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Review: Orville's Fourth Episode Is The Most "Star Trek" So Far, Maybe Too Much So
By: Brian Drew, TrekMovie

REVIEW: "If the Stars Should Appear"
The Orville Season 1, Episode 4 — Aired Thursday Sept. 28

The Orville encounters a gigantic artificial object in space which turns out to be a vessel that is slowly but surely headed towards its doom as it gets pulled in by a nearby star. The crew decide to go on board to offer assistance only to find a rural community that worship a being named Dural, that isn't aware they are on a world ship, and are not exactly welcoming to the new arrivals.??

So, sounds kinda familiar, doesn't it? The plot is pretty much a direct lift from the 3rd season TOS episode, "For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky."

Perhaps because of that, the show feels like more Star Trek in both concept and execution than any other episode thus far. .....

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[Krel]

It reminds me more of "The Starlost", than Star Trek.

But it is my favorite episode so far. I think that there should have been a bit of blind panic when sky opened. Although it does pretty much shoot down the ruling authority.

David.

[Gord Green]

Never let someone else tell you what you should like!

[orzel-w]

[Pow]

Wonder if "The Starlost" creator, Harlan Ellison, plans on a lawsuit for this episode?

[Bud Brewster]

[orzel-w]

[Bud Brewster]

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Concerning The Orville, with the exception of the misguided attempts at humor, the episode which aired on September 28th was a hell of a lot better than the one the week before!

There's hope for this series yet.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Episode 5 was another reasonably good story — with the exception of their usual failed attempts at humor.

The guest star was Charlize Theron, who still looks lovely at 42 years old, but time is doing to her what it does to all of us. In Mighty Joe Young (1998) she was literally the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen!





She's still attractive, but nineteen years have past, and now she's 42 instead 23. Of course, I realize that a woman's beauty is heavily influenced by her hair style, her make-up, the lighting used in a photo, and the expression the photo captures.

I don't know what Charlize's age is in the photo below, but this is a face that would suck a man's eyeballs right out of his head like the girl-crazy wolf in the old Tex Avery cartoons!


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What puzzled me about The Orville episode last night was the way the writers had all the male characters acting like horny teenagers whenever Charlize was in the room, even though she looked liked the photo below, instead of the photo above.





I didn't quite get it. To me this was another example of how this show misses the mark when it tries to be funny. Somebody should have pointed out that if they wanted Charlize to dazzle the men because she was drop-dead gorgeous, she needed to look more like this!



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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Gord Green]

The humor level in this series seems to be very British in style. I don't know how well that comes across to most American viewers. While not as broad as RED DWARF or FAWLTY TOWERS, it still maintains that understated edge found in most Brit-Coms.

[mach7]

British humor with dick jokes.

I thought another strong episode, but with very bad science.

I thought Pria very attractive, but then so are all the
women on the show. This is American TV afterall.

One needs to watch British TV to see normal people
in a show.

I loved the Junior mint bit. I think The Orville does the
whole android trying to understand humor better than
TNG, but other than Johny Dangerously I've never
really "got" Joe Piscopo's humor.

The stories do lack a kind of depth, things seem to fall
into place a bit too easy.

I'm still enjoying, and still watching.

One other point that made the show interesting too me.

Capt Mercer is from Boxford Mass, Pria is from Andover Mass. I live in North Andover Mass right between the two.

If they had mentioned Bensons Ice Cream I would have really been floored.

[Custer]

I've finally managed to watch episode 4. Generation ships are an sf staple and have been for many decades, so I don't think we can say it's derivative of "The Starlost" or that Original Series episode, any more than of "Non-Stop" or "Universe." They handled it pretty well, though that really nasty 'religious' leader got off rather lightly.

It does seem logical, as Isaac pointed out, that calling someone a "dick" would be a compliment. The touches of humour were a bit various, but Lt Malloy's exultation after managing to destroy the alien ship worked okay...and I loved the elevator scene. Though didn't they call it a "lift"? I thought that was the British name, and Americans always said "elevator"...

I suppose we weren't sure what The Orville would be like - humour with sf trappings? What we have been given is sf with a side order of humour, and why not?

[mach7]

Why not indeed!

I came into this show with a negative view, but so far I have enjoyed it.

The Stories are simple and somewhat contrived, the humor is usually kept to workable levels. The science fiction is better than on some sci-fi shows. Seth seems
to take this show seriously (though humorish).

I have seen a lot less enjoyable shows on TV.

[Bud Brewster]

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While watching Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2 today, I suddenly realized why The Orville has been so disappointing.

It tries to be Guardians without one tenth the writing talent those two movies had. The result is a watered-down version of the "humorous science fiction" which thrilled the world in those two blockbusters.

And before somebody says, "Well, they don't have the kind of budget those two films did!", I submit that there are plenty of good writers who would be delighted to work on this show for the same price as the folks who have inflicted the lame humor we've seen so far.

The problem seems to be that Seth and company think their jokes are funny . . . when they really aren't.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[bulldogtrekker]

Adrianne Palicki

from Treks in Sci-fi