Eh. It's better at aping Star Trek than Discovery, but it's not Star Trek (and aping isn't what Discovery set out to do).
Personally I'm glad both exist. The Orville feels like a retro trip to an older time, and Discovery feels like a new take. Both worthwhile.
(though my personal theory is that Seth McFarlane wouldn't have made it a comedy if he has a choice, but it's the only way Fox would let him do the show)
This is something I'm quite pleased about - I'm really enjoying Discovery, because it's not the same as Enterprise and Voyager were. (Can't stand Voyager, I stopped watching when I saw the pattern in how it was going to play out in every episode.)
To me, The Orville is more like the better "light" TNG episodes, and happily it doesn't put much work into looking at the ethics of a situation unlike some TNG episodes. My prime example is the doctor's actions against her captor in episode 8 - I thought they were going to court martial her and remove what I feel to be the most 2D character from the show.
It's definitely got more of a Star Trek feel now but early on it was pretty bad. "About a Girl" just about made me drop it.
Without spoiling it too much, a crew member on the Orville had a family dispute that boiled down to alien ethics/culture vs. human ethics/culture. While I feel crews of the earlier actual Star Trek series would have approached the problem with more empathy, understanding and logic, the (mostly human) crew of the Orville were purely driven by emotion and tried to argue their position in ways that made zero logical sense.
It's been much better since then though. These days it feels like Star Trek with a little less philosophy and some poor jokes thrown in to appease the network.
I got through the first argument in About a Girl during the trial and it was so bad I had to turn it off. It was like they were trying to have an interesting episode that represents the best of Star Trek (The Drumhead, The Measure of a Man, Dear Doctor), but their lack of empathy, self-righteousness, terrible arguments, and no attempt to try and learn more about the other culture represented the worst of it.
That and the alien had a sudden realization of how right the humans were because he watched Santa Clause is Coming To Town.
As I see it, this episode showed that the humans are also just normal stupid people, and not some high ethical gods travelling space like Star Trek it often displayed. It was not the best script, but given it's first season.
You basically summed up my experience with episode 3 as well, but I finished the episode and decided to give it one more chance.
Episode 4 is a better episode to judge it on I think so I'd encourage you to give it one last chance.
3 has definitely been the worst so far and I'm not a fan of 9 (though it has some character development) but I haven't regretted watching the rest.
At this point I feel like it's basically Star Trek made more accessible to the kind of person who can't sit through Inner Light or "Shaka, where the walls fell". Tone down the moralising and philosophy (it's not entirely gone but it's definitely reduced), throw in some crude humour and you've got something that much of the US TV audience could actually watch, while still being somewhat like Star Trek to those who want it.
It's almost like they can't decide whether or not they want to be a more "real" Star Trek or a "goofy Star trek with bad jokes".
I get the feeling Seth wants to push it towards the latter, probably because he writes 90% of the goofy bad jokes himself. But if he truly wants to make the series a success, he needs to do 2 things:
1) Do more Rodenberry-esque episodes like that episode 4 you mentioned, which I still think was the best so far.
2) Hire a great full-time comedy writer, if they really want to keep the "goofy" aspect of the show, which I don't think is bad per se - it's the terrible jokes that kill it, not the fact that it tries to be funny.
If they do that for season 2, they may actually get most of the Star Trek fans to watch it, and maybe quit watching STD if they haven't already. Most of the people that I saw were disappointed with Orville were disappointed because it did too little of 1) and too much of 2) (mainly the bad jokes, though).
I think Orville has the potential to be a 7-10 season iconic show if they shape it towards what the people actually want it to be rather than Seth's original vision. If nothing changes, it will remain a mediocre show, and maybe get killed after 3-4 seasons when people get bored with the same tired old jokes.
Oh yes, so much yes. I hate ST:D. To me, ST:D entirely misses the point of Star Trek. How could they write a Star Trek series without a crew? Seriously, there hasn't been a single scene where the doctor cared for patients, the engineer engineered, or any other person actually did their job. They are all just actors clowning around on a sound stage, without any world building or, you know, science fiction. And don't get me started on the characters or the sad excuse of a plot (seriously, the spend SO MUCH foreshadowing on "Klingons attack, Federation wins"???) Ugh, I hate it.
But luckily, there is the Orville. After every episode of ST:D, I would watch an episode of the Orville. Honestly, I would have given up on modern science fiction if it were not for the Orville.
(I don't like modern TV series. I don't like the "bingeable" cliffhangers. I don't like the negativity. I don't like that "epic" CG effects have become more important than likeable characters or a coherent world. I don't like the blatant stupidity of most if the writing. I really haven't watched TV for about a decade. Maybe the Orville is just a throwback to older times. But I like it. )
Agreed. Interesting how on Metacritic the critics panned The Orville and Loved Star Trek Discovery while the users loved the Orville and panned Star Trek Discovery.
If you want a remake, then yes. If you want something new in the star trek universe, then Discovery is a lot, better acted, better stories, better characters, and has the benefit of not being episodic.
Personally I'm glad both exist. The Orville feels like a retro trip to an older time, and Discovery feels like a new take. Both worthwhile.
(though my personal theory is that Seth McFarlane wouldn't have made it a comedy if he has a choice, but it's the only way Fox would let him do the show)