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Discovery and "The Orville" Comparisons

No love for hockey? Plenty of conflict there.

I’m a little far these days from my home state team — the Blackhawks. And I haven’t really gotten to know the Dallas Stars yet. But the year I left Nashville, the Preds sure got fired up!
 
After two episodes of Discovery and four of Orville... I'm enjoying The Orville a bucket lot more. It's TNG, but with the B-team. They're not all the best and brightest the Union has to offer, they're not flying its flagship heavy cruiser. They're quirky and interesting, they're flawed but not utterly horrible people. Except for Isaac. Isaac is totes amaze.

"About a Girl" and "If the Stars Should Appear" are honestly good science fiction, better than what Discovery has served up so far.

My two credits.

Is Discovery even science fiction? It's a war drama set in space, nothing really imaginatively speculative about it.
 
Is Discovery even science fiction? It's a war drama set in space, nothing really imaginatively speculative about it.

People have supertelescopes that can pick up light that's only started it's journey in one specific direction from across a quadrant.
Oh and anti-protons that quitely knit human DNA together instead of exploding on contact with the skin.

I mean that's some far out stuff.
 
After two episodes of Discovery and four of Orville... I'm enjoying The Orville a bucket lot more. It's TNG, but with the B-team. They're not all the best and brightest the Union has to offer, they're not flying its flagship heavy cruiser. They're quirky and interesting, they're flawed but not utterly horrible people. Except for Isaac. Isaac is totes amaze.

"About a Girl" and "If the Stars Should Appear" are honestly good science fiction, better than what Discovery has served up so far.

My two credits.

If CBS were airing Discovery for free and Fox was charging for The Orville. I'd gladly pay Fox to watch The Orville. It's fun the characters are interesting and the stories remind me of TOS. It reminds me of Star Trek before everyone started taking it so seriously.
 
Discovery and Orville both have the thing the other is missing. Neither are so great on their own but either would be great combined with the strengths of the other.

Thing is I could see discovery having a ds9 style funny in a serious way episode. Or not even funny but like "day in the life of...." That's got that charming quirkiness to it. Breaking bad has an episode like that. Or oh my god the Sopranos has a hilarious one with chasing a Russian through the woods. The kind of thing that fits tonally and can still move the ball down the field story wise, or atleast character development wise. But the Orville having a super serious episode? I have a hard time taking it seriously after dick jokes and alike. It's like oh look a dick joke, now I'm going to have a super serious no jokes episode TNG style. I don't see that.
 
I know my post is very raw, longer than it should be, brain storming kind, but I'll go for it anyway (it's my second post in this thread).

I re-watched a couple of Orville episodes those last few days and I then told to myself: "Wait, I feel like I did for Star Trek, Stargate and Doctor Who again!!". I only rematch certain kind of TV shows and movies. Those which have a certain complexities to them. Now I can't wait for new episodes. I can't wait to see their new adventures and what directions they will take the show.

That's what Orville is for me. A show like Star Trek, Stargate and Doctor who. Action, adventure, entertaining and some intellectual stimulation. I like the futuristic, technological, science, moral/ethical dillemma part of those shows. Probably why I'm a big fan of historical drama too (Rome, The Borgias, Spartacus, The Tudors, etc). You can see how they are similar in that way. I like that they are people and meet people who are different than us. Have different (and similar) worldviews and culture than us. I guess TV/Movies are great for entertainment (including learning stuff not related to school and work, like reading a Biology book when you're not a biologist and don't plan to be) and escapism. And for me this represent of the ultimate kind of it. The ultimate kind of escapism and entertainment (including intellectually). I like to see how those people will react to their different adventures and situations.

For example, Augustus Caesar is a different person than us. Beside his personality, he has a different culture, worldview than us. He lives in a different society than us (even if it came to influence us in the future), it's Rome in ancient times. So I like to see how Caesar/Octavian faced various situations. It's the same thing with Spock. Spock is a different person than us with his own personality, culture, worldview and he's facing various situations and adventure. It's fun to see how it goes with him as well as his interactions with other characters. Same thing with Doctor Who, Captain Picard, etc. Even future humans, can be viewed that way (not always. It depends on the author and story lines).

This is what Star Trek and to some extent Stargate and Doctor Who are for me. It's very stimulating and entertaining that way. There's different levels. Society, personality, culture, worldviews, etc. This is what I find back in Orville and didn't see yet in Star Trek Discovery. The spirit of adventure of discovering new things.

But, as I said in the other post. I don't only watch sci-fi and historical drama. I like many kind of TV shows, movies and entertainment. I don't care if they want to turn Star Trek into an action TV shows without the characters facing various moral/ethical dilemmas. Without seeking new life and civilizations or having/encountering new technologies. But I still feel it's what made Star Trek unique for me.

It's strange because coming back to this forum I realized I didn't even watched the latest Star Trek movies. Darkness and Beyond (I had to google their names!). It's strange because, I think the first movie was quite good. Not great but I was glad to have watched it. I had a fun time. But when Darkness and Beyond came (I didn't realize there was 2 new Star Trek movies already!), I told myself I would watch them later on but then it never came to it. Like I do for many movies and tv shows. If you see my point here; I wasn't mad because the first Star Trek movie (2009) was bad or not like the other Star Trek. It could have been bad but it turned out to be a good action movie. I just knew when a new Star Trek movie came out, it would be more of the same. The trailers and reviews pointed in that direction (for the little I saw). An action movie (based on the Star Trek world). It's ok, but there's plenty of blockbuster action movies all summer and the Star Trek ones didn't feel like any different for me.

But now for Discovery, I'm quite happy about it with only a few episodes in. Thus far, it's just an action movie set in the Star Trek world, but it's fun. The dialogue was good, the special effects, spectacular (especially the space exploration part). The exploded prison cell scene was beautiful as were the space walks and battles. It put some awe back into space exploration. I liked the relationship between Michael and the captain (but now she's gone), it was good. It's a bit too early to see how much and how long I will watch it. Who knows, maybe it will become one of my favorite tv series, but I doubt it. Still I watched and enjoyed Dark Matter even if it didn't turn into my top 10 tv series of all times. I'm still disappointed to see Dark Matter go (it was finally cancelled).

Orville, in my opinion, have all the elements to make it great. It's very unique in the world of television at the moment and I'm enjoying every moment of it. I hope it last for many seasons. I place it in the same category (as type of TV shows) as Star Trek, Stargate (esp. SG1) and Doctor who. I wonder what every new episodes will be about and can't wait for the next one!
 
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I really love The Orville, because its funny and its Treck, and for me even more than Discovery is. For me, Discovery made too many things that dont really match up with my idea of what Star Trek should be. That includes all pre-Picard Star Trek movies, its just named sci-fi bull. Fast MTV like action stuff, using the names of Star Trek, but in my opinion making Star Trek sci-fi stuff for dummies.
Now all that The Orville needs, are some great guest appearances from some of the actors of previous ST series, and Discovery would have lost completely.
 
I think The Orville is awful. The comedy isn't working, plots are predictable... acting is mediocre at best.
 
As you said, its your opinion. That doesnt mean its bad for everyone. Discovery's acting for me is nothing more than mediocre, at best. And the only good actor in there, James Frain, it seems was finally cut of his awesome English accent. I never thought he would go that far.
 
As you said, its your opinion. That doesnt mean its bad for everyone. Discovery's acting for me is nothing more than mediocre, at best. And the only good actor in there, James Frain, it seems was finally cut of his awesome English accent. I never thought he would go that far.

Did you watch episode 3 of Discovery? I found it to be a big improvement. Still not perfect but much better.
 
Well I wait every Thursday instead every Sunday ...if you know what I mean.

I like them both, but Star Trek goes dark and grim ... and Orville goes simple and fun.

I still watching Discovery, hoping that finally can fly.... but Orville has reach my heart very, very quickly.

Orville 4 / Discovery 0
 
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