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News Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville

So ... why are there seatbelts? Seatbelts mean no inertial dampeners, so something has to restrain you. Yet the Orville goes at speeds nobody could take even with seatbelts, so there has to be something that it dampening the inertial forces.

Inertial dampeners are needed when the ship goes to ludicurious speed. Not sure if Orville has that.
 
I don't think there's much chance that Discovery will fail commercially or that it won't be widely embraced by the Trek fan base. Trek fans are like American Republicans in that old political remark: eventually they fall in line.
 
Agreed. As I stated before, I think Discovery and Orville are very different shows that are not muturally exclusive in their appeal. Discovery looks to be a serious, dark, exciting drama while Orville is a light hearted, fun show. If you want "serious Star Trek" watch Discovery and if you want "fun Star Trek", watch Orville. It's actually kinda perfect.

I'd even say it's beneficial for the franchise overall.

If there wasn't an Orville and STD failed, we probably wouldn't see another Star Trek on TV for a decade.

If Orville is a reasonable success and STD fails, you can bet they'd make another ST show, lighter in tone.

Heck, if it's a hit, they might make a new, lighter toned ST show regardless of how STD does.
 
I am embracing Discovery already. Will definitely watch the first episode on CBS. And if I like it then I guess I have to pony up and subscribe to that all access crap. What are the chances of me not liking it? Not good. I have liked all the Trek series so far, and the clips from this one look good.

I will continue to watch Orville too. It's funny and entertaining which is more than I can say for those shows on Syfy.
 
So this is a weird first post but after reading through the entire thread, I felt compelled to defend one of the "lowbrow" jokes.

Namely, the dog licking itself gag. Yes, the dog licking its crotch in itself is just kind of vulgar. But I don't think that's really the joke.

The joke is making fun of the trope of all communication being in video on TNG-era Trek. Every time you contact someone, they're in a perfectly framed shot, and if anything is going on in the background, it's some convenient setup to demonstrate the setting.

Well, that's not really what it would be like, would it? Things like what we saw, i.e. something mundane and inappropriate, would pop up in the background quite often. Someone's kid runs in, a dog licks itself, etc. It would be rather weird if every scientist and civilian was always perfectly composited as if a crew had set the shot up for a cable news talking head segment.

Anyway, that's what I got from that scene, and that's what I found amusing about it, not "ha, look at the dog lick it's crotch!".
 
I don't think there's much chance that Discovery will fail commercially or that it won't be widely embraced by the Trek fan base. Trek fans are like American Republicans in that old political remark: eventually they fall in line.

Maybe, maybe not.

The entertainment world is completely different from 10 or even just 5 years ago.

Unlike when Enterprise was out, ST fans today have hundreds of hours of SciFi and Star Trek available inexpensively (or free) online.

And sure, disaffected Trek fans might grudgingly tune in, but what if they do it in a way (whether on purpose or not) so that CBS doesn't make a dime?

Back in the day, the licensees could always count on DVD sales and merchandising to make up for some of those losses. Today the DVD market had cratered, and the licensees aren't exactly lining up for STD in huge numbers.

Personally I remember when Stargate Universe came out, and there was a similar "whatever, the fans may be angry, but they'll watch it anyways"-attitude from the producers of SGU. And that ended up as a monumental flop.
 
Which is fine. The point is you have a diverse selection of shows to choose from. No one is saying you have to watch all of them and the same is true for space-faring shows.

And I think that's a good thing. Veriety is a good thing.
 
Maybe, maybe not.

The entertainment world is completely different from 10 or even just 5 years ago.

Unlike when Enterprise was out, ST fans today have hundreds of hours of SciFi and Star Trek available inexpensively (or free) online.

They have no new live action available anywhere except in the form of a movie from Paramount every couple of years.

Personally I remember when Stargate Universe came out, and there was a similar "whatever, the fans may be angry, but they'll watch it anyways"-attitude from the producers of SGU. And that ended up as a monumental flop.

Yes, and after talking about how much the entertainment world has changed you reach back for an example to a TV series that was entirely dependent on the now nearly-obsolete broadcast model.

Discovery is a streaming series that's already in the black for the first year. You'll probably never have any clear idea how many people are watching it, because neither CBS or Netflix are likely to ever share those numbers in any kind of meaningful format beyond the occasional publicity blast.

They will get more than enough subscriptions based on offering new Star Trek to make it worth their while for at least two or three seasons.
 
Yeah, there was even a poster over in the Discovery forum here who got pissy when someone else mentioned liking The Orville. I don't get that kind of an attitude

You got pissy literally a few days ago about me liking the DC movies :p
 
So this is a weird first post but after reading through the entire thread, I felt compelled to defend one of the "lowbrow" jokes.

Namely, the dog licking itself gag. Yes, the dog licking its crotch in itself is just kind of vulgar. But I don't think that's really the joke.

The joke is making fun of the trope of all communication being in video on TNG-era Trek. Every time you contact someone, they're in a perfectly framed shot, and if anything is going on in the background, it's some convenient setup to demonstrate the setting.

Well, that's not really what it would be like, would it? Things like what we saw, i.e. something mundane and inappropriate, would pop up in the background quite often. Someone's kid runs in, a dog licks itself, etc. It would be rather weird if every scientist and civilian was always perfectly composited as if a crew had set the shot up for a cable news talking head segment.

Anyway, that's what I got from that scene, and that's what I found amusing about it, not "ha, look at the dog lick it's crotch!".
I'd give real money if an evil alien commander was threatening the crew on the viewscreen in a future episode and his kids busted in like this, showing that he's just been sitting at home the whole time. Add the mother coming in to grab them with some tentacles or something and that's golden.

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It suggested that he'd already made a motivated search.
Maybe so, but I just thought he was super-efficient at space Googling.

Which, as an aside, raises an issue that's rarely if ever been addressed, even though it happens all the time. If the computers on Star Trek are capable of listening to and understanding everything that's being said, which honestly they seem to be doing all the time (else how could the computer know it's being addressed), then it would follow that a running transcript of everything that's being said aloud on the bridge could potentially be available at the command consoles. Selecting parts of that transcript could enable rapid processing of commands.

Example: Picard orders the ship to go to a certain random star system. How many button pushes should it take to enter that? Sometimes it looked like only a few taps. How is that possible? Possible answer: the helmsman just taps on the transcript line in the context of "set destination" which, if it's a current statement (it is, since Picard just said it), is right there at or near the end of the queue. So, two taps would do it, to enter the destination, no matter what Picard has said.

:shrug:
 
...and the licensees aren't exactly lining up for STD in huge numbers.

I keep hearing this, but it makes me think people are unaware of Discovery's merchandising push. We are getting novels, comics, props next year and I believe we're getting action figures. Eaglemoss is going to do miniatures.


What else is really needed?
 
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