Comment by grawprog | Hacker News Reader

Comment by grawprog | Hacker News Reader

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To apply what you're saying to a different media.

I was a big star trek fan growing up. Around the time of enterprise, then going on to the reboot and new series i'd lost interest in star trek.

The series changed in ways I didn't enjoy. Not to bash on them in any way and getting to my point.

I've been recommended The Orville a bunch lately. After hearing what it was, I wasn't really interested, but finally i was pushed into watching it and I was immediately hooked and finished the first two seasons in a couple days.

This is the reason why:

>Lately I played a game, Ex-Zodiac, which is a StarFox clone. Only the demo is available, but the author really captured every single aspect that made StarFox great. That attention to detail is what makes games fun.

You can tell the people that made the Orville loved the hell out of the earlier star trek series and put a lot of care into small details that really made it feel like star trek, moreso than most newer actual star treks. Despite being somewhat of a comedic parody, like you say, they 'really captured every single aspect' that made star trek great.

I have to agree with both your general point and your specific regarding The Orville.

I wasn't excited to watch it, because I don't find McFarlane funny (as a writer/showrunner and especially not as an actor), and because I think I've only ever enjoyed maybe one sci-fi parody ever. (2 if you count MST3K as "sci-fi"..?)

But my wife wanted to give it a shot because she's such a sci-fi nerd (even more than me), and you're right: they captured the utter essence of Star Trek so completely that I'm not entirely sure why he's not on a short list to do a serious Star Trek show/movie.

The qualities that make Star Trek so compelling (especially Next Generation and to a lesser extent DS9 and Voyager) are ever present in The Orville in spades. That it somehow manages to combine a very serious look at life in space with some pretty raunchy potty humor is nothing short of incredible.

I would fully support McFarlane (or whomever is responsible for that "essence" in Orville) doing a dramatic space opera, hands down, no question. That would be one hell of a show.

Not sure the market would bear it, unfortunately, though.

>I wasn't excited to watch it, because I don't find McFarlane funny (as a writer/showrunner and especially not as an actor), and because I think I've only ever enjoyed maybe one sci-fi parody ever. (2 if you count MST3K as "sci-fi"..?)

Yeah, his comedy's a bit much for me most of the time. He's got some funny stuff, but it's usually in between a whole lot of meh stuff.

I was honestly expecting family guy in space or something. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised and happy to be wrong.

>I would fully support McFarlane (or whomever is responsible for that "essence" in Orville) doing a dramatic space opera, hands down, no question. That would be one hell of a show.

I ended up looking up more about the show and to be fair, the show does actually have some long time star trek people involved. Johnathan Frakes(Riker), Robert Duncan Macneil(Tom Paris) and Brannon Braga(worked on Voyager and enterprise) directed a bunch of episodes. There were also a ton of cameos by star trek actors throughout the show. So there was definitely a bunch of people working on the show who had been involved in star trek.

Oddly enough, back to the video game world there's also a few examples of tribute games playing off nostalgia made by members of the original staff that don't hold up to the originals they're emulating, which also shows just having original staff members isn't all it takes to capture that old greatness.

> I've only ever enjoyed maybe one sci-fi parody ever.

It was Galaxyquest, wasn't it?

You guessed it!

That's because it wasn't really a parody, it was a comedic love letter to Star Trek fandom.

Wow, this has the biggest reviewer/audience score difference I've ever seen on Rotten Tomatoes. 30% vs. 94%.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/orville/s01

I used to purposefully look for movies with low critics score and high audience score and I found some pretty good ones. My personal favorite is "Old Fashioned" (2014, ratio 18/84) [1].

[1] https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/old_fashioned

I'm not sure I'd class it as a parody but in case you haven't seen it Red Dwarf is a brilliant sci-fi comedy from the BBC in the mid-90s. It declines a little as seasons go on but the first few seasons are well worth a watch for a sci-fi fan.

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