The Orville (TV Series) Mad Idolatry (2017) User Reviews

Mix of a two Star Treks

[brianjohnson-20043 · 8/10 · 21 February 2019]

This episode has a storyline which feels like a mix of two Star Trek episodes. The two that most came to my mind were: who watches the watchers from TNG and Blink of an Eye from Star Trek Voyager. Interestingly Brannon Braga the director of this episode was involved with both of the other shows as writers, although I don't think he wrote any of the 3 episodes. Although I could be wrong.

Anyway, this story has the future society seemingly like gods narrative of the TNG episode, and the two worlds with different timelines aspect of Voyager.

It allows for a lot of religion criticiam. Which I don't mind. But overall the story and entertainment should come first.

I would have preferred if they didn't make the developing world's religions look so much like the religions of earth. The middle age period religion looked just like Catholicism from the architecture to the wardrobe. I think it could have been a lot less subtle and we still would have gotten the points.

I'd say this episode is about as good as the TNG one, but not as good as the Voyager epiode. Although the Voyager episode is one of the best of the entire series, so I'd be difficult to match.

One of the aspects about the voyager episode that makes it better IMO is that the planet gets to see their spaceship the entire time it's speedily developing. In this episodes the ship only sees the planet for an hour or so every 11 days, and 700 years pass on the planet. For the Voyager episode the planet is on faster time. And the ship is stuck in the planet's gravity and provides a positive rather than negative role for the developing culture. However their presence also causes earthquakes and the people below aren't aware of the the time-gap. They come to view the ship as a threat.

If you like this kind of storyline definelty check out Blink of an eye. It's not and exactly the first type of story to have two cultures of different timelines interacting over time, but it's the best one I've seen.

This episode also has a side storyline of the Mercer and Kelly deciding if they want to get back together. And they also sort of neglect resolving an introduced implication of their continued interference with the planet going against their starfleet equivalent's orders. I guess they got away with it?

I though it was one of the better episodes of the season, but not one of my top 2 favorites. My favorites were the clown episode one and the if the stars should appear episode.

Great Show

[glangendoen · 9/10 · 11 December 2017]

Wow this is getting better every time. When i watched the first episode i thought it would be a spoof of Star Trek. But after that it reminded me so much of Star trek Voyager and The Next Generation that i came back for more every time. I'm sorry to say that this is so much more Star Trek than Star Trek Discovery. Keep up the good work, enjoy it every time !

Mysterious figure?

[twojoes-56468 · 8/10 · 7 May 2023]

Who is the cloaked mysterious figure standing behind Bortus at the 7: 46 mark. When Bortus says "it's a planet" there a strange being all dressed in black that is not the normal crew. Who or what is it????? There is also a red strip on the black attire. This is not a review, but a question for anyone else to check it out. I guess it requires 600 charactees, so I will also add that the figure in the scene doesn't seem to be noticed by anyone else, and I checked the goof section, and it's not in there either. Does anyone else see this strange thing in the scene, or am I crazy? Go look and see it.

This show just keeps getting better!

[jacknlowe · 10/10 · 14 December 2017]

This episode was hillarious! Thought provoking but insanely funny too! The look on LaMarr's face when his partially undressed girlfriend invited the captain for drinks in his quarters was PRICELESS! And that Latchkam or whatever game with Bortus...was NOT expecting the surprise at the end of that "game" hahahahaha! I normally HATE sci-fi episodes where the "aliens" look 100% or near 100% identical to humans (without proper explanation), but I was able to overlook that in this episode because it was just good. I'm really enjoying this show, I cannot wait for Season 2!!! The same cannot be said for Star Trek Discovery.

Loved it

[MsMoebius · 10/10 · 10 May 2022]

I was not so sure of this show when I started watching, but I was surprised and attracted by its sci-fi, by the humour, by the parody to other shows, by the parody and critics to our society and, most importantly, because some episodes also transmit some hope for the future that other sci-fi shows do not transmit.

This episode in particular was great as it showed the evolution of mankind and colonization in a 45 minute episode.

The episode also proposes a future in which rationality rather than the opressing ideas of religion for the control of human actions is the basis of a future civilization in which wars for religion or power do not exist but rather tolerance for the diferent seems to predominate.

While it may sound naive, I like to believe it will be like that

I have already said this: I honestly believe the original star trek idea si back !!!

Good Concept--Awkwardly Addressed

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 10 June 2022]

I enjoyed the idea of the parallel universes living in different times. I thought it was portrayed well. After Kelly's blunder, the planet becomes a theocracy and falls into disrepair. That's fine. But I thought that Kelly's demonstration and explanation to the guy dressed as a bishop was really weak. This should have been thought out better if they thought they could effect changes. Still, a good series.

Deja Vu all over again

[cliometrician · 8 December 2017]

First of all, I do not think that this was overall a strong episode. The exception was the interplay between Captain and Commander about their feelings vs. their duty. That was very well done and was the highlight of the episode for me.

Major Spoilers: Something about it kept bugging me. When they went down to the planet to confront the religious leader by telling and showing him that Kelly was not a god who appeared 700 years previously, the thought struck me: "I've seen this before!" I knew exactly what was going to happen, and looking back I realized that every moment spent on the planet was something very familiar. In other words, I had seen this episode before but could not remember where. Many thanks to the reviewer above who reminded us that this was a redo of a "Star Trek: Voyager" episode, "Blink of an Eye."

However, where the reviewer above thought it was a nice homage to the Voyager series, I did not think it was an homage at all. I believe that the writers were hoping no one would notice that they just copied an episode from nearly 18 years ago. OK, maybe that's putting it too strongly, but it just seemed a lazy way to end the season. Your mileage may vary.

The plot here was really over the top in heavy-handedness. I went back and watched the "Blink of an Eye" episode again and I thought the Voyager version much better than this one. More nuanced, without beating us over the head with the message.

All that being said, I love this series, I'm just sorry that it ended the season upon, for me, a weak episode.

Seth MacFarlane's take on religion

[grantss · 8/10 · 23 January 2023]

Kelly, Gordon and Isaac are exploring a planet that only appears in our universe every 11 days but for which 700 years pass in those 11 days. The planet has advanced to the bronze age. Despite being aware of the risk of contaminating the planet's culture, Kelly helps heal a girl who has been injured. When the crew lands on the planet 11 days later, 700 years has passed...and Kelly is regarded as a god!

A very interesting and intelligent episode of The Orville with Seth MacFarlane once again showing that this is more than just Star Trek with humour. Once again, too, he captures his own views in the plot of an episode. This time he tackles religion.

As a Christian I guess I'm supposed to be offended by how things progress and the conclusion, as MacFarlane portrays religions as beliefs borne out of superstition and ignorance and perpetuated and abused by those wishing to use the belief to wield power. This is in many cases true so it's hard to defend against that. I'm definitely not going to dispute his view that religion causes many of the world's problems, especially wars.

One issue I have, however, is his view that as we grow more enlightened there is less need for religion, implying that only lesser-educated and less-intelligent people need religion. Maybe less people feel the need for religion but religion still has a purpose.

His stance is also rather dogmatic and simplistic. Then again, it's a bit difficult to have an all-encompassing discussion on the pros and cons of religion and whether God exists in a 45-minute episode of a sci-fi-comedy series!

Anyway, regardless of my beliefs, it's still a very interesting, intelligent and entertaining episode, one that, despite my beliefs not aligning to those of Seth MacFarlane, I enjoyed immensely.

Mad Idolatry

[bobcobb301 · 7/10 · 9 December 2017]

The Orville has tackled a lot of real world issues through the illusion of sci-fi drama, but it was clear this was an attack on religion. That will cause some people to automatically hate it and some to automatically love it.

That didn't impact me. I thought the episode was solid, but a little bit uneventful. They didn't do a good job of explaining why the ship had to intervene. The Ed and Kelly dynamic is not exactly Sam and Diane so making that the closing moments of the season finale was a mistake.

Not the best of the season, but not bad at all.

Good episode, but ending could be better

[bohningch · 7/10 · 10 August 2019]

Overall, it was an enjoyable episode for a good first season.

But: If it had ended with another 11 day cycle passed and the planet re-emerging totally destroyed with nobody alive, that would have been more creative than just re-shaping existing Star Trek episodes and morals, and I would have rated it 10/10.

Somehow a show that started quite ironically starts taking itself a little too seriously..

Mixed bag... predictable and derivative, with unsophisticated satire that lacks any bite or thoughtfulness

[wolfstar_imdb · 5/10 · 8 January 2018]

I thought this episode was only borderline OK. The ship scenes worked (especially the Ed-Kelly material), the planet scenes largely didn't - the depiction of the (apparently British/Irish/Australian) peasant inhabitants was extremely hackneyed in the vein of TNG's Up The Long Ladder, and I could see every plot twist coming, from the time differential (similar to DS9's Meridian and VOY's Blink Of An Eye) to the priest being assassinated to Isaac spending a cycle on the planet. The episode improved towards the end, but social satire (of Catholicism/televangelism/Middle-East conflict) shouldn't be so obvious, particularly when it's not especially biting. The humor wasn't as well-integrated as in recent episodes, Bortus was again only used for comedy, and the supporting characters weren't used well (Gordon/LaMarr/Alara were superfluous, Claire was defacto absent).

Coming at this from an agnostic/irreligious perspective, I did find this episode's brief jabs at Catholicism and US televangelism pretty weak and facile, because it didn't really have anything to say or say it with any conviction. The episode was at its best when it articulated that the "Kelly" period was just part of the society's development and wasn't her fault - if it wasn't her, it'd have been something else. If you're going to criticize religion, do it with teeth, passion and intelligence - satire needs to be cutting and intellectually rigorous, not just lazy, obvious "thing X is bad" material that's designed to play to the gallery. It's exactly the type of lazy material that religious people will see and think "the liberal media hates us", which furthers social division. As such, I guess the episode would have worked better for me without the parallel-earth touches - it was too unsubtle.

Not sure what to think about this episode...

[pjgs200 · 6/10 · 12 July 2018]

I'm not writing a review for the last episode, "New Dimensions," but the visuals were fantastic, the direction was great, the script was nice, and the score was beautiful. The reference to Doctor Who was a plus in what is my favorite episode of the Orville so far.

I really like The Orville. I think it's funny, enjoyable, and it has lots of potential to be a great show, but I think that this episode might have been a misstep, especially for the finale.

On the positive side, this episode was probably one of the best directed of the series: the acting was good, and I liked the lighting in the dinner scenes with Ed and Kelly. I also liked how MacFarlane dealt with the relationship between Captain Mercer and Commander Grayson, and I think that Adrianne Palicki gave her best performance on the show so far.

My issue with this episode is with the writing. It was too preachy and unsubtle for my liking, and it's really just Seth MacFarlane telling us why he thinks religion is bad with surface level criticism. His depiction of organized religion, or religion in general, isn't accurate and just makes it seem like people who are religious or people who believe in God are less intelligent. I don't think that's the best way to end the first season of this show.

I'm giving this a 6 out of 10 because it was still a pretty enjoyable episode of The Orville, even if the writing made it preachy. This show definitely has potential and has improved quite a bit since it's first episode. I'm excited to see where the next season goes.

S1: Uneven and inconsistent but neither as bad as the critics say or as good as the fans say

[bob the moo · 27 August 2018]

Unsure what to expect was the way I started watching The Orville. I expected it to be funny in a Family Guy way of course, but at the same time I had heard that fans had latched to it for being a solid Star Trek extension that focused on doing what the original show did. The truth is much more of the latter, with the note that when the show is lighthearted, then FG is the style of humor, but really it is a sci-fi in the spirit of original Star Trek.

The division between the critical assessment, and that of the viewers, is significant and interesting in how it plays out, but the truth is somewhere in the middle. I think the critics expected more cynicism and comedy, whereas the viewers gradually settled into what it is - and then overpraised it based on the savaging that the critics got. Truth is that both parties have good points. The Orville is essentially a run at doing the original Star Trek series again; it looks like it, it feels like it and its strengths and weaknesses are often in common with it. On one hand this is enjoyable, because it does have that nostalgic feel to what it does - but then, one has to wonder why so much money was spent on a vehicle which deliberately limits itself and feels like a step backwards.

How I felt about it personally tended to vary by the minute. At its heart it was solidly entertaining; it looked great due to the money spent on it, and it has undemanding but engaging genre-standard ideas and narratives. Within this the show throws in moments of humor that don't always fit in, but also lays out the most obvious and 'worthy' of allegories with an air of self-importance that it doesn't deserve. Most of the time it doesn't do any of this too much in one direction, but certainly there are one or two howler episodes (the gender reassignment one for example - aims high but misses). After a good chunk of episodes though, I had the tone and settled into it okay.

As a whole it is never more than 'okay', and it seems all over the map at times in what it wants to do. If you have fond memories of the original Star Trek then probably you'll be more likely to enjoy this than the casual viewer. It took me some time, but I was enjoying it by the end.

Characters acting stupid to drive plot

[Nerdglaze420 · 6/10 · 16 December 2023]

Definitely one of the weaker episodes of The Orville. The concept of witnessing a civilization's development in 700-year time leaps is an interesting one, but the execution is lacking. The trope of religious people being mindless, tyrannical bigots is getting a little tired. Even the prelude is a bit contrived and drags. Ed wants to get together with Kelly again... because he's bored? The Moclans invite him for a drink and - suprise! - the drink is terrible. They invite him to play a game and - surprise! - the game is violent. Why do I see that coming from a mile away and Ed doesn't? Why do these people not understand that their food and drink might not be suitable or palatable to other species? None of this is credible, and it's too predictable to be funny.

The biggest problem is how careless Kelly is about what they call cultural contamination (violating the prime directive in the Star Trek universe), and Ed as well. Isaac even reminds her of it and then she goes right ahead and violates it... because a little girl fell over? Really? "The girl would have died!" First of all, that wound wasn't lethal, second of all, if you mess up a whole civilization, much worse things than a girl dying from an accident can happen, which is exactly why interference is forbidden. Why don't Ed and Kelly know that? It really doesn't make any sense. At least use your scanner or ask Isaac to make sure there aren't any people around who could see you helping the girl.

It's a similar problem as in the Black Mirror type social media voting episode wherein John Lamarr acts like a complete fool throughout, showing zero consideration or respect facing an alien culture, even though his own life is at stake. Selective stupidity of characters who aren't supposed to be stupid is the worst plot device, and these episosodes make heavy use of it.

Who Watches the Watchers 2: Electric Bogaloo

[AlbJohFan · 1/10 · 9 December 2018]

The worst episode of the series, in my opinion. It's a copy-paste of the Star Trek episode "Who Watches the Watchers", but accomplishes even less. The crew go to a planet that phases between dimensions and every time it's in the other dimension 500 years passes. Kelly uses advanced medical tech to heal someone's injury, then next time the planet appears there's a religion worshiping Kelly because witnesses misunderstood that act as a miracle; one miracle and she's got a religion that's lasted at least 500 years. Whatever you believe, real-life religions don't work that way and require more sustaining them than one act (Jesus is most well-known for one act, but Scriptures talk about many others Jesus also did). The episode only exists to say religion is bad, but doesn't even do so in an interesting or thought out way. Seth's avowed intention to portray that religion can be negative at times falls flat since this has been done so many times in sci-fi, religion can be a POSITIVE influence, attempting to religion has always yielded bad results in real-life (Soviet Russia and North Korea for two examples), and the behaviors people like Seth despise in religious people are also found among non-religious people.

The title of this episode also falls flat, because in the Abrahamic faiths, idolatry is a bad thing full stop so Mad Idolatry is a redundant title (like "a reddish scarlet color"). Mercer and the crew don't accomplish anything regarding the religion that sprung up around Kelly and all but one of them just abandon the planet when things go bad. (also villains based on the demonized version of the Spanish Inquisition popular in fictional media, never seen that before!). There's also the ending with its puerile, unexplained "societies outgrow religion" nonsense. This episode is the worst of the worst - the weakest episode of the series. Considering how bad this show is (I watched to give it the benefit of the doubt. When I first heard about The Orville, I thought "Seth MacFarlane doing a Star Trek homage? it's going to full of him ramming his views down people's throats I fear."), that's a hell of a thing.

Incompetence Squared

[bringezk · 6/10 · 5 February 2024]

This episode really frustrated me. I know the crew are supposed to be "normal" people who screw up but for a First Officer to be so stupid? First she takes off on her own for a 'look-see' then she fails to scan for life forms in her immediate vicinity so chances upon alien children. Then, when she spots them she fails to hold still & hide & carries on blundering about so they see her. THEN she compounds her idiocy by interacting with & healing the child then allowing herself to be seen by other adult aliens. Later, learning a whole religion sprang up around her, instead of leaving well enough alone, she doubles down & goes back to talk to more aliens - directly leading to a murder - & risking the careers of her Captain & senior officers. This, plus her insistence on promoting Lamarr last episode despite no evidence he is competent to be on the bridge let alone in a leadership position really put me off the whole show. I hope the next season improves things.

What a simplistic and idiotic way of seeing religion...

[soporteeob · 1/10 · 6 February 2020]

You know Macfarlane and his position about religion and faith. This episode was pretty much expected to come anyway since is the creator and a writer of the series. Still you can expect that someone that is so critic about the role of religion on culture and society will be more informed about what he is criticizing. The whole idea that one of the crew members will be become some sort of "God" in a society after 5 minutes of "intervene" or "interact" with someone of that society is totally idiotic. Maybe because the episode is short-timed, the way the series wants to present how religion can be "so bad" for human kind development is so simplistic that actually gives any fundamentalist a good tool to criticize liberals, showing the poor knowledge about how religion has been developing in the world in the last 3500 years. This episode just does the opposite of what it wants to achieve and actually it serves for the purposes of those who wants to control the faith of people for their own obscure interests. The last part of the episode is not better but worst, if you think Earth is cool as it was before the humans changed the shape of the Earth landscapes, you will not like what you'll see. Once again because of their own arrogance liberals like MacFarlane are the worst enemies of science and knowledge, showing how poor is their comprehension of history. Anyway this episode closed a poor season with a lot of pseudo-science stuff that actually would make any scientist to laugh. I heard the second season is better, I hope so.

Do not forget to downlike this!! I know most watchers of this show are liberals and they are not so open to criticism and they pretend to be. They are fundamentalist but in the other side of the ideological spectrum.

Faith in Reason..

[Tyndareon · 1/10 · 10 August 2018]

Orville is a mostly OK series, neither bad nor good, some laughs, some awkward bad jokes, some smart twists, some embarrassing. But in this episode it proves what most people already understand, that it is NOT science fiction. Reason and science is NOT something you have faith in, it's NOT magic! To advance science you must precisely be IRREVERENT towards science, you must challenge what you inherit.

On the other hand religion is not magic either. To think that a religion is simply the result of a "miraculous" phenomenon - rather than the artistic representation of a system of knowledge - betrays a naive and frankly, culturally illiterate individual.

I don't care for the juxtaposition of "barbarian Westerner" to "wise Arab/sub-Saharan African" either. That's actually a war on historical and scientific truth. I thought FOX was not on the side of the lunatics..

Science fiction preaching

[DSPMachine · 2/10 · 23 October 2020]

I've never seen space faring science fiction be compatible with any real life religion, and I never expect to. That's all fine. The premise is incompatible. So if a writer decides to go there, there's an agenda. And that's the writer's privilege.

But let's be honest. Space faring sci-fi is one of the most scientifically illiterate forms of story telling. Maybe THE most scientifically illiterate. Even to the extent that they may try to be accurate, they are horrible communicators, or just ignorant. Space faring sci-fi is a terrible predictor of the future, terribly implausible, a terrible teacher. And yes, that includes Contact, Asimov, all of it for anyone willing to be honest.

That's OK, we love it anyways. And I personally love the Orville brand of humor, and the premise of the story.

So to use that scientifically illiterate foundation as an opportunity to convey that real-life religious beliefs are backwards, and anti-religious beliefs are enlightened -- that does a disservice to everyone. And it's hard to watch.

Oh, and when the root of the space faring sci-fi and real-life religion incompatibility is the imagined intermingling of intragalactic intelligent life -- well, good luck with that. And with SETI, and FTL, and even with that Mars colony. Now let's get back to the entertainment.

Preachy anti-preachy episode.

[Maddy-the-Weinerdog · 5/10 · 25 June 2023]

Once again Seth makes a preachy anti-faith episode. It's odd that he likes to preach about his lack of belief in anything.

Science does not rule out creation, just like creation does not rule out science. It's narrow minded people on both sides that cause problems. The episode was entertaining enough, but ironically, the authors preaching about science makes It less enjoyable. A fundamental rule of science is realizing that you don't know everything.

A little more effort in the mistakes the characters make would also help this, as well as several other episodes. They make it like the crew are complete morons when they meet an alien culture. Kelly was going to stay hidden, but seconds later she almost kills a child, and then seconds after that a whole community sees her use advanced technology. Really? I wish writers wouldn't assume the audience is stupid.

It was okay

[ozzman1967 · 4/10 · 28 July 2021]

This episode has its moments. Seth makes it clear that he is an atheist. I want to laugh. I don't care to fell like a lesser man because I believe in a God.