The Orville

[AndrewCrossett]

I just caught up on the second episode. (They're screwing me up with these odd time slots.)

I enjoyed it, but... I have to say that despite all the obvious surface similarities, it's not really all that much like Star Trek.

Star Trek would not have had a scene where the young inexperienced officer gains the respect of the crew by... knuckling under and giving them the order they wanted to hear.

It was like Trek, however, in handwaving away the obvious consequences. In any version of the real world, Alara would have been court-martialed.

The reality TV gag at the end was a clunker, too.

But I'd say the show's first foray into an extended dramatic story went well, as long as you look at it as its own show and not a Trek wannabe.

[Kusanagi]

I didn't care for the first episode, and missed the second. Picked up the third and I have to say I really enjoyed that. An actual intense cultural conflict that didn't go with the easy happy ending. More of this please.

[tabo61]

Good episode. Plot reminded me of a Star Trek TNG episode involving Riker and a androgynous woman.

[beetee]

Tonight's episode really stuck the landing, pleasant surprise. A lot of Trek "meaningful" episodes don't do that.

[thwhtGuardian]

If you traveled 200, even 400 years into the past you'd likely have little to no problem at all understanding anything anyone is saying...provided you're speaking the same language anyways. At most you'd probably just not pick up on some references.

I totally disagree with that pop culture thing. If you were a kid in the '80s or '90s it would not be uncommon to watch tv shows from the '50s on network tv. Shit like Lassie, I Love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver, Zorro, Gunsmoke, and a number of other shows were things kids actually still watched. You could flip on Fox in the early '90s and the weekend movie could be some '70s or '80s genre film, it could be some '50s - '70s Godzilla movie or American giant monster movie, it could be Ray Harryhausen stuff, or it could be some Universal Monster movie; shit, at least once I remember them playing The Gold Rush. That's not the kind of thing network tv does anymore. It also wasn't uncommon for some network to play old cartoons like Speed Racer and Jonny Quest right along with the newer stuff. If you were a kid in the '80s and '90s is wasn't uncommon for at least a part of what you grew up watching to probably be the same stuff you parents also grew up watching; the days of that being a thing are basically gone now. The Little Rascal were still well known enough that kids knew who they were when the '90s movie came out.

Legions of language experts disagree:

Impossible to understand? No, but it's certainly difficult and no doubt our pronunciations would sound just as nearly incomprehensible.

That aside it's a rather silly point of contention for a fictional television show; and it's not as if shows about the future like Star Trek or Buck Rogers tried to posit what the English language would sound like in the future so the absence of that here shouldn't be even a small point of contention

[Panfoot]

Finally got around to seeing the first episode, I was pretty happy with it. I won't say I was laughing all the way through it (actually surprised by how straightforward/more or less serious it was), but it definitely has a love for classic star trek in it and it's just really nice to get a more positive take on a futuristic scifi again.

[Jim Kelly]

Wow. That was a truly amazing episode. Worthy of an Emmy.

[MichaelC]

It was good, but Bortus' change of mind from one movie was not believable. I guess it was necessary for the rest of the plot, and the rest of the plot was quite good, but still that scene felt clumsy.

[Derek Metaltron]

I'm honestly surprised how serious and meaningful this show can be, especially with the latest episode, and I can agree with suggestions that this could easily been another Star Trek show. Mind you in some respects it means the actual jokes don't land like you think they would. Not that I mind though. Going to be interesting after three episodes of this seeing Discovery at last. CBS might well regret making the show so specific and behind paywalls when there's an alternative like this on for Trek fans to enjoy.

[Jim Kelly]

I see the humour as being necessary for the series to exist. It can say it's a parody and therefore it doesn't get in trouble over trademark. So I look at the jokes that don't land as disclaimers that allow the series to continue. An analogy is reaction to trailers videos on youtube--they're left up as long as you talk over them--so the talking over the trailer is just a way to satisfy youtube rules.

And a favourite movie of mine is ERIC THE VIKING which was panned when it came out--because it's hard to pigeon-hole this movie. The jokes don't always land--and are they jokes? But that's what I like about the movie--it doesn't try to fit the standard model.

Maybe the third episode is a metaphor for the whole series. Does it need to be fixed to fit in with every other series or can it be its own weird amalgam of tones?

[Nate Grey]

It was good, but Bortus' change of mind from one movie was not believable. I guess it was necessary for the rest of the plot, and the rest of the plot was quite good, but still that scene felt clumsy.

I thought about that, too, but maybe that's typical for Moclans. After all they kept quoting that ONE author, and if she's still alive her contribution to Moclan society was recent. Meaning they're not above changing old ways with new/recent info. So if one person's contribution can have such an effect on this society, I don't think one movie having a similar effect on a Moclan is too far out of the question.

[David Walton]

I see the humour as being necessary for the series to exist. It can say it's a parody and therefore it doesn't get in trouble over trademark. So I look at the jokes that don't land as disclaimers that allow the series to continue. An analogy is reaction to trailers videos on youtube--they're left up as long as you talk over them--so the talking over the trailer is just a way to satisfy youtube rules.

And a favourite movie of mine is ERIC THE VIKING which was panned when it came out--because it's hard to pigeon-hole this movie. The jokes don't always land--and are they jokes? But that's what I like about the movie--it doesn't try to fit the standard model.

Maybe the third episode is a metaphor for the whole series. Does it need to be fixed to fit in with every other series or can it be its own weird amalgam of tones?

I vote for 'weird amalgam of tones.'

[5Eyes]

Good episode. Plot reminded me of a Star Trek TNG episode involving Riker and a androgynous woman.

The courtroom reminds of 2 of ST TNG episode - Were they tried to prove the worth of a female reminds me of the ep The Measure of a Man and when the unknown female comes in a big reminder of the ep Sins of the Father .. I'm thinking is a homage to these ep and probably others

[MichaelC]

The tone of the prosecutor reminded me of the guy who prosecuted Worf in the DS9 episode where he shot the cloaked ship. So much so that I wonder if it wasn't the same actor.

[The Cool Thatguy]

So yeah, how often does someone come to this thread and express surprise that this series is actually good?

'Cause, you got another...