# The Orville-Seth McFarlane **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 17, 2017, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814 "2017-05-17T03:28:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/261 "2017-09-17T08:20:09Z")
> [@Reluctant\_A](#): > > Are you guys talking about Captain Gates? Dr. Claire Finn, the Orville’s chief medical officer. Played by Penny Johnson Jerald, who also played Cassidy Yates, Sherry Palmer, and, yes, Capt. Victoria Gates on Castle. (She was also Condoleeza Rice in some 9/11 movie or another.) ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/262 "2017-09-17T10:58:01Z")
Enjoyed more than I thought I would. I am a Seth MacFarlane hater. His I Saw Your Boobs song at the Oscars pretty much sums up how I view his crass douchiness. It’s clear he’s a Star Trek fanboy. How this ever was allowed to be made with the ST franchise getting a HUGE piece of the action (I see what I did there) is beyond me. The bits of stupid humor - drunk driving and such - kinda didn’t fit, although they helped to make it clear that this is always going to be a Tribbles episode driven Star Trek clone. The bad guys look reasonably bad. Why where there SO many of them and not one hit a Human (okay - a flesh wound) or our shuttle? Frickin’ plot armor was too strong, unless that was meant to be part of the spoofy aspects of this? Oy. I want to have Adrienne Palicki’s babies ;). Seriously, I haven’t seen her in a thing I haven’t loved and where she wasn’t excellent. Why isn’t she a major star? I love me some Cobie Smulders, but what can she do that AP can’t at least as well? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/263 "2017-09-17T11:19:57Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > It’s clear he’s a Star Trek fanboy. How this ever was allowed to be made with the ST franchise getting a HUGE piece of the action (I see what I did there) is beyond me. Brannon Braga, who was one of the showrunners for TNG/Voyager/Enterprise, is credited as an executive producer on this show. That might have something to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/264 "2017-09-17T11:29:48Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Brannon Braga, who was one of the showrunners for TNG/Voyager/Enterprise, is credited as an executive producer on this show. > > That might have something to do with it. Yep, I have heard of the affiliation. All the more reason to know that there is a HUGE iceberg of a story below the surface of this. The show is, oh, 95% Star Trek? Okay, SDMB fanboys - what’s your rating? Clearly, I vote 95%. What percent of this show’s DNA is Star Trek?? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/265 "2017-09-17T14:14:56Z")
The “Could you move to your right a bit? The framing was all wrong; it distracted me.” bit sounded like something Shatner would say in the \*\*\*TOS \*\*\*outtakes (or in some of the later movies). Maybe Seth is channeling Bill. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/266 "2017-09-17T14:19:10Z")
Doesn’t the guy with the beard remind you a lot of the mature Wesley Crusher? Maybe Wil Wheaton was unavailable… 😕 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/267 "2017-09-17T14:42:37Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Doesn’t the guy with the beard remind you a lot of the mature Wesley Crusher? Maybe Wil Wheaton was unavailable… 😕 You know that he voices the son of MacFarlane’s character on AMERICAN DAD, right? They’ve been working together, on one show or another, for over a dozen years. ---
**Author:** ![Yask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Yask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yask)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/268 "2017-09-17T16:53:33Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > [Trailer here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy9sKeCE8V0) > > Looks like a cross between Quark and Galaxy Quest. I’m hoping for something like an American version of [Hyperdrive](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz-1c2o1Dxw&feature=youtu.be&t=38). ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/269 "2017-09-17T17:31:11Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Yep, I have heard of the affiliation. All the more reason to know that there is a HUGE iceberg of a story below the surface of this. > > The show is, oh, 95% Star Trek? > > **Okay, SDMB fanboys - what’s your rating?** Clearly, I vote 95%. What percent of this show’s DNA is Star Trek?? I guess I can’t vote. Psst, women like scifi, too. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/270 "2017-09-17T17:37:44Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > I was wondering about this… did I miss something where they explained why they built so many ships they couldn’t crew that they were literally scraping the bottom of the barrel to find a captain for this one? It was kind of implied with the final conversation with the Commander that she got the captain the posting, but they were talking earlier in the show about having so many ships to fill. Did they find a sudden cache of hidden ships, or did somebody win the lottery? Probably, they have such a huge fleet because their current political/military situation calls for a huge fleet. “We need 200 ships guarding this region, 500 on post at Earth, another 150 doing exploratory work…” and then they start building up to those fleet numbers. Crewing the ships - particularly with trained and/or experienced command - has turned out to be more of a bottleneck than building them, but they’ll eventually work through it as more classes graduate from the academies. Alternatively, they’ve had a ~3000 ship fleet for a while, and are experiencing a dip in recruitment/increase in retirement that’s making it temporarily difficult to fill all the billets. The Orville itself isn’t a new ship - MacFarlane’s a replacement captain. His predecessor either retired, or got promoted up when someone above him retired. (or died.) I’m not a military guy, but I understand that those are pretty common problems in real-world navies. > [@](#): > > And, about the insignificant part… every time they showed us the huge docking station in space, I had to look to see where the ship was. That terminal was built for ships waaaayyyy larger than the Orville. Yeah, the Orville’s definitely meant to be a smaller class ship. I suspect they’ve got a big reveal planned for when the real capital ships show up. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/271 "2017-09-17T17:46:19Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > How this ever was allowed to be made with the ST franchise getting a HUGE piece of the action (I see what I did there) is beyond me. You can’t copyright ideas. "Folks in colorful jumpers running around brightly lit starships,’ is to vague to sustain any sort of a copyright infringement, and they haven’t taken anything from ST that could possibly be covered under Trademark law. Brannon Braga’s probably on board as a producer because he has a lot of experience running fx heavy sci-fi shows. Braga doesn’t personally have any ownership in Trek, AFAIK, which is mostly held by Paramount and the Roddenberry estate, so his appearance in the credits likely doesn’t mean much in terms of backroom legal wrangling. ---
**Author:** ![Reluctant\_A](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@Reluctant\_A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reluctant_A)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/272 "2017-09-17T18:11:20Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Dr. Claire Finn, the Orville’s chief medical officer. Played by Penny Johnson Jerald, **who also played Cassidy Yates** , Sherry Palmer, and, yes, Capt. Victoria Gates on Castle. (She was also Condoleeza Rice in some 9/11 movie or another.) The only Cassie Yates I recognize was played by Tamara Taylor. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/273 "2017-09-17T18:32:52Z")
> [@Helena330](#): > > I guess I can’t vote. Psst, women like scifi, too. 😉 Yeah - I screwed that up. Not meaning gender specificity! ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/274 "2017-09-17T20:00:34Z")
I kept waiting for it to get really funny or really exciting and all it got was really pretty. I guess that’ll do for a few episodes, but having more fart, dick and cupholder jokes is going to wear thin pretty fast. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/275 "2017-09-17T20:14:43Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Doesn’t the guy with the beard remind you a lot of the mature Wesley Crusher? Maybe Wil Wheaton was unavailable… 😕 Well, he is no longer needed for _Dark Matter_. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/276 "2017-09-17T20:29:42Z")
Maybe the large number of ships is due to corruption driven pork. If the show is trying to portray humans more realistically, then that makes sense. Maybe the jokes protect them from Paramount by making it a parody. I don’t know if Paramount would try to sue or could be successful if they did, but making it a parody probably makes it easier to defend in court. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/277 "2017-09-17T22:44:06Z")
Saw the pilot this morning and I’m looking forward to tonight’s episode. Yeah, some of the humour is juvenile and it definitely is a nod and a wink to ST. (Geek Alert!)Based on the “year” it’s set in I don’t really see why it couldn’t be a continuation of the ST series itself as Orville is roughly 100 years after TNG, especially with the messed up timelines the movie series have introduced… Personally, I think this series has a lot of potential to be really good. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/278 "2017-09-17T23:16:17Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Maybe the large number of ships is due to corruption driven pork. If the show is trying to portray humans more realistically, then that makes sense. > > Maybe the jokes protect them from Paramount by making it a parody. I don’t know if Paramount would try to sue or could be successful if they did, but making it a parody probably makes it easier to defend in court. It would be CBS, not Paramount, but it doesn’t matter. The idea of “space adventure TV show with brightly-colored costumes” is not sufficiently specific to infringe on anyone’s IP. Orville is hardly the [first](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLV5lArrZ7c) to rip off the Trek aesthetic. (And neither was Star Trek.) ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2017, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/279 "2017-09-18T00:03:59Z")
> [@Arkcon](#): > > There’s another thread on this topic, involving Heidi, for some reason. > > Years ago, I used to warn people NOT to put a show on Fox, for just that reason. Well, tell people who would listen, mostly, I don’t actually know anyone who’d be in a position to pitch a TV show anyway. > > In those days I wanted to see _The Simpsons, Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers_ and other cartoons. I wanted that _Space: Above and Beyond_ would just end and let a Simpson episode appear, but it was often preempted by a game. I never watched _Firefly_ because I knew preempting would happen. > > **Anyway, football on Fox is now under control.** _The OT_ frequently mentioned that Seth MacFarlane’s new series was coming up. Fox has carefully worked game start time, and has _The OT_ under control. I definitely noticed that there was less commentary to save time. > > 'Course, that just flies out the window with Nascar. They weren’t under control at all last time I checked. Race is over, rambling interviews, and the, 15 minutes into the next time slot – is it time to wrap it up? Nope, time for another rambling interview. > > Still. If this works well enough. Fox can try to rein in this sort of thing just for this show. We still have 12.23 to go in the fourth quarter of the game. What does this equate to? An hour of real time? ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2017, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/280 "2017-09-18T00:17:05Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Maybe the large number of ships is due to corruption driven pork. If the show is trying to portray humans more realistically, then that makes sense… Good point. The Planetary Union also does things like fast-track or direct commission officers for political reasons; it’s not hard to imagine them doling out pork barrel projects to member worlds too. Good thing this show’s on Hulu. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814.md?page=13) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814.md?page=15)