Did* Galaxy Quest* get the rights? :dubious:
Irrelevant. Galaxy Quest is a spoof, a parody, which gives it protection. The Orville is not, as many media outlets have noted:
The Hollywood Reporter’s Dan Fienberg:
IndieWire’s Liz Shannon Miller:
(One comeback someone might be able to aim at Miller is that it seems likely she at least subconsciously lifted the “serial numbers” line from VanDerWerff, who tweeted that jibe a full month before she posted this review.)
I can’t really argue with her, which is why although I have greatly enjoyed nine of the ten episodes, I feel a little guilty about doing so, a bit dirty. Roddenberry’s estate is definitely getting ripped off.
Bunch of killjoys. Orville is a great series, well told, and much more interesting than the actual new Star Trek series Discovery. Macfarlane has done something impressive: he and his people have captured the spirit of Trek while coming up with some original premises. Well done.
I don’t let useless “critics” tell me what I should think of a TV show.
Well I think it’s a good jumping off point for thinking about what copyright should cover, and how long it should last.
If the actual stories all reminded me of specific trek episodes, then there might be a problem, but they don’t.
If they’ve copied anything it’s something of the set dressing and tone of the show and frankly I think those things should be fair game by now. IOW, even if it’s legally wrong, I don’t consider it morally so in any sense.
I remain dumbfounded by the reviews, but at least I can now see part of it is that they were anticipating something else.
I didn’t see parallels to individual episodes either. But although I have seen every episode of the original series, I’ve only seen maybe 150-200 episodes of the past 30 years of Trek (about a quarter of the total, IIRC), including only about a dozen episodes of TNG. Over at the episode threads at Jammer’s Reviews, there are many fans with encyclopedic knowledge of all of Trek, and they report quite a few very familiar plots.
Again, it’s one of my favorite shows currently airing, but I feel a little icky about my enjoyment, like I’m watching porn and I know the girl is 17 but I’m just going with it because she’s so hot.
Erm…ok
Enjoying The Orville is like watching illegal porn? WTH?
Roddenberry’s estate has been ripped off with every progressively darker, progressively grittier adaptation of his optimistic and primary-colored universe.
The best thing about The Orville is watching what happens when the show is run by somebody whose first goal is paying deep and heartfelt respect to the source material.
I’m going to ignore your other analogy because it’s really gross.
As for the critics, screw 'em. The gulf between the critics and the fans (21% and 93% respectively on RT) should tell you everything you need to know about their perceptions.
MacFarlane asked to do a real Star Trek and got turned down, so Fox let him do his own version instead. And guess what? It turns out he knew exactly what fans wanted. Star Trek. Not a generic modern space drama with a Trek-flavored candy coating.
Watching The Orville is like robbing convenience stores when you really know that you shouldn’t be robbing convenience stores, but you love the rush.
I agree with every jot and tittle of what you wrote in the part I quoted. And I really loved the first nine episodes of this series and despite the one hiccup I’m sure I will see many more that I love, because I’m not going to stop watching.
But I still don’t feel comfortable with the idea that if someone wants to license intellectual property to do their take on it, and the owner of that property says no, it’s OK for them to just do it anyway. At least not for profit.
But then I’m pretty picky about this issue. For instance, I have never illegally downloaded or torrented music, movies, or TV shows. I believe it is morally wrong to do so, and I have been known to call people out for it in comment sections. So for me to continue to watch this show despite my reservations is actually as far on the dark side of this issue as you will ever find me. I would refuse to watch on principle if I just mildly liked the show. It’s precisely how much I like it that keeps me watching despite my qualms.
Where does one get porn with 17 year-olds in them then?
what I like about The Orville (and keep in mind, I generally liked ST:TNG as well) is that the characters interact in ways familiar to us. most people know at least a couple of guys who act like Lamarr and Malloy do with each other. most of us know someone who has a high level of self-doubt like Alara. Mercer and Grayson’s occasional bickering- while played up- is at least believable as an ex-couple.
Roddenberry, I think, went too far in assuming humans would become more “Vulcan-like;” less flawed, less emotional, and long past our petty differences and wars with each other. Besides, he just replaced human conflict with fighting alien races which were basically stand-ins for various human cultures anyway.
I wouldn’t know. I get my porn legally.
This may be a fair critique of the new generation of Star Trek shows, but TOS characters Kirk and McCoy were very emotional. “He knows, Doctor. He knows.”
In terms of conflict though, humans have learned to live peacefully for the most part. We live in cities of millions, it wouldn’t be sustainable if every one of us were waiting for the chance to get medieval, or if the murder rate was anything like the historical data.
Also, for the kind of time frames that Star Trek is based in we’ll probably be modifying the human genome and/or augmenting our neurology (and aggressive impulses will be one of the first things we’d want to bin).
In many ways the humans in ST are far too much like late 20th / early 21st century humans because it would be incredibly hard to write a compelling, relateable drama otherwise.
Not in the Trek universe, at any rate. That’s what the Eugenics Wars were all about.
Good point. I recall from DS9 that it is illegal to manipulate genes in the Federation. One wonders if it is done for medical reasons. Dr. Bashir’s parents modified his illegally.
They only had to do it illegally, because any form of genetic manipulation was illegal. (This has been a minor plot point in Discovery.)
If you read my thread in MPSIMS you’ll see that I’ve pretty much been out of touch with the world in general for the last couple of months. I have been trying to get caught up on The Orville.
This thread is too long to read so forgive me if I repeat what others have said.
I am really enjoying it. It’s drama with some humor thrown in. Some of the humor works, and a good deal of it falls flat, which is okay by me since overall I’m finding it very entertaining. I’ve lost interest in the new Star Trek but I look forward to each new episode of The Orville.
I think the best joke so far was the tease of Bortus singing being interupted by an alert. I want to here Bortus sing dammit!
I take your point, but emotionally they were just less stoic than Spock. And of course the occasional “you green-blooded, inhuman…” bit from McCoy. But as far as the rest of the main cast went, most of the time they might as well have been props (something that cause a festering resentment from them towards Shatner.)
I’m thinking more along the lines of things such as Grayson getting totally flustered with the crewman in the elevator and shouting “I’m sorry, but do you just ride up and down the fricking elevator all day?!? Is that your fricking job?!?!?!” I don’t recall any stuff like that in ST.