I'll keep it brief but Season 1 of The Orville just ended, or as many sci-fi fans call it "Seth Trek." In the beginning (as in episode 1 and before) The Orville was not predicted to do well. Rotten Tomatoes had critics near universally rejecting the show but it wasn't long before fans overwhelming approved and it remains one of the most deeply divided shows on network television even today:
We quickly saw The Orville wasn't a Trek Parody and it certainly wasn't Family Guy on a star ship. The Orville was a direct competitor to Star Trek, a solid sci fi series of its own. As I predicted the lowbrow humor tapered off as the season progressed. In the season finale, Mad Idolatry, I'm hard pressed to remember any. There was still humor, but not the kind I had to feel bad about myself for laughing at.
One common theme in the season, and, slight spoiler alert, a major component of the final episode, is Seth MacFarlane's atheism. Star Trek fans can't be surprised as I can recall no talk of major religions still being practiced on Earth in TNG, DS9, or Voyager. In DS9 the Bajorans were quite religious but their "gods" were wormhole aliens who the main characters met. It was no longer faith but science, they existed.
In The Original Series, an era when religion still had a say what made it onto television there were some references to Christianity but even then no real mention of Earth religions. No religion talk among the crew. No church services, no humans talking religion or saying they couldn't eat certain foods on certain days, not humans anyway.
Star Trek V did have a mad man try to make contact with "God" who he believed lived in the center of the Galaxy but it turned out, not to be him. (Late spoiler alert!)
What Star Trek didn't do though was rub it in the faces of religious people that religions tend to disappear at a society gets more advanced. This most recent Orville episode almost verbatim called religion a crutch used by primitive societies to maintain order long enough for them to advance, I am certain that is what McFarlane and many other atheists would describe them as well- next they would blame them for the wars as if if somehow religion didn't exist people wouldn't have found an excuse to fight over something else.
In summary, most fans I believe were pleasantly surprised by The Orville. We can see how it would easily have worked as a Star Trek series set in the post Voyager years, a time of relative peace as the Alpha Quadrant rebuilds after the Dominion war and there will be new enemies other than Klingons, Romulans, and Borg. But on the other hand it works well, perhaps better, as its own show establishing its own canon. It can pay tribute to Trek without hurting the Trek timeline.
All in all I will deeply miss the show while it is gone and can only hope Fox ordered a full 20+ episode season 2. We know there is a 13th episode out there already finished that was supposed to be part of this season- I wonder if it gets leaked sometime before fall 2018 to keep us interested and talking about it.
We quickly saw The Orville wasn't a Trek Parody and it certainly wasn't Family Guy on a star ship. The Orville was a direct competitor to Star Trek, a solid sci fi series of its own. As I predicted the lowbrow humor tapered off as the season progressed. In the season finale, Mad Idolatry, I'm hard pressed to remember any. There was still humor, but not the kind I had to feel bad about myself for laughing at.
One common theme in the season, and, slight spoiler alert, a major component of the final episode, is Seth MacFarlane's atheism. Star Trek fans can't be surprised as I can recall no talk of major religions still being practiced on Earth in TNG, DS9, or Voyager. In DS9 the Bajorans were quite religious but their "gods" were wormhole aliens who the main characters met. It was no longer faith but science, they existed.
In The Original Series, an era when religion still had a say what made it onto television there were some references to Christianity but even then no real mention of Earth religions. No religion talk among the crew. No church services, no humans talking religion or saying they couldn't eat certain foods on certain days, not humans anyway.
Star Trek V did have a mad man try to make contact with "God" who he believed lived in the center of the Galaxy but it turned out, not to be him. (Late spoiler alert!)
What Star Trek didn't do though was rub it in the faces of religious people that religions tend to disappear at a society gets more advanced. This most recent Orville episode almost verbatim called religion a crutch used by primitive societies to maintain order long enough for them to advance, I am certain that is what McFarlane and many other atheists would describe them as well- next they would blame them for the wars as if if somehow religion didn't exist people wouldn't have found an excuse to fight over something else.
In summary, most fans I believe were pleasantly surprised by The Orville. We can see how it would easily have worked as a Star Trek series set in the post Voyager years, a time of relative peace as the Alpha Quadrant rebuilds after the Dominion war and there will be new enemies other than Klingons, Romulans, and Borg. But on the other hand it works well, perhaps better, as its own show establishing its own canon. It can pay tribute to Trek without hurting the Trek timeline.
All in all I will deeply miss the show while it is gone and can only hope Fox ordered a full 20+ episode season 2. We know there is a 13th episode out there already finished that was supposed to be part of this season- I wonder if it gets leaked sometime before fall 2018 to keep us interested and talking about it.
