Opinions on The Orville

[Mudd]

Discovery is orders of magnitude better, in every department (well, except humor).

Only with respect to money spent. The writing on STD is barely competent on conceptual and plotting levels. Just dreadful.

It's characteristic CBS product. They shovel it out in the confidence that a few million uncritical followers will show up and make it a niche success.

 

[1001001]

Only with respect to money spent. The writing on STD is barely competent on conceptual and plotting levels. Just dreadful.

It's characteristic CBS product. They shovel it out in the confidence that a few million uncritical followers will show up and make it a niche success.

I respect your opinion, although I would not consider myself an "uncritical follower". If I thought it was bad I would say so.

It is fair to say I wanted to like it, and I was hoping to like it (just as with The Orville).

The fact that I do indeed like both, makes me lucky. And happy.

 

[fireproof78]

Discovery is a show that set its sights very high and missed.

I would rather have such high sights set.

 

[tomalak301]

I don’t care what bar was set. I want to like something. Right now I’m more enthusiastic about Orville than Discovery. At least Orville had a competent finale.

 

[Refuge]

I hate to admit it, but I like the Orville. If they got rid of the "dick" jokes, and tweeked the tone of some of the jokes, it could be an excellent show. I see a lot of potential. I like the robot, lol. I'd say they need more technobabble. It will be interesting to see how the show develops in he second season. What do other Trekkies think of The Orville?

The Orville is enjoyable. I feel quite invested in the characters.

 

[Steve Roby]

You're not the lone dissenter. I made it through the first season, but I'm iffy on season 2. Honestly, I laughed harder at Star Trek Discovery's humor than The Orville's. I agree that it lacks intelligent humor and wants to go for the easy joke, but all too often, those jokes fall flat for me.

"That's so fucking cool! Oh, sorry, sir." "No, you're right, cadet. It is fucking cool." That's humour that comes out of Tilly's youthful exuberance and Stamets's considerable self-confidence. It feels right without feeling sitcommish. Orville's humour feels sitcommish and forced.

I think if you took the best elements of The Orville and Discover, and combined them into one show, we'd have the best Trek show yet.

The only best element of The Orville that isn't Star Trek: The Next Generation is Adrienne Palicki. Well, the music is often good, but again, it's right out of real Star Trek.

I like The Orville, but it's nothing special. Dick jokes aside, I've seen it all before in almost every Star Trek series. I haven't seen Discovery before. That's the one taking bigger risks and making me eager to see what comes next.

 

[Mudd]

I like stupid television sometimes, but not enough and not often enough to pay All Access a monthly fee to have my brain turned to yogurt.

It's remarkable really - Netflix just released the Lost In Space trailer, and yet again there's another science fiction series with more promise, more thought and more art to it in two minutes than the CBS drones have managed to produce in fifteen episodes (which was, what, six hours or so of content).

 

[Turd Ferguson]

I'm a huge fan of this show. I love all the characters, especially Isaac, Bortus and Lt. Kitan. I can't wait to see them back in season two!

 

[fireproof78]

"That's so fucking cool! Oh, sorry, sir." "No, you're right, cadet. It is fucking cool." That's humour that comes out of Tilly's youthful exuberance and Stamets's considerable self-confidence. It feels right without feeling sitcommish. Orville's humour feels sitcommish and forced.



The only best element of The Orville that isn't Star Trek: The Next Generation is Adrienne Palicki. Well, the music is often good, but again, it's right out of real Star Trek.

I like The Orville, but it's nothing special. Dick jokes aside, I've seen it all before in almost every Star Trek series. I haven't seen Discovery before. That's the one taking bigger risks and making me eager to see what comes next.

I think Palicki is one element that keeps me coming back.

 

[eschaton]

I dunno if this is worth setting up another thread, but thinking about the criticism of The Orville as just a Star Trek knockoff has me thinking - have there ever been any good ones before this? Trek is something of a trope that's set a thousand ships, but every attempt to work within the format up until this point has been awful.

 

[Starfury]

I'm a fan of The Orville. I like the characters, I like the universe. The show has heart. It is about something and that makes me forgive most of its shortcomings. With Discovery it's the opposite. This show is without any real direction. It exists for the sake of existence. Not because the producers have a story they want/need to tell. That's why they are running in circles - killing characters, bringing characters back, having a war, forgetting the war, etc.

 

[Discofan]

I like it. I can't tell if it's a parody or something else though.

 

[Mudd]

I dunno if this is worth setting up another thread, but thinking about the criticism of The Orville as just a Star Trek knockoff has me thinking - have there ever been any good ones before this? Trek is something of a trope that's set a thousand ships, but every attempt to work within the format up until this point has been awful.

No, not really. Galaxy Quest was a wonderful comedic parody, but it had targets and concerns that were broader than just making use of the same science fiction space opera tropes that Trek had already lifted from earlier works and put a specific spin on.

So, Trek is the only really good Forbidden Planet knock-off, and The Orville is the only really honest, good Trek knock-off.

 

[eschaton]

No, not really. Galaxy Quest was a wonderful comedic parody, but it had targets and concerns that were broader than just making use of the same science fiction space opera tropes that Trek had already lifted from earlier works and put a specific spin on.

So, Trek is the only really good Forbidden Planet knock-off, and The Orville is the only really honest, good Trek knock-off.

Yeah. The only thing I could think of that might count was the first two seasons of Andromeda, before it started totally sucking, but I haven't seen it since it came out, and it was still just meh.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I'd say Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis were better spiritual successors to Star Trek than Orville is. They used the template but took it in unique directions. They were their own thing. Orville is just doing the exact same TNG/Voyager shtick. It's not trying to be any more than nostalgia.

 

[Nyotarules]

I started watching it last week, I enjoy the jokes, best Star Trek show ever!

 

[Mudd]

Yeah. The only thing I could think of that might count was the first two seasons of Andromeda, before it started totally sucking, but I haven't seen it since it came out, and it was still just meh.

Yeah - Andromeda was a sincere effort that faltered early on and went off the skids when the actual creator, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, left in the second year. Under-budgeted, and the design was...inconsistent. Also, Sorbo's no Shatner.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Only with respect to money spent. The writing on STD is barely competent on conceptual and plotting levels. Just dreadful.

It's characteristic CBS product. They shovel it out in the confidence that a few million uncritical followers will show up and make it a niche success.

Yes, they certainly made a point about how much money was spent on the series, which can mostly be seen in the special effects over anything else. And even then, I've felt underwhelmed by the effects. To me, the amount of money that was spent on the effects was undermined when they chose to have the ship warp the way it does and it seems like a really odd decision to make. The whole experience feels cheapened.

And then there are several missteps they've made along the way, like only making the first half of the prelude available for free, and not even showing Discovery herself until later. What they should have done was make the whole prelude available as a 2-hour movie via broadcast. I'm surprised it's as successful as it is given the tactics they've used.

As for The Orville, I love the characters. I keep tuning in because I want to know what they're doing every week. They feel like real people enjoying their jobs. Well, for the most part. Can't tell if Bortus enjoys it I think there's growth in them in what we see them do from week to week, and the sense of community they share.

 

[JD]

Only with respect to money spent. The writing on STD is barely competent on conceptual and plotting levels. Just dreadful.

It's characteristic CBS product. They shovel it out in the confidence that a few million uncritical followers will show up and make it a niche success.

Posts like this really make me wonder if there's something wrong with me, because I didn't notice any of these issues while Disco. I'll admit, the first handful of episodes were a little rough, but even they didn't seem this bad to me.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

*sigh* This may surprise some of you, but you in fact CAN like Orville or Discovery without going out of your way to bring up how much you hate the other and condescend all who disagree with you.

This was cute at first, now it’s just gotten obnoxious.