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SBS on Demand: The Orville

Season 3 will be fast-tracked in early June.

Season 3 of comedy series The Orville will be fast-tracked to SBS on Demand in early June.

The Orville: New Horizons screens from Friday 3 June. This is the first new season since 2019, after COVID-19 delayed production.

From creator Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy), The Orville: New Horizons is set 400 years in the future and finds the crew of the U.S.S. Orville continuing their mission of exploration, as they navigate both the mysteries of the universe and the complexities of their own interpersonal relationships.

10 Responses

  1. The first few episodes were a bit meh, but the series has turned out to be fantastic.

    Although a bit Disappointed it isn’t just going to Disney+. The picture quality of SBS on Demand is not suitable for a show like this.

  2. A comment I read by one on line critic of the current Star Trek universe, that The Orville is an example of how today’s Star Trek could have been made, by someone (Seth MacFarlane) who actually appreciated Roddenberry’s original vision when it was first released decades ago, is probably more a dig at Paramount+ and producer Alex Kurtzman, but there is some truth as well, as The Orville characters do look more in keeping with past stories and characters that some older Star Trek fans are fondest of, if you can ignore the occasional double entendre sketch comedy humour.

    1. Roddenberry’s vision was all god like aliens in skimpy costumes, and he cast females by breast size. It was made in the 1960s so a lot of it was poorly written with lots of magic antidote stories, padded out with Western style bar room fights and gunfights with laser pistols, because that’s all Hollywood knew how to do. Channel 10 showed S1-2 of TOS recently and there are only about a dozen episodes that hold up as good SF. plus a couple more that established bits of the universe’s mythology that were worth watching again. You can see why it was move to later in the week and cancelled after 2 seasons. It became cult as afternoon repeats for kids. It wasn’t until ST:TNG S3+ that it really created any sort of coherent vision, by then Roddenberry had been pushed out of day to day decisions. And that is the era that the Orville is trying to both paying homage to and satirise.

        1. The uneven quality of episodes led to Star Trek rating 52 out of 94 prime time shows in it’s first season. NBC announced it’s cancellation it in the middle of S2’s airing. There was an outcry from Trekkies and the media. So NBC cancelled the cancellation but slashed the budget, appointed a new showrunner and moved it to Friday Nights to kill it off. There’s only 1 or 2 eps worth watching in the 3rd season.

    2. The Roddenberry vision is myth. Star Trek was created from the ideas of ocean exploration by navy ships, Hollywood SF, and a TV Western called Wagon Train about pioneers travelling in across the Mid-West to the Californian Goldfields, each week they had famous guest stars pop up and an obstacle to overcome before continuing their journey (which took 5 years on NBC and 3 on ABC) a formula Roddenberry insisted but couldn’t in DS9. Star Trek debuted the year after it finished. Star Fleet and The Federation were invented by a staff writer in speech where Kirk was justifying their mission to someone. The Romulans and Klingons were created as bad guy of the week. The Star Trek mythology was created by a lot of writers creating stuff, and it then being extended and developed by later writers. The backstory about the timeline and invention of warp drive was created in the 1970s for spin off merch that Roddenberry didn’t control and thus considered non cannon.

  3. Thanks David, i’ll keep an eye out for this in June. This is another quirky show that offers more than I expected. Look forward to season 3.

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