this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
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Science Fiction

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Lemmy World Rules

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When I first started this show I found it to be a really awkward mix of comedy and seriousness. It had some jokes thrown it at the most inopportune times as some kind of comic relief from a really serious situation. Perhaps the first half of the first season was actually a bit rough or maybe the show just grew on me, but by season 2 I found myself loving this show.

To me it seems as every bit as comfy, intellectually interesting and even funny as some classic Star Treks while still clearly being its own thing. I wish more comfy space shows like this would get made.

What are your thoughts on The Orville? Also I miss Alara.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

While I don't regret watching it—and I'd probably even throw on a new season if it gets one—I felt like it was missing any true classic episodes. I also kept having this strange sense of familiarity with episodes, as if it was just repurposing or rehashing older Star Trek plots.

I kept thinking, "Wasn't there a TNG/DS9/Whatever episode that explored this same general concept/idea, but better?". It felt like it was maybe borrowing just a bit too much from it's inspiration.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

@Izzy true fact: Seth McFarlane developed the show after his friend and collaborator Ahmed Best (of Star Wars) pitched him the idea of a comedic Star Trek clone. It was called "The Nebula." I know because I was personally pitching the sizzle reel for the pilot to branded entertainment clients in 2009.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I like it a lot. I hope there's a season 4.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I really disliked it. I thought it was a really poorly constructed clone of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", and not a subtle one at that. The cut scenes, the sounds... It was all so incredibly "old" feeling.

The relationship between the robot and the doctor was excruciatingly cringy. It was so insanely contrived, and I can't conceive of why anyone tolerated it, let alone enjoyed it.

This said, it's not all bad. I enjoyed one or two episodes, I liked the comedy aspect, and I also enjoyed many of the CGI special effects.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Wow, i don't know many people who dislike it. I think the TNG-clone feeling is deliberate. I think like science fiction holds up a mirror to our world... they chose to hold up another mirror and simultaneously copy The Next Generation. There is the doctor, a robot/android... you quickly catch many similarities... but further along things start to get skewed, sometimes your expectations get fulfilled or ruined and they play with the stereotypes. I think it's kind of genius and often times gives it one or two additional layers of depth. Especially when they simultaneously discuss philosophical stuff and simultaneously play with TNG storytelling tropes. Like when they introduced people on the orville are vegan. and star trek still struggles with that today and people far in the future are super advanced, but randomly kill cows to eat them.

I also think the relationship between the android and the doctor has a certain cringy-ness to it. We currently see AI slowly becoming reality. It is very up to date to discuss people having relationships with machines. But they somehow do it in a weird and strange way. And too dramatic. But remember, there's also Wesley Crusher. And Captain Proton and some weird robots on Voyager's holodeck.

I don't know why you associate that "old" feeling with something negative. It reminds me of good times, watching star trek series as a kid. And to this date i like those sounds more than the atmospheric sounds of recent Star Trek. And I also like the light and bright spaceships more than the recent tv shows that all happen at night and have dark and dimly lit sets. like Picard.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Like when they introduced people on the orville are vegan.

Malloy's line delivery in Season 3 when he confesses to killing and eating animals really goes a long way to show how far the ethical mores of future society have moved. He basically felt like a murderer because, to him at least, that's exactly what he felt like. Contrast that against his prior characterization as the goofy, prankster guy and you get so much more depth of character from him.

It's like Marty McFly admitting to Doc Brown that he killed and ate Biff because the Doc left the two on a desert island and timey wimey weirdness meant he showed back up two months later than he expected. Heavy stuff.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It had some jokes thrown it at the most inopportune times

That's Seth humor in a nutshell.

Perhaps the first half of the first season was actually a bit rough

Name a show that started off any other way though. Even SG1 is cringe in the first season. Lexx maybe, but even that one grew different after the first few episodes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Good points. I'm was just unsure whether that was actually that was actually the case and I got used to it or it actually improved.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I thought it would be a parody show at first but its good casual sci-fi entertainment. I liked the first two seasons better than S3.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

That the first season/part of first season was awkward qualified it as part of the Star Trek tradition, they all stumbled around to figure out what they were doing at first. I would say that it is Star Trek just as much as Galaxy Quest is a Star Trek movie, and perhaps that's the issue with some not liking it fully...it's a parody/alternate take of the idea carried out a bit too long, whereas Galaxy Quest was the perfect amount.

As a Star Trek fan since the 70s, I can say that all versions have their highs and lows, there isn't a perfect one. And from the Vulcan philosophy of IDIC (Infinite Diversity In Infinite Combinations), this is how it should be. The more the better, even some of Discovery. I think the idea of Discovery was great, it just wasn't implemented well, but again, I could point out other Star Trek that shared that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Orville season 3 has a few episodes that are easily up to par in the top 10-20 star trek episodes of all times.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

The Orville is to Star Trek as Spaceballs was to Star Wars. A humorous parody, but I can appreciate the effort that they put in to have the show take itself a bit more seriously during dramatic scenes. I enjoyed it, although I only saw two seasons.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Absolutely LOVE it. I've lost count of how many times I've watched the series and I am currently on another go thru of it. It's definitely a joke in the beginning and some jokes miss, but I love how they get into some good topics halfway through.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I wanted to like it, but didn’t get through S1. I found the humor so uneven that it made the whole thing almost uncomfortable. Is it an irreverent parody, sci-fi, slightly crude comedy, or is it Star Trek? It’s all of those things, and I’m happy folks enjoyed it. I’ll try to revisit at some point, but for now I’m so happy that Strange New Worlds is as surprisingly excellent as it is. For me, it nails the mixture of lightheartedness, sci-fi adventure, and earnestness that I like in Star Trek.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Actually I think much like Strange New Worlds, I think that it showed me how much of the recent issues I have with Star Trek is that it takes itself too seriously. (In fact also as for Star Wars, as blasphemous it is to mention here)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Wanted to like it more than I did. Just didn't think it was all that funny.

Now I thought Avenue 5 (HBO) was absolutely hilarious. It's the funny I expected from Orville. Too bad it ended after 2 seasons.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I loved it. So much sci if these days focuses more on world building than character development. Orville felt like it struck the right balance between the two and gave us characters that are easier to empathize with.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wished I could have gotten past the awkward comedy you mention. Couldn’t get into it because of that.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Best modern Star Trek show.

By "modern Star Trek" I mean every show from Discovery to Strange New Worlds.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

It was the best trek on TV since Star Trek Enterprise.

But I now also love Star Trek Strange New Worlds.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I loved it and it's definitely on the list of shows that I'll rewatch sometime sooner or later

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

At first I thought it was full on satire but then it also discussed serious issues so I'm not sure. It's good but it feels like a Star Trek clone.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Really loved it, after the first couple episodes it felt like Star Trek with average people, without the overhype of modern star trek.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I tried to get into it but ultimately it was too campy and borderline cringey (Norm's terribly animated and written blob character) for me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

The Orville is what would happen if the offspring of Star Trek and Galaxy Quest married Lexx and had a baby.

It actually has a lot of the same style social commentary that really Trek ToS and TNG had, combined with the absurdity and humor of GQ and periods of no-punches-pulled raunchy. I mean, go Yaphit and we all know kinky shit happened in holedecks too but it's something else to see on screen.

I am very much looking forward to the next season. It's actually one of the very few sci-fi movies I've gotten my wife to watch with me that she enjoyed

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I like it! It's a nice casual space show with a decent mix of humor and seriousness.

I find it to be more "star trek" than some of the new star trek shows.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I hated the pilot, never went back

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