I’ve written at length over the last year about the current contradiction present in the ongoing Star Trek universe. To wit, the recent movies (going back at least to Star Trek: Nemesis and obviously the rebooted continuity) have had to juggle the needs of the many (audiences who crave big-scale blockbuster action) with the needs of the few (hardcore Star Trek fans who prefer more philosophy and less slam-bang spectacle).
The irony is that the movies cost way too much compared to the actual overseas appeal of the Star Trek movies, and said big budgets and Star Wars-ish action beats have gone toward conventional event movie thrills that have turned off the hardcore fans. Even the most recent two-part pilot for CBS All Access’s Star Trek Discovery was arguably a TV-scaled variation of same, offering huge spectacle to plant its flag in the sand.
I bring all of this up because, to my shock and delight, I am officially a big fan of Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville. The sci-fi Fox episodic, which aired its fourth episode last night, was sold as a kind of “Family Guy meets Star Trek” farce, but it’s something a little trickier. The Orville is closer to something like Sports Night set aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise. It’s an optimistic look at good people doing a good job that struggles at being a comedy when it would rather be a drama.
At a glance, Star Trek Discovery may end up being Studio 60 to The Orville’s 30 Rock. The comparison is not related to quality, merely in terms of initial intentions (a very grandiose sci-fi actioner versus a somewhat self-poking workplace comedy).But, four episodes in, I can already argue MacFarlane has ironically given Star Trek fans what they claim to want from the sci-fi property.
By not having a budget (or requirements) for wall-to-wall spectacle, the hour-long Fox show is forced to focus on character, chemistry, sci-fi plotting and moral debates that have partially defined Gene Roddenberry’s property for generations. Being a network TV show, it is forced to be the kind of Star Trek that fans claim the recent movies have neglected in favor of four-quadrant blockbuster thrills.
The Orville is not a spoof, but rather a straight-faced Trek show with characters who are funny and can laugh at funny events. The show has quickly moved away from the broader pitch of Family Guy in space and has quickly become essentially a Star Trek drama with periodic jokes and one-liners. The low-key approach works as a counterpoint to the rough-and-tumble recent movies (and the action-filled Discovery pilot) and offers a core variation on Star Trek.
Optimistic to its core, The Orville is a Star Trek show for folks who want something a bit old-school. I haven’t seen the third episode of Star Trek Discovery, and I frankly don’t wish to make it a competition. The best-case scenario is that the CBS show, with a superb lead in Sonequa Martin-Green, offers high-quality, big-scale Star Trek while Fox’s “homage” offers a more traditional Trek which emphasizes cast chemistry and social issues of the day.
Obviously, The Orville may yet crash and burn, as (presuming a 24-episode season) we’re only one-sixth of the way through, but by ripping off rather than revamping and by being hamstrung by network TV production values and thus putting an emphasis on character and social parable over sci-fi action, it has a pretty good shot at becoming the kind of Star Trek that fans claim to want so badly. I’m hoping this variation indeed lives long and prospers.
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As for STD, they can go far far away!..........