QuickTidal, on 19 December 2017 - 06:46 PM, said:
Alternative Goose, on 17 December 2017 - 08:19 PM, said:
Watched a couple of episodes of Orville.
Not terrible. Not particularly funny or clever either. Just seems like an off-brand Star Trek. That's not a bad thing. I haven't watched a Start Trek show in... 15 years? So I guess I'm actually interested.
Just how generic it is bothers me a little bit though. This is a form of spoof of Star Trek but I think that is too little, too late in 2017. The show is highly anachronistic in a way TNG and it's spin-off's didn't feel like in 90s.
The carbon copy of The Enterprises command structure is even less believable today. The technology seems outdated now. Their protocols seem sloppy. The action lacks new thinking.
And yet, the two stories I have watched so far were entertaining. I feel like they have to turn the humor/satire up heavily though if they're going to deserve a second season.
The show settles into what it is by mid-season (you're right, it's off-brand TNG)...and it was given a second season order by Fox at that point already. They don't turn the humour/satire up at all in fact, they dial it back a bit. Whats' great about that though is that the humour is not some Utopian ideal of "What's funny". It's more what we as humans now might evolve into by then....and our laughing at stupid stuff would not cease.
It's basically a balm to anyone who hates ST: DISCOVERY, and was looking for something more like Star Trek.
I can agree that their call backs to old Earth humor, like reality TV, is funny but in general I think the show is a mess.
I'm 8 episodes in and I don't understand who okay'd these scripts. The premise of each episode is a quirky take on old Star Trek stories but then there's no follow through. They just go by the numbers with the occasional, meant to be funny, modern observation or unexpected action/reaction, like when faced with an evil alien captain they distract him by talking about their love life or some such. It's not clever or funny. It's like the script has blank spaces where the writing team were supposed to come up with some great material and then they just chose to play it straight.
It's the equivelant of watching Brooklyn 99, with out satire.
The show needs to figure out if it wants to be funny or serious and then actually commit to it.
One of the latest episodes I watched was them visiting an (unbelievably) similar version of 21st century Earth, where it's a total democracy, where everybody and everything is upvoted or downvoted and nobody cares about facts, just public opinion. This (awful character) navigator on the team, acts completely idiotic, gets in trouble... and then they just play it straight. They don't play with the notion of an away team filled with idiots. They play it like "oops we did a cultural faux pas, lets take this seriously"... but it doesn't work, because this idiotic navigator character is an insufferable idiot that you could never believe would actually have the job he positions.
Got I hope they Natasha Yar him before the season is over.