The Orville - Season 1

Dannyalcatraz · Sep 24, 2017

Hand of Evil said:
I was going to say Married With Children.

The 3rd episode was very TNG in content.

That was my first thought, too, what with the humor's stylistic parallels. But Married... almost never dealt with anything serious. My second was All in the Family, but they never went as over the top- or as lowbrow- for laughs.

But Rosanne? That was juuuuust right!

CapnZapp · Sep 25, 2017

Episode 3 was one of those preachy episodes - exactly the part of Star Trek I enjoy the least.

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

Janx · Sep 25, 2017

CapnZapp said:
Episode 3 was one of those preachy episodes - exactly the part of Star Trek I enjoy the least.

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

Some people go to church on Sunday, some of us watch Star Trek. May Roddenberry bless us one and all.

Personally, that's what I like about Star Trek. SciFi has long been a tool to reframe a social situation and inspect the moral decision outside of the original context. Thus hopefully removing the emotional baggage that makes people stick to their guns.

Heck, it's why they used Rudolph to try to influence the dad (can't recall these characters names).

Does it work?

Mustrum_Ridcully · Sep 25, 2017

Zaukrie said:
Really enjoyed that episode. Like great TNG. Loved the ending especially

Not to be overly nitpicky and critical, but to be overly nitpicky and critical, the most similar TNG episode also had a similar ending.

[sblock]
There was an episode where Riker fell in love with a researcher from a species that (supposedly) had no genders, but the researcher in question self-identified as female. The show ends with her getting the standard brainwash treatment to make her feel asexual again. (I'd almost argue that this is more horrifying then the idea of making a sex change on a newborn, as it's alterting an established person's sense of self against her will.) In both shows, it might be however that the person in question will still live a happy life afterwards. [/sblock]

To me it feels a bit like a rehash of a 25 year old story, really. (But it has some advantages compared to then - they didn't dare to give the self-identified female an actual androgenous figure, for example, she was clearly a female actress, so the viewer could see a man and a woman interacting, just with some alien make-up on the female.) Orville actually had a genuine male couple on screen (Of course, both with their alien make-up) and it kinda is a double twist in that regard. I suppose that might acually also highlight a bit of progress - studios these days don't seen to treat a homosexual couple as controversial as they used to in the 80s.

Jester David · Sep 25, 2017

Mustrum_Ridcully said:
To me it feels a bit like a rehash of a 25 year old story, really. (But it has some advantages compared to then - they didn't dare to give the self-identified female an actual androgenous figure, for example, she was clearly a female actress, so the viewer could see a man and a woman interacting, just with some alien make-up on the female.) Orville actually had a genuine male couple on screen (Of course, both with their alien make-up) and it kinda is a double twist in that regard. I suppose that might acually also highlight a bit of progress - studios these days don't seen to treat a homosexual couple as controversial as they used to in the 80s.

The episode you're referring to was Trek trying to deal with homosexuality without actually including homosexuality.

This episode of the Orville was trying to touch on both transgender, but also male/female equality (the latter in the second half, which lessened the impact).
The former would feel a little like a rehash, since transgender social rights are very much a "rehash" of the gay rights movement. The latter should be unnecessary, but with the curious re-rise of misogyny online - especially in the two or three years following Gamergate - feels oddly topical.

Zaukrie · Sep 25, 2017

Most stories are retelling of other stories at this point. That didn't bother me at all. And the casual way there are two men married, compared to what TNG showed.... Not sure I am allowed to comment on that here or not

Dannyalcatraz · Sep 25, 2017

Considering that ST:OS featured US TV's first interracial kiss and a cross-species relationship as the background of at least one major character, any subsequent ST show or homage thereto has strong precedents to work from.

Legatus Legionis · Sep 25, 2017

Ryujin · Sep 26, 2017

Zaukrie said:
Most stories are retelling of other stories at this point. That didn't bother me at all. And the casual way there are two men married, compared to what TNG showed.... Not sure I am allowed to comment on that here or not

“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.” - Mark Twain

It's all in the telling. This was a good story, with the edge softened by humour. Much better than the first two.

CapnZapp · Sep 26, 2017

Janx said:
Some people go to church on Sunday, some of us watch Star Trek. May Roddenberry bless us one and all.

I far preferred the light silliness of ep 2.

Ep 3 just reminded me how stuffy and preachy Trek could get.

Of course, it tells us MacFarlane is going all-in: the Orville really is meant as a TNG show. Which is a good thing in the end.

He won't cherry-pick just some tropes. Considering the fart jokes we need to endure, going all-in makes it much more worth it.

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

The Orville - Season 1

Dannyalcatraz

Schmoderator

CapnZapp

Legend

Janx

Hero

Mustrum_Ridcully

Hero

Jester David

Hero

Zaukrie

New Publisher

Dannyalcatraz

Schmoderator

Legatus Legionis

< BWAH HA Ha ha >

Ryujin

Legend

CapnZapp

Legend

Similar Threads