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

I just wanted everyone here to know that [email protected] 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.)

  • Optional@lemmy.world
    22·
    12 hours 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.

  • AlexisBlackbird@lemmy.caEnglish
    551·
    15 hours 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)

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
      311·
      13 hours ago

      Discovery gets more hate then it deserves

      I think the problem is the writers clearly had a show that they wanted and for some bizarre reason they decided that it was also going to be a Star Trek show even though they clearly didn’t actually want it to be Star Trek.

      If they just made it its own thing it would have been fine, but all this Star Trek lore kept popping up and then they had to come up with some hand wavy explanation for why their particular vision doesn’t fit established canon, and the whole thing just didn’t work as a result.

      I would have been totally down for a “magic exists alongside the sci-fi technology” show. There’s a lot they could have done with that concept, but then for some reason they kept trying to introduce Klingons into it.

      • grue@lemmy.world
        20·
        13 hours ago

        but then for some reason they kept trying to introduce Klingons into it.

        Ones with a third different head shape, no less!

          • aeronmelon@lemmy.worldOP
            3·
            4 hours ago

            I remember right before Discovery aired they showed a few behind the scenes pictures and one of them included the Klingon uniforms.

            Me and a lot of other people started saying “Did they steal those from the Abrams movies?”

            • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
              6·
              11 hours ago

              Interesting point! Had to look up some screenshots, but it does look like they were maybe trying to “bridge the gap” between the TOS and TNG-era Klingon look in that film, which I am going to be watching again after this meeting in order to verify.

              Even if it’s an intentional transitory look, I’ll agree that it’s still unique, and therefore counts. Great call.

              • usernamefactory@lemmy.caEnglish
                4·
                11 hours ago

                I’d say there are up to 8 designs, depending on how much you want to nitpick:

                • TOS: Smooth. Unnaturally smooth.
                • TMP: Single column ridge with hair on either side. Behind the scenes the concept was that the spinal column continued up from the back all around the head.
                • TSFS: Ridges cover the forehead, are wider and flatter, and have a continuous hairline behind them. Female Klingons have substantially less pronounced ridges.
                • TUC: Chang has those same less pronounced ridges. Maybe it’s not a male/female thing. Or maybe Chang is trans?
                • TNG: Those less pronounced ridges are gone. Male and female Klingons both get roughly the same degree of lumpyness.
                • Kelvin: Ridges look flatter and more pleated. I don’t think we see any hair, but it’s been a while.
                • Disco: Coneheads, quadruple nostrils, and no hair.
                • Disco S2: Partial retcon as the Klingons start growing their hair in and the heads appear less conical.
                • Picard/SNW: Fully revert to the TNG era look. Doesn’t count since it isn’t a new design.
                • phx@lemmy.ca
                  1·
                  2 hours ago

                  Enterprise also had slightly different looking Klingons and IIRC addressed why (a genetic disorder or disease IIRC)

        • Lem Jukes@lemm.eeEnglish
          56·
          10 hours ago

          Yeah, how dare those artists do their jobs! I can’t stand this sentiment. Times and technology change, and so designs can change because of that. Yes they ham fisted an explanation witht the ENT arc. But like, should we go back to the racist Asian caricature based look? People who can’t separate the stories from the fact that their real productions that have to actually exist in reality don’t deserve Star Trek.

      • AlexisBlackbird@lemmy.caEnglish
        31·
        12 hours ago

        Agreed. It’s a decent action scifi show that is hurt by trying to fit the IP. It did do some interesting things with the mirror universe, and some of the latter season parts where it takes nonsensical one off TOS concepts and completely seriously says “that’s canon, let’s build a plot point on it” were entertaining, if not good.

        But it just doesn’t get Star Trek and it says something that I tell people getting in to the shows not to watch it.

    • Miles O'Brien@startrek.websiteEnglish
      4·
      13 hours 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.

      • FrChazzz@lemm.eeEnglish
        25·
        13 hours 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
          2·
          2 hours 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
        18·
        13 hours 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.

      • AlexisBlackbird@lemmy.caEnglish
        5·
        12 hours 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.

    • daddycool@lemmy.world
      9·
      14 hours 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.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
        6·
        13 hours ago

        Admittedly I haven’t exactly been keeping up with the news but it’s been radio silence for a few years now so I am kind of sceptical.

        The fact that they didn’t immediately go into season 4 after finishing season 3, which is what most shows do, kind of implied that the studio at least felt done with it. Which personally I think was short-sighted. You don’t leave large gaps like that because it increases the likelihood that the actors are going to go off and get other gigs. It’s not like they’re being paid in the interim so they kind of have to.

        • aeronmelon@lemmy.worldOP
          3·
          4 hours ago

          The timing was that Disney was in the process of transferring ownership of all the 20th Century Fox media to them right as The Orville would have been gearing up for a fourth season production.

          What’s more interesting than them not immediately green-lighting it was that they never ever canceled it. Disney rattled off a list of Fox/Hulu properties they wouldn’t continue and The Orville was suspiciously absent. Seth confirmed later on that he was negotiating to continue the show and told fans to never say die.

          And, yeah, the extended production timeline of season 3 is what made Adrianne Palicki (Kelly Grayson) walk. It seems like most, if not all, the rest of the principal cast is still onboard.

  • rah@feddit.ukEnglish
    191·
    15 hours 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

  • IninewCrow@lemmy.caEnglish
    11·
    14 hours 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!