Sunday 24th June 2018: 3.16am. Link shared: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5691552/
Ever wished the original 1960's Star Trek were back on the telly? We had a nice extra half season with Star Trek Continues, the fan made homage to the original. But what if somebody actually properly rebooted 1960's Star Trek, modernised but same? Well, now they have: The Orville, linked. Invented, written by, and starring as lead Seth MacFarlane, the guy behind Family Guy, American Dad etc.
Now, the critics hate this show. Has something like 11% rating. They complain that every single aspect of this show is plagiarised, from the story lines to the character stereotypes, plus it's done with thick shovels of unsubtlety, just like the original Star Trek where they rammed the moral dilemma down your throat in a way my four year old daughter fully understands unambiguously.
However, the viewers love this show. It's how I came to hear of it. Got something like a 90% rating, and I can see why. It's uncomplicated. Literally what you see is what you get. Utterly rips off Star Trek and countless other scifi and for storyline with zero apology, plays the entire thing earnest and serious, just like the 1960s, with effects, costumes and props done cheap and cheerful.
In short, it's brilliant. People look at original Star Trek, and think it so simple as to be easy to replicate, if one so chose. But as Star Trek Continues demonstrated, it's much harder than it looks. After all, it's easy to do the whole dark, foreboding, depressing thing. Unalloyed optimism in various moral quandary episodes is much harder to pull off believably than it might seem, and moreover, The Orville has fun doing so with just the right amount of pastiche.
I'm only four episodes in, but so far, looking good. If you've not heard of it yet, it's worth checking out.