The Orville

I really wanted to like ST:Discovery but when you see Orville you can instantly see why Discovery is a charmless failure. The Orville is more faithful the the Trek legacy. Orville shows no shame in borrowing heavily from Trek, with a large dose of SG1, but unlike other sci-fi collages of late, this has its own distinct personality while embodying everything that's comfortable and familiar about Trek. Design wise it looks right. It's less ambitious than Discovery which veers toward the cinematic, but that works because the screenplay in space is more coherent rather than a mess of special effects. It's cleaner. Humour wise, it's infused with Family Guy but there's also a hint of Red Dwarf. It's not too distracting and it is funny, even if the interjection of humour is superfluous. They could just as easily have played it straight and scored a hit. If I could change anything it would be to tone down the contrast and the colour finish as it's loud on the eye but if that is Orville's only sin then I can live with it. This is what I've missed so very much since the end of Voyager. This plugs the hole nicely. It's Trek Jim, but not as we know it.

From music, cinematography, scripting, casting and subject matter, The Orville is so much closer to the vision of Gene Roddenberry and the values of Star Trek than anything I have seen come out of the Star Trek franchise since Enterprise. S1 E3 moved me to tears over the exploration of controversial ethics. While perhaps suffering in budget, owing to some set and effect shortcommings, that is perhaps even more of a testiment to how amazing this work of art is. Alex Kurtzman would do well to watch this, and perhaps all of the original series, to really understand how the true Star Trek values and vibe are created, and to honour that legacy by producing something worthy of the name, or to pass on the job to someone who will.

The Orville is (in my humble opinion) the best new show to grace the Sci-fi world, in the last decade or more. I grew up watching ST:TNG, SG1 and others. This takes the optimistic view if the future that we all need in a sea of dystopian horrors and combines it with the hard hitting, moral backbone that makes Science Fiction what it is. Topped off with Seth Macfarlains signature humour, it creates an instantly relatable ship, crew and universe. I absolutely love it and can't wait for another season!