Thoughts on "The Orville"?

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I think they've all been well done. I think the humor is sort of "I dare you to laugh". It also seems like the episodes could be longer; they just get going strong and they have to wrap it up. I wonder how a movie, even na TV movie would work?
 
That is referred to as a "Star Trek Ending" Wind it up then wrap it up in five minutes or less.

As opposed to a "Saturday Night Live" ending. Where too many not-so-great skits just...... end. Some ending far too late.

On the flip side..... what do you want, a Quinn Martin Sci-fi show? The action wraps up with 8 minutes left in the show, they do 4 minutes of commericials, then a 2 minute "Epilogue", and 1 minute of credits? Shows like "The Fugitive" and "Streets of San Francisco".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinn_Martin#Typical_format_of_a_QM_program

Hmm, a TOS Trek episode comes to mind here (and probably others, just this one really nails it). Not a cut-to-commercial and back epilogue. But definitely the action was over, and so was Kirk. Dead. Spock killed him. So join us next week as we follow the adventures of the USS Enterprise with acting Captain Montgomery Scott.

Well, I refer to "Amok Time"

https://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Amok_Time_(episode)

And thanks to this "epilogue" scene after killing Kirk and beaming up from Vulcan, we had Kirk back in the big chair the next week.

[video=youtube;I5pocMUIWwU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5pocMUIWwU[/video]
 
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Actually my thought was just an old joke, not an analysis of TV production style. Of course, I also hope nobody can ever accuse me of overthinking the boob tube.


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Interesting that this thread was started on September 11.

Google: seth macfarlane american flight 11 9/11

The October 12, 2017 episode was interesting but will not lend itself to discussion on TRF as it will devolve into politics and religion.
 
Another one of those "makes you think" stories knocked out of the park by "The Orville" tonight.

"Majority Rule"

Not as much deep sci-fi as a parallel-ish Earth commentary on social media, among other things (I was going to list them but the list was getting too long)

Meanwhile, on Star Trek "Disco" this week, Captain Queeg-hab "got it on" with an admiral..... even Kirk didn't do THAT (that we know of). Not kidding.....

lkF8Okr.jpg
 
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George, the Star Trek Disco picture makes me proud that I decided not to plunk down my money to watch this.


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George, the Star Trek Disco picture makes me proud that I decided not to plunk down my money to watch this.
Let's just say it is possible to plunk down a bit of time to google a source for seeing it, rather than plunk down money.

The show is worth watching, just it's not nearly as much "Star Trek" as it ought to be. Too many Starfleet characters doing things very un-starfleet-like. And a "there's a war on, so everything else be damned" mentality, particularly from the ship's captain, whom I've nicknamed Queeg-hab (Queeg from "The Caine Mutiny", and Ahab from "Moby Dick"). Klingons too un-Klingon-lke (now with cannibalism!).

Also a bit of "Trek of Thrones", at least two significant characters surprisingly killed off on the show. And they didn't even wear red! :)
 
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Yeah,
Last night's Orville was very good. Seems like each episode is getting better and better.
I agree. They really skewered the current social media hysteria phenomena where things like not being pathologically PC or stating an inconvenient truth is trounced on by people with nothing better to do like it was the ultimate transgression, too often getting people fired.
 
Tonight is the season finale. It's been renewed for a 2nd season.

It FINALLY occurred to me, that the name of the gelatinous being voiced by Norm MacDonald, "Yaphit", is probably an acronym joke name that they've changed the spelling a bit. I think it's this:

Yet
Another
Freaking* *(some other word)
E
T

The last two letters, "ET", as in an Extra-Terrestrial (Alien being from another planet)

457d9503-23ee-4e5f-bd99-3c3decdf377c.png


YAFET

But if indeed that's what they did, they changed the official spelling to "Yaphit". When spoken, it sounds the same as saying "Yafet".

Sort of similar thing as "JAFO" in the movie Blue Thunder, which is what I think finally made me realize the likely origin of Yafet/Yaphit's name.

5453596_std.jpg



Of course, as Sci-Fi ET's go, "Yaphit" is hardly a "Yet Another". Can't think of any ET in Sci-Fi that is gelatinous-like, who can also communicate and operate controls sufficiently to be a member of a crew (and even a key member in engineering). It's the ones that are 90% human and 10% "different looking" that fit "yet another" more accurately.

Not that I like that character that much. But after last week's episode I heard "Yaphit" (or to my ears, YAFET) said enough to finally realize the name's likely origin. And I was a bit surprised to see the spelling after I realized this, and Googled the name.
 
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I'm glad to hear that it was renewed. At least Fox is giving it more of a chance than they gave Firefly. I like this show, all things considered. But I liked Firefly a lot more...
 
Well, I really liked this episode overall. Trying to avoid spoilers, so not getting specific.

The issues involving that planet, its culture, and development was quite good solid sci-fi (yes, parts a bit similar to some other sci-fi stories, definitely unique as a whole). One of my favorite Voyager episodes had some of that aspect to it. Here is a blind link describing that episode, to check only if you've already seen this episode of The Orville : https://tinyurl.com/yaz9qk4g.

I loved how the issues involving that planet ended up.

Also enjoyed such a simple Moclan game that Ed, Bortus, and Klyden played. :)

Interesting thing I've heard of recently. I already knew that they shot 13 episodes, and when Fox decided to renew it, they decided not to show the 13th one, saving it for season two (Tonight's was #12). The news is that apparently the 13th episode was written as though it might be the last show ever, if it was not renewed. Apparently things like tying up loose ends, or bringing some things to a close, or characters off in different directions that they don't want them to be stuck with for season two. So, rumor is, for next season, some parts of that 13th episode will be rewritten and reshot to solve those problems. A bit like "Rogue One" with the rewrite/reshoot stuff, but without the behind the scenes production drama. And they probably didn't originally kill darned near all the Orville characters at the end of episode #13 :)
 
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Yep, enjoyed the episode and I have warmed up to the series. Looking forward to next season.
 
Interesting thing I've heard of recently. I already knew that they shot 13 episodes, and when Fox decided to renew it, they decided not to show the 13th one, saving it for season two (Tonight's was #12).

So 3 months of new episodes and 9 months of nothing or repeats. I miss the old days when a show's season was 26 episodes.
 
Finally watched season 2, episode 1. Bortus' trek to his home planet for his annual relief should have been called Pee'n Farr at some point during the show.
 
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