SecretAsianMan Posted January 16, 2018 He's the captain so he features prominently but the show isn't centered around him. Many of the episodes are focused on the other characters or the situation they're in. It's a lot like Trek where the captain is a central figure but the rest of the cast gets a lot of time too. If you're worried the show comes across as a live action version of his other shows, I'd say The Orville is really toned down relative to his other work, although that same type of humor is absolutely there. As an example, one of the episodes has one of his officers getting in trouble on a planet for dry-humping a statue of a respected figure. While the setup is ridiculous and raunchy the actual body of the episode takes it pretty seriously and is a TNG style examination of a society. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gwardinen Posted January 18, 2018 I've now watched the first two episodes of the Orville, and while the writing is often falling flat for me I do agree that in some ways it hews closer to Star Trek traditions than Discovery does. I find myself thinking "I think they're expecting me to laugh here" quite a lot, which is a bummer, but I am enjoying the campy, brightly coloured TNG optimism of the whole thing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SecretAsianMan Posted January 18, 2018 The humor takes more of a back seat as the season goes on (it never goes away completely though), so if you could get through the first two episodes without hating it I encourage you to keep going. In a way I appreciate the humor even when it misses (which is most of the time). I think it brings a sort of human relatability that TNG era shows lacked. The Orville isn't crewed with the paragons of humanity and everyone is a smartass to some degree. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TheLastBaron Posted January 19, 2018 I liked the writing and the humor a lot. That doesn't mean I actually found it funny (though I did laugh out loud quite a few times), but like SAM said it makes the characters feel like real people which is something that Star Trek isn't that great at. They might make really dumb jokes, but so do the people I interact with in real life and I prefer that to everyone being a weird robot (I'm not talking about Data, I'm looking at you Gordie). As someone who loves episodes like Lower Decks and DS9 for all the crew-just-hanging-around stuff The Orville really hit on something that I dig. While we're talking about not-Trek-but-basically-Trek stuff, has anyone watched the new Man From Earth movie? I'm very skeptical of how good it could possibly be, but I'm interested to hear opinions about it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ben X Posted January 19, 2018 I really enjoyed the first two episodes of the season's second half! I recommend everyone who was wavering (and even those who have dropped it at any point) to give them a watch. Orville really doesn't sound like my cup of tea from your descriptions of it... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Roderick Posted January 19, 2018 They really went to a place there! Reveal hidden contents At first I was shocked by how almost comically the alternate universe was constructed, with the single most fascist representation of mankind you could imagine. But the way it plays out (and those super sexy uniforms) is quite interesting! I'm not sure how I feel about Doctor Whatshisname being killed so suddenly, even though he was barely a character to begin with. Did anyone else feel that the reveal that Tyler was a surgically altered Voq could've been way more effectively handled? They were clearly working towards some grand reveal there, in the scene where he and Burnham square off in her chambers, but the whole thing flounders around a bit. Should've been a goosebumps moment, but it's at once foreshadowed too much (you basically guess it either minutes or half an hour before) and then not effectively, pithily unveiled. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gwardinen Posted January 19, 2018 On 1/19/2018 at 9:00 AM, Roderick said: They really went to a place there! Reveal hidden contents At first I was shocked by how almost comically the alternate universe was constructed, with the single most fascist representation of mankind you could imagine. But the way it plays out (and those super sexy uniforms) is quite interesting! I'm not sure how I feel about Doctor Whatshisname being killed so suddenly, even though he was barely a character to begin with. Did anyone else feel that the reveal that Tyler was a surgically altered Voq could've been way more effectively handled? They were clearly working towards some grand reveal there, in the scene where he and Burnham square off in her chambers, but the whole thing flounders around a bit. Should've been a goosebumps moment, but it's at once foreshadowed too much (you basically guess it either minutes or half an hour before) and then not effectively, pithily unveiled. Reveal hidden contents The whole fascist Terran Empire thing has been in many mirror universe episodes across many Star Trek series, and it's never failed to seem undercooked to me. There's never any compelling reason given as to why things ended up that way - it's just a knee-jerk opposite to the tolerant, inclusive Federation. I'm bummed about the Doc too, but maybe Stamets will find a way to resurrect him with mushrooms, or just nick the mirror universe version. As for Tyler/Voq, it had no impact on me whatsoever. Part of that is because I'd heard the theory long before they came back from the midseason break (a bunch of fans noticed some switcheroo stuff with the credits for Voq and that kind of thing), and part of it is because, as you say, it somehow manages to be both meanderingly over-foreshadowed and then just sort of boringly revealed. I've been waiting for Voq to become interesting and relevant ever since the start of the season, and even this reintroduction has failed to achieve that. On the other hand the reveal at the very end of the Emperor was actually kind of cool! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SecretAsianMan Posted January 19, 2018 On 1/19/2018 at 7:48 AM, Ben X said: Orville really doesn't sound like my cup of tea from your descriptions of it... Based on how I've seen you react to other things, this is probably correct. The Orville is definitely not for everyone, I mainly wanted to point out that there's more to the show than "Seth Macfarlane in space". Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Salacious Snake Posted January 20, 2018 I finally finished watching Enterprise. Now I’ve seen all the Star Trek. The final season of Enterprise was pretty good! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dartmonkey Posted February 12, 2018 Just watched the final episode of Discovery Season 1! It started slow, got much better, peaked around episode 12 and finished decently. Much of the writing was very TAB A > SLOT B but it had some nice ideas and more homages and fan references than I was expecting. Overall, much more good than bad. Shit, even the ship grew on me and I can now name 50% of the bridge crew. Saru really grew over the course of the season, and I hope the wider cast get a look in next time round. Robot lady FTW. Oh, and Jason Isaacs is great. No spoilers but I'm sure everyone in this thread will have a strong reaction to the end of the last episode. Brought a tear to my eye but I'm a wreck, mind. Looking forward to Season 2. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gwardinen Posted February 12, 2018 I had the exact opposite reaction to the whole final scene. Reveal hidden contents Except for the music. That was a nice touch. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Salacious Snake Posted February 16, 2018 I enjoyed the season in general, but I thought the way they wrapped up certain major threads was kind of rushed and anticlimactic. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Roderick Posted February 16, 2018 Reveal hidden contents I was, in the end, half-shocked that they wrapped up everything and resisted the urge to have some cliffhanger or disastrous new threat loom over the galaxy. Aside from the Terran world obviously coming back at some point. I like how the show refuses to be pinned down by any of its major plot lines and freely skips between Terran stuff, the Klingon war, off-beat episodes with Harry Mudd... All in all, I was never bored watching this, and indeed the cast has grown on me. Once you accept that it's super soapy and not very interested in upholding Trek values, it's fine. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
brkl Posted February 28, 2018 I finished it last night. I thought it was trash, really. Some individual scenes and two to three episodes of the show work, but as a whole it's a complete mess. It's one of the few cases where I felt like I actually lost something by giving it a chance. I also saw Altered Carbon, which has some pretty nice visuals and intriguing concepts, but steadily gets worse as the show goes on. It's never quite as bad, but it's pretty bad towards the end. First episodes are great. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Saltimbanco Posted April 8, 2018 I've had very limited experience with Star Trek. I watched a handful of episodes of Voyager (didn't like it), a couple episodes of Enterprise (fine), the JJ Abrams movies (first was fun, second was bad, third was forgettable), and watched all of Discovery (it was alright, always felt like watching the next episode, but wouldn't have gone out of my way to watch it if it wasn't already in my Netflix queue). I'm considering watching an older series in earnest now, starting with Next Generation. What keeps me away is hearing from Star Trek fans that the first couple of seasons of all the shows are terrible. If a fan thinks that, I'm afraid to even try it. There's the "it gets better later" argument, sure, but in the case of these old network shows it means watching 50 bad episodes before I get to the good stuff. There's no way I'm going to dedicate that much of my time in the hope that I like what comes after. I'm open to the idea of a watching list. Something that trims the show of all the bad episodes that don't affect anything in the long run, so I can go straight to the part people like, but without feeling lost, or feeling like I don't know the characters. At least for the first two seasons, I'd be open to watching it fully after the third season onwards, although from what I gathered from holodeck episodes, I think I'd like to skip those too. If I end up liking it I might do the same thing with Deep Space Nine, or maybe I'll go back and try to watch all Next Gen episodes. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gwardinen Posted April 8, 2018 I watched SecretAsianMan's recommended episode list from this very thread and was very happy with it: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ben X Posted April 8, 2018 Also, why not watch the 5-10 best Original Series episodes first? Tick all the boxes! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SecretAsianMan Posted April 11, 2018 On 4/8/2018 at 6:51 AM, Gwardinen said: I watched SecretAsianMan's recommended episode list from this very thread and was very happy with it: I'm glad to hear that! It's weird, I went over the list to see if I had any updates to it and discovered I have no recollection of making it at all. @Saltimbanco One nice thing about TNG is that apart from a handful of major events, the episodes are largely disconnected so there's not much to be gained from slogging through the first two seasons. And most of the major plot episodes are good ones anyway. Voyager has a lot of standalone episodes too but there's much more overall continuity. DS9 is almost a serial (especially in the back half) so skipping means missing out on a lot. If you're interested this thread also has a Voyager skip list (compiled by me with addendums by others) and a DS9 list (compiled by Gormongous with addendums by others). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
itsamoose Posted April 30, 2018 On 2/28/2018 at 6:16 PM, brkl said: I also saw Altered Carbon, which has some pretty nice visuals and intriguing concepts, but steadily gets worse as the show goes on. It's never quite as bad, but it's pretty bad towards the end. First episodes are great. This is a perfect description of my experience with Altered Carbon as well, at it's best it sort of feels like the darker version of stark trek that the series proper has a hard time getting right. There are some genuinely fantastic scenes and scenarios presented in the show, but it does feel like it dawdles a bit toward the middle-end. In particular: Reveal hidden contents The scene where Bancroft goes and visits the descendants of people who died from a plague was such an incredible sequence. It was one of the few times we get to see the sleeve technology being used for something other than warfare or crime, and how it might affect people's lives in other ways. Having the world's richest man going on this humanitarian mission with such overtly sinister overtones is probably the best social commentary I've ever seen in science fiction. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dartmonkey Posted August 6, 2018 Don’t know where else to shout and cry and cheer over this: http://trekcore.com/blog/2018/08/patrick-stewart-returns-new-star-trek-series-announcement/ 😭🤩 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
brkl Posted August 6, 2018 Very happy to see Trek in the original timeline too. Stewart has been aging like fine wine. I hope the rest of what goes into the series holds up. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Roderick Posted August 6, 2018 !! Had been hearing rumors about this, but it's thrilling to read nonetheless! Jean-Luc Picard returns! What a delightful and necessary character to have reappear in our times! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BigJKO Posted August 6, 2018 Best news of 2018. We desperately need Jean-Luc Picard back in our lives. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ben X Posted August 6, 2018 On 8/6/2018 at 8:06 AM, dartmonkey said: Don’t know where else to shout and cry and cheer over this This is the best place! Just came here to share it myself. This seems like rather a strange idea, and without any further information I'm a little pessimistic, but who knows could be amazing! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
