Unlike Star Trek's virtuous captains, The Orville's Captain Ed Mercer was a bitter man, prone to jealousy, who would still do the right thing.
Seth MacFarlane's brilliantly flipped a sci-fi captain trope on its head when creating his sci-fi comedy-drama The Orville. First airing on Fox, The Orville was an affectionate homage to the sci-fi dramas of the 1990s, most notably Star Trek: The Next Generation. However, unlike TNG, MacFarlane's show was peppered with pop culture references and low-brow jokes.
SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY This presentation of a galaxy class starship as a more relatable workplace marked The Orville out as unique from the shows it regularly riffed on. The personalities and tastes of the human characters meant that many of The Orville's sci-fi storylines were underpinned by very human emotions like jealousy or pettiness. Key to this was the character of Captain Ed Mercer , who was created to flip the traditional presentation of a starship captain.
This was particularly true in The Orville's Charlize Theron episode "Pria", when Kelly was suspicious of Pria's intentions toward Ed. In a normal sci-fi show, it would likely be explained that Ed fell for Pria's scam because of mind control or another sci-fi device. In The Orville, Ed almost dooms everyone because he's lonely after his divorce from Kelly, and sees her concern as jealousy, rather than the legitimate concern of a senior officer.
The Orville's Captain Ed Mercer Is Key To The Show's Success The focus on interpersonal relationships and human frailty was what made The Orville so interesting. On a surface level, a dejected and divorced starship captain working alongside his ex-wife is the stuff of a corny sitcom. In The Orville, it lent dramatic weight and personal stakes to the stories as The Orville grew darker in tone.
As The Orville had spent two seasons building a relatable, fallible, crew it was devastating to see Isaac so badly treated by season 3's new character Charly Burke. However, as with Ed's jealousy and loneliness, Charly's prejudice was rooted in her own grief and trauma. Her heroic sacrifice to save Isaac and the Kaylon at the end of The Orville season 3 was a perfect summation of why Seth MacFarlane's focus on human mediocrity and fallibility paid off so dramatically.
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