When I first started this show I found it to be a really awkward mix of comedy and seriousness. It had some jokes thrown it at the most inopportune times as some kind of comic relief from a really serious situation. Perhaps the first half of the first season was actually a bit rough or maybe the show just grew on me, but by season 2 I found myself loving this show.
To me it seems as every bit as comfy, intellectually interesting and even funny as some classic Star Treks while still clearly being its own thing. I wish more comfy space shows like this would get made.
What are your thoughts on The Orville? Also I miss Alara.
"oh yeah? Well, I’m gonna make my own Star Trek, with black jack and hookers. "
- Seth McFarlane
Star Trek Producer: “This guy is trying to out-startreck us” proceeds to make Strange New Worlds to retaliate
I’m pretty sure this is exactly what happened.
And you will not see me complaining. SNW is the best Trek of recent times.
I’d still say Orville hits the mark closer, in many ways. SNW follows some of TOS’ style, but it still doesn’t always quite have that Gene Roddenberry feel to the characters. Orville does this better while its style is more like TNG - which perhaps isn’t surprising given how much Seth MacFarlane has worked with Patrick Stewart in recent years.
Frankly I want more seasaons of both.
Picard season 3 was pretty great too. I skipped season 2 as I hated season 1. Apparently season 3 just ignores the events of 2 completely because it was that bad.
It was shit wasn’t it, I heard season 2 was worse. I wanted to like it so much. What changed to make season 3 good? I’d love that to be true.
I don’t want to set your expectations too high, because it’s far from perfect, but I thought Picard S3 was basically the good TNG movie that we never received. It was great to see so many of the TNG crew back on screen, and probably for the last time together since they’re all in their 70s. The story was mostly good and there were some real high points.
I will definitely watch it then, thanks.
A 10 hour movie 🙄
So annoying the way all these shows are just stretched out into series when they can and should be a movie. And vice versa too, movies are all 3+ hours now I feel like, even friggin Indiana Jones was 2.5 hours, if you got that much to say just make it a miniseries or something jeez.
Now if you’ll excuse me I got some clouds to yell at.
I never laughed so much in a Star Trek episode as I did at last Thursday’s episode. That was absolutely not expected lol.
I still haven’t watched it. I think I might be done with Trek. There’s just been too much damage in the last decade with those godawful jj abrams movies, discovery, picard, blech. It’s clear to me the franchise has moved in a different direction and we’ll always have tng and ds9, but I just can’t follow it anymore.
SNW went completely off the rails and became a CW science fiction show. It is not Star Trek and is so cringe worthy, it’s painful to watch.
I haven’t seen any of season 2 yet, and while I agree that a few of the episodes in the first season are a bit off-target on the science fiction aspects, I think they are overall quite a bit better than the first season of TNG. I’m more than willing to give it, say, 40-60 episodes to really find itself and get into the meat of the story they want to tell with it.
Every other episode is amazing then cringe, it keeps things light.
I watched the first 2 seasons. The “sitcom in space” parts work quite OK, Kaylon’s concept was somewhat interesting, space battles are well animated, particularly in the 2nd season which clearly got more budget, but…
Whenever the scripts stray away from “personal drama of the week” and dumb jokes about starships it becomes uninspired and shallow. It’s clear to me that MacFarlane tries to “dunk on both sides”. Sadly, his attempts at political/social critique look like “enlightened centrist” reddit rants which don’t try to think about broader consequences and context of points being made. To the point of some stories being somewhat problematic when dissected.
I watched the first episode of the third season to see where does the series go. It took a highly sensitive topic, again reiterated high-school philosophy arguments and made this potentially hard and relatable for viewers subject into an awkward bedtime conversation. I decided the rest of the season is not worth my time.
Luckily Strange New Worlds premiered soon after and I never looked back. SNW beats Orville on all measures.
As someone who disliked the comedy part, I enjoyed the last season the most.
Strange New Worlds Season 1 was great. Haven’t yet had the time yet to watch Season 2 but it looks just as good so far. Still haven’t started the final season of Picard yet, but I’m assuming you liked that one too? I thought it was good for a limited run series.
I expected the Orville to be a funny homage to Star Trek. For a short time it was just that. Actually a randy one with too much toilet humor. But then suddenly they became serious SciFi. Which I consider a bold move and mostly but not utterly a successful one. And in hindsight, it would have been hard to deliver good SciFi-Humor for more than one Season except if they went the Futurama-Path.
The part of the funny homage to Star Trek nowadays has been taken by Lower Decks. Humorwise it beats everything Orville had ever offered.
Orville is good. Not great but worth watching. They had some AMAZING episodes with depth and ideas among the best ST-Episodes. But they also had a lot of mediocre episodes. Still Better than ST-Discovery for sure. Even surpassing ST-Picard. Which is something Seth can be proud of.
Orville started when there was no Startrek and no serious Soap-SiFi at all (The Expanse is something different).
For me it is “Startrek when Startrek wasn’t” and basically revived the Franchise it wanted to make fun of.
I like it.
The one with the porn virus on their holodeck was fantastic. But yeah, you sum it up very nice.
You mean the scene were every hologram on the holo deck was a nude Bortos? I rolled on the floor laughing!
It was sooooo good
That actually sounds appealing when you describe it like that. I tried to watch it when it came out but it never delivered on the “funny”. It was just Star Trek but a little off.
Maybe I’ll try again or at least get past the first few episodes
Excellent review
I literally shed tears while watching the first episode because I didn’t realize how badly I needed new star trek that doesn’t suck. I just hit me right where I needed it to scratch that itch, and I was so overwhelmed. Also it made me hate even more what “real” trek has become. Huge fan, I didn’t realize season 3 is already on, gotta check it out.
what modern star trek should be
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ive yet to get on that bandwagon; i’ll def give it a go
You should throw in a little Lower Decks, just saying.
It felt way more like Star Trek than the Star Trek being made at the time (primarily Discovery). Though I do like Strange New Worlds and think it’s more in the right direction, The Orville still feels way more like TNG-era Trek.
Now we just need a Galaxy Quest / Orville crossover to really confuse everyone.
Now we just need a Galaxy Quest / Orville crossover to really confuse everyone.
Sokath, his eyes uncovered!
The river in winter and temba his arms wide my money!
Always thought the whole parody aspect was just a means to get funding to just make a regular star trek series in disguise. If someone would just give the man money for exactly that we would have an awesome star trek series.
I really liked it.
The early seasons were less serious than later ones. But overall, it did well with serious social issues and addresses some very relevant topics.
The storyline with Topah was absolutely amazing. At every step, each character was portrayed well, and respectfully. It’s rare that there is a story like that that still has conflict without having a clear villain.
The time travel episode with Gordon was also especially brutal with some great performances from everyone on screen.
There were a few misses. I found the Isaac / Doctor relationship… forced, even if it did bring us the best line in decades (“As I am incapable of stuttering, I must conclude that you heard me.”). I also don’t think I’m alone with disliking the Charlie character in season 3.
I loved how Klyden grew through that story line, realizing what his prejudice was costing him and growing!
I agree on the doctor/Isaac arc (some spoilers), I thought it was all absolutely ridiculous. Isaac is only there to gather data about humanity and characterised as unfeeling and non-emotional. Then the doc pulls a fit about how he doesn’t have feelings for her and everyone on the ship is behind her, ostrasising Isaac. It felt like there was no logic at all to the situation and everyone had gone bananas. The Isaac breakup scene was hands down my favourite in the show.
I think they screwed up the ending of the Gordon episode. If they’d cut from the captain and the team walking out of the door to Gordon being back on the ship packing away the phone and other things, it would have left it more to the viewers to decide if the decision was right or wrong.
Maybe.
On the flip side, the way it ended worked as a sort of “what if?” story about what Gordon is capable of.
Maybe plans for some later season involve Gordon turning on Mercer for similar reasons, again?
I don’t know. Given what was taken from him, and how grateful he was that it was done, I think they took that option away.
The Gordon/Time travel episode was brutal. It’s the episode I keep referring to when attempting to get my girlfriend to suspend her dislike of Seth McFarlane enough to give the show a shot. I will be very disappointed if there isn’t a 4th episode.
Best part of season three is Charlie’s death. Felt almost forced in a way, but not in a good way. Like Charlie is an ensign but is on the bridge because she’s really smart at 4d maneuvering or something, and they bring her everywhere. Definitely great when she finally went.
All I could think with how forced Charly was as a character was like is this a producers wife or girlfriend or something? I never looked into it, but I’ve never seen a show introduce a new character and focus on them so hard, even to the detriment of OG cast members, before. Like they pivoted to the Charly show. Some of the plots were good like her prejudice towards Isaac’s race but like why did she get introduced and become the main character in one season? Lol
After the first season, which was an obligatory “Star Trek Type Show Finds Its Feet” season, it really hit its stride to become the best Star Trek since DS9. Not in name, but certainly in spirit. So earnest, with a great message throughout. Sure it had some mediocre jokes here and there but so did TNG, let’s not forget. I was sitting around just the other day thinking how I missed watching The Orville
I feel the same way. Hope it comes back for another season.
Pretty sure it’s renewed. The writers strike is probably going to slow down the release though
It was the best Trek we had in ages. Held me over until we got SNW and Lower Deck.
I really hope we get another season because they REALLY hit their stride last season.
It was the best Trek we had in ages. Held me over until we got SNW and Lower Deck.
Ditto. A real return to form, even if that form involved a lot of Space Wizards and other silly bullshit.
I honestly think the whole diplomatic triangle between the Planetary Union, the Krill/Moclan, and the Kaylon played out better than anything TNG managed. The Orville is easily on par with DS9 as one of the best sci-fi dramas produced to date.
Yeah, the Kaylon stuff with Isaac caught me off guard and blew me away.
I appreciate that they gave our characters more personal stakes in Teleya’s relationship with Ed and Isaac’s relationship with Claire.
Pundits say there won’t be another season because he’s focusing on the Ted series. It’s supposedly doing well so no time for Orville
Thanks for the info, but that’s incredibly disappointing. Ted is probably my least favorite thing Seth has ever done…
The Orville is my favorite Star Trek franchise. It’s canon - you can’t deny it. The Orville revived the Star Trek Franchise and gave it a pulse. It’s like blockchain. You can say it doesn’t belong, but it will always be there and nothing can change that. It has great attention to detail and decent story writing with that original “there’s a moral in this episode” that endeared ST in our hearts, something the newer ST franchises lack.
And Galaxy Quest is the best Star Trek movie since the Undiscovered Country.
I’m not sure how to answer without getting roasted, but including GQ in canon does complete the Star Trek good-then-bad movie pattern.
I was initially turned off from it too because of the awkward comedy early on. But I have it another go and ended up enjoying it as an extension of Star Trek.
The vibe I get is he wanted to make a Star Trek show, but since he’s that comedy guy he probably got it greenlit as a comedy and then just slowly morphed into just Star Trek while the producers weren’t looking. I’m basing this on nothing, it’s just a funny head cannon.
It’s not a stretch to say it’s the only thing of this era that picks up the legacy of TNG trek. Lower decks is fun but too short to really do what full episodes could and while Strange New Worlds is ok… it still doesn’t feel in the spirit that I’m looking for.
The vibe I get is he wanted to make a Star Trek show, but since he’s that comedy guy he probably got it greenlit as a comedy and then just slowly morphed into just Star Trek while the producers weren’t looking.
This is actual reality, so you nailed it. Seth approached Paramount with a pitch for a nostalgic reboot of the TNG era, they said no, so he went to Fox who he had a great relationship with due to Family Guy and created The Orville.
Whether the producers were unaware of the slow transition to actual speculative fiction or not is unclear for the first few seasons. I think the final season shows that it was overt, however, since after changing networks the whole tone, production quality, and even the actual time length of the episodes all changed.
A “head cannon” is a big gun on your head.
It seems like a lot of modern star trek doesn’t appeal to OG trekkies, but as someone who didn’t watch anything pre-Discovery, I think most of it is pretty great compared to a vast portion of current TV.
Fair enough. It’s hard to watch them objectively without thinking about what we’re missing. What confuses me though is they new shows lean HEAVILY on nostalgia, suggesting that they’d be trying to get the audience that has nostalgia for it, but the rest of what makes up the shows isn’t anything like what made people originally enjoy Star Trek.
It’s the best Star Trek show since Next Generation.
Kidding. I actually liked DS9 and Voyager
It’s on par though.
Yeah. The Orville absolutely deserves to stand shoulder to shoulder with a typical season of licensed Star Trek.
And that’s a pretty big deal, because aside from the show we won’t mention right now*, most Star Trek is pretty great.
*I’m just trying to start an argument between DS9, Enterprise and Discovery fans. Sorry.
This was basically the way I would describe the show.
I find Seth McFarlane super cringe and can’t sit through an entire episode. I wanted to like it but my Seth repulsion prevents me from enjoying it.
Try watching an episode in the second or third series. I’m not keen on Seth either but seems like the “Sethisms” toned down as the show progressed
I get the feeling that he was forced to include Family Guy style jokes in the first series and was allowed to ease up after it was clear that they weren’t working.
spoiler
With the exception of that early episode explaining humour to the android character and the engineer wakes up with his leg cut off. That was pretty funny.
Man I totally forgot about that, that was fucking amazing! Love that show
That episode is still one of the most funny things ever and I will die on this hill
And what happens when you’re not keen on Seth or being preached at by someone who doesn’t actually get the social arguments even if his heart seems to be in the right place?
He do be like that.
I don’t even mind Family Guy, I think it’s just his face.
Family Guy is just Seth McFarlane talking to himself.
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That take makes me think you haven’t watched much of the show
The Orville is the best science fiction show featuring complex moral questions of the last decade. And Seth McFarlane isn’t as prominent in the show as early episodes showed.
It’s much more focused on crew than other shows, specially Isaac, Bortus, Kelly and Claire. No surprise since they are better actors than Seth. I like Seth Krill episodes though.
I had the exact same concern, before I watched The Orville.
After watching the first couple of seasons, I think The Orville actually does a pretty good job honoring Star Trek’s tradition of raising difficult questions and calling for more empathy in the world.
The latest season of Orville has so much grey area and conflict in morals it makes TNG look pure black and white with no moral grey areas at all.
It’s really well done.
You clearly haven’t watched it at all lol.
I loved it because it had all the eye candy and high concept stuff I’m looking for but they didn’t take themselves too seriously.
I didn’t mind the acting or the incongruent personality quirks. I actually found most of it pretty endearing in a little relaxing. He probably should have broken the fourth wall a little more often.
Overtime the formula got a little too predictable. With the exception of an episode here and there are the story arcs were getting tired.
I enjoyed watching it, I wouldn’t mind seeing more, but I have no urge whatsoever to go back and do a rewatch.
Agree on all counts, definitely regarding the story arcs too.
I thought it was a parody at first, and it certainly treated itself as such in the beginning, but in the later seasons, it took itself more seriously, and I found it a more “realistic” take than star trek.
Star trek is awesome, don’t get me wrong. But the captains were kind of “perfect”, basically. Captain Mercer and his crew are all flawed people, in their own way. They make poor decisions sometimes, out of selfishness, pride, or whatever, and it’s fun to see them deal with the consequences.
Interesting. I always thought “perfect” characters like Jean Luc Picard where supposed to symbolize the advanced social evolution of humanity in the Star Trek universe. The inherent believe in evolutionary humanism is one of the main reasons I fell in love with Star Trek.
It’s why I love snw’s current pilot, I think starfleet is very racist, she might be the only actual human being accepted into starfleet, well, her and pike of course, and maybe the current immortal engineer.
