Full disclosure: I haven’t seen ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ yet, so I don’t have an opinion on how it measures up, but I have seen and enjoyed ‘The Orville’, Seth McFarlane’s loving tribute to Star Trek past. Detractors will tell you that it has McFarlane’s trademark dipstick humor (it does), fans will tell you that it has the spirit of classic science fiction (it does) and the innernets seem to want to judge it only in reference to Roddenberry’s work. I love the show for its humor, for its intellect and I respect the attempt to address contemporary social issues, even if that attempt isn’t fully successful, but for all that, it is not Star Trek and I find the constant comparison to be demeaning to both shows, leading us to today’s boldly going query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) would make the same argument for anyone who wants to argue about ‘Die Hard’ as a Chrimmus movie, asking: What favorite show, book or movie are you tired of being compared to something it is not?
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Pretty much every popular sci fi movie and comic book from certain authors, for example Alan Moore. They are overanalyzed to oblivion, every single smallest thing should have some deeper meaning or metaphor, every line in dialogue must have some revelation. How about just accepting that sometimes things are done “just because” or they just seem cool or fun?
Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5.
Despite the similarities, those shows were trying to do very different things – and both are amazing. Calling either one a rip-off or imitation of the other does a huge disservice to both.
A Song of Ice and Fire being compared to The Lord of the Rings. They both have medieval fantasy trappings, yes, but as stories they are structured very differently.