Couple of things
I thought this was the anti-trek, and would love to hear George Takei’s views on the show. Pretty certain the Oh My’s would have been coming fast and furious.
Concidering how well the effects were, I would have been curious to see what would have happened if they did the show straight.
So far of all the cast, only Adrienne Paliki really appeals to me and thats the prob. I would prefer this show tanks, so that she goes back to Agent of Shield.
The horror.
I quite enjoyed it. The humor is a bit weird, and I prefer the more subtle ones parts and not where it breaks the narrative (like the villain on the viewscreen).
There wasn’t really any substance beyond the relationship stuff, but that’s okay. And they really did not get the stakes quite right in the commercial breaks. But it worked okay.
Though it’s a trip going back to muting and doing something else while waiting for the ads to go away. Still, I want this show to succeed, and I’ve heard it’s got a lot of bad reviews, so I’m trying to support them.
I hope the show gets a bit more science fiction underpinnings as it goes, and doesn’t do narrative breaking gags. But it has a lot of potential. In just a short period, it already seems far more like Star Trek then what they’ve described for Discovery. It just feel like they’re new at it.
From the commercials, I assumed the robot-looking guy was a robot, and the Data parody. Interesting that it is instead a super-xenophobic alien. (Still seems to be the Data/Spock parody, though.)
I think the robot IS a robot. The robots think all organic life forms are inferior.
Brian
There’s another thread on this topic, involving Heidi, for some reason.
Years ago, I used to warn people NOT to put a show on Fox, for just that reason. Well, tell people who would listen, mostly, I don’t actually know anyone who’d be in a position to pitch a TV show anyway.
In those days I wanted to see The Simpsons, Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers and other cartoons. I wanted that Space: Above and Beyond would just end and let a Simpson episode appear, but it was often preempted by a game. I never watched Firefly because I knew preempting would happen.
Anyway, football on Fox is now under control. The OT frequently mentioned that Seth MacFarlane’s new series was coming up. Fox has carefully worked game start time, and has The OT under control. I definitely noticed that there was less commentary to save time.
'Course, that just flies out the window with Nascar. They weren’t under control at all last time I checked. Race is over, rambling interviews, and the, 15 minutes into the next time slot – is it time to wrap it up? Nope, time for another rambling interview.
Still. If this works well enough. Fox can try to rein in this sort of thing just for this show.
I really don’t know how long it takes to CGI in the phaser blasts. And of course, “Riding the donkey” and related shots maybe all that’s “in the can.” And the rest can be acted out, later, or not if the series tanks. But from the Wikipedia episode guide, its seems like a lot of the way the series is going to go is defined.
I saw this for the first time the other night. Good parts but a lot of bad parts…get their crap together and it could be a good laugh once a week
We saw the first episode on Amazon last night. Parody is an apt description. I’ve never been a big Star Trek fan, but the parody of it is right there in front of you.
The comedic moments aren’t the LOL kind. The parody itself is part of the comedy, as is the sly asides/commentary characters make. It wasn’t offensive at all. I was surprised McFarland turned it down that much.
I wouldn’t mind seeing another couple of episodes but I think a show like this tends to either acquire a cult following like Galaxy Quest or quietly dies.
I think it has potential if they drop the stupid comedy attempts and used it more of a SciFi drama with the dynamics of the ex, her going behind his back with the admiralty and hiding she is the reason why he has this position, however if it was not for her cheating and his going through a divorce badly and the downturn of his life, he would have most likely captained a better ship, it has potential.
We will see which way this goes, but praying they drop the really bad comedy.
I dropped out when it was revealed his XO was going to be his ex-wife. Don’t think I’ll be back.
I enjoyed the first episode. Less Family Guy type humor then I expected and that is a good for me at least. The Arbor Day solution was really bad science of course and I guess played for laughs. I can buy the aging ray (allowing for Star Trek/Doctor Who techno-babble) but a 100 foot red wood would need a huge amount of resources to grow, not just time. That one can be chalked up to rule of funny but pulled me out of the show a little.
I liked the crew dynamic so far and will keep watching.
I think it could be as good as MAS*H, a serious sci-fi clone of ST:TNG, with smart aleck remarks from Seth, his ex-wife, the helmsmen, while everyone else tries to push for “will you be serious, this is important.” And the comedians go, “I’m only going to be as serious as I absolutely have to be, because reasons.”
I just read the NPR review linked above, and I understand the criticism – if its going to briefly touch on touchy subjects, and have the captain and first officer riff on it, its going to seem trivial and that weakens the show. But if there’s heart behind what they do, when its serious or funny, m the series could have some legs.
Ed wanted his ex-wife gone at the beginning of the episode, but asked her to stay at the end. Maybe a series arc begins here: he wants her back. Maybe. But not really. But … maybe.
If they dropped comedy it’d just be Star Trek without admitting it.
Say what you will, but at this point in its run TNG was a pretty cheesy-ass show and didn’t really find its tone until its second season. I suspect The Orville had a chance to run for awhile, since
I wish MacFarlance had been a bit more original in the conception of the universe - little things, like the ship being named “USS Orville” rather than some other prefix, like “UEV” or any three letters you can hammer together, for instance. I understand why he wanted an optimistic, bright universe (like Star Trek) with a cast aboard a ship that explores spaces (like Star Trek) but a little more effort to make a unique universe would have been nice. I’m half surprised he didn’t put the Union HQ in San Francisco.
The 1968 “Heidi Game” is still remembered among football fans, and is considered to be the classic example of why the TV networks will no longer pull away from the end of a NFL game for a “regular” program.
Now see - the villain on the viewscreen was actually done perfectly - as its intent was not to be funny to us (directly) - but to throw the villain off his game and delay him (long enough to build the redwood weapon).
I see the humor being more about ‘not’ being thenormal stuffy command structure - and doing things in space battles that otherwise wouldnt be done (the ship zooming in and around the bigger alien vs standing ‘toe to toe’ with it.).
Yup. Here’s the thread: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=835982
I think this is evidence that there is an audience hungry for optimistic Sci Fi. CBS was dumb for dumping Star Trek on their streaming platform. It will have a fraction of the audience it could have had (assuming it is true to Trek and optimistic Sci Fi).
I agree, I’m not even going to look into the new series until it becomes available on a more mainstream outlet like TV, Amazon or Netflix.
While a number of those were quick cancellations - girls club lasted only about 3 episodes - Titus actually had more episodes air up to that point than FG did. Also, Fox hasn’t been as hasty pulling shows as it used to be; the last show I can think of that was cancelled “early” was Utopia (the reality show about people living in a self-contained ecosystem of some sort). (Our Little Genius, which was cancelled before any episodes aired, doesn’t count as it was pulled by its producer when he discovered that some associate producers were giving hints (or questions, or even answers, depending on the version of the story) to the contestants.)
As I said on the other thread, after this Sunday, Fox is moving the show to Thursdays at 9 Eastern, after Gotham. The “usual” Sunday schedule returns on 10/1.