(Sorry, not sorry for the old yet still valid meme)

I just wanted everyone here to know that !theorville@lemmy.world has been taken over relaunched by me and will become an active community again!

In the name of interplanetary peace, everyone here is invited to sub if you have not already done so and to start posting whatever news/discussion/memes related to The Orville you can think of.

I’m going to add .world’s c/startrek and c/tenforward to the links section of our community and I hope you guys do the same.

Happy Arbor Day! (No, seriously, the 25th of April is actually Arbor Day.)

  • AlexisBlackbird@lemmy.caEnglish
    293·
    2 months ago

    Discovery gets more hate then it deserves, but The Orville is certainly more of a Star Trek show. I’m glad I stuck out the rough start (which is on brand for a Star Trek show lol)

      • AlexisBlackbird@lemmy.caEnglish
        7·
        2 months ago

        SNW is great. It is such a pure distillation of Star Trek

        I don’t really like the gorn plotline, but it’s the show I recommend as a first for new Trekkies

      • Ledericas@lemm.eeEnglish
        11·
        2 months ago

        It’s an attempt at rectifying the 2 series, but it’s also though

      • Ledericas@lemm.eeEnglish
        22·
        2 months ago

        Both Picard and std was bad. Picard’s execution of the series couldve been better, if they dint follow the same plot as std

    • Miles O'Brien@startrek.websiteEnglish
      6·
      2 months ago

      Now I’m thinking I should give it another try.

      I gave Discovery half a season, I have the Orville 2 or 3 episodes and while it was funny it didn’t really click for me. I just lost interest after a few episodes.

      Edit: just finished episode 3. Now I remember why I didn’t keep watching. I should have just read the plot breakdown and skipped the episode. It just left a bad taste in my mouth.

      • FrChazzz@lemm.eeEnglish
        15·
        2 months ago

        The best way that I found to think about The Orville is that Seth MacFarlane had to shoe-horn jokes into the first few episodes to satisfy the execs who expected him to make a comedy and then gradually that tapers off to become a really solid Star Trek-type show (that still has humor, but it’s more organic, workplace type humor).

        • phx@lemmy.ca
          11·
          2 months ago

          Yeah, it follows a lot of the “futuristic parallels to modern day issues” that we saw with ToS and TNG, while at the same time adding in humor that ranges from tongue-in-cheek to outright raunchy. I can’t imagine a TNG episode that would address “holodeck sex addiction” but Orville actually manages to do a pretty good job of stradding seriousness of that issue along with humor.

          For the more serious stuff: imagine an alliance when it’s discovered that one of the members has done (and is still doing) some stuff that’s pretty strongly against the morals of the rest. If called on it they threaten to pull out. While all are in the middle of a war for survival. And they’re also one of the biggest weapons suppliers

          That’s pretty close to some issues today while also being years old.

      • wjrii@lemmy.worldEnglish
        12·
        2 months ago

        The Orville is a weird show. It hews very closely to the format and production design of 90s Trek (including a lot of budget-conscious decisions), and many of the creatives have a Star Trek background going back that far. Frankly, I think a lot of the scripts were from the TNG slush pile. It’s clearly a love letter to those shows.

        However, it’s also clearly Seth MacFarlane’s love letter. He gets to be the captain. His friends and lovers get to play major parts despite sometimes not really having the acting chops for it. The characters are all obsessed with the cultural touchstones of white American Gen-X’ers. In the early going, the Family-Guy/Ted/etc. sense of humor is front and center, and while that gets much better, it never fully goes away. One can also just about imagine 20-something Seth and his buddies screaming at the TV that there is no moral ambiguity in a given ST episode and that Jean Luc needs to just pick a side.

        In some ways, it can be pretty rough, but then, mostly because it is such an earnest homage, it’s greater than the sum of its parts. I never fell in love with it the way many have, but after wading through the first few episodes and getting a feel for what it was and wasn’t, I grew fond of it. I’d say it’s worth watching, but you don’t have to apologize for not fully buying in. TBH, I feel fairly similar levels of tempered fondness for Disco, though for very different reasons.

      • Taleya@aussie.zoneEnglish
        6·
        2 months ago

        I found the first three eps “okay” ish. Something to watch.

        Then ep 4 landed and oh shit we got trek here boys. Then you got Pria, Krill is still my go to introduction ep because it starts with a crewmember being dared to eat a cactus but ends on a damning note about cycles of violence. Keeps going from there, ep 4 (If the stars should appear) is the growing of the beard.

      • AlexisBlackbird@lemmy.caEnglish
        4·
        2 months ago

        wjrii hit the nail on the head. If you categorically don’t like the vibe it might not be for you. Like any true Trek show it takes time to find its feet. The plot is coarse and hamfisted (as a trans person, the trans allegory episode was hard to get through) but eventually turns around to be a good example of scifi for contemporary social commentary. The humour (both quality and balance) improves but it doesn’t stop being a Seth MacFarlane show. I value its earnesty, but it’s pretty far down the list for my suggested “Star Trek” viewing order.

          • AlexisBlackbird@lemmy.caEnglish
            3·
            2 months ago

            Yep that’s the one. For what it’s worth, it doesn’t come up again for a while, and when it does it’s actually quite well done.

      • Taleya@aussie.zoneEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        Just read your edit yeah…about a girl is so fucking facile, it’s a massive piece of shit. I hate that episode.

        They revisit the plot hook later though and it is spectacular

  • GreatAlbatross@feddit.ukEnglish
    20·
    2 months ago

    I tried The Orville, but got a little put off by McFarlane as the captain.
    Does this improve as the series goes on?
    As I might give it another shot.

    • aeronmelon@lemmy.worldOP
      32·
      2 months ago

      It does get better, and Ed becomes a lot less wishy-washy.

      The conceit of The Orville is that it’s not the best ship in the fleet with the best crew. The Orville is an older mid-sized cruiser and the only reason Ed made Captain is because they couldn’t find enough Captains to fill out a rapidly-expanding fleet. So they gave this unimportant ship to him.

      I think they spent way too much time on Ed getting over his divorce with his XO Kelly, but after that he’s fine.

      As for the show itself, only the Pilot really feels like “Family Guy in space,” because that was a Trojan Horse to get the show on the air in the first place. After that, it really does become a send up to The Next Generation and the 3rd season, New Horizons, is an actual science fiction epic.

      • GreatAlbatross@feddit.ukEnglish
        9·
        2 months ago

        That’s a reassuring bit of info. If the in-universe explanation is that he isn’t the best captain, I might give it another shot.
        As my initial reaction was “has McFarlane just made himself kirk?”

      • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
        4·
        2 months ago

        I think they spent way too much time on Ed getting over his divorce with his XO Kelly, but after that he’s fine.

        He gets over Kelly at some point? I can’t remember if I watched 2 or 3 seasons but one of my problems with the show is how cringey and toxic he consistently is towards her. “The only way to stop me from dating this younger clone of you we came across is if you date me instead” was pretty late in the series.

        I like the rest of the cast, but the captain is grating.

    • frezik@midwest.social
      19·
      2 months ago

      I didn’t like the humor, but it tones down in each season. By season 3, the humor is about as frequent as a lighthearted TNG episode, and it’s done better.

      Doesn’t really matter, because it’s a show pretending to be satire so it could get greenlit. It’s just a TNG-era Star Trek with a different coat of paint. There are a lot of places where it’s doing the same plot as some other bit of Star Trek, except doing it better with more lead up across many episodes.

      • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 months ago

        It’s just a TNG-era Star Trek with a different coat of paint.

        This is why I found it so boring. Not only was it full of tired McFarland humor but the storylines were just rehashes of old Star Trek episodes. I peaced out around half way through season 1.

    • barneypiccolo@lemm.eeEnglish
      8·
      2 months ago

      Stick with it. The first few episodes were terrible, and I was very pessimistic about it’s future. Then it suddenly got better very quickly, and became nearly as good as the Star Trek series’. Its gotten even better as time went on. Im looking forward to its return.

    • Donebrach@lemmy.world
      English
      4·
      2 months ago

      It’s okay. The annoying McFarlane humor does mellow out but it still is just TNGxStarWars fanfic at the end of the day without much more substance.

    • Ledericas@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      Some people don’t like Seth as the main cast, too much interference I believe

    • alekwithak@lemmy.world
      56·
      2 months ago

      McFarlane as the captain? No it/he doesn’t improve.

      Damn, guess I hit a sore spot!

  • Optional@lemmy.world
    13·
    2 months ago

    Scenery: repainted ikea furniture

    vulcan / doctor / kirk: check

    All extraterrestrial planets are shot in the back lot: check

    Well, everything seems to be acceptable here.

    • daddycool@lemmy.world
      3·
      2 months ago

      Me too. I would like if they packed a little more humour into the season, like season 1 and 2. Season 3 was a little too serious. It was good, don’t get me wrong, but there were just a little too far between the jokes.

      • Taleya@aussie.zoneEnglish
        8·
        2 months ago

        The problem with s3 wasn’t the seriousness - we had plenty of that everywhere else - it was the missing small moments. Those little filler moments they slipped into the episodic serials that picked out little threads here and there and brought such a very very heartwarmingly humorous and human element to the show. Bortus’ moustache. The random Karaoke. Talking shit in the mess, finding out a crewmember can eat anything and Gordon promptly producing a cactus and a dare. Latchkum!   Shit that made you invest in the characters.  The reminder that even in utopia we’re still batshit humanity

        • aeronmelon@lemmy.worldOP
          2·
          2 months ago

          We did get a time sandwich, Elvis, and Isaac with a handlebar mustache. Among other things.

          Those little moments were there, there were just fewer of them.

          • Taleya@aussie.zoneEnglish
            2·
            2 months ago

            I remember thinking at the time they’d saved it all up for the s3 finale. That was a total love letter to the fans

  • rah@feddit.ukEnglish
    5·
    2 months ago

    I’m going to add .world’s c/startrek and c/tenforward to the links section of our community and I hope you guys do the same.

    Why?! They are totally different shows that share no similarities, do not share themes, do not share numerous details, share no actors, writers or directors and are just completely different, distinct SF shows!

    /s

    • Ledericas@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      Enterprise would’ve been better if les moonves wasn’t in control

      • kwedd@feddit.nl
        1·
        2 months ago

        I wish Enterprise had skipped the whole temporal cold war storyline and skipped straight to the part where it got good: the events that led up to the foundation of the Federation.

        Also, gimme your finger nails!

        • Ledericas@lemm.eeEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          i heard at least the 5th season one was about the romulan war, or it shouldve been in the 3rd season. and shran was suppose to join the enterprise crew, plus tucker wasnt suppose to die? but les MOONVES hated the show, thats why it left such a sour taste in fans mouth, he made sure the final episode was the FU to fans and the og actors.

  • IninewCrow@lemmy.caEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    Here I am a novice Trek fan booking the next few years to watching the rest of the Star Trek I’ve never seen … now I have to add this to my list

    Thanks! … and subscribed!