'The Orville's Mark Jackson Reveals Details About His AI Character

Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane has created a new show, The Orville which premieres on Fox September 10th. It's a take on the sci-fi genre that Star Trek created - but with much more humor. Screenrant sat down with The Orville's Mark Jackson, who plays Isaac, the chief science officer of the ship. Isaac is not so much a robot but an artificial lifeform, "...he's a Kaylon from the planet Kaylon populated by artificial lifeforms, so not a robot because he is very much alive. He hasn't been made by humans... He's very intelligent; the Kaylon are vastly intelligent and know they are, and don't have a problem pointing it out to lesser biological life forms, but he does it quite casually."

The character, which sounds to me very much like an homage to Data, is a "really nice guy." "He doesn't have a malicious bone in his body but it can come across like that to very sensitive, complicated creatures. He is earnest and sincere and a really nice guy, not that he knows he is."

As we reported in August, The Orville might have some legal issues - but Fox isn't worried. "We're not really concerned," Fox Television Group chairman and CEO Dana Walden said during The Orville's panel at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour (via EW). "We obviously have a big legal team. We vet things, so it's not like we're just flying by the seat of our pants out here. Seth's intention is to do something that clearly pays homage to Star Trek, that clearly was inspired a lot by Star Trek.

The Orville premieres September 10th on Fox. The sci-fi comedy stars Seth MacFarlane, Commanding Officer and Adrianne Palicki ("Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," "Friday Night Lights") as his ex-wife, who's assigned as his First Officer. Additional cast members include Penny Johnson Jerald ("24," "The Larry Sanders Show"), Scott Grimes ("ER," "Justified"), Peter Macon ("Shameless," "Bosch"), Halston Sage ("Neighbors," "Goosebumps"), J Lee (FAMILY GUY, "The Cleveland Show"), Mark Jackson ("That Royal Today") and Chad L. Coleman ("The Walking Dead," "The Wire"). Jon Favreau ("The Jungle Book," "Iron Man") directed the pilot, on which he also served as an executive producer.