to play it straight most of the time, that cheesiness works against it.
(FYI, Jon Favreau directs the pilot, and for you Trekkers: former Trek EP Brannon Braga is involved in this series, and Jonathan Frakes directs a later episode. So MacFarlane is serious about making this a good sci-fi show instead of a spoof.)
Sex and Skin: That first scene is just about the only instance of sexy times we see in this episode.
Parting Shot: Cmdr. Grayson meets with Adm. Halsey and reveals a twist that led to a shrug and a “who cares?” from us.
Sleeper Star: Scott Grimes is always funny, and he steps up to the plate as the maverick helmsman Gordon Malloy.
Most Pilot-y Line: When Mercer confronts his ex about her affair, he says “So you banged Papa Smurf in our bed.” Why do sci-fi writers think people in the future are obsessed with 20th century pop culture?
Our Call: SKIP IT. This show is neither a good spoof or a good dramatic sci-fi show. It reminds us of some of the low-budget shows the Syfy network aired in its first few years, and those memories aren’t that good. If MacFarlane wasn’t behind the show, FOX would have never greenlit the pilot, and that’s all you need to know about The Orville.
(Click to see all of Decider’s complete Stream It or Skip It reviews)
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.
