10 Ways The Orville Is More Star Trek Than Discovery

Part of the charm of TOS, TNG, DS9, and Voyager are that they progress along a linear path where anything can happen. They are not limited by a future that has literally already been written. The same is true in The Orville.

On Discovery, that suspense is lost. We know that the Klingon War ends. We know that neither side is truly defeated. We know that the spore drive doesn’t replace warp engines. We know that Sarek is never in any true danger because he goes on to die nearly a century later during the events of TNG’s Unification.

Star Trek: Enterprise exists outside of this pattern. Its critical and commercial failure came partly because it lacked that same feeling of forward progress into the unknown. Its future was so limited that they had to rely on constant references to future events, and the role those characters played in them.

The Orville, ultimately, feels like Star Trek because Seth MacFarlane and his team did a fantastic job making sure that you felt that way. Conversely, Star Trek: Discovery is trying to set itself apart from its predecessors and tell a different kind of story. Neither is better than the other because it is more or less ‘like Star Trek’, and both have set out to accomplish very different goals.

Which show do you prefer? Let us know down in the comments.