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RuminatingKiwi927 @startrek.website

Admirals in The Orville are much better than Star Trek admirals.

I finished watching The Orville, it was a masterpiece from the hands of Seth Macfarlane.

Here, they showed some exchange between admirals and the main ensemble cast quite often, but watching these certain scenes made me compare them to Star Trek admirals. I personally think all admirals in The Orville are great captains who got promoted to the rank of admiral as opposed to Star Trek admirals who are just dumb politicians where our main cast captains keep dealing with their nonsense.

Of course, there are a few reasonable and competent admirals we've seen throughout the franchise, but most of them I've seen reflect real-world politicians that never even had sat on a captain's seat.

7 comments

  • Yeah, they borrowed a lot from Trek lore, but thankfully they seem to have left the "badmiral" trope in the cutting room with the transporters. Both of which I appreciate they omitted.

    The first time I watched through The Orville, every time one of the admirals was on screen, I was like, "What's your angle?" and just generally distrustful. Even Victor Garber, you might ask? Especially Victor Garber.

    • If you think transporters are bullshit, wait until you hear about subspace.

  • Never watched Star Trek but in The Orville, it is explained that you get promoted to the higher job if you have a lot of honor and respect from society

    So yeah I don't see how a corrupt politician could rose to admiral. They should either be military expert that already proven great success at a lower rank or as you said ancient captain.

    One day we will probably have an episode one day with all the higher ups to see their struggle when they where younger, like a big battle flash back or something like that, it would be cool

    • if you have a lot of honor and respect from society

      Isn't that just populism? Do they measure "honor and respect" differently than just "is popular"?

  • Indeed, this is one of the areas where Star Trek has consistently fallen short of its "Utopian future" ideal. I understand that it's often done for storytelling purposes, but Orville shows how that's an unnecessary shortcut - it's still possible to write compelling stories and have the hero be a hero even if his superior officers are actually competent and in his corner.

7 comments