The Orville

The Orville is an American science fiction comedy-drama series created by Family Guy creator, Seth MacFarlane that premiered on Sunday, September 10, 2017. New episodes aired Thursdays on Fox during the 2017–18 season. MacFarlane stars as Ed Mercer, an officer in the Planetary Union's line of exploratory space vessels whose career took a downturn following his divorce, and who is given the titular ship as his first command, only to discover that his ex-wife, Kelly Grayson (Adrianne Palicki), has been assigned to be his First Officer. Inspired by the television series Star Trek, the series tells the story of Mercer, Grayson, and the crew of the Orville as they embark on various diplomatic and exploratory missions.

On November 2, 2017, Fox renewed the series for a second season, which will begin with a two-hour premiere on December 30, 2018 during the 2018–19 season.

Premise
The Orville is set on the titular U.S.S. Orville (ECV-197), a mid-level exploratory space vessel in the Planetary Union, a 25th-century interstellar alliance of Earth and many other planets.

Main

 * Seth MacFarlane as Captain Ed Mercer who commands the Orville. Mercer was an up-and-coming officer, believed to be on the fast track to commanding his own heavy cruiser by age 40. However, he caught his wife Kelly in bed with an alien. Over the course of the following year, he is cited for becoming lax in his duties, including six instances of reporting to duty while hung over; but he is informed that, because of the size of the fleet and the retirement of the former captain, the Orville, a mid-level exploratory ship, was in need of a new commanding officer.
 * Adrianne Palicki as Commander Kelly Grayson, the first officer of the Orville and Ed Mercer's ex-wife. The two divorced when Mercer caught Grayson in bed with an alien. Unbeknownst to Mercer, Grayson personally went to Admiral Halsey to plead for her ex-husband to be given a command, stating that, despite some personal setbacks, he deserved it. She asked Halsey to keep that from him when assigned the Orville. Mercer and Grayson decide to put their differences aside, to work together as a team and stay as friends.
 * Penny Johnson Jerald as Doctor Claire Finn, the Chief Medical Officer on the Orville, holding the rank of Lieutenant Commander. A physician of exceptional credentials, she has expertise in molecular surgery, DNA engineering and psychiatry, which could have afforded her the privilege of serving on the heavy cruiser of her choice. She instead chose the mid-level exploratory vessel because, as she explains to Mercer in the pilot, she prefers to request her transfers based on where she feels she is needed, as she feels more stimulated by such assignments. When she tells Mercer she felt he could use her help on his first command, he interprets this as lack of confidence on her part in his competence, though she denies this. Having never found the ideal opportunity to marry, she chose to become a single mother, and her two sons, Marcus and Ty, travel aboard the Orville with her. She repeatedly rebuffs Lt. Yaphit's advances, though they become physically intimate in "Cupid's Dagger" after falling victim to a Retepsian sex pheromone.
 * Scott Grimes as Lieutenant Gordon Malloy, the helmsman of the Orville and Mercer's best friend. Considered the best helmsman in the fleet, he was relegated to desk duty after an attempt to impress a girl resulted in him shearing the door off a cargo bay during a precarious shuttle docking, losing cargo in the process. He was specifically requested by Mercer despite some hesitation by Admiral Halsey, who harbors concern over Malloy's history of crude and juvenile pranks. He is generally comfortable with his reputation for limited intelligence, to the point where he had no problem answering a series of questions from Grayson in the knowledge that she expected him to get them wrong while attending a hearing on the Moclan homeworld regarding whether Bortus's daughter should receive gender reassignment surgery, Grayson using Malloy as an example of how males were not always superior to females.
 * Peter Macon as Lieutenant Commander Bortus, the second officer aboard the U.S.S. Orville. Bortus is from Moclus, a planet where the primary industry is weapons manufacturing and whose inhabitants are a single-gender species (although statistically, one female Moclan is born every seventy-five years). Among the peculiarities of the Moclans are that they urinate only once a year.
 * Halston Sage as Lieutenant Alara Kitan, the Orville's young Chief of Security. She is a member of the Xelayan race, which inhabits a high-gravity planet, giving her greater-than-human strength, allowing her to knock down doors and walls by charging against them, or crush a handheld cube of solid titanium and reshape it into a sphere with her bare hands. She received the Sapphire Star for her role as acting commander after Mercer and Grayson were abducted by the Calivon while Bortus was incubating his egg.
 * J. Lee as Lieutenant (later Lieutenant Commander) John LaMarr. He is navigator of the Orville for most of the first season. He and Malloy strike up an immediate friendship in the first episode. Though intellectually gifted, he learned to hide his intelligence and settle for modest ambitions growing up. When Grayson discovers his high aptitude in "New Dimensions", she encourages him to fulfill his potential. As a result, he acquits himself so well during that episode's crisis that he replaces the outgoing Lt. Commander Newton as the Orville's Chief Engineer.
 * Mark Jackson as Isaac, the Orville's Science and Engineering Officer. Isaac is a member of the artificial, non-biological race from Kaylon-1 that views biological lifeforms, including humans, as inferior. Isaac explains to Mercer in the pilot that the Union's Admiralty offered a posting to any Kaylon willing to accept it, as an attempt to initiate relations between the two powers. Isaac accepted the offer because he saw it as a way to study human behavior. During the course of his time with the crew, he comes to observe and understand aspects of human behavior, such as sarcasm, slang, and practical jokes. Isaac perceives his surroundings with his body's internal sensors, and not with the two glowing blue "eyes" on his face, which are purely aesthetic.

Recurring

 * Victor Garber as Admiral Halsey, Mercer's superior and old friend of Grayson's father
 * Chad Coleman as Klyden, Bortus' mate and father of their child. He revealed that he was actually born a female and had the procedure to correct his gender when he was an infant, only learning about it when he was first examined by a non-Moclan doctor after joining Bortus on his first ship assignment.
 * Norm Macdonald as the voice of Lieutenant Yaphit, an amorphous, gelatinous, shapeshifting engineer on the Orville, who repeatedly attempts to obtain a date with Dr. Finn, and frequently flirts with other females on the ship. Despite his telling her in "Cupid's Dagger" that he is in love with her, she does not reciprocate his attraction, though they become physically intimate in that episode after falling victim to a Retepsian sex pheromone.
 * Larry Joe Campbell as Lieutenant Commander Steve Newton, Chief Engineer of the Orville until episode 1.11, when he leaves to take a new job designing space stations, and is replaced by the promoted Lieutenant Commander LaMarr
 * BJ Tanner as Marcus Finn, elder son of Doctor Claire Finn
 * Kai Wener as Ty Finn, younger son of Doctor Claire Finn
 * Gavin Lee as Nurse Park
 * Mike Henry as Dann, unnamed alien species member of the Engineering staff, who suggests music be played in the Orville's elevators and makes unsuccessful attempts to befriend fellow crew members.
 * Rachael MacFarlane as the voice of the Orville computer
 * Ron Canada as Admiral Tucker
 * Kelly Hu as Admiral Ozawa

Guest stars

 * Rob Lowe as Darulio, the Retepsian archeologist whose affair with Kelly ended her marriage with Mercer
 * Brian George as Doctor Aronov, the leader of the Epsilon II science station
 * Jeffrey Tambor as Ben Mercer, Ed Mercer's father
 * Holland Taylor as Jeannie Mercer, Ed Mercer's mother
 * Jonathan Adams as the Moclan Arbitrator
 * Rena Owen as Heveena
 * Robert Knepper as Hamelac
 * Liam Neeson as Jahavus Dorahl, captain of the derelict multi-generation ship
 * Charlize Theron as Pria Lavesque
 * James Horan as Sazeron, the Krill high priest on the Krill destroyer Yakar
 * Michaela McManus as Teleya, a Krill teacher serving on Krill destroyer Yakar
 * Steven Culp as Wilks
 * Brian Thompson as Drogen, a survivalist on a planet where Finn, Isaac and Finn's children crash in "Into the Fold"
 * Ralph Garman as Kanoot, a Karaoke announcer on the Orville
 * Robert Picardo as Ildis Kitan, father of Alara Kitan
 * Molly Hagan as Drenala Kitan, mother of Alara Kitan.

Development
MacFarlane originally wrote The Orville as a spec script, which was given a 13-episode order by Fox on May 4, 2016, making it the first live-action television series created by MacFarlane, as well as his first live-action starring role on television. Following the project's greenlight, MacFarlane stated, "I've wanted to do something like this show ever since I was a kid, and the timing finally feels right. [...] I think this is gonna be something special." According to MacFarlane, The Orville was inspired by The Twilight Zone and Star Trek. He was also encouraged to sell the series due to the success of Guardians of the Galaxy and Deadpool.

On November 2, 2017, Fox renewed the series for a second season. On November 15, it was reported that episode thirteen of season one would be held back and instead air during the second season due to a gap in broadcast dates caused by the broadcaster's lengthy Christmas programming. It will be a sequel to "About a Girl".

Casting
On July 29, 2016, MacFarlane's role was revealed to be Ed Mercer, the captain of the Orville, while Adrianne Palicki had been cast as Kelly Grayson, Ed's ex-wife and the newly appointed first officer of the Orville, and Scott Grimes, who voices Steve Smith on American Dad! (another show created by MacFarlane), was cast as Gordon Malloy, Ed's best friend whom he hires to pilot the Orville. On August 19, Peter Macon and J Lee were cast as series regulars. On October 31, Halston Sage and Penny Johnson Jerald joined the cast. On December 8, Mark Jackson was cast. On April 3, 2017, Chad L. Coleman was added as a series regular and Larry Joe Campbell was cast in a recurring role.

At San Diego Comic-Con in July 2017, MacFarlane said that Charlize Theron would guest-star in an episode. The two had previously co-starred in A Million Ways to Die in the West. The Orville episode 5, titled "Pria", is the one in which Theron guest-starred.

On February 12, 2018, Jessica Szohr was cast as a regular for season two. On February 21, Chris Johnson was cast in a recurring role.

Filming
On August 24, 2016, Jon Favreau signed on to direct the pilot. Production on the pilot episode began in late 2016, and the rest of the episodes began filming on March 27, 2017. Production wrapped on August 23, 2017. Star Trek veterans Jonathan Frakes and Robert Duncan McNeill, who have directed episodes within the Star Trek franchise, have each directed an episode of The Orville. Four episodes were directed by Brannon Braga, producer of Star Trek: Voyager and co-creator of Star Trek: Enterprise. Filming for the second season began on February 26, 2018.

Visual effects
Studios hired to work on the visual effects of the show include Tippett Studio, CoSA VFX, Pixomondo, Crafty Apes, Fuse FX, Eight VFX and Zoic Studios.

Music
The show uses a 75-piece orchestra for the music in each episode, alongside several different composers. MacFarlane said "We score it like a movie" and "We really put as much into that as we do into the effects."

Critical response
As of March 2018, the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 21% approval rating, with an average rating of 5.06/10 based on 43 critic reviews. The website's consensus reads, "An odd jumble of campiness and sincerity, homage, and satire, The Orville never quite achieves liftoff." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 36 out of 100, based on 21 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

Liz Miller writing for IndieWire compared the series to Star Trek, calling it a rip-off and "Creatively, Morally, and Ethically Bankrupt". She criticized the lack of creativity, the blatant imitation, and was surprised that the show is "uninterested in being a comedy".

Tim Surette at TV Guide says, "The truth is, The Orville was never going to win over critics because it's a throwback and goes against everything modern television is. It's not that The Orville doesn't know what it wants it to be, as critics assume, it's that it wants to be a little bit of everything".

Erik Kain of Forbes gave a positive review of the show with the observation that "All the optimism and sincerity and lightheartedness of Star Trek is here, and in many ways it's kind of wonderful. I'm honestly surprised something like this exists." He says the critics were wrong and suggests their opinions are based on disliking MacFarlane and his type of humor.

Audience response
In the October 15, 2017, episode of The Angry Joe Show, "The Orville Mid-Season Angry Review", host Joe Vargas noted the gulf between the response to the series among critics and viewers, contrasting the Rotten Tomatoes' 19% approval rating from professional critics to the 91% viewer approval rating. Vargas compared this to Star Trek: Discovery, which received an 83% rating from critics, and stated "Star Trek fans – at least the ones that watch my show – like The Orville way more than they like Star Trek: Discovery. Tim Surette of TV Guide also wrote about the critic-to-viewer Rotten Tomatoes rating, noting the balance had shifted to 21/93, and that its Metacritic score was 36% approval from critics, and 82% from viewers. As a critic himself, Surette notes that, as a throwback, The Orville is an anomaly in modern television, and found showrunner David A. Goodman's admission that MacFarlane wants to vary between dramatic and comedic episodes a potentially dangerous strategy, but concedes that the show's viewers appear to like it for that reason.

Ratings
After its premiere on Sunday, September 10, 2017, the show moved to Thursday nights at 9 p.m. In its first broadcast in the new time slot, The Orville became Fox's highest rated Thursday 9 p.m. broadcast in two years. After taking into account DVR and VOD, The Orville was Fox's most-viewed drama debut since the premiere of Empire in 2015.