Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Is Almost Upon Us! Discuss What You Want

[Micah Sweet]

They're undeniably Boomer as hell, verging on Greatest Generation. They're what my dad, who is 75, would see as appealing to people older than him (I mean, we could see him as counting as more like 65 because he's always been ahead of his time, but still).

To be fair, I grew up on my dad's music.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Whereas The Orville has similar musical tastes, but MacFarlane is a young Gen Xer, he's 51, he's barely older than me (a very old Millennial/Xennial/Generation Oregon Trail), and the first season was 2017, so that kind of music was more like 55-60 years old - certainly from before MacFarlane was even born! I've never been sure if this was intentional if odd nod to TNG/DS9, or if MacFarlane just really likes the Oldies. Like Oldies so old even some Boomers (like my parents) see them as from "before their time

I’m not far off MacFarlane’s age, and I prefer music that dates from 50s to the 70s. 80s music was a bit naff, and it’s been down hill all the way from there.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I’m not far off MacFarlane’s age, and I prefer music that dates from 50s to the 70s. 80s music was a bit naff, and it’s been down hill all the way from there.

I'm glad I inherited my dads forward-looking nature honestly. The idea that '80s music is "a bit naff" but '70s music is cool is truly beyond the pale!

And the only time music was even arguably "downhill all the way" was a brief period from about 1999 to through to 2005, and even there we still got plenty of good stuff, it was just the beginning of fragmentation.

To be fair, I grew up on my dad's music.

I mean, so did I, but that was like, The Rolling Stones.

 

[MarkB]

I keep hearing such good things about The Orville that I feel like I should give it another chance after the major stumbling blocks I hit at the end of season 1 / start of season 2, but I just can't get there.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I keep hearing such good things about The Orville that I feel like I should give it another chance after the major stumbling blocks I hit at the end of season 1 / start of season 2, but I just can't get there.

That's a pity because it really is "that good", certainly by the end of S3. Was there anything specifically that was giving you a problem?

 

[MarkB]

That's a pity because it really is "that good", certainly by the end of S3. Was there anything specifically that was giving you a problem?

The one that really put me off was the episode with the guy who's a walking date-r*pe drug whose pheremones were pulling people so deeply into sexual relationships they'd never have even considered without external influence that it leads to the captain abandoning his duties during a major peace talk, a civil war consequently erupting, and another character on the brink of committing murder/suicide, and at the end it's all played off as a funny incident and the guy walks away with a "no harm, no foul" speech from the captain.

Then I tried coming back to watch season 2 only to have the captain being super-stalkerish around his ex / XO, and I gave up halfway through the episode in disgust.

 

[ART!]

The one that really put me off was the episode with the guy who's a walking date-r*pe drug whose pheremones were pulling people so deeply into sexual relationships they'd never have even considered without external influence that it leads to the captain abandoning his duties during a major peace talk, a civil war consequently erupting, and another character on the brink of committing murder/suicide, and at the end it's all played off as a funny incident and the guy walks away with a "no harm, no foul" speech from the captain.

Then I tried coming back to watch season 2 only to have the captain being super-stalkerish around his ex / XO, and I gave up halfway through the episode in disgust.

 

[Ryujin]

I'm glad I inherited my dads forward-looking nature honestly. The idea that '80s music is "a bit naff" but '70s music is cool is truly beyond the pale!

And the only time music was even arguably "downhill all the way" was a brief period from about 1999 to through to 2005, and even there we still got plenty of good stuff, it was just the beginning of fragmentation.


I mean, so did I, but that was like, The Rolling Stones.

Watch a few Youtube videos by "Professor of Rock" and then tell me that the '70s didn't have great music

I'm guessing that MacFarlane has his radio/streaming service locked to Classic Rock.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You guys are aware that MacFarline is a classically trained singer and has released several albums himself?

Jazz and opera I think.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The one that really put me off was the episode with the guy who's a walking date-r*pe drug whose pheremones were pulling people so deeply into sexual relationships they'd never have even considered without external influence that it leads to the captain abandoning his duties during a major peace talk, a civil war consequently erupting, and another character on the brink of committing murder/suicide, and at the end it's all played off as a funny incident and the guy walks away with a "no harm, no foul" speech from the captain.

What would you consider a correct resolution there? The character whose touch has pheromones doesn't seem to realize how impactful they are, or necessarily that he's even generating them, because he doesn't generate them at all times. He's also concerned when he finally realizes how much of a problem they're causing, and actively helps to resolve the problem. Should he be shamed, punished or imprisoned for his biology? That doesn't sound very Star Trek to me. I don't remember any "murder/suicide" bit and even re-read the detailed episode breakdown to see if I could find it, but I couldn't, so that might be conflating this with a similar incident in another show (it's pretty much a sci-fi staple - literally the third episode of TNG was like this - The Naked Now).

That said, it's definitely one of the weaker episodes and doesn't have a clear "point" (again, like The Naked Now and similar episodes of various shows, but I've seen better takes on this)!

Then I tried coming back to watch season 2 only to have the captain being super-stalkerish around his ex / XO, and I gave up halfway through the episode in disgust.

Yeah he's being a twat, but that's the point, and as you ragequit, you didn't get to see the resolution of him realizing he was being a twat and that his behaviour was inappropriate. Which is fine, you never have to watch anything, but if you watch a show about a murder and the criminal looks like he's getting away with it, and you turn the show off on the grounds that it's "pro-murderer" or something, that's being a little silly imo.

I do think in general MacFarlane is a little too kind to his own character there, but that does stop being a thing entirely eventually.

You guys are aware that MacFarline is a classically trained singer and has released several albums himself?

I don't think that's really relevant? No-one is complaining about his singing, unless I have someone blocked lol.

I'm guessing that MacFarlane has his radio/streaming service locked to Classic Rock.

Possibly. There is some '70s stuff for sure (the Ramones and Journey in the episode discussed above, for example). It's the 40s/50s stuff that seems weirder!

Watch a few Youtube videos by "Professor of Rock" and then tell me that the '70s didn't have great music

Hey don't put words I'd never say in my mouth! There's definitely great '70s music out there!

But despite that, the '70s was just absolutely rife with totally naff music and bands and stars. There was cool stuff too but my god, the balance was towards extreme naff-itude. Even a lot of '70s stuff people claim is "classic" is bit questionable, in a way '60s stuff claimed to be classic generally isn't.

For those not sufficiently from the south of England or not of the right age, naff means tacky, tasteless, accidentally campy in a bad way, and so on. There isn't a decade in human history which was more inherently naff that the 1970s! The music, the clothes, the architecture, the furnishings, I could go on. I mean the 1980s and 1990s and the '00s all gave it a fair shot but they just never approach the sheer depth of embarrassment and tastelessness the 1970s could muster.