I cannot say enough great stuff about that episode (arc) but to this day my absolutely favorite part is Dr. Crusher struggling to eat the chewing gum because she didn't know about gum.
I've always thought that this kind of plot device ("I have no idea what this is so I'm doing it all wrong", like the chewing gum or a car or whatever) was really lame. Just like "This guy has pointy ears / some skin condition, he must be from outer space and I'm going to faint". Not really believable.
I didn't find it unbelievable at all. Sometime in the future, gum is no longer a thing. It could happen.
A woman hands Dr. Beverly what she assumes is a mint or a candy or something. She starts eating it, realizes she's in trouble, but because she's a nice, polite lady, and the nice, polite lady who gave it to her is still right in front of her, she does her best to eat it with good manners and a smile, but she's obviously struggling to get it down. McFadden sells the shit out of it. As a nice, polite lady (sometimes) myself, it totally resonates. The shit we put ourselves through not to offend others.
If done well, like a sudden "shit this wasn't what I expected" moment I find it amusing. If it's say, being completely dumbfounded over the whole concept of a truck and needing your tricorder to identify literal shit, then it's stupid. It makes sense the future works different but not that our characters are morons.
Golly! Several times each? What must that be like?
It's related to procrastination and the fact that it's probably my favorite show of all time. I'm still waiting for a mind eraser so I can watch them again.
the Orville: If you want to watch MacFarlane live out his childhood dream of cosplaying StarTrek TNG/Voyager, then this show is for you!
I kept hearing it was a comedy but besides a few laughs it really feels like a StarTrek clone only they swear and talk about pooping. It's like if Galaxy Quest was just the footage the captain had filmed with previous rich fans before he met real aliens. The sad thing is, while being a bit b-movie StarTrek all the other characters besides McFarlane, including budget Louis CK, are more interesting, life like and funnier than him.
Episode 1: Hmm, not bad, some obscure references to StarTrek, references aren't actually jokes though, but nothing bad, and bonus for the DS9 casting.
Episode 2: Oh so this is just a better Enterprise, but with an occasional jarring 80s-2010s pop cultural reference with no setup or lampshade hanging on it... ok.
Episode 3: What am I watching? All the science to this is wrong, the arguments are stupid, I thought this was supposed to be a comedy!! Boo.
It was amazing how fast it went down hill. Also their opening is stupid, it's a Voyager style ship in front of space stuff and while pretty I don't see the point. On Voyager the computer tech for that budget was new, using a 3D ship in front of 3D space scenes was new and exciting at the time (with Bab 5 paving the way and eventually even converting model hold out DS9). One of the reasons Enterprise went a different way with their opener was because between the start and end of Voyager, flying ships in front of planets was old hat... ...so why in the hell did you waste a couple minutes of your show showing me something that was old hat 16 years ago? And you can guess how my opinion has gone of this show based on the fact I'm annoyed by their opener.
Bonus Star Trek nerd points if you noticed the scientist guy was Dr Bashir's father who couldn't keep his mouth shut.
I watched the first two episodes of Star Trek Discovery (on Netflix UK). Show openers for Trek are usually a little wooden till the plot lines and characters are developed and in comparison this wasn't too bad. They changed the Klingons again; the camera angles are distractingly funky; the lighting is rather dark; the plot devices were somewhat unbelievable - but that's normal for Trek.
Overall not bad. I shall watch more episodes when available.
My Orville thought: If you like Seth MacFarlane jokes, then you'll likely enjoy Orville. That's about the extent.
Like a lot of other nerds, I watched the premiere of Discovery (STSC or just DSC). It was okay. There seems enough there to watch more - if it wasn't behind a paywall.
I also saw it on Netflix yesterday. I really liked Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael(!) Burnham and I would have loved to see more of Michelle Yeoh!
Other than that I'm not convinced yet. I really hope this isn't going to be more Star Wars than Star Trek but we'll see. I have a bad feeling about this.
I read that Yeoh is signed up for fifteen episodes.
As her character is now dead (though they've not got her body back yet so maybe...) I'm assuming that in the next thirteen episodes we're going to see a lot of flashbacks.
I was annoyed by yet another example of lights INSIDE a space helmet. It seems that future designers don't give a fuck about the wearer of these helmets being able to see a god-damned thing providing that any outside observers (!) can get a good view of the wearer's face.
Managed to catch the second episode of Discovery and ... not exactly impressed. Like Enterprise, I will give it a chance, but will also make an observation:
Star Trek: "Stick with the 50's stereotypes our audience knows."
The Next Generation: "Give our characters subtle flaws to bounce off each other and stuff."
DS9: "Let's give all our characters fatal flaws to cripple them dramatically. Also, jesus references."
ENT: "That was hard, let's just use sterotypes for a while."
DISC: "I'm tired of this. Just...make everyone an irredeemable asshole. Also their spaceship is powered by torturing aliens."
I'm not going to spoiler that, it's such a stupid idea I am not ashamed.
About a quarter of the most recent episode (fourth?) consisted of Klingon dialogue. I suppose this was a treat for those fanatical Trekies who've learned to speak the language but for the 99%+ of us who haven't we have to mostly look away from the actors and sets while we read the subtitles and endure what sounds like leopards with very sore throats coughing up furballs.
I feel like the way they speak it on the show is too slow and choppy.
I understand they want it to sound not just guttural like German, but aggressive like Hitler speeches, but it just seems impractical to have to speak that slow.
But I guess speaking speed is something that varies culturally...
It would come off differently if they spoke like this:
It would sound more natural, but I suppose that "natural" is by human standards. It would sound more like a real human language this way.
I don't, however, have much of a problem with watching shows/movies with subtitles, but I get the impression that I read faster than most people (based on how frequently when someone is reading over my shoulder I'm asked to stop scrolling).