THE ORVILLE 1x01 “Old Wounds”

Stepping aboard The Orville with Captain Ed Mercer leads you into a pretty rich and diverse universe that’s as intriguing with aliens as Firefly was without them. My immediate takeaway is that Seth MacFarlane knows his creation like pee jokes. What’s excellent about that is Seth can paint us a picture of his broad universe without forcing our attention to only the pertinent parts of it; I think that’s actually the most standout feature of this premiere: the sheer number of alien species we were presented with, but who more often than not provided focus-pulling eye candy rather than facilitating or necessitating any plotline. That gave the episode depth.

The Orville comes into view at the Space Station
Image: FOX

   Of course, there’s a fun plot with a time acceleration device (which, despite how I inferred it from the trailer, wasn’t a gun) and the brilliant evil race the Krill, who, despite their inherent threat, were pretty heavily leveraged by the script into serving as stepping stones for the advancement of the main character subplot, which was the predictable outcome that Kelly – Ed’s ex-wife with an interest in gill-headed Smurfs - would remain aboard as the XO.

   Happily, the Ed/Kelly hate/love dynamic is not only played well by Seth MacFarlane and Adrianne Palicki, but written well. That may sound overly simplistic, but every single scene featuring the pair - with Kelly intent on atoning for her cheating on Ed, and Ed still (despite his denials) furious about it – was faultless, and that’s not easy to achieve.

   But the focus wasn’t only on their relationship (or lack thereof); the rest of the main characters got their turns to shine. We were introduced to Bortus, Alara, Isaac, John and Claire, although the strongest scenes with the rest of the cast were largely run through helmsman Gordon Malloy. Two significant scenes were Gordon – Ed’s best friend and admin of the Kelly Grayson Is A Bitch Facebook page (note the latter descriptor is [probably] not canon) – bumping into Kelly on the way to the toilet (how do you react to seeing your best friend’s ex-wife, who is now your boss?), and Gordon and John’s jovial introduction (two guys in new jobs checking to see if their new colleague is a “jerk” or not is a cute move).

   There’s enough humour across both scenes – and the episode, really – to showcase the tamed comedy aspect of the dramedy that is The Orville, although, extraordinarily, all the best punchlines – the real LOL moments – were spoiled in the trailer. (One exception is Ed and Kelly seeking marriage advice from a Krill commander during a video conference in which it demanded they relinquish the time acceleration device.)

Video conference with a Krill commander
Image: FOX

   It’s also worth mentioning that a lot of the humour is more natural than most people probably give credit for: not only is Gordon and Kelly’s first scene facilitated by Gordon heading to the toilet, but even the dog in the background of a video conference with the scientist on Epselon 2 licking its privates is more than a punchline – it’s a very natural display of human and animal behaviour in a world that, for all the exotic aliens, feels extremely natural.

   There remains plenty to say about this episode, but I want to condense as much as possible into this short review; suffice it to say that all this light-heartedness is matched visually and musically: the show is filled with nothing but colours – bright, burgeoning, welcoming colours – and backed by nothing but uplifting and, on numerous occasions, victorious orchestral music. And Seth MacFarlane’s enthusiasm for his creation is etched in his face in every scene. It’s the kind of infectious I don’t mind being transmitted to me.

   Yet it only feels right to end on a down note – a small criticism amid a sea of praise – but the episode’s final scene between Kelly and Admiral Halsey, in which Kelly admits she was secretly a critical factor in Ed’s promotion to Captain, just fell a little flat. Perhaps due to timing (the episode was stretched at over 44 minutes), but the way the final shot suddenly vanished with Kelly walking away, presumably back to The Orville, just didn’t sit right. The scene was either a bit too much or missing something; I can’t decide. Perhaps it was missing a punchline.

   Something to do with marbles.

RATING: 9/10

POINTS OF NOTE

One of the many extravagant shots of The Orville.
Image: FOX

• The phrase “legendarily racist” is like a long-forgotten Victorian-era swear word that needs to find its way into popular phrase.
• If the show’s CGI budget was exhausted on those long, loving, slow, plentiful shots of The Orville, and they couldn’t shell out for any more, perhaps FOX could just repurpose Wash’s plastic dinosaurs for Gordon?
• Criminally, I haven’t really mentioned those long, loving, slow, plentiful shots of The Orville we saw early on, but how clear was it from their prominence that the production staff were extremely proud of their work? And boy does The Orville redefine “curves”.
• “Do not make eye contact.” Words to live by.