The Orville

[TheDarkKnight]

Figured at this point it might be better to use a new thread rather than the Sci-fi thread.

I'm really enjoying it so far. The dialog can be a bit hit or miss sometimes but I think that they are telling the stories of individual episodes rather well.

Surprisingly enough the ratings are pretty stable as well.

[Condottiere 40K]

Sticking STD behind a paywall won't help ratings either.

The third episode was the best and most relevant so far, in the fourth, I initially thought they came across the Spaceball One. It was a throwaway story.

[LaMuerte]

It's a silly show ... so silly in fact I enjoy it, if that makes any sense. A bit like The Tick. The jokes are silly, childish and often predictable. Yet am I laughing out loud throughout the episodes.

[HannibalExMachina]

lets start with the good things, not many im afraid.

i like some of the characters. bortas is a well done worf/spock knockoff, isaac is a bit cliche but fun (asimov robot joke, the only pop culture reference that isnt sucky and out of place), kitan is well handled and likeable. i wonder if STD would get away without a MARYSUESUPERSTRENGHT . sassy older doctor is a plus too, thats probably where TNG failed with pulasky.

that...is about it. fartlame is whitebread untoasted, its almost like he is a parody character on white male leads, but thatd be a bit to introspective for the guy.

the whole sitcom shtick with the ex-wife drags her character down as well, which is a shame. she is clearly competent, often more so than the captain, but at the end of the day her character is "Ex Wife".

that brings me to the humour, not much to say here. its very lowbrow, and already dated with its pop culture references. in TNG, voyager and DS9 people had hobbies, including baseball and old movies, but that were some people. apparently, earth at this point has a mad late 20th century retro craze. or its just the usual sitcom humour transplanted here, i will go with the more likely explanation.

and thats the main problem with the tone here: humour is subjective, so liking dick and fart jokes is not the problem. but it doesnt fit the show at all, and not because its star trek-ish.

the tone is just all over the place. it sets up a more serious tone, and then....cue macfartlame joke. this isnt relief (and the two comic relief doofuses arent any relief either), this is dragging me out and giving me tonal wiplash. its not even naturally lightening the mode (which in itself wouldnt fit everywhere), its just getting the gag quota out, were it doesnt fit at all.

but this isnt a comedy show either. this is not galaxy quest, where the whole premise is absurd, and aware of it, this is trying to be serious scifi for the most, and it kinda suceeds when (i presume) fartlame forgot to put a joke in.

as for the stories...they arent bad. the third episode tanks when it hits the trial, the only saving grace being that its outcome is the only one that makes sense. but when they stick to their premise, without any shenanigans, its mostly solid.

but that, in the end, i find the biggest problem: its ok. but only because it has been done before.

in the end, all they do is rehash old trek episodes. gender problematics: done in TNG. while it was "fresh" back then, its handled much too simplistic here to bring anything new to the table. almost like they dipped their toes in, and found it a tad too cold. in the end, its not even about gender: its about women being inferior. that was something they would tackle in TOS, and in mishandeled TNG episodes in the first two seasons.

its done to death, they avoided everything new, the whole gender reassignment is meaningless. its a one-sex species, having terms like male and female doesnt even make sense. is a vagina just a birth defect, is it just a penis gone wrong? the episode tells me a vagina isnt a medical condition, so apparently not. the "males" reproduce, "females" are....what? there isnt even an allegory you can draw from this, its contradictory.

space colony adrift, religious tyranny: done so often, i cant even tell you when exactly. the last episode really reminded me of a substandard voyager episode, down to the costumes: meet spotty primitives, someone gets caught, the ship has to be gandalfed away so theres no backup, solve the very one-dimensional problem, end.

so, in the end, this is reurgitating star trek, rather than emulating it. if it werent made to resemble star trek, at least that wouldnt stare you in the face constantly. i cant even see how they would improve it, unless they just radically alter the formula. the execution can be improved, trek never started of well either, but they have to find a sound concept.

and i cant believe im saying this, i really hope they do. i want more scifi, as long as it isnt terrible. i even enjoyed Dark Matter, for the most part, and thats mediocre scifi at best.

[TheDarkKnight]

Sticking STD behind a paywall won't help ratings either.

Not only that, but The Orville is basically a featured show on Hulu, which is an established streaming platform with tons more content to access for a cheaper price.

[Condottiere 40K]

I heard Fox is pretty happy with the Orville, and since they own the series, it seems likely it will get a second season.

Speaking of foxes, McFarlane was pretty sly in getting Theron into bed.

[HannibalExMachina]

ok, am i the only one, or was the last episode simply....boring? like, the last one didnt have much substance, but this one was just...dragging.

[Condottiere 40K]

I liked it, though McFarlane may have underdramatized it, considering the implications.

Might have been interesting over two episodes, with two or three more events being effected.

[HannibalExMachina]

yeah, time travel is tricky, but this is just an unimaginative run of the mill story thrown in there. maybe they have enough sense to expand that in later episodes, but so far, their record of just rehashing old trek doesnt give me much cause for optimism.

[Condottiere 40K]

Jean Luc might cameo, and Riker direct an episode.

Wesley looks like he has time on his hands.

[HannibalExMachina]

that would all be a vast improvement. even Wesley.

[Halie Satanus]

I like it as a light hearted sci-fi show, but agree it falls short of being it's own thing. The humour isn't as clever as 'Starship Troopers' and I can't see it hitting the drama (sic) levels of BSG. Watching Kelly take a few shots to the face was uncomfortable as the previous episodes didn't give any hint that style of violence was coming.

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

Will Weaton is so annoying though.

This parody understands Star Trek better than Star Trek does apparently. I think what they need is to kick the humour up a notch to the next level. Go full on absurdity with some Wilders and Leslie tier jokes. Maybe also some self aware dark satire.

[HannibalExMachina]

episode 6. so much for humour. the cringe is painful.

[Condottiere 40K]

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

I actually kind of liked the Krill.

Isn't it amazing that Paramount is the big man when they are shutting down fan films but complete cowards when Fox green lights the Orville? Honestly just for that I'll watch the whole thing.

[HannibalExMachina]

the krill are not the problem, they are one of the most competent parts of the show. the humour is the cringe. "oh boy, here we are amongst the most dangerous aliens, lets make sure we are clueless and talk like we never even have seen one before, yuck, yuck."

and can we not be whiny fanboys blaming The Man? the guy behind axanar thought himself to be a clever cookie, and built a studio with money intended for the film. so far, so fair, you need to make the thing somewhere. but he always intended to use it afterwards for profit, and thats were he hit the wall. he then thought he could show the finger to the Man, and told them they didnt even have proper rules on fanfilms, and dared them to sue. they did, and came up with some fairly draconian rules, and now fanfilms are limited to short episodes that cannot even be combined into larger storylines.

theres more about the for profit thing, but the crux here is: because one asshat laywer thought he is the , and can make star trek his personal cashcow, fan projects are now screwed.

[Condottiere 40K]

The plot and the story didn't mesh.

[HannibalExMachina]

that is kind of a general problem here, i mean the orville is a sort of star trek shaped vehicle for mcfartlame jokes.

[Condottiere 40K]

Forgot this: