Orvillean War Trek

So - Monday rolls around and that's often a time to indulge in a couple of bits of scifi.

Well. Not actually Monday for one because I tend to watch The Orville on a weekend after recording it on Thursdays.

It's been a week since I posted ? What have I been up to ? Let's see.

Motorsport Managing. My team grows .... stronger.
Little bit of reading, although I suspect that the Freedom's Landing book may have curbed the enthusiasm a bit. Hopefully Cibola Burn (Expanse book 4) will reawaken it.
Lovely night out on Thursday. I can kinda judge my emotional state by how positive I am when I'm moving around. A stomp means I'm not happy. A bounce means I'm feeling good. I'll still have the latent hyperactivity, that's with me most of the time but the ease with which I move around is tied to my mental state. If I'm feeling good, I can ignore soreness better.
Maze Runner 3 on Friday. Actually a very good final film to this trilogy. The Maze Runner films have done well at presenting beginning, middle and end for each film that made sense and that's continued in number 3. I enjoyed it (despite the presence of old child students who haven't learned to behave in public). You would be utterly lost though if you haven't seen the first two.
Winter Olympics has started ... been watching a bit of that, although stuff from that part of the world happens at a bad time zone for me.
And then I lost track of yesterday in a Stellaris trance.

But this post was supposed to be about the scifi.

We've been doing well lately again for proper space scifi. There was a drought for a few years until programmes like Dark Matter, Killjoys and now The Expanse, The Orville and Star Trek Discovery came back on screen.

It's good to escape the day world every so often and my escape of choice is science fiction. I'm a bit sad that Dark Matter seems to be no more, it grabbed me with an interesting start and seemed to be hitting its stride. Killjoys is different, I thought that was losing its way somewhat. They escalate the story in Killjoys and I don't think the setting handles that escalation particularly well.

I'm transfixed by The Expanse and I'm looking forward to that one coming back. Hopefully they will brighten up that third book which, if they go by previous form, will start in the second half of the third series. It's a compelling vision of the near future and .... the setting makes a lot of sense.

Ok, maybe not the alien part of the setting but they needed a catalyst to get everything else going.

Nah - I wanted to talk about The Orville and Star Trek Discovery more today.

The Orville has been described as Star Trek Next Generation's eighth series. It isn't. It's something different. It's space scifi done for fun .... but it will still (in Gene Roddenberry's words from an audiobook I have) creep up behind you and hit you with a heavy idea or two. (I think I got that right). So in The Orville, we've had ideas like oppression, like forced infant mutilation (the sex change) and I suspect we'll see more as the series continues.

(Yes, my brain is a little broken still from the Stellaris session and it's run out of energy to think with - used it all at work)

The Orville starts with the fun but keeps that reined in so it doesn't become stupid ... And then it hits you over the head with a few heavy ideas that you weren't expecting. While treating you as an adult.

Star Trek Discovery has been different. Very different to what we'd expect from a Star Trek. I wouldn't call it Star Trek, I'd call it War Trek. A darker series than any we've had before. Darker even than Enterprise, which was being dragged down by the grim scifi trend at the time of its release. (The trend of Stargate Universe and the Battlestar Galactica remake).

Not every Trekkie will like Discovery. Some will decry it as heresy. I liked it. But then I'm never one to go with herd instinct, I'll experience something and make my own mind up about it.

I can't say too much about Discovery without dropping major spoilers but it was great to see the unexpected events coming in throughout an exceptionally strong second half to the first series.

Check 'em out !

Definitely The Expanse for drama. The Orville for fun. And Discovery for .... shocks ? Surprises ?

I need to eat a dictionary for more words. I feel like I do not have enough words at the moment. But I'll go for something from Thursday instead :

Tasty.