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The Orville, Seth MacFarlane (comedy?)

Mal12345

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It's taken a couple days of mental processing to decide what it was I watched on Fox the other night. Seth MacFarlane, who is known for his comedy series, claims that The Orville, a Star Trek-y new series, is a hybrid (of something and something).

Whatever it is, it must be a secret. But from what I can tell, The Orville is about some half-competent star ship captain who needs his ex-wife to co-pilot for him and get him out of situations he can't figure out. He is an anti-Kirk.

The jokes aren't very funny, they are downright average if not lower - kind of like average person jokes.

Is The Orville trying to be something it is not? I would say on the other hand that it has hit the mark. It has accomplished mediocrity.

However, the method of defeating the enemy in that first episode was pretty - interesting.
 

Doctor Cringelord

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I liked it. It wasn't great, but then most pilots aren't great (Star Trek TNG, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise pilots being good examples). I'm probably not going to be watching Discovery because I don't want to pay for CBS all access and the trailers have left me feeling very meh and irritated. Based on the information I have of Discovery, The Orville feels like it's more of a spiritual successor to Star Trek than Discovery, the latter which seems to follow the everything needs to be dark trope adopted by JJverse and a lot of other current sci fi and fantasy. Dark is OK in Trek (they were able to do it in DS9 without cancelling out some sense of optimism) but I worry it's more of a by-the-numbers approach that will make Discovery feel like a copycat of every other "dark" film and series in the last 10 or so years.

I think there's some promise for Orville to be a good show, if not great. They could've toned down some of the more family guy-esque jokes. Some jokes I thought were justified and didn't really detract from the drama. The joke about the dog licking its balls was a good example of one that didn't feel out of place. This is something you never see in Star Trek, but it's something banal and "everyday" I'd expect would happen on occasion if Star trek were real life, and it's the sort of thing I could see some officers mentioning as happened on the Orville, whereas characters on Star Trek can come across as unrealistically serious all the time (which is why I think Tom Paris is actually one of the better characters on Voyager; occasionally O'Brien and Bashir on DS9 also skirt on that sort of attention to banality and absurdity in their characterizations as well). I liked the Happy Arbor Day joke and got it. None of the jokes were ROFL funny, more like a mild "hehe, I got that" sort of humor for me. Which is fine if this is intended as a "Dramedy" rather than outright parody and slapstick. I don't expect to be laughing so hard I'm crying, nor do I expect to love this show, but I might like it, and considering how low the bar has been set since Voyager, Nemesis and JJverse, that's just fine with me. Mediocre is better than outright raping of and disregard for what made other Trek series good. I'll take a little fan service and self-referential humor over the utter disregard for canon and fans that has been carried out by JJ with his films and the producers of Discovery.

The Captain may have seemed to be in over his head in needing his ex wife to bail him out and save the day, but it also made him a potentially more relatable character as someone who isn't totally perfect and infallible like Kirk or other Trek Captains.

The self-awareness of it all is kind of funny, not unlike Galaxy Quest which I thought successfully balanced faithful homage and lampooning. So it's basically feeling like Galaxy Quest the series at this point. even the uniforms and ship design look more Galaxy Quest universe than Trek-influenced.
 

VILLANELLE

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I thought it was great. Not what I expected, but I enjoyed it.
 

prplchknz

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I thought it was ok, not enough to say i liked but also not enough to quit watching i'm going to give a few more episodes a try before giving up on it.
 

Riva

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I liked it. Perhaps they should limit it to 30 mins per episode; this way they could squeeze in the jokes without having fillers. Brooklyn nine nine is a good example of it. However, they could rather than stressing themselves to make it a pure comedy show, focus on gathering fans based on plot. The first episode gave me so much Star Trek TNG nostalgia. Either way I would watch it. And man... the graphics are gorgeous. No one in this thread mentioned that yet. Infact I would say it's better than Star Trek - which is understandable since last ST series was made more than 10 years ago -.
 

Riva

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Adding to the above they have the potential to do better than the upcoming start trek Discovery series. Which is not good. Because I want star trek to do well so that they would make more and more serieses to watch. I have a some concerns about the upcoming Star Trek Discovery series.

- Why are they basing it in the past. Didn't they learn from the enterprise? We don't want past, we want future. Base the bloody show after the war with the Dominion, perhaps by exploring other quadrants or basing it on the Federation trying to recover from the damage of the war.

- Why does the trailers look so bleak? The best thing about Star Trek TNG was it's 'everything is going to be alright at the end of this episode' feeling it gave the audience. I think this it why people are attracted to ST. Remember DS9? It was the best series I belive. However people didn't buy it as much as TNG. The arcs were long and stressful.

- Why are they changing the Kligons? We like them the way they looked.
 

Doctor Cringelord

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Adding to the above they have the potential to do better than the upcoming start trek Discovery series. Which is not good. Because I want star trek to do well so that they would make more and more serieses to watch. I have a some concerns about the upcoming Star Trek Discovery series.

- Why are they basing it in the past. Didn't they learn from the enterprise? We don't want past, we want future. Base the bloody show after the war with the Dominion, perhaps by exploring other quadrants or basing it on the Federation trying to recover from the damage of the war.

- Why does the trailers look so bleak? The best thing about Star Trek TNG was it's 'everything is going to be alright at the end of this episode' feeling it gave the audience. I think this it why people are attracted to ST. Remember DS9? It was the best series I belive. However people didn't buy it as much as TNG. The arcs were long and stressful.

- Why are they changing the Kligons? We like them the way they looked.

If Discovery fails then I think Star Trek might be finished for a while :(
 

Riva

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If Discovery fails then I think Star Trek might be finished for a while :(

I think they are aiming for Harakiri. Perhaps we are being too negative. Anyway do you agree with what i said about TNG?

There is a feel good thing about TNG which the new series looks like it's desperately trying to lose. I think that is the main reason ST was a hit - the feel good vibes.

DS9 was the best written series but it didn't have that feeling. Which is why it was never a hit as much as TNG. Infact the averagely written Voyager series did better than DS9. It also had a feel good vibe. Perhaps that was the reason.

The Orville has it. Which is why I like it. I want it to do good, even if it means it would hit ST badly.

---

The movies will go on alteast. We can safely be hopeful for that. But man, they f&%ked up the movie timeline too.
 

citizen cane

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The pilot was ok. We'll see where it goes.
 

Mal12345

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The redwood seed should not have grown into a tree, but only an older redwood seed. The mere passage of time does not make things grow.
 

Doctor Cringelord

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I think they are aiming for Harakiri. Perhaps we are being too negative. Anyway do you agree with what i said about TNG?

There is a feel good thing about TNG which the new series looks like it's desperately trying to lose. I think that is the main reason ST was a hit - the feel good vibes.

DS9 was the best written series but it didn't have that feeling. Which is why it was never a hit as much as TNG. Infact the averagely written Voyager series did better than DS9. It also had a feel good vibe. Perhaps that was the reason.

The Orville has it. Which is why I like it. I want it to do good, even if it means it would hit ST badly.

---

The movies will go on alteast. We can safely be hopeful for that. But man, they f&%ked up the movie timeline too.

Agree on TNG. I think the Trek Franchise can essentially be divided into two styles: character driven and story/situation driven. TNG had some good character development but it was usually more in the latter category, serving as a vehicle for topical, situational driven stories. I'd say TOS and Voyager fit more into that category as well. So even though there were great character episodes, there was a tendency for the "reset button" to be hit at the end of every episode. DS9, most of the films were more character driven. Enterprise sort of skirted both categories. JJverse is definitely more a character series as well, not concerning itself too much with philosophical implications to the extent that it's a space opera.
 

Peter Deadpan

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This show is fucking stupid in that it's lacking creativity and Seth MacFarlane is obnoxiously arrogant.

Someone had to say it.
 
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I don't know. Star Trek TNG turned out to be one of my favorite shows but Encounter At Farpoint wasn't exactly the best thing I've ever seen or even remotely close. I can think of several shows I really ended up enjoying that if I had judged their potential by the premiere I'd have stopped watching. Sci-fi shows are notoriously clunky in the beginning as they attempt to find their footing. It doesn't help if a show is suffering an identity crisis of major proportions right out of the gate. Further analysis is needed for me personally.

On a completely superficial level the chief security officer is ridiculously pretty.
 

Mal12345

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The second episode of this series is looking a lot like The Menagerie from ST:TOS.
 

Doctor Cringelord

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People want instant gratification, a trait increasingly common since the post WWII age in America

It's even more apparent with the youngest generations, although I don't blame them--it's a symptom of the effects of the iPod and on demand viewing. So when you look at shows like Seinfeld and TNG, these are series that didn't really come into their own until the second or third seasons. But I wonder if these shows would have survived past the first season if they had debuted in 2017
 

Doctor Cringelord

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I don't know. Star Trek TNG turned out to be one of my favorite shows but Encounter At Farpoint wasn't exactly the best thing I've ever seen or even remotely close. I can think of several shows I really ended up enjoying that if I had judged their potential by the premiere I'd have stopped watching. Sci-fi shows are notoriously clunky in the beginning as they attempt to find their footing. It doesn't help if a show is suffering an identity crisis of major proportions right out of the gate. Further analysis is needed for me personally.

On a completely superficial level the chief security officer is ridiculously pretty.

I stopped watching DS9 after the pilot. I didn't give the series a chance until years later and it was tough getting through that first season. Some credit Worf's arrival with revitalizing it but I prefer to think it had something to do with Avery Brooks shaving his head and sprouting the goatee
 

Mal12345

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It was a bit like The Menagerie, an episode that had its own flaws. If the aliens had not revealed themselves at all, and set the Enterprise up with an imaginary captain, everything would have gone as planned. But no. Instead, the aliens unnecessarily came out of their elevator and stun-gunned the captain in plain view of the landing party.

Edit - the aliens could have even lured the captain in with illusions. They never had to reveal themselves at all, not even the fact that Pike was in a cage.
 
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I stopped watching DS9 after the pilot. I didn't give the series a chance until years later and it was tough getting through that first season. Some credit Worf's arrival with revitalizing it but I prefer to think it had something to do with Avery Brooks shaving his head and sprouting the goatee

Ah a growing the goatee (beard) reference. Riker would be proud.

I know we don't exactly have a contingent of Farscape fans here (I've met one other fan) but yeah that show became a lot darker second season compared to a campy first season. If I hadn't stuck with it I'd have missed my favorite Science Fiction show! I think any heavy fiction shows where they're creating not just a historical time and place but an entire universe it takes a bit of time to solidify a clear identity. That's on top of the usual problems any show suffers first season.
 

Beorn

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I'm not a big trekkie. Of all the trek shows I probably watched more of voyager than anything else.
That said, I liked it. It was watchable and while the jokes are stretched out over an hour (or 40 some minutes) the time goes quickly and I never felt like either episode dragged.

Also, I'm hoping Norm McDonald's slime creature is more than just a brief cameo. Everything is better with Norm.

The critic hate is overblown and I'm glad I didn't listen to them.
 
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