Take Star Trek. Pretty much any era. Combine it with rapid fire comedy and sexual politics that aim for Moonlighting but land somewhere around She’s The Boss. Welcome aboard the Orville. Buckle up.

You’re probably not going to watch an odder pilot episode than The Orville‘s this year. While the producers claim this is a new genre, the reality is, for now, it’s two genres mashed together. Sometimes successfully. Often not at all.

The central idea is, in fairness, great. Ed Mercer is a newly promoted UPI officer given a mid-sized exploratory vessel as his first command. Ed’s a great officer, a workaholic and has had a terrible year. He got divorced, his career cratered and the Orville is his last chance.

Plus the fleet has 3000 ships and someone’s got to captain them…

So, with everything to prove, Ed, along with old friend and helmsman Gordon Malloy join their vessel. Their crewmates include DS9 alumni Penny Johnson Jerald as Doctor Claire Finn their CMO, J. Lee as relaxed helmsman John LaMarr, Peter Macon as Second Officer Bortus and Halston Sage as Alara Kitan, their Chief of Security.

So far so Star Trek. But then Ed gets word that his first officer has been selected. Kelly Grayson.

His ex-wife.

What follows is a deeply weird hybrid of two genres. The first is a really smart, competent and well-paced riff on early Star Trek: The Next Generation. The sets, the uniforms, the narrative beats, even some of the locations are all going to be very familiar. Plus, director Jon Favreau clearly revels in getting to do a not-quite Star Trek show and there isn’t a shot that doesn’t look gorgeous. The Orville itself is a lovely design and Favreau gives us a sense of the ship’s size in relation to its crew constantly. Plus the entire closing fight is both high stakes and really nicely handled including one of the only times the show’s ‘ACTION!/GAG!’ rhythm really clicks.

Where the pilot fails, and fails frequently, is in how it treats its female characters. Ed goes out of his way to insult every single female character on his crew, from questioning Alara’s experience to accusing Finn of expecting him to screw up. Even the only female supporting character is killed in an off-hand manner that plays as just flat out mean.

But even that pales in comparison to the juddering halt the series comes to every time Ed and Kelly argue. MacFarlane is a charismatic leading man and a surprisingly solid dramatic lead. Adrianne Palicki simply does not know how to turn in bad work. And yet their scenes together play like the unholy union of ’70s sitcoms and a Neil Labute play fired into space.

It’s not just that it isn’t funny, and believe me it isn’t, it’s that it feels actively mean-spirited. It’s only as the episode closes and the pair of them find their equilibrium that the episode really begins to level off. Neither of them is right, neither is wrong and they’re broken in inherently complementary ways. In fact there are a couple of great moments where they spark off one another that bodes very well for future episodes. It’s just the show, like Ed, needs a shakedown cruise.

If you can get through the early scenes there’s a lot to enjoy here. Most of the jokes crash and burn but the ones that land are great and Macon, Lee, Sage and Grimes all get nice moments to shine here.

Verdict: This isn’t a good show, yet. But it’s trying. Under MacFarlane’s fundamental inability to walk away from a Bit there’s a gentle, funny, even kind series about Fleet life. The Orville may not be on a five year voyage, but it certainly (just) deserves another couple of turns around the block. 6/10

Alasdair Stuart