News Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville

[Jayson1]

LOLWUT?!?

You didn't know about the conspiracies? There are many of them, so many they got to all be true! For example did you know that Brannon Braga took the job on "Orville" to bring down Fuller because he wasn't about to let a former underling out Trek him. In fact it was some of the behind the scene stuff Fuller found out about "Orville" that really was the reason he left that show. He knew he couldn't compete so he bailed.

Also did you know that reason the robot on "Orville" is bigger than the robot on "Discovery" is because of the male's somewhat childish need to always measure things in terms of who has the bigger thingy. Both shows were planning on robots but when McFarlane found out the size of the "Discovery" robot he demanded a bigger robot for his show.

Jason

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Sometimes a rocket ship is just a rocket ship. [/Counselor Troi]

 

[slappy]

I don't think that's a fair assessment at all. I think very few people, including the professional critics, wanted a Trek take down or can't handle a loving homage. Some don't see it as a loving homage and I can see why they may not see it that way, and that's fine. But that doesn't mean they "can't handle it."

What do you see it as? I can't understand how anybody who has watched Star Trek and watched The Orville can see it as anything other than an homage. That long, zooming, ship-gazing space dock scene was pure Trek love. I don't know where people are coming from, I'm just speculating. But the tone seemed pretty consistent to me. Did they land all their jokes? Well no, who does? But it seemed pretty clear they were going for "funny TNG".

 

[tharpdevenport]

I just figured out another conspiracy. The ex-wife is caught in bed with a blue alien. Everyone knows about how blue "Discovery" is with the uniforms and look. This was a clear attempt to stick it to "Discovery." In this show the sexy first officer chooses Orville and Seth Macfarlane over the blue alien who is a methphor for "Discovery." How have we not noticed this so far?

Jason

No, no, it's really purple. ;-)

That's the conspiracy...

 

[Mr. Adventure]

About that. Did that actually happen in the final aired episode (if so, does anybody have two scenes for comparison), or is it just different versions of the makeup at different stages of production?

If this is truly an homage to Trek they'll have to write an episode to explain this and try to make it canon.

 

[Sophie74656]

If this is truly an homage to Trek they'll have to write an episode to explain this and try to make it canon.

They don't talk about it

 

[KirkusOveractus]

They don't talk about it

Maybe the Krill spy on Epsilon II becomes a wanted man, starts doing rogue genetic experiments, and develops a virus which removes the eyebrows from the Xelayans?

 

[tharpdevenport]

There are secretly two Alara's on the Orville, with one hiding away who snuck out on the shuttle and was on the planet, then got back to the shuttle secretly while the Krill were all concentrated on what they thought was the full away team. ;-)

She has eyebrows.

 

[KirkusOveractus]

The shuttle gets coated in an orange powder from a sudden rock slide on a planet, piloted by Alara. It lands on Orville, and when the landing party (yes, I love they are using that term!) leaves the shuttle bay, another shuttle lands, with a meaner Alara.

She can be identified by having eyebrows. I repeat. She can be identified...by...having eyebrows!

 

[tharpdevenport]

You know, that should become a running gag in the series. They should even reference it.

Ed: "Wait -- what happened to you eyebrows?"
Alara: "What?"
Ed: "I swear you had eyebrows."

 

[Skywalker]

I actually think I'd rather have Patrick Stewart appear as a high-ranking admiral, enjoying his comfortable life and more important work on Earth. "Why would I have refused the promotion? You think I want to waste my entire career sitting around on a cold, cramped starship out on the ass-end of the universe?"

 

[Mudd]

Stewart should play Cary Fudd, a ruthless con artist and sybaritic sleazebag who runs afoul of the Orville.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I actually think I'd rather have Patrick Stewart appear as a high-ranking admiral, enjoying his comfortable life and more important work on Earth. "Why would I have refused the promotion? You think I want to waste my entire career sitting around on a cold, cramped starship out on the ass-end of the universe?"

And of course, he was a famous starship captain whom McFarlane's character absolutely worships. And Stewart isn't impressed.

 

[KirkusOveractus]

And of course, he's was a famous starship captain whom McFarlane's character absolutely worships. And Stewart isn't impressed.

Stewart's character had a career that was required reading at the Academy (isn't it always?) but it turns out he made most of it up (almost like Gilderoy Lockhart).

 

[tharpdevenport]

And he's married to Gates.

Or depending on how cruel you want to be, Stewart's character can be a flaming homosexual, and Will Weaton is his "partner".

 

[dahj]

The eyebrow thing is clearly another TNG hommage.

Just like Riker "grew the beard" she's gonna "grow the eyebrows"

 

[137th Gebirg]

I wonder if MacFarlane secretly lurks around here. He could seriously get some really good and funny material from this thread.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I wonder if MacFarlane secretly lurks around here.

I've been wondering the same thing.

 

[KirkusOveractus]

If he did, he'd have had Bortus shouting in the pilot episode.

 

[kirk55555]

Fuck reviews.

1. I find reviews helpful, and very rarely disagree with terrible reviews if I end up watching something that got terrible reviews

2. I watched the first episode of Orville despite the reviews, and still agreed with the negative reviews

So, yeah, reviews are fine. Its up to an individual to decide how they want to interpret them and how much weight they will put on them, obviously.

To each their own, right? But I've learned from many a show to never one and done something. I would have missed out on so many great shows if I let their not so great pilots bum me out. I usually try to give it three or four episodes.

Well, unless episode 2 or 3 drop Macfarlane's character, promote the ex-wife character to captain and removes all the lame humor I seriously doubt giving the show any more chances will help. Plus, Episode 3 seems like its going to be a shitshow on par with Family Guy's horrible attempt at a domestic violence episode.

On Rotten Tomatoes, it is running about 90% positive among viewers.

And the viewer reviews on things like the Transformers movies and Batman v Superman were much higher then the critics. I sided with the critics in those instances, too. Non-critics who post on RT are usually only people who are very motivated one way or another to bother to rate something on an online site, so aren't as trustworthy in my opinion, at least when trying to decide the overall reaction for a show. Same with people reviewing the ST ripoff on a Star Trek board. Everyone, professional or not, has biases while reviewing something based on their own personal likes and dislikes, but I still take critic reviews over the average person, at least when we're talking about something like Rottentomatoes.

Then I guess you haven't read this thread (but I don't blame you if you haven't) because the majority of the people here have at least enjoyed it.

Like I said above, people on this board I definitely don't trust. The little bit of this show that isn't terrible seems to be made specifically for the kinds of people who would post on a Trek forum (myself included, the sci fi elements unconnected to the story on Orville were pretty cool). I'd expect a much higher percentage of people to like it on TrekBBS then in the general audience just based on the subject matter.