Match

I didn't see a post about this.







The plot with Bortus and Klyden was hilarious.

Eric F

Oh Bortus.

As far as the primary plot with Gordon goes, well, it's official, Seth MacFarlane has no original ideas of his own for this show. Paging Dr Brahms, Dr Leah Brahms...

Goldberg74

Eric F

I noticed. When I first saw him I was looking for pointed ears.

Goldberg74

Tom Banjo

printerati

LeFou

DWilson

I've forgotten, -what was "The Dick Van Dyke line"?

Count Dooku

It was a conceptual joke. Malloy apologized for not knowing what Dick Van Dyke was in Pictionary, so you had to imagine what he tried to draw. Sort of begged for a cutaway but Fox would have had to blur it anyways.

Eric F

The show needs to shift it's focus more on how alien races in the Union are affected by humanity (ie: how nicotine introduced to an alien race can affect them so much) - I find that aspect more interesting than anything on the human side of things.

I had a hard time liking the plots of a lot of episodes (notably this one) when I can't help comparing it to the TNG Geordi Laforge holodeck love affair episode. It's obvious Seth MacFarlane is heavily influenced by TNG. The original ideas he has are great. The Bortus storyline was great. I really wish he'd focus more on his orignal ideas then him trying so hard to pay homage to TNG in every episode.

JTH182

I came here to post the same thing. I'm glad others feel the same way, since you can never tell with the internet, lol. Even though it was completely predictable, it was still heart wrenching to watch. It helps that I find Leighton Meester irresistibly cute.

fiver

A couple problems I'm starting to have with The Orville:

1. I'm glad they abandoned the total comedy aspect of the first few episodes - they just weren't funny to me, very strained. However, as a science fiction show, few of the ideas are very original - and, even if borrowed, they could go beyond Next Gen as a source.
2. Television Sci-fi has come a long way since the heydey of Next Gen: Babylon 5, DS9, Farscape, Firefly, and others were vastly superior to most of what TNG had to offer. While Next Gen wasn't really a bad show, I don't really want to go back there, and it is much harder to watch it with any seriousness now. Perhaps Discovery isn't it either as a lot of people didn't like the changes they made or the oppressive atmosphere of the show, but that shouldn't mean an ST clone has to go back to the same plots over and over again
3. This season has gone to the well on 'family' plots many more times than not it feels like - and that was always the WORST part of TNG, not the best....I can't believe Seth McFarlane wants to emulate that part of TNG this badly. Someone mentioned the Geordi episode, which is true, but I also kept thinking of the Minuet holodesk episode.

Josh-da-man

Bill Needle

So Earthlings from Earth were puzzled by Earth technology and culture from 400 years ago despite the fact that a trillion images and a billion hours of video are recorded every year? Would you be perplexed by the meaning of Galileo's telescope? Not to mention the fact that the characters exclusively rely on 20th/21st century musical and pop cultural references.

Eric F

Tuvok intimated about some sort of calamity that erased most of the historical records, of course the rest of it doesn't make much sense.

melasnus

I think we can now just refer to this series as "STorville" or "TREKville."
What a disappointment...
There is no cause for you to be logical on this thread, sir.

Red Dog

The smoking addiction was so great.

Count Dooku

I get the criticism. I know Trek backwards and forwards, so there is no idea Seth will recycle that I won't recognize, but TNG was 25 years ago and TOS was 50.

I started watching TOS reruns when I was a kid. There is a whole audience for Orville that hasn't seen these stories before, and Orville can be exactly what TOS was for me: an entry into sci-fi TV that is not going to stand up top the kind of logical scrutiny folks around here want to apply, but can still be very entertaining.

I really liked this episode. The A story was very sweet. The B story was humorous. It all held together as a completely entertaining hour of TV.

I saw an online review (not AV Club but something like it) that criticized this as a stand-alone episode you wouldn't bother to rewatch in a future binge. How did that become the standard for what a TV show should be?

Discovery has dark arcs and super-complicated mythology. Episode by episode, Discovery is as fun as a trip to the dentist.

There was a thread asking what shows you want to watch immediately. Orville is that show for me on Thursday nights because by the time I get to sit down in front of the TV, I am just looking to relax and be entertained for a little while.

And nobody has mentioned it yet, Leighton Meester is as sweet as Tupelo honey. YUM!!

TGM

recycled idea yes, but done so well. I felt for him myself until I remembered that the actor gets to bang the first officer in real life.

Eric F

The >50 crowd has the biggest share for the show (unless I'm reading it wrong) so it's quite likely a big portion, if not most of The Orville's viewers have seen TNG before.

Count Dooku

That does not surprise me but does not invalidate my point that the show can appeal to others.

I don't know what to say to a Trek fan who watches Orville every week and has nothing but complaints about the lack of originality.

movieguru

It was more similiar to the Minuette storyline with Riker.

movieguru

Even that doesn't make sense since the are multiple times the crew has palyed songs and watched movies from the 20th and 21st centuries. That and the holodec computers pretty much accurately recreated 21th Century settings to play out the program with the woman who owned the phone.

JimRochester

I saw very little of TNG so if the plot is recycled I won't know it. I found this one very good. Even Bortus. I saved it and will watch it again.