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News Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville

Nerys Myk said:
I've got no problem with either. We still talk about Shakespeare and he's been dead 400 years. Over half a Millenium by Trek's time frame.

Yeah there are echos the Cage and the TZ episode, so what? A lot of fiction (I'd dare say most) is derivative. Star Trek more so than others. Even that Shakespeare guy cribbed a lot of his plots. If the execution is original I don't see the problem.
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Yeah, we talk about Shakespeare. Name any other 16th century entertainer that you can expect other people who aren't close friends or part of a hobby group will have heard about. Maybe in 400 years some of current pop culture will be recognized. But do you think anybody who is really into ancient pop culture would just bring it up in a crowd of casual work acquaintances and assume they don't need to explain themselves?

Can we stop pretending this isn't a comedy after the reality TV show thing?

Yeah, that's a hilarious punchline. If the show is a comedy. :)
 
Now that I think about it, did Star Trek never do this story in all of it's series? Is that possible?
 
JirinPanthosa said:
Yeah, we talk about Shakespeare, that's not the same thing as talking about Kermit and Dora the Explorer. Shakespeare isn't exactly children's pop culture. And even if people in 400 years know what Dora The Explorer is, you think it'd be their goto reference in a crowd of work acquaintances?
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It's a TV show, the audience got the reference. That matters more.
 
I enjoyed the "alien zoo" storyline - this show can shift gears from humor to tension in a moment.

McFarlane's favored TV sf tropes seem more from the 60s than the 90s. A little surprising given his age.
 
Ahh yes, I remember that one. First new Simpsons episode I've seen in probably 20 years. I used to love this show. Oh well. TV, Off!
 
Serveaux said:
I enjoyed the "alien zoo" storyline - this show can shift gears from humor to tension in a moment.

McFarlane's favored TV sf tropes seem more from the 60s than the 90s. A little surprising given his age.
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I watched a lot of stuff made "before my time" as kid. Bob Hope was favorite. I wonder if kids today have that experience?
 
I was busy watching Outlander o I missed that The Orville started late so I only got half the episode. It's a good thing that they're repeating The Orville at 8. I really liked what i saw so far. It's even funnier than the pilot.
 
Serveaux said:
I enjoyed the "alien zoo" storyline - this show can shift gears from humor to tension in a moment.

McFarlane's favored TV sf tropes seem more from the 60s than the 90s. A little surprising given his age.
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He does sing showtunes/standards and based Stewie on Rex Harrison. :)
 
Episode 2 pros: While co-opted, some of the premises are interesting, Bortus' subplot, the zoo, rookie in command etc... The FX quality is pretty good imho, as is makeup (For what it is) Cool cameos playing McFarlane's parents (I think we can expect lots of other cool cameos). Some neat pop culture references (some of them anyway)

Episode 2 cons: The comic delivery still isn't landing, 2 hours in, especially the snark from the pilot/copilot. The relationship stuff slams the breaks on the whole episode, like a bottomless tar pit. The "Inspirational" moments are forced, rushed & play very fake & shallow. The ending was just kind of dumb, because it was such a cheap gag, which is fine if that's what you want, but don't play me a whole episode where we're supposed to invest in these characters as more than just parodies, only to have the whole episode turn out to be a lame yuck. I still don't know what they expect me to think this show is, & while I have no problem with casual drug use, it seems really out of place here. I feel like it was done as humor, but it instead came off pretty sad. I still don't like McFarlane in this
 
I noticed just in time that my DVR had recorded the end of the Cowboys football game instead of Orville, so immediately recorded the next program. My comment about the second episode:

The story felt very Star Trek like but the alien zoo thing reminded me of a Lost in Space episode.

Not sure about eyebrows on Alara, I think I liked it better before. But no big deal, I remember Mr Spock's eyebrows changed too between the 2 pilots and the series.

The Tom Paris dude did a good job of directing. The kasidy Yates actress is really good as the doctor.

The opening credits sequence reminded me of Voyager.

Not sure if I should admit this, but I recognized the reality clip shown at the zoo. It was from Real Housewives of New Jersy. I owe that to my wife who watches all the real housewives shows religiously.

If they have a database of old TV shows then they have all the Trek episodes too (including Discovery). but it probably does not include The Orville.

Was the dude calling Alara "kid" the chief engineer?
 
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the episode order is slightly jumbled.

That was episode 3, from the production count.

Episode 4 (airdate) is episode 2 (production order), where they may show us Bortus getting jiggy, Alara befriending Kelly, and some bugger fixing the damage to the engines from the pilot.
 
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I wonder if tonight's was one of the three episodes shown in advance to critics?

There are several shots in the promotional spots that I bet belong to 102.
 
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JirinPanthosa said:
Yeah, we talk about Shakespeare. Name any other 16th century entertainer that you can expect other people who aren't close friends or part of a hobby group will have heard about. Maybe in 400 years some of current pop culture will be recognized. But do you think anybody who is really into ancient pop culture would just bring it up in a crowd of casual work acquaintances and assume they don't need to explain themselves?
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We still know Shakespeare because we keep adapting his work, remakes if you will. Now I haven't done any research on this but, it feels like the percentage of media that are remakes rather than original creations has been gradually increasing over the years. Even if that isn't true it feels true enough that we can believe that it's likely that the Muppets and Does the Explorer have had recent adaptations in the Orville universe.
 
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