THE ORVILLE Season Two...
- Thread starter Mudd
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Except, it doesn't, at least not nearly as frequently as DSC gets brought up in Orville threads. And I'll tell you something else I've noticed, when DSC is brought up in Orville threads, it is almost always by Orville fans. On the rare occasions when The Orville gets mentioned in the DSC forum, it is also by Orville fans.Just like The Orville gets brought up in DSC threads.
And although some Orville fans remind me of L.A. Clippers' "fans", meaning, not really Clippers fans, just Laker haters
, I do think the show has loyal fans here. But by the same token I also believe that on this site at least, there is much greater interest in DSC than The Orville. This thread is partial proof of that.
You're not saying any of this happened on DSC, right?
Anyway, no, none of the things you describe above is nearly as goofy and just plain wacky as a 25th century starship showing an episode of a centuries old sitcom while the bridge crew (including the captain and 1st officer) sits around watching. This is the kind of thing that makes the Orville appear to be a parody.
There is NO equivalent on any Trek episode. You just know that this was one of Seth's episodes because it reflects his writing style. C'mon, you guys may have liked this bit and laughed, but I have a hard time believing that you're serious about trying to frame it as "routine", or something similar to what Trek has done.
Just think, in a TNG episode if the crew had been shown sitting on the bridge watching centuries old TV show like I Love Lucy. Imagine Picard, Kirk, Sisko, doing this. You can't, can you?
This was the epitome of goofiness and an example of one of The Orville's real drawbacks as a show. They have a propensity for going after cheap laughs at the cost of gravitas and credibility, etc. I hope the more experienced writers on the staff, can talk Seth into moving the show further away from the broad pie-in-the-face, fart and dick, humor of season 1 and move it closer to light humor and better drama. That is what The Orville needs to copy from TNG.
Star Trek spirit-humanity survives past nuclear annihilation and learns to work together in some capacity. Action/adventure with some optimism thrown in as part of it.
And although some Orville fans remind me of L.A. Clippers' "fans", meaning, not really Clippers fans, just Laker haters
People not from Southern California probably don't get that joke, but you just described my cousin to a T.
Especially in an age where computers do 99% of the routine work.
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Oh, well in that case, it's a conspiracy. We're all secretly attempting to undermine the goodness of Star Trek, and promote the false godhood of The Orville.Except, it doesn't, at least not nearly as frequently as DSC gets brought up in Orville threads. And I'll tell you something else I've noticed, when DSC is brought up in Orville threads, it is almost always by Orville fans. On the rare occasions when The Orville gets mentioned in the DSC forum, it is also by Orville fans.
And although some Orville fans remind me of L.A. Clippers' "fans", meaning, not really Clippers fans, just Laker haters
Fair enough, some STD fans remind me of Redskins fans - the franchise generally sucks, hasn't been good for quite a while and is owned by awful people who are mainly interested in the revenue generated, particularly from branded merchandise. But the season ticket holders just won't...let...GO!
You want Disco specific examples? How about when a man with a criminal record manages to board a ship, take control of its computer systems so that they only recognize his authority, then kills the captain and destroys the ship, and then using stolen time travel technology creates a time loop which resets everything so that he can do this again and again, and his punishment this is being turned over to an arms dealer so that he can marry the dealer's daughter. Oh, let me guess, the fact this is a loveless marriage is somehow a more severe punishment than the life in prison he should be facing?
And hell, this is a series where the lead character was doing life in prison mostly just because she pinched her captain's neck, which counts as mutiny. Of course, we have a captain on this show who murdered his entire crew, admitted to it, and was given a command which gives him carte blanche to pick and choose which orders he wants to follow.
And that's before we get to the finale where the despotic emperor from an alternate universe where everyone is evil and traitorous is given command of the very same ship which entitles the captain to carte blanche and is given official orders to commit genocide. And I can only imagine, with your admitted dislike of dick jokes, the double-dicked Klingon taking a piss couldn't have gone over too well.
Is this really anymore of a stretch then Picard having a thing for novels about a 1940s detective, whom he goes to the holodeck to re-enact? Or Sisko knowing baseball scores and stats going back to the 20th century, even going to the holodeck to re-watch old games going that far back. Hell, baseball apparently stops being a thing in mid-21st century according to Trek, so we have a guy so taken by a sport that hasn't been played in three hundred and thirty years that he even displays a baseball on his desk in his office. Hell, the damn baseball becomes a mantle of leadership for the station's commanding officers which gets honoured even by its alien commanding officers (one of which is the damn enemy).
In fact, every Star Trek character only seems to have an interest in literature from before the twentieth century. What, no one wrote any good books since?
Oh, certainly. The thing to remember is that space travel is going to consist of a lot of boredom. Even at FTL speeds, you're probably looking at a minimum of days to get to your next destination, though it's more likely to take weeks. Constant monotony of staring at your monitors doing nothing is going to do more damage to crew performance. Sure, you can break up the monotony with drills, which is likely done, but occasionally providing entertainment to help liven up a routine and plodding bridge shift will also do wonders for crew morale.
I love Star Trek, I'm sure in time I'll get around to watching the rest of Discovery. But to bang on The Orville because of some silliness is pretty hypocritical. Trek has been chock full of silliness since day one.
Anyone remember Rooster Man from "The Cage"?
Anyone remember Rooster Man from "The Cage"?
That's a Xindi-Avian, bro!
Hell, you want silliness in Star Trek, look no further than the fact that an armed uniformed service with rank structure and martial discipline and is responsible for fighting wars and defending its nation state is somehow not a military.
Or my favourite, the Orion Syndicate actually calls itself a crime syndicate, but Starfleet claims not to be military. In the Trek universe, criminals are honest about themselves, but the military is in denial about itself.
I certainly would not argue against that, nor that Trek somehow has a monopoly on it. Just a matter of world building. I know that optimism is one of the key components, but I think that gets overblown in Star Trek circles. It isn't just optimism that humanity survived but that they have evolved beyond conflict over differences. Which isn't consistent across the board for Star Trek, so I don't know if any one thing can be said to be "Star Trek."
This is the reason I love The Orville. Maybe it's not original, but Star Trek never asked if you can drink your beverage on the bridge. The closest thing we saw to that was Sulu getting his Tea or Neelix coming in with snacks. In the case of Neelix, Janeway was annoyed when he did that. On the Orville, it just feels common place, like you're sitting at a station for hours on end (And just think what happens off screen on a normal day) and you're bored. Why not eat or drink on the bridge. Why not have gags on the bridge to pass the time. Heck, some of my favorite moments in DS9 was when the crew of the defiant was just talking about stuff of the day, or how Worf smelled like Lilac. Yeah it's not original, but it's actual character building and making the crew feel likeable and relatable.
There was none of that in Discovery, and for the most part, Star Trek does have a tendency to take itself too seriously. That's where Orville succeeds. It allows the characters moments of levity, especially in tense situations.
As for Orville vs. Discovery, I just think it's inevitable that those comparisons would be made in either thread, mainly because they are on at the same time. I appreciate the idea that there is room for both shows. We need more variety anyway, considering a lot of what comes out of sci fi these days feels like the same kind of thing.
I really, really hope The Orville doesn't lose scenes like that, that would be the biggest mistake they could make. The scenes like that are the thing that makes The Orville the most unique, and getting rid of that would turn it into just another Trek style sci-fi show.
I was trying to think of when in Discovery and I guess Tilly and Stamets in the first half of the season. I'll grant it that but on a whole Discovery is a very serious show. I hope in season 2 we do get to see the crew with thier hair down more.
And their anger. 
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