Fox’s The Orville has yet another connection to the show that inspired it, Star Trek: The Next Generation — this time in the form of an actor crossing over. And she isn’t the only Trek veteran in the Planetary Union on the second season of Seth MacFarlane’s sci-fi dramedy.
Marina Sirtis will guest star on The Orville
In our Orville SDCC report yesterday we noted that Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Jonathan Frakes has been directing the latest episode of season two of The Orville. (He also directed one in the first season.) Yesterday his TNG co-star Marina Sirtis tweeted a picture of herself on set with Frakes and The Orville creator Seth MacFarlane. Frakes followed this up with the message “Cat’s out of the bag now.”
Cat’s out of the bag now… https://t.co/lgiieXRaMg
— Jonathan Frakes (@jonathansfrakes) July 26, 2018
This strongly hinted that Sirtis wasn’t just there for a visit, something Sirtis herself seemed to back up later on Twitter in answer to a fan’s question. TrekMovie has now independently confirmed that Sirtis indeed has a guest role for the episode being shot by Frakes. We have no details yet regarding what her role will be.
This isn’t the first time Frakes and Sirtis have sparked speculation on social media. In May, Sirtis joined Frakes in Toronto on the set of Star Trek: Discovery when he was directing the second episode of season two, and they shared the moment on Twitter (see below). While there has been speculation that Sirtis’ visit to the Discovery set was also for some kind of role, this has yet to be confirmed.
Surprise visit on the set of @startrekcbs my #Imzadi @Marina_Sirtis pic.twitter.com/SqvDEZvMVP
— Jonathan Frakes (@jonathansfrakes) May 5, 2018
John Billingsley joins growing list of Trek vets on season 2 of The Orville
It was reported earlier this week by IMDB News that Star Trek: Enterprise star John Billingsley had a guest role in the first episode of The Orville’s second season, filmed earlier this year. TrekMovie has also independently verified it.
John Billingsley also to guest star in the second season of The Orville
Sirtis and Billingsley join two other previously revealed Trek vets who are doing guest spots in the second season of The Orville. Earlier this week, Star Trek: Voyager’s Tim Russ revealed he had just wrapped up work on the show.
I just finished work on "Orville", great cast, crew, and producers, Seth was great!
— tim russ (@timruss2) July 23, 2018
And Russ’s Voyager co-star Robert Picardo did a guest spot in March, which was tweeted by executive producer/director John Cassar, pictured below with Picardo and MacFarlane. This is actually Picardo’s second time on the series, as he is reprising his role as the Xelayan father of Halston Sage’s Alara Kitan.
Another great week of shooting on #TheOrville with @RobertPicardo & @SethMacFarlane pic.twitter.com/PRBnpwhJle
— Jon Cassar (@joncassar) March 24, 2018
The second season of The Orville also has more Trek vets behind the camera. Acclaimed Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Discovery writer Joe Menosky has joined the series as an executive producer and member of the writers’ room. At San Diego Comic-Con, former Star Trek: Enterprise writer/executive producer and current The Orville writer/executive producer Brannon Braga told TrekMovie that he wanted Menosky for the first season, but he wasn’t available as he’d already signed on to Discovery.
Brannon Braga with Seth MacFarlane at San Diego Comic-Con 2018
And Star Trek: Voyager star Robert Duncan McNeill directed an episode of The Orville in April, his second for the series. Other Star Trek crossovers include director of photography Marvin Rush and writer/executive producer David A. Goodman, who joined in the first season.
Director of Photography Marvin Rush
Keep up with all The Orville news here at TrekMovie.com.
I can’t stand MacFarlane. But for his music (rivals anything from the Sinatra era) and his tribute to Star Trek alone, he has earned my respect.
I will forever respect him for basing an animated grey alien character on Paul Lynde.
It’s Seth MacFarlane. Not McFarland.
Corrected. I hastily typed it so as to have the first post. Thanks.
His remake of Cosmos was remarkable. I really enjoyed that series.
They announced at Comic Con the second season of Cosmos coming too! FINALLY!
NOICE
That’s great news, thanks for the heads-up. No way it would ever take the place of Sagan’s original in my heart, but still a good show.
I didn’t think much of Cosmos. Carl Sagan’s can never be surpassed. It was more cosmic and spiritual.
I was always a NASA and astronomy buff growing up in the 60s and 70s, but I gotta say, I never got more than 20 minutes into Sagan’s COSMOS. And the few bits I’ve seen of the followup left me equally uninterested (as in, nodding off.) And I was a big fan of Magicam too, the process that put Sagan (and his shadow) into the library miniature, and of BUF, the vfx company who did a lot of the 2nd COSMOS and the cool stuff in the new season of TWIN PEAKS, so you’d think I would have been onboard for these shows. Guess they fall into that category I have Mann’s HEAT in — things I’m supposed to love but can’t manage to get through, even though I’ve tried multiple times in the latter’s case.
Wow. No love for the original COSMOS, really?! That’s even more difficult for me to understand than your regard for The Orville.
(Stipulated that the Magicam and other visual FX are laughably dated, but still.)
He is some great singer, innee?
Chris Pine can do a great impression of Sinatra.
MacFarlane is awful. His music CD bombed and was never seen again.
Frakes and Sirtis, together again! Another reason to love THE ORVILLE!
Marina is still one hot Mama !! Always a fan of John Billingsley and Bob Picardo !
And Marvin Rush is a great cinematographer . Hopefully will the Orville Collectors
Set when it becomes available !
Phlox was by far my favorite character on ENT. It will be great to see Billingsley on The Orville!
John played the role to the hilt , and I really loved it . Thanks Scott !
Wasn’t he wonderful? I really liked Dr Phlox. That little edge of strange with his “menagerie,” but a genius in his Sickbay.
Yes… Dr. Phlox was a great character. One of the better ones in spin-off Trek world.
Billingsley was also great in Six Feet Under, where he played the corpse-of-the-week whose wife dispatches him with a frying pan in a hilarious intro. He seemed to be really enjoying himself on that show, which I don’t know was always necessarily the case on Enterprise.
Oh shit. I’m loving all of this!
People want to know why TM has made the Orville part of its website, well this is why. The show has a perpetual slew of Trek veterans part of the show, both in front of and behind the camera.
I would love to see William Shatner make an appearance on it at some point.
meh…
HN4,
Please ignore my posts. I’ve asked nicely once. Thanks.
Everyone should have a right to respond to anyone’s post here. None of us (excepting Mr. Pascale and his site staff) get to make “special rules” that exclude others from responding to our posts.
You can simply choose on your own volition to ignore his/her post if it bothers you, but trying to tell him/her that they are not allowed to respond to your post is both out-of-line and self-serving.
He’s a troll and a liar, it has nothing to do with being ‘self serving’. I talk to people here I disagree with daily. It has zip to do with that. Hell, it’s why I come here. But people like this really should be banned but yeah I don’t make the rules here. And I would love to ignore him but unfortunately TM doesn’t have an ignore button.
His response to your post was “meh.” Which is…laconic, perhaps, but I don’t see how it’s trolling in the slightest. Belay that attitude, ensign.
Nothing to do with that lol. I’m just sick of the trolling he’s been doing here for months. Look, I can’t stop him from responding, but he knows I have no interest in exchanging in any dialogue with him and I have made that clear directly to him awhile ago and why. SEVERAL people have made that clear to him. Yes he has the right to respond, I also have the right to tell him how I feel and have no intention of ever interacting with him because of his trolling and lying. I been here 7 years now, he’s the first person I’ve even said it too which says a lot.
I wish TM had an ignore feature but they don’t.
I agree with you about asking people not to respond when you can’t block them. Not sure why you are being treated as being unreasonable for wanting to avoid a troll and/or drama, while no one is acknowledging how unreasonable the poster in question is being if they are repeatedly giving you notifications for pointless posts. It would be different if you were doing this to multiple people just because they disagree with you.
Exactly! I’m not trying to get him banned, I simply don’t want to engage with a troll anymore. He’s been identified as one for literally months now by multiple people. My guess is these people agree with him over DIS and Orville so they aren’t that bothered by him. Fine, he’s still trolling and I simply don’t want to engage with it. Is that wrong for me to say??? Most trolls usually get banned. OK, maybe the owners of the site doesn’t think he’s all that bad, that’s their call. It’s still MY right to not want to engage with that and TELL him so. And has!
I come here to talk to people who want to have a real open dialogue, not to bait people. His opinion isn’t the issue, the ridiculous troll baiting is.
@Tiger2,
I think it is the case of the owner of the site displaying his double standards. He’s quick to close down threads that are perceived as personal attacks against current Trek producers like Alex Kurtzman, while ignoring threads, on the very same article, with similar attacks against former producers like Rick Berman.
Allowing trolls, like the one you mentioned, free rein remind me of pre-2014 on Trekmovie when trolls and sockpuppets were running amok without any intervention from the owner.
From reading some of the posts it seems that the master sockpuppet is back. BorgKlingon & HN4 are probably that same person that used to post here back then.
My advice is to ignore the trolls completely.
ATTN: MR. PASCALE
I AM BEING FALSELY ACCUSED HERE BY THIS AHMED PERSON OF BOTH BEING SOMEONE I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF, AND ALSO OF HAVING MULTIPLE IDENTITIES ON THIS SITE. I AM DOING NEITHER (AND I WOULD ASSUME YOU HAVE TOOLS TO CONFIRM THIS), AND I JUST STARTED PARTICIPATING ON THIS GREAT SITE OF YOURS EARLIER THIS YEAR.
THIS IS AN ATTEMPT AT CYBER-BULLYING, AND TO DISCREDIT ME HERE, based on Ahmed’s sour grapes of me legitimately challenging some of his/her posts on this site — challenges based on the merits of his/her posts that were without malice and did not get personal or insulting. He/she doesn’t like what have to say, therefore let’s discredit me as both a troll and someone from the past here…that is just wrong!
Ahmed and BorgKlingon
Stop sniping and accusing others of sock puppeting. We try to look out for such things. So far no one appears to be. Both of you need to chill out. Warnings to both of you.
Thread has been closed.
@Tiger And yet you’ve been talking about him for three long posts. Why not just ignore people you don’t want to engage with.
Asking people not to respond is not going to work.
LOL because I been explaining to people who seems hurt I asked a troll to stop responding to me on a message board. How can I be so inhuman?? If it wasn’t for that I WOULDN’T be talking about him…and haven’t for weeks.
Yeah maybe it won’t work, it’s a troll after all. But at least I got the point across I have ZERO intention to ever engage with him again, which is the ENTIRE point of trolling.
@Jack — excellent suggestion.
Exactly. Ordering people to not respond to your posts is unacceptable and is the ultimate display of hubris. But Tiger2 is certainly allowed to police his/her own posting here — so all Tiger2 needs to do to solve this “drama” is simply to follow himself/herself’s own proclamation — just ignore the other persons response….and would obviate the need for Tiger2 to continue grandstanding to the rest of us on this inconsequential topic.
If he goes to far, Mr. Pascale will ban him. Instead or ordering him to ignore you, which you don’t have the authority to do, why not order yourself to ignore his responses by simply applying the self-discipline of not reading anything next to his name – you are allowed to do that…problem solved, and no need for further drama.
OMG man, I can ask the question even it I can’t force the troll to do it. You seem way more concerned over me asking a troll not to respond to me then the guy trolling these boards. Why don’t you suggest to him he should stop trolling and them maybe no one will feel they HAVE to ignore him?
Anyway I said my peace on this since this has gotten badly off topic lol. So I’ll leave it there, but I have no problem asking ANY troll to stop responding to me. Ever!
I just want to add that I had the same problem in another board and got the same reactions so don’t take it personally. This one is particularly bad as you don’t know who is replying in notifications and you can’t block. Ultimately it’s a moderation issue. In both cases, other members seem to side with the “don’t feed the troll” rule instead of requesting no replies. From what I understand, people see it that everyone has the right to share their opinion, even if that opinion is low quality and often in reply to you. Unfortunately you just have to put up with it.
Hello – I’m just gonna jump in, I think if we all just took these posts less personally these issues would dissolve. If a troll is stirring up trouble, there’s no need to respond. We’re all adults [in age] and shouldn’t feel obligated to protect our egos by fighting back. Just let it go and you’ll forget it ever happened.
You should have a right to express your opinion on anyone’s post here. Please don’t let anyone pressure you otherwise.
Agreed. Same goes for Sir Patrick Stewart and Scott Bakula.
I’m actually shocked Patrick Stewart hasn’t shown up on it yet considering how close he and McFarlane is.
If the rumours are right that Stewart is in negotiations about headlining a new Star Trek show that may be a reason why you won’t see him on Orville. It’s one thing for former Trek actors to guest star on Orville but it’s another for a current series lead to do it.
Other than that I agree that Stewart guest starring on The Orville isn’t a farfetched idea given his history with Seth McFarlane. Also, stuff like his starring role in Blunt Talk show that he’s not above doing silly stuff.
LOL I hope you’re right of course! It may not be that but I hope it is. ;)
Not a chance…Stewart is an A-lister, and he would never be a part of the B-Team.
LOL both Liam Neeson and Charlize Theron has already appeared on the show. It has zip to do with star status. Patrick Stewart has appeared on both Family Guy and American Dad, was the narrator for Ted and starred in a show McFarlane executive produced, so no idea why he wouldn’t do this.
Thanks for spin-doctoring my post. I was obviously suggesting that for Stewart, the copycat lesser Trek-like show, The Orville, is the “B-Team.” He and the other two A-list Star Trek actors on the planet today, Zaldana and Pine, will never lower themselves to playing other than perhaps a very minor cameo, on this B-Team show.
How did I ‘spin doctor’? You said it right there lol.
So the ‘A list’ is about Star Trek actors??? How is anyone suppose to know that lol. And who said anything about the Kelvin actors??? No one cares if they are even on it. And we’re talking PAST Trek actors, not current ones for very obvious reasons, duh.
Anyway the point still stands. He and McFarlane are good friends and done a lot of work together, so I don’t see why he wouldn’t want to do it if he likes the role.
We get it, you clearly don’t like the show lol. Every post here seems to be utter contempt for it. That’s your right to have, it doesn’t mean everyone sees it that way. And certainly not any of the former actors, directors, writers and producers of Trek who is now involved in this show on a regular basis. One literally left DIS to work on this show and he’s produced over 100 episodes of Trek. So if he’s not bothered, I’m certainly not.
“He and McFarlane are good friends and done a lot of work together, so I don’t see why he wouldn’t want to do it if he likes the role.”
Yet has HAS NOT done so when so many others have…proving my point to this point in time…you really can’t counter that…”lol”
Orville is just starting its second season lol. You act like its been on for five years or something. We literally just learned Sirtis is doing it now and why this article is up. In fact we just learned THREE former Trek actors have now done roles in the second season and my guess is more will show up. So the fact he HAS NOT done it yet is not the same as he won’t ever do it, jesus. Logic on the internet.
Dude we get it, you personally hate the show. But don’t prescribe the same feeling to actors you never met or talked to pretending they won’t do it over some status once again only you prescribed on a message board.
Which simply means he’ll never be on Discovery.
But hey, he does American Dad.
@DRB
Lol – Exactly!
Continually stealing from one franchise to pander to fans versus creating something original does not impress me at all. The “theft” of CBS’s Star Trek by Fox is the boldest effort I can recall on TV to completely reuse the basis of a storied franchise by another studio.
Poor Alec Peters — his Axanar was no where close to this wholesale theft of the Trek franchise that MacFarlane and Fox are succeeding with.
This is getting so carried away that if CBS has any pride of ownership at all, they will have to start a lawsuit at some point.
Come on CBS, it is time to lawyer up!
CBS is a a major publicly traded corporation. I assure you they have plenty of lawyers, who have presumably concluded there’s no case, or at least that situation is borderline enough that expensive litigation would not be worth. (And rightly so; you can’t copyright the idea of a story that takes place on a starship. And no one was complaining when all these Trek vets appeared in Stargate.)
“Poor Alec Peters…”
Yeah, you pretty much lost me there. That a-hole singlehandedly destroyed Star Trek amateur/semi-pro productions with his overreaching overarching greed and duplicity. The hell with that jerk.
I think Vance Major Owen, Randy Landers, and other fan film producers would disagree with the assessment that fan films have been destroyed due to the guidelines (which had nothing to do with the Axanar lawsuit, as Mr. Van Citters pointed out two years ago).
“Poor Alex Peters … ” The Donald Trump tribble of low-rent SF, consuming donations and returning … nothing.
I can’t stand peters either – just making an analogy which I detail more in my post above.
I can’t stand Peters either – I was just making a point that what he did seems to me to be miniscule in terms of the level of ripping off the Star Trek franchise as we are seeing in the producton of The Orville.
If I may use an analogy, Peters is like a two-bit, petty thief, while McFarlane and Fox are like organized crime that control judges and city hall.. (-;
BorgKlingon,
Re: Come on CBS, it is time to lawyer up!
Oh, they’re lawyering up alright:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/08/06/les-moonves-and-cbs-face-allegations-of-sexual-misconduct
Just not for THAT.
Lol – yep!
@Disinvited — I wondered when he was gonna get his comeuppance. I have a few personal stories …
Have you ever read The Secret Life of Walter Mitty? ;-)
Curious Cadet,
I just ponder the ramifications to STAR TREK when its top motion picture and television production female talent in front of and behind the camera comes to the realization of just exactly what all their efforts ultimately come to benefit vis-á-vis the Les and CBS revealed in Farrow’s bombshell.
And I can’t imagine the CBS boardroom backing any of Les’ standard patented bully tactics against Shari, now. It must be like going to war for him with one arm tied behind his back?
I think it’s pretty clear that there’s more to it than that. I really think it’s worth having a sister site dedicated to Orville if the coverage is going to be this in-depth. Renegades was a Trek vet fest and wasn’t covered as heavily as Orville…
How many more ex Star Trek cast member do they have to put on this show before you realize how pandering it is? I’m glad I don’t watch it.
Honestly, now I am going to feel like a need a shower after watching this show the theft is so bad. It’s like they money-laundered Star Trek into a new currency called The Orville.
In fact, we can coin a new term here: “FRANCHISE LAUNDERING”
Franchise laundering … leave TOS in the drier for so long that you leech all the life out of it, leaving you with TNG.
Lol — good one, kmart
Great term. It fits.
So wait, actors acting is pandering to you?
Many of them first got wide recognition either as actors and/or directors from ‘Star Trek’ and many of them still enjoy doing sci-fi. So it’s no surprise that many of them are chomping at the bit to get involved with ‘The Orville’. I don’t really love ‘Discovery’ but it doesn’t surprise me that several are working on that too.
Under your logic is ‘Discovery’ pandering for Frakes et al working on it?
@W.A.
Discovery would be pandering if they packed the show with actors from old Trek just for the nostalgia fix. It’s pretty lame in my opinion. If the show was really any good it wouldn’t need stunt casting like this. Plus I doubt it helps from what I’ve seen of that shows ratings after football stop being it’s lead in.
And in no way would I consider Frakes working behind the camera pandering. Now if he was in front of the camera then I would be scared. Remember what happened the last time he showed up on a Trek show. It’s still considered one of the worst episodes ever made.
Computer voices on Star Trek now are quite unfamiliar / neutral, while the female voice of Marina Sirtis (or perhaps a familiar someone else) may have added an extra layer.
Would a female computer voice be considered sexist nowadays? Maybe they should have a strong male voice for the computer. No reason why not.
@albatrosity,
“Would a female computer voice be considered sexist nowadays?”
Let’s ask Alexa.
The reason why female voices were used for computers is that the higher pitch can better pierce through noise pollution such as one might experience during time of war or similar emergency. This might be a quaint notion now-a-days. I don’t know.
kitbashcanon — interesting. I switched to an Australian male voice on my iPhone for awhile, and ultimately it wasn’t as easy to distinguish as the female voice, so I switched back.
I actually have to disagree. Computer voices on Star Trek sound modern, or probably closer to what they would sound like in an actual future considering what Siri and Alexa and all the other voices we have today sound like. They’re definitely smoother than what was in TOS and if I didn’t know who Majel was, the TNG computer would have sounded neutral to me. So it’s not really as “off” as some might think.
CBS, time to line up the lawyers!
Indeed…except it’s not for the ‘Orville’ show that they’re gonna be needed. ;)
LOL! Someone is in hot trouble now.
Feel free to hold your breath on that one…
Sounds like fun!
Sir Patrick should be next to guest star, given the relationship he has with Seth.
The real problem is that cbs continues to ignore the talented people who helped create everything we loved. The actors, the directors, even people like the Okudas. What should they do? remain unemployed? obviously they go to work where they are appreciated
Actually the Okudas were asked but they turned it down because they didn’t want to move to Canada. In fact DIS has hired quite a few Trek veterans, but its mostly writing and producing. Sadly though it looks like most of them are gone or sidelined (which it sounds like Nic Meyer was). Joe Menosky probably did more Trek than anyone there who was part of first season. He now jumped to this show lol. Don’t know why but my guess is all the drama with the former show runners made him quit.
But yes your statement is correct, people want to work. And now they are given a chance to do that on another one, so I don’t see the issue at all. As for the actors they are obviously playing different roles than their former Trek characters, people simply like seeing them again and it brings in more attention to the show. Everyone wins.
Oh please…..
She’ll be ‘acting’. That alone will send the comedy value through the roof.
@Soren — ha! My sentiments exactly. She belongs on ORVILLE …
Looking forward to it.
I’d love to see Randy Oglesby (TNG, DS9, ENT) in a role, too. He’s great.
You forget that Cassidy Yates from DS9 is on as the doctor.
Love seeing Trek actors on other shows, it’s what made shows like ‘Boston Legal’ even more pleasant to watch. The more Trek vets join The Orville the merrier.
I got a huge charge out of a line that Denny Crane (Shatner) said to Lewiston (Auberjonios) in an argument over what was going on at the firm. “I’m the Captain of THIS ship!”
A rose by any other name. MacFarlane is living every Trek fans dream. Create a new Star Trek series. Check. Be the lead actor in said series. Check. Invite all your childhood hero’s from Star Trek to guest star (or direct) in your new Star Trek playground. Check.
As much as I can’t stand MacFarlane politically, I admire his tenacity and find that I enjoy his ‘Star Trek: The Orville Generation’ TV show. It’s easy to watch and is as good a homage to TNG as any fan made production has ever been. I hope Fox keeps it for many years.
It will soon get cancelled. Making a show that only appeals to diehard trek fans is never a good idea. The ratings are pretty bad.
HN4… Even though I am not a fan of Orville. Please stop being such a troll.
Pointing out facts isn’t trolling. Fox is more likely to cancel it. McFarland is losing his luster at Fox.
Meh…the second most bland ST TNG character is actually tied with Dr Crusher.