Warning: The following review contains spoilers for Episode 1 of The Orville, read on at your own risk.

I’ll admit that my television experience is a bit of a mixed bag. I enjoy fantasy, high fantasy, supernatural fantasy, and sci-fi shows and media largely more than I enjoy most other things. Television is an escape for me, a way to drift into another world for an hour or two of my day, and just indulge my desire to escape from reality for a little while.

So, when I decided to start a new review series, I had a lot to choose from. One of the options was a show our own Keiran McEwen has been eagerly waiting for me to watch. The Orville is Seth McFarlane’s answer to Star Trek and other such series. I have a love-hate relationship with Seth McFarlane, particularly because I enjoy Family Guy, but I find American Dad to be somewhat of a mixed bag.

However, I’m always a fan of space, so with Keiran praising it so highly, I couldn’t help but be intrigued. Besides, it’s a lot easier to get into than say, David Tennant’s Great Muppet Caper. All jokes about Doctor Who and its timey-wimey stuff aside, let’s get into the first episode of The Orville, “Old Wounds.”

Spoilers for the episode begin here!

We begin on Earth in 2418. It looks like what you might expect, including flying cars and all such futuristic amenities. However, unlike what you might see in Star Wars and Star Trek, it looks as though things we recognize from our current era have remained, such as suspension bridges. Ed Mercer, played by Seth McFarlane, comes home to discover his significant other in bed with a blue-skinned alien (Retepsian), who seems to uh, well, blue goo is involved and I’m not even sure how to explain it.

One year later, we see Ed being invited into the Admiral’s office. The admiral, might I add, is portrayed by Victor Garber, who you might know from Alias, or more recently as Doctor Martin Stein on The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow. The admiral offers Ed the opportunity to command a ship known as the USS Orville. It is by no means a large craft, but it is an exploratory vessel and Ed would have command of it.

The admiral goes into an explanation about how Ed was once viewed as potentially having a promising career. He was at the top of his class and inspired so much confidence. However, the past year had shown that he was not at all at the top of his game. He was sloppy, and considering the heartbreak he had suffered, it isn’t hard to understand why.

Ed is then told that he is by no means the first choice for this ship, but they have 3000 ships to staff, and well, they need someone to pilot this one. So, he’s getting one last chance to prove himself. Considering it is all that Ed has wanted since he was a kid, he jumps at the chance. Now, all the ship needs is a helmsman and a first officer. Ed knows the perfect helmsman, known as Gordon Malloy.

Despite the admiral’s misgivings about including Gordon, he tells Ed that if he thinks he can keep Gordon focused, then he will trust his judgment. Gordon, according to Ed, is the best helmsman in the fleet, and he is certain that this will work. Ed finds Gordon fighting in a simulation program he created, against an ogre. He tells Gordon about getting the ship, and the helmsman is absolutely ecstatic.

I should mention here, the ogre that Gordon programmed has a personality that made me laugh. He isn’t scary, or rough; In fact, he seems like a nice guy you’d want to have a drink with. He’s genuinely excited that Gordon and Ed will be traveling on the Orville together, and it’s just wholesome and cute.

Gordon and Ed make their way to the Orville, and we are greeted with a fantastic perspective shot of the ship. It is a beautiful, sleek design, and I have to say that so far, only a few minutes into the episode, I am very fond of how the visual design of the large set pieces is done. The sense of scale is breathtaking, and for someone who loves grand visual design in sci-fi settings, it’s stunning.

We are then introduced to Ed’s crew, starting with Alara Kitan, the 23-year-old chief of security. Alara is from Xelaya, a planet that has higher gravity than Earth. Because of this, her strength is far greater than that of a human. We meet John LaMarr, the navigator on the Orville, who also happens to be a skilled helmsman. Somehow I feel like this will be relevant at some point in time, hopefully, nothing happens to Gordon.

Then we meet Second Officer Bortus, who is a part of an alien race consisting of only males, who also happen to only urinate once a year. Honestly, despite him looking like a Klingon scrotum, that’s pretty convenient, and saves time on bathroom breaks. Doctor Claire Finn is the Chief Medical Officer on board, and you might know her from Castle (or 24), as the actress portraying her, Penny Johnson Jerald, also played Captain Victoria Gates from 2011 until the end of the show’s run.

I absolutely love Claire already. From the first interaction she had with Ed, where she implied that due to his inexperience, she thought she was needed on the Orville more than anywhere else. She’s just the type of character I enjoy in a show like this. Next, though, we are introduced to Isaac, the Chief Scientific Officer who is part of an artificial race from Kaylon-1.

Isaac’s race is notoriously…well, racist, according to Ed. They see most biological life forms as inferior to their own, and yet Isaac was assigned to the Orville to promote better relations between his people and humanity. You might notice that I left out the position of First Officer. That is because we haven’t met her yet, well…we have, but not in the way you might expect.

John and Gordon spend some time talking and getting to know one another. We learn why Gordon has been kept on desk duty for a while too; Apparently, he performed a manual override on a docking bay, causing him to shear off the door. No one was hurt, but a large amount of squash was blown out into space, all to impress a girl no less. Because of this, he was almost fired outright, and it is only because of Ed that he is back at the helm.

Ed is given his first mission for the USS Orville’s maiden voyage. They will be delivering cargo to the science station on Epsilon-2. It is a fairly straightforward mission, but Ed is just excited to be out in space on his vessel. The Orville departs, still awaiting news on who will be assigned as the First Officer on the ship.

The admiral then bursts Ed’s bubble, revealing that the only qualified person to fill the role of Executive Officer, just so happens to be Ed’s ex-wife. You know, the woman we saw in bed with that blue alien early on in the episode? Yikes. Ed is understandably against the idea, but the admiral insists that she is the only option.

On top of that, to make it even stranger, she requested the assignment herself. Why? Well, that’s a good question that has me curious myself. They rendezvous with the new First Officer, and Ed asks that she go straight to his office. The crew has no clue why Ed is so on edge, but it is obvious just in his body language. Well, I say the crew doesn’t know, Gordon knows, and proceeds to tell the rest of the crew that they were married. It seems like in-office gossip isn’t just for magazines and office buildings anymore.

This is where we meet First Officer Kelly Grayson. Ed is still bothered by everything, even though he insists he isn’t; When asked why Kelly wanted on this assignment, she gives an answer I didn’t really expect. She explains that she wants to atone for what she did to Ed, and that she knew that Fleet Admirals don’t like seeing captains on their own for too long. So, she decided that if there was anything she could do to help him, she would.

The big question in my mind here, is why did she cheat in the first place? She doesn’t seem malicious; In fact, she seems remorseful. So…what exactly is going on here? Except we don’t have to wait too long to figure that out, because she explains it quite well; Ed was working long hours, there were days she wouldn’t see him at all, and she felt as though he was distant from the relationship.

She apparently also bailed on her original crew to come and help him here. Perhaps there is some sort of reconciliation in the cards? Something tells me that these two have plenty of unfinished business. After a heated argument, Kelly explains that when a new First Officer becomes available, she will voluntarily transfer.

The Orville arrives at Epsilon-2, only to discover a rather puzzling twist in their mission. The person in charge explains that they don’t actually need the supplies, but that they need something else, and that they need the Captain to come to the surface so they can explain properly. When they land, there is a rather tense introduction, before Doctor Aronov explains that they need protection from the Krill.

This is confusing for the crew of the Orville, as there were no Krill ships sighted in the area. However, the doctor explains that their chief physicist Janice Lee, has figured out a device allowing them to accelerate time in a localized field. Ed intends to send a coded message back to the union in order to get more help, but before he can, he is held at gunpoint.

Derek, one of their lab technicians, is working for the Krill. He takes Claire hostage and lets the Krill know that it is time to take the device, presumably so the Krill can use it to conquer the galaxy. Alara throws something at Derek, disarming him while showing off her impressive strength. However, the Krill are already en route, so they have to do something to make sure the Krill don’t get the device.

A shootout ensues as the crew tries to get the device back to the Orville. In the meantime, the Orville is under attack by the Krill destroyer ship, which gives us a chance to see firsthand how Gordon flies the ship. He’s very skilled, and uses the smaller ship to run circles around the destroyer.

I’m going to take a moment to mention a few things here before we get on with the rest of the episode. First off, Grayson (Kelly) and Ed’s banter is hilarious, even if most of it is Ed being petty about his ex-wife’s infidelity. Secondly, the alien designs and the set designs are awesome, and I was not expecting such a high level of detail.

There’s a small problem as they get the device onto the shuttle and make their way to the Orville. One of the Krill snuck onboard the Shuttle, and now they’re stuck in the shuttle with the homicidal alien. The Shuttle takes a hit from a piece of debris (subsequently shot off the Orville by the Krill Destroyer), which causes it to lose all navigation capability. This requires Gordon to aim the docking bay just right, at the right moment, so that the shuttle can dock without crashing. Bortus gives Gordon a pep talk, and luckily, he manages to pull off the maneuver.

The most hilarious part of the episode for me is what comes next. They hail the Krill Captain, and in order to keep him talking, Grayson and Ed involve him in what I can only describe as the weirdest marriage counseling I’ve ever seen. It is ill-timed, but that’s what makes it absolutely hilarious.

They ultimately decide to sabotage the device by gluing a redwood seed to it, priming the device so that when the Krill activate it, and the device will grow the tree immediately, destroying the device and the Krill ship. The plan works, and though the ship took some damage, both the Orville and Epsilon-2 survived.

After everything, while the Orville is being repaired, we see Grayson and Ed talking about a possible new First Officer option. However, Ed has been thinking about it, and decides that he doesn’t want her to transfer. It seems that there is hope for these two after all, as friends if nothing else. The final scene involves a surprising reveal.

Kelly Grayson was the one that appealed to the Union to give Ed the Orville. She knew what sort of captain he would be, and she risked her own standing to make sure he got to where he needed to be. I wonder how Ed will feel if he finds out about that?

As far as first episodes go, I am pleasantly surprised. Normally it takes me a few episodes to get into a series, but The Orville has grabbed my attention, and I’m curious to see how the rest of the series goes. I’m sure, like with all of Seth MacFarlane’s work, I’ll have some parts that I find more enjoyable than others, but so far, this is a great start.

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The Orville

9.5

Score

9.5/10

Pros

• Great Visual Design
• Great set pieces and Alien Design
• Fun humor
• Solid Pacing
• Interesting Ensemble Cast

Cons

• Room to Grow
• Seth beat the "My ex-wife cheated" joke to death