SETH MACFARLANE
Behind the greasepaint smile of every clown is someone who just wants to make his own Star Trek. Hello, Seth.
Mention the name Seth MacFarlane and most people think of the creator of Family Guy, or maybe the voice of cuddly-but-foul-mouthed Ted. A few might even think of him as the guy who revitalised Carl Sagan’s Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey in 2014. One thing’s certain: no one immediately thinks “starship captain”. He aims to change that in his new series, The Orville, a comedydrama set in the distant future. Conceived and written by MacFarlane, the show also casts him as Planetary Union Captain Ed Mercer. In the pilot we meet a despondent Ed, derailed by a wrecked marriage that’s ruined his ambitions to captain his own exploratory ship. But then he’s given command of the modest USS Orville, piloted by his BFF – and his ex-wife just happens to be his First Officer (Adrianne Palicki). Yes, it’s messy, but that means space is now ripe for laughs. With the keys to the sci-fi genre now in his hands, MacFarlane tells SFX why it’s the time to keep looking up… What was exciting to you about creating a space exploration series set 400 years in the future?
Shows like Star Trek and The Twilight Zone, up until recently, sought to do a lot of heavy-lifting in storytelling. They sought to tell allegorical stories, be relevant and comment on things without directly going at them because it all seems like make-believe. It’s the aspirational, optimistic side of sci-fi that I was always drawn to, and I don’t think that’s existed for the past 20 years. We’re in the age of The Hunger Games where it’s very dark and dystopian. It’s time for another one of these shows to go to the opposite end of the spectrum with a blueprint for what we can do if we get things right. Because of your comedy background, a lot of people assume this will be like Galaxy Quest. Was that film an inspiration?
I saw it once years ago, but shockingly, it wasn’t. The intent of that movie, to me, was to be a full-on comedy. And as a result, the stakes, in terms of science fiction and the parables of science fiction, weren’t really something that needed to be taken all that seriously because it was pure comedy. So it really wasn’t an influence. What’s been your storytelling mandate for The Orville?
One of the things that I always look to, as a Star Trek: The Next Generation fan, [was the] big, two-part episode about the Borg, [that] was followed up the next week with a story about Picard going home to France to visit his brother at the winery. It was the same show but these stories could not have been more different in tone. And I remember thinking, “God, this is how TV should be. You should be able to write any kind of story and really surprise your audience so they’re not getting a formula. They’re getting something that’s completely different from week to week, but your characters remain true to who they are.” That’s really what we’re trying to do with this, to create a different viewing experience each week while, at the same time, adhering to this family of characters and staying true to who they are. Does that mean you’ll dig into some heavy sci-fi stories, or will you keep it light?
I think part of the fun of science fiction is to tell stories that have relevance but that exist in the world of makebelieve so you don’t necessarily come off preachy. But again, The Orville is designed to let the audience know from day one how to watch the show and the fact that, even in a perfect utopia, you’re still going to have to deal with other people who haven’t necessarily figured it out on the same pathway as your culture has. They have their own way. And that, to me, is part of the fun of sci-fi. What’s it like getting to write these new adventures with Brannon Braga, who was a major architect of modern Star Trek storytelling?
I’m having the time of my life working with these people. I remember being in college and being a fan of Brannon’s work. And obviously, I knew (Jonathan) Frakes and Robbie McNeill’s work and I was a fan. So to now be working with these people on a day-to-day basis on a show like this, it’s nothing short of a joy. What’s your ultimate goal in creating this show?
Whether it’s comedy or drama, if you can surprise your audience and if they can turn on their TV and really not know what it is they’re going to see that week, that, to me, is a show I want to watch. The challenge is to do that and maintain tonal consistency in the characters. We’ve tried really hard to do that in the face of the many different kinds of stories that we tell. And, hopefully, we’ve succeeded.
The Orville is now airing on Fox in the US and will also air in the UK on Fox, date TBC.