The Orville

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.

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THE "BACK" OF THE BOOK

Here's what the Publisher said about the book, anything I say will ruin the book (and not because it put me in a foul mood):

An original novella set in season three of The Orville—straight from the pen of Seth MacFarlane, creator of the beloved sci-fi TV show!

When Captain Ed Mercer and the crew of the U.S.S. Orville come face-to-face with one of humanity’s most vile ideologies, they must solve the moral conundrum of who to hold accountable for evil deeds real… and imagined. Occurring just after episode 308, this is the Orville like you’ve never seen it before.

THE ORVILLE

I watched all three seasons of the show this year, after putting it off since I started to hear positive things about Season 1. I really appreciated most of this not-Star Trek, although like the show it totally isn't ripping off,* it's not perfect.

* Wink.

One thing that The Orville surpasses its inspiration in is its sanctimoniousness. When this show gets preachy, there's nothing that compete with it. For the most part, I could endure those episodes, but a couple of them got pretty difficult. The last half of this book was pretty much one of those episodes. It's a lot harder to tolerate without F/X to look at.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL?

There was almost nothing about this that made it an Orville story. Maybe others can describe this without giving everything away, but I can't. Sure, every primary cast member from season 3 is in the novella—and some characters from other seasons are mentioned—so it's technically an Orville story, but just technically. A good tie-in story should feel like a long or an in-depth version of the source IP. This couldn't feel less like an episode.

And the writing? It was clearly written by someone who doesn't do prose that often—scripts, sure. It was lazy writing, the descriptions of characters were clunky, the dialogue was iffy, and the pacing was poor. We don't see a single character from the show until the 50% point.

Would I read another novella set in this universe? Oh, absolutely. Even another one by MacFarlane. I like the universe enough to give it another try. I just hope it's a fun, SF adventure next time (maybe even with a touch of the condescension, it's what the viewers expect). The only thing that was clearly delivered was the message.

The Orville feels more like Star Trek: The Next Generation than anything coming out of Star Trek's canon in recent years. The philosophical debates and the adherence to a idea feel very much in line with the stuff Brannon Braga was kicking out in the late 80s and early 90s. There should not be easy answers to questions raised in any debate, and there is always a lot more gray than black and white.

This novella was meant to be an episode of the new season The Orville: New Horizons, but due to COVID and other things, they ran out of time to film it, so Seth MacFarlane converted the script to a novella and tossed it into the world as a fairly-priced eBook.

After reading it this afternoon, it's a shame they didn't get to film it because it would have made a helluva an episode to watch.

I don't want to give away spoilers, but even non-fans of the show are in for a treat with this one. And the issues it brings up are–sadly–still very relevant to today's political climate.

For three bucks, this is more than worth the time.