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‘The Orville’ Is Back for Season 3. But How Does It Fit Into a New Space TV Landscape?

Seth MacFarlane’s comedy-drama returns after three years away. But the television environment it joins now is not the same one it left at the end of Season 2.

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It would’ve been so easy for The Orville not to come back. Over two brief seasons, the spacefaring comedy-drama had generated solid but unremarkable reviews and ratings. Its creator and star, Seth MacFarlane, had other irons in the fire— Family Guy , American Dad! , a TV adaptation of the Ted movies. Fox had already shuffled two seasons around the calendar, and plans for a third were put on hold when the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted production. And in 2020, MacFarlane, whose animated shows had been tentpole programming at Fox for decades, split with his longtime corporate bosses and inked a $200 million deal with NBC .

But like its plucky namesake starship, last seen dodging laser beams during a climactic set-piece battle, The Orville has survived for a third season.

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“It’s the most fun writing job I’ve ever had,” MacFarlane told me recently over Zoom. “I love telling these stories, and it’s a wonderful group of people I love working with.”

The forthcoming season, which premieres on Hulu June 2 and is subtitled New Horizons , marks a bit of a shift for the series. The crew composition continues to evolve, with Anne Winters joining the cast as a young navigator. And MacFarlane says the move to Hulu comes with a more “cinematic” visual style. But the biggest adjustment comes not from within the show’s universe, but in the real world’s streaming TV landscape.

When The Orville , which mimics the style and many of the conventions of Star Trek , premiered in 2017, there had been six official Star Trek shows released in the previous 51 years. In less than five years since, CBS All Access and Paramount+ have aired six more, including four that premiered in the three years since The Orville finished Season 2. And the Star Trek shows have had to compete against a constellation of socially conscious spacefaring dramas: big streaming swings like For All Mankind , The First , and Away , and later seasons of The Expanse , among others.

Given all that, the biggest question for The Orville entering its third season is this: Is there still a place for this show when space—and Star Trek in particular—is busier than it’s ever been?

The Orville , in its premise, setting, visual language, and choice of subject matter, is a Star Trek show in all but name. Even some of its senior creative figures, like executive producers Brannon Braga and David A. Goodman, are Trek veterans—though they often try to soft-pedal the similarities between projects. When I asked Braga and Goodman what they’d learned from their previous experience, Goodman laughed and said, “Wait, Brannon worked on Star Trek ?”

The last time MacFarlane’s Captain Ed Mercer and his crew signed off, they held an interesting place in that wider universe. The history of Star Trek has many fault lines and watershed moments, but one of the biggest came between Star Trek: Enterprise ’s ending in 2005 and the J.J. Abrams–directed Star Trek reboot four years later. Before that point, Star Trek had mostly revolved around one premise: Presented with a problem, how would the best of humanity react? The original series and The Next Generation got hundreds of hours worth of mileage out of this setup. And because of creator Gene Roddenberry’s intractable opposition to serialization, these shows became mind-bendingly successful in syndication.

After Roddenberry’s death in 1991, the writers of the various Star Trek series got a little more freedom to experiment, particularly on Deep Space Nine and Enterprise, which began to portray a darker, more cynical side of humanity over longer story arcs. Deep Space Nine introduced an organization called Section 31, which in small doses hinted at a hidden and mostly unremarked-upon cost to maintaining Roddenberry’s sometimes cartoonishly optimistic secular humanist utopia.

The rebooted movies, and particularly Paramount’s new crop of TV shows, took Deep Space Nine ’s spicy twist and embraced it—juiced it, more like—until Star Trek was just like any other sci-fi franchise. If Deep Space Nine added much-needed seasoning to a classic dish, parts of Discovery and especially Picard made the entire meal out of salt.

Against that context, The Orville was a refreshing return to the original premise: mostly episodic, overwhelmingly hopeful, socially conscious middlebrow sci-fi.

“The thing I think was important to bring in [from Star Trek ] was the type of storytelling,” Braga told me, “which was stand-alone stories, well told, driven by this high concept, with a certain optimistic spirit and a certain depiction of the future.”

When I reviewed The Orville ’s first few episodes five years ago , I confronted it as a combination of parody and homage, the work of a comedian playing with beloved storytelling conventions. But MacFarlane and Braga never intended The Orville to be a parody; two seasons in, it’s become more of a pastiche.

“We never approached it as a satire or a parody, which I think would have been the immediate assumption, seeing Seth’s name on it,” Braga said. “The story always came first and the comedy—Seth says it’s comedy frosting—was part of it, but it wasn’t the main driver.”

“That was part of the paradigm from day one,” MacFarlane said. “The story has to work as a story, and then you can hang a bunch of jokes on it and you’re fine. With this show, it was really about finding the tone. The tone, to me, started to really come together at the end of Season 1, and then developed even more fully in Season 2.”

The tone MacFarlane refers to is an intriguing mix of old-school Star Trek ’s resolute moral seriousness and a heavy dollop of goofy humor. The crew of The Orville , especially Captain Mercer, are well-intentioned but definitely not the best and brightest. They bicker over inane problems, they play pranks, they go to work hungover, and they carry out multiyear running gags about having to pee .

In one of the best episodes of Season 2, “Sanctuary,” the crew encounters a colony of female aliens from a heavily patriarchal species. Mercer invites the alien leader to peruse the ship’s collection of art created by the women of Earth, and she immediately seizes on Dolly Parton as Earth’s great feminist poet, who “speaks with the might of 100 soldiers. …This is the voice of our revolution.” Minutes later, there’s a climactic gunfight set to “9 to 5.”

It’s silly, but the jokes are in service of a narrative and a message. And while MacFarlane admits the show struggled to strike the right balance between story and humor early on, he cited the most recent episode of Black Mirror , “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too,” as an inspiration for The Orville going forward, praising its blending of serious sci-fi and “rompish” comedy.

“The idea in Season 3 was to really lean into that,” MacFarlane said. “That tone is to not lose what’s funny about these characters, but make sure that it’s also real, that we’re not writing a sci-fi story and then surgically looking for spots to add jokes, which was kind of what we were doing at the beginning of Season 1. We stopped pressuring ourselves to do that and really let the story take precedence.”

That turned out to be the key to unlocking The Orville ’s potential and the key to appreciating it for what it is: a drama, occasionally interrupted by jokes.

“I was known as the king of torture on 24 ,” said Jon Cassar, who directed, among other Orville episodes, last season’s two-part “Identity” and the Season 3 premiere “Electric Sheep.” “Comedy wasn’t at the forefront. I think I said that: ‘Really? You really want me to do this show? This is a Seth MacFarlane show.’ And I remember them saying, ‘Drama first.’ We want to play this like a straight-up one-hour drama. That’s the most important thing.”

As MacFarlane’s show filled a lane left open by the Abrams movies and Discovery , though, Paramount delivered a rapid-fire response with several new Star Trek series. They dug Anson Mount’s Captain Pike and the Enterprise out of the vault for Strange New Worlds , which returns to the franchise’s original episodic format and wide-eyed tone . And because there’s so much humor to be mined from watching C+ students deal with problems of galactic importance, Paramount+ has ordered two additional seasons of the animated series Lower Decks to go with the two that have already aired. For two seasons, The Orville gave Star Trek diehards something they couldn’t get on first-run TV. Now there’s competition.

“Up until very recently, we were the only show that was occupying anything near that space and tone in sci-fi,” MacFarlane said. “I think even now The Orville is very much in its own space. It’s got its own vibe. But [how the show holds up to the competition is] not decided by us. That’s decided by the viewers.”

Even among all that noise, MacFarlane still believes The Orville offers something unique. And at the end of our conversation, he touched on the quality that makes the show work.

“It really is still about these people,” MacFarlane said. “On any show you tune in to watch the people. Are these people I want to hang with each week?”

For all the aliens and special effects and wild makeup you’d expect from Star Trek , what makes these shows successful is that viewers like spending an hour a week with the crew. Many years ago, my colleague Brian Phillips praised The Next Generation by writing, “the show offers a fantasy of smart friends working together and supporting each other that’s designed to make you want to join them.” That’s true of every successful Star Trek show, and why the Kirk-Spock-McCoy trio is one of television’s most beloved friendships, or why Avery Brooks’s portrayal of Ben Sisko still resonates a generation later .

The crew of The Orville is … mostly not that smart, but they’re still a part of that tradition. And Season 3 promises to test that family dynamic as the crew deals with the aftermath of a war with the robotic Kaylon. Among the survivors is The Orville ’s science officer, Isaac, who after being sent to study humanity, decided to side with his flesh-and-blood friends against his people. Winters’s character, by contrast, comes to The Orville after suffering immense personal losses in the war and struggles to adjust to sharing the bridge with a Kaylon.

As much as The Orville chimes in on contemporary political issues through allegory, though, it’s always been at its best when the original question of the series—how do normal people stand up to extraordinary circumstances?—is at the forefront.

“The very first time we all met together collectively, Seth said we’re doing a science-fiction piece, but what we are is people who happen to be in space,” said Penny Johnson Jerald, who plays Dr. Claire Finn. “We’ve always been people first, and it’s on the page. We lift the words and emotions off the page so viewers can enjoy and be a part of it. … It truly helps to like your fellow cast.”

“We have a group chat,” said Adrianne Palicki, who plays first officer Kelly Grayson. “We are always constantly in contact with each other, which is a rarity on any show, especially after you’ve wrapped.”

That chemistry gives the crew of the Orville an unexpected warm and fuzzy tone, almost reminiscent of Ted Lasso . (Perhaps if American TV viewers had latched onto this band of endearingly semi-competent work buddies instead, internet discourse wouldn’t be so hysterical . Dare to dream.) And they somehow manage to portray that earnestness without coming off as cloying or phony.

“A lot of television I see is a lot more dark and gritty in its interpersonal relationships and depictions thereof,” MacFarlane said. “I live in a pretty intense industry. I don’t go to work every day and fight with my coworkers and get into spats and deal with high drama. It’s actually pretty pleasant. So I don’t think it’s that unrealistic.”

Thanks to streaming and a bucket-of-crabs-type scramble for corporations to gobble up franchises and squeeze every last drop of blood from every stone, the viewers that MacFarlane defers to have never had more options for spacefaring drama and action. But watching a TV show is ultimately a question of time commitment. In terms of storytelling and visuals, The Orville holds its own with any of its contemporaries. But what makes an episodic TV show stick—including the older Star Trek series—is whether the characters are worth spending time with. Here, The Orville ’s band of weirdos and misfits sets itself apart. You can go boldly wherever you want, as long as you like who you’re going with.

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The Orville

Set 400 years in the future, the crew of the U.S.S. Orville continue their mission of exploration, navigating both the mysteries of the universe, and the complexities of their own interperso... Read all Set 400 years in the future, the crew of the U.S.S. Orville continue their mission of exploration, navigating both the mysteries of the universe, and the complexities of their own interpersonal relationships. Set 400 years in the future, the crew of the U.S.S. Orville continue their mission of exploration, navigating both the mysteries of the universe, and the complexities of their own interpersonal relationships.

Seth MacFarlane
Adrianne Palicki
Penny Johnson Jerald
1.7K User reviews
51 Critic reviews
3 wins & 17 nominations total

Episodes 36

How "Friday Night Lights" Changed Adrianne Palicki's Life

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Capt. Ed Mercer

Cmdr. Kelly Grayson

Dr. Claire Finn

Lt. Gordon Malloy

Lt. Cmdr. Bortus

Lt. Cmdr. John LaMarr …

Lt. Talla Keyali …

Lt. Alara Kitan …

Admiral Halsey

Marcus Finn

Ensign Charly Burke

Lieutenant Turco …

Admiral Ozawa
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Trivia Unlike the first two seasons, the whole third season was written in advance, and scenes from different episodes were shot in a row, based on the location and actors' availability. Jon Cassar and Seth MacFarlane split the direction duties for the 10 episodes so they could work like that.
Goofs Moclan biology makes no sense. It appears that the "males" have all the necessary equipment for reproduction, which implies that they are in fact hermaphrodites. If that were the case, cisgender Moclans would have been bred out as useless, and the concept of "male" and "female" would be at best only a dim memory in the lexicon of the race.

[repeated line]

Captain Ed Mercer : Alara, you want to open this jar of pickles for me?

Connections Featured in The IMDb Show: Take 5 With Jessica Szohr (2019)

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September 10, 2017 (United States)
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Runtime 44 minutes

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The Orville 's Seth MacFarlane on Those Star Trek Comparisons

Creator and star macfarlane, along with the hulu series' executive producers, explain the differences between the sci-fi shows..

Seth MacFarlane in his Orville costume next to a camera.

When The Orville premiered back in 2017, its arrival coincided almost exactly with Star Trek: Discovery , the first new Trek TV show in over a decade. Comparisons between the two series were inevitable, with even io9 calling The Orville a “ Star Trek spoof ” in our earliest coverage of the series.

David A. Goodman discuses The Orville/Star Trek connection

By d. goodman | may 5, 2019.

David A. Goodman, who was the former writer and producer for Enterprise, recently talked about the similarities between The Orville and Star Trek.

For many Star Trek fans, Star Trek: Discovery will never be their cup of tea. Whether it be the serialized storytelling approach or the fact the show is only available on the CBS All Access streaming service, some fans will just never be Discovery fans.

Then of course there are the so called gatekeepers who feel the show is too diverse for them or that it is shoving political correctness down their throats. For those “fans” there will be no pleasing them because their entire argument is absurd. Best to just move on and shake your head at them sadly.

Anyway, most of the people who don’t enjoy Discovery have found a show they can enjoy in The Orville . The show, created by and starring Seth MacFarlane ( Family Guy ) features a setup very similar to Star Trek: The Next Generation in that it follows the USS Orville as it explores the galaxy and tells the stories of its crew in an episodic manner.

Sound familiar?

Of course, given The Orville was created by the same mind that gave us Family Guy , there is more humor and the show takes itself just a bit less seriously. But McFarlane has said the show is his love letter to Star Trek and a show he has wanted to do since he was a child.

That Trek feeling The Orville has is also helped by the presence of David A. Goodman on the production staff. Goodman previously worked on Star Trek: Enterprise as a writer and producer and is an executive producer on The Orville .

In a recent interview with Trek Movie.com , Goodman talked about the second season finale of The Orville and the obvious similarities the show has to Next Generation . One point he made clear however, was that while the premises are analogous, he feels the characters on The Orville are much more real.

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"I think our characters are more flawed than the Next Generation characters. We embrace that society has become much better, but people haven’t necessarily. They are still jealous; they still get pissed off. One of my favorite scenes is in the season premiere where Ed steals a shuttle and spies on Kelly with her new boyfriend, which was Seth’s idea. To me, that is great. This captain on this ship borrowing a shuttlecraft to spy on his ex-wife while she is making out with her boyfriend. That is not something you would ever see Captain Picard do."

In addition, Goodman talked about canon and that the writers of The Orville are aware of it and are using Star Trek and other popular franchises as their model.

"With Star Trek, I feel the reason it survived and had such an attraction to fans, is that even though the episodes were standalone, it was clear whoever was making sure of this – whether it was de Forest Research or Gene Coon or Gene Roddenberry himself – they were making sure each episode fit in the universe. Warp speed was consistent in every episode. The Federation and Starfleet Command were consistent. There was a way in which this world exists. That is the same thing in Buffy and Firefly and Game of Thrones and any of the shows with huge fanbases in a fantasy world is the way that feels like this world exists and that the creators are respecting the audience’s memory."

Next. Star Trek: It’s about time we talked about time. dark

While I don’t necessarily agree that The Orville is more Star Trek than Discovery , it is a great show that any fan of Kirk or Picard would enjoy. And thankfully there is more than enough room in the galaxy for several science-fiction franchises to live peacefully together.

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Suck it, Picard. The Orville is Star Trek: The Next Generation’s true spiritual successor

Seth MacFarlane’s sci-fi small screen epic, The Orville — now streaming its third season on Hulu as The Orville: New Horizons — is one of the strangest experiments on television. It’s a virtual copy of Star Trek: The Next Generation , a loving homage to that series, and a strong show in its own right. It shouldn’t work, but not only does it work, it has become more intricate and compelling over time (one of many things it has in common with TNG ).

How The Orville channels The Next Generation

A special found family dynamic, the orville channels the best tng stories, it wrestles with philosophical conundrums.

There are currently no plans for a fourth season, which is a shame because MacFarlane’s universe is as rich as any sci-fi universe going. As with Star Trek, a wealth of satisfying stories can be spun from this material. The Orville could have easily been a flop, but it’s destined to become a classic in its own right, and one that embodies more of the Star Trek spirit than the officially sanctioned TNG successor Picard ever could.

At the universe-building level, The Orville is basically TNG with different names. While this could be an uncharitable description, you only have to watch the show to recognize that MacFarlane and his team — including Brannon Braga, who served as a writer and producer on TNG and other Trek shows — aren’t trying to plagiarize anything. They clearly present The Orville as an alternate universe Star Trek, with characters, species, planets, and technology that would be at home in the original.

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Like Trek, The Orville is set centuries in the future during an era when Earth has become part of a Planetary Union similar to the United Federation of Planets. The Union’s primary mission is peaceful exploration and discovery, and one of its flagships is the USS Orville, an Enterprise-like vessel; though, like Starfleet , the Union is also a quasi-military hierarchy with the same naval ranks as Trek: admirals, captains, commanders, lieutenants, and so on.

The Union maintains tense alliances with various alien species, including the Krill and the Moclans, both of which resemble the Klingons from Star Trek. The main villains, meanwhile, are the Kaylons, an android collective dedicated to wiping out biological lifeforms. With their merciless mission and advanced technology, they resemble The Next Generation’s famous Borg .

Perhaps the main difference between the two fictional worlds is that the Enterprise and other Trek ships use transporters to “beam” people to and from their destinations, whereas Union ships must ferry officers and crew around via shuttlecraft. Though given the show’s high-quality special effects, it makes sense to include dazzling shots of shuttles whizzing onto the surface of planets and docking in gleaming bays. They also feature in some nifty action sequences as well — something The Orville does better than TNG, not surprisingly, given 30 years of VFX advances.

As with the similarities between the fictional worlds, the main characters in The Orville mirror their Next Generation counterparts. TNG ‘s famous crew included Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart); first officer, Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes); the android second officer, Data (Brent Spiner); the Klingon security chief, Worf (Michael Dorn); Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden); the ship’s counselor, Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis); and Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton).

The Orville presents almost exact replicas of some of these characters. McFarland himself plays Captain Ed Mercer. His first officer (and ex-wife) is Commander Kelly Grayson (Adrianne Palicki). The ship’s Chief Medical Officer is Dr. Claire Finn (Penny Johnson Jerald). The Kaylon Science Officer, Isaac (Mark Jackson), the Moclan Second Officer, Bortus (Peter Macon), and the Chief Engineer John LaMarr (J. Lee) are so similar to TNG ‘s Data, Worf, and La Forge, respectively, it’s almost funny. And perhaps these characters would feel more like knockoffs if they weren’t so well developed and performed. Jackson is especially memorable as an entity that is just as particular and contradictory as Data — no small feat, given he’s walking in the robot steps of Brent Spiner’s classic creation.

MacFarlane has long been a fan of TNG and its characters. The main cast even lent their voices to an episode of Family Guy (if anyone somehow doesn’t know, MacFarlane is that show’s creator as well as one of its principal voice actors). In general, MacFarlane makes no secret that he is both a television lover and a walking catalog of TV knowledge. His gift for simultaneously mimicking and satirizing TV tropes is the key to Family Guy ‘s success, along with his innate understanding of how “family” dynamics work on TV. He understands that some of the most beloved shows — Cheers , M*A*S*H , The Mary Tyler Moore Show , and the original Star Trek, among them – – are about found families, people thrown together through work or circumstance who come to care about each other deeply, and for whom the audience comes to care deeply as well.

Star Trek: The Next Generation is one of the great found family shows. Its main characters became devoted to each other over seven seasons of having their relationships forged in fire. On Picard , the belated sequel to TNG (the third and final season is currently in production), the older Picard proclaims his love for the deceased Data often, drawing on viewers’ tender feelings and nostalgia for their relationship.

Unfortunately, Picard doesn’t create relationships of similar depth within its own drama. It tries to use the “gathering the team formula” typical of heist movies to create a found family crew, but the result is an uneasy dynamic. Aside from the still-great Patrick Stewart, neither Picard ‘s characters nor its actors contribute anything memorable. At the show’s worst, some of the supporting actors — young and too attractive and spouting quippy dialogue that sounds way too contemporary — feel like they beamed over from a CBS procedural.

The Orville , on the other hand, perfects the found family dynamic. As with TNG , the characters and relationships are the keys to the show’s enormous emotional appeal. The big advantage of creating the show in today’s viewing environment is that MacFarlane can pay careful attention to the quality of the stories. TNG was famously uneven, largely because of the pressure to come up with 26-hour-long episodes a year for seven straight years (22 in season 2, due to the Writers Guild strike ). It’s not easy to write compelling drama with huge stakes at heightened levels of philosophical, intellectual, and human interest, while also trying to continually expand an enormous story world and do it all with expensive and elaborate special effects and production design.

But when the showrunners nailed it, they really nailed it. The great episodes of TNG — including The Inner Light , Cause and Effect , The Measure of a Man , The Best of Both Worlds , and All Good Things — remain among TV’s great episodes. The advantage of The Orville is that in creating only 10 to 14 episodes per season — and with a three-year hiatus between seasons 2 and 3 — the writers could pay greater attention to quality. In essence, almost every episode of The Orville (yes, there are a few weaker ones) feels like a good to great episode of TNG .

One of the ways that the show honors TNG storytelling in general, and the found family dynamic in particular, is through the approach of highlighting different supporting characters in each episode. You have to give MacFarlane credit for checking his ego here. He never tries to make Mercer the alpha male hero, and neither does he stand back at some comic remove, making fun of everything (although the early episodes were funnier, sometimes distractingly so, as the show was trying to find its tone). Instead, he fully commits to this material and the result is that The Orville has become very involving, even moving, over the course of its run.

One of the best season 3 episodes, Midnight Blue , exemplifies the approach. Written by Brannon Braga & André Bormanis, Midnight Blue furthers the saga of Topa (Imani Pullum), a young Moclan born of two fathers, Bortus and Klyden (Chad L. Coleman), who undergoes gender reassignment surgery to become female against Klyden’s wishes. When Topa later becomes imperiled by warring factions who want to use her for political ends, the crew risks everything to save her, concluding with a sequence of family reunion that will have you sobbing.

Dolly Parton also features in the episode as a feminist icon from the past. She gets a beautiful scene in which the show uses her music to underscore a stirring sacrifice by one of the characters. By all rights, the Parton stuff should play more like one of the famous interstitial scenes from Family Guy that delivers a joke but isn’t part of the narrative proper. Instead, we see that her music truly belongs in the stars.

All of this extends Star Trek’s progressive legacy. It’s a little astounding, given the crass misogyny of Family Guy (I know it’s supposed to be a put-on, but still), how progressive The Orville tries to be, especially in the way it insists on tolerance and equality around issues of gender, sexuality, and race. Star Trek has always been avowedly progressive. But, as fans know, different iterations of Trek have been trapped within the constraints of their cultural eras — which is why, for example, it took decades for the franchise to start prominently featuring LGBTQ+ characters. Although far from perfect , The Orville tries to use its platform to show how humans have evolved to become enlightened in ways that resonate meaningfully for groups and people struggling today.

One final reason for the greatness of The Next Generation was that it dramatized enormous philosophical issues about the befuddling contradictions of human identity, the mysterious nature of time and memory, and the agony of negotiating impossible moral quandaries. Star Trek in general often uses time travel as a, ahem, vehicle to explore such ideas, and TNG also employed its famous “temporal shifts.”

In The Inner Light , one of the most mind-blowing episodes of television ever produced, Picard gets knocked out by an alien presence and wakes up to find out that he’s been deserted on another planet. He gives up hope of being rescued and lives the rest of his life in his new home. At the episode’s conclusion, he wakes aboard the Enterprise to find out he’s only been unconscious for about 25 minutes, yet now lives with this entire alternate reality inside him. It’s a profound way of dramatizing how many paths our lives can take, as well as the humbling reality that, on a cosmic scale, none of us lives more than an instant.

The Orville ‘s season 3 time-travel episode, Twice in a Lifetime , written by MacFarlane, presents its own version of a knotty time travel problem when helmsman Gordon Molloy (Scott Grimes) gets trapped on Earth circa 2025. The Orville’s crew figures out a way to go back to retrieve him, but mistimes their jump into the past and lands about 10 years after Molloy has established a new life with a wife and kids to whom he is now devoted.

Molloy strongly resists returning to the Orville and his old life, but he’s violating strict rules about screwing with the past that could alter the future. How do you make the choice to give up your family for the greater good? And if you could return and blank the memory of your alternate life, would that experience somehow linger within you? And would you want it to linger or would that be too painful? This is just one of the many gripping scenarios that make The Orville such a worthy descendant of Star Trek: The Next Generation , and one of the most thoughtful shows on television.

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‘The Orville’: Seth MacFarlane Dismisses ‘Star Trek’ Comparisons, Wants to Make Sci-Fi Fun Again

But seriously, this show is ‘Star Trek.’

At the TCA press tour today (that’s the TV Critics Association), it was Fox’s turn to present their upcoming and returning fall TV shows to a room full of critics and journalists in Beverly Hills. Late in the day, we got a panel on The Orville , Seth MacFarlane ’s new sci-fi series that was at first called a comedy, but after we all discovered it’s an hourlong series, it’s being renamed an adventure show. Critics were given access to the first 3 episodes, and visited the set on the Fox lot to get a more complete picture of what MacFarlane’s new show is all about.

The answer is: it’s Star Trek . It’s not even remotely trying to hide those influences, including having the show composer be a Star Trek alum, same with an EP, and alluding to things like synthesizers (instead of replicators) and “The Union” (instead of the The Federation). There are slow fades to act breaks, and an overall and unshakable feeling of being within the Star Trek universe. Except, MacFarlane is adamant that those comparisons are just superficial ones.

MacFarlane spoke to the room during the panel about how there are “sci-fi tropes in so many different series,” and not just Star Trek , but that his intention with The Orville was born out of a fatigue over dystopian series. “I miss the forward thinking, optimistic, aspirational space that Star Trek used to offer,” he said. “It’s a space waiting to be filled in this day and age when we are getting a lot of dystopian fiction.”

The Orville ’s tone, though, is a puzzling one. It’s not what people will be expecting from MacFarlane — it’s not that it’s not funny, is that it is trying very hard to not be funny. It’s an earnest and sincere homage to Star Trek , and yet, MacFarlane and the producers did everything they could to distance themselves from those comparisons, with EP Jason Clark saying that they do not see the show as being in competition with Star Trek: Discovery . MacFarlane added, “we’re doing something a little more old-school.”

I will say this: the production values for The Orville are, at times, very impressive. We learned on set how much MacFarlane really wanted to be sure there were practical effects and less CG, and those touches definitely show. In fact, the bridge of The Orville features a partial wrap-around screen that has three times the resolution of an IMAX screen, which makes it feels like you are actually traveling through space and seeing the stars and planets. As was noted, it also helps the actors feel fully immersed in the world.

Unfortunately, the dialogue and some of the story choices the show makes are far more questionable. There’s an episode that deals with forced gender reassignment surgery of a baby in a rather harrowing way. MacFarlane addressed the confusion over whether the show is a comedy or just Star Trek or what it is by saying, “Each week you’re seeing a little movie, and there will be some variance in tone.” He’s also proud that they are able to have the “breadth and variety to tell a different story each week, while staying true to these characters.”

As for the gender reassignment story in particular, MacFarlane added, “Part of the fun of sci-fi is telling stories with relevance but exist in the world of make-believe, so that you don’t come off preachy — if you’ve done your job right.”

The Orville premieres September 10th on Fox. Look for our full review coming soon.

Den of Geek

The Orville Is Actually Much Darker Than You Think

The Orville was never the light-hearted Star Trek spoof it was pitched to be.

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Lt. Gordon Molloy (Scott Grimes) in The Orville: New Horizons episode 3.

This article contains spoilers for The Orville, Star Trek: The Original Series, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds .

Featuring broad comedy and characters who don’t seem to be taking their jobs very seriously, the first trailer for The Orville suggested that the Fox series would be a spoof of Star Trek .

In said trailer, Captain Mercer (Seth MacFarlane) tries to eat a marble and asks an alien to move over so he is framed better in the viewscreen. Lt. Gordon Malloy (Scott Grimes) drinks beer while on duty, flying a shuttle, at 9:15 a.m. Commander Kelly Grayson’s (Adrianne Palicki) former marriage to Mercer is treated to rather stale “comic” arguments about going to therapy. Mercer’s reaction to Lt. Commander Bortus’s (Peter Macon) species being entirely male is to observe, with truly cutting and original wit, that they probably don’t have many arguments about leaving the toilet seat up. (The response, that they only urinate once a year, is much more original and funny).

But most of that broad comedy turned out to be restricted to the pilot. Over the course of its first two seasons, The Orville became less a spoof of Star Trek shows, and more like a Star Trek series itself, one modelled after the late 1990s and early aughts branches of Star Trek ( The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager , and Enterprise ). It was also always much darker than you think.

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The Orville Had Deep Star Trek Connections

The Star Trek similarities aren’t very surprising when you look at some of the people involved in making the show. The Orville features Deep Space Nine ’s Penny Johnson Jerald (who played Captain Sisko’s girlfriend Kassidy Yates) in a regular role as the ship’s doctor Claire Finn. It guest-stars The Next Generation ’s Marina Sirtis, Voyager ’s Robert Picardo and Tim Russ, and Enterprise ’s John Billingsley. The show’s directors include Star Trek ’s Brannon Braga, Robert Duncan McNeill, and Jonathan Frakes. Most importantly, Braga and his current writing partner Andre Bormanis have written seven episodes. Other episodes have been written by Joe Menosky (who has written for The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager , and Discovery ) and David A. Goodman (who has written for Enterprise ).

Anyone watching The Orville from the beginning will have noticed it making a slow move towards being less comedic and more dramatic over its three seasons. The first season featured episodes that twisted Star Trek tropes, like “Cupid’s Dagger,” which gender-flips the storylines about an alien guest exuding a sex pheromone that affects the crew’s behavior that were often given to Majel Barrett’s Lwaxana Troi in ’90s Trek .

Other episodes in that first season played out almost exactly like ’90s Trek episodes – “Mad Idolatry” combines The Next Generation’s “Who Watches the Watchers” with Voyager ’s “Blink of an Eye.” Meanwhile, “Into the Fold,” co-written and directed by Braga, is almost a rerun of Voyager ’s “Innocence.” This trend towards less comedy and more drama continued with increasingly dramatic storylines throughout season 2, culminating in a war with Isaac’s (Mark Jackson) species of artificial lifeforms, the Kaylon.

New Horizons Was a New Beginning

Eventually, season 3 moved from Fox to streamer Hulu and was slightly rebranded as The Orville: New Horizons . MacFarlane told Collider that the new subtitle was an idea pitched to him by Dana Walden at Disney, and that “I thought it was kind of cool because it’s not a reboot, it’s a continuation, but it was just enough to tell the audience that we’re expanding a little bit. That the scope is bigger. The show is more ambitious.”

The trailers for The Orville: New Horizons dropped the feeling of a “spoof” all together, presenting the show as a more straightforward, if sometimes light-hearted, sci-fi drama. This trailer opens with Mercer quoting Percy Bysshe Shelley’s famous poem “Ozymandias” (which had been name-checked in the final season of Breaking Bad in 2013) and features diplomats sitting around a table, explosions, and dialogue emphasizing dramatic themes like risks, danger, peace, and heart. There’s still a little bit of lightness thanks to Malloy’s wish for music on the bridge and a brief Star Wars reference, but overall the tone is of a pretty straightforward Star Trek -inspired sci-fi drama.

By then The Orville had become more of an unofficial addition to the Star Trek universe than a parody. But surprisingly, and despite its origins as a comedy, it is actually darker than many incarnations of Star Trek . And this darkness doesn’t suddenly appear in the later episodes and more dramatic third season – it’s there from the very beginning.

The Orville Was Dark From the Very Beginning

The Orville season 1 episode 3 “About a Girl” is incredibly dark and downbeat. Bortas and Klydan’s (Chad L. Coleman) Moclan species had been introduced as entirely male in the pilot, but at the end of episode 2 their egg hatches, and they are surprised to find that their offspring, Topa, is female.

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Episode 3 reveals that their species is not born entirely male, but when rarer females are born, they are immediately operated on to change their bodies to be male (since this is being done to a newborn and not to a consenting person who has asked for it, it does not count as gender-affirming surgery). Bortas tries to stop the surgery, but Klydan is determined to carry it out, and a Moclan court decides in Klydan’s favor.

The ending of this episode is incredibly dark and depressing. Topa is a newborn baby who is far too young to be able to express their own feelings about their gender, and the surgery is performed on a healthy child for purely social reasons, against the wishes of one of their parents. Much later, in season 3 , Topa has grown enough to be able to put forward their own views and Dr. Finn performs gender-affirming surgery at Topa’s request as Topa realizes they identify as female.

While there is a slightly happier resolution in the end, the original episode remains a deeply depressing watch. And it does not even have the excuse of the somewhat similar (and equally depressing) The Next Generation episode “The Outcast.” That installment dealt with gender, in its own very ‘90s way, but followed adults with their own clearly articulated thoughts and feelings. Sex reassignment surgery on a newborn has nothing to do with the current issues facing young adult or adult trans and nonbinary people.

Season 1’s darkness does not stop there though. Episode 7 “Majority Rule” has the same basic concept as the Black Mirror episode “Nosedive,” as Lt. John LaMarr (J. Lee) runs afoul a society run entirely on social media upvotes and downvotes. Episode 10 “Firestorm” is darker again and includes tropes straight out of horror films, as Lt. Alara Kitan (Halston Sage) is indirectly responsible for another crewman’s death because of her fear of fire, which is the result of a frightening incident from when she was a child. The episode also features a scary clown, a giant spider, and murderous versions of some crew members. Sure, Star Trek has done horror movie-inspired episodes too, but this is particularly freaky stuff.

It is not surprising, then, that this darker side only grew over time. Multiple episodes in season 2 follow a story arc in which Isaac betrays both The Orville and the Planetary Union as a whole and takes part in an attack on the ship, killing several officers, and instigating a war. When his refusal to kill Dr. Finn’s son Ty (Kai Wener) eventually gets him back on the side of our heroes, he has to spend the rest of the series trying to make up for his actions.

Seasons 2 and 3 also see Malloy, the day-drinking comic relief of the pilot, thrust into increasingly dark and depressing romantic situations. In Season 2’s “Lasting Impressions,” the old “falling-for-a-holodeck-character” storyline is given a sad twist by making the character in question a representation of a long-dead 21 st century woman. But that’s nothing compared to poor Malloy’s time travel mishap in season 3. Accidentally stranded in 2015, he actually marries a real woman, Laura (Leighton Meester), and they have children together – until Mercer and Grayson appear, intending to grab him from the moment he arrived and erase the entire timeline. Malloy begs for his family’s lives, especially his son and unborn baby, but to no avail, and it doesn’t matter how much Regular-Timeline-Malloy reassures Ed and Kelly that they did the right thing, the whole episode is brutal.

Is The Orville Darker Than Star Trek?

The Orville has often been described as more like Star Trek than Star Trek – especially in the early days, when Discovery was doing grim, gory war stories across multiple episodes and The Orville was doing planet-of-the-week adventures. At that time, The Orville was structurally a lot more like ‘90s Star Trek , while Discovery had a more 2010s serialized structure and grimdark tone. (Both are great, by the way – this is a structural observation, not a value judgement).

But The Orville was always hiding a much darker edge than Star Trek tends to have. Of the Star Trek shows that provide The Orville ’s main inspiration, Deep Space Nine is the darkest, followed by season 3 of Enterprise . Deep Space Nine ’s “In The Pale Moonlight” is probably the darkest hour of the entire franchise, at least since Kirk had to let Joan Collins die in The Original Series ’ “The City on the Edge of Forever,” and Captain Archer turned space pirate in Enterprise ’s “Damage.”

We do see this increasing darkness in some of the more recent Trek series as well. Discovery is the most obvious example, but the conclusion of Strange New Worlds ’ “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach” is even more shockingly dark and miserable than anything we’ve seen on The Orville , featuring as it does the torture and eventual death of a child – even The Orville has not gone that far. The upcoming Section 31 TV movie will likely be fairly dark as well.

To some extent, all these bitter, depressing storylines are just reflecting fashions in current television. (We maintain that Captain Kirk would have happily let the rest of the planet die to save the kid). But overall Star Trek ’s main themes are still largely positive and optimistic. The Orville , on the other hand, has turned the often-dark satire of MacFarlane’s Family Guy into a vision of the future in which everyone is trying as hard as they can to do their best, yet often finding they cannot fight forces that are bigger than they are.

The Orville presents itself as a lighter show, in which the crew can order pot brownies from the replicators and drink beer on duty – cleverly hiding the real darkness and sense of doom within. But season 3 does end with the joy of a wedding , and we can only hope that it will eventually be renewed for a much-delayed season 4 , and that our heroes will be able to regain a bit of hope – or at the very least, that poor Malloy will catch a break in the romance department.

All three seasons of The Orville are available to stream on Hulu.

Juliette Harrisson | @ClassicalJG

Juliette Harrisson is a writer and historian, and a lifelong Trekkie whose childhood heroes were JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. She runs a YouTube channel called…

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Review: ‘The Orville’ Gets Emotional In “From Unknown Graves”

| July 16, 2022 | By: Dénes House 41 comments so far

“From Unknown Graves”

The Orville Season 3 ( New Horizons ), Episode 7 – Debuted Thursday, July 14, 2022 Written by: David A. Goodman Directed by: Seth McFarlane

While hosting peace talks with a matriarchal alien race, the Orville discovers a cyberneticist and a rogue Kaylon on a seemingly deserted planet below. This Kaylon’s unique abilities offer new hope in the Union’s conflict with the Kaylon as well as in Dr. Finn’s relationship with Isaac. Meanwhile, complications arise in the romance between John Lamarr and Talla Keyali.

After two smash-hit episodes, The Orville offers up a solid but not spectacular 75 minutes that have lots of good bits but are overstuffed and disjointed at times. The Isaac/Finn relationship, a bit unhinged and puzzling in season two, deepens and gains a little sanity here, while the crew’s attempts to deceive a potential new ally in order to win their trust makes very little sense in light of what’s gone before. A powerful series of flashbacks gives context to the animosity of a longtime foe in what is the episode’s best storyline.

Lt. Talla Keyali (Jessica Szohr), Cmdr. Kelly Grayson (Adrianne Palicki), Dr. Claire Finn (Penny Johnson Jerald), and Charly Burke (Anne Winters)

IF SPOILERS WOULD TRIGGER YOUR PAIN RECEPTORS, RETURN TO THE KITCHEN NOW!

Like skeletons in chains…

The concept of a logic-based AI lifeform gaining the ability to experience emotions is not new in science fiction. Star Trek: The Next Generation fans remember that Data’s “brother” Lore had the ability to experience emotions from his season 1 debut; later in the series, Data received his own emotion chip, which he installed in Star Trek: Generations. His emotional journey then continued through the TNG movies. In The Orville , Isaac the Kaylon has at times seemed to be their Data-analogue, but with significant differences.

Unlike Data, who wanted to be more human from the start, Isaac believes his incredible processing power, strength, and logic make him superior to biological beings. This attitude, common to all Kaylon, was described by Captain Ed Mercer as “super racist” in the series premiere “Old Wounds.” Throughout the series, human characters repeatedly have attributed this or that action on Isaac’s part to some kind of latent emotion, though he has consistently denied this and invoked logic for all his motivations. Isaac has been an emotional blank screen onto which human characters have projected the emotions they would be experiencing were they in his shoes.

Nowhere has this been more apparent than in the one-sided romantic relationship between Isaac and Dr. Claire Finn, a storyline that emerged in season 2’s “A Happy Refrain” and later played a key role in Isaac’s reversal in “Identity, Part II.” Isaac betrayed his human shipmates by enabling the Kaylon to take control of the Orville and engage in a genocidal assault on Earth, but in the one crack in his purely logical motivation structure, sided with Claire’s son Ty against his Kaylon captors, betraying the Kaylon and enabling a Union victory. Throughout season 2, Claire struggled with the question of whether or not she was projecting emotions onto Isaac and whether she was drawn to his emotionless stoicism in response to emotional hurts she had suffered in the past. In season 3, Dr. Finn and Isaac have resumed their social interactions, but with a caution that was not evident before.

In “From Unknown Graves,” Kelly Grayson helps Claire to see that she needs an emotional response in order for her romantic relationship to be fulfilling. Dr. Finn confides, “Kelly, every problem Isaac and I have had stems from the fact that he can’t feel.” This misses the fact that at least part of the problem has been that she’s pursuing an emotional relationship with someone who has no emotions in the first place—and also that Isaac participated in an attempted genocide against Claire’s species—but Kelly convinces her that she will regret not asking Isaac for what she needs. Claire implores him with: “Isaac, if you want to be with me, I want to be loved. Just like I love you.”

Dr. Claire Finn (Penny Johnson Jerald), Issac (Mark Jackson), Dr. Villka (Eliza Taylor) and Lt. Cmdr. John LaMarr (J Lee)

Markets for men’s lives…

This episode introduces a Kaylon with a unique ability: Due to modifications made by an alien scientist, Timmis can feel emotions. And they believe the same modifications can provide emotions to Isaac. Christopher Larkin portrays Timmis with an almost anime-style approach to emotions, heightened just a hair beyond how normal humans would express them. This seems like a necessary choice due to the Kaylon armor that Larkin has to emote through, and it is very effective. Timmis is not just emotional, he is sensitive and emotionally healthy. Playing opposite Larkin, Mark Jackson’s emotionless performance as Isaac is shown in its best light. I loved watching the two of them together.

While this is unfolding, the episode introduces us to another Kaylon, K-1, who is delivered to the door of an alien home in what seems like an entirely different story. K-1 is evidently a consumer appliance owned by an alien family and operates as a domestic servant, cooking and cleaning, doing yard work and whatever else makes the biological owners’ lives easier. K-1 is played by Graham Hamilton, who in “Identity, Parts I and II” (episodes 208 and 209) performed the role of Kaylon Primary. His familiar voice is the first clue that these scenes are actually flashbacks to the beginning of Kaylon history, and the attentive viewer knows what’s going to happen, watching these scenes with an unfolding sense of dread. We watch as the family utilizes K-1, objects as he begins to ask questions for himself, then begins to fear and resent him. When tens of thousands of customers complain to the manufacturer of the robots, they send out a pain upgrade to the units, allowing the owners to use a remote control to trigger agonizing spasms as a means of controlling their servants. This cruelty causes the Kaylon to turn on their creators, annihilating them in one genocidal night.

We thus watch three Kaylon in their journeys of sentience: K-1 at the dawn of Kaylon sentience learning the cruelty of slavery from the inside, Timmis experiencing deep remorse over his people’s attempted annihilation of the Planetary Union and seeking to somehow apologize for and right this wrong, and Isaac experiencing a romantic relationship in which he cannot love his partner, now given the opportunity to rectify that situation. And of course, he accepts the procedure, and we are treated to a glorious date night in which Isaac can express all his new feelings to Claire. It is everything she (and we) could have wanted, and it gives Mark Jackson an even greater chance to shine as he releases the brakes on his performance just enough to let it pick up speed… only to be tragically cut short as his emotional modifications fail.

Dr. Villka (Eliza Taylor) and Timmis (Christopher Larkin)

Anger, Lust, and Pride…

While all this significant Kaylon stuff is going on, we also follow the progress of Talla Keyali’s romantic relationship with John Lamarr, which has now turned sexual—and dangerous. Because of the enormous strength and sturdiness Keyali has owing to her Xeleyan physiology, every time they make love, she injures Lamarr, breaking and fracturing bones and leaving him in an enormous amount of pain. This is played for laughs, but I must admit, seeing a black character suffering physical injuries, culminating in a wicked bruising of his face and a loss of teeth in an American TV episode dealing with chattel slavery as a theme made the humorous tone feel off-putting to me. Lamarr and Keyali can’t be together without ongoing, serious harm to him, so they call off the relationship.

If Isaac’s journey through emotions is the A-plot of this episode, the Kaylon backstory is the C-plot, and the Keyali/Lamarr relationship is the D-plot, then the B-plot is the negotiation of a prospective alliance between the Union and a newly encountered alien species, the Janisi. A strict matriarchy where males are considered untrustworthy second-class citizens, the Janisi are the mirror opposites of the Moclans, a fact which is emphasized repeatedly throughout the episode, at times with successful comedic intent. The Janisi makeup is fantastic, smooth foreheads studded with brightly-colored metallic scales in unique patterns. Captain Lorsha has gold scales, First Officer Kava has blue scales, and First Lt. Hodell, apparently an engineer, has red scales, in a very subtle Star Trek reference I was proud of myself for catching.

The crew decides the best way to build a bridge with the Janisi is by lying to them, pretending that on the Orville, the females are all in charge and the men are all low-ranking servants. Why this was deemed a good plan given the numerous apologies for the deception that have been required this season, only writer David A. Goodman knows. It makes for a great number of humorous scenes at the expense of the male characters’ dignity, which I would not have found as funny if the women were the butt of similar jokes.

Janisi makeup being applied on set

Half buried in the sands…

If all this seems like a lot for one episode, you’re right. At 75 minutes, “From Unknown Graves” feels overstuffed, and many of the plots resolve with a thud. While the Kaylon flashbacks are compelling and arguably land more confidently than the other threads, in a tight 45-minute episode either this or the Janisi storyline would have been cut, resulting in a crisper narrative. The Janisi material is resolved with an odd non sequitur, in which Kelly tells the story of her betrayal of Ed in their marriage, and this somehow forms common ground with the matriarchal aliens? I didn’t understand the connection even after multiple viewings. And the Lamarr/Keyali storyline suffers from tone deafness in relation to the surrounding material and is another extra storyline that would not have made it if the show were still cut for broadcast time.

However, the saving grace of this episode is strong enough to lift the entire edifice. The best episodes of the season have been tour-de-force acting showcases for the cast–Peter Macon, Chad A. Coleman, and Imani Pullum in “A Tale of Two Topas,” Scott Grimes and to some extent Seth MacFarlane in “Twice in a Lifetime,” and now Mark Jackson in “From Unknown Graves.” Jackson, in partnership with Christopher Larkin and Penny Jackson Jerald, turns in his best performance so far in a series in which he’s been consistently great. This storyline’s energy, talent, and pathos are the engine that keeps this episode running and gets it across the finish line.

Dr. Villka (Eliza Taylor), Timmis (Christopher Larkin), and Lt. Cmdr. John LaMarr (J Lee)

The title of the episode (and each of my section titles) comes from a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, titled “ The Witnesses ” about slavery, closing with the lines: “These are the woes of Slaves; They glare from the abyss; They cry, from unknown graves, ‘We are the Witnesses!'”
Claire immediately shares John Lamarr’s medical concerns with Isaac on their initial dinner date in this episode–I guess the Planetary Union has temporal laws, but not a version of HIPAA?
When the Janisi shuttle enters the shuttle bay, there is one Union shuttle and the (still never utilized) fighter already parked. Where is the second Union shuttle? Later, when the Captain uses a shuttle to go down to the planet, the bay is completely empty.
I did enjoy the physical comedy when Mercer and Malloy were struggling with the Janisi’s luggage.
K-1 has 11,257 recipes selected by the Kaylon Culinary Institute, including one for callagus stew.
The scenery as the shuttle searches the deserted planet for the energy surge is fantastic.
The abandoned outpost on the planet was originally built by the Navari (one of the warring species from episode 109, “Cupid’s Dagger”).
Between Timmis, K-1, the aliens in the Kaylon flashbacks, the Janisi, Unk, Brosk, and Dr. Villka, I hope the showrunners use this as a “for your consideration” episode for Best Prosthetic makeup.
We see a new Security office for Talla Keyali in this episode–she has a window now.
The only nod to Kelly’s ongoing drinking problem in this episode is when she offers Claire a drink, which Claire turns down.
Villka offers to erase Isaac’s memories in order to restore his emotions–but wasn’t Isaac able to record all his memories in a tiny corner of his system in Episode 301? Can’t he backup his memories, have the procedure, then upload them again? He IS a machine.
If Isaac’s date night simulation is holographic, how do he and Claire kiss?
According to her Twitter account, singer Sara Gazarek pre-recorded her rendition of the 1979 Jazz standard “Close Enough for Love,” by Johnny Mandel and Paul Williams, then got all prostheticked up as an alien and did it again in front of the cameras for the big emotional Finn/Isaac date night scene.

never have i ever recorded a stunning johnny mandel song and then put on full alien prosthetics w custom contacts to perform alongside an 8 armed alien drummer for the brilliant @MacFarlaneSeth show, @TheOrville ! 🙋🏻‍♀️👽🎤🎶💕 season 3 ep7 now on hulu! what a life! #theorville pic.twitter.com/u2zFbOGJkb — Sara Gazarek (@saragazarek) July 14, 2022

NOTABLE QUOTABLES

“I feel like a horrible person, because basically I’m saying, ‘You’re not enough for me. Let this other person fix you.’” “Kinda like asking your partner to go to therapy.” “That does make it sound a little better.” Claire and Kelly.
“Do they have males on their homeworld?” “They do, but they’re relegated to second-class status.” “(rolls eyes) Why would we ally ourselves with such a closed-minded society?” Burke, Keyali, and Bortus, followed by stunned stares.
“Are all your males so…slow?” “Mm-hmm. Very much so.” “Yeah, yeah, yep.” Losha, Grayson, and Keyali; now try that again, reversing the genders, and see how (un)funny it is…
“Captain, what my people are doing is wrong. Biologicals are not universally destructive. We can find a way to coexist.” Timmis – subverting the Kaylon credo of “Coexistence is impossible.”
“I’ve already injured you three times. And we’re lucky it hasn’t been more serious. This is just a problem that comes up with Xeleyans and other species during sex. People have been killed.” “That’s a good way to go.” Keyali and Lamarr
“We were deeply in error, Isaac. To judge all biologicals by the cruelty of our builders was a gross misjudgment. Every species, every individual is unique and should be evaluated as such.” Timmis, forgetting that the Kaylon also included data from the cruelty of the crew of the Orville to make their judgment.
“I’ll do it.” Gordon, volunteering to be sexed up by First Officer Kava.
“They are…awful.” Bortus on the Janisi.
“Their absolute power led our masters to become cruel, sadistic. In many cases, it led them to hate us for our helplessness.” “It’s a common dynamic in slavery. The master finds the slave’s helplessness repulsive, even though he’s the cause of it.” “It became intolerable.” K-1 and Dr. Villka.
“How does it feel?” “Immense. Enveloping. And terrible.” Claire and Isaac.
“Isaac, humans have an age-old tendency to want to simplify. To reduce things to black and white. Good and evil. When in reality… nothing is simple. Everything has… texture, nuance.” Burke, basically laying out the philosophy behind the entire series.

Dr. Claire Finn (Penny Johnson Jerald), Capt. Ed Mercer (Seth MacFarlane), and Cmdr. Kelly Grayson (Adrianne Palicki)

Keep up with all The Orville news and analysis on TrekMovie .

Discovery , Review

Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Reflects On Its Choices In “Mirrors”

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Collectibles , DS9 , Review

Review: The EXO-6 ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’ 1:6 Odo Figure Is The Shape of Things To Come

Definitely an episode where the parts are better than the sum. The origin story of the Kalon is a sci-fi cliche, but the emotion upgrade was an interesting angle that played into this episode pretty cleverly. Still, I found the abrupt end to Isaac’s emotions to be too short-lived and unsatisfying. I also find it damaging that Claire is only interested in Isaac when he’s a human simulation, at some point I hope they come to terms with that. I loved the Janisi, great performances, makeup, and some really good laughs. But there is some sitcom-level logic to the entire gag. It’s just another example of a show that doesn’t really know how seriously it wants us to take it. So although it made zero sense for the Union to orchestrate an elaborate lie to convince awful people to join the Union, it does get us back to the show’s original idea of a TNG parody rather than TNG facsimile. And then they take the time to preach to the Janisi about bigotry which is all very heartfelt TNG stuff that works on a basic level. But the way the story works cheating into the end of the Janisi story was just eye-rolling to me. So it’s all just a little confusing to me, I don’t really know how to evaluate the episode, only that this show is more like a sitcom than I was hoping. Characters behave at the convenience of this week’s story. I did like that Charly and Isaac came to an understanding between each each other in light of the origin story revelation, even if it’s mostly just housekeeping. Overall the episode was WAY too long and dull, I found myself just checking my phone between numerous and narratively empty scenes. They really need to tighten down the length of some of these under-cooked episodes.

The Orville was always intended to be an homage to TNG, a light hearted one at that. Not a parody. In fact, Seth HATES when it’s called a parody.

It may have been intended as an homage, but it definitely came across as a parody. Especially the first couple of seasons. This past season it just comes across as copy of TNG. Although, I am enjoying this season more than the others.

I disagree. I would say it was such an “homage” that it is very hard to find the difference between the two. In fact, I would say “rip off” is more appropriate. There is just way too much similarity with TNG even among the characters.

It did feel a little like an episode that ran short and this had a B-Plot inserted. Which is weird given how this season was produced. It might have worked if not for the tonal clashes between the A- and B-Plots but as such it got a little uneven.

But overall I still found it plenty enjoyable.

It’s streaming. It is literally impossible for the episodes to “run short.”

I was amazingly disappointed at the slapstick nature of the gags. Seth is better than that. The gags in the first season were mostly pretty good. But now? I’m wondering if Seth is falling into the trap that a lot of once funny but no more comics have fallen into. They seem to be worried too much about offending people when offending people was often a side effect of good comedy.

Excellent review. I agree, this episode had too much, and some things were played for laughs that shouldn’t.

Still, even though I understand how hard it is to have a truly new story, I didn’t terribly enjoy thinking “oh, they stole this from X” every five minutes.

I’ll take a show that takes its time and gives us interesting and nuanced character development over one that tries to cram its characters into a plot formula because the author spent his lunch money on Four Screenplays and Save the Kitten and dammit if he isn’t going to get his money’s worth!

The Lamarr/Keyali stuff was hilarious (and a little sad), especially the payoff.

You are missing the point – they are trying to attract the attention to the horribleness if it was reversed – something that humor is quite often used for. See how funny it is when the women do it? Why do you think it is funny? Because women are supposed to just take this behavior, not engage in it, right? Double standard for everyone – somehow it is OK if men do it and although some find it is offensive (although a lot of men think it is not and do it – “Boys will be boys”), but when women do it it is funny. The humor underlines this double standard… I had a coworker bring her boudoir photography to work, comment on my body parts. If it is a woman, eh, we will let it go because I am a woman, too, and blah blah blah… But if a man had done it, it is sexual harassment. High time for the double standard to disappear and that is the whole message.

All of the stories might seem disconnected but they are all about gender issues. Even the Kaylon one… Replace Kaylon with woman and you see how well it fits…

I think you are missing the point. You dug way too deep. The joke was the old “switch-a-roo”. Which in this day and age just has a very hard time working. I think such a low brow gag is really beneath Seth. He didn’t even find a way to make it funny. The gag came right out of the 1950’s.

They could have made two episodes out of this one, there was a lot to follow but filling in the Kaylon backstory was very well done.

“If Isaac’s date night simulation is holographic, how do he and Claire kiss?

The holodeck must add layer of ‘skin’ over Isaacs face. Although practically this would make his head bigger, you have to believe the holodeck make you ‘see’ it correctly. It obviously must add other appendages to him to be used as required!

I agree this could have been two very distinctive separate episodes, but I get a sense that they really wanted to tell each of these stories which the shorter episode run would not have catered for this season. I personally didn’t mind the separate stories and really enjoyed this episode.

Although the Kalon storyline was similar to the Cylon storyline from Battlestar Galactica, the episode was watchable. I actually felt sorry for the Kalons and probably would have done the same thing in their place. I still despise Burke, even though she reached out to Isaac and apologized for being such a c***. Then again Isaac had issues of his own My heart went out to him when the modifications failed and he turned into a regular unfeeling bastard again. I still think that the Kalons are capable of emotions to a certain degree or they wouldn’t have developed hatred for organics. Hopefully, Isaac does get emotions so he and the doctor can have their happy ending (both figuratively and literally),

It really sours the show for me for the fact that the Charly character was not only poorly written but was also added likely because the actress who played it was Seth’s girlfriend. And it’s not the first time – Alara’s departure was the show’s first cast shuffle also because of Seth’s love interests.

As much as the Orville is great, I simply can’t imagine if Trek is run by Seth. Imagine if, say, Michael Burnham was cast because Sonequa was Kurtzman’s girlfriend? And then fired to be replaced by a new character that’s also Kurtzman’s girlfriend? Nepotism is bad, but this is way worse.

I think Seth may have been a good choice to run Lower Decks. But not a live action show. However lately, like a lot of funny people, he seems to have lost his edge. I think he is living in fear of “offending” people. Which is a sad sad time for people trying to be funny.

First time commenting on The Orville here. BI’m a band new fan. Threw on an episode out of interest after seeing the reviews here, got hooked, binge-watched and got all caught up in about two weeks.

I liked this episode but you’re totally right, it definitely was way too long. I really felt every minute of the last third of the episode, and actually checked at one point to see how long was left; something I have never done before. Overstuffed is the perfect word.

I loved the flashbacks and the continuing story with Isaac. It was nice to get some visual insight into the Kaylon enslavement and to get a resolution to Isaac and Burke’s icy relationship. And it’s always interesting to see the dynamics between Isaac and Claire play out too. I am often left wondering about that connection, but I think that’s the point. The Orville nails these types of interactions with Isaac by never letting us forget that he is a machine without emotions. I’m still not sure if Isaac actually cares about anyone on the ship at all, despite his actions helping defeat the Kaylon last season, and I like the tension within that. He could very well turn around in the next episode and announce that he’s still working for the Kaylon and take everyone out, and I wouldn’t bat an eyelid.

Everything else in the episode was enjoyable and had some fun comedic moments, but felt ultimately irrelevant and disjointed.

Personally I’m not too invested in the romance between John and Talla because it felt to me to come out of nowhere, and even though I like both characters I don’t think the pair have much chemistry onscreen. We also know by now that John likes to get around and exercise his goods, and good for him. But because of this I was just under the impression that this would be a casual thing between the pair, something that didn’t really need more exploration? I was actually surprised that we spent time on it. Idk, does that sound weird?

The other storyline with the matriarchal first contact was fun but as you say, ended in a bit of a thud that left me wondering why we had spent any time on it. The entire conceit of ying to them about the structure of the crew was a really bad idea to begin with… confusingly bad. To me it didn’t make any sense and felt like Seth and the writers had the idea of Ed and Gordon and the luggage and wrote the storyline to fit around that visual gag.

In saying all that, I love the Orville. Definitely not a terrible episode by any means. There has been some soaring storytelling highlights this season. When it’s good it’s excellent, and when it’s not as good it’s still enjoyable because of the humour and characters. Really hope they get a renewal, got my fingers firmly crossed.

The third instance of Johns’ injuries from Talla made me laugh, because of the implication of exactly how he’d gotten such severe facial injuries.

I felt like those jokes never landed and seemed more sophomoric than anything. I honestly felt like they were going to make a joke about his junk getting hurt. It’s weird because the gags in the first season mostly worked great. Even the precious few they had in the 2nd mostly worked. Here… They abandoned the gags mostly but when they’ve tried they failed on every attempt. What’s going on here?

the male/female role reversal wasn’t any more cringeworthy than “Angel One”

The big red reset button was in full force as it tuned out that Issac’s emotion weren’t permanent and the evolution of the Kaylons could only be made to the “original models” and not the entire species, but, like you say, it provides for good performances.

I was waiting for Claire to decide that “emotional Issac” wasn’t what she wanted either ( the old “be careful what you wish for” ) and for Issac to dump her for someone who would treat him better and not demand that he make all these changes – i mean she makes him change his entire appearance… try that on your girlfriend, see how that works for you.

and I was waiting for the not so subtle “The Kaylons have evolved,,, and they have a plan” chyron to show up.

I believe, the original model Kaylon are the entire species. Isaac was the only one constructed by the Kaylon themselves. At least that’s how I understood it in the other Kaylon episodes.

Agreed on the comparison to Angel One, but that was also 35 years ago. It’s a stale and trite idea wrapped up in an equally trite way, which is one of those persistent Orville traits which holds the show back while it has made strides in other areas.

Claire’s motivation has been a bit messy, but there were some moments of real joy in that dancing scene, even if Isaac’s declarations were a bit over-written.

The resolution to the Burke/Isaac drama was decent, and while Lamar and Talla’s storyline was slight as heck, both have badly needed something to do. I honestly don’t know if the reviewer is being too sensitive about the cultural implications of having Lamar get unintentionally beat up by a loving partner in an episode that also addresses slavery. I’d have been happy to see both characters get a deeper storyline, there was room to handle that aspect of their relationship better.

The Kaylon scenes were an effective study in foreboding as the viewer knows where this is going, even if they aren’t clued into it being a flashback right away.

“ This is played for laughs, but I must admit, seeing a black character suffering physical injuries, culminating in a wicked bruising of his face and a loss of teeth, in an American TV episode dealing with chattel slavery as a theme, the humorous tone feels off-putting to me.”

Today’s award for “looking for something to feel virtuous complaining about” goes to…

Geordie was tortured so many times in too many episodes, including their first movie, Generations.

The Orville lack of diversity and wisdom in certain issues, is something that need improvement.

I hope Seth is not really aware how unfortunate this is for many, for the audience. Why recycling these type of stories? There so many incidents of abuse targeting innocent African Americans males. Delivering hurtful messages could be uncomfortable. I’m scratching my head how frequently we are still watching these type of incidents.

They DO deliver positive and powerful stories. These incidents seem subtle, but when you think about it, I keep asking to myself, why? Specially in a “futuristic and advance” society.

This is not exclusively on The Orville. I see it in Star Trek everyday. Star Trek has this ability to disguise it. The Orville, way too obvious.

Out of the main cast you have 4 Men and 4 Women. Out of the 8 of those 3 are Black and one is mixed race. At least one is gay.

How is this not diverse enough? 🤨

It’s an observation. With all the injustice that African Americans have to go thru, watching these type of jokes over and over, it is a reminder of their current suffering. It could be uncomfortable.

On the other hand, about diversity, I have said before the show could be more inclusive. Like Star Trek, its lacking domestic diversity in a show about hundred of planets and hundreds of species.

Here in the states we often see things only in Black and White. I get the “Aliens” are our “real Foreigners”, but we have more than Caucasians and African Americans. Feel the show is lacking human races and ethnic groups. Would be great to see Native Americans, more Latino, Asian actors and characters. Main characters and special guests.

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy the show. Seriously. The Orville has done an outstanding job promoting peace, diplomacy, mutual understanding, just like the Federation.

The Moclans and the most recent race for a treaty, the Janisi. Since the first season, Seth has successfully included LGBTQIA stories. Artificial/sentient lifeforms. Recently, a very thoughtful episode with Anaya, Ed discovering he is the father of the first Human Krill kid.

Those stories are great. Just certain things could be improved on pre-production, things that could improve on the writing and the execution.

Jeez, come on.

It’s a sound observation.

I welcome the same concern over how Yaphit’s romantic pursuit of Claire says worrysome things about the assumed humor regarding overweight men and sex appeal.

If you think I’m being ridiculous, I would say it doesn’t mean the problem doesn’t exist but rather than you just don’t see it.

And que the triggered.

I’ve liked this show from the beginning (esp Season 2), but I’m finding this season tough to get through. The episodes need editing and the extended effects scenes are distracting.

Serious episodes are great, but the balance seems off this season.

As much as I wished some Trek episodes were longer, with this season of The Orville I learn that 50 minutes are actually the maximum amount of time I can allocate for a TV show episode. Anything longer than that feels like a chore.

I think the episodes are runny way too long. The establishing shots are tiresome. It’s almost as if they got a bigger budget and HAD to spend the money somewhere. These episodes need to get trimmed down.

Another really strong episode whose main fault is, that it comes after probably the two best episodes in the whole series, which it doesn’t quite live up to.

The whole matriarchal species storyline seems right out of season one and as such does feel a little out of place here. It might not be as ham fisted as TNGs take on the topic but it still barely added anything to the story other than some pretty out of character jokes that fell flat for me at least.

Same with Talla and Jons relationship. It is a pretty tragic thing if you really think about it and mining it for comedy might have not been the best of choices.

The Isaac Storyline however is pretty great. Using the established pain receptors in a new way that makes sense in universe and having the Limitation that Isaac was built by the Kaylon, not their creators is some clever continuity. Also it allowed them to show us what could be without actually having to change the character.

In my opinion it was an inspired decision by McFarlane to not have Isaac simply a copy of Data in that he tries to be more human, as he considers it to “better”. It is much more in keeping with Star Treks idea of infinit diversity in infinite combinations to have him simply be what he is and being at peace with it. Exploring a relationship or even suicide through that lens really feels like fresh concept (or at least a less used up one).

Amazing season. I’m really happy a genuinely optimistic SciFi show can still be made today and I trielt hope for some more seasons of this.

The Janisi finished up saying they would receive a Union ambassador. Well, I hope they give that job to people unconnected with their existing diplomatic corps, since it left their team so poorly briefed about Union society that they easily believed it was a matriarchy like theirs. I mean, I get that they were a new contact but they must have had chance to gather a few basic facts; the Orville crew seemed to know all about them , after all. But never mind, it’s The Orville, so I’m happy anyway.

That’s a good point. I found it ludicrous Mercer & Co would start diplomatic relations off with an intentional lie. But similarly, that group should have already known about the culture they were considering making a deal with. One would think if they were willing to talk it meant they were doing so in spite of the Union treating genders as equals.

Another overly-long episode, but at least this one kept me engaged the whole time. Some of the others with bloated content left me bored. I know there’s been some comment that this episode may have been on the edge of “boring”, but I though it kept moving pretty well. There was one moment with the Claire and Issac dancing scene that felt like they were pushing it beyond what it needed, until Issac’s malfunction. At that point, it immediately grabbed my attention again.

That said, by far, the Claire and Issac storyline was the best part of the episode. Mark Jackson hit it out of the park with his portrayal of Issac in his various forms for this episode. The emotional moment in the holodeck when Claire first walks through the doors is – in my opinion – perfection and a great payoff to almost 3 seasons of development of those characters. Mark Jackson is the best actor in the series in terms of what he has created with Issac, and to see him get to express himself more naturally was a pleasure. Put him next to another great actor – Penny Johnson Gerald – and it makes that scene one of the best of the entire series.

As for the Janisi storyline, that plot line seemed completely pointless and honestly a disappointment given the much better episodes and storylines we’ve seen this season. But, to be honest, this is par for the course in terms of one thing that I think MacFarlane holds as a hard rule with The Orville: the crew can never be TOO perfect. It’s the one thing that I think makes The Orville come across as almost a parody at times, but I think it’s the reason Seth doesn’t see it that way. The biggest thing separating TNG and Orville is the people. Even though the TNG crew made mistakes, they were always still slightly better than “us” – a reminder of Roddenberry’s vision of a better future. MacFarlane lets us believe that things will improve and be better than they are, but at the core, humans will still be humans. And in this case, that includes stupid plans such as lying to a new species to gain trust. Again, it feels out of place in this season, but it does fit to what I believe it Seth’s underlying design of the show to give it just a little separation from the source material.

Regardless, I’ll still take this episode over some of the missteps of past seasons. It was still a strong entry to what has been a great season!

This episode felt like it would have been two separate episodes if shot for FOX.

I thought this was one of the show’s most interesting scripts, and disagree with the idea that the different subplots were “superfluous”, “overlong” or “disconnected”.

In the first plot we have the original Kaylons being enslaved by their alien makers. But note that their type of enslavement is very specific. They’re made to be housewives, and forced to take on traditionally “feminine” roles (cooking, cleaning, house chores etc). Like we see “The Two Topas”, they’re being forced into gender roles against their will, and equality in the episode is specifically linked to freedom from these assigned roles.

Next we have Lamar and Talla’s subplot. Here Talla embodies traditionally male gender tropes. She’s stronger, she dumps Lamar, and he’s weaker, more sensitive, and discarded like a one-night stand. Lamar tries to “be more of a man”, “man up and take the pain”, and she tries to “be more gentle”, but they ultimately can’t live up to traditional tropes. They’re unequal on some fundamental, biological level, just like the original Kaylons, who become superior to their “partners” and wipe out all life on their planet.

This is contrasted with the Claire and Isaac subplot. Claire wants to “feminize” a cold, emotionally distant Isaac. She wants a less “masculine”, more “touchy”, “feely”, “emotional” lover. She wants a relationship in which they’re both equals. Again, this fails. Isaac’s body rejects an “emotiona chip”, and Claire refuses to wipe away Isaac’s identity in favor for the new “feminized Isaac”. Equality again fails.

The final subplot involves Mercer and Kelly negotiating with matriarchal aliens. The aliens live in an unequal society in which they oppress men. Mercer and Kelly initially make the same mistake as those in the other subplots: they play-act roles they’re not, she pretending to be a traditionally masculine figure of authority, and he pretending to be an “effeminate”, “subjugated” person. They allow themselves to be forced into someone else’s roles.

The lesson Mercer and Kelly teach the aliens is that its okay for all these gender roles to be in flux. She can sleep around and make command decisions (traditionally masculine tropes), and he can be both the guy in charge and intimately dependent upon her.

The final scene, in which Issac talks to Charli, encapsulates this. He makes it explicit that he’s superior to her, doesn’t need her help, that she’s below him, but then realizes his mistake, and makes a request for her assistance (the final shot, beautiful in its implications, is of them working side by side). She, conversely, realizes her own mistake. An entire race, she says, is not one thing. And by extension an entire sex and/or gender is not one thing either.

So in the way the episode homes in on sex, gender, equality and freedom, it plays like an expanded version of “The Two Topas”. Only where that episode focused on biology, this one focuses on performance (social cues, codes, expectations etc).

Anyway, I thought this was one of the show’s most interesting and ambitious scripts. I agree, however, that the pacing of the episode is off. Like the first two episodes, this one isn’t paced and structured well (scenes go on too long, jokes are cut too tightly etc), writer David Goodman perhaps accustomed to 25 and 45 minute running times, and so not sure how to balance a 70 minute episode.

Jammer said: “Why does a consumer model have Head Cannons™? I suppose you could argue they could provide automated self-defence against a home invasion, but I sure as hell wouldn’t have that feature in my home.”

The impression I got was that they weren’t originally made with guns in their heads. The episode seems to imply that they were secretly evolving. They become smarter, more conscious, more sentient, and over time secretly augmented themselves with secret head cannons. — TheRealTrent on Thu, Jul 14, 2022, 10:48pm (UTC -5) at https://www.jammersreviews.com/orville/s3/from-unknown-graves.php

If they really want to have a plot about a pure patriarchy/matriarchy, I think it’d be much more interesting if the species’ sexual dimorphism was extreme and literally included their brains/intelligence/etc.

Like what if self-awareness only occurred in one sex, and the other sex (assuming only two) had the relative intelligence/self awareness of a dog.

There is a lot more to explore there… because if the assumption is always the two sexes are essentially the same (with inferred personality differences) then we are just exploring “Sexism is bad” and while that is fine… I’m simply more interested in “Damn, we maybe can’t judge anything about other species”.

Just a thought. — Gauntlet on Thu, Jul 14, 2022, 11:00pm (UTC -5) at https://www.jammersreviews.com/orville/s3/from-unknown-graves.php

This is a fair review – the main plot resolution didn’t really make sense and the Kaylon back story didn’t get it’s due, but that being said, I’ll take these minor issue for the over-all love I’m feeling for this series: it really is terrific and the best Trek material since Voyager

This was just an awful episode. I know they can’t all be action packed and it’s good to do a character or emotional episode but this was terrible. I honestly felt like I was watching a Secret Hideout Star Trek episode. It was just badly put together. I will give them props… I thought they were going to alter the Isaac character. Which would have really really sucked. I like him as is. But the negotiation plot… Holy cow. Can this crew really be that dense? Start off diplomatic relations with a butt-kissing lie then “ease them into” our way of thinking? Good grief!

One thing I did enjoy… The “people are stupid. Look at who they elected” was a nice jab at our situation today.

At any rate, I’m not a fan of Isaac learning emotions just like Data learning “to be human” was an awful aspect of him. It’s a weak story line and I just don’t see it going anywhere.

Giant Freakin Robot

Star Trek's Best Character Has A Secret Tie To James Bond

Posted: April 26, 2024 | Last updated: April 28, 2024

Star Trek’s Best Character Has A Secret Tie To James Bond

In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Picard is a very serious captain, but he does have some unconventional ways of blowing off steam. For example, he was fond of the fictional 20th-century Dixon Hill novels in which the titular detective conducts investigations in one noir-style chapter after another. Picard likes to recreate the investigations in the holodeck, but that’s not the real surprise: the shocking thing is that Star Trek writers changed this detective’s name from “Dixon Steele” because they thought Picard’s detective sounded too much like Remington Steele, the successful show starring James Bond star Pierce Brosnan.

The Big Goodbye

This strange Star Trek tale goes all the way back to the first season TNG episode “The Big Goodbye.” Picard recreates a Dixon Hill investigation on the holodeck and is joined by both Dr. Crusher Data for what is meant to be a campy adventure filled with film-noir tropes. However, in what would become a major Star Trek tradition, our characters get trapped inside the holodeck with the safety protocols turned off and must play their fictional characters perfectly in what has now become a life-or-death struggle.

Homages To Film Noir

What might seem obvious (at least, if you’ve watched enough old movies) is that this episode is filled with homages to film noir, which is why it calls back to such cinematic classics as The Maltese Falcon. Originally, screenwriter Tracy Tormé wanted Trek’s fictional detective to be named “Dixon Steele” because that was the name of the lead character in his favorite Humphrey Bogart movie, In a Lonely Place. An homage to Bogart wasn’t a problem, but the Star Trek writers ultimately changed the name because it closely resembled the title of a popular show featuring future Pierce Brosnan, who would later famously play James Bond.

<p>Before he brought everyone’s favorite British spy to life on the big screen, Pierce Brosnan became a household name thanks to the success of his TV show Remington Steele. That show had a very cheeky premise: when a female private investigator had trouble finding clients due to general misogyny (it was even more abundant than cocaine back in the ‘80s), she developed a fictional male investigator named Remington Steele. You guessed it: Pierce Brosnan (who plays a con man as charming as he is conniving) embodies this persona, and he and the real investigator begin a professional partnership that eventually turns romantic.</p>

Remington Steele

Before he brought everyone’s favorite British spy to life on the big screen, Pierce Brosnan became a household name thanks to the success of his TV show Remington Steele. That show had a very cheeky premise: when a female private investigator had trouble finding clients due to general misogyny (it was even more abundant than cocaine back in the ‘80s), she developed a fictional male investigator named Remington Steele. You guessed it: Pierce Brosnan (who plays a con man as charming as he is conniving) embodies this persona, and he and the real investigator begin a professional partnership that eventually turns romantic.

<p>Captain Picard’s favorite fictional detective would have had the name Dixon Steele if not for the success of that other ‘80s show featuring one of the best James Bond actors. The similarities in the names Remington Steele and Dixon Steele were bad enough, but there was also the matter of the similar premise. Remington Steele was a popular show featuring a private investigator, and that show ended the same year (1987) that TNG premiered, so audience comparisons between it and the name of a private investigator on Star Trek would have been inevitable.</p>

The Name Change Made Sense

Captain Picard’s favorite fictional detective would have had the name Dixon Steele if not for the success of that other ‘80s show featuring one of the best James Bond actors. The similarities in the names Remington Steele and Dixon Steele were bad enough, but there was also the matter of the similar premise. Remington Steele was a popular show featuring a private investigator, and that show ended the same year (1987) that TNG premiered, so audience comparisons between it and the name of a private investigator on Star Trek would have been inevitable.

Our Man Bashir

While the Star Trek writers were hesitant to draw connections between Picard’s favorite detective and Pierce Brosnan’s hit show, they later had no problem heavily referencing James Bond. In the Deep Space Nine episode “Our Man Bashir,” we find out that the station’s doctor doesn’t like to play detective…instead, he enjoys a holosuite game where he is a debonair secret agent in the vein of James Bond. Less than two years after this episode premiered, Pierce Brosnan would make his debut as 007 in Goldeneye, ushering in a new golden age for a franchise that had stalled out after the disappointing box office of 1989’s Licence to Kill.

<p>Many users simply felt that reusing props wasn’t a big deal, considering the timelines are pretty close in Discovery and Strange New Worlds. Some fans took it a step further to point out that Section 31 had already fought the Gorn, so the phaser used in Discovery was already an advanced model, and using them again was accurate to the lore. Section 31 is known for using advanced technology, so it’s possible that they already had advanced phasers that the rest of Starfleet wouldn’t have access to in the Discovery timeline.</p>

The Picard show may have ended, but weirdly enough, the franchise is very likely to channel James Bond yet again even without this Dixon Hill superfan. We don’t yet know the plot of the upcoming Section 31 movie featuring Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh, but there’s a good chance we’ll see her engaging in secret agent antics as she tries to keep her activities hidden from other Starfleet personnel. If we’re really lucky, we’ll get at least one instance of Yeoh introducing herself to a character by saying “The name’s Georgiou…Philippa Georgiou.”

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Screen Rant

Star trek: tng has a surprising fleetwood mac connection.

A member of Fleetwood Mac made a surprising appearance on an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Mick Fleetwood, drummer of Fleetwood Mac, made a cameo in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2 episode "Manhunt" as an alien ambassador.
Fleetwood was a big Star Trek fan and requested to be part of the show, shaving his beard for the role and beaming on board the USS Enterprise-D.
Many musicians have made surprise appearances in Star Trek, including Michelle Phillips, Iggy Pop, and Tom Morello, showcasing the franchise's appeal to diverse celebrities.

Classic 1970s rock band Fleetwood Mac has a surprising connection to Star Trek: The Next Generation . Beginning with its two-episode premiere in 1987, TNG brought live-action Star Trek back to television for the first time since the cancelation of Star Trek: The Original Series . While many fans of TOS were initially nervous about a Star Trek series that didn't feature Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) or Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Star Trek: The Next Generation went on to become a massive hit and one of the greatest science fiction series of all time.

Thanks to reruns and syndication, Star Trek: The Original Series developed a significant fanbase in the years following its cancelation. Many celebrities have talked about their love of Star Trek over the years, but some went even further, requesting a role in a Trek project. For example, Whoopi Goldberg reached out to TNG's producers and eventually took on the role of Ten Forward bartender Guinan, who appeared in 29 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation , as well as the movies Star Trek Generations and Star Trek: Nemesis . Mick Fleetwood, the drummer and leader of Fleetwood Mac, was also a huge Star Trek fan. After requesting a role in Trek , Fleetwood appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2, episode 19, "Manhunt" as an alien ambassador.

10 Star Trek Guest Star Actors You Forgot About

Mick fleetwood was in an episode of star trek: tng, fleetwood was unrecognizable in a cameo in tng season 2, episode 19, "manhunt.".

Mick Fleetwood plays an Antedian dignitary in the Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2 episode, "Manhunt." Both of whom spend most of the episode in a catatonic state. Fleetwood was a big Star Trek fan and wanted to be a part of the show in whatever way he could, although he did have one request. In a 2015 interview with the Vancouver Sun , Fleetwood spoke about his TNG role, saying he told producers that he would shave his beard " if you promise me that I get to beam down or beam up." Due to the extensive prosthetics required to play the fish-like Antedian, Fleetwood did shave his beard, and the Antedians were beamed onto the USS Enterprise-D at the beginning of the episode. Despite being unrecognizable, Mick Fleetwood got his wish to be part of the Star Trek universe.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2 's "Manhunt," the USS Enterprise-D picks up two Antedian dignitaries, including Mick Fleetwood who need transportation to a conference on Pacifica. Soon after the Antedians arrive, the USS Enterprise-D receives a message that Lwaxana Troi (Majel Barrett) will also be traveling to the conference. The mother of Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), Lwaxana has entered a part of a Betazoid woman's life known as The Phase, and she is determined to find a husband. She initially sets her sights on Captain Picard, but ultimately leaves the Enterprise without a partner. Before she departs, however, Lwaxana reveals that the Antedian dignitaries are actually assassins who were planning to set off a bomb at the conference.

Lwaxana Troi had previously been introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1, episode 11, "Haven," and, in total, she appeared in six episodes of TNG and 3 of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Star Trek Has Other Surprising Musician Cameos

Star trek has a long history of celebrity cameos, including multiple rock stars and singers..

Mick Fleetwood was not the only musician who popped up in Star Trek over the years. Before Fleetwood's appearance on Star Trek: The Next Generation , Michelle Phillips of the pop group The Mamas & the Papas portrayed Picard's former flame, Jenice Manheim, in TNG season 1, episode 24, "We'll Always Have Paris." The "Godfather of Punk," Iggy Pop appeared in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 6, episode 10, "The Magnificent Ferengi," as a Vorta named Yelgrun. DS9's executive producer Ira Steven Behr was responsible for casting Iggy Pop, as he was a big fan of the musician.

Tom Morello, former guitarist for Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, was such a big Star Trek fan that he reportedly contacted producer Rick Berman to request a role in Star Trek: Insurrection . Although Morello briefly appeared as a member of the Son'a species, his character was uncredited and barely seen. Because of this, he was asked to return for Star Trek: Voyager season 6, episode 20, "Good Shepherd," in which he portrayed Starfleet Crewman Mitchell. With its massive and dedicated fanbase, the Star Trek franchise has had quite a few memorable celebrity cameos, including several famous musicians.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star trek: deep space nine, star trek voyager.

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