FOX & MacFarlane's The Orville

[unlurking]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

I think it was actually considerably worse, in terms of societal issues..

At a time when there were race riots and people fighting for Civil Rights, Star Trek was the first television show in history to show an interracial kiss between a Caucasian and an African-American women, when alien overlords "forced" Kirk to kiss Uhura. It sent shockwaves across the nation.

In another episode, the remaining two survivors of a planetary war were picked up by the Enterprise, hell bent on killing each other due to their race. While the characters looked identical at a glance, it turned out that one was black on the right side and white on the left, while his enemy was white on the right side and black on the left.

Those are just two, off the top of my head.

I watched TOS in the late 70's early 80's. The original air dates were before my time. So very well could be that the black and white episodes (I actually enjoyed both of those) were "tense" during their time and I just can't appreciate it. To me, the worst episode was Spock and the hippies.

The premise of the last Orville episode was just over the top with absurdity though. Just horribly stupid. I don't think anyone who watches it will have an "oooh, that's so taboo" thought. It's not like this society is forcing sex changes on babies. Heck, the biggest controversy in my mind was circumcision, and they just glossed right over that.

At least Star Trek was edgy for it's time period. No idea where this would be considered edgy and not absurd.