The Orville [SPOILERS WITHIN]

Agreed.

It's impossible to have this type of show and not have it compared to Star Trek. That doesn't mean it is violating Star Trek copyrights.

Agreed. Again.

Axanar wasn't trying to copy Star Trek. It was trying to make itself part of Star Trek.

"The older, less intelligent one..."

That has to be my favorite line in the series so far.

I'll give him props for recognizing "we gotta get better people"

Start at the helm, my captain.

Axanar's creator tried to make a personal profit by using the actual Star Trek name (they tried to market "Star Trek Coffee" as a fund-raising ploy) without permission, and set up a personal for-profit production business using the Star Trek name, and characters established by other writers. CBS/Paramount has traditionally left fan films alone as long as they were non-profit. Axanar not only crossed that line, they leapt heartily over it while flipping CBS/Paramount the bird and yelling I dare ya.

The Orville is a TV show that reminds us of Star Trek TNG in a affectionate manner, uses some of the same sci fi tropes as Trek and all the other sci fi shows, but in no way violates any of CBS/Paramounts copyrights or trademarks.

Fair use is very subjective, and is determined in court. Hell, CBS could sue Disney and claim Star Wars is a rip-off of Star Trek, although such a case would almost certainly be thrown out. If CBS sued over The Orville, it's possible they would win, but unlikely. Probably the only way they'd even think about it would be if Discovery was doing extremely poorly. Which, Discovery is doing extremely well considering it's "only available" on a streaming service no one wants. It's also possible that Fox obtained permission in some form, but I don't know and I'm too lazy to look into it.

Lucas sued over the original Battlestar Galactica and lost. I doubt if CBS would try to sue Fox over The Orville unless there was something so blatantly similar that they had no choice (say there's a character named "Spock" or a ship that looks identical to the Enterprise shows up). Both companies have piles of money and armies of lawyers to throw at one another, if they so chose. Additionally, they can screw with one another in different ways. For example, the networks are usually generous about sharing news footage with one another. CBS pisses Fox off (or vice versa) and that could stop.

There is no way CBS would win any case against Fox over the Orville.

Like I said before you can't copyright a theme.

Having a star ship go out and explore and have adventures is a theme. It's not something that can be copyrighted.

It's like Westerns, cop shows, lawyer shows, hospital shows, etc. Everyone has their own version of it.

I have seen nothing on The Orville that even comes close to even being a potential copyright infringement.

Yes, that's how copyright works at the moment. It just seems so senseless to me. The ways in which Orville is like Trek literally has people saying they'll watch this show instead of Discovery. That literally hurts monetization. Watching Axanar instead of Discovery would be like watching one episode instead of another -- much harder to imagine. And yet copyright forbids the one and not the other.

The Orville is not copying Star Trek. People say it's like Star Trek because it's a space adventure show and there really isn't a plethora of other shows to compare it too.

The fact people are saying they would rather watch Orville than Discovery just means that to them Orville is more like what they like (Star Trek) while Discovery strays from what Star Trek is to them. It's not a good sign for Discovery when there are people saying your Star Trek show is less Trek than a competitors show.

You've got some fucked up views on copyright.

No, that isn't true. They're saying it's like Star Trek because it is very clearly and specifically like Star Trek and not like other shows. Nobody says Orville is like BSG or like Stargate, and nobody said BSG was like Trek, either, even though both were space adventures.

I'd say it's more similar to Other Space and Galaxy Quest than to Star Trek. Other Space in particular features a new captain excited to get his first command, a female first officer who shares a history with the captain, the captain getting his goofy best friend a spot on the bridge, a ship that's not top of the line, a big awkward dude that's not from Earth, and a sassy robot. Watching the pilot, I was honestly surprised the Other Space people weren't losing their shit online.

I didn't know this was a Jake and Nog episode mixed with Buffalo Bill.

I'm glad they are making good use of Penny Johnson on this show.

She was criminally underused on DS9.

Isaac still looks kind of cheap though. Like something from Lost In Space. Maybe they can get him a better faceplate or something?

The kids were annoying like most Trek kids. Hopefully they will be kept out of sight. It still doesn't seem smart to keep them on board a starship but that's been a complaint about TNG since the very beginning.

Jake on the space station I can kind of understand since that was a space station permanently fixed to the Bajor system. And that was meant to be Sisko's permanent post. And it helped that Jake wasn't nearly as annoying as Wesley or some of the kids on Voyager.

I have to say that this one is the first episode that felt like it's own thing and not a reexamination on an idea put forth by Star Trek. I like where this show is going.

Even tho it was written by Brannon Braga, and pretty much rehashed much of the standard "crashed shuttlecraft" tropes?
It was okay. I like Penny, and like I said it was nice to see Brian Thompson.

Would you believe the host of a long-standing Facebook Star Trek group was called a racist for saying he didn't like this episode? Because obviously he hated it because it featured black people, not because he just didn't like it.

Yes. I can believe it. This show has turned into a PC thing. If you don't like it than it's because you're a racist or misogynist. Or both.

That's really sad. I have to admit that I found the kids to be annoying at first but I felt like they got better as the episode went on. I can see how someone wouldn't like this one.

The older kid was annoying because the actor seemed to be playing his role sort of over the top. He was directed to be snotty and abrasive and he took it up to 11. But by the end of the ep the character had Learned Something Today and was showing some emotional maturity.

Repeat to yourself it's just a show I should really just relax.

As a "writer," thinking about how I would have handled the plot of stories I read or watch differently helps me improve my "skills." I enjoyed the episode and was not complaining.

No, you repeat to yourself: "It's just some dipshit who thinks he's smarter than he really is on the interwebs, I should really just relax."

I was merely giving advice from gizmonic's satellite of love.

I really like how the shuttle wasn't tough. It split pretty easily and for a split second I thought they were going to kill the Doctor. Of course I knew that couldn't happen out of the blue like that but it was still cool to see.

That was one helll of a factory recall. However, it is good to see the human body has gotten tougher considering how they smashed into the planet at speeds which should have liquefied normal human bones. It was nice they had seat belts instead of just chairs like federation shuttle craft, but I cannot imagine any inertia dampening system to survive being ripped apart in the first mountain hit. Oh, and it was nice how the seatbelts failed at the last moment to gently toss the doctor out of the seat into the dirt.

Well she did have a healthy dose of plot armor.

And life imitates art. There's now an app where you can send people an apology and they can vote if they think you are sincere enough. https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/08/greta-van-susteren-is-releasing-an-apology-app-called-sorry/

Just watched Cupid’s Dagger. This is a very fun show. I’m starting to wonder if it’s appeal is something real or is it mostly nostalgia from Trek of the past. Even if it is, I found this to be an interesting twist involved here.

Didn't care for "Cupid's Dagger". Too much sexual content which I loathe in having in my entertainment but I guess some has to be endured. It was hilarious though at the beginning that Bortas was going to karaoke "My Heart Will Go On".

Still at least there was some nice starship combat action.

This is probably more what the show should be like - earlier episodes have tried too much obnoxious frat-house humor, and the previous ep was a pure dramatic adventure with a couple of forced jokes that didn't fit in. This one played as a consistent light comedy without anything standing out as being out of place. Kind of Much Ado About Nothing in Space.

Adrianne can sing! AND look hot!
Penny looked amazing when she was on the make. The blob-sex was hysterical. I'd love to see the effects-less shot of Penny acting
Rob Lowe was great casting.
Brave of Seth to just go for broke with the bisexuality.

However, overall, I think the show is roughly at the "middle-of-the-road TNG episode" level. It's interesting watching NEW middle-of-the-road TNG episodes, but I never find myself REwatching middle-of-the-road TNG episodes. The show is fun to watch, but I'm probably not going to rewatch it or buy disks.

It was basically "The Naked Time" only slanted all sexy like. And yeah, Forbin, I agree with you about Penny. When that door opened and she was in that slinky outfit, I thought "Wow, she cleans up nice!" And then the mucous sex with little blobby boy was hysterical and creepy at the same time. They telegraphed the ending pretty badly, tho. Still and all, a highly enjoyable outing.