When I first started this show I found it to be a really awkward mix of comedy and seriousness. It had some jokes thrown it at the most inopportune times as some kind of comic relief from a really serious situation. Perhaps the first half of the first season was actually a bit rough or maybe the show just grew on me, but by season 2 I found myself loving this show.
To me it seems as every bit as comfy, intellectually interesting and even funny as some classic Star Treks while still clearly being its own thing. I wish more comfy space shows like this would get made.
What are your thoughts on The Orville? Also I miss Alara.
It was the best trek on TV since Star Trek Enterprise.
But I now also love Star Trek Strange New Worlds.
I really liked it.
The early seasons were less serious than later ones. But overall, it did well with serious social issues and addresses some very relevant topics.
The storyline with Topah was absolutely amazing. At every step, each character was portrayed well, and respectfully. It’s rare that there is a story like that that still has conflict without having a clear villain.
The time travel episode with Gordon was also especially brutal with some great performances from everyone on screen.
There were a few misses. I found the Isaac / Doctor relationship… forced, even if it did bring us the best line in decades (“As I am incapable of stuttering, I must conclude that you heard me.”). I also don’t think I’m alone with disliking the Charlie character in season 3.
I loved how Klyden grew through that story line, realizing what his prejudice was costing him and growing!
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This might be an unpopular opinion, but I really loved the first season. To me it felt like the good old optimistic utopia Trek but with real people. I tought the episodes had nice and creative topics, including the zoo critique, multigenerational space travel, upvote/downvote society, time-irregularity planet - it was mostly decent sci-fi with some well thought out and fun relationships (Cupid’s danger) some outstanding social commentary (About a girl) and a rather weak time-travel episode, which is always a bummer, but never mind.
Then, by season 2, the characters started to transform into plastic figurines with soap opera dialogue and arches (which is a symptom many Trek shows suffer from, to be fair). For example the whole “Oh, captain and first commander cannot date, because the captain couldn’t be objective then” (never mind him having feelings anyway). It felt to me like some of them’d been shoven a ruler up their asses. We get some average and some cringe ill-thought out episodes (like the porn-addiction one - the topic could have been a treasure trove if treated properly). It’s old-school Trek with all the bad things along the good ones.
Season 3 involves much more action and shooting and it doesn’t add any value to the stories. The good arch involves Topa and the Moclan society. The Kaylons (including Isaac) are overall a disappointment. They are supposed to be extremely intelligent but they are not written to really seem that way. They appeared to me to be very stupid and slow-learning. The main characters lost all appeal to me, because they often act in a cold and hostile fashion (like being jerks to time-traveling Gordon instead just leaving him with his familly and picking him up earlier without making the whole ugly drama).
I miss Alara too.
Up until Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, it was hands down the best modern Star Trek (like) show. It’s definitely a little clumsy early on, but after a few episodes it’s very clear that Seth is finally fulfilling his childhood dream of doing Star Trek even if it’s his own version of it. I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope season 4 happens.
After the first season, which was an obligatory “Star Trek Type Show Finds Its Feet” season, it really hit its stride to become the best Star Trek since DS9. Not in name, but certainly in spirit. So earnest, with a great message throughout. Sure it had some mediocre jokes here and there but so did TNG, let’s not forget. I was sitting around just the other day thinking how I missed watching The Orville
It felt way more like Star Trek than the Star Trek being made at the time (primarily Discovery). Though I do like Strange New Worlds and think it’s more in the right direction, The Orville still feels way more like TNG-era Trek.
Now we just need a Galaxy Quest / Orville crossover to really confuse everyone.
Always thought the whole parody aspect was just a means to get funding to just make a regular star trek series in disguise. If someone would just give the man money for exactly that we would have an awesome star trek series.
It was/is the best modern “star trek” thats coming out. Loved that you could see all the writers and seth were just huge trekies. The moral dilemma’s are almost always good. And the mostly episodic episodes are a huge bonus.
I would agree with you, until Star Trek Strange New Worlds. That show is fantastic.
Along with Lower Decks as well. The crossover to Strange New Worlds was great.
Lower Decks is fantastic, but it’s almost its own thing while still being a love letter to earlier Treks. It is obviously aimed at a different demographic while still being one of the best modern Treks. That crossover episode was almost all fan service, but there is nothing wrong with that every once and a while. It was a very fun episode. The end where the SNW cast was animated had me laughing, it was very well done.
As a long time Star Trek fan, I love this show. It really is better than a lot of modern Trek. Reading all these comments makes me want to engage in the watching event.
Edit: spelling
Microwave reheated Star Trek. I feel like it started out being too humorous, hit the perfect balance, and then veered into trying too hard to be Star Trek. If your Star Trek parody isn’t a parody anymore I’ll just…watch actual Star Trek. Lower Decks filled the Star Trek comedy hole much better.
Bingo. It was kinda cute at first when it was still trying to be funny, but as the parody pretense slowly fell away it just got boring.
The strangest part about it is how each episode is a remix of a Trek episode and yet the remix makes it very clear that the writers just don’t get it. For example, season 2’s “Blood of Patriots” is a rearrangement of “The Wounded,” but the subplot about Mercer and Malloy being best friends forever trivializes what TNG successfully depicted as a nuanced dilemma.
There’s no accounting for taste, but it genuinely surprises me that there seems to be so many Star Trek fans who think it’s any good. On the other hand, it seems pretty safe to say that season 3 was the last, so clearly the actual numbers were unremarkable.
