I’m another one. I wonder how long it will last on their service until they decide it’s not working.
I read one review that called The Orville “unethical and immoral”. The reviewer was outraged by it. I wish I could remember where I read it so I could share it. Talk about over-the-top. The show seems to be doing well with viewers but terribly with critics. Some have “meh” reactions while others hate it. What’s going on??
I honestly don’t know what critics were expecting. The show was pitched as an hour-long dramedy Star Trek parody and that’s exactly what they delivered.
After seeing only the pilot (dunno if critics have seen more; sometimes they get the first few episodes) I think there is definitely room for improvement in the pacing, characterization, and figuring the kind of jokes that will work in the format. But a lot of the criticism seems unduly harsh. Maybe it’s just fashionable to dislike Seth MacFarlane - I get that. Family Guy ran out of steam years ago, and A Million Ways to Die in the West was a flop.
I’m fairly certain the once-a-year-piss guy is going to piss out a huge fire, ala Strange Brew.
It was Star Trek with actual human beings in it. I’ll stick around for the novelty factor, at least for a few more episodes. If they can get their feet under them, this could be genuinely great.
Incidentally, the XO (and “XW”) mentioned her next possible ship was the Chanute, which I assume was a reference to Octave Chanute, who advised Wilbur and (wait for it) Orville Wright: Octave Chanute - Wikipedia
I was wondering how long it would take someone to pick up on the “Pioneers of Aviation” theme. 
I’ll bet the next few starships are named the Leonardo, the Lillienthal, and the Langley.
It’s either that or the pioneers of popcorn. Who knows what they’ll be naming ships after in the 25th century.
I could see a version of that scene that works that way. But, as portrayed, I saw him as lying about the whole delay tactic just to annoy his XO. And then, when she also starts doing it, it’s clearly out of spite. But even that I could buy, if not for the the villain actually stopping at the start and then answering questions later on.
It read to me like a comedy bit, not something that could have naturally happened in the scene in question. It felt like a Family Guy gag where everything stops for the joke. YM(apparently)V.
I assume you mean “long enough to think up the redwood weapon.” They didn’t actually build it until after they cut the guy off.
Normally I wouldn’t nitpick, but that’s a great example of the type of joke I’m talking about. It’s nice and subtle, having them just flat out say “cut him off,” unlike on Star Trek where it just goes off sometimes when it’s convenient. And they didn’t play the old tired version of the joke where the villain can still overhear them. No, just a nice, subtle jab.
And, yes, I agree with Miller about these seeming like normal people in a Star Trek setting. He found the words I was trying to think of.
I was okay with it because it was set up so well. They set up that the seeds would grow anywhere, using whatever was around them.
It’s not like Star Trek didn’t have impossible growth. Look at Genesis. Extremely sped up growth on a barren planet with no actual resources for life. Heck, now that I think about it, maybe it was a reference to that.
I just saw it as using a clever solution to solve their problems–one that the fans could figure out. Kinda like the metaphors in old Star Trek, before it became so technobabble heavy.
Hell, that wasn’t even the only Easter egg in the character names. The sapient AI is named “Isaac”. The admiral’s last name is “Halsey”. The doctor’s last name is “Grayson”.
As in Asimov, the Paul McCartney song, and Spock’s mother respectively.
“Halsey” I picked up on immediately; the other two, I guess I wasn’t paying attention. 
Though my first reaction to “Grayson” would probably be to associate it with “Dick.” :smack:
I’m not really seeing a parody. I think a parody would be a send up of any of the many Star Trek tropes out there: The captain wants to make it with every alien babe. The red shirt is always dying. The transporter malfunctions. The holodeck malfunctions. They warp to plaid. OK, I;ll grant that the helmsman likes to drink and so did Scotty.
What I saw was a wise-cracking yet moderately competent crew. OK, a couple of them are straight men. But the basic story was essentially SF, if a little bit Doctor Who at the end with the tree growing out of nothing. But I’ll forgive that because they never explained exactly how that field was supposed to work anyway.
It’s a delicate line blending comedy and drama. I enjoyed it. I want to see it succeed. It didn’t knock my socks off but I’m damned if I’m paying CBS a monthly fee for the privilege of watching their show so this is all I got.
Someone upthread mentioned MASH and I was thinking that as well but I think I got something even more appropriate. Here’s what I’m hoping. I’m hoping that this could become an SF version of Psych* a police drama that was usually amusing and semi-serious at the same time. That’s the tone I think they need to shoot for.
Other shows have managed to pull off a comedy–jeopardy format pretty well; McHale’s Navy and Get Smart, f’rinstance.
Yeek. Hadn’t thought of that. Given how often Stewie and Brian break into song, its seems very likely.
I’m surprised no one (except me) has noted the use of “That’s very **magnanimous **of you!” yet.
It’s what Kirk says to Garth of Izar when he gives him Marta as his own personal pleasure slave in “Whom Gods Destroy,” the only other time I can recall hearing the word “magnanimous” in my life (except for my own use of it over the years).
It’s more of a soft parody than an outright mockery, I suppose. The humor derives more from hanging lampshades on the space opera genre than in openly making fun of them.
The technobabble explanation for the tree was both classic ST and a perfect send-up of the genre. The scientist at the base explains that the redwood seeds have been modified with tardigrade DNA, which - if you watched the MacFarlane-produced reboot of Cosmos - you will remember are microscopic “water bears” that can survive in any climate, including the vacuum of space, for potentially billions of years. It’s just the kind of miracle fix that Kirk/Picard and company would have come up with to save the Enterprise from some unbeatable enemy.
According to fanon, Amanda is a descendent of Richard Grayson, the dynamic mayor of Gotham just before the War.
Here it is. When I first saw the headline (and before the episode aired) I figured that it would be because the show had McFarlane’s signature willingness to make tasteless/off-color jokes. But nope, the show is morally and ethically bankrupt–because it is a parody of Star Trek. The writer is apparently a moron.
I keep thinking that this is more The Office (Or maybe Office Space) in space than Star Trek, as ST had more military discipline. They didn’t have helm, weapons, or tactical doing inane chatter like they did here. At least, not in front of Picard! I don’t think the military would let them get away with some of it.
I also didn’t have a problem with the tree solution because, as others pointed out, not having the required resources for it to grow is Trek to m, which is based on something plausible and taken to the implausible.
I liked that he had the intelligent joke (Arbor Day) and she had the crude one.
I like that it’s optimistic as others have said. Yes, we do need more of that. And while I do think the Krill weren’t bad @$$, I did find them interesting and want to know more about them. I wanted to hear that everyone was using stun on their weapons, so it’s almost a “no harm no foul” kind of diplomacy that allows for guns but it’s not fatal. That’s me, though, nothing we saw on screen supports that.
I will keep watching.
ST:TNG also had an episode that involved pockets of accelerated or slowed time. And yeah, it is really, really, really stupid science (but actually IMHO acceptable in parody form than in what is supposed to be more serious SF.)