When Star Trek Discovery is going to make it to the airwaves is anyone’s guess. Until then, though, we’ve got what looks like the next best thing: Seth MacFarlane’s spoof of the franchise, The Orville.
Seth MacFarlane leads The Orville. Image: Fox
Fox just released the first trailer for the show, which stars MacFarlane and Adrianne Palicki as a divorced couple who are basically Kirk and Spock on a brand new spaceship with a suitably crazy crew. Here’s the trailer.
I’m not usually a fan of MacFarlane’s shows because they’re always so on the nose with their references and humour. But, in the case of The Orville, I think that works perfectly. There are no qualms that this show is exactly what it is, a spoof of Star Trek, and adding in the romantic dynamic is a fun touch. I’m here for this.
The Orville will air in the US later this year on Fox. An Australian broadcaster has not yet been announced.
Comments
32 responses to “The First Trailer For Seth MacFarlane’s Star Trek Spoof, The Orville, Looks Perfect”
I need this in my life. This looks like Fox is doing Star Trek better than it’s been done in over a decade!!!!
[Somehow gets all distribution rights outside of Foxtel and proceeds to hoard said rights thus making Foxtel the only option to the view the content.]
[Gets popcorn and waits to see what happens.]
Jokes aside, I don’t mean to be harsh but this is what I’ve noticed with TNG.
After Roddenberry died, it really started to improve. Again, I’m not trying to be mean but maybe some of the problems with Star Trek as a whole might have been that Roddenberry just didn’t take the step back he needed to and just guide the vision while letting those better equip than him take care of the details.
No you’re absolutely right. The documentary about Roddenbury nailed it. He was stuck in the old format, as of season 3 of TNG when it went season long arcs, it was ‘fixed’. Roddenbury was a notorious power hungry arsehole towards the end of his life, many have said it.
Which documentary? There are as many of them as there are star dates.
lol. There’s one on Netflix specifically about the making of TOS and Gene Roddenbury himself. “Chaos on the Bridge” I think it’s called? Couple that, with the many things you can read about him including Majel Barrets own words about what he was like near the end of his life (definitely brough on by Paramounts treatment of him) and you get a good picture painted of the guy. I mean he mighta been a bit sour, but in the end, it was brought on by being shafted continuously realistically I guess.
Majel Barrett was a wonderful person, I was more sad when she died than for Gene. And I don’t mean that as any disrespect to Gene, Star Trek is an incredible genre-defining legacy to leave and I’m eternally grateful for his work.
Absolutely. Majel actually holds the record for person in most episodes, given she’s the constant computer voice in all series, just Colm appeared physically in more apparently (Closely, I think followed by Michael Dorn?) But from what I read, Majel was pretty much loved by all. I remember watching an Avery Brooks interview, where he said some of the best times on DS9 were when Majel Barrett would cameo as Lwaxana Troi and they’d all have an absolute riot.
There are a lot of people bashing this series but personally I think it looks fun! Can’t wait for it!
I would be worried if people weren’t bashing it.
It’s often an indicator that his work is on point.
Very true. Just gonna say the hate towards TED before it came out was friggin insurmountable. Then it hit and suddenly everyone loved it…
I held off on Ted 2 because it didn’t review all that well.
Caught it on streaming and loved it.
Same for, A million ways to die in the west
God I loved A Million Ways to Die in the West. What I didn’t love was they ruined one of its best jokes in the trailer with Doc Brown 🙁
Surely the dumb captain vs the intelligent, ever suffering crew thing has been done too, too often already. And the marital/divorcee tension thing just harks back to bad 1970s sitcoms. Personally, I can’t see much good coming of this at all.
I don’t really get the “dumb captain” vibe with this though.
You clearly didn’t watch the same trailer I did then. Like the first 15 seconds where he was the last choice of 3000 available captains? Or where he ate stones thinking they were mints? etc. etc. etc. etc.
Did you watch the rest of the trailer after the first 15 seconds?
Yes, but you’re clearly not interested in doing anything but trolling. Still, to briefly humour you, and without itemising the entire rest of the trailer to rebut your throw-away contradictions… not comprehending the time acceleration ray has any value other than decomposing fruit, stepping on a crew member, and plenty more etcs. Regardless, I appreciate that stupidity isn’t something one cures by arguing on the Internet so I’m just going to leave things at that. Feel free to have the last word.
So you call me a troll based on one sentence I’ve said. Okay then.
The “dumb captain” thing to me is closer to what Zapp Brannigan is. The captain that thinks he’s awesome, and many others not directly in his command also think he’s awesome, but he’s actually just a giant tool who has no clue what he’s doing. He’s only interested in making himself look good so he can get the ladies and if that means walking into obvious traps or sacrificing his crew members so be it. He constantly gives ridiculous orders and doesn’t understand why something he’s ordered to be done isn’t actually possible.
I don’t get that vibe with this. What I take away from this is a guy that’s been given an opportunity he’s wanted forever but didn’t expect and genuinely trying to do it right. You’ll notice in the scene with the time acceleration ray that his ex immediately backs up his banana quip to ask if it does other types of fruit. This implies that there is a chemistry there between captain and crew (even if that crew is his ex wife) that simply isn’t there in the “dumb captain” scenario. He’s also aware of his crew’s various strengths (asking the alien girl to knock the reinforced door down), chastises his crew when they do something wrong (drinking beer while flying a ship at 9:15am), and his crew have a level of respect for him (the blob thing he accidentally steps on also asks “are you okay?” after he’s ensured the blob is okay).
These reasons and more is why I don’t get the “dumb captain” vibe from the trailer. But go ahead and call me a troll and call me stupid if it makes you feel better about yourself.
Isn’t it nice to be able to back up with a couple of one sentence contradictions with an actual argument?
Well, at least I can now see where the problem is. When I say “dumb” I mean “not very smart”, think Maxwell Smart. When you read “dumb”, you think “Trump-style, sociopathic egomaniac”.
What, you never saw GALAXY QUEST? It did the same tropes and was awesome…
It’s a spoof. It’s deliberately pokes fun at sci-fi and drama tropes. That’s the point.
Yes, Yes and YES… awesome.
I’m cautiously interested.
I like Star Trek. This looks fun. But Family Guy is a terrible show so my hopes aren’t high.
I’m alright with his animated stuff, but he’s a consistently terrible live action actor.
But if you’re going for full ham…
Fox equals Ten unless Foxtel decide to be bastards in which case it equals torrent
Adrianne Palicki FTW!
Is that Julian Bashir’s dad? Let the fan theories begin!
As great as this looks, everyone needs to remember.
It’s sci-fi.
It’s on Fox.
Please don’t be dicks Fox and cancel this halfway through the first season.
it’s on fox, which means it’ll get cancelled after the first season lol
I can see the appeal that some people have for this show, my friend was really excited to show me this trailer, but I’m afraid I just didn’t view it as something I’d watch
I can see this being a huge hit and a multi-series winner..sort like Firefly. Oh wait..