The Orville

I don't watch a whole lot of TV, but I did catch all 12 of the first season of Seth MacFarlane's sci-fi series, The Orville. It's an homage of sorts to Star Trek, with a little silly thrown in now and then. Seth created it, after all. There is so much dark TV on these days. I think we already have problems with depression in this country without being subjected to an endless stream of dark productions.

Anyway, Geek.com produced a fair review of the final episode. If you only watch one episode of The Orville, make it this one. This one centers on the idea of religion, and as we know, Seth is a big atheist. A couple of snips below.

The Orville Ends on a Strong, Though Not Spectacular Note.

Geek.com

Adrianne Palicki as Kelly

It starts out as many episodes of The Orville (and Star Trek) do, with an anomaly in space. Not the most original set-up, but it’s a fast way of getting us to the real interesting premise. While investigating the anomaly, Kelly’s shuttle crash-lands on a planet that appears out of nowhere. She investigates a little further and finds a species currently in its bronze age. She sees a little girl trip and hit her head on a rock, and uses a medical device to heal the wound. A bunch of Bronze Age people witness this happening, and we start to get an idea of where this is all going to go. The cooler twist is that the planet is sort of an opposite Brigadoon. Its orbit takes it through two universes, appearing in this one once every 11 days. In that time, 700 years have passed on that planet. Does the science make much sense when you think about it? It doesn’t matter. It’s a fun way to explore how a simple action can have huge unintended consequences over a long period of time. When the planet returns, the crew is surprised to find that a whole religion has formed around Kelly. Parents are using her to make their kids behave. Heretics are persecuted for not believing in Kelly, and suspected criminals are killed in her name. As you might guess, Kelly is seriously freaked out by all this.

It was so cool to see The Orville explore the evolution of a religion like this, and even cooler that it didn’t try to posit that religion is inherently bad, or that everyone in the church is evil. The crew tries to dissuade the people of the notion that Kelly is a god by showing the pope equivalent that the healing is just a machine. The pope plans to tell people the truth, but a power-hungry underling kills him before he gets the chance. The plan to leave someone behind on the planet during its next cycle isn’t as big a deal as the TV spots made it out to be. (Man, FOX really doesn’t know how to advertise this show, do they?) Isaac volunteers to stay behind because it’s a huge research opportunity for him. Also, as an artificial being, 700 years doesn’t seem so long for him. The best twist of the episode is that Isaac’s presence on the planet wasn’t needed at all. In those years, the species evolved and got over their differences with one another. They don’t even look at the old Kelly religion as a bad thing. They see it as a necessary stepping stone in the path to where they are today. In that way, the episode acknowledges that for all the problems religion has caused in the world, it’s also driven humans to create art and explore the sciences. It’s a surprisingly, refreshingly nuanced take that I didn’t expect at all. This is The Orville showing its Star Trek influence in the best way. It’s optimistic, thoughtful sci-fi.

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