It seems like it was not too long ago that I was gushing about Bruce Broughton having a good handle on how to make a space adventure series sound really epic, and even though I was talking about the doomed second season of Buck Rogers from 1981, I feel like the fact that he went on to craft the main theme and the pilot episode score for The Orville makes my point for me. Spoiler: he’s still got a good handle on how to make a space adventure series sound really epic.
Of course, it helps to have the right series to score, and it’s probably the worst-kept secret in Hollywood that, on the surface, The Orville might just be the most spectacular Star Trek: The Next Generation fan film series ever produced. Though Fox was quick to play up Seth MacFarlane’s involvement and tried to pitch it as a comedy, MacFarlane quickly showed his hand just a few episodes in: he wanted his own Trek spinoff, in every way but name, complete with complex moral issues and serious storytelling and character development. And to help sell that, MacFarlane insisted on enough of a music budget to hire some of the biggest orchestral ensembles that Hollywood TV scoring had seen in years, along with a mix of composers from legendary projects and some rising talent.
While only soundtrack nerds like myself might remember Broughton in the same breath with Buck Rogers, it’s no secret that his score for the 1998 big-screen revival Lost In Space was one of that film’s most redeeming qualities. And it’s really that sound that Broughton brings to the pilot episode, Old Wounds – soaring space adventure music building on his noble, nautical theme tune as a motif. While “Krill Attack / Shuttle Escape” kicks the amount of butt that you’d expect a Broughton action cue to kick, “Emergency Docking” is the real thrill ride from the pilot.
Joel McNeely arrived in the second episode as one of the show’s regular composers; with such projects as The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and the score-without-a-movie project Star Wars: Shadows Of The Empire behind him, McNeely’s an ideal pick for this series. His score for If The Stars Should Appear is moody, mysterious, and a marvelous stylistic homage (if an obvious one) to Jerry Goldsmith’s “V’Ger music” from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. That mention is a good time to point out that what differentiates The Orville from its inspiration is that, as a musician himself, Seth MacFarlane knows the value of a strong, memorable score, and of occasionally letting the music carry the picture. Music this distinctive and bold would never have made it to the screen in the Rick Berman era of Star Trek, a period that saw perfectly capable and talented composers having to try to sneak anything thematically strong under the radar of a producer who essentially wanted sonic wallpaper. The Orville’s music isn’t wallpaper; it isn’t more concerned with the rumble of the ship’s engines than it is with music that conveys emotions, and MacFarlane gives his composers a free hand to express that. About A Girl gets a rollicking start (and a rollicking interlude in “Arriving On Moclus”), but is more contemplative overall, befitting the story where the show really made clear what mix of drama-with-occasional-comedy it would be embracing in the future. His Krill score is considerably more active, with a John Williams flavor in both action and suspense scenes, and a deliciously unsettling, musically-unresolved ending in the “New Enemies” cue closing the first disc. Into The Fold, the first McNeely score on disc two, starts with a killer shuttle-crash opening and builds menace from there with horror-movie-ready action cues and quiter, but still menacing, passages. McNeely rounds things out on the second disc with the quieter score for Mad Idolatry, an episode more concerned with landing its concept and its message than attempting to be the season’s action showcase. Debney’s score supports that sets the mood without getting in the way.
John Debney comes out swinging with his first score, Command Performance, which again has stylistic nods to Goldsmith (complete with the Blaster Beam!) as well as Horner and Williams, and fireworks aplenty. Pria also opens with a bang, and a Williams-esque one at that, with some ominous passages as the crew – well, everyone except Captain Mercer, who’s smitten with her – begins to suspect that enigmatic visitor Captain Pria Levesque (played by very promotable guest star Charlize Theron) is not telling them the whole story of where she comes from. Things get overly synthesized for the first time with Majority Rule, sounding almost like Alan Silvestri’s work from the MacFarlane-produced Cosmos series. Though it’s a surreal romantic comedy episode, Cupid’s Dagger still gets a deceptively straightforward dramatic treatment from Debney (though only two tracks and seven minutes’ worth). Debney pulls double duty, also scoring the following episode, Firestorm, which he helps turn into an action blockbuster (and quite possibly my favorite score from the first season). Firestorm comes out swinging from the first second and doesn’t let up. I’m not of the opinion that a film composer should be judged only by their action music – quite the contrary, actually – but Debney drenches it with diverse action and horror stylings aplenty, making it his showpiece for The Orville’s first year. (And note: more Blaster Beam.)
Andrew Cottee, an internationally-known arranger who had already done some work on MacFarlane’s 2019 album Once In A While, gets to sink his teeth into a full-length episode score with New Dimensions, a late-season episode that was already conceptually challenging. Dealing with the three-dimensional ship and crew being pulled into a two-dimensional realm of space in which they can only hope to survive for a short time before they have to exit again, New Dimensions is one of those “how do you even express that musically?” exercises. The score Cottee delivered for this episode does not sounds like someone’s first effort for hour-long dramatic TV – it sounds like he’s been doing this for years. There’s a sense of awe and wonder to the “two-dimensional” scenes, and a restrained sense of menace elsewhere that reminds me of the original Star Trek with its economical and yet forceful arrangements. Delivering more “oomph” with fewer players is a real gift in film scoring, and it’s all down to careful arrangement. Cottee has that gift; I look forward to hearing more from him.
As musically inclined and adept as Seth MacFarlane is, whether he would be a composer’s greatest collaborator or greatest liability rests on a delicate tipping point. He obviously had a clear vision for what he wanted The Orville to sound like, picked the composers who could make that happen, and both encouraged them and was able to give them a detailed idea of what he wanted. The fact that all of the show’s composers returned to contribute to its later seasons would seem to be an indication of a good working atmosphere; it certainly produced eminently listenable results.
Disc 1
- The Orville Main Title (01:04)
Old Wounds – music by Bruce Broughton
- Shuttle to the Ship (01:54)
- She Requested It / Departing for Landing (01:09)
- Krill Attack / Shuttle Escape (04:14)
- Emergency Docking (02:27)
- Kelly Has a Plan / Asking Kelly to Stay (03:51)
If The Stars Should Appear – music by Joel McNeely
- The Bio-Ship / Exploring the Hull (02:22)
- Exploring the Bio-Ship (02:45)
- Finding Alara / Space Battle (02:53)
- Dorahl / The Roof Opens (04:05)
Command Performance – music by John Debney
- Distress Signal Received / Alara Freaks Out / Explosion (05:54)
- Alara Gets the Cold Shoulder / Approaching Calivon (03:52)
- Extermination Process Continues / Bortus Hatches His Egg (02:39)
About A Girl – music by Joel McNeely
- Western Simulation (01:01)
- Asteroid Destroyed / Relieved Of Duty (01:07)
- Arriving On Moclus (01:43)
- Trip To The Mountains (02:16)
- Tribunal Adjourned / Epilogue (03:27)
Pria – music by John Debney
- Rescuing Pria (03:51)
- Searching Pria’s Room / Dark Matter Storm / Navigating The Storm (04:06)
- Approaching The Coordinates / Isaac Saves The Crew (03:20)
- Pria’s Theme (01:41)
Krill – music by Joel McNeely
- Distress Call (01:29)
- Krill Attack The Orville (02:49)
- Bomb Found (04:54)
- Intruder Alert / Preparing The Weapon (02:59)
- Turning On The Lights / New Enemies (02:29)
Disc 2
Majority Rule – music by John Debney- Lysella Wakes Up / Looks Like Earth / Rescue Mission (01:39)
- John Gets Arrested / Alara Seems Suspicious (02:05)
- Ed Has A Plan (01:33)
- Bringing Lysella Aboard / Casting The Votes / Their World Can Do Better (06:06)
Into The Fold – music by Joel McNeely
- Sucked In (02:44)
- Claire Breaks Out (01:26)
- The Fight (01:21)
- Claire Returns To The Wreck (02:11)
- The Attack (01:55)
- Claire Thanks Isaac (01:21)
Cupid’s Dagger – music by John Debney
- Archaeologist Arrives / Claire Visits Yaphit / Claire Kisses Yaphit (03:12)
- Fleets Approach / War Before Peace / Cleared For Duty / Darulio Departs (04:38)
Firestorm – music by John Debney
- Plasma Storm / It Was Late Evening (03:08)
- Alara Blows Off Steam / There Was A Clown (03:04)
- Alara Hallucinates / Deserted Ship (06:55)
- Cannot End Simulation / Back To Normal (04:03)
New Dimensions – music by Andrew Cottee
- Damage Report / What Happened To The Plants? (02:00)
- Krill Ships Approaching (02:30)
- Within The Anomaly / Time To Reflect / Quantum Bubble Is Deteriorating (02:25)
- Engaging Tractor Beam (02:17)
- Mission Complete / Commander Lamarr (02:48)
Mad Idolatry – music by Joel McNeely
- Investigating An Anomaly (01:09)
- Emergency Landing (03:41)
- Searching The Planet (02:38)
- Walking Through Town (02:21)
- Spread The Word (01:17)
- Isaac Steps Up / Civilization Restored (03:14)
- The Orville End Titles (00:35)
Released by: La-La Land Records
Release date: February 6, 2019
Disc one running time: 76:07
Disc two running time: 74:02
Total running time: 2:30:09
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