Review: The Orville

Drive-by review: The Orville.

To boldly go where Gene Roddenberry and all his imitators have gone before.

OK. Finally started watching director/producer/lead actor Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville. (Checked out the pilot and 11 minutes of the second episode.) So here’s my reaction …

All-righty then. Yeah. Big Family Guy fan that I am, I want to like it. I see what MacFarlane s trying to do. I see what he actually succeeds in doing. So I want to give him a chance …

But a rude inner voice says, “You see what this is? This is Star Trek cosplay. That’s what this is. You see it, right?”

“Yeah, I see it.”

“You see the flaws?

My inner nitpicker points out the show’s synecdochal inconsistency*, the derivative nature of the experience, the creation of look-for-look’s sake (as opposed to internal logic) and the flat-out bad logic and bad design.

A starship captain would have some kind of monitor/interface at his station; it wouldn’t be in the armrest of his bloody chair. He would know if a certain single-sex species laid eggs. He wouldn’t joke about it with omelet references. Pseudo-Star-Fleet's important, remote science station would be able to send encrypted communications to HQ. (And if it were that important, it wouldn’t be that remote and vulnerable.) The interstellar bad guys would destroy, interdict or commandeer a shuttle on a rescue mission; they wouldn’t accept a killer device on the promise of an access code. On top of that ...
A futuristic hallway full of fluorescent lights? A science station that looks like a mall? What is this, Logan’s Run? 
Etc., etc.

My inner asshole points these things out. What can I say?

He’s right.

But there are things I like ...

The dynamic of making the starship commander’s unfaithful ex-wife his second officer is clever. Basic screwball comedy. Love it. Her tryst with a blue alien was hilarious—a nice reversal of the Captain Kirk trope.

I also appreciate the comedic rabbit that MacFarlane pulls out of his hat. Or dog.

As in the dog from MacFarlane’s Family Guy.

Captain Mercer is essentially Brian the Dog in space. (Close your eyes and listen to what MacFarlane’s character says. Imagine it’s Brian speaking. It’s funnier that way.) 
Good stuff. Though ...

My inner nitpicker has a point. I can't argue with the flaws he indicates. Each little flaw can be fixed.
But they all flow from one big flaw. 
An essential dilemma that might be unfixable.

The logic of comedy demands that Mercer be bad at his job. If it’s a Star Trek lampoon, the show must poke a pin in all the classic tropes.

The logic of fantasy role-playing demands that MacFarlane deliver a Captain Kirk imitation. Captain Mercer can’t be a f***-up. He must. Do. What must be. Done.

Either-or.

You can’t have it both ways.
Thus says my inner prosecuting attorney.
But my inner jury is still out. I'll give MacFarlane a chance. Who the hell knows?
Maybe he can.

*In written or filmed SF, synecdoche is a good thing. Take Fritz Leiber’s “Coming Attraction.” The citizens of his future, irradiated New York City use subway tokens as currency. Leiber never says that these future New Yorkers hid out in the subway when their city was being A-bombed; he doesn’t have to. It’s a part that stands for the whole—synecdoche, my friends. A very good thing when done right. A very bad thing when the parts don’t add up, fit together or form a whole.