The Orville vs. Star Trek: Discovery

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The Orville vs. Star Trek: Discovery

Postby tinyrick » Mon Oct 02, 2017 11:45 pm

I'll just start by saying I like both, but they are both very different send-ups to popular franchises that have the same exact audiences.

The Orville is Seth McFarlane's love letter/pretty much a ripoff I'm surprised isn't getting him sued. The Orville is also suffering from a standard disconnect between audiences and critics. Rotten Tomatoes currently has the critic score at 20% and the audience score at 90%.

Critics of "The Orville" have pointed out how similar it is to Star Trek:TNG, but have also pointed out how the jokes aren't really a cheap gag every half minute like Family Guy is, which is how this show was advertised. The best comment I heard about this show from a fan is that it's like Stargate SG-1, a serious show with witty banter. Except it's done in Seth McFarlane style.

Star Trek: Discovery is also pretty sweet, but it's a different style. It's trying to combine the seriousness and ongoing, multi-episode plot of DS9, with the actiony bits of the J.J. Abrahms movies. It's doing it better than Abrahms. That's all I'm going to say. Now is a great time to be a Trek fan.
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Re: The Orville vs. Star Trek: Discovery

Postby ghijkmnop » Tue Oct 03, 2017 12:11 am

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Re: The Orville vs. Star Trek: Discovery

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Tue Oct 03, 2017 2:24 am

The Orville is surprisingly good. That third episode with the Intersex analogy was basically Seth MacFarlane's take on The Drumhead, and it was actually tastefully done.
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Re: The Orville vs. Star Trek: Discovery

Postby tinyrick » Tue Oct 03, 2017 7:57 am

ghijkmnop wrote:How could Orville critics compare it to TNG, when the entire command team goes on away missions like TOS?


It's a combination of both really. Seth McFarlane is more of a Captain Kirk than a Captain Picard. Bortus, however is a stand-in for Worf and his entire race feels like the Klingons with their hyper-masculine culture. Isaac is pretty much Data. He has the same curiosity about sentient life forms and same misunderstandings that Data did. The Krill could be the Klingons, but we don't know much about their culture other than they are the bad guys. So they could just as easily be the Cardassians or the Romulans.

Side note: My girlfriend reminds me when there's a new episode of The Orville so we can watch it together. She doesn't mind if I watch new episodes of Discovery by myself.
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Re: The Orville vs. Star Trek: Discovery

Postby DamianaRaven » Sun Oct 08, 2017 8:48 am

They're going to have to add another verse to this (most awesome) song:

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Re: The Orville vs. Star Trek: Discovery

Postby tinyrick » Fri Nov 03, 2017 3:59 pm

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Re: The Orville vs. Star Trek: Discovery

Postby SandTea » Sat Nov 04, 2017 8:43 am

I read the Cracked article today about Discovery and had no idea so many people hated it. Granted, the comments are (almost) always negative now-a-days but damn do people hate that show. Is it because it's abbreviated "STD"?

I'm digging both shows. There was a comment about std just being 'the expanse' but, fuck that, buy a butter dish that sounds awesome. I'll sing up for "star trek meets firefly" any day.
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Re: The Orville vs. Star Trek: Discovery

Postby ghijkmnop » Sat Nov 04, 2017 5:07 pm

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Re: The Orville vs. Star Trek: Discovery

Postby tinyrick » Sun Nov 05, 2017 11:25 am

Star Trek: Discovery is good, but it's clearly designed to be a believable universe, whereas Star Trek: TOS and TNG are built around visiting "what-if" scenarios. Yeah, there was an ongoing war with the Klingons in TOS, but the series was not about the Klingons and our war with them. It was about contacting a civilization run by hippies, religious fundamentalists, actual Greek Gods, etc. Every week we run into something different. It wasn't until Deep Space 9 that they tried to turn the Star Trek Universe into a living universe with something resembling continuity.

The Orville, simply put, is TOS and TNG "what if scenario" era with some light comedy thrown in. Discovery is the gritty reboot nobody asked for. I'm watching both, but I'm watching one more enthusiastically than the other. I watch Orville as soon as I can, but I watch Discovery if I'm bored.
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Re: The Orville vs. Star Trek: Discovery

Postby SandTea » Mon Nov 06, 2017 7:32 am

ghijkmnop wrote:For me there's quite a bit of disconnect when when I watch it, knowing that it's supposed to take place only 10 years before TOS, and the designs look like they should take place 50 years AFTER Voyager.

I still enjoy both Discovery and The Orville


I thought I read it here but maybe not. (I re-skimmed)

Yeah that's always going to be a problem when you try and prequel from the future. I give leeway. The thing I thought I heard here was that discovery is... I can't remember what it's called but is the predecessor to some super top secret group from DS9, I think.

Although that would bring up some weird implications, it's still fun.
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Re: The Orville vs. Star Trek: Discovery

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Mon Dec 31, 2018 8:27 am

So, the Orville's second season is off to a good start. It basically plays out like those mid-season STNG episodes where everything's just kept to the Enterprise. The pon farr parody is kind of weird, but in a way where one can realistically kind of also take it seriously, and Penny Johnson Jerald is great as always.

Also, Lizardman bartender George Costanza.
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Re: The Orville vs. Star Trek: Discovery

Postby ghijkmnop » Mon Dec 31, 2018 4:17 pm

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Re: The Orville vs. Star Trek: Discovery

Postby cmsellers » Wed Jan 02, 2019 5:22 am

I watched The Orville's first season because Kate and someone else on TCS highly recommended it and I was incredulous that anything created by Seth McFarlane could be good. First episode was awful so I waited a long time before trying the next episodes, but the rest of the season was pretty good, though I'm not sure how much of that was low expectations going in. I watched the first episode of Season 2, and the B plot involving Finn and Issac was pretty decent, but the A plot with Ed and Kelly was annoying, and the speech Ed gives at the end the kind of annoying cliche I expect from Seth McFarlane, which doesn't set me up with high hopes.
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