Better series lead. Ed Mercer from "Orville" vs Burnham from "Discovery?"

Think of this thread as being part, old school tribute to the old Picard vs Kirk questions of yesteryear and part evil scheme to watch the Trekbbs fireworks that will be sure to follow. Now that you have taken the clickbait your tears and anger belongs to me!

As for the topic I much prefer Mercer. I will say though that even though I don't think SMG is great actress I do think she is better than McFarlande. She is more likely to carry a serious drama scene than he really can. She is also better at carrying a kick-ass action scene as well. His advantage is Mercer is I think almost a extension of Mcfarlande as a person so he is kind of playing himself to a degree and I feel he is doing a great job of that. It comes down to him doing better playing a nice almost everyone type of leader with a sense of hero than she does at playing super serious angst ridden type who makes these important speeches that are suppose to be deep.

Which makes me wonder if the actress has almost nothing in common with the character. She might in real life be this fun happy go type and she is getting the early Jadzia Dax,Sisko thing were there hurting themselves by not letting the actor inform the character's personality and maybe if they made her more like SMG the character would improve.



Jason

 

I wish this had been like Mercer vs. John Chricton or Malcolm Reynolds, or Tim Allan's character from Galaxy Quest. This is just another Orville vs. Discovery thread.

 

Not really. I'm trying to limit the comparisons down to the two characters. Not the shows in general.

Jason

 

Pass that over. That's only reason why I'm here, too.

 

If it turns out that way, I will be impressed.

 

Same. I respect Jayson and all but this will not go well.

 

I don't know. I recall a white priviledge thread that lasted 5 pages and several days earlier this year before it fell apart. People can surprise you.


Jason

 

Mercer isn’t a character, he’s Seth McFarlane playing Star Trek captain. There’s nothing else to him. Not-Worf is a character though, the rest are comic relief.

 

Not a fan of either as lead characters. Love the supporting casts, though.

 

That's true but many actors do kind of play versions of themselves. Woody Allen was always himself in his movies. Jack Nicholson always seems to be Jack and so forth. I don't think McFarlane is ever going to be a great actor who plays character outside of his limited range but if one likes his persona i'm not sure if it matters especially when he is working on a show or movie he creates.

Jason

 

This reeks of another Discovery v. Orville thread to me. As if we didn't have enough of them.

 

I'm going to lean on more on Mercer. While he can be a bit annoying and full of himself at times, I think he is able to let go of his ego and come down to reality and be a team player. He knows his limitations. Mad Idolatry really showed his human side and it was a great performance from Seth. He's not my favorite character by a long shot and he isn't the most interesting character on the show but he's the kind of flawed protagonist I can get behind.

Burnham I don't know how to describe her. I just find her pretty insufferable. She makes very bad judgment calls and decisions, she acts like she learned from her mistakes, but she doesn't and then she makes the same bad judgment calls and decisions. I think having her be this broken brooding character from the get go was a bad idea. I mean given the nature of her backstory I doubt she would have been anything other than broken and brooding. Given she's the main character, you're supposed to feel for her but I just can't. I tried so hard. I don't like her one bit.

Both characters are very different so trying to compare the two isn't very fair. Yes I love the Orville and don't like Discovery very much but I don't think either lead is better than the other. Both characters are flawed in various ways. Mercer isn't a great captain and Burnham isn't a great Starfleet officer. I can't really think of anything else to say other but I'm curious to see where this topic goes.

 

How does sense of humor impact the comparison. To me a character with a sense of humor almost always has a leg up in any comparison. I just really like humor. It can even be dark humor. Tony Soprano for example was a very funny character at times and it could be really terrible, the things he would say. Granted, Mercer isn't like that. He seems like someone anyone could be friends with. I don't think Burnham, though has the humor nor the everywomen appeal; She is someone I think people would feel the need to walk on eggshells around. Granted the show has sort of touched on this a little but I would hope they would explore it more and advance things and make her more personable. Let Pike be the stick in the mudd. Let her have more fun. Maybe even smile once in awhile. Did she smile even once during season 1 or even crack a joke? Even some sarcism which is humor with a little more bite would be welcomed.

Jason

 

I like him, but Seth is not going to win any acting awards. And I struggle to accept Ed Mercer as the tactical genius Orville sometimes likes to depict him as. You can't be a loser on a nothing ship AND single handledly take down enourmous Kree warships.

He isn't James T. Kirk, he's J. T. Esteban.

 

Well I wouldn't go that low. J.T Esteban is how I would command a starship. It would be a disaster. I would get everyone killed faster than you can say, Starfleet Protocol. Which by the way go cast a vote for me in the TNZ thread as to which Trekbbs member should be president. But back on topic. I think he is more like a modern not so shady Captain Jack Sparrow. He always seems like he wouldn't be up to the job in any job he does but he always seems to find away to get it done even if it does almost look like pure luck.

Jason

 

I like both but there certainly is a different feel for each, as would be expected. I like Mercer very much, and think I would get along with him great. He also handles some great dramatic and painful moments which I appreciate.

As a series lead, I prefer Burnham, but that's because she has experienced significant trauma in her past and I want to see her overcome that. I find her to be more engaging.

 

I think Burnham is one of the worst lead characters of all time played by a not very talented actress. There isn't anything appealing about the character at all so of course I prefer Mercer. Or anyone else at all.

 

Though to compare, honestly. I feel there is more love baked into the Mercer character, partially due to McFarlane being the creator/part-time writer on The Orville. Green is the better actor, but has gotten far shittier material from the Discovery writers.

Most Star Trek fans didn't have an issue with Janeway taking down Borg cubes and other baddies on her nothing ship. I would imagine a Union mid-range Explorer is probably equivalent to an Intrepid class starship.