Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Orville: New Horizons’ on Hulu, Marking The Return Of Seth MacFarlane’s ‘Star Trek’ Homage

The Orville: New Horizons has migrated to Hulu from Fox, where it premiered in 2017 and ran for two seasons. Production for this third, ten-episode season also ran into COVID-related delays before finally dropping on Hulu with its tweaked livery, much of the same cast, and a few new faces. It’s the 25th century, and Captain Ed Mercer’s bunch are recovering from some intergalactic warmaking…

THE ORVILLE: NEW HORIZONS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: New Horizons opens in full space battle mode. Numerous Union vessels contend with laser fire from a rash of larger, more aggressive Kaylon ships; tiny, nearly helpless escape pods explode in the din. Aboard a damaged USS Orville, Marcus Finn (BJ Tanner) searches frantically for his little brother Ty (Kai Di’Nilo Wener).

The Gist: Marcus isn’t the only one having nightmarish flashbacks to the big battle with the Kaylons. As the dormant USS Orville rests in spacedock for refit and repair, the ship’s crew is largely at odds with the reinstatement of Isaac (Mark Jackson), its science and engineering officer. Even though he eventually sided with humanity and saved the ship, Isaac’s actions with his fellow Kaylons – Machine-like higher beings who’ve sworn genocide on lesser biological lifeforms like humans – led directly to the violence. A new crew member, Ensign Charly Burke (Anne Winters, 13 Reasons Why), was on the now destroyed USS Quimby during the battle, and only escaped when her colleague sacrificed herself to help launch an escape pod. “She’s gone, along with 300 other people,” Charly tells Isaac. “It really is a shame that you can’t feel anything. Because you deserve to feel all the pain in the universe.”

It isn’t just alienation and bad vibes in the crew mess. Somebody scrawled “MURDERER” across the equipment in Isaac’s lab. As security chief Lt. Talla Keyali (Jessica Szhor) investigates that incident, Captain Ed Mercer (Seth MacFarlane) and his first officer, Commander Kelly Grayson (Adrianne Palicki), probe Burke’s anger as a barometer for crew morale. “How do you know he isn’t carrying some sleeper program just waiting to fire up and take over the ship?” And while that isn’t accurate, Isaac is carrying something else, something that even for an artificial lifeform feels a lot like guilt. He makes a fateful decision based on observation of “human comportment” and cold, cold logic.

Spot repairs to the ship’s hull continue, led by Lt. Cmdr. John LaMarr (J. Lee) and including his engineering team, the globulous, hilarious Lt. Yaphit (voiced by the late Norm Macdonald in one of his final roles) and awkward nice guy Dann (Family Guy and Cleveland Show vet Mike Henry). Dr. Claire Finn (Penny Johnson Jerald) attempts to get a clinical read on Isaac’s inner life. (“There’s no precedent for the psychoanalysis of an artificial lifeform, but we have to try.”) And Lt. Gordon Malloy (Scott Grimes) tests out a sleek new space interceptor, the pterodon. But just as the Orville pushes off from spaceport and engages its refreshed quantum drive, who shows up but those damned Kaylons again, guns blazing.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Star Trek: The Next Generation was always the jumping-off point for The Orville, even though MacFarlane frequently lacquers on some William Shatner to his performance as the ship’s captain. What’s interesting is that, since the first appearance of The Orville on Fox, and during its gestation and transition to Hulu, numerous shows in the Star Trek universe have dropped, including Picard, Star Trek: Discovery and its well-received spin-off, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Our Take: “Electric Sheep,” with its Phillip K. Dick-like ruminations on the emotional landscape of non-biological life forms, is a tidy and forceful return to the airwaves for The Orville. It re-establishes well the core cast, who’ve all grown with their characters, and effectively brings in new blood like the fiery Ensign Burke, who thinks in four dimensions and remains wary of Isaac. The beats of comedy that used to somewhat awkwardly compete for space with sci-fi drama and workplace situational humor have also been tamped down, or at least more effectively integrated – J. Lee and Adrianne Palicki in particular do well to highlight their characters’ natural senses of humor. And MacFarlane, for being the show’s creator, writer, director, and onscreen captain, seems content to exist in background to the cast, which is wise. This is a new, third season of a show that’s steadily found a following over its somewhat wayward journey, and to have these characters return with some seasoning in their lives is a welcome gift for fans who always stuck with The Orville. The hint of a harder edge in the plotting and storyline is also a welcome addition to a show that in its early going often felt like a dreamlike transmission from MacFarlane’s personal fantasy world.

Sex and Skin: As John and his Dakeelian girlfriend Irillia (Alexis Knapp) relax with a limahll stick after making love, a conversation about her homeworld’s views on suicide spurs LaMarr to leap out of bed and race to the lab. What’s nestled in Isaac’s brain circuits?

Parting Shot: Marcus enters Isaac’s lab. He’s about to say something – an apology, or something meaner? – But instead he turns on his heel. Maybe it’s best to let it be for now.

Sleeper Star: Marcus Finn has grown up a little since season two of The Orville, and BJ Tanner (Station 19) has, too, while the show was in its broadcast drydock. With the ship’s entire crew processing their feelings for Isaac, Tanner brings some real heat to an argument between Marcus, his mom, and the captain, as well as an allowance for the program’s new home on streaming. “He lied and wanted us dead! He killed thousands of people, and I’m the one in trouble? This is bullshit.”

Most Pilot-y Line: “We’re seeing just how much he really felt” – as the crew comes to terms with Isaac and their feelings about his reinstatement, it’s the fact that he has feelings at all which becomes their most surprising discovery.

Our Call: STREAM IT. After a delay, The Orville: New Horizons is back for a third season with a new home, some light, effective tweaking, and more seasoning for its core cast.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges