The Orville (Star Trek parody) looks better than the new Star Trek.

[MetalJunkie]

I can't wait.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy9sKeCE8V0

[BlobVanDam]

I'm really looking forward for this. It looks like Galaxy Quest in series form, and Seth MacFarlane has said it's still thoughtful scifi but with a strong comedy element. Visually it's definitely taken cues from TNG era Trek, rather than the generic Hollywood scifi look everything else has these days, including JJ-Trek (and Discovery, which looks just like JJ-Trek).


In before Kotowboy.

[Kotowboy]

I laugh my arse off at Family Guy and American Dad but Seth's schtick has gotten old now for me.

A Million Ways To Die In The West just looked as bad as "Genre Movie" where there's no jokes. Just pop culture references.

Never saw Ted either. A talking teddy bear who sounds exactly like Peter Griffin and has a potty mouth.

Nah.

Of course i'll give Orville a try. I'll always 'fess up if I like something I pre-emptively hated. And i'll 'fess up if I also think Discovery is shite.

*BUT*. you know there are those "trekkies" that will hate Discovery just out of principle. I'm pretty sure some of them have hated everything since

The Undiscovered Country.

[King Postwhore]

Kotowboy, watch Yes.  It's a very good movie.


Of course I'm in on this. 

[Kotowboy]

Kotowboy, watch Yes. 

No.

[King Postwhore]

Lol watch it.  It's good.

[PetFish]

It really bothers me that the middle engine isn't symmetric.  The "blue" should either be in the middle or there should be another "blue" on the other side.

[BlobVanDam]

The top and bottom ones aren't technically perfectly symmetric either, but I see your point. With Star Trek you always had the perfectly symmetrical warp engines on either side. Those engines would be directing their force parallel to each other despite looking angled, so it's mostly for aesthetics. It has a more organic sea creature kind of look.

[Kotowboy]

In Star Trek - you mostly have two engines - which makes sense - equal output L and R.

But some ships have 3 or 4 nacelles - even though they can only go warp 9.9 ?

But it doesn't matter because they don't work like "engines" - pushing the ship forward - the warp engine 'warps' space and the ship crosses vast distances of space by stretching

and squashing space.

[Orbert]

Yeah, baby!

Pretty good stuff.  We watched the first episode tonight.  It was pretty much what I expected, which is fine; and possibly a little better in some ways, which is even better.  Lots of yummy CG stuff, some laughs, and even a surprise or two.  A new show to watch.  I'm excited.

[jammindude]

I'm only 20 min in and I'm absolutely loving it!!

[El Barto]

That was well done. I like the crew dynamics, even if they are formulaic. It was funny only when it needed to be, and the humor rarely got silly. The mission was simple but I can see how they can progress to some more Star Trek themes. The music was perfect. It had a perfect Jery Goldsmith vibe when they were flying the shuttle around the Orville, a la TMP. There are several characters I'd really like to see developed. The racist cyborg should get an episode pretty soon. Gravity Girl seems to have a lot to offer. Certainly curious about the 2nd officer's story. All in all a good show. Look forward to more.
Two standouts were when the blue dude sploodged out of his fourhead, and Justin the ogre.

[BlobVanDam]

I agree with all of the above. I really enjoyed it, a good blend of humour, drama, action and scifi. The characters have a lot of potential that they weren't able to explore in the first episode on top of the story and everything else, and I especially look forward to seeing more of the robot. I liked the style of humour and thought that all hit the mark. It's refreshing to have a lighter, fun scifi show in contrast to the modern serious gritty stuff.

[Adami]

Is it on Hulu or something?

[BlobVanDam]

I saw a tweet the other day that said it will be on Hulu the day after airing on TV.

[Adami]

Oh cool. I'll catch it tomorrow then. Hopefully it's better than the trailer made it look.

[ariich]

Interesting to see decent reviews here. Critics have mostly panned it. Not that I have much interest in what critics think, but often the mood here is similar to that of the critics so I'm glad there's more positivity about this!

[BlobVanDam]

I'm surprised to see other people here enjoy it given the humour aspect, but for a first episode I thought it was really good. I was a little concerned about the reviews, although this is a reminder why I don't pay much attention to them.
For a first episode of a genre show, I thought they did a good job setting it up. Most of my favourite scifi shows have very weak first episodes, because there's so much to establish, and they're usually double episodes.

[gmillerdrake]

I'd love to give it a shot but I literally cannot stand to look at or hear Seth McFarland. I've never found him funny and consider him a pompous a$$....

[El Barto]

I can see how critics would dump on it since it's a real oddball. It doesn't fit into any particular category so it doesn't have any of the necessary elements for a drama, or a comedy, or a sci-fi show. That's the sort of thing that screws with professional critics.

For a first episode of a genre show, I thought they did a good job setting it up. Most of my favourite scifi shows have very weak first episodes, because there's so much to establish, and they're usually double episodes.

Well, there wasn't really much need since the characters were fairly formulaic. Strong girl, racist, ex-wife, a couple of slackers, done. You don't need establishing stories about feeling the emotions of others, seeing the entire EM spectrum, working for your dead husband's boss, or whatever. They covered the principle group in 3 minutes then moved on.

[T-ski]

the promos looked awful, didn't even bother watching.

[BlobVanDam]

For a first episode of a genre show, I thought they did a good job setting it up. Most of my favourite scifi shows have very weak first episodes, because there's so much to establish, and they're usually double episodes.

Well, there wasn't really much need since the characters were fairly formulaic. Strong girl, racist, ex-wife, a couple of slackers, done. You don't need establishing stories about feeling the emotions of others, seeing the entire EM spectrum, working for your dead husband's boss, or whatever. They covered the principle group in 3 minutes then moved on.

You're pretty much right, although being a scifi show, you still have to establish the setting, the dynamic of the world. Again, not a ton to establish yet, but it's still a fair amount to fit into 45 minutes of screen time. They balanced it as well as can be expected imo.
And for now the characters only had time to be briefly introduced, so I'd only expect the surface level cliche character tropes at this point. Bortus has a (male) partner we're yet to even see, many of the characters got little dialogue yet, etc. I expect and hope they'll get fleshed out over time. It's designed to be episodic rather than serialized, so it probably won't be a character development focused show, but there's still more to cover. Either way, I'm definitely interested in more.

[Zydar]

I just watched the first episode, and I liked it. I will continue to watch this show.

[El Barto]

For a first episode of a genre show, I thought they did a good job setting it up. Most of my favourite scifi shows have very weak first episodes, because there's so much to establish, and they're usually double episodes.

Well, there wasn't really much need since the characters were fairly formulaic. Strong girl, racist, ex-wife, a couple of slackers, done. You don't need establishing stories about feeling the emotions of others, seeing the entire EM spectrum, working for your dead husband's boss, or whatever. They covered the principle group in 3 minutes then moved on.

You're pretty much right, although being a scifi show, you still have to establish the setting, the dynamic of the world. Again, not a ton to establish yet, but it's still a fair amount to fit into 45 minutes of screen time. They balanced it as well as can be expected imo.
And for now the characters only had time to be briefly introduced, so I'd only expect the surface level cliche character tropes at this point. Bortus has a (male) partner we're yet to even see, many of the characters got little dialogue yet, etc. I expect and hope they'll get fleshed out over time. It's designed to be episodic rather than serialized, so it probably won't be a character development focused show, but there's still more to cover. Either way, I'm definitely interested in more.

Seems to me that the setting and dynamic of the world are very well known. That's the beauty of it. This pretty much is the ST universe, only with different names for everything.

[BlobVanDam]

For a first episode of a genre show, I thought they did a good job setting it up. Most of my favourite scifi shows have very weak first episodes, because there's so much to establish, and they're usually double episodes.

Well, there wasn't really much need since the characters were fairly formulaic. Strong girl, racist, ex-wife, a couple of slackers, done. You don't need establishing stories about feeling the emotions of others, seeing the entire EM spectrum, working for your dead husband's boss, or whatever. They covered the principle group in 3 minutes then moved on.

You're pretty much right, although being a scifi show, you still have to establish the setting, the dynamic of the world. Again, not a ton to establish yet, but it's still a fair amount to fit into 45 minutes of screen time. They balanced it as well as can be expected imo.
And for now the characters only had time to be briefly introduced, so I'd only expect the surface level cliche character tropes at this point. Bortus has a (male) partner we're yet to even see, many of the characters got little dialogue yet, etc. I expect and hope they'll get fleshed out over time. It's designed to be episodic rather than serialized, so it probably won't be a character development focused show, but there's still more to cover. Either way, I'm definitely interested in more.

Seems to me that the setting and dynamic of the world are very well known. That's the beauty of it. This pretty much is the ST universe, only with different names for everything.

Yeah, I suppose. I'm totally ok with that, of course.

[King Postwhore]

Really dug it. I'm really looking forward to seeing the character development as always in the first season.

As many said, the comedy was just right. It wasn't the typical overwhelming satire from a Seth MacFarlane show and was really enjoyable.

[Orbert]

I almost feel like it wasn't satire in the classic sense.  Satire to me makes fun of the original material.  The type of humor employed and the degree to which it is employed can vary quite a bit, and it can also run the spectrum from open mockery it to poking fun at it but with a clear respect for the source material, almost like a tribute.  Sure, this was a direct rip-off of Star Trek, but it wasn't just a direct rip-off of Star Trek.  It felt more like tribute than mockery.  It got serious a few times and kept a semi-serious vibe, and I think that helped you feel like maybe there's more substance to it.

[Adami]

That was better than I thought.

Not quite as joke heavy as I feared.

[BlobVanDam]

I almost feel like it wasn't satire in the classic sense.  Satire to me makes fun of the original material.  The type of humor employed and the degree to which it is employed can vary quite a bit, and it can also run the spectrum from open mockery it to poking fun at it but with a clear respect for the source material, almost like a tribute.  Sure, this was a direct rip-off of Star Trek, but it wasn't just a direct rip-off of Star Trek.  It felt more like tribute than mockery.  It got serious a few times and kept a semi-serious vibe, and I think that helped you feel like maybe there's more substance to it.

I agree. It wasn't a parody scifi show, it was a light scifi show with added humour. Seth Macfarlane is a big Star Trek fan (he even had a guest appearance in an episode of Enterprise back in the early 2000s), and from interviews I've read about The Orville, he definitely wants to recapture the classic Trek vibe.

[Ben_Jamin]

This is one show that would benefit from the Binge Watching of releasing the entire season at once.

It was ok, but I need more episodes or an entire season to really make judgement. Since it is one of those that gradually grows.

[Adami]

Yea. It was okay. That's a good word. I expected complete trash and it wasn't that.

Unlike Marvel, it doesn't have my loyalty. So even though I'm going to force myself to watch the entirety of Inhumans because of that loyalty, Orville could lose me relatively quickly if they stay as bland as they are.

[King Postwhore]

Yea. It was okay. That's a good word. I expected complete trash and it wasn't that.

Unlike Marvel, it doesn't have my loyalty. So even though I'm going to force myself to watch the entirety of Inhumans because of that loyalty, Orville could lose me relatively quickly if they stay as bland as they are.

You can get that much out of a single episode that is basically a set up for the show?  If that was the case I would have never watched TNG.

[BlobVanDam]

We shouldn't have watched TNG based on the entire first 2 seasons. Most of my favourite scifi shows had pretty weak first episodes/seasons.

[Adami]

Yea. It was okay. That's a good word. I expected complete trash and it wasn't that.

Unlike Marvel, it doesn't have my loyalty. So even though I'm going to force myself to watch the entirety of Inhumans because of that loyalty, Orville could lose me relatively quickly if they stay as bland as they are.

You can get that much out of a single episode that is basically a set up for the show?  If that was the case I would have never watched TNG.

These are different times man. I have a ton of shows I'm watching. Back in the day you just watched a few shows at their specific times. Now adays? If a show doesn't seem good enough, and doesn't have my loyalty, I move on. It is what it is.

Though I like Seth, and the people involved, so I'm giving it a good number of episodes to judge.

[ariich]

Unless I really don't like what I see, then I normally give shows a bit of time - at least a full season usually.