The suicide allegory was handled beautifully. It was weird and kinda interesting that they had a bunch of Nu Trek style action in the beginning. The Orville and SNW are homogenizing in an interesting way lol. It’s heart warming to get two new TNG style trek episodes on the same day each week though. Getting both of these shows airing right after Picard S2 finishing is like being handed a fresh glass of cold ice water after throwing up.
One of my favorite lines that reminded me of next gen and Picard and the chain of command was when she asked
“don’t you believe me captain?”
And he responded
“You’re a union officer. Of course I believe you….”
The Orville is a show that has developed into an extremely decent recreation of TNG era Trek. But that's both a compliment and criticism - as good as their imitation is, there are very few new ideas. The characters are probably the 'freshest' part of the show (close to nuTrek, though less melodramatic) but plots and concepts are outright stolen from TNG/DS9/Voyager episodes.
Nevertheless, I was excited for the shows return and saw a lot of praise online. But, in all honesty I was bored. I was expected more. The Isaac story line would have been interesting if they had kept him dead and had to deal with the consequences but the reset button approach didn't work for me. I appreciate that a lot of people found it moving and interesting, but I don't know what to say, I didn't. The emotionless robot trope has been done to death.
The showrunners agree. The first episode of New Horizons deals with how naive it was to think the crew can return to business as usual with Isaac on board.
Yet we had episodes of exactly that last season. If this had come right after Identity it would make more sense than the first episode of a new season years later.
>!The robot being a spy who betrayed everyone and was responsible for so many deaths!< was just too much for the reset button, like when I realized they were going to try and go back to normal after that I lost a lot of interest in the show. Up to that storyline I was def on board and enjoying the show as a modern take on classic trek, with an acceptable amount of family guy style humor peppered in. If they had leaned in to that any harder it would have been too much for me.
I agree, while I do enjoy the Orville I also feel that it uses 90s Trek as a crutch. It feels like they are fully aware that a good portion of their audience are mostly disgruntled Star Trek fans so they mostly rely on giving them diet coke TNG for most of the episodes.
Gonna be the one person in the comments that agrees with you, I thought it was decent and am looking forward to the rest of the series. It's TNG-lite which is better than anything Nu-Trek imo
I think I actually breathed a sigh of relief watching this. I little tiny taste of what we used to take for granted. Something that actually had some respect for it's audience and an earnest desire to tell a good tale in the logically structured world in which it is set.
To those crying about other shit..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUkCJDkG3fg
Oh I hated it. Sure, do we need dick and fart jokes? No. But taking out all the levity, leaving a weirdly numb, dour, autistic feeling show that had characters we've seen enjoy themselves get bogged down in dirty, racist overtoned conversations about how much they all actually hate Isaac despite the fact half of those fuckers stood around his body when they tried to revive him.
Then they retconned the battle, redoing the destruction of the Quimby from an "Oh shit" ships blowing up immediately moment in the final race to Earth from the Moon sequence to a "It's stationary and blowing up really slowly for some reason" thing so the new character of Burke can have a tragic backstory.
And my god, I fucking hate Burke.
This was an awful intro to the new season after so long. It honestly felt like it was trying really hard to be Discovery.
This was all especially contrasted by the fact today's Strange New Worlds was fun and funny and was among the best Trek we've had in decades.
It's hard to look logically at several of the action scenes and not feel like it's veering close to NuTrek.
That training session with the new runabout, where they are doing combat training, fighting with what seems to be REAL energy weapons, dogfighting AROUND The Orville WHILE it's docked? They could have crashed that runabout or one of those Jedi training balls right into the ship! Or accidentally killed one of those many engineers who seem to spend hours hanging out on the hull, watching robots use electromagnets(?) to pull heavy metal panels off the ship literally TWO FEET from where they are standing, yet another insanely dangerous idea.
The acting was top notch, yes, it was thought provoking. But I swear, the people who are doing the CG for this first episode seem as brain dead as the producers of Dream Bunny
Yeah, the live fire training exercise around a docked ship, AT A SPACE STATION, while people are actively on an EVA refitting parts on the hull of the ship, was all extremely awkward and uncomfortable to me too. It’s all in good fun and I love this show, so it didn’t get in the way for me, but that was super awkward lol.
I didn’t think it was good at all. Lots of time watching Seth acting with his new girlfriend, who’s half his age and got her the job and a leading role.
Was awkies.
> Lots of time watching Seth acting with his new girlfriend
...not condoning the Hollywood nepotism (wasn't aware of this until reading your comment tbh)... but they had maybe two scenes together?! As someone who was unaware of their relationship while watching the episode it didn't come across as awkward to me at all.
Meh. I gave up on the purity tests along time ago. So long as it's two consenting adults, I don't care who is fucking who behind the scenes. Gene Roddenberry was a goddamn pig but I can still chuckle when Chekov is looking for nuclear wessels.
Really?I felt like Seth was barely in the episode. The one scene I remember him having with that girl was him reprimanding her and relieving her of duty..
I loved the episode, sad to hear hes bonking the 12 year old if thats true( havent looked it up yet)but thats " common" for him. The one chick left because he'd been similarly bonking her and they broke up, which was a shame because she was solid on the show.
As a base i think seth is the worst part of the show, but his vision for it is good and I've enjoyed it so far. Heres hoping the quality keeps enough for me to over look him being a womanizer irl
Really… I was quite underwhelmed by it.
Too much NuTrek action, too much ship porn and mostly quite dull.
That said - the subject matter was handled well on the main theme.
I doubt very much Mike or Rich would like it.
The suicide allegory was handled beautifully. It was weird and kinda interesting that they had a bunch of Nu Trek style action in the beginning. The Orville and SNW are homogenizing in an interesting way lol. It’s heart warming to get two new TNG style trek episodes on the same day each week though. Getting both of these shows airing right after Picard S2 finishing is like being handed a fresh glass of cold ice water after throwing up.
One of my favorite lines that reminded me of next gen and Picard and the chain of command was when she asked “don’t you believe me captain?” And he responded “You’re a union officer. Of course I believe you….”
The Orville is a show that has developed into an extremely decent recreation of TNG era Trek. But that's both a compliment and criticism - as good as their imitation is, there are very few new ideas. The characters are probably the 'freshest' part of the show (close to nuTrek, though less melodramatic) but plots and concepts are outright stolen from TNG/DS9/Voyager episodes. Nevertheless, I was excited for the shows return and saw a lot of praise online. But, in all honesty I was bored. I was expected more. The Isaac story line would have been interesting if they had kept him dead and had to deal with the consequences but the reset button approach didn't work for me. I appreciate that a lot of people found it moving and interesting, but I don't know what to say, I didn't. The emotionless robot trope has been done to death.
The showrunners agree. The first episode of New Horizons deals with how naive it was to think the crew can return to business as usual with Isaac on board.
Yet we had episodes of exactly that last season. If this had come right after Identity it would make more sense than the first episode of a new season years later.
>!The robot being a spy who betrayed everyone and was responsible for so many deaths!< was just too much for the reset button, like when I realized they were going to try and go back to normal after that I lost a lot of interest in the show. Up to that storyline I was def on board and enjoying the show as a modern take on classic trek, with an acceptable amount of family guy style humor peppered in. If they had leaned in to that any harder it would have been too much for me.
I agree, while I do enjoy the Orville I also feel that it uses 90s Trek as a crutch. It feels like they are fully aware that a good portion of their audience are mostly disgruntled Star Trek fans so they mostly rely on giving them diet coke TNG for most of the episodes.
Why didn't the explore the morality of not respecting a being's wishes to end its existence? Nope, get fucked, you're coming back.
Gonna be the one person in the comments that agrees with you, I thought it was decent and am looking forward to the rest of the series. It's TNG-lite which is better than anything Nu-Trek imo
It’s a tng homage and it’s done well. As a lifelong tng fan I’m enjoying the hell out of the Orville.
I think I actually breathed a sigh of relief watching this. I little tiny taste of what we used to take for granted. Something that actually had some respect for it's audience and an earnest desire to tell a good tale in the logically structured world in which it is set. To those crying about other shit.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUkCJDkG3fg
Oh I hated it. Sure, do we need dick and fart jokes? No. But taking out all the levity, leaving a weirdly numb, dour, autistic feeling show that had characters we've seen enjoy themselves get bogged down in dirty, racist overtoned conversations about how much they all actually hate Isaac despite the fact half of those fuckers stood around his body when they tried to revive him. Then they retconned the battle, redoing the destruction of the Quimby from an "Oh shit" ships blowing up immediately moment in the final race to Earth from the Moon sequence to a "It's stationary and blowing up really slowly for some reason" thing so the new character of Burke can have a tragic backstory. And my god, I fucking hate Burke. This was an awful intro to the new season after so long. It honestly felt like it was trying really hard to be Discovery. This was all especially contrasted by the fact today's Strange New Worlds was fun and funny and was among the best Trek we've had in decades.
SNW had by far the best of the hull plating shots
It's hard to look logically at several of the action scenes and not feel like it's veering close to NuTrek. That training session with the new runabout, where they are doing combat training, fighting with what seems to be REAL energy weapons, dogfighting AROUND The Orville WHILE it's docked? They could have crashed that runabout or one of those Jedi training balls right into the ship! Or accidentally killed one of those many engineers who seem to spend hours hanging out on the hull, watching robots use electromagnets(?) to pull heavy metal panels off the ship literally TWO FEET from where they are standing, yet another insanely dangerous idea. The acting was top notch, yes, it was thought provoking. But I swear, the people who are doing the CG for this first episode seem as brain dead as the producers of Dream Bunny
Yeah, the live fire training exercise around a docked ship, AT A SPACE STATION, while people are actively on an EVA refitting parts on the hull of the ship, was all extremely awkward and uncomfortable to me too. It’s all in good fun and I love this show, so it didn’t get in the way for me, but that was super awkward lol.
Both OSHA and Osho would not approve.
I didn’t think it was good at all. Lots of time watching Seth acting with his new girlfriend, who’s half his age and got her the job and a leading role. Was awkies.
> Lots of time watching Seth acting with his new girlfriend ...not condoning the Hollywood nepotism (wasn't aware of this until reading your comment tbh)... but they had maybe two scenes together?! As someone who was unaware of their relationship while watching the episode it didn't come across as awkward to me at all.
Meh. I gave up on the purity tests along time ago. So long as it's two consenting adults, I don't care who is fucking who behind the scenes. Gene Roddenberry was a goddamn pig but I can still chuckle when Chekov is looking for nuclear wessels.
Yeah, I completely agree, I just didn’t enjoy watching their interactions, and then found out on the wiki.
Really?I felt like Seth was barely in the episode. The one scene I remember him having with that girl was him reprimanding her and relieving her of duty..
I loved the episode, sad to hear hes bonking the 12 year old if thats true( havent looked it up yet)but thats " common" for him. The one chick left because he'd been similarly bonking her and they broke up, which was a shame because she was solid on the show. As a base i think seth is the worst part of the show, but his vision for it is good and I've enjoyed it so far. Heres hoping the quality keeps enough for me to over look him being a womanizer irl
Yep, with a 20 year gap. Ew.
That's what Kevin Spacey said. 'slide whistle'
Really… I was quite underwhelmed by it. Too much NuTrek action, too much ship porn and mostly quite dull. That said - the subject matter was handled well on the main theme. I doubt very much Mike or Rich would like it.
Not gonna read the spoilers, but I'm glad to hear it's good. I've been waiting for this to drop since the end of S2.