Brannon Braga is a producer/ep on this too, which is probably why it feels so much like TNG. He produced that as well.
Thought it was dumb at first, but I have to say that, after a few episodes, it seems MUCH more Trek and more enjoyable overall than Discovery.
Still watching both but firmly in the Orville camp for now.
Diego
Damn the last 2-3 episodes have been increasingly awesome to the point where I am outright enjoying this more than Discovery. As the pointless interjected Family Guy-style jokes diminish and the humor grows more natural, I can even handle that portion of it better.
There’s still little touches that bug me. . . the Union fleet seems all about decorum and military order and diplomacy. . . right up until you’ve got a bridge-full of people calling each other “dick.” I get that’s probably the more natural, human direction to take it, but it feels weirdly at odds with the fairly high-minded, StarFleet-esque conceptualization of the military body here.
But honestly, this feels way more like the kind of Trek I love–especially TNG–than anything the team over at CBS is putting out. Unless Discovery rights the ship pretty significantly in the next 4 eps, I don’t see myself coming back for another round of CBS subscription in 2018.
So far I’m not feeling the dualistic vibe with Orville/Discovery and I still love them both. Orville takes some of what I loved more about 90s/00s Trek and distills it, and takes a shot at reviving the humor (not there yet by a long shot, for me). Discovery expelled much that I dislike in 90s/00s Trek and is finally incorporating darker elements that I’ve felt were sorely needed in the franchise. I’m perfectly happy being a fan of both shows, for now.
To be clear, i don’t outright dislike Discovery, but it feels a lot more like “just another high-budget grimdark prestige TV drama” that happens to use Star Trek words sometimes than an actual Star Trek show. And, to be fair, that’s just not worth $6/10 bucks all on its own for me right now.
It does at times. But I think that’s because it’s taking a lot longer to get its legs, IMO, as compared to Orville, even though both shows are trying very hard to do something that’s both core Trek and new Trek, if you’ll forgive the labels. I think Discovery faces a steeper hill. And starts with a significant handicap — the first two episodes of Discovery really felt like a prologue to me, and episode 3 felt like the actual pilot.
And I’ve thought about the grimdark thing. That was my initial impression of it as well, but I’m starting to think Discovery is not actually, strictly speaking, a grimdark (or #grimtrek) show, nor is it trying to be one. I think it’s representing itself as a story that starts off in a grimdark setting, and wants to break out and into a more optimistic Trek. I realize this may be a real stretch, at this stage, but it’s what I’m going with until I see more.
Sorta cross-posted in the Discovery thread.
I loved tonight’s episode. I know the humor is always different for everyone, but I really was on their frequency tonight. They got quite a few laughs out of me tonight. And the episode itself was really great overall.
For the first time in about 5 years I’m setting a timer so I don’t miss this live, as it takes like 24 hours to show up on Sling.
Curse you McFarlane! Just when I thought I was out, you pull me back in!
This one is for @divedivedive.
Back to tonight’s episode, I don’t know if I’d be annoyed or impressed if Avis paid for product placement in tonight’s episode.
This is starting to get creepy. You guys are going all Stepford Wives on me.
Just watch a damn episode. None of us know if you’ll like it or not, it’s not the best thing on TV or anything, but it’s pretty good as these things go. Maybe you’ll hate it, maybe not.
Stop being a fuddy duddy.
I loved the beginning of this episode when they were trying to figure out the alien customs. I also thought the two leads did a great Laurel and Hardy.
I liked this episode. Seth MacFarlane managed to take his pathological fear of religious people and make it into an interesting story. It wasn’t just the 15-year old athiest edgelord drivel that I expected from him.
The beginning was cute. Aliens doing weird aliens things that we can’t. I want so badly for our descendants to travel into the stars and laugh at stuff like that someday.
His delivery was great, too.
“I can eat many things.”
“there’s probably a lot of single people, too”
YES
:D
Great episode again. Totally required some hardcore suspension of disbelief, but who cares when it’s so fun.
Fun, while still dealing with some heavy themes and putting the characters into difficult as bag of nails situations. I love this.
I laughed so hard at that line.
Just, you know, if you do this, @divedivedive, maybe not one of the first two episodes. They’re not terrible, but the later eps are far, far better.
Yeah but I mean, I can’t just jump into the third episode. I’m not a barbarian, for pete’s sake.
I learned in that article above that this first season is only 13 episodes. That saddens me a little. But hey, hopefully that will mean less filler/crap episodes like all Trek series used to have, even DS9.