Seth Macfarlane is taking Fox somewhere where it’s never been before. An honest to god great science fiction TV show, that has legs. Except not according to the critics. This critic however loved the show!

The Orville is currently sitting at a rotten 11% score on Rotten Tomatoes. It is airing for two weeks on Sundays at 8 PM and then moves to it’s regular time slot on Thursdays. The pilot had this SciFi nerd grinning from ear to ear. It was very well done and quite charming. I was very impressed with the visuals, on par with The Expanse, if not brighter and better! I really appreciate all the effort Seth went to make this show look realistic with model ships, and am frankly surprised that it even got made at all. In this dark age of TV, where shock value is key, you don’t see this type of show anymore.

I couldn’t come up with a better crew if I was outlining my own Star Trek series and believe me, I have tried. Good as a comedy show? No. Good as a Drama? No. Good as a dramedy? Oh hell yes! This is your less serious Star Trek, and perfect for all those who do not want to pay for STD. Based on people’s criticisms of Star Trek: Discovery and having to pay CBS $6 a month to watch it? A well deserved acronym.

Before release I was worried about all the negative reviews, and yes, those have hurt the show. But I think this is going to get a cult following and it will be interesting to compare this with the ratings of STD when it comes out. There’s going to be a lot of debate about which model worked better and something tells me that Seth might have the edge here. Fans are already saying that this was the right direction for the Star Trek universe to take, even though this isn’t really part of the canon, there will be debates about that too! Which is pretty interesting. I wonder if The Orville will ever mention The Enterprise or poke fun at Star Trek.

The potential for crossovers is not lost on me, since there are clear and present ripoffs from the Star Trek Universe itself. Imagine Patrick Stewart popping up or other Trek “cameos.” Everything from ship operations to red alert battle-stations to the Holodeck and the uniforms were stolen from Star Trek. Which honestly I’m fine with. The fights about Star Trek between the CBS and Paramount brass have really worried me about the future of the franchise. The Orville will fill that hole.

The year is perfect. 2400s is very far into the future. One hundred years past Star Trek. The first scene shows Seth’s character in a driverless car pod! There is no teleportation. Probably within good reason. So far they only have used shuttles. Which might confuse Star Trek fans.

Also Agents of Shield fans will recognize Adrianne Palicki AKA Bobbi Morse as XO/Seth’s ex-wife. Having the main character and the Ex-Wife as Captain and XO is comedic genius. With it’s diverse crew the gender jokes will be in your face, but you got to expect some cheesiness from Seth Macfarlane of all people. As long as he gets to sing at least once this season I’ll be happy.

It also looks like Time Travel will be a topic taken more seriously and explored a bit more than in the Star Trek universe. The very first episode featured a time travel device that can speed up time inside the device. If The Orville is already making that much progress with time travel in the 2400s, the possibilities for the time travel genre are endless. So there you have it, a happy-go-lucky Star Trek type show for those who don’t want to pay $6 a month to watch the real thing, and who knows it might be end up being better.