The TV Series discussion thread

I actually thought that the third episode was better than the two part pilot. I think I might continue to watch this unless they really mess up down the track!!

Sadly (but used to be gladly) I'm in the US.

wolfing said:

Outside the US you can watch it in Netflix. You may be able to fool Netflix if you use a VPN that makes it think you're not in the US. Other than that you'll probably have to resort to shadier methods like Kodi - Covenant or something.

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Caught the Gifted the other day Ep 1. This might just have potential as it's set in the X-Men universe.

I too am a big Star Trek Theme song fan.

Do you all remember the female choir in the original Star Trek theme song? That choir person was Loulie Jean Norman. Her wiki page says:

Her television credits included frequent appearances on The Dinah Shore Show, The Dean Martin Show, and The Carol Burnett Show. Norman delivered the non-lexical vocables over Alexander Courage's opening theme song for the first two seasons of Star Trek. The music was re-recorded without Norman’s voice for the show’s third season so the producers could avoid paying her royalties.

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And yes the original theme song to Enterprise was just horrible. However, in the third and fourth season they vastly updated that song. And it went from a dredgy death tune ballad to a twangy upbeat ditty. The updated version still ranked last, but at least it wasn't a mad dash to the remote to scan through the original Enterprise theme song to stop from making my ears bleed.

The wiki also had something interesting to say about the Enterprise theme song

Goldsmith was rumoured to be creating the theme tune for Enterprise, as although he didn't typically work on television, because of his affiliation with the Star Trek franchise, when he talked of creating a new television theme it was presumed that it would be for this series.[92] The franchise was known for typically using orchestral themes,[93] but Berman said that the theme tune would be more "contemporary" than heard in previous series and a "little hipper".[89] The theme was revealed to be a cover of the Rod Stewart single "Faith of the Heart", by British tenor Russell Watson.[94] Stewart's song had originally appeared on the soundtrack to the 1998 film Patch Adams. For the use in Enterprise, it was retitled to "Where My Heart Will Take Me", but prompted a negative reaction from existing Star Trek fans.[1] These included an online petition to have the song removed,[1] and there was a protest held outside of Paramount Studios.[95] Executive producers Braga and Berman both defended the choice, with Berman saying that the fan response was split over the song[95] while Braga said that some people found the song "uplifting".[96] It was remixed for the third season, most notably with a new guitar track and fewer backing vocals.

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NOTE: Brennon Braga is one of the producers of The Orville

Just came back from Blade Runner 2049. Amazing film. Amazing visuals and audio. And I also quite liked the plot. Great overall. Recommended!

danutz_plusplus said:

Just came back from Blade Runner 2049. Amazing film. Amazing visuals and audio. And I also quite liked the plot. Great overall. Recommended!

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I hear it's excellent, but I don't think it's on TV yet…

I'm not enjoying the latest Star Trek. It's all superbly shot, but it all feels a bit slick, and shallow. It's like it's been made by very visual directors that usually make beautiful commercials for executive flights and expensive cars. The actual drama I find very weak.

There is very little sense of engaging character, despite a long screen time with little else to do. I find the lines are delivered at a kind of deliberate and melodramatic pace, as if they think this will lend them weight. I just find it all a bit stiff and lifeless.

I totally agree with Ripper on the look of the most recent Trek series, and the more I see of it over the more I'm convinced that Roddenberry wouldn't care for this latest iteration of his trek at all. I'm still hopeful that at least the story arc overall might be interesting, but the aesthetic look of the show leaves a lot to be desired. And yes, most of the acting is downright pathetic. All glimmers and shines a bit much, with very little substance.

Colbert did some voice over gags from some of the alien scenes on the New Star Trek. I was stunned how beautiful the show looked but Trek was never about great special effects it was about character and story. And actually, the visuals kinda turned me off.

The Wiki says the 1st season will be 15 episodes. The first half concluding in November 12th. With the second half starting back in Jan. I think a free one week access to CBS all access in November will take care of my mini binge.

I just finished watching the first two episodes, and I'm not impressed.

Besides the Klingons looking ridiculous (imo), they also seem a lot dumber than I remember. I always thought of them as extremely aggressive yet cunning at the same time. These ones seem to be missing the cunning.

The Michael Burnham character doesn't resonate much with me. I liked Sonequa Martin-Green in TWD, but she's simply ok in this role. Way too emotional for someone supposedly raised by Vulcans.

Also, why was that character never mentioned at some point in one of the previous series? Seems a little odd that the first human to attend the Vulcan Science Academy was never mentioned before. Discovery already reeks of retconning.

There was also one part in the 2nd episode that I found particularly nonsensical…

@jd;R - also watched star trek discovery and found the main character to be rather irritating. It's also bizarre how someone could lose it so radically and behave the way she did, despite years of Vulcan conditioning. But I quite enjoyed episode three, I'm interested to see how the story evolves from there. This is definitely a darker star trek universe...suppose after JJ Abrams that's the norm.

Also watched Blader Runner 2049 yesterday. I loved the cinematography, and mostly enjoyed it. It was too long though, and that *overly loud/music* music almost blew my ear drums. Wtf?!Ryan Gosling was rather deadpan, but I suppose he was meant to be an emotionless replicant...

I just caught up with Orville and Star Trek Discovery, and I must say, I'm loving The Orville! Much more than Star Trek Discovery for sure. It's like the shows are swapped. The Orville is much more Star Trek than Star Trek Discovery, which feels more like a Battlestar Galactica spinoff or something.

The Orville feels like a cheap Star Trek parody to me, and that's probably no coincidence because that's more or less what it's supposed to be. That said, I'm not finding it very entertaining.

I just finished watching the 3rd & 4th episodes of Discovery, and I found them a little better than the first two. I think it's ok on its own if you can try to forget it's Star Trek and just enjoy it as a sci-fi series.

JDR13 said:

Also, why was that character never mentioned at some point in one of the previous series? Seems a little odd that the first human to attend the Vulcan Science Academy was never mentioned before. Discovery already reeks of retconning.

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No. The series might turn toward telling the genesis of unit 31, which indicates classified material.
The character is already loaded and a subject to file erasure: mutineer, vessel of a forbidden and loathed vulcan experiment etc And also a probable future of going against the leadership of her newly assigned ship. Kind of character that could be wipped off from history despite memorable contribution.

There was also one part in the 2nd episode that I found particularly nonsensical…

Spoiler

When Burnham and the captain transported to the Klingon vessel to attempt to capture T'Kuvma. We're supposed to believe that the captain and the first officer, both who are female, would attempt that by themselves with no additional backup whatsoever? Eh…sure.

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Absolutely. The series set a continuation with the larger ST universe through clichés, visual codes. Missions tagging Spock and Kirk being teleported into hostile environments are numerous. STD actors even took back the posture the other actors used to have when performing the stunt.

booboo said:

It's also bizarre how someone could lose it so radically and behave the way she did, despite years of Vulcan conditioning.

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No. It was made clear that vulcan endoctrination did not sink fully in the character and that Vulcans tried to find a way to reverse what they imprinted as they chose a specific captain to break the shell (her assignement to the human captain lasted seven years)
As to losing it so radically, neither her human mentor nor her vulcan mentor understood the way she achieved the conclusion she had, even though she had achieved the decision that could have avoided the big outcome. It is outrightly stated in the series: the way she achieved the conclusion (which could not be either vulcan or human) does not matter. This is only why she was picked up by the next captain as she managed to get over this or that and takes the contextually right course of action.

Nothing bizarre. It just takes to pay attention. Of course, coming to anything with the desire of it to be tailored to satisfy tastes interferes.

vurt said:

I think these people have gone full circle/full retard, it started as something genuine and good (equality is good), to become something that builds on hating a certain gender (and often a certain skin color as well).

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If that was perceived as good and genuine, it would have been applied well and genuinely by people who started it.

It was not the case. What was deemed good and genuine was to cover courses of action under the promotion of various labels.

There is no point in screaming about something that is not different. Especially when condoning the past.

JDR13 said:

The Orville feels like a cheap Star Trek parody to me, and that's probably no coincidence because that's more or less what it's supposed to be. That said, I'm not finding it very entertaining.

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To me it isn't a parody. To me it's more Star Trek with comedy. If you remove the comedy parts, you get an episode that could easily fit into The Next Generation. One episode is about the right of the parents to decide the fate of the child. Another episode about a civilization that doesn't know (and whose religious belief centers on that) they're not alone in the universe. Another about time travel and the problems it causes. With Discovery we have a generic space war show that happens to be in the Star Trek universe.

The Orville has too many "dick" jokes of course but I actually like its fairly serious approach to science fiction (or at least space opera) with comedy elements. Much prefer this to silly, outright SF spoofs like Spaceballs or that old series starring Richard Benjamin called Quark from years ago. Even Douglas Adams is too spoofy for me. Robert Sheckley's stuff of the 50s and 60s was some of my favorite written SF and he kind of originated this style of modern speculative fiction that was good SF in itself but splashed with humor or light satirical elements that didn't overwhelm the interesting story.

wolfing said:

To me it isn't a parody. To me it's more Star Trek with comedy. If you remove the comedy parts, you get an episode that could easily fit into The Next Generation. One episode is about the right of the parents to decide the fate of the child. Another episode about a civilization that doesn't know (and whose religious belief centers on that) they're not alone in the universe. Another about time travel and the problems it causes. With Discovery we have a generic space war show that happens to be in the Star Trek universe.

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Star Trek with comedy would be great if it was actually funny. Problem is, The Orville is rarely funny. I smiled a few times during the first episode, but Ep 2&3 were just not funny...at all. Also, the storylines so far have been extremely cliche. The gender issue episode had me rolling my eyes the entire time.

When you're trying to do comedy, it helps to be funny. When you're trying to be serious, it helps to at least have a decent plot. So far, The Orville hasn't managed to do either of those things afaic.

Well, I'm enjoying both shows. Orville on Fridays and Discovery on Mondays. Good season.

Haven't watched the Orville yet, although a friend suggested I give it a whirl. That and The Tick, which I missed. I enjoy a bit of light-hearted tomfoolery