聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 I don鈥檛 watch much TV these days, but in recent weeks I鈥檝e been positively giddy about the two new Star Trek shows to hit the air this fall.
听听听听听听听听听听听 Two, you say? But CBS only put out Star Trek Discovery on September 24.
听听听听听听听听听听听 Ah, but there鈥檚 already been three weeks of Fox鈥檚 The Orville, created and starring Seth McFarlane. And if you don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 the same universe, you鈥檇 be wrong.
听听听听听听听听听听听 The Orville is a parody, or spoof, or satire. I鈥檓 not sure which. Maybe all three? But it鈥檚 awesome. And if there had been no Star Trek, there would never be The Orville. Maybe they might not meet each other in some neutral zone, but they share a common heritage, nonetheless.
听听听听听听听听听听听 The show has an awful lot of the look and feel of 1987鈥檚 Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG), which, for many people, is truly the heart of the franchise, even moreso than The Original Series (TOS) starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.
听听听听听听听听听听听 The aesthetic for The Orville (the name of the ship in that series), is very much like TNG. It鈥檚 all bright and cheery, with large, wide open spaces. Compared to the grittiness seen in almost all sci-fi since the rebooted Battlestar Galactica, The Orville is clean, fresh and crisp.
听听听听听听听听听听听 And in the traditions of the best Star Trek, it鈥檚 tackling sensitive issues head on, except with some pretty gutsy humor.
听听听听听听听听听听听 So far we鈥檝e seen the captain and first officer, who are divorced, but working in the same office, bitch and natter at each other like divorced people do. We鈥檝e seen infidelity and its consequences, work absenteeism, pulling strings, affirmative action, gender reassignment and gender politics, and all in three weeks.
听听听听听听听听听听听 Star Trek: Discovery鈥檚 unfortunate acronym, STD, might not work well for most people. Maybe it鈥檒l be called DIS, like Star Trek: Voyager became VOY.
听听听听听听听听听听听 Anyhow, Discovery looked simply amazing. Its aesthetic was pulled right from the recent movie series, the first two which were directed by J.J. Abrams and started in 2009. Visually, it鈥檚 orders of magnitude beyond The Orville. And for $6 million an episode (or more, I鈥檝e read), Discovery should look pretty spanky.
听听听听听听听听听听听 As much of TOS was an allegory to the Cold War, with the Klingons standing in for the Soviets, already some people are suggesting that Discovery is an allegory to current geopolitics, except this time, the Klingons represent the hermit kingdom of North Korea.
听听听听听听听听听听听 Xenophobic to the extreme, the Klingons unite in their fear and loathing of outside civilizations and are willing to do battle to preserve their perverse culture, even starting a war to be a unifying cause.
听听听听听听听听听听听 Sound familiar?
听听听听听听听听听听听 You鈥檇 think perhaps they were pulling directly from events in recent weeks, but Discovery was actually years in the making, and the script for the pilot episodes took over a year to write, apparently. Kim Jong Un鈥檚 been working on his nukes for a while now, so maybe it wasn鈥檛 so hard to see the current state of affairs coming.
听听听听听听听听听听听 Curiously, our 10-year-old, Spencer, positively loves The Orville, and even my wife, Michelle, gets a good laugh out of it. But she had no interest in watching Discovery, and Spencer walked away 40 minutes into its first episode, just before the action started. Apostates, both, I say.
听听听听听听听听听听听 CBS is betting big on Discovery. The first hour was broadcast on TV. But everything else, including the second half of the two-hour opener, has to be accessed by subscribing to CBS鈥檚 new All Access streaming service, akin to its own Netflix, if you鈥檙e an American.
听听听听听听听听听听听 If you鈥檙e Canadian, you can watch it on Space, which also streams it (but not if you鈥檙e a SaskTel Max customer, dammit). You can bet I changed my channel lineup this weekend to bring Space back into the lineup, after a year of having dropped it.
听听听听听听听听听听听 But will enough Americans do the same, and essentially pay just for Star Trek on All Access? After all, there鈥檚 only so much CSI reruns one can take!
听听听听听听听听听听听 The rest of the world will see Discovery on Netflix, as it should be.
听听听听听听听听听听听 I鈥檓 hoping Discovery gives us some real sci-fi drama. I鈥檓 hoping The Orville gives us the laughs. And I hope both live long and prosper.
