10 Ways The Orville Is More Star Trek Than Discovery
7. The Crew Dynamic
The Orville follows the familiar Star Trek character roles when filling out their bridge crew: The very competent command team, the sotic and honourable alien with a heart of gold (Worf, Odo, Bortus), the ultra-capable outsider who just wants to know about humanity (Data, Seven of Nine, Isaac) the puckish rogue (Riker, Paris, Malloy) . They’re all there, in every series.
The de facto protagonist of every Star Trek series, as well as The Orville, is the ship’s captain and all of the characters form an ensemble around him/her. When conflict does arise between primary characters, it is generally minor and resolved quickly.
Star Trek: Discovery, however, turns many of the well-worn Trek conventions on their ear. The show has a definitive protagonist in Michael Burnham and doesn’t conform to the usual ensemble approach. In the Star Treks that have come before, the crew has always had an implicit trust in one another.
The conflicts that arise between characters in Star Trek: Discovery are heavy and deep: Stamets’ open contempt for Captain Lorca at the series’ beginning, Saru’s disgust at having to serve with the traitorous Michael Burnham and the crew’s open air of hostility. It is difficult to see a path from these beginnings to a classic Star Trek format.