The Orville Season 1.5: New Beginnings

by David A. Goodman, David Cabeza (Illustrations), Michael Atiyeh (Illustrations)

The crew of the Orville continue their space explorations, encountering new alien civilizations and confronting old enemies in these stories by Executive Producer David A. Goodman!

Picking up where season one of Seth MacFarlane's space adventure TV series leaves off, this volume contains four episodic chapters:

In part 1 of New Beginnings Ed and Gordon follow a faint distress signal belonging to a long-lost Union vessel only to end up shot down on an irradiated, war-torn desert planet in the hands of an unknown species.

In part 2 of New Beginnings As Ed and Gordon uncover the truth of a century-old war, they fear that their eventual rescue may endanger the rest of the Orville crew. Not only does the crew's lives hang in the balance but all life on the entire planet.

In part 1 of The Word of Avis The Orville intercepts a small Union ship en route to the interstellar territory of the easily aggravated Krill. They thought the passengers were just a simple group of xenoanthropologists, but they turn out to be something much more interesting.

In part 2 of The Word of Avis Dragged off course and into Krill territory, the Orville crew find themselves in a battle for their lives, with threats from both outside and within.

Collects The Orville #1-#4.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Comedy, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Tv

96 pages, Paperback

First published February 18, 2020

About the author

David A. Goodman is an American writer, producer, and president of the Writers Guild of America West. He has been a writer for several television series, such as The Golden Girls, Futurama, where he was also a co-executive producer and wrote the notable Star Trek parody episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before", and Star Trek: Enterprise.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Orville is an interesting TV show. Originally billed as something of a workplace comedy making fun of Star Trek, it has quickly morphed into an ode to Star Trek: The Next Generation with more humor. This is sandwiched in between the first two seasons of the show and the two stories here are both good enough that they could have been regular episodes of the show.

The first story has the captain and Gordon crashlanding on a planet where they meet some aliens and discover a very neat original Star Trek type twist. The second is a tie in with an episode from season one where the Captain and Gordon went undercover on a Krill ship (The Klingons of the Orville universe). There's some smart writing involved here. I would love to see more explorations into where this story headed. All in all, worthy stories for any fans of The Orville.

Received a review copy from Dark horse and Edelweiss. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uninspired art, but the stories are of a quality with those presented on the screen - a rare thing for exploitive spin-offs.

[Andrew Beet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good graphic novel captures the essence of the tv series and quick to read

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

The irony that this Orville TV series is more Star Trek than the actual Star Trek currently airing is not lost on readers. Or, at least a lot more Star Trek: The Next Generation. Originally in Season 1 it was billed a parody but it seems to have (intentionally) shed that aspect and become a fully fledged sci-fi drama (with a few more off-color jokes than the norm in this genre). While I love Star Trek: Discovery, I grew up with TNG, DS9 and VOY. Happily, the Orville (Tv series and this graphic novel) gives a comfortable feeling of familiarity that translates into pure enjoyment.

The graphic novel is set between the first two seasons of the show and the two stories within could easily have been their own episodes. The plot feels right and like a good episode gives you food for thought. Even the slightly cringey one-lines delivered by Lt. Gordon are there and feel similarly glued on as they do in the show. The illustration work is surprisingly good for this type of TV-tie in comic.

The first story a First Contact with a hidden twist, very much in the vein of classic TNG. A bit predicable but enjoyable none the less. The B-plot introduces the character of Cassius who appears in Season 2 of the show and it's nice to see how that relationship began.

The second story is of religious fanatics and has more meat on it and perhaps not as easy to see where it will go. Some leaps of faith are required to believe the original premise but it is still a fine story. Similar to the first story, this also lays down some foundation of the event that we will end up seeing in Season 2 of the show.

There are two things I enjoyed in particular in this graphic novel - it makes good use of the medium and brings us new and additional information that is hard to introduce in a acted drama. There is more time to delve deeper. The second is that we get glimpses into something that the TV show hints at, which makes the graphic novel feel like a part of the show, rather than a side product. It is a bit weird that this is coming out now though, when this would have been a very interesting read had it been before Season.2 came out.

In short, if you love the show, you will like this graphic novel as well. If you are not already a fan, this won't change your mind. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

[Joshua James Slone · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's The Orville

Nails the look and feel of the show, so it's like getting two more decent episodes.

For existing fans only. It assumes knowledge of the premise and characters and has several direct callbacks to events of the first season.

[Václav · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3,5 of 5 for nice "The Orville" expansion in comic media)
I held this back for a while because at home we love the Orville TV show. Funny, thrilling and sometimes touching but great sci-fi fun to watch. So I feared how the comics adaptation will work.
To my surprise, it works very nicely. For a fan who watched the show, having the voices/speech style of the characters set in the head, even the dialogues and jokes work without much friction. So it was completely nice reading, but to be honest, the comic quality is average. Two new stories in the spirit of Orville, canonic (even if that is worth nothing here), are fun to read but with mediocre art and a kind of generic writing style, it's nothing fabulous in the world of comic books.
This is worthy to the fans, but I wouldn't pick that without seeing the first two seasons of the TV show before it.

[Carlos Lander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writing and graphics are excellent. I do like the relaxed concept of the series.

[Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could imagine this as being two missing episodes from the show, with personalities coming through, interesting dialogue, and clear art. If you are a fan of the show, you'll likely enjoy this, too. My one minor complaint is that the character art can look a bit stiff, but overall I was impressed with this volume.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summer 2022 Reading Entry #5. "The Orville Season 1.5: New Beginnings", script by David A. Goodman, art by David Cabeza, colors by Michael Atiyeh (Dark Horse Books, 2020). Originally released by Dark Horse Comics as "The Orville"* #1-4 (July 2019-October 2019). (* Some listings give the title as "The Orville: New Beginnings", as that sub-title was on the covers of the first two issues.)

For those not familiar, "The Orville" is a science-fiction television series created (and starring) Seth MacFarlane that aired on Fox for its first two seasons (2017-2019), then moved to Hulu for its third (and what may be its final) season, currently airing now (June to August 2022). Its third season has been sub-titled "New Horizons". The long gap between the airings of season two and season three were due to COVID related shutdown delays.

To keep this review short, "The Orville" has been said by some to be basically "Star Trek: The Next Generation" meets "The Office" (and while I am not a watcher of "The Office", I can definitely vouch for the parallels to ST:TNG). What I find mostly appealing about "The Orville" (beyond the occasionally visually exciting special effects heavy sequences) is the modern day quirky characters and dialogue present in a "Star Trek: Next Generation" like atmosphere. Indeed, many of the plots would work just as well as ST:TNG episodes, and with good reason as "Star Trek: The Next Generation", "Star Trek: Voyager", and "Star Trek: Enterprise" veteran Brannon Braga is one of the executive producers on "The Orville" (another being the author of this series of comics stories, David A. Goodman). But right when you think this is just a rehash of ST:TNG, one of the characters here will say something completely outrageous, something the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D would never say, but which is true to that of the U.S.S. Orville (and is often quite funny, although humor, of course, is very subjective).

All of that said, this first four issue limited series published by Dark Horse Comics and collected in trade paperback format under the "Season 1.5: New Beginnings" title was actually two separate two-issue stories. The first (which ran over issues one and two) features Captain Ed Mercer and Lt. Gordon Malloy getting stranded on a planet after their shuttle gets mysteriously shot down. They discover that what shot them down was a hundred year old ship like theirs (a "Union" ship, this series analogue for Star Trek's "Starfleet" and “United Federation of Planets”) that crash-landed on the planet's surface a century ago and been set up by its crew to protect and provide food for the few native inhabitants left, this ship's crashing on the surface having inadvertently caused the planet to become a wasteland.

Meanwhile, the Orville, under first office Commander Kelly Grayson, realizes that Mercer and Malloy have not reached their destination and begin searching for them. During these scenes back on the Orville, Grayson meets someone who will make his television debut at the start of season two: Cassius, a teacher on board the Orville (and who Grayson will become romantically involved with during season two).

The second story, "The Word of Avis", from issues three and four, have the Orville intercept a Union transport before it can travel into enemy Krill space. (I'm not going to go into who the Krill are here other than that they were a source of conflict during season one of the television series. I haven't mentioned it yet but as the trade paperback title indicates, these two comic book stories take place between seasons one and two.) The crew of the transport say it was due to equipment malfunctioning but there is something Mercer and his crew can tell they aren't revealing as to their true intentions in wanting to reach Krill space. Orville chief engineer, Lt. Commander John LaMarr discovers that the engineer aboard the transport is an old friend from when they both attended "Union Point" (I assume their version of Starfleet Academy).

There is nothing particularly exciting about either of these stories. Plot alone, I'd probably give this collection a three out of five stars on GoodReads. However, where Goodman excels is at capturing the voices of the "Orville" characters (and, as he should, since he's an executive producer on the television series, something I didn't realize as I was first reading these stories). And artist David Cabeza does an excellent job of capturing the likenesses of the various actors, which is always a big plus with comic books based on television or movie properties. Based on these two factors, I ended up giving it a four out of five stars, and I look forward to reading more in this run of "Orville" comic books.

(Dark Horse has released three more mini-series following this one. First, another four-issue mini-series sub-titled "Launch Day" and "Heroes" released from September to December 2020 and reprinted in trade paperback format under the title "The Orville Season 2.5: Launch Day" in May 2021. Then (as best I can tell) two separate two-issue minis: "Digressions” (May-June 2021) and "Artifacts” (October-November 2021), the two collected in trade paperback as "The Orville Season 2.5: Digressions" in March 2022.)

(Previous Summer 2022 Reading Entries: #1: "Star Trek: Avenger" by William Shatner (1997; novel); #2: "Batman vs. Ra's Al Ghul" by Neal Adams (2019-2021, six-issue comic book limited-series; 2021 collected hardcover edition); #3: “Superman: Birthright” by Mark Waid, Leinil Francis Wu, and Gerry Alanguilan (twelve-issue comic book limited series; 2003 to 2004; read on DC Universe Infinite, also available in hardcover and softcover editions); #4: "Star Trek: The Next Generation: Slings and Arrows Book 1: A Sea of Troubles" by J. Steven York and Christina F. York (2007; novella).

[Sanja · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's actually really good, especially the part where the USS Orville intercepts another Union ship.

Great to pass the time while waiting for the third season. Would recommend.

[Ellen Schoener · Rating 4 out of 5]

This hits the voice of the TV series perfectly.
Plus, the art is well done.
Definitely recommended if you like the Orville and also satisfies that Star Trek itch.

[Laurel Bradshaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 green stars.

If you are a fan of the TV show, you will like this. I am not sure this could stand alone. Obviously it would help to be familiar with the show and the characters. Consider these to be two mini-episodes that take place just after the end of season one. I thought the second story especially had some merit about a group of humans that have embraced the Krill's worship of Avis. There were some ideas there that could be expanded into a full episode. The artwork is colorful, the characters are recognizable. But this is all too short, and just a tease really.

Description: Picking up where season one of Seth MacFarlane's space adventure TV series leaves off, this volume contains four episodic chapters:

In part 1 of New Beginnings: Ed and Gordon follow a faint distress signal belonging to a long-lost Union vessel only to end up shot down on an irradiated, war-torn desert planet in the hands of an unknown species. In part 2 of New Beginnings: As Ed and Gordon uncover the truth of a century-old war, they fear that their eventual rescue may endanger the rest of the Orville crew. Not only does the crew's lives hang in the balance but all life on the entire planet.

In part 1 of The Word of Avis: The Orville intercepts a small Union ship en route to the interstellar territory of the easily aggravated Krill. They thought the passengers were just a simple group of xenoanthropologists, but they turn out to be something much more interesting. In part 2 of The Word of Avis: Dragged off course and into Krill territory, the Orville crew find themselves in a battle for their lives, with threats from both outside and within.

[Paul Decker · Rating 4 out of 5]

*I received this book as an eARC from Dark Horse Books via Edelweiss. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

The Orville is Seth McFarlane's comedy sci-fi tv show reminiscent of Star Trek. This graphic novel compiles two story arcs that take place between season 1 and 2 of the show.

The first story finds Ed and Gordon on their way to a conference when they receive a distress beacon from a hundred year old vessel. They get shot down and end up stuck on a desert planet. Meanwhile, on the Orville some romance may be starting to blossom. I found this story entertaining. It felt very much like a story that would be in an episode. I would give this story a 3.5/5.

The second story focuses on a group of xenoanthropologists about to enter Krill space. Someone from John's past comes into play. I found the details of Krill religious beliefs interesting. I give this story a 4/5.

Overall, I thought this graphic novel is great ancillary material. It feels just like the show. The content also directly connects to plot points in the show. This is a great example of tie-in material. I give this whole book a 4/5.

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Orville is a show that at first glance may appear to just be another Seth MacFarlane comedy, but once you get into it, turns out to be a faithful homage to Star Trek in a similar vein to Galaxy Quest, but then deals with some serious issues much in the same way as classic Star Trek does.
As for this comic, the dialogue and the way the characters acted was consist ant with their character from the show. The two stories could very well have worked as actual episodes of the show. The first dealt with fallout from an old war and people still trying to rebuild after it. The second dealt with religion, of which it took a fairly critical view (seeing as MacFarlane himself is an atheist, this would have been his take), but in particular dealt with a cult based on a dangerous religion, as the characters admitted to the struggle of trying to deal with that while respecting freedom of religion. As it takes place between the 1st and 2nd season, it also ties together a few things that were seen on the show but not fully explored, and gives some backstory, basically answering "well how did they end up in that situation?".

[Joe Pranaitis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Authors and illustrators David A. Goodman, David Cabeza & Michael Atiyeh bring us two adventures with the crew of the Orville. The first adventure is Ed and Gordon are heading for a conference while Issac and the rest of the crew stay to study a megastar. On their way they stumble across a distress call coming from a century old starship and trace it to its last location. Once there they find out that the planet had been decimated by the fall of the ship whom they came to find. Ed and Gordon then learn that the planet is still inhabited by a species of penguins. The second story in this book is the Word of Avis which deals with the scientists that were assigned to study the Krills holy book wanting to willingly go into Krill space and join them. But the Orville is close enough to intercept their transport and they do only to meet the lead researcher who is so obsessed with joining the Krill that he would sacrifice the crew of the Orville to do it. This graphic novel sets up Season 2 of the Orville and I highly recommend it for all science fiction fans.

[kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lot of fun. The Orville is probably one of my favourite shows in the last five years so having more content is great. This is probably one of the best pieces of tie-in media I've read. It really does feel like these are just comic book versions of episodes of the show. While the art isn't spectacular the character's voices really shine through and I can hear them in my head. My only real complaint is that I wish this volume was longer.

I do wish we got more Alara especially since she does eventually end up leaving. This comic also is definitely for fans of the show as if you went into this with no knowledge it would be very confusing.

I also really like how this added to the setup of a plot point in season 2.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two excellent mini-missions to fill in the gaps between the first and second seasons. It filled in my questions of "HOW did Topa grow up so fast?" "How did Kelly meet Cassius?" and filled in the prologue nicely of "Nothing on Earth Excepting Fishes" with Ed and Teleya.
The artwork is gorgeous. I could easily read this with the characters' voices in my head.
I would've paid good money to see a filmed version of the Chogs though. Like 'Happy Feet' meets the Porgs from Star Wars...

[Brandon Nichols · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perfectly good pair of episodes. The writing is creaky in some places, but the art makes up for it. Vibrant and fun. The first story is a fun little romp that gives you some insight into the universe of The Orville. The second is heavier, but thought-provoking.

They would have both made decent episodes.

Worth the trouble if you like the show.

[Kevin Morrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best comic tie-in I have ever read! I wish it went on longer, both stories were excellent and I heard the character's voices in my head. They felt like two full episodes, which is something tie-ins never do! They felt fun, exciting, enjoyable, it was a great read and I can't wait for Season 2.5.

[Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a fun continuation of the first season! The storylines were strong and entertaining and really felt like episodes of The Orville, and each character's behaviour and speech felt so authentic to their show counterparts. The art style is beautiful and really captured the sci-fi atmosphere, and there are some really funny moments. I love it!

[Dillon Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a huge fan of the tv series, I can happily say this canonical comic bridges many gaps between the first and second season, while also standing on its own. Worth the read for fans of the show and Sci-Fi fans in general, the visual art is also magnificent.

[James Bowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two stories set between the first two seasons of The Orville. Both are entertaining reads that would work pretty well on TV, if maybe slightly more serious than typical episodes of the show. (B+)

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just like The Orville!

It's exactly like watching an episode of The Orville, so if you like the show, you'll love this. The art and text is really well laid out and the stories are genuinely interesting. Good humor too. 10/10!

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories actually had some good twists I didn’t fully see coming. The drawings were well done. I give only 4 stars because I always feel in comics something more could have happened.

[MissPosabule · Rating 4 out of 5]

This comic was a fun, quick adventure in the world of The Orville, and it made the wait between seasons feel a little less intense.

[Dustin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, not great. If you're a fan of the show I'd still recommend giving it a read.

[Donna Lombardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first story in this collection blew me away. They say the Orville is a love letter to Star Trek. This story proves it.

[Dimitris Papastergiou · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok.. just like the show.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this show and this is a nice, quick read taking part between seasons 1 and 2

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun graphic novel! Filled in some holes from Season 1/2. :)