DescentBB

Anyone here start watching "The Orville" starring Seth McFarland? I never really liked his "Family Guy" show, but this new Star Trek-ish expensive looking space epic he's now doing has far exceeded my expectations. It's funny, campy and serious all at the same time. It's like they took the original 1960's Star Trek, camped it up even more, and threw a bunch of say-it-like-it-is people with personal issues onto a weird looking star ship and let decorum and the prime directive get thrown right out the window. Even the characters are likeable. Think of a not-so-perfect Captain Kirk having to work alongside his ex-wife First Officer after a messy divorce. I guess I underestimated the humor and talent of Seth McFarland.

I personally thought it was a far better product than the new Star Trek Discovery series on CBS, where they effing changed the appearance of the Klingons, yet again, and not in a good way IMO. I can't stand the new captain or crew they threw together either, since they have absolutely NO chemistry right from the start.



http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/the-orville/1064475/

I saw pretty dire reviews of the first few episodes, so I stayed away.

I saw similar reviews, but they're dead wrong. I've watched 2 of them and Seth has created something golden. Give it one watch.

I watched the first three episodes and was not impressed.

Did you watch Star Trek Discovery? Was it better in your opinion?

FOX logic:

If the show is good:

Cancel after about a dozen episodes.

If the show is bad:

Promote it to death and run it for the next 20 years and add a spin-off every 10.

Flatlander wrote:I watched the first three episodes and was not impressed.

I'm not a big enough Star Trek fan to jump through the hoops CBS has put up to watch it. The last Star Trek series I watched was DS9, and that was long after it had aired originally, on DVD.

Edited to add: In my opinion, the best science fiction series currently on TV is The Expanse.

Isaac wrote:FOX logic:

If the show is good:

Cancel after about a dozen episodes.

If the show is bad:

Promote it to death and run it for the next 20 years and add a spin-off every 10.

FOX logic (At least I saw this with King of the Hill):

If the show is good but the owners of the network hate it, they'll make sure to run it on a the same night (Sundays usually) as some annual popular sports show that will invariably force a schedule conflict, bumping it into a never-to-be-seen god awful hour at an unknown time that nobody can find in any schedule to even record if they wanted to.

Flatlander wrote:In my opinion, the best science fiction series currently on TV is The Expanse.

Hey thanks for the heads up. I look for it this season. I love good sci-fi shows.

I was actually looking forward to the Orville more than the new Trek.

I'm really put off by the restriction to CBS all access bullcrap. Its Voyager and UPN all over again.

I'm not saying the new Trek is bad, I don't like the Klingons though, and anytime they mess around with a prequel, they're bound to trample canon. It looks like a prequel to the JJ-Trek universe, not the prime universe though, especially with the way the ships warp in. Frankly, I think it would do better if they stayed in the JJverse so people don't complain about changing canon.

But I won't pay for another service in order to watch it, we've already got netflix, hulu and amazon, and everyone else in the world can watch it on Netflix. It only goes to show that CBS is run by the Ferengi.

I'm really liking the Orville though, its funny but almost tries to take itself seriously... almost. Its doing Trek better than Trek is.

Dammit, I really wish they'd leave the Klingons alone. I like the whole culture and appearance they did during the first Trek movies and the Next Generation series onward. But the ones they have in the Star Trek Discovery series look just plain weird. It's kind of like what they did to the Kilrathi in that Wing Commander movie. The Kilrathi were big hirsute smart cats in the games, but in the movie, they looked like a someone shaved them and made them stupid and brutish.

I'm glad you like "The Orville" Capm. It may have some growing pains, but I think McFarland may have a winner if he can nail down the balance between seriousness and comedy. A big plus is that it's not been shoved into a pay-for-access setup either.

Tunnelcat wrote:

Flatlander wrote:In my opinion, the best science fiction series currently on TV is The Expanse.

Hey thanks for the heads up. I look for it this season. I love good sci-fi shows.

There have been two seasons so far. I think they are only available in the US on Amazon Prime. Outside the US, they should be on Netflix. The third season is currently filming and should air sometime in January on Sy-Fy.

Well, that sucks. No wonder I haven't seen it. I don't currently use any streaming services at the moment. I only saw the one Star Trek Discovery show because it was free on over-the-air/cable TV.

Well in that case, you could always just read the books!

Great, they're on Kindle.