The Orville New Horizons: Counting Electric Sheep

For a show created by Seth MacFarlane, who also created Family Guy, the first episode of season 3 of The Orville, was surprisingly lacking humor and instead hit hard with some philosophical and ethical dilemmas that face the crew.  In this case, dealing with hatred, bullying, grief, and suicide. In season two, Isaac (Mark Jackson) is found to not be what they thought he was, as his race enters a deadly war with the Planetary Union.  Isaac, in the end sacrifices himself and helps force a retreat by the Kaylons, but not before hundreds of lives were lost. In the first episode of season three, we see the aftermath when Isaac is revived, and his very presence reminds everyone on board of family and friends gone and that his race is still attempting to kill all biological life.  One new crew member in particular, Charly Burke (Anne Winters), struggles with having to serve with Isaac.  Captain Ed Mercer (Seth MacFarlane) and Commander Kelly Grayson (Adrianne Palicki) try to nip the tension in the bud, but the hatred and bullying continue, and when Dr. Finn’s (Penny Johnson Jerald) son, Ty (Kai Wener), expresses that he wishes Isaac were dead, Isaac sees only one logical course of action to put the crew at ease.

Up to now, I have only watched a couple episodes of the first season and then stopped, not because I didn’t like the show, in fact I felt it was very well done, but because I just didn’t have time.  I had intended to binge watch at some point in time, and after seeing the first episode of season three, I want to even more.  The series both makes fun of and pays homage to Star Trek, but keeps the characters endearing, unique and interesting, with a lighter more upbeat edge.  This actually makes the serious issues tackled hit even harder.  The cast is superb in handling both comedy and drama, mastering the timing needed for both.

The production value on the Orville isn’t quite as good as the current Star Trek Universe shows.  As it is a parody of Star Trek, it is hard not to compare the two.  Specifically, the execution of the computer-generated space battles looked like something out of a video game and not quite as realistic.  It was still good, but not on the same level.  The production design concepts on the other hand is really well done giving the show its own unique look and feel. The alien designs are a bit more interesting with characters that are less humanoid, like Yaphit, a gelatinous entity voiced by the late Norm Macdonald.  The story was paced well, and the show had a good rhythm, especially for an episode where, for the most part they are still retrofitting the ship in dry dock and the real conflict comes from the crews mistrust of serving with a Kaylon.