Ha ha. The Orville has the stink of a one-season wonder (if it lasts that long) all over it. It's going to flop and flop hard.
I think it's a better question of which one is going to flop
harder-the Orville's got a fairly (relative) low budget look compared to Discovery, but it's not taking an unwiped dump on the setting, continuity, etc. while claiming not to.
let's take a look at some things...
1. Marching Band uniforms-Discovery's crew is wearing them. Fandom for decades h as managed period-setting accuracy with a tiny fraction of the budget CBS lathered on to this. Goldshirt/blueshirt/redshirt, they're identifiable, the 23rd century Starfleet uniform even got a nice update from the Abrams movies while
retaining the basics and key appearance. the 'look' of Starfleet in that era is a
known factor.
2. How ****** hard is it to do a Klingon?? not difficult. Fans have been doing the costuming and makeup for years on a fraction of the budget, and it doesn't require forty pounds of latex and foam rubber. Somehow, CBS needed "Klingon" that can't turn their heads, facially emote, etc. etc. because of the sheer weight and complexity of the prosthetics. Watch the (brief)) appearance of ST:D's Klingons-Not Michael dorn, or Hertzler, or anyone could make
that look like anything more 'real' than a poorly constructed muppet or guy in a rubber suit-complete with a zipper up the back to the scalp. I feel sorry for the stuntmen stuffed into those getups.
3. Ship shots. CBS rolled out t heir ship-shot, and it got panned, hard. recycling the concept art from Phase II, they forgot why that concept was abandoned in the first place.
It looks AWKWARD.
4. Marketing Buzz choices. Shows go to demographic pandering when the people running them know they have all hat and no cattle. the whole "Look at how many social justice boxes we ticked!" is pretty much an
advertising that the writing for the show is going to suck. because it shows where the studio actually put it's priorities. Details like who's sleeping with whom are things you slide in
as the show progresses and elements like
character development take form. It's the conflict of "Show me don't tell me". CBS chose to tell instead of show...
contrast wth Orville:
We find out in the trailer that the captain is the captain because they need BODIES. the token alien urinates once a year, and the inbuilt conflict is shown, rather than told between the cap and his exec. and it's made absolutely clear from the first second onward, that this is supposed to be a comedy, so gags and hints of gags are immediate and apparent. My own p rediction is that the Orville won't make it a full season, but it'll still have a better reaction than ST:D has. Why?
1. cost. even in the trailer, Orville's production team focused their budget on things needed
for the show. The stiff alien can still emote, still lets the actor
act, the uniforms are simple enough, and it's not re-visioning the asthetics of a known show and period. someone act ually thought about the layout of the bridge, etc.
2. Teaser's clean, indicates the showrunner knows what he's doing. Yes, Orville is a riff off of Galaxy-Quest, it's a riff off of Star Trek, and it's shamelessly so, but they managed to get a more trek-like look than the Trek series CBS is putting forward.
3. "Show me don't tell me"-not once in the trailer does the voiceover say "Comedy" or "Hilarious", no laugh track was evident, etc. etc.
