The Orville: New Horizons - A Human Sci-Fi Adventure that I Don't Want to End

When I first heard about The Orville back in early 2017, I remember the discussion around the show being that it was going to be a lighthearted Star Trek parody. That made sense considering the creator of the show, Seth MacFarlane, was and still is best known for his comedic work, including the perennial Family Guy.

While new science fiction always excites me, I wasn't a fan of MacFarlane's output over the years. There was a time that I laughed along with Family Guy back in the late 90's, but I had long since moved on. The thought of new science fiction had me enticed, but it was soured by the prospect of it being a primarily comedic endeavour like MacFarlane's previous pursuits.

After I saw the first trailer for the show, I found myself a little surprised. For a show that was being pegged as a parody, it looked like anything but. Sure, the uniforms evoked a certain familiarity, and aliens sported familiar head ridges, but there was a sincerity to what was being presented that I didn’t expect.

That trailer is filled with jokes… a lot of jokes. Though I have to say that most of the jokes in the trailer made me chuckle, so they had me there as well. Then they teased that Commander Ed Mercer (Seth MacFarlane) would be serving along with a first officer who just so happened to be his ex-wife, Kelly Grayson (Adrianne Palicki). That immediately gave me ‘bad sitcom’ vibes and I lost a lot of my excitement then and there. But not enough to keep me from at least watching the first episode.

The premiere episode, “Old Wounds”, retained the earnest feeling that caught me off guard in that first trailer. It was clear that MacFarlane was committed to telling good science fiction. Sure, there were jokes, a lot of jokes, but the humour did a lot to enhance the characters and make them seem more relatable. Despite this crew being several centuries removed from the present day, they still felt human in a way that Star Trek sometimes missed the mark on.

Since then, I have been hooked. I never missed an episode and the science fiction only got better while the crew continued to ingratiate me with their comedic banter.

One of my favourite moments of the show, and a gag I don’t think I will ever forget, involved Lieutenant Gordon Malloy (Scott Grimes) trying to teach Isaac (Mark Jackson) about practical jokes. Now, for as much as this show ended up not being a Star Trek parody, Isaac, a sentient robot, is absolutely written to be a parody of Data during the first couple of seasons. He’s a robot, void of emotions, who is constantly trying to decipher what it is to be human. Well, somehow Isaac decides it would be funny to cut off Lieutenant Malloy’s leg while he was sleeping. It’s ridiculous and hilarious and no description of the moment is going to do it justice so check out the clip below.

They were a family. A dysfunctional family at times, but one that I loved tuning into each week.

I wasn’t alone because the show managed to get a second season and then a third.

That third season, subtitled New Horizons, which just started streaming its season finale today, has been the best. I was expecting it to be somewhat of a burn off since it was a show that always felt like it was on the bubble but still had a season commitment that Disney needed to fulfill. Again, The Orville surprised me and delivered longer episodes with better special effects and meatier science fiction stories.

It tackled relevant and heavy social issues surrounding gender and the rights of children; and it did it with grace. This was coming from a creative mind that I had initially written off as a comedy guy. Now here I am years later with an Orville novella written by Seth MacFarlane sitting on my iPad, and I bought it because I love his science fiction.

I have been talking about this show like it’s behind us and never coming back. But right now, we don’t know the fate of The Orville. Even its creator, MacFarlane, isn’t entirely sure if the show is coming back. The third season was produced for Hulu after Disney purchased Fox and when it comes to details on streaming ratings, they are a little hard to come by. Now that the third season has concluded all three seasons are streaming on Disney+. It’s quite possible the show’s future hinges on the viewing numbers it will have at its new home.

You can certainly draw a parallel between The Orville and the original Star Trek. Both aired for three seasons, while Star Trek never got a fourth, it spawned an enormous fanbase thanks to syndication. Is it possible something similar could happen for The Orville? We’re four decades removed from the original Star Trek and television has changed immensely, but fandom still has the ability to catch the eyes and financial statements of executives everywhere. I am sure if there is money to be made, The Orville will find a way.

A show I almost wrote off as a Star Trek parody ended up giving me some of the best Roddenberry style Trek that I have seen in years.

All three seasons of The Orville will start streaming on Disney+, August 10th.