Let me start out by saying if you hate Seth MacFarlane’s brand of humor, you aren’t going to like his new show, The Orville. The reason is simple. Seth MacFarlane is like a light switch. It is either off or on. There is no 
middle ground for his brand of humor and sadly, that will be the problem with his show, The Orville. It’s Seth MacFarlane’s version of Star Trek and while I think it’s very good, other have hated it.
I can understand how some might scream that MacFarlane’s crude “Family Guy” humor doesn’t deserve a place at the table with a revered franchise like Star Trek. But believe me, it does because McFarlane, to turn a phrase, “Gets it.” In 2014, Seth MacFarlane put his money where his mouth is and produced the 13 episode documentary, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey starring astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson. The series was directed by Star Trek veteran writer/ producer Brannon Braga. The production values were excellent and imaginative.
MacFarlane has tried to bring those same values to The Orville. Episodes will be directed by Star Trek veterans, Jonathan Frakes, Robert Duncan McNeill and Brannon Braga. Jon Favreau of Iron Man fame directed the premiere episode. In short, MacFarlane is putting his money on production values, not the quick gutter joke. That said, this space adventure is closer to the first season of Star Trek and not the last season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. In short, sexual innuendo and gallows humor is still king in MacFarlane’s World.
The Orville tells the story of the crew of an exploratory ship in Earth’s interstellar fleet, 400 years in the future. The Captain (MacFarlane) and his First Officer (Adrianne Palicki) are divorced after she committed adultery. The ship’s navigator (Scott Grimes) is on disciplinary probation. I’ll be blunt, the other characters will remind you of characters you’ve seen on other Star Trek franchises. That is not a flaw of the show, but rather a tribute to Gene Roddenberry and his “Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations” (IDIC).
Is the show perfect? No, but this show has potential. The crew is not perfect. No one has or knows all the answers. There is tension between the Captain and his First Officer that neither one bothers to hide from the crew. This show is not Galaxy Quest, but it fun to watch the crew “wing it” as they bond and grow as they conduct their mission. MacFarlane has a reverence for Star trek and its theme of second chances that shines through on this project.
I hope it finds an audience that will keep it on the air beyond its already completed 13 episodes. It’s a show that is Star Trek without being Star Trek. It is MacFarlane being MacFarlane.
