Discovery and "The Orville" Comparisons

[Trekkin]

I thought it was 100 people actually.

And it's not like the crowd determined the list they were voting on. They were just there to cheer for the 'best' option provided. Meaning it was probably only one person that deemed GQ worthy of 'Star Trek movie' inclusion.

Devin Faraci: Speaker for the Fans.

 

[Campe]

^Exactly right.

But hey, let's take a completely unscientific "poll" as a 100% indication of the opinions of all Star Trek fans. That's cool.

 

[Mudd]

Here's your "many people" for you.

That's funny - because that's not many people.

If that's all you've got, you've got nothing.

 

[Skywalker]

Here's your "many people" for you. Deny it all you want, take issue with it, hate it, whatever, but it doesn't change the fact many Trek fans really do treat the film as if it's Trek.

 

[Jackson_Roykirk]

As for this 'Orville' thing, who cares? It's just a parody, one of many on TV.

Considering Seth MacFarlane is a Star Trek geek, I for one think The Orville could be a step above "one of many" parodies on TV. Not all parodies are created equal.

I also think (at least I have hopes) that The Orville stands on its own and goes beyond just being a Star Trek Parody -- i.e, I don't think they are going to live off of Kirk-style fights that look like a gymnast's tumble routine or use...a....staccato....delivery. It's a TV series, not an SNL sketch.

I realize Galaxy Quest included parody elements (shirtless captain, redshirt-type character, the convention microcosm, etc), but even Galaxy Quest stood on its own merits beyond the obvious parody -- which is what made it such an effective film. A straight parody would have gotten old fast; Galaxy Quest had enough to keep it fun throughout.

Hopefully The Orville will have enough to be able to stand beyond its obvious parody elements. I have faith that MacFarlane feels the same way, and that he can execute.

 

[Mudd]

The Orville looks like fun. I'll check it out.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

It was announced that The Orville will now start airing on Sundays before DSC premieres!
http://deadline.com/2017/06/fox-fal...he-gifted-seth-macfarlane-orville-1202118456/

SUNDAY, Sept. 10 Immediately Following NFL ON FOX Doubleheader
8-9 PM ET/PT THE ORVILLE (Special Series Premiere, Part 1)
SUNDAY, Sept. 17, Immediately Following NFL ON FOX Doubleheader
8-9 PM ET/PT THE ORVILLE (Special Series Premiere, Part 2)

I can't wait to see how this thread changes between Sept. 10 and Sept.24 when DSC premieres!

 

[shady12]

Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens has a critics score of 92% and an audience score of 89% on Rotten Tomatoes. It is the 11th highest grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada adjusted for inflation, and was the fastest film in history to gross $1 billion. It has a total box office gross of $2.068 billion.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has a critics score of 85% and an audience score of 87% on Rotten Tomatoes. It grossed $1.056 billion, and was the second highest-grossing film of 2016.

Both of these films were enormously successful. By any meaningful definition, they worked.

My post was dripping sumptuously with sarcasm. I think they could have effectively gone the retro route with this show.

 

[Jackson_Roykirk]

Does anyone else remember the 1970s TV show Quark (not to be confused with the DS9 character )?

It was a spoof of Star Trek that was somewhere in tone between Get Smart and Adam West's Batman; in fact it was created by Buck Henry, who also helped create Get Smart. The show starred Rirchad Benjamin as Adam Quark, the captain of a garbage hauler in space.

I'm old enough to remember Quark, and that while it was silly fun, it was a bit too campy. I have a feeling that Seth MacFarlane (who seemingly knows quite a bit about the pop culture of the past few decades) probably took some inspiration from Quark when creating The Orville, but hopefully not tooooo much inspiration. I want The Orville to be smart-silly without being overly campy.

Link to information on Quark:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_(TV_series)

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

^^ The twins look nice!

 

[Jackson_Roykirk]

^^ The twins look nice!

I'm sure that's one of the things that helped draw the "12 year old" me to that show.

 

[Mudd]

In fact, Buck Henry had already done Batman...

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[Jackson_Roykirk]

I had to check to see if Buck Henry was still alive -- and thankfully he is; he's 86 years old as of this writing.

Growing up, I remember him as a frequent host of Saturday Night Live during SNL's first decade or so (Wikipedia says he hosted 10 times, and is in 4th place on the list of most SNL hosting appearances after Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, and John Goodman).

He is in one of the all-time best SNL sketches -- and that would be the "Lord and Lady Douchebag" sketch, with Buck as Lord Douchebag. That's some really great stuff.

 

[Tenacity]

He is in one of the all-time best SNL sketches -- and that would be the "Lord and Lady Douchebag" sketch, with Buck as Lord Douchebag. That's some really great stuff.

The best Buck Henry SNL skit was Samurai Tailor.

 

[billtfargo]

The best Buck Henry SNL skit was Samurai Tailor.

What, no fly??

 

[Greg Cox]

Orville looks like what it is..a parody version of STNG. Flatly lit, with some 2017 effects. It looks like a tv show.

Discovery looks like what it is: A big budget mini-movie with cutting edge production and FX.

Exactly. THE ORVILLE appears to be an affectionate parody of STAR TREK, so of course it looks like the thing it's spoofing. The same way Mel Brook's YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN flawlessly recreated the look of old Universal Frankenstein movies. Or the way VOYAGER brilliantly spoofed the the old FLASH GORDON serials with "Captain Proton."

That's part of the joke.

But DISCOVERY is not a spoof, so it shouldn't look like it's deliberately trying to mimic old-school Trek. It should look like a modern-day version of Trek.

 

[Prax]

There are some exciting things about The Orville. Robert Duncan McNeill has so far directed an episode, as has Jonathan Frakes. And Penny Johnson is starring in it.

But what is really exciting(IMO) is the return to motion control photography. There's something about shooting miniatures for spaceships that looks so good, and never ages. This was especially true in the late 90's/early 2000's before the practice seemed to become so rare.

Beautiful!

 

[mos6507]

The only other live-action Trek in existence was TOS.

Huh? Insurrection (a TNG movie) came out the year before Galaxy Quest (in 1998) and was part of what drove a nail in the coffin of the Trek franchise. Berman-era franchise-fatigue(TM) was way advanced by 1999.

Meaning Galaxy Quest was apparently authentic to the tone of a quarter of the franchise.

The part that has the most value, hence why it was aped for the Kelvin-franchise in the first place.

 

[Trekkin]

The part that has the most value, hence why it was aped for the Kelvin-franchise in the first place.

Those viewers of Galaxy Quest 'at the time' certainly must have been something special.

They could discern the content of movies that didn't yet exist.

Huh? Insurrection (a TNG movie) came out the year before Galaxy Quest (in 1998) and was part of what drove a nail in the coffin of the Trek franchise. Berman-era franchise-fatigue(TM) was way advanced by 1999.

Thank you for the correc...oh wait, I mentioned TNG didn't I? There's like an entire following mini tangent about the movies and everything.

That's okay. It's easy to forget things when you reply to a post a month later.

 

[C57D]

Liking what the Orville trailer shows and certainly think the ship design is pretty cool. A mix of TNG Enterprise, the Protector and many of the ship designs for the Traveller RPG. For me it looks like (a comical version of) what DSC should have been.
Since it seems that, other than a few references to events and earlier characters and settings and the generic ship designs, DSC is going to bear little resemblance to "ST ten years before Kirk" so why use the ST name at all. Except for marketing and an cynical attempt to sell into an existing fanbase. Why not have courage in your product and go the whole hog, and design and produce something totally new in a new setting ??
I will be watching both shows to decide if either are worth watching ongoing. For me it is just plain Discovery and Orville. If DSC wants me to think if it as ST Discovery then it needs to first win that privilege.