Shuttle Pod 64 – The Shuttle Pod Crew Re-Watches The First Season Of The Orville
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TrekMovie’s adopted show, The Orville, is about to return for a second season on December 30. Before the new season starts, Brian, Jared, Kayla, and Matt take a look back at the first season.
Multiple Berman-era Star Trek veterans are involved in writing, producing, and directing on the show. Not to mention that The Orville is a clear homage to TNG-style Trek both visually, and in much of the plot themes and episodic nature of the show.
Jonathan Frakes on the set of The Orville Season 1
Listen along as the team delves into the characters, as well as how they feel the show handled the mixture of social commentary, sci-fi themes, and comedy. The crew wraps up the podcast by talking about the standout episodes of the first season.
Kelly fixes the gash on an alien girl’s head in “Mad Idolatry”
Whenever MacFarlane doesn’t write it, it is sometimes… pretty okay. I appreciate his taste in science fiction and science education and how he uses his clout to get shows made and good people employed in them, and he’s a perfectly funny person in certain situations, but he’s totally out of his league tackling allegorical storytelling and morality plays with any real deft. His scripts are trite and clumsy and his acting is not up to the challenge he sets for himself.
@Ian — make no mistake, MacFarlane is involved in every script, even if he didn’t write them.
He’s smart enough to choose and recognize the strengths of his collaborators. That’s no small thing. I still say he’s out of his depth as a writer and certainly as an actor, but he’s built a very strong team.
I think the show would be better if McFarlane writes himself out of the show and hires a new lead for the show.
I’d like to see what would happen if Family Guy got canceled and MacFarlane could dedicate even more time and effort to The Orville.
FYI: He’s not the showrunner for Family Guy, he hasn’t been since 2010. MacFarlane’s writing parter Alec Sulkin runs FG these days.
https://old.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/70bf9u/i_am_seth_macfarlane_back_for_a_new_and_better_go/dn1v4mi/
The Orville is one of his passion projects, along with his singing career, and producing Cosmos, and other things.
@Ian — my point is, given your viewpoint, the worst attributes of scripts he didn’t write, likely come from him. His team is comprised primarily of TNG vets, so it’s not like Macfarlane really built anything. If anything, he’s the guy in the room likely saying, “I like it, but can we make a fart joke out of it?” I suspect there’s also a fair deal of giving his character more importance, where he feels margininalized in a story. This is all idle speculation of course, but it’s been published that his schedule was planned around writing the scripts in a block, then producing/acting in them later — in other words, MacFalane doesn’t have time to sit in the writers room parsing every line with the TNG veteran writers staff put together by Braga while shooting, so they make time for him to be able to do it so he can focus on it full time, then focus on the producing/acting full time. If he just left it to Braga, they could keep a regular seasonal schedule.
Bleah.
I don’t know…he brought his pal Brannon Braga on to the show — and Braga’s writing is just as crummy as it was during the Voyager/Enterprise days.
And yet the show is far better than that POS that CBS calls Discovery!
*Yawn* Framing your personal preferences as declarations does not, in fact, make them true.
Agree 100%.
It’s a tribute to TNG and the fans’ ongoing desire for more TNG-style stories that this ‘homage’ draws as much attention as it does. Aspects of ‘The Orville’ range in quality from almost great to downright awful (the disrespect for Claire’s abilities as a doctor and mother, Isaac’s character as a whole, the infantile humor.) I hope it improves, but… Again, what’s needed is new Trek, not this drek.
See, and I’m NOT a fan of TNG, but do like ORVILLE, because it has the TOS feel, even if the look of the lighting is TNG-horrid.
Geez. Aside from the essential “strange new worlds” premise, I can’t think of a single way that The Orville resembles TOS at all — it’s a TNG knockoff, pure and simple, with an inferior lead actor, cheesier production design, and often infantile humor. Even MacFarlane has acknowledged the debt to TNG, so why anyone would choose to deny that I can’t imagine.
Informality. TNG seems stiff, like it is FORBIDDEN PLANET THE NEXT GENERATION (tho FP does have some nice Bones/Kirk stuff in a cut scene.)
To me, there’s a lived-in quality to the good moments in TOS that ORVILLE touches, whereas it is only the exceptional rare TNG moment that works that way (and those DO resonate, just because they don’t happen often, like Riker/Data at end of LEGACY, Riker/Worf in the single-sex episode (outcast?) and Picard joining the card game at the end of the series.)
The one TNG good thing that ORVILLE has cast-wise is Bortus; Worf was what I liked best about season 1 and Bortus is (EASILY) what I like most about ORVILLE thus far … though elevator guy may be the new Kevin Riley, squared.
Was fairly disappointed with the opener, though leveraging off TREK TOS and TNG season2 openers by tickling AMOK TIME with urine and a quasi-Guinan intro’d in THE CHILD was a neat little toss to us who recognize such things.
There was one exterior shot of the ORVILLE where they managed to make it look like a physical model to the point that the windows resembled mailing labels, which is a slip-back to CG from VOYAGER era. I suppose it could have been a new model shot (they only shot a few days with the model s1, and the rest was CG), but I would figure the windows would have turned out better and more luminous if they had.)
They managed to improve the little security girl’s look a lot, to the point that I’m not bothered looking at her, but they’ve managed to disimprove the Exec’s look, to the point that I wish she wasn’t even there (have been rewatching THAT 70S SHOW recently, and it is like they took Laura Prepon and wrecked her to create this Pallicki woman.) And Seth has got a look that seems to bloat from shot to shot. My wife thinks it is fillers, I was guessing booze, but maybe he is just sick or tired? Teacher’s hair of all things drove me crazy, distracting and obnoxious, which seems like a lot of wordage to spend on hair, considering i don’t usually notice that kind of thing — maybe this show would be better in SD? (now that’s an idea — I think I’ll watch the next ep on the duplicate channel that isn’t HD and see if it looks better.
As always … needed more Bortus!!!!!
Opener was utter crap
Agree to a point. Crap is a bit harsh but it certainly was not good. That was an episode that could have been saved by more jokes, that’s for sure. And if there were any doubts it’s a TNG homage, they went out the window with the kids and school on board the ship. A concept I never felt good about. On TNG or on Orville.
Having kids on the ship in TNG is something I had problems with before TNG even aired, as soon as I read about the notion. Then I felt that if you had to stick with that idea, you had to explore the notion properly … which in my mind then (and now) meant you had to deal with a kid dying on that ship, and showing the crew process that and move forward with the memory of that event in mind and still commit to retaining the notion (or use that event to dispense with it.)
Ditto for the ‘warp drive is bad for space’ thing … if you’re going to go there, do it right, and show consequences, don’t just pat yourself on the back for toying with it and then largely ignore it.
As for the more jokes angle … Bortus works for comedy or drama, which again to me suggests you don’t treat his story like a c-plot runner, you get some juice out of it. Sometimes I think Seth is flirting with MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING with all the romance type stuff, but he doesn’t go balls-deep with the idea, though I keep thinking the way they kept trotting out ‘you must remember this’ like clockwork certainly suggests somebody was thinking about such things.
It really felt disconnected, almost like one of those movies like EXTREME PREJUDICE where they combined two wholly separate scripts together with predictably jumbled results (SILENT RUNNING is apparently a meshing of THREE separate scripts, but since the director is the guy who did the uncredited rewrite that made it into what he shot, that still somehow works, despite a lot of wonkiness in the storytelling. Trumbull talked about his original idea for that movie in FANTASTIC FILMS magazine and it sounds a lot better than what we got, even though I like the movie enough to have seen it a couple dozen times by now.)
The ‘kids on a sharship’ thing irritated me to no end back in ’87. The good news was they largely ignored the kids presence as the show moved on. To me it seemed like an amazingly irresponsible thing to do. The only way around such a thing is if the ship separates the saucer every time it heads to investigate an anomaly or goes anywhere near some enemy territory. Leave the kids and families behind. Go do your thing, then return and collect them. Which then becomes super inefficient. It seems they learned their lesson and there have been no kids seen on the ‘E’-E. Thank God.
In my pitch, I had Picard getting a little freaked out and popping the top (saucer sepping) when it wasn’t really necessary, as a kind of kneejerk defensive response to their having lost a kid due to an accident. Had no idea that by the time I’d pitch, that they would have already done their last series sep (BOBWpt2)
Lots of fans are gushing calling The Orville the second coming of TNG. I’ve always felt it was more like Voyager (with an occasional TOS episode here and there). It’s comfort TV but not nearly as intelligent as it wants to be.
Not sure where the criticism of Issac comes from. He’s essentially a DATA clone. If one liked DATA is seems reasonable they would like Issac as well unless the idea of copying the DATA character is what turns them off. If that is the case such folks ought to avoid Orville completely as it is quite obviously a TNG “homage”.
I really think they need to do something deeper and twisted with Isaac, like finding out that his observation of humanity is going to fit into a decision on the part of his race to limit humanity to Earth or otherwise corral these ‘wild child’ folks.
I also think that at some point you should see beneath his face (wonder if this dates back to ‘THE BLACK HOLE’) and get some reveal that is the CG equivalent to a medusa, something utterly horrifying/revulting, a look that can lean off the ‘is there in truth no beauty’ issue … OR it could hint at the kinds of atrocities his folks can carry out in the name of a new order for the galaxy. Y’know, like his people are the Borg, but the Borg thinking they are like Alexander, a civilizing influence on the universe.
I know, I’m imagining a different show. Can’t help myself.
I thought that since he is from a civilization of sentient machines that if you remove the mask he would just look like C3P0 from Phantom Menace. Also I would hope there are not sinister ulterior motives on behalf of Issac’s people. To me the show is better being light and that would just be far too dark a thing. Especially since Issac has been largely used for comedy relief.
The best Star Trek show last year was The Orville, not Discovery.
I think most people criticize MacFarlane for having too much lowbrow humor in his shows. While this might be correct in some sense, I believe that in comedy there is a place for lowbrow, less PC approach so as long as he doesn’t go overboard with them I don’t find his comedy to be problematic. I think what he is trying to achieve with this show is admirable in a sense so people need to show a little bit more respect to it because it has never been easy to try to mix serious science fiction with comedy.
There is absolutely a place for low brow comedy. Always has been. It’s not for everyone, and personally I don’t want it in my sci-fi, which is one reason why I don’t watch The Orville, but I think it’s unfair for people to criticize the style as a valid form of entertainment.
Slapstick/low-brow/vulgar comedy has been around as long as humans have had humor, and appreciated by people from all walks of life, all levels of society.
Low-brow comedy has been done in science fiction before (Red Dwarf) and currently (Rick & Morty). But both those shows strike out on their own ground, do new things, and are much better written than The Orville.
Red Dwarf is a comedy, with no pretense for being anything else. At its best, it is also vastly more clever and funny and weird than MacFarlane’s show could dream of being, at least so far.
I agree, but at its best, Red Dwarf uses science fiction ideas extremely well, and in surprising ways. But they will also blow them up at the end of the episode for a big laugh. I remember the first time I saw an episode that did that, it kinda threw me for a loop (in a good way).
Check out Rick & Morty…equally funny and weird. And smart.
I agree about DWARF using the SF core concepts better than others (TNG just throws the dyson sphere away, which I thought was a crying shame), and I think if the production values were different (as in, not shot-on-tape), I’d probably rewatch the shows a lot more (same goes for BLAKE’S SEVEN, which I loved on first viewing, but have never gotten through all the way again in last 30 years.) I also liked the DWARF modelwork quite a bit, but the only ep I think I’ve seen three or four times was an Ace Rimmer episode.
Red Dwarf lacks a lot of rewatchability for me, as much as I enjoyed it years ago. If I had to figure out why, I’d say because it relies on absurdist humor, which can– for me– lack comedic effect after so many views back in the 90s.
Though on the other hand, Monty Python is still eminently watchable…
I don’t know about Rick & Morty. I saw my first episode last month. There was some clever banter and there were some amusing gags… But there were elements of it that just made it hard to watch.
For me the the combination of lowbrow humor and highbrow concepts simply doesn’t work. YMMV, of course, but that doesn’t mean that such criticism is off-limits, or should be.
Of course the criticism shouldn’t be off limits but I am curious why don’t you think lowbrow humor and highbrow concepts don’t work together? Isn’t this a bit of an elitist point of view. Personally, as long as you don’t go overboard with it, nothing should be off limits in comedy.
My issue is that MacFarlane is out of his depth when he tries to do anything weightier than low brow humor. It’s not that he isn’t smart or is incapable of breaking out of that mould, but he just doesn’t have the knack for making these kinds of stories, certainly not anything that’s more than average Voyager IMO. I think he has blinders on as to what’s real quality sci-fi drama (and probably more than a little bit of an inflated ego about his own acting and writing prowess), he’s happy enough to make trite but comforting allegorical sci-fi because there isn’t any on TV anymore. But even Voyager and Enterprise rose to the occasion and did something more memorable once in awhile.
Big fan of this show. I think most of the comedy works. And the characters are human, a la TOS, and not just standing around talking about how evolved they are.
And, re: the other comments: what disrespect of Clare as a doctor and a mother? Give me a break.
TWICE, they had her say she forgot to bring some of her instruments. As for the kids… my lord, they’re awful. Mom basically yells. Period. Also, she and Yaphit were ‘tricked’ into sex… and there’s been NO discussion since. He’s a sentient blob with human emotions. That’s gotta hurt! No acknowledgment.
Love Penny Johnson, always, but those kids are obnoxious and horrible — two of the worst I’ve seen on TV in ages.
I saw yaphit or somebody of his race in engineering, but didn’t hear Norm’s voice, is he gone because of his talk show?
I can’t imagine he is so busy he can’t find a few hours to come in and record a few lines. I would hope Norm is not gone. Always liked his humor. I’ve seen his stand up and was in stitches. He was also the best Weekend Update anchor SNL ever had.
This is a mildly entertaining, sort of “cute” show. It’s 100% dependent on and derivative of the pace, style, asthetic, and sensibilities of Star Trek: Voyager primarily. Many of the stories were directly derived from Star Trek or other genre stories.
I don’t dislike it. In fact, I watched every episode as it was broadcast. But there’s also absolutely nothing to be passionate about. Nothing worth debating. Nothing worth caring about.
If that’s what people want out of the Trek franchise…I don’t know…I guess I’m lost.
Nail > head! I couldn’t have put it better!
Been waiting a week for a Star Trek article, then this.
What a sad way to spend a week.
^
I love that joke about hailing the ship and Capitan Mercer talking before it’s ready. It PERFECTLY explains why Uhura as the catchphrase of “hailing frequencies, open”
I gave up after 4 episodes, I thought I was going to like this show and hate Disco, I much prefer Disco.
If I had to choose between Orville and DISCO, I’d pick DISCO. Thankfully, I don’t have to choose. Ya, it’s a blatant rip-off of Berman/Braga Trek, but I don’t care.
Well these days you don’t have to choose. You can record/stream both.
Orville is definitely played out more for comedy and daft humor and it depends on what mood your in.
Discovery is more serious as it should be, and it’s official Trek.
And if I could only catch Orville or STD but not both, I would go with Orville. Fortunately I can still watch both but as far as their season 1’s are concerned… Orville’s, with it’s hiccups, was the better opening season by a long shot.
I have chosen Disco, but I think I like what RLM had to say on the comparison. While they didn’t love DSC, they saw more potential in it because it’s more interesting to watch something new and different than a cheap knockoff.
To each their own, I’m glad Orville has found an audience because it’s important to keep the space sci-fi genre alive. If it had failed i’m sure there’d be more than one studio executive saying audiences don’t want shows set in space.
New and different is preferable. But I’d rather have a “GOOD” knockoff than a “terrible” new and different.
Agreed, and precisely why I prefer DSC. Well done “new and different” while Orville is a “meh” knockoff.
I was eluding to STD being new and different but not good. Orville is indeed a knock off (or homage) but it is… Good enough to maintain interest. Which is why IF the choice was one or the the other, I’d go with the higher quality show. Orville.
@ML31: I’m pretty sure he knows what you were eluding to but obviously his opinion of how good or bad Discovery is differs from yours.
Digimon, I am aware of his opinion but he used my reasoning incorrectly. I think we can all agree that weather you liked it or not that STD was different. So if one liked the show, that means they got ‘good’ AND ‘different’. My comment was that I would rather get ‘good’ and ‘same’ over ‘not good’ and ‘different’.
@ML31: He used your reasoning correctly. But since he doesn’t think Discovery is bad he comes to a different conclusion than you. While you have to “settle” for same old with Orville he can enjoy new and different because in his opinion it’s also well done.
Anyway, this discussion is going nowhere. Time to end it.
No, he did not use the reasoning correctly. He agreed that we both prefer a “GOOD” knockoff than a “terrible” new and different. Yet he went on to say that he was happy he got “GOOD” AND new and different. Which is fine, but he said that was WHY when it actually didn’t lead to his conclusion at all weather he enjoyed STD or not.
Well that’s a shame you don’t have to choose considering your choice…
I loved the first season. I was reluctant to give it a chance, but ended up being very glad I did.
Well I think Orville is fun, but I’m not like going out of my way to watch it. When it’s on, it’s on and I like it.
Same way I feel. Nothing to heavily dislike, but also nothing to care about at all.
Which means: still better than Discovery.
I didn’t see the cinematographer credit, did they switch cameraman this season? IMDB doesn’t have s2 credits for camera, but the makeup and photography seems to suggest different minds, or at least, more annoying results.
Marvin Rush shot the episode.
For my money, TNG’s cinematography vastly improved under Rush in season 3. So why does The Orville look like TNG season 1-2?
Last night’s looked more contrasty — in a bad, harsh way, not in the nice-to-look-at way — at times, like when the exec is with the teacher, she just looked weird. Considering the tools available now, that sort of look should only happen when they want it to happen, so I’d say there is a question mark here.
Cheap looking sets and lighting are sometimes used in comedies and lighter fare. I think it’s intentional.
Too many shadows?
IMHO, The Orville works better when it leans towards the comedy side. I’d rather it be a comedy with dramatic elements sprinkled in than a drama with comedic elements sprinkled in. Cupid’s Dagger was one of the better episodes because it played as near flat out comedy. When it leans towards the comedic side, some of the more silly solutions can be taken much easier because we aren’t taking them as seriously. Cupid’s and Krill were the two better episodes of the season. That said, the goofball antics of Maloy and Lamar just don’t work. That is one comedic element that needs to be on a very short leash. It had far too much slack the first season.
Just want to add that last night’s S2 premier was pretty darn boring. In fact, I would go so far as to say it was arguably the worst episode of the entire series thus far. One good joke… Dr. Finn asking Issac if she was a good parent. “No.” (And I like Issac. I know he’s a DATA clone but the concept that he is from a race of cybernetic beings sits much better with me than DATA being a human made android and when Issac gets amusing misunderstandings for some reason they are actually funny. Data was never funny.) The good news is hopefully this will be the season low point and it will only get better.
It was kinda a big yawn. I was waiting for this and looked forward to a new season,but this was just boring. I really hope it gets better as the season goes on. STD better not be this boring when it starts again,lol!
I think you’re right, and I think they should lean more into the comedy, as that’s really what makes it unique, like an American version of Red Dwarf (something RD never was able to pull off despite the presence of Terry Farrell).
Apparently, last night’s episode was meant to be the second aired episode of this season and not the premiere. This would probably explain why it was quieter and more character focused.
yes, they flip-flopped “Primal Urges” and “Ja’loja.” Up until a couple of weeks ago “Primal Urges” was going to be the first episode aired. “Primal Urges” is the episode from season one that was held over and re-worked for season two.
I think they went with “Ja’loja” since it had plot points for most of the main characters, to serve as sort of reintroduction to the crew. For new fans and casual fans who just started to pay attention to The Orville. My guess is they gained quite a few fans via word of mouth throughout 2018.
I saw only a couple of episodes from last season and wasn’t overly impressed, but decided to give it another shot.
I liked this new one. But I’m a sucker for low stakes day in the life stories on a spaceship. And I appreciate a comedy that doesn’t have that cutesy music in the background to tell me I’m supposed to be delighted by every single thing. Looking forward to more.
I was wondering if that was the holdover episode. But episodes like that need the jokes more than any other. It was a surprisingly weak episode overall.
A little side note… Strangely enough, the show was aired on our FOX affiliate at 6pm. An hour before Sunday prime time. But then, it was also aired AGAIN at 8pm. Which ended up being a good thing as there was a glitch and 16 minutes into the show the cable signal got messed up and nothing was recorded on the DVR for 14 minutes. So the 2nd airing came in handy!
Yeah, they aired the episode across the country at the same time, to take advantage of the football lead-in. It was only aired again at 8PM for us on the West Coast since the first showing was early in the evening and there was still all the time in primetime.
I still have to check this out sometime. I do like tuning into Family Guy every now and then and the TNG cast showing up when Stewie built a transporter was good for a laugh. Is this a comedy or a drama series? Sounds like it may be a bit of both. The production values do look a little 20th century, so the show has a sort of 1970s look to it. I know when the local cable station does a promo, it looks like Brooklyn 99 meets Buck Rogers in the 25th Century but then I saw a promo where it looked more serious.
Is this a comedy or a drama series? Sounds like it may be a bit of both.
Both. That’s part of the show writers’ learning curve, they’re trying something new to blend comedy, drama, and sci-fi.
Definitely “trying…”
Isn’t this a dedicated trek site ?
You must be new. Trekmovie has been covering other sci-fi for many years, especially if it involved Trek actors or creative people. The main focus is on Trek. though.
I don’t like to dump on Orville, because it’s not my bag, and don’t like to intrude on those who enjoy it, but in this case, i’ll add my two cents on coverage of it on this site:
As a Trek fan visiting a site called “Trekmovie” (which should really be re-named at this point)– I don’t mind when Orville articles directly relate to Trek, such as “Jonathan Frakes to direct Episode 6 of The Orville” or “Penny Johnson compares her experience on Orville to her time on Deep Space Nine”– but regular coverage of The Orville– with episode reviews, interviews, podcast discussions, etc– does indeed annoy me (though i’ve long accepted it’s here to stay).
I know the concept of The Orville is riff on Trek, and so it makes SOME sense, but having to sift through so many Orville articles to get to the handful of Trek articles I am interested in is frustrating because the point of visiting Trekmovie (as opposed to sites that cover content more broadly, like Starburst) is that I get more focused content– Trek only. I used to know that when I came to the homepage, there would be a 90% chance i’d be interested in the latest article posted.
At this point, given that it’s clear that The Orville is here to stay and receive regular ongoing coverage, I feel like the admins should split the site, and create a companion page just for The Orville. It would be better for Trek fans, and better for The Orville fans too. Probably a lot of O fans who don’t even care about Trek.
Trek news has been VERY slow the past few weeks, something that is due to change in a few days, when the final Short Treks debuts and Discovery promotion goes into full swing. If it feels like there’s been more Orville coverage than usual of late, it’s because Orville is returning first and there is actually news.
We don’t plan on doing another Orville podcast for quite a while, if ever. All depends on how S2 goes.
We’re also going to do more coverage of the new Twilight Zone. The articles we’ve written about that have not received any “why is this on TrekMovie?” complaints. Funny, huh?
And for the record, there have been 49 total stories about Orville, and 622 for Discovery. TrekMovie is in no danger of becoming an Orville site.
The ‘Discovery’ parent category actually currently has 683 articles when you include ‘After Trek’ and ‘Short Treks’ coverage.
For some more context. The as yet untitled and not yet in production Picard Show already has 18 articles. What We Left Behind, the DS9 documentary has 12, we’ve covered every update the documentary team has done including those at conventions. The fourth Kelvin-universe movie has 62 articles, and the Tarantino pitch for a Trek movie has 26 articles.
So as Brian said, The Orville is hardly a dominating topic.
I don’t think anyone said it was dominating. But during the airing period it certainly gets in the way. “Offseason” as it were, it’s mostly Trek, thats true. I don’t fear this becoming an Orville site, just voicing my opinion. The reason there doesn’t seem to be backlash on TZ articles, if i had to guess, is because nobody goes into those articles screaming “TZ is REAL Star Trek, not like that garbage STD.”
But during the airing period it certainly gets in the way.
That’s preposterous. Trek will always get the priority. The Orville has not gotten in the way. Discovery is about to come back, and we’ll be very focused on it. That means weekly reviews and weekly podcasts after each new episode airs.
Feel free to simply not click on articles about The Orville if you’re bothered. It’s quite simple.
because nobody goes into those articles screaming “TZ is REAL Star Trek, not like that garbage STD.”
So feel free to ignore those kind of comments. That’s no reason to declare that we need some kind of “separate but equal” nonsense where we segregate things. We enjoy The Orville for what it is, a fun show that’s got a lot of Trek inspiration and Trek alumni.
We’ve covered other sci-fi shows before on TM, and will almost certainly do so again. For example, if the Galaxy Quest TV show ever gets off the ground we’ll likely cover it. Why? because most Trekkies love the Galaxy Quest movie, it has a lot of heart and shows a lot of love for Trek while parodying it.
Trek is Trek, what CBS is doing isn’t suddenly going to disappear because of some comments on the Internet. The Orville is Trek adjacent, but will never replace it, nor is it trying to. So don’t let it bother you. As others have said in the comments, there’s no need to choose. Enjoy both, either, or neither.
“That’s preposterous. Trek will always get the priority. The Orville has not gotten in the way.”
Maybe i’m not making myself clear. I don’t think Orville is dominating or getting priority. But during the period when the show is on the air it gets regular coverage and annoys me. I am not angry about it, or casting aspersions, but the subject was brought up, so I articulated by opinion.
“Feel free to simply not click on articles about The Orville if you’re bothered.”
That’s exactly what I do. This is the first OV article i’ve clicked on since maybe the third or fourth episode.
“So feel free to ignore those kind of comments. That’s no reason to declare that we need some kind of “separate but equal” nonsense where we segregate things.”
Again, maybe i’m not making myself clear. What I am suggesting is that *I* would like to see two separate sections or sites. I am not begrudging you or the site for operating the way you do. And please, let’s not compare this discussion to segregation and civil rights.
I apologize if this came across as an attack. I value what you do as a free to view fan website.
“We’re also going to do more coverage of the new Twilight Zone. The articles we’ve written about that have not received any “why is this on TrekMovie?” complaints. Funny, huh?”
Yes.. That is kinda telling.
Brian, “Funny, huh” how many articles have been written on The Expanse? A scifi show which is run by TNG Vet Naren Shankar and has been running for 3 seasons and recently got green lit for a 4th. Somehow I don’t think it quite reaches 49 stories and podcasts.
C’mon man, there’s been minimal articles on the Twilight zone, coz it hasn’t even aired yet. When TZ reaches 49 stories after one season, podcasted, and get’s included in the top ten “Star Trek things” for comic-con I’m pretty sure you’ll see Orville fans, DSC fans, fans of both begin to tire.
In response to being bothered by the presence of Orville articles… And there really aren’t that many of them… I feel the same way when it comes to gaming, novel and comic articles. Yes, they are Trek related but that aspect of Trek never interested me. Do I moan about their presence? No. I just skip the articles. Not only do I not post in them about how much I don’t think they belong, but I don’t even bother clicking the article. I realize there are people who enjoy that sort of thing so it really isn’t a big deal they exist. Just like when I read the newspaper I do not feel compelled to read every single article they publish. ‘Nuff said.
Is there something preventing you from scrolling right past the small minority of Orville articles? With a mouse wheel, scrolling past an object (such as an Orville article) can actually be easier than stopping on it. Not clicking on the object is certainly easier than clicking on it. And not complaining about people enjoying and discussing something that you’ve no interest in is far easier than typing out a complaint and clicking to post it. The point being that the complainers seem to be going far out of their way in order to eradicate a thing that, reason would suggest, would be far less taxing to simply avoid. Does the presence of Orville articles here violate your sense of content purity? Does the presence of different categories of things in the same column cause you anxiety? Are you aware that a large portion of coverage at this site has been devoted to things that are not Trek movies for over 10 years? Every Trek TV series is not a Trek movie. Every Trek comic, convention, fan fiction and book is not a Trek movie. Does coverage of those things also violate your sense of content purity? If not, isn’t the reason why rather arbitrary?
Seemed pretty thin for a season intro, though there were a few nice moments. I find myself having some small degree of affection for this show, almost in spite of myself, and will certainly continue to watch.
Off-topic, I finally got around to watching the Saru-centric short and was not all that impressed. Beautifully produced, but awash in SF tropes (aka cliches) done far better elsewhere, and with the same distressing sloppiness (did Starfleet approve of Georgiou landing her shuttle within sight of a pre-warp village?) evident in too much of DSC’s plotting. So between the two shows, only Michael Chabon’s “Calypso” has managed to impress me thus far. Definitely not the fresh start I was hoping for.
I thought it was a very enjoyable, thoughtful first episode, which brought in some welcome deeper character development. An enjoyable hour which left me feeling good at the end, like this show always does. Thoroughly enjoyable. And thanks, Trekmovie, for your coverage of it. With so many excellent Trek alums involved, it more than warrants it.
I wish trek movie would change its name. I come here for trek news not orville news. They should call the site what it is, a scientific field news site.
I thought The Orville was Star Trek?
I enjoyed the Season 2 opener.
With “Ja’loga,” the major problems of Season 1 — mainly the schism between the show’s comedic and dramatic ambitions — are largely resolved. “Ja’loga” manages to be funny without grossly violating the show’s diegetic logic and thereby taking the viewer out of the moment during gags. The story is fluid, compelling and entertaining throughout. MacFarlane turns in a solid, believable acting performance that one cannot reasonably take much issue with other than perhaps to nitpick around the edges. I really enjoyed it. The one thing that I’d love to do is tweak all of the main characters’ backstories in order to better explain why they’re so goofy and at times unprofessional and yet have been given their massive responsibility and expensive hardware. I’d adjust their backstories to reflect that they’re the only ones — for whatever reasons, perhaps for differing reasons per character — capable of carrying out their overarching mission via the Orville. John is a closet genius, so he’s explained. Ed Mercer getting the gig as a favor to Kelly is a bit weak and needs some filling out as a reason. No reason has been given for Malloy, who, being one of the goofiest and most unconventional crew members (drinking booze at 9 am while on duty in the pilot episode), really needs more of an explanation for why he’s been given that job, apart from because Capt. Mercer wanted him.
At any rate, I’m pleased with how Season 2 is looking so far. Haven’t had a chance to watch episode 2 yet but probably will tonight.
The latest ‘Orvile,’ ‘Primal Urges,’ is what I’ve hoped the series would become. It’s a morality play, reflecting on a current real world issue. Amazingly, even the gags are less gag-worthy than usual — and this in an episode about p- o-r- n addiction. Good work. Please let this be the shape of eps to come.
I wonder why this has become the site’s adopted show? Anyway good to have proper Star Trek back.