Still Weird. Still Waiting. This could've been a premise on any episode of Star Trek. The Orville meets up with a fellow Union ship broadcasting a distress signal and carrying Ed Mercer's parents. When Mercer (MacFarlane) and ex-wife/first officer Kelly (Adrianne Pallicki from Agents of SHIELD and Friday Night Lights) take a shuttle over to help out, the fellow ship turns out to be a hologram. They are whisked off to the zoo of a "higher level species" while Lt. Alara is left in command all by herself despite her inexperience. While Mercer and Kelly figure out the hopelessness of their imprisonment, Alara has the classic character arc of coming to terms with the responsibilities of leadership. Eventually she learns not only confidence in asserting herself but the confidence necessary for breaking the rules to go rescue their captain and first officer. They succeed, she gets a medal, and Bortus lays an egg. No really. "Command Performance" So what works? Really this is a solid Star Trek premise, as I said, and it specifically feels like an episode of Voyager for some reason. There were probably several episodes that shared similarities to this. Not just the high concept of being caught like a fish on the lure of a higher species, but the basic trope of a mid-level officer forced to deal with leadership. This is all good stuff and pretty competently executed. Unlike the pilot, more of the side characters got to carry the screen time with the Captain indisposed, namely Alara, the cute little alien with super strength. What stands out is the humor. It's a little less [insert punchline] and a little more organic to the style and tone of the show this week. When the Captain's parents get on the viewscreen (played wonderfully by guest Jeffrey Tambor) and start recognizing his ex-wife and talking about colon exams, I could really get a feel for the show's potential for awkward casualness (a la Seinfeld). The same is true of the domestic imprisonment Mercer and Kelly experience at the zoo where they are likely to be trapped forever, but nonetheless fall into silly old bickering about eating cereal noisily and drinking beer at nine in the morning ("...like the Germans do." "You're not German!" "Well you're not Frankenberry!"). A few other references to Dora the Explorer and reality television were unexpected and made me chuckle if only because Star Trek would never sully itself to such pop-culture homages. Where it falls apart... Similar gags regarding the gender-less Bortus who needs time off to sit on his egg are equally ridiculous but somewhat off-putting. If it's supposed to be a metaphor for the gender fluidity and trans-sexuality issues of today, then why do they make fun of him so much about it? Even in-story, why do they act so surprised when another species does thing different from humans? The lack of logic undermines the joke, and the joke undermines the social relevance. MacFarlane has praised Star Trek's ability to tackles complex or taboo social issues through the lens of science fiction but I'm not sure it counts as commentary simply to allude to it and then make fun. They either need to go deeper into the issue (something next week's episode seems bound for) or subvert it. If they want comedy, then they need to actually be satirical or ironic, not just crude, irreverent or slapstick about. If they want to make commentary, then they need to be more thoughtful. Herein lies the central flaw in The Orville is that I think they've managed to neither have their cake nor eat it, either. Anyway, it's a fine line that I suspect The Orville will be not so much walking but rather stumbling over in a drunken stupor. Maybe they can find a way to do both in contradiction to each other and achieve some kind of rare artistic vision in spite of itself, or maybe it will flounder in trying to have it both ways afterall. Generally I'd say this week's episode moved in the right direction compared to last week's, but it's too early to say if this kind of writing is the highly precise art of drunken boxing or just a plain drunken stupor. Conclusion: The jury is still out. There's never quite been a show like this, so I'm willing to give it some latitude as it finds its legs. On the other hand, it's still just an unnatural mashing of Star Trek at it's most formulaic with Family Guy at it's most uninspired, so if it fails, it won;'t be due to over-reaching on originality but rather under-reaching. It's not all that funny despite the obviousness of it's few attempts, and it's not that insightful or exciting either. It's gonna have to be good at something soon, though, or it'll be a quick, short season. And let's not forget, "real" Star Trek is only coming closer on the horizon. Episode 1 Episode 3 Episode 4 Don't forget to Like and Subscribe!
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