The Orville season 3 - first look

The best and most important thing Brannon Braga ever did for Star Trek was not being involved with DS9. Okay, kind of harsh, maybe a bit of an exaggeration. Sorry, Brannon, wherever you are.

As far as I could tell, that was the whole point of the show: Berman Trek nostalgia with dick jokes. Aside from the humour, many episodes of The Orville could be rewritten to be one of those standalone, more or less forgettable episodes that TNG and Voyager churned out dozens of. But it's not 1992, it's 2022. I'm much more interested in seeing a new episode of Discovery or Prodigy than I am in reliving a Saturday night watching "Rascals" or "Aquiel."

 

On the other hand Identity was kinda their BobW...

 

It's nice to be called a teenager for once instead of 20 years over my age.

 

True. I think a lot of that is down to the writing (which was very good) and the fact that episodes would all generally have a message of some sort. That type of storytelling can be pretty powerful and satisfying.

 

I never considered it parody or satire. Although the show has satirized aspects of TV SF, I've always considered it inspired by and an affectionate homage to TNG. McFarlane has never made a secret of his geekiness.

1st season was all over the place tonally and didn't seem quite sure what it wanted to be. My guess is that Fox bought it on the premise of "it's from the Family Guy creator so it'll be a comedy." 2nd season seemed more sure of itself. I'm hoping the move to Hulu will allow for more SF and less Stoopid.

 

I always saw it as TNG but with more believable characters.

 

Interesting, "Ja'loja" is the only episode that I'd say really parodied Star Trek, to the extent that they took a trope introduced in TOS's "Amok Time" and reused over the decades: building a huge ritual mystique around some commonplace of culture or biology on a supposed alien world. They critique it by playing a ridiculous variation absolutely straight.

MacFarlane is a big TOS fan. To the extent that The Orville deliberately mimics Trek, it's TOS in a contemporary style, with TNG-inspired visual design.

 

That “drive by” scene still makes me laugh. He gets caught and then turns on the cloaking device.

 

Wow! I've never seen that video of teen Seth. He's living his dream now.

I recall him being in ENT during the 4th season episode Affliction.

 

Maybe he could confuse everyone by appearing in Discovery.

 

MERCER: "Captain Burnham? Yeah, sorry. I get it. I tear up easy, too. Seriously, 'Titanic?' I'm a complete mess."

 

And for good measure, here is Scott Grimes (Gordon) in a deleted scene from "Star Trek: The Next Generation":

 

There's always something to be embarrassed about

 

Another one from Doug Drexler on Facebook:

 

I wonder if they've updated all the hallways to feature that metallic look. I also wonder if the stories are going to become more serious to match.

 

Hope not.

 

TNG: Minimal controls, everything's automatic in the future

TNG movies: Controls everywhere because it looks cool!

Orville seasons 1-2: Minimal controls...

 

I imagine he's bound in a basement somewhere.

 

Braga's doing what he does, over there, and fine. If people don't get The Orville, that's fine too; I've seen the half-witted crap some folks praise on shows like STD and have a pretty good idea of where our tastes diverge.