The Orville - Seth MacFarlane takes on Star Trek

Technically, we’re all on a rock floating through space.

What I loved about it was that, for all of TNG, I wanted more “Normal day on the Enterprise” episode like Data’s Day for example.

We’re getting EXACTLY that with The Orville, and I couldn’t be happier. Give us time to live with these characters so when the shit hits the fan, the stakes feel that much higher.

I have the opposite reaction. This is just mediocre soap opera on a spaceship. I really don’t like where they’ve taken the show this season.

I ended up fast forwarding through parts of this episode and probably won’t watch the next.

The story has all the depth and nuance of a 3 year Old’s first story book, its terribly derivative and doesn’t try a new perspective or angle, and it didn’t have any subplots or side plots which is the greatest downfall of The Orville.

The characters and episodes are feeling more like lazy caricatures when, after a season and a half, you’d think they might actually be becoming something more than facile.

I grew up with and loved STTNG and while it could be silly, it was very rarely stupid or dumb. The Orville is regularly both.

45min episode consisted of:

Doctor gets feelings for mechanical lifeform, handful of lazy tropes and McFarlane dudebro skits

Bortus grows a moustache, handful of lazy tired jokes

Seriously?

Exactly

It’s a Seth MacFarlane show. Not sure why expectations are set at anything above “simmer.”

Last night’s episode is a tough one to judge. Very unsatisfying. But it was meant to be.

I guess sometimes cultural differences are cultural differences and you just have to walk away with no silver lining or hope for change. That’s actually a pretty cool lesson, even if it’s an unsatisfying one. So I’ll give a reluctant thumbs up to that episode for tackling something hard and having the courage not to put a bow on it at the end like TNG would have.

In order to say something relevant about cultural issues, the show would first have to be coherent about the underlying biology. I still don’t even know what “female Moclan” is supposed to mean. If the species reproduces asexually, it contains no females by definition.

I get where they were trying to go but the whole argument at the end of ‘I am sick of the hiding and lying, I want to be a martyr’ while simultaneously hiding and trying to frame another man was nonsensical.

MacFarlane’s typical character subscribes to the “I don’t give a fuck, and you can’t make me! :neener:” mantra. Maybe this is carried over into The Orville crew too?

I liked that aspect though. That’s what made this character unsympathetic. We can’t root for this guy. So no one is going to be watching him leave the ship and saying “well, maybe he will be one of the first and change to society will start slowly from there”. Nope, there’s no scene like that because you’re watching someone who just tried to frame an innocent man.

Just a soap opera in space. Nothing more at this point. But I’ll still watch.

I thought they addressed that in season 1. Something about the species starting with two sexes, but evolving at some point in the distant past to be able to reproduce with males. Or maybe my memory is making stuff up. In any event, the “alien race takes some social issue to the extreme” is well represented in Trek without detailed background, so I’m already trained to suspend disbelief on that front.

Agreed, although I didn’t think of it as unsatisfying so much as realistic. It’s rare that situations with cultural clashes (whether based on morals or not) work out with everyone singing Kumbaya in the end.

Well said. I’m at the same point. Not what I wanted, but it’s still entertaining enough that I’ve adjusted expectations downward and will keep watching.

Well, innocent in that he didn’t kill anyone, of course.

I applaud your commitment. We watched 4 episodes of the first season, and bounced off this hard.

My wife had a bigger problem with the ending than I did, finding it unsatisfying. I was glad it wasn’t all tied up in a bow. I would love if somehow Locar led some sort of revolt on Moclus in a future episode.

I felt they laid the seeds for that with the “How long can we remain allies with them” bit and then ending the episode with Locar staring down the judge. Not that I’d ever accuse MacFarlane of using subtlety, but it sure seemed like foreshadowing.

I’m with your wife on this one; I didn’t end up liking the previous Moclans-Are-Douchebags ep about the sexual reassignment of Topa, either. I don’t really go to fiction–especially comedy!–for sad endings, even if they’re realistic. That was just a grinding downer for the last 10 minutes or so.

Well. Damn.

Holy crap. If you abandoned this season because of earlier episodes I highly suggest watching this one.