This past week, I finally caught up on The Orville and finished season two. A week or so back, I finally finished season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery.
It's kind of ironic that I finished both these series' 2nd season about the same time since they both debuted within weeks of each other back in 2017.
Star Trek: Discovery debuted September 24, 2017, two weeks after the series premiere of The Orville on Fox.
Since 2017, Discovery has produced a 2nd and 3rd season with a 4th season set to debut November 18, 2021
Meanwhile, The Orville hasn't presented a new episode since the 2nd season finale aired April 25, 2019. Filming on a 3rd season started October 2019 but the COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to that. Since then, production has restarted, stopped again and started again and finally after 2 years, filming is done but a release date for the 3rd season has not been announced.
Both shows began with somewhat shaky beginnings but finally came into their own with their 2nd season.
While Discovery marked the return of the Star Trek franchise to series television for the first time in over a decade, it wasn't exactly greeted too warmly by a lot of Trekkers. Derided as too dark, too edgy, too complex.
There was a viewpoint that The Orville was more of a Star Trek show than the actual Star Trek show. The Orville was bright, optimistic, easy to follow.
But The Orville never seemed quite sure what kind of show it wanted to be. The shorthand many reviewers opted for was to call it a "parody of Star Trek" but for all the inherent comedy in the scripts, the show took itself a bit too seriously to be dismissed as mere parody. It was like Seth McFarlane was doing the Star Trek: The Next Generation stories he never got to do. Parody? Homage? Rip-Off?
But in their second seasons, both shows managed to transcend the missteps of their first seasons.
Discovery benefited greatly by paying greater attention to the ensemble. Make no mistake that Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham is a major force on this show. (But why is so much of her dialogue whispered?) But season 2 gives us more time with Stamets, Tilly and Saru. Any time spent with Doug Jones as Saru is time well spent.
And the introduction of new character Jett Reno played by comedian Tig Nataro is super great. I need more Jett Reno with her typical Star Trek engineer bluster and her atypical to Star Trek snark.
And whoever cast Anson Mount as Capt. Christopher Pike is the smartest person ever. Pike's turn as Captain of the Discovery is a breath of fresh air after all the nefarious double dealing with Capt. Lorca. Mount's Pike is gregarious, easy going but can turn on the gravitas as needed.
While I complained in the first season that there was no need for Star Trek Discovery to be a prequel, the second season really makes use of it's position in the Star Trek timeline with clever use of Capt. Pike and Spock. Ethan Peck's take on Spock is unique from Leonard Nimoy's original incarnation but not so much as to under mine what is to come after/has come before.
The focus does turn back to Burnham when we discover the mystery of the Red Angel is tied to her mother's experiments in time travel. Yes, as the season's end, it is up to Burnham to save the day but she does so with the help of her friends. The crew of the Discovery collectively commits to having Burnham's back as the evil AI known as Control threatens to destroy all organic life.
Season 2 of Discovery does lean hard into the tired trope that apparently every officer in Starfleet who isn't in the opening credits is corrupt or untrustworthy. Section 31 is way too out of control in this storyline which I guess explains their retreat back into the shadows of myth and legend by the time Deep Space Nine rolls around.
Next up is to watch season 3 which I know takes the show out prequel territory and sends it into a future well beyond Star Trek Picard. I am interested to see if that far flung future state holds as status quo beyond season 3.
Meanwhile, the 2nd season of The Orville opens with the show straddling the line between Star Trek homage and being it's own thing. Bortus must return to him home planet to pee as Moclans only urinate once a year and there's a whole ritual around it.
There are changes in season 2.
Alara returns to her home planet. (Actor Halston Sage got a gig on a medical drama that doesn't require her to sit in a make up chair at 4 AM getting prosthetic ears applied.) Jessica Szohr joins the cast as Lt. Talla Keyali as the Orville's new super strong security chief.
Dr. Finn starts a relationship with Isaac who is a robot. Isaac's home planet of Kaylon has decided all organic life must die which leads into a really intense 2 parter where a lot of organic life gets killed. But the Krill comes to the aid of their arch enemies in the Planetary Union to stop the Kaylons.
What terrible things the Kaylon are capable of are expressed in the season's final episode when they conquer half of the known galaxy. All because Kelly did not agree to a second date with Ed.
What?!
In the next to the last episode of season 2, an experiment with a time travel doohickey introduced way back in season 1 episode 1 goes a bit wonky and brings Commander Kelly Grayson face to face with Lt. Kelly Grayson, her own damn self from 7 years ago.
From her perspective, younger Kelly just went out on her first date with Ed Mercer the night before. Now it's 7 years in the future and her future self is 2nd in command of a starship with Ed Mercer, her ex-husband, as captain?!?!
Somebody reverses the polarity and Young Kelly is sent back to her own time with a memory wipe. That doesn't work.
Deciding to spare herself 7 years of heartache, Kelly declines a 2nd date with Ed and in the last episode of season 2, everything goes to shit.
It's probably not much of a spoiler to say that things will work out but it is a long road getting from now back to then and back to now again but with less dead people.
The Orville in the future challenges our present day perspectives in the best tradition of Star Trek. But this series remains distinct from Star Trek in it's humor and it's embrace of absurdity. But in it's 2nd season, the show is more willing to embrace it's own unique characteristics and take on more dramatic storylines.
I really can't wait to see what season 3 will bring to the crew of the Orville.
Next week, it's compare and contrast time again, this time with shows where comedy and crime intersect, one ending and one beginning.
In the next Tuesday TV Touchbase, we look at Brooklyn Nine Nine and Only Murders In the Building.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.
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