I’ve got All Access, so I’ve seen the first two. Without spoiling the second one, let me summarize: Save your money and use it to buy ST:V on video tape.
I don’t think I have ever seen something to expensive be so awful. It’s so shiny it would make J.J. Abrams blush in embarassment (as would the Klingon “makeover”). There’s nothing of Star Trek to it except the names. Vulcans are now magical; seasoned “Starfleet” crews are incompetent at basic tasks, and every single character is a cliche. The plot makes no sense, and the main character’s motivations indicate post-traumatic-Vulcan-disorder or something, because otherwise it’s just psychosis.
This makes the Orville look like “The Odyssey.” If it were on broadcast, it wouldn’t make it to the third episode.
Somebody above said it was better than “Encounter at Farpoint.” I can only assume they were watching a different version than I was – this makes EAF look like Shakespeare.
I don’t want to be the crabby old guy who hates what they’ve done to his childhood, but. . . WTF?
There was almost nothing I liked about this show outside of pretty pretty fx. The theme was boring, disinterested, noodling followed by part of TOS theme, which really showed what a mistake it was by comparison. The opening credits look interesting and good enough, but why? Why do THAT with Trek? I guess they figured the other shows had done the ‘pretty space flyby’ thing to death, but it just didn’t work for me as Trek.
I could like #1 if she wasn’t so stiff, but she was raised by Vulcans, so that’s out the window. Should’ve had Michelle Yeoh raised by Vulcans, would’ve lampshaded her acting. Also, isn’t there ANY other Vulcans around for about 200 years besides Spock and Serek? They couldn’t introduce a new Vulcan who raised her? That’s just glomming onto the past in an attempt to transfer fans love for the old material. Cheap tactics.
The Klingons. what a clusterfuck. Gratuitous changes to the species AGAIN! If I gotta endure more actors trying not to slobber through their pointy-teeth appliances while delivering MINUTES of exposition in a guttural language that makes German sound seductive, somebody gonna pay ME! I used to hate how comic books would reboot and then have all this unresolvable conflicting history as a result. Now it’s getting into my movies. They explained the Klingon’s changes ONCE, now what? Are we to pretend that these look like TNG Klingons?
Better than Encounter at Farpoint (EAF), but Christ, that’s a low friggin’ bar. I HATE HATE HATE that 2-parter. At least the FX are better then EAF, but EAF didn’t have minutes of Shakespeare in the original Klingon to endure. I can get pretty FX on Youtube, sans Klingon.
So, they call the Klingons from many light years away by lighting a torch? Did I miss someone talking about the sujbspace message? The Federation backup was supposedly a few hours away - how did the Klingons beat them there. Have they been waiting for this message for 100 years?
The new Klingons are uigly, and not in a good way. And the white one was discriminated against. Oh how Star Trekky (gack.)
I assume that there won’t be a war, since I don’t recall a war ever being mentioned in TOS, not even in Errand of Mercy where you’d think it would be. Cold war, yes, not hot war.
I think the “cloaking” you read about is one of the convenient spots in space which block sensors. I suppose the Klingons parking themselves there makes sense. That the Federation put a relay on their doorstep by chance doesn’t. Space is really, really big.
It is clear that at the time of Balance of Terror no one had seen a cloaking device, though Spock says it is theoretically possible.
Definitely not worth paying for. I’ll wait until it shows up on Netflix DVD. And maybe not then.
What i don’t get is WHY they made this 10 years before Kirk and Spock. These two eps eff up the timeline, you’ve got the ‘deal with why Spock never mentions her’, the ships are too advanced… WHY is this before Kirk and Spock? Push the series ahead 30 years and you solve all that. What purpose does this serve to place it where they have.
Not sure what to think of it, It is certainly a different take
Well, the special effects were fairly well done.
Aside from that, there are so many “What is going on here moments”
The two women seem to be the focus of the episodes and portrayed as being braver than the men.
Somebody should tell them that radiation exposure damage is cumulative and there is no 20 minute time limit before you die. The more radiation one gets, the more damage it causes.
There is no way to reverse radiation damage and I doubt if by the 23 century there will be a magic cure either
No idea how she was controlling the iron man suit, Doubtful that this little girl in the suit could kill a big klingon and survive the collision (unless it is a true iron man type suit.
The space battle looked impressive but was ridiculous and difficult to follow.
Such a small torpedo in part 2 and yet it essentially mission kills the massive Klingon ship.
The funeral for the Klingon warrior reminded me of “Temple of Doom”
Towards the end of the second part. the 2 women beam over and start fighting the Klingons (with fairly good success despite being outnumbered). I will give Michelle Yeoh some credit for this as she is a martial arts star even though she does eventually lose.
RT has it at 85% with critics and 45% with viewers. Almost the exact opposite of the Orville - critics hated it and viewers loved it, while here critics love it and viewers are mixed.
I haven’t seen the premiere, but I’m not hearing anything that’d inspire me to pay for yet another streaming service. Maybe if it was on Netflix like it is in every country other than this one, which is probably where it’ll end up once All-Access tanks.
I liked it pretty well for a series premier. Usually I’m a little disappointed with the actors and characters and i have to get used to them, but most of the characters were easy on the eyes and I was looking forward to learning more about them. There was some sort of robot character? Looked sort of robotish, but maybe just an alien with a helmet?
Well, the premier was a fake out. Crew gone, except for the science officer I guess. Now I have to meet a whole new crew, and I’ll probably be disappointed. I like the guy who is going to be the new captain, assuming he lives long enough.
The re-re-re-reimagined Klingons are fine. Who cares? They’re just the bad guys.
The main character, Michael (really? Michael?) is kinda boring. There shouldn’t really be a main character anyway. It’s supposed to be about the crew, and not just centered around one character.
So, I liked it better than most Star Trek show premiers, but since the third episode is really a pilot reboot, it’s kinda hard to say.
Haven’t seen it yet (on DVR), but in this Trek fan’s opinion, ‘rebooting’ the Klingons is entirely in keeping with Star Trek (compare TOS vs movie and TNG Klingons) tradition.
I enjoyed it but I think CBS did themselves a disservice by not airing Episodes one and two together as a combined two hour Pilot as I don’t think Episode one alone sold the series or told the full story well enough. I was also a little sour because they delayed the streaming premiere to 8:48 pm to match the Football overrun on the network. That was dumb and annoying. Worse: 8:48 came an went and the show still wasn’t up on the streaming service. I ended up watching the first episode on broadcast TV and the only reason I didn’t miss the first five minutes is I had the foresight to have my DVR on CBS so I could rewind the live TV back to the beginning. I was a little miffed about that.
The first episode was good. The visuals were excellent and well made but it didn’t really feel like Star Trek to me yet. Just felt like Well Made Sci Fi Show
I watched the two episodes back to back and I am a little sleepy so I don’t know what was in which episode so I will spoiler my more specific comments.
[SPOILER]I’m okay with the Klingons looking and acting different. They have looked at least four different way already in all of Trek so what’s one more? Stating that the Federation hadn’t encountered the Klingons for 100 years (ie since the show Enterprise) invalidates several novels but it happens, plus later they sort of walked it back and implied there were some conflicts in those hundred years. I do think subtitling them completely was not a smart choice. They should have done that for a few minutes and then transitioned to English making it clear they were still really speaking Klingon. I do like we are seeing vicious Klingons again. I think having them be allies in the newer Trek’s for so long made them a little tame.
Having full fledged war is an interesting choice but the battle didn’t feel like Star Trek. Like it or hate it, Trek battles have a rhythm with weapons that charge and shields back and forth. Even big battles. This felt more like Star Wars (or the recent Trek Movies). Side Note in Trek History: I am thinking maybe we will end up seeing the Battle of Donatu V before the show ends although the time line is a little wonky because Spock said that happened 20 years ago not 10.
The main reason I felt they should have combined these two into a single show is it is only combined they set up the series. In theory this is all just back story to set up Michael’s character when she joins the titular Star Ship (presumably next week). It actually could have been fleshed out in flashbacks while the real story starts.
[/SPOILER]
I would have preferred the new Star Trek to just be “A ship full of interesting characters explores space”. I think Trek has been away long enough that that feels fresh again and I think it’s why I like The Orville more than it probably deserves because it scratches that itch but this is intriguing enough and I will get used to it I think. To be honest I don’t think we have even see the “real” show yet. This was all set up. I wanted to love this and I only like it but I do like it and will keep watching.
One last note: someone above complained that they had a cure for Radiation sickness. Realistic or not Trek has had that since the days of TOS and it has come up enough times over the series that I can tell you the name of it off the top of my head: Hyronalin
I wasn’t particularly bothered by the rather SG_1/Goa’uld-looking Klingons. Yes, the first episode seemed to focus heavily on some conflict on the bridge and had more action than you’d expect to see on an inaugural episode from this franchise, but it is WAY too soon for me to write this show off right out of the gate. I’m confident the writers will provide some more thoughtful shows (or at least more thoughtful than Enterprise) as the season and show progress. I bet the first episode was intended to just be a ‘grabber’
I had no clue they were not going to show even a complete 1st story. F’ CBS.
The show had good moments and many weak one like the Klingon Orcs. Why change them yet again?
They only introduced 3 characters so far, one can’t act and the other is a terrible character. At least the Vulcan trained action girl was interesting and could believably act.
And what was the stupidity of landing on the craft? What could go wrong with that? I found Chinese Janeway to be pretty much like American Janeway-- not interesting. And yeah. the main character is a female name “Michael”? That makes sense. I liked her on The Walking Dead, but her character here is more annoying than anything. And what’s up with the alien Science Officer guy? Is his race/species congenitally scared shitless all the time? They can’t get a Science Officer in the entire Federation who isn’t a scaredy cat?
I was sort of excited about this show leading up to the airing. Now? Not so much.
Others have articulated my irritations with the plot and characters. My rant here is about CBS.
I have a cable subscription and an AppleTV. I subscribe to Netflix and Hulu for obvious reasons. But every other* streaming service is free on the AppleTV if you already are paying for the access via cable.*
But not CBS!! Paying a monthly subscription fee would make sense if someone wanted access to the CBS content but they are not paying for cable. It does not make sense for those of us who are already paying for access!
Needless to say I will not be paying extra to CBS to stream this show.
Grrrrrrrr.
** (It should be noted that some of the streaming apps are better than others at offering their full cable content.)
