Octopus Overlords

Redfive wrote:Well, I missed it because I forgot it moved to Thursday.

I was watching it on Sunday because I was mildly interested and it was after football--I'll likely never remember to watch it now.

You just need to remember that it is now on DURING football. I remembered to turn it on when those garish uniforms nearly made me scratch my eyes out.

. I remembered to turn it on when those garish uniforms nearly made me scratch my eyes out.

Were they those neon green ones? My wife was flipping and I yelled WAIT!...I couldn't believe those were a real teams colors. Ugh.

Up to the first commercial on the 3rd ep and having a tough time watching it. I HATE stupid and this one is filled with it. Stupid makes me crazy ..I do not do stupid well . Hope I can finish the ep. I know it will work out somehow. But I have NO idea how that species is a member of the Union.

Also why the hell did the Cap go to meet the ship? Its against what he believed in and he had no Union orders to do so. Wont the Moclan now be kicked out of the Union?

Watched it all. Still dont know how they get to stay in the Union. Makes me wonder how it all started in the first place and why they choose to be gay when they clearly have females.

And just how the heck do they fertilize and lay an egg????

Daehawk wrote:
And just how the heck do they fertilize and lay an egg????

I was wondering that myself. Males and females are designated by the gametes they produce; anyone producing an egg is a female by definition. But maybe biology gets looser definitions in the future....

Maybe they're like barnacles. Or maybe we are only getting a tiny sliver of what's going on in Moclan society and things aren't exactly as they appear (or how they're representing it) - maybe giving birth to females isn't nearly as rare as they say. Or possibly the writers don't have someone on staff that has a background in biology. For all we know they could have started with the idea of an alien race that's all female but then decided it was more interesting for plot-lines if they just flipped it to have the alien race be entirely male without considering what that might mean.

Smoove_B wrote:Maybe they're like barnacles.

You mean they have the longest penis per body size if any animal?

Frankly, if you have the technology to warp around the stars, you have the technology to make gender irrelevant to reproduction, especially if external eggs are involved. We can already do that NOW, except that we need a womb, but an egg takes care of that problem nicely.

I imagine it's just a cultural bias taken to its extreme and enabled by technology. Boys are preferred, so all babies are made into boys after birth, (it's pretty clear that the whole 'almost everyone is born male' is just a lie they tell themselves) and then when a child is desired, you extract some DNA from both partners, mix it up in a lab, and have one of them lay an egg that the embryo is injected into.

Didn't they mention something about having laid an egg in the previous episode? In any case, I'm not actually very concerned about it and I don't really expect high scientific fidelity in a Seth McFarlane written show. But as a biologist, I did notice it.

Same technology that gives us Hatchables today.

I think that ep was a little too serious for the show.

It was the third episode; we have no idea yet what qualifies as too serious for the show.

General impressions so far

Episode 1:

Not a bad beginning except for a few stupid moves. Too many stupid jokes though. It's playing it as a straight TNG pastiche, albeit with a lot of relatively low-brow humor.

Episode 2:

Serious social commentary, interspersed with more mid-brow jokes. The final zinger was funny but in a satirical ha-ha kinda way. The lead-in to the next episode however, was... interesting.

Episode 3:

What the... is this supposed to be humorous? Because this is WAY TOO SERIOUS... This is basically a TNG episode with the severity of TNG:Drumhead. The only comic relief was the part about Rudolph.

Ralph-Wiggum wrote:

Daehawk wrote:
And just how the heck do they fertilize and lay an egg????

I was wondering that myself. Males and females are designated by the gametes they produce; anyone producing an egg is a female by definition. But maybe biology gets looser definitions in the future....

That was a distraction to me from the very first episode. I'm usually pretty good at not dwelling on things storytime and just getting along but that just stuck and couldn't be let go. So naturally it became the focus of an episode quickly.

I don't know if the subject was too serious but if they truly were all men, then being a woman would be a deformity.

And then when the smart guy says it happens once every 72 years, but then there are established procedures and Bortan's husband was born female and there are others...

The whole thing leaves me on shaky ground.

But still... I'm watching. I have on expectations and the show will be quickly forgotten, but I'm watching.

Still liking the show... and they continue the Star Trek tradition of having famous guest stars.

Hmm. Episode 4. The most TOS thing I've seen on TV in decades. Maybe not the BEST ep so far, but maybe the most comfortable one.

I somehow missed episodes 2 and 3 due to it moving to a different day, but I recorded episode 4 last night and have yet to watch it.

geezer wrote:Hmm. Episode 4. The most TOS thing I've seen on TV in decades. Maybe not the BEST ep so far, but maybe the most comfortable one.

It was definitely a few steps up from previous episodes.

geezer wrote:Hmm. Episode 4. The most TOS thing I've seen on TV in decades. Maybe not the BEST ep so far, but maybe the most comfortable one.

Very much so, overlooking the apparently obligatory dick jokes. Alien culture isolated for thousands of years that somehow happens to have 20th-century Earth technology? Check. Repressive theocracy crumbles when encountering outsiders? Check. Resistance movement ready to step up and take over? Check. People instantly adapt when shown the threatening new truth? Check. I can't point to one TOS episode that has all of those elements, but I'm sure ST has done 'em all before. And yet it managed to be an enjoyable story despite all the derivation.

I did chuckle at the elevator scene. All it needed was some quiet soft rock music.

So far, I like that it's episodic like TOS and TNG rather than serialized like DS9, but eventually I hope they introduce an ongoing background story, if not an actual continuous story arc. The occasional monster-of-the-week episode would be a nice changeup, too.

OK, I got a little behind and am watching Episode 3.

I'm all in. The reason for him changing his mind about "conforming" the child was perfect.

The moment I saw what they were watching, I was like that is friggin brilliant.

Rudolph FTW!

If the whole leg gag from last night didn't make you laugh, I don't even know what to say at this point. This is absolutely the most Star Trek show I've ever seen that didn't credit Gene Roddenberry as part of the intro crawl.

Smoove_B wrote:If the whole leg gag from last night didn't make you laugh, I don't even know what to say at this point. This is absolutely the most Star Trek show I've ever seen that didn't credit Gene Roddenberry as part of the intro crawl.

Yeah, that was genuinely amusing. Stupid, but amusing. I lol'ed.

Smoove_B wrote:If the whole leg gag from last night didn't make you laugh, I don't even know what to say at this point. This is absolutely the most Star Trek show I've ever seen that didn't credit Gene Roddenberry as part of the intro crawl.

Agreed.

I'm also starting to find the humor not quite so jarring. I don't know if I'm acclimating, or if the writing is finding a groove, or if Seth McFarlane is working into the role. Regardless, whereas last week (and to me, most of the series so far) had a very ToS vibe to it, this one (finally - I know I'm sort of the minority) really had a TNG lean.

Interesting side note: Jonathan Frakes is actually directing a few episodes of both The Orville and Star Trek Discovery this season.

Watching ep4 it struck me that the 3 tier engine engagement for their warp drive is like ready, set, go!

EDIT: Im having 1 problem with this ep...its is completely and totally predictable. So far Im 100% right on what will happen. Thats pretty boring to do that.

EDIT2: Almost to the end....having to resist fast forwarding as I watch.

EDIT3: Liked the ending... WOW its SO SO COOL seeing Col McQueen himself James Morrison from one of my favorite shows back in the day, Space: Above & Beyond.

The ending of E5 made me wish for the first time that this show had a serialized story arc.

You mean ep 5 But yeah, I almost expected this to lead to a two-parter at least.

Rumpy wrote:You mean ep 5 But yeah, I almost expected this to lead to a two-parter at least.

Fixed, thanks. I lose count.

Having your ex-wife around sure does put a crimp in the Pria pounding.

I'm still not feeling the balance of the tone unless it was just entirely misrepresented in the advertising.

I'd say the show is 3/4 serious and 1/4 funny. I'm fine with that ratio, but you REALLY need to make that 1/4 count (i.e. Firefly).

I'm beginning to think Seth MacFarlane really wanted to make a Sci-Fi show completely in the vein of Star Trek but couldn't get TV executives to support the pitch unless he indicated there'd be some dick jokes.

Buatha wrote:I'm still not feeling the balance of the tone unless it was just entirely misrepresented in the advertising.

I'd say the show is 3/4 serious and 1/4 funny. I'm fine with that ratio, but you REALLY need to make that 1/4 count (i.e. Firefly).

That's my feeling too. While I am warming up to it, the humor (and character stereotypes) still feels inorganic and forced into the show.

Watched the first two episodes last night and I enjoyed them. The juxtaposition of modern slang onto ‘the future’ is a bit of an adjustment, but trying to fake it would be even more jarring.

I laugh at some of the jokes, and they seem to flow with the characters just fine, it’s just several centuries of time that make it seem odd to me. But imagine if there was a modern setting show that was using 17th century humo(u)r...

Smoove_B wrote:I'm beginning to think Seth MacFarlane really wanted to make a Sci-Fi show completely in the vein of Star Trek but couldn't get TV executives to support the pitch unless he indicated there'd be some dick jokes.

I rather think it came from MacFarlane doing a MS3K-like commentary to some Star Trek episodes and deciding Captain Kirk would have been even funnier if he just cracked some dick jokes. I don't think he has it in him to do anything straight.

hepcat wrote:

Buatha wrote:I'm still not feeling the balance of the tone unless it was just entirely misrepresented in the advertising.

I'd say the show is 3/4 serious and 1/4 funny. I'm fine with that ratio, but you REALLY need to make that 1/4 count (i.e. Firefly).

That's my feeling too. While I am warming up to it, the humor (and character stereotypes) still feels inorganic and forced into the show.

It would be awesome if the show sticks around long enough for the cast to gel and start making spontaneous, in-character wisecracks. If the humor felt natural rather than scripted it would work a lot better.

Or if they got Joss Whedon to write it. That would work, too. Buffy had an excellent balance of darkness and light.

A little late to the party but I finally got around to watching a few episodes this weekend and absolutely loved it.

It's crucial to point out that I fall firmly on the "love him" side of the Seth McFarlane love him/hate him camp, but I was pleasantly surprised to find the show so far removed from straight parody. I seriously was expecting Family Guy in space, and I'm really happy that it's nothing like that.

I don't really have any major complaints, though if the show survives the first season I'd love to see it branch out a little farther away from its Star Trek roots. I realize that it's a loving tribute to ST:TNG, but at times it feels a little *too* close for comfort. Once the characters and tone are more firmly established, I think a Season 2 would allow them to stretch their legs a bit creatively.

I'm still in so far, but if I hear him ask the super girl to open the pickle jar one more time I may explode.

Rip wrote:I'm still in so far, but if I hear him ask the super girl to open the pickle jar one more time I may explode.

Heh, hearing that again, was where I decided to turn off this last week's episode as not feeling it justified my relaxing time and I haven't felt the need to go back. We'll see how many episodes build up on the TiVo before I decide to pick up and watch again or stop recording.

Rip wrote:I'm still in so far, but if I hear him ask the super girl to open the pickle jar one more time I may explode.

There's going to be a literal jar of pickles she can't open in the season finale that will lead to a crisis.

Its as if they cant find anything for her character to do other than open something.

Except for that entire episode where she had to act as captain. Or the last episode where she was conflicted about conducting a B&E to gain evidence. But yeah, one dimensional.