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Reviews
The Orville: A Happy Refrain (2019)
Magical
From the very start this episode makes every second count with funny moments, heart warming moments, moments of loving homage to The Next Generation, moments of wonderful character development, moments of The Orville's own unique brand of eccentricity and moments of utter unashamed feel good entertainment. Isaac taking Claire's "Lets turn the tables" comment a little too literally is one of the best laugh out loud moments on TV in a long time. And the truly touching yet totally bizarre Singing In The Rain scene on the bridge is pure joy.
The Orville: Ja'loja (2018)
Great start to season2
Starting season 2 with what is essentially a bottle show along the lines of the TNG episode "Data's Day" was a risk but one that seems to have paid off. Instead of a big action episode we have a series of amusing takes on various crew relationships, as a result this is more a getting reaquainted episode than a throw you back in at the deep end one. The one tenuous link between the stories is Bortus' Ja'loja ceromony and party which is essentually his yearly trip to the bathroom! Throughout the episode we are introduced to several new charcters and reaquainted with the rest. Resulting is some genuinely funny scenes: Ed trying to spy on Kelly and her new boyfriend, Bortus trying to arrange a "Mate" for Alara, Isaac helping Claire through some difficult parenting issues with his usual bluntness and Gordon's hopless chat up attempts. All in all a refreshingly light hearted but character developing start to season 2.
The Orville: New Dimensions (2017)
Another well balanced episode.
New Dimensions gives us what the Orville does best, an effortless mix of humour, character developing interactions and Star Trek style stories and action. Special credit goes to the CGI department for some of the best work of the series so far, the depiction of the world inside the 2 dimensional space was particularly well done. Nice also to see LaMarr moving from a superfluous bridge crew role to engineering which somewhat echos Geordie LeForge's TNG season 2 move, hopefully as with Geordie the will give the character more to do than simply act as the shows comedy double act with Malloy. The only down side of this is the loss of Chief Engineer Newton, who could have shown a lot of promise had he been given more on screen time.
The Orville (2017)
Great Episodic Sci-Fi show that shows optimism can still work.
With almost every Sci-Fi show these days eschewing even the slightest note of optimism to project a dark, dystopian vision of the future it's refreshing to find a show that bucks the trend and delivers the sort of light and bright Sci-Fi not seen since Star Trek: The Next Generation. Initially I was dubious that the creator of Family Guy could pull off a Sci-Fi show that wasn't simply a low brow send up of Star Trek, however Seth Macfarlane's love and respect for Star Trek is obvious and The Orville is more a homage and loving recreation of the 1990's Star Trek Style than a parody. From the outset The Orville looks to capture the magic that made shows such as TNG and DS9 hits, with a stirring orchestral theme over the Star Trek-esque CGI opening credits (it makes a nice change to see proper opening credits and not some 15 second or less flash), vibrant sets and costumes and an emphasis on positivity. However The Orville also manages to at the same time feel fresh and fun with its mix of action, character driven plots and generally well balanced and at times surprisingly subtle comedy. Already individual characters have been given their moments to shine and develop which bodes well for the future. This really is a show not to be missed and will be especially loved by those with a soft spot for the Next Generation.