I love Rainn Wilson’s H.F. Mudd.
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I have seen all episodes of both shows and like both.
STD is like watching a movie. It is lavishly produced and well written. The aftershow is fun, like attending a panel at a convention.
My understanding is the Klingon war will end during the show. And we will see Kirk’s universe start to evolve.
Personally I wish it had not been a prequel because that locks in so much. If there is another series I hope it continues where STNG left off.
I am glad to see any kind of Star Trek on the air. I am sick of dystopias and am glad for one series that shows a hopeful vision for the future.
The Orville reminds me of really good cosplay. I find the characters act in ways that would get then killed in real life. But in a humorous universe it “makes sense”.
Good luck to both series!
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The 2009 Star Trek movie pretty much ruined all narrative logic with that “transwarp beaming” nonsense. Once you introduce a technology that can send people or objects across vast regions of space faster than a starship then you have to ask why the Federation still bothers using starships at all.
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STD: WHY DOES NOBODY EVER TALK ABOUT THIS MAGIC TELEPORT THOUSANDS OF LIGHT YEARS TECHNOLOGY EVER AGAIN.
Because the entirety of Season Two takes place in a Bizarro Universe where everybody has goatees and is really mean, Stamets never makes it back to Prime, and nobody else knows how to make it work.
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To be fair, different universes here. Kelvin vs. Prime.
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But it also showcases the misbegotten nature of the series.
Prequels are inherently anticlimactic and narrative poison. (That’s why …? or Meet “Person who will be important in other works but only has a minor role here!”)
There are so many other avenues to take as to avoid being derivative or a retread of prior works.
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Yet at the same time, respectively we have barely spent ANY time in this time period. 3 years and 6 movies covering 30 years (with most of it unexplored) vs 3 series and 4 films covering 20ish years. I for one am happy to explore slightly earlier times of Starfleet and see how things got to be how they were in TOS time.
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It still doesn’t make sense. If Spock Prime had such technology in his timeline then he wouldn’t have needed that fancy spaceship the Vulcans built to stop the supernova. And once he introduced the technology to the alternate timeline the Federation should have ceased development of new starships to focus on the new transportation tech (which they did exploit but apparently only for Khan’s sooper-seekrit fighter jet thing).
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We’ve watched both Discovery and Orville, and prefer Orville. We may not be giving Discovery a fair shake, however, because Discovery got locked behind the All Access paywall, and the first 2 episodes didn’t hook us enough to contemplate paying for yet another pay-per-view channel.
Orville makes no pretense of being anything related to Star Trek, but the lightheartedness is preferable to the current need for everything SF to be dark, depressing and bleak.
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Somehow I never considered that. He mentioned that he took Vulcan’s “fastest ship” to deliver the red matter, but why not instantly beam the red matter into that star from a safe distance? No wonder that Romulan miner guy didn’t think he tried hard enough and was out for revenge.
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This is my kind of nerdy pedantry.
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Dystopian science fiction seems to be cyclic, the 70’s were full of dystopias; what the Trek universe(s?) still have is hope.
It really is. I only have the beginning of Discovery to go on (the free episode), but Orville has grown on me significantly over its first season. It is so close to TNG, which is a lost gem of the Star Trek universe (amongst the modern incarnations.) Seth McF has out trekked Star Trek, bravo!
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Oof, my bad. Abrams Trek is one of those movies where I liked it at first but every time I watched it I hated it a little more, so I haven’t seen it in quite a while.
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What temp said, except he’s got it backwards: Discovery is the one from the “dark mirror” universe. It’s only from the season break going forward that we’re in the “prime” universe. (Maybe. But it makes sense since it fixes the problems of Spock’s never-mentioned sister, the never-mentioned spore drive, the variant Klingons, etc.)
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Its best saving grace is that it keeps the plot moving fast enough that you can enjoy the ride without dwelling on the obvious plotholes but that doesn’t suit it well for repeated watchings.
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My entire family have been Trekkies since 1966. I love Roddenberry’s vision of the future, the morality tales, and social commentary. Orville is a great show and I never miss an episode. That said, Discovery is the best Trek so far. The acting is superb, special effects on point, social commentary right there for everyone to see, and the morality is still quintessential Trek.
Still, Orville looks and feels like the Trek most people are familiar with and I suppose if that’s what you are looking for, it’s going to be your choice. Where the Orville falls short IMO and one thing Discovery has in common with all the other Treks is cutting edge television sci-fi. Trek is always moving forward, doing what no one else has done with TV sci-fi. Discovery seems to be on that leading edge of television sci-fi and the Orville feels more like “Remember Next Generation? Wasn’t it great? Here’s some more but with jokes”. That’s great. I love that, but better than Disco? Not for this Trekkie.
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Like all of JJ’s work it would seem.
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What have you been smoking?
That episode was terribly written. Mudd knew all the Discovery’s secrets and they let him leave with his arms merchant father in law - the one who would surely have Klingon contacts to sell the information to.
There’s no way the crew is that stupid unless the writers make them be that stupid.
I do love the actor who played Mudd, but that was a terrible story.
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A. Mudd didn’t know shit. He knew enough to tell someone sure…but without the tech of the ship itself, it was worth nothing.
B. One would think that if Starfleet could get an arms merchant to fly in a super fast ship in less than 30 mins, he has some ties to Starfleet and wouldn’t betray them that easily. They are in the middle of a war, Starfleet is probably his best customer.
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