f13.net

McFarlane continues to prove he's got something on some big exec at Fox, or that Fox is too creatively bankrupt to find someone else to make shows for them. You decide.

Anyway, his next project: The Orville, a Star Trek spoof, is set to come out this fall. Trailer was released yesterday and it looks OK. It's live action and stars McFarlane himself, so I don't expect it to last too terribly long; particularly since it's sci-fi and Fox.

Here's the trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy9sKeCE8V0

Holy crap what kind of blackmail does McFarlane have over the big wigs. How this got the green light let alone what apparently is a pretty decent budget to make this.

What in the fuck did I just watch? I can see greenlighting the script for a pilot but once it was filmed... who thought this worked? Like at all?

It's about the same quality of comedy as everything else on Fox, so it works for that channel. It's certainly not worse than Making History which while brilliant at times also has huge amounts of, "oh my god this is awful." (Interlaced between the rah-rah-conservative values propaganda laced throughout.) 

No, no, no... it is Star Trek meets Family Guy?  HOW COULD IT GO WRONG?

Wow. That was awful.

So I'm the only one living in crazy town? I kinda thought it looked fun.  Also, Norm Mcdonald is playing a slime, so there's that.

I thought it was funny too. But this is F13. Naturally, the monocle wearing cognoscenti disapprove.  :grin:

Dunno, it takes a lot for me to not like something. I just didn't enjoy this one, and I like Seth.

It got a few chuckles, not enough to be worth the ridiculous budget that must have though.

i don't see the problem here

it's literally just galaxy quest

did someone ever mutter the phrase "we want less galaxy quest?"

and Seth is infinitely more funny than Tim Allen

I'm ambivalent on it as should have been apparent. It will depend on the long term as I thought Bobs and Last man were going to suck too, but they've delivered.  It's enough to get a few views but I also like low brow.

I like low brow. I like Seth as a voiceover guy. But when he acts in live action, I just can't stand him. Everything feels flat and awkward and forced.

Also, yes it's just Galaxy Quest, but I'd actually rather have Galaxy Quest with Tim Allen.

I really like the idea of this.  I just wish it was on a better channel because I don't see it getting the treatment it needs on Fox.  I can't remember the last show I regularly watched on network TV.  If this were on FX I'd be really excited.

Galaxy quest also had Alan Rickman, Sam Rockwell, Tony Shalhoub, Sigourney Weaver, Justin Long and Missi Pyle.  Not to mention it was infinitely funnier than the best joke on that trailer.  Galaxy Quest was like Ghostbusters, if you think stealing the plot and setting is going to make your attempt funny you completely missed what made it good.

Yes, Galaxy Quest had a better supporting cast.

I have no clue how this will turn out.

But it is Galaxy Quest, as I was saying.

The look and feel of the show is more reminiscent of middle-season SG1 for me.  Seth is playing the O'Neill character who doesn't take serious stuff seriously.  The Teal'c is obvious in the trailer.  Odds are the not-Vulcan will be the Carter.  Then everything else is Galaxy Quest.  I'd be surprised if Norm MacDonald is in the series for more than a handful of scenes. 

The humor may not work, but it's possible for the setting or characters to work despite not being funny, like later seasons of Big Bang Theory.

I'll watch it, but I don't have high hopes for a second season. Unless Seth actually does have some big blackmail shit on the execs  :awesome_for_real:

I'm not getting the SG-1 vibe though. SG-1 was "serious shit"; O'Neil added humor, sure, but he took this shit serious too. This just seems like Family Guy INNNNNN SPAAAAAAACE with live action.

There have been many good sci-fi comedies both before and since Galaxy Quest.  This does not look like one of them.

Widely split opinions on this?  Sounds like another Seth MacFarlane show.  I'll give it a shot, personally.

I'm with Schild on this one (bit of a shock to me too) ;  If it's like Galaxy Quest, I'm all for it.  Trouble with that is that Seth has certain go to gags - didn't take him long in the trailer to go straight to 'old west hicks'.  Sure, that was in TOS Star Trek too, but still....

He is just such a horrible actor... *sigh*

http://trekmovie.com/2017/05/22/seth-macfarlane-the-orville-will-be-more-star-trek-than-futurama/

Seth MacFarlane: ‘The Orville’ Will Be More ‘Star Trek’ Than ‘Futurama’

So they tried to cut the trailer funny, or he's already trying to rescue his show?

I'm guessing both.

If it's actually serious Sci-fi that would hold up against Star Trek (not hard these days as I'd rather watch The Orville than that new shitty looking Trek show), they wouldn't have had to make the show look like Galaxy Quest. And if it's less Galaxy Quest and more Star Trek only with Seth McFarlane as the unlikable lead that I'd rather punch than root for... yeah, no thanks to that.

I have a feeling like he sees the series as "The Office" in space. 

However, it will probably come off more like a poor attempt at Red Dwarf. 

I think there is room for a Star Trek type show that shows the frustrations of daily life in a less idealic fashion than the sanitized world of Star Trek - and to even present it as a dromedy - but the closest he has come to handling drama well was a tug at the heartstrings when a Teddy Bear was ripped in half.  That effort flamed out in the sequel showing he couldn't sustain the mediocre drama he'd created there. 

I think he has an interesting idea that has not been attempted well (with the exception of a bit of Babylon 5). The best way for him to service it would have been to keep the EP tag, hand it off to someone that has shown promise with a heartfelt comedy and then watched it blossom.

Wow. Best first episode of a new Star Trek series I have ever seen. I highly recommend giving this a try.

It is funnier that Star Trek, but not in a bad way. Characters are still believable, likeable even. The first episode was fun.

I read that the "critical reception" was pretty bad, but I found it entertaining. I don't care much for MacFarlane but this is no 1.000.000 ways to die IN SPAAAAACE. Yet. I am casually optimistic.

edit: Added a few zeros.

I thought it was ok though stuff like mistakenly trying to eat a marble was pretty meh.

Yeah, there are a few "jokes" that deserved to be cut, I really hope that they find their footing in that regard.

It will be interesting to see if Orville out treks Discovery.

I watched the first two episodes. He is pretty much playing it straight. This is a sci-fi show with a few jokes, not a comedy.

The jokes mostly fall flat and the interplay between the captain and the first officer gets annoying very quickly. The camaraderie between the navigator and the pilot is great and the big alien second officer whose species is all male was pretty cool.

There is a big continuity error in the first episode where they are running back to their shuttle while being chased by aliens and the alien ships that literally just landed are gone and then reappear once they takeoff from the planet. The solution at the end to defeat the aliens and get rid of the macguffin was inventive.

The second episode has a conversation between the captain and his "parents" that is one of the cringiest things I have seen on television. I almost turned it off. The rest of the episode was interesting. The solution at the end was amusing.

After the episode, the preview for the next episode said that Fox moved the show to Thursday nights. And thus the scheduling fuckery begins.

At least it's not Friday nights (yet).

If you continue to watch this show, you're part of the problem with Sci-fi on tv.

I was actually moderatly surprised that this is much more of a workmans like star trek with some humor than full blown comedy. Their effects budget seems really good. It is a bit uneven pacing wise but possibly something that will just take them some episodes to get into the swing of it.

Both true, but I think there is a legit chance the next Star Trek series could be good, and a better chance that the premiere of the next Orville franchise series will be the last sign of the apocalypse.

Stop being grumpy, this is fine.  It's not great and will probably be off the air in a year or two, but it's not worth the vitriol.  It does make me wish Other Space had gotten a second season, though.

It's just kind of meh. It's not especially funny and it's not especially good. I think he meant to make Galaxy Quest and started taking himself too seriously once he suited up and thought, "I'm Captain Kirk". Result is a pile of indifferent mediocrity.

I think he wants to make Star Trek and the network knows nobody would take his Trek seriously, so they gave him his series as long as he added his humor to it... and the result is bad off label Star Trek fan fiction with half hearted Seth humor.  The 'science' in this science fiction is the fodder of 2nd grade minds. It is insulting.

Some people need to get over themselves. 

The first two episodes of The Orville are already better than the first two episodes of most Trek series.  Granted, Trek isn't known for its pilots, but I'd still rather watch this than "The Cage", "Encounter at Farpoint", "Emissary", etc.

Let's look at some Trek history to compare this to.  TNG started with "Encounter at Farpoint", "The Naked Now" and "Code of Honor".  None of those three are good, and "Code of Honor" is, in my opinion, among the five worst Trek episodes of all time across all six series.  And "The Naked Now" isn't too far behind. 

Except for the original series, Star Trek takes time to develop, and I think The Orville is going to meet the same fate.  This is ultimately a workplace dramedy that takes place in space.  It needs to develop its characters and make adjustments over time based upon what they find works and doesn't.  The foundation, however, is perfectly fine.  They need to address the weirdness between the captain and the executive officer, which was an odd creative decision, but other than that I don't see anything that's bad.  This feels like a fun show that could become good with the right writing and character choices.  Much like most Star Trek.

:awesome_for_real:

Seriously though, NOTHING I have heard about that new Star Trek series gives me hope it will be anything but medicore and canceled within a season or two.

The second episode was pretty much the same as the first with poor jokes like colon scans and a basic scifi trope (people zoo (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PeopleZoo)) to act as a vehicle for the captain/ex-wife stuff. I did chuckle at the
 but otherwise... meh

This was never going to be a Sunday show at an hour long. Fox's lineup here has been set for years with half hour, easily bumped shows due to football. They were using the prime after-football /The Simpsons slot to generate interest. When their Fall schedule was released this was slotted for Thursdays.

Next week begins the regular Fall lineup for most channels.  Simpsons, Family Guy, a few episodes of that new Ghost-based comedy and then Bob's, and Last Man on Earth are back. 

http://m.eonline.com/news/850043/fox-fall-2017-tv-schedule-a-few-shows-are-on-the-move-and-new-girl-is-mia

Indeed, all the red lights are flashing and the gauges are pointing to meltdown.

I meant the next after Duscovery...

As for the Orville I'm willing to stick with it and see if they can find their feet.

Yeah, It's not been as bad as the first trailer made it. It's been cringey but that seems to sell to Fox's audience. Last Man on Earth and Bob's Burgers are both super-cringey yet they're popular for Fox.  I hated Bob's the first few episodes then I got into it as the characters developed.

I watched this and was a little surprised. It had the expected cringe inducing humor but I expected Scary Movie 6. What I got was closer to Galaxy Quest. I am not saying this is as good as Galaxy Quest but rather it seemed to be sci-fi with bad humor thrown in as opposed to a bad humor show with some sci-fi window dressing.

I'll keep watching to see where it goes from here but I'll be shocked if it gets a season 2.

Wow, tonight's episode really hit the ball out of the park.

Yeah, this episode was actually amazing.  I felt like I was watching Star Trek.  And good Star Trek at that.  A lot of the comedy was actually good, too, and was needed to break up the tension.

Definitely need to catch up on this, I'm really happy to hear it's more Trek than it is Family Guy.

It might help ease some of the MacFarlane tension if folks remember that he's the reason we got the modern series of Cosmos.

A few parts of the episode were ham-fisted, but it was nice seeing a real Star Trek level plot being used. Especially funny when I am suspecting that all the new show is going to give us is lots of pew pew and explosions.

Also, the humor worked better in this one. More subtle where it needed to be subtle.

I liked it too. Definitely good story quality and the humor was subtler. The main plot was well written and the ending


The only weird thing about the show is that their ship gets all sorts of messed up and the next episode everything is fine again. I know Star Trek did the same thing, but it would be nice if the ship had some battle scars or the crew acknowledged that certain things aren't working at 100% all the time. Just a minor gripe, though.

Based on memory, I would have to say most of Star Trek: TNG was completely ham-fisted. As a whole body of work, I would personally estimate less than 5 percent of all Star Trek content could be considered as good and well produced.

Having watched literally the entire Star Trek oeuvre a couple of summers ago, I would have to say that the proportions are probably closer to 15-20% (as in, 1 out of every 5 or 6 episodes are actually good and memorable in themselves). But there's a lot of filler in there, any way you slice it.

FWIW, I think DS9 holds up the best. Orville has potential, but there's obviously a bit of indecision over how much of Macfarlane's ad lib snark to include.

-Dave

DS9 absolutely holds up the best because it had the right combination of humor and grimdark. "You can't even trust the Federation because they've got a dirty tricks division, but hey, here's Sisko playing the scenery-chewing villain in a holodeck Bond homage gone awry" It just worked.

DS9 also didn't use the Borg or Q as a crutch for ratings. They got shit done, they delved deep into their characters, and they owned it.

Well, it WAS a copy of Babylon 5 with a Star Trek paint job after all! :rimshot:

DON@T SAY THAT THERE ARE 7)*)*_)(*&(6907908 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THEM!!!

Actually a friend of mine who knew people in Paramount said they pulled the Jem Hidar out of their ass in response to the Shadows, then they paniced and let them sit there for a year and a half as they had no idea what to do with them.  :why_so_serious:

I'm enjoying this.

Its decent/good Star Trek with some reallly realllyy stupid jokes.

Good enough for me.

Not sure about the Gelatin guy, though.  :awesome_for_real: /  :ye_gods:

It's Norm McDonald. Nephit is awesome.

The most recent episode is an excellent riff on a Star Trek TOS episode named For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky.  The Orville, continuing to be good, does it better though.

Just caught up and im really liking this.  Tng/dsn9 was my era and i really wish trek had tried different stuff in their universe like this instead of voyager and the one with scott  Blackula.  Sometimes the humor veers too crass but sometimes its just really charming and witty which lightens what would normallly be hamfisted trek drama.  The music is so-so, seems like its a bit too epic in tone for what the show is.  Praying to god they can hold onto a decemt budget

Almost all of the music riffs on Star Trek, especially TMP, except for one bit of music taken from Empire Strikes Back.

Scott Bakula. Blackula is .. uh... different.  :why_so_serious:

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h7bRocKEFqw/TpTjRld6yEI/AAAAAAAACkM/3n8H7Ikcn80/s1600/blacula_poster_02.jpg)

Yes. It's technically genre accurate but a bit tonally off for this specific show if that makes sense.

Not really.  I appreciate it as another layer of humor/homage.  It never bothers me. 

I'm with Bob, I like the overblown music.

Catching EP 3 & 4 on streaming today at the office.  Props to the guys who play Bortis and his mate. They're doing wonders as playing something completely alien but showing consistent cultural quirks. The way they both emote to convey emotions are the same between the two of them. It's fantastic, not your typical "Human in a rubber outfit" like the security chief or most Trek aliens.

I'm also enjoying some of the old Trek tropes like the music and some of the shots/ mannerisms the cast is adopting.  Seth channeled Patrick Stuart with the dismissal of Bortis and the stare-after before looking at his tea in ep3.

This show is very much an homage done right.  It's obvious to true fans what they are "borrowing"  but they do the stories justice in a way that respects the original treks and doesn't mock them.  This show is kinda like the bastard of TnG and Farscape.  Also they get a lot of credit for the way they ended ep3, that was not the safe choice but made more sense and can have meaningful reprecusions in the future.

Seriously, episode 3 basically out-trekked Trek, and I hope that the people who own it paid some attention.  I was ready to write this off after the trailer, and I'm honestly glad I didn't.  I nearly teared up at the end of that episode.

Watching Episode 5 right now and I just noticed that Alara is the opposite of Worf in regard to opening doors and that gave me a good chuckle.

And I really hope they run "open this jar of pickles for me" into the ground and then some.

I also just recognized the .jar pun.  :awesome_for_real:

Yeah, that's the third time they've used that phrase, I think.  I like it.

The fifth episode was directed by Jonathan Frakes and the show remains fun.  He always did well when directing TNG episodes; not so much with the movies, sadly.  The balance between comedy and drama was basically perfect and there were some great character moments.  It wasn't as good as the third or fourth episode, but still very good.

I'm starting to like this more and more as they do nice single-episode stories with classic scifi elements and the characters are more or less likable (even the comedy seems to be growing on me)  :grin:

My wife and mother in law are hard core serious business trek fans and even they are enjoying this show quite a bit.

Captain, respectfully submit that the attractiveness of the ship's occupant makes the rescue imperative.

As am I. If you want Trek on TV, the Orville is really your only option. That other show that carries the name isn't Trek. At all. It's just some weird sci-fi show that has the Trek label and a few visual similarities.

This is the best Trek tv in years. It's parody/homage that can't seem to decide which it is, and that's for the best.

I have to believe that Avis is a show sponsor after last night's episode. Best product placement use ever.

"Well the humans praise a different god named Hertz, who's fiercly competitive."

 :drill:

Isn't he resisted by the god Ohm?

Fuckkkkkk this show is good.

13 minutes into the newest episode and wow, they don't do subtle on this show.  :drill:

Man Reddit fucking sucks.

Could you please be more specific on the whole Reddit sucks thing?

I caught part of the episode with the red aliens and the zoo, it didn't look awful.  I would be willing to give the show a try, in any case.

This show is great

Last week's episode was literally Reddit as society and the whole show showed how much Reddit sucked ass

Keep watching; that's the second episode.  The first two episodes are fine, but once you hit About a Girl it turns amazing.  This is the only show I watch week to week, and last night's didn't disappoint either.

Also, it just got renewed for a second season.   :heart:

(https://imgur.com/w75xa7m.jpg)

This is basically my favorite new show on television.

And I didn't like Star Trek at all.

 :heart:   :heart: :awesome_for_real:

The Orville just did the Palestine/Israel conflict better than anything Star Trek ever did.

It feels hacky at times but it's still so entertaining and good. Very weird.

Also; a hell of an effects budget for a Fox show. I'm surprised at the number of and quality of alien designs. Too bad it often underscores how weak the design for the security girl is.

Bajorans....

Can't wait to get it.

sucked.

Vulcans I give a pass only because it was the 60's and space-elves were a new-enough concept and easy for limited budget and prop techniques. Bajorans are forever a failure.

Found the Cardassian.

They've proven they can do aliens with members of the crew as well as villains. I think it's fitting to have one "minimum effort" alien race like every other trek.  See also:Trill

OMG Robert Picardo and Erin Grey.. Hah.

"Oh yes, the humans. The Hillbillies of the galaxy."

Ed: Also the X-files and Aliens music cues were an awesome touch. Heard the X-files when out of the room and was like "what?"

Not even the giant spider monster bothered me much, but the hairy one dropping on to Gordon's face? Oh fuck no! I did the full on arm flailing thing on my couch.

Ironically she may be my favorite character on the show despite her makeup being fairly bland. Still, I'll trade bland makeup for getting her eyebrows back after the pilot.

Also, am I the only one that felt cheated we didn't get to see Bortis do his karaoke moment? I was sort of holding out hope it turned out he had an amazing singing voice. Or that he was utterly awful. I'd have been fine either way. Regardless, the character is amazing as the straight man for all the comedy. Somehow he manages to do awesome reaction shots despite all the makeup.

Interesting fact I picked up or dreamed years ago: Roddenberry planned for Vulcans to have red skin but most people did not have color TVs and he would have just looked... well, it was the 1960's.

Season 3 is a masterpiece.

The odds are very good I started watching Star Trek on a TV that needed replacement of vacuum tubes on occasion.   :awesome_for_real: