The new Star Trek + comedy
MikeDYur
Posts: 2,176
While the set's look great, I'm not sure the mix of comedy and science fiction have a good track record.
http://www.fox.com/the-orville
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Orville
BTW: Last time I heard they were making jam in Orville.
http://www.fox.com/the-orville
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Orville
BTW: Last time I heard they were making jam in Orville.
294 x 250 - 118K
Comments
I'm a fan of Galaxy Quest, so I personally think comedy and SF can work well together. It's much, much harder than it looks, though.
Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy.
Red Dwarf
Star Wreck
Dark Star
+1. And...
My Favorite Martian
Mork & Mindy
Third Rock
Futurama
Quite a bit of comedy can be made out using non-human cultures to lampoon human culture.
The effects are likely to be good, given the state-of-the-art, plus McFarlane's experience with producing the updated version of Cosmos, with Neil deGrasse Tyson (Brannon Bragga was also involved in that production, and I imagine it was here that he and McFarlane met). And of course Bragga has had plenty of SF production experience under his belt. These things can get frightfully expensive.
Such productions turn on the quality of the cast. Galaxy Quest had a formidable cast, with the likes of Sigourney Weaver lending much gravitas. (Erco, that straight line is for you!)
The timing is curious though, with CBS slated to unveil ST:Discovery at the same time. Not sure if it'll work for or against it. After the premier, Discovery will only be on CBS All Access, and not on a network. Sadly for me, All Access crashes my Roku thanks to their new software, so I can't watch it. In any case, definitely a Trekker's fest this fall.
And I really hadn't looked into a space movie like that, but I will as long as they are PG~, think it would be something I would want to watch with a kid.
And I just get tired of a lot of cussing, for lack of meaningful content in the script.
Galaxy Quest
Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy * seen part.
Red Dwarf * heard of.
Star Wreck * heard of.
Dark Star * heard of.
My Favorite Martian * seen, kids stuff.
Mork & Mindy * seen, kids stuff.
Third Rock * seen a few, technical is there.
Futurama
BTW: I know the background on third rock.
Clearly I'm not up on the subject, and I love a good comedy. But I hope there is a decent plot involved, to keep me watching.
Mike
Why? Because as a little girl once said "I like radio drama better than TV because the pictures are better".
From the destruction of the Earth in the first 10 minutes to the restaurant at the end of the universe I think you will find it has enough plot. And a lot of characters along the way.
Knowing the recent direction of Seth McFarland's comedy you may not be comfortable watching it with a child. I'm just guessing, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't fairly suggestive.
The British have probably done more sci-fi comedies, so if you see a lot of UK TV you're more likely to have seen this genre. They had a Hitchhiker's TV show back in the 80s, and there's also Hyperdrive and several others that have lasted more than one season. The comedy often tends toward the obtuse and absurd, while Americans prefer more direct situations and jokes.
SF can easily venture into fantasy, like Terry Pratchett's Discworld books. The TV miniseries of Going Postal would be more speculative fiction than pure SF. It has a a strong streak of abnormal humor (the protagonist's name is Moist von Lipwig), typical of a Pratchett story. And it's British.
Not a comedy, but one of my all-time favorite SF books is the 1961 Hugo Award-winning "A Canticle for Liebowitz", which was made into a 15-part series on NPR. I've had a CD of this for years, and love listening to it on long car trips. Just saw the whole thing is downloadable on MP3s at http://www.oldradioworld.com/shows/A_Canticle_for_Liebowitz.php
A great mashup of technology vs religion, dogma, ignorance, violence, hope and the rise & fall of civilizations.
Set in a Roman Catholic monastery in the desert of the southwestern United States after a devastating nuclear war, the story spans thousands of years as civilization rebuilds itself. The monks of the Albertian Order of Leibowitz take up the mission of preserving the surviving remnants of man's scientific knowledge until the day the outside world is again ready for it.
This is better: http://www.induceddyslexia.com/hitchhiker.htm`
Starting to listen to it again it is amazing. There is a hundred jokes and a hundred deep thoughts in the first few minutes.
...and a large DT later on.
Anything called 'The Orville' isn't going to do well on this side of the pond, is it? There is only one Orville:
They may have removed the content there too.
The hundred jokes and deep thoughts in the first few minutes, has me compelled to hear this work. I'll keep searching for it.
Found the same link, and it works now.
Thanks Heater!
http://www.induceddyslexia.com/hitchhiker.htm
Thanks erco, with all this new material to listen to, I need to plan a long car trip.
the HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy is brilliantly funny. After a while I started laughing when the next character came in, just from their past performances.
Listened to the first five this morning moving stone with shovel and wheelbarrow, and actually made it enjoyable.
Good clean intelligent humor, set in the future it will never get old. I wish I had the full version of the intro/exit tune, it has a catchy rhythm.
Excellent recommendation, thanks again.
Thanks, the wife just played it, now I need to record it.
One of my favorite bands. Caught Lee Kerslake's drumstick at a concert way back when, I would have to look at my tickets.
Their music is really out there though.
http://www.uriah-heep.com/newa/index.php
Heck, yeah! But I wouldn't classify Firefly as comedy.
Tragic comedy perhaps?
There's another Star Trek Series coming as well.
cbs.com/shows/star-trek-discovery/
Is Seth trying to compete with the actual Star Trek shows?
I learned a new word: Dramady
BTW: Does the robot have to act without vision?
I think AnDramedy is a Nuke-U-Lar galaxy over yonder.
Spoiler: In the first episode, they defeat the bad guys via a dumb frat-boy stunt. Rendered with the best CGI available to TV.
I can't see this lasting, not with all the much better alternatives out there on multiple channels.
If they wanted to do a comedy, they should have gone another way and put him in charge of a space-going dump truck, or similar low-end assignment. Then his crew of misfits could bumble around each week and try not to get shot. The type of jokes in the show would fit that crew. And make it half an hour!
Or if they wanted to do dramedy, then dump the frat-boy humor, put the characters in a much tougher situation they don't have control over, and have black humor as they try to deal with it. No perfect shiny ship, either. The creators already mentioned M*A*S*H, that would be how to get there. A bit similar to Firefly, but it could be good.
Oh well.
I see I spelled it wrong.
AnDramedy is a hollow shell of a planet. on an extreme elliptical path around our sun, the inhabitants walk around on the inside of the shell through artificial gravity, in climate controled comfort. A planet of internet trolls, that make life miserable for us here on Earth.
They tell sci-fi related jokes on AnDramedy, but falls flat there too.
As far as The Orville, to get the few laughs you need to be in a good mood, have a clear mind, and also a six pack helps.