The Guide To The Orville Review

When this was first announced I was excited and interested simply because it’s more tie-in to a show that I have blown on this site and in our many podcasts numerous times.
But to be honest, I wasn’t quite sure what it was.
Was it supposed to be like an episode guide?
A technical manual?
A refresh of The World Of The Orville?
I still wasn’t quite sure until I started digging into it, so let’s dive in and find out together!

This is your official ***SPOILER ALERT***

The thing I find most interesting is that this is written in parts (by series writer/producer Andre Bormanis), starting as an in universe history, of both Earth and the Planetary Union.
In that way, it feels like a Supernatural season finale, cause this is the story so far my wayward son.
Once you get through the history, it takes a turn into technical manual territory for the next few chapters as we get a good breakdown of the layout of the titular ship, along with some lush and beautiful photos of various sets, the different classes of crew quarters and medical being the highlights.
I wish we could have gotten some better, and closer, looks at the bridge, but nonetheless there are some great reference photos here for the nerdiest among us to really dig in and make some damn good recreations.

After the technical portions, we get some crew profiles, written as Commander Kelly Grayson.
This is where it finally clicked in for me what this book is and why I love it.
This book is literally what the title says, a guide to The Orville, but it’s not for us plebeians of 2024, this is an in-universe guide for those magnificent bastards lucky enough to have made their way through Union Point and to be stepping foot on board the ship in the 2420s.
And it’s at this point that I knew, without a doubt, that I was fully in the bag for what this book was hockin’.

There’s also a glossary of species that the crew have encountered in the 1st 3 seasons, but the meatiest bit of buisness in these pages is the personal logs that essentially function as an abbreviated episode guide.
*NERD ALERT*
But I have a slight issue with the retconning of the years that these eps take place in.
I think, up til now, they were thought to have occurred almost exactly 400 years in the future, from when they aired…I only know this because I’ve spent far too many hours reading the wiki for this show.
This bumps them up by 3 years and places the entire series within the 2420s.
*END NERD ALERT*
But that little quibble aside, fuckin’ hell do I love this.

As I said in my review of The Orville: New Beginnings (available on Patreon), this is a great example of what happens when you get somebody that was involved with the show to work on the tie-in material.
The ingrained knowledge could have been achieved, through much research, by a newbie that had little to no foreknowledge of the series/franchise, but it feels more lovingly archived when done by such a key member of the team.
This really makes me crave more from this world though, I want more comics, prose stories, or even something like this that’s an in-universe document that extends what was on screen.
And that’s the other thing, I think at some point I’ll be rewatching this series with this book in hand, comparing notes and adding depth to each episode in a fun way.
If it’s not clear by now, gang, snap up a copy of this if you love this show, I don’t see how you could regret it.

The Guide To The Orville is available now in standard and deluxe editions from Dark Horse.

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Until next time, stay safe out there, gang.