Posted in: Disney+, Hulu, streaming, TV | Tagged: contact, seth macfarlane, The Orville, The Orville: New Horizons

The Orville: How "Contact" Influenced Seth MacFarlane's Sci-Fi Series

It's no secret how hard Seth MacFarlane takes The Orville seriously. As his fourth major creation behind Family Guy, American Dad! and Ted, the common thread between the three aforementioned series is their status as comedies. As there are some comedic elements in the former Fox-turned-Hulu sci-fi series, MacFarlane banked not just on his own creativity as a fan of the genre but also on working with Star Trek writers like Brannon Braga and André Bormanis to forge the galaxy that the Planetary Union exists in. As The Orville draws several comparisons to Gene Roddenberry-created franchise throughout its run that includes the rebranded New Horizons season on Hulu, MacFarlane's intentions behind the series run far deeper, which includes inspiration from late astrophysicist Carl Sagan.

"From a scope standpoint, we wanted to sit up there with our competitors in a true way and really show what we could do with the budget that everyone else seems to be getting. [Chuckles] I think we were able to do that, we really wanted to prove ourselves as a legitimate sci-fi franchise," MacFarlane told Screen Rant. "I think it still remains to be seen whether we've done that, I think it's too early to tell, but my goal was really to craft stories that could stand up to repeat viewing, that had real moments where that would affect the audience and elicit some kind of feeling. One of my favorite sci-fi movies is 'Contact,' which I think does that so wonderfully. There's always big ideas and thoughtful elements of speculative science fiction, and yet, there's these fantastically emotional moments as well that leaves you misty-eyed, and the best sci-fi, to me, does that."

MacFarlane further broke down how certain New Horizons episodes helped achieve that. "I really wanted to have people walk away from these shows really being affected, whether that's in a positive way at the end of, say, the end of 'A Tale of Two Topas,' a more longing sense like 'Twice in a Lifetime' or just making them laugh, as hopefully we did in 'Future Unknown.' It's really about surprising people, writing story terms that are unexpected and keep them guessing, at the same time, never losing sight of the fact that this is a show about people. I think, to me, the thing that I hope separates The Orville from a lot of what else is out there is that we can put our characters in little rooms with no visual effects and no explosions and construct a story that still works and it still keeps you engaged. The soul of the show still is its characters, and in many ways, that's why the finale was the way it was, was to prove to ourselves and to our audience that, 'Look, things may be bigger and scope-ier and more epic in a visual sense, but never forget, this show is still about the people.' I think it's always good to keep that in mind."

As far as a possible season four, perhaps the "domino" lies within its premiere on Disney+ on August 10, allowing subscribers to have the same access to all three seasons as Hulu.

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