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Reviews
The Orville: Future Unknown (2022)
A lovely sendoff that some might find disappointing
This episode is more like an epilogue than continuation and culmination of the "main" story. We've seen that concluded for now. People have commented on the overuse of Moclan and Kylon stories, but in this case it's ok, because they're really more comic relief than anything else. And generally, this is the most light-hearted and comedy-centric episode since the first season. There is a Trek-ish storyline that's handled without too much drama or enormous stakes - which is good after the previous episode. Despite that, the message conveyed is quite valid and highly pertinent.
This episode is pretty much The Orville's Citadel DLC or one of the various Futurama finales. Everybody gets their little character moment, and we're ending on a very slightly bittersweet high note. I expected something completely different, but I'm very happy this is what we got. Let's hope there will be a fourth season, but if not, this is a sendoff Star Trek could be proud of.
The Orville: Domino (2022)
Christ on a bike
This show has gone from "the humorous homage to Trek with the same idealistic spirit" to "THIS is what Trek and even Star Wars need to be like". It not only has everything a good Trek episode needs to have - the moral questions, the philosophy, the resolution that comes with a price - but it has action that puts ANYTHING Trek since JJ and, indeed Star Wars since Disney, have done to shame. On a tv budget that those other shows and films snort at.
Are the visuals as polished? Of course not. You can see in nearly every shot that this is a modest tv budget. Does it matter? Not one iota. The expert storytelling, pacing and editing are riveting. I don't care about the technology. The Mandalorian was boring with clumsy, boring action scenes. Nu Trek's action is overblown and, mind-bogglingly, even more boring, to say nothing of the rest of it. The action here is clear, straightforward and, yes, lifted right out of half a dozen other films. But IT WORKS, because the action and stakes support characters one cares about.
And let's not forget the music. The music that uses an 85-piece orchestra, showing us why classic Hollywood film music is still the best thing ever if done right. And man, do Debney, McNeely and the new composers get it right. This leaves other current tv film music in the dust - effortlessly. This episode is not only no exception, but actually a highlight.
And why all of this? Because Seth MacFarlane cares.
This episode, quite asonishingly, combines the best of Trek with the best of action sci-fi and, in so doing, leaves both CBS and Disney with egg on their faces.
Halo (2022)
It's decent, brainless space opera fun
I played most of the first game and looked into a bunch of the others. Wasn't blown away by either story or gameplay, because I am a pc gamer and Halo owes a lot of it's popularity to the fact that at the time it filled a story-based shooter vacuum for console players. This show deviates substantially from what you see in the game, but in my opinion, most of the changes are not only justified, but necessary. As the player, you put all your own emotions into the Master Chief; as a viewer, the character has to have them for you. All the backstabbing and intrigue seemed lifted near-verbatim from The Expanse, but there's worse places to steal from, even if the various tropes of betrayal and wronged characters were tired 30 years ago. Like that ever stopped Hollywood. As a bit of light, brainless, semi-epic space opera, it works. Acting is fine, FX are mostly fine. Don't expect the cutscenes from the games. Maybe view it as Halo's Kelvin timeline. After all, a lot of people don't seem very concerend with the abomination Star Trek has become, and this is far, far better.
Foundation (2021)
Literally the opposite of everything Asimov stood for
The Foundation series is in many way the father of Dune, and by extension, of Star Wars (as many here have pointed out). What's more important though, is that Isaac Asimov's vision of a galaxy-spanning, multi-century epic chronicling no less than the entire "future history" of humanity, was trying to show a humanity that had lost its drive and decended into decadence and anarchy even while apparently at the peak of its evolution.
Asimov was a firm believer in rationality and just as firmly opposed to any form of superstition or religion. Religion and superstition, in pretty much all his books, are depicted as relics of the barbarous eras long gone, before humanity colonized the galaxy. The reason they return to some degree in the last days of the Galactic Empire is precisely because of the spreading complacency and decadence. The Foundation, in the books, is presented as the necessary cure and antidote to precisely this regression humanity is going through.
And what does the series do? From literally the first story beat it presents not only Seldon, but every single character as deeply spiritual and/or religious, either working towards some "prophecy" (the Seldon plan), or just observant of some or other religion and belief in unnamed deities. It goes out of its way to emphasize how psychohistory cannot account for individuals (which it can't), while hinging the entire plot on the actions of said individuals, particularly Salvor Hardin - who might as well have directly beamed over from Star Trek Discovery. The ENTIRE POINT of Asimov's Foundation was that actions by individuals don't matter because the greater socio-political forces cancel them out. And here we have yet another "chosen one" (sigh) leading her people to glory. Or something.
The character changes are an entirely different can of worms, but let's just say that, while some are irrelevant, if unnecessary, others are not changes so much as they are characters that never existed with a random name from one of the books slapped on. And I mean random. We have names from 80 years earlier suddenly appearing as teenagers long after the story they're set in. We have a pragmatic.no-nonsense mayor, who's suddenly a young girl with superpowers. We have Eto Demerzel, one of Asimov's best creations, a mysterious puppet master, whose real identity is given away an hour into the series (and gender-changed, although that's pretty much irrelevant for this series). We have a son, long dead, who apparently comes back 30 years younger and kills his foster father.
It is absolutely clear and understandable that changes have to be made to written soruce material to make it watchable. And many shows and movies get this right. But something like this I've rarely seen, except maybe with World War Z. Asimov's Foundation shows how the Kingdoms surrounding Terminus succumb to barbarism and fail to conquer the Foundation because of petty greed and rashness born from increasing decadence, superstition and lack of education. Here? They're terrorists who want vengeance. What Goyer has done is to take one of the most inspired sci fi tales of all time and turned it into another bland, interchangeable story about some "good guys with a prophecy" - out of context, meaningless, scientifically laughable (what the hell is a "slowship" and why would they even exist?) and, worst of all, contrary to the entire book series' core message.
Avenue 5 (2020)
Absolutely decent, give it a chance
I watched this because someone compared it to an inferior version of The Orville. Nothing could be further from the truth; the only common ground here is that both are sci-fi. However, Avenue 5 focuses on the people, with a bunch of space mishaps thrown in to keep things exciting. The whole setting is much closer to Red Dwarf than a space exploration show.
Think Red Dwarf meets The Poseidon Adventure.
While the first episode starts off a little wonkily, things soon pick up. The humor is extremely dry and British, which apparently puts off a lot of people used to American shows but really gives Avenue 5 its personality. The cast, with one or two exceptions, do a fine job, and there is actually a surprising amount of correct physics - very rare for sci-fi, and especially for sci-fi comedy. While I love The Orville, the science in that show is abysmal. Give it a try, especially if you like dry, deadpan humor - of which Hugh Laurie, of course, is a master.
Movie 43 (2013)
It's basically live-action Robot Chicken
I can see why many people would find it objectionable. It's pretty hit and miss, but for all intents and purposes this the principle of Robot Chicken transferred to live action. Consequently, what would normally be hilarious here often is only moderately funny, because it takes away one layer of absurdity. A movie for the faint of heart or those who like their humor famly-friendly, this is not. Personally I found it just absurd enough to be entertaining, even though it dipped below the threshold quite a few times..
The Orville (2017)
THIS is Star Trek - not that other show
After having seen six episodes of both Star Trek: Discovery and The Orville, I am truly baffled and very positively surprised. Baffled at how, with a budget of millions, the people who made Discovery could not come up with a single interesting character or plot, but instead basically just made The Expanse with Klingons, taking every single thing that is unique, positive, and enjoyable about Star Trek and tossing it out the window. And positively surprised, because, out of the corner I would least have expected it - the filthy, cobwebbed one with the rancid yogurt, in which Seth MacFarlane used to reside for me - comes this gem of a show that takes everything fun, positive, and enjoyable from Trek and runs with it.
It is - as nearly everyone here has pointed out - the spiritual successor of TNG, although I would actually put it somewhere between TOS and TNG. It has a bit of the "cowboy" feeling people seem to like so much about TOS while including at least some of the elements that made TNG so brilliant - people actually trying to overcome petty human concerns by looking at the bigger picture and solving problems through compassion and dialogue rather than by inventing the next, bigger gun (yes, I know Trek did that too, but big guns are fine occasionally).
Now this is still by and large a comedy, so in order for that to function, you can't have straight TNG-like characters. But apart from occasionally overshooting the target a bit, the balance of comedy and seriousness is handled excellently - something I would not have thought possible for a Trek-like sci-fi show, let alone from MacFarlane.
You will recognize the plot elements, you'll recognize character traits. After hundreds of stories of drama and intrigue among the stars, what story hasn't Trek told? Again, the idea, as far as I can see, was not to create something entirely new (which, ironically, it is, though), but to take those elements that made Trek great and combine them with enough comedy to provide a breath of fresh air. And provide it does. In fact, the comedy allows the writers to approach topics in a way that would actually not have been possible for Trek playing it straight. Without spoiling, I will here point to the Episode "About a girl", which actually touches on subjects that weren't very prominent at the time TNG ran and is therefore quite unique in itself.
I'm not really going to touch on the scientific aspects of the show except to say that, even with scientific advisors, Trek has obviously always taken huge liberties with established science at times, while at others making the science and (at them time) new discoveries a central point of the story. Naturally, scientific accuracy is going to suffer a bit in a comedy. But let me just point to "Discovery" and say (farcially): subspace mushroom network.
I don't know how long they can make the concept work, but if they keep coming up with episodes like #3, #4 and #6, they deserve to have the kind of money thrown at them that "Discovery" now squanders on a tired old war story, forgettable characters, and making everything dark and shaky. But even with its limited budget, the visuals are more than adequate (maybe barring the Ikea furniture), proving once more that you only need so much resources to tell great stories.
Finally, one more thing. THE MUSIC. This show has hands down the best music of any official or unofficial Star Trek show (including the new movies, but of course always excepting Jerry Goldsmith). But considering you have Bruce Broughton doing the theme, and John Debney and Joel McNeely scoring episodes, that shouldn't be a big surprise.
Simply put, this show saves Star Trek for me and blows any contemporary Trek movie or show out of the water - with ease.