KeepTalking
Code Monkey
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2010
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- 4,641
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- Atheist, Secular Humanist, Pastifarian, IPUnitard
what you said here is both true and in no way contradicts what i said that you were replying to, lol.
the orville is more "star trek" in spirit than STD, it's more of a star trek show than STD.
yes, STD is trying (and failing, miserably) to be a serious compelling space drama, but it could be trying to be a pancake wrapped around a sausage on a stick for all the difference it makes to the fact that it is NOT star trek, and the orville is.
I think we're going to have to agree to disagree.
Now that fall sweeps are over, the networks are in maintenance mode. Tonight Fox replayed the pilot episode of The Orville, and I watched to see if there was anything I'd missed.
Nope. There wasn't anything I'd missed, and there was a reason.
It was safe. There wasn't a moment in the show were you couldn't see what was coming a light year away. The conflicts between Ed and Kelly were superficial and predictable. There was never any doubt that the intrepid Orville crew would come out on top at the end of the episode. Everything was packaged up with a bow on top for the long-suffering Trek fans. It was easy, the ship looked lovely, and everyone in the cast was pitch perfect in playing their paint by numbers roles.
I'm sure the focus group was satisfied with the end product.
And that's the problem. The original Star Trek was challenging. The audience was hit with uncomfortable situations and pointed social commentary. It wasn't easy.
The Orville is easy.
Discovery, by all accounts, is hard. Controversial. Something that people will argue about.
That may be a fair critique of the pilot episode, but it does not hold true over the course of the 6 episodes that have aired so far, and in fact, this changes as soon as episode 3, "About a Girl". That episode seems predictable, everything flows more or less like a typical TNG episode, and you expect the crew to "come out on top", as you say. Then they throw a totally unexpected curve at the end. Until that point it was just a humorous take on Star Trek, complete with dick jokes, which was enough for me, given that it is done well. Now I appreciate that it is also a somewhat more mature version of Start Trek, in terms of honestly dealing with the themes it tackles, while still retaining that humor. Of course, the style of humor will be off-putting for some, as it can be quite sophomoric, I just hope you give it more of a try than just watching the pilot episode before forming your final opinion of it.