New season of The Orville is looking quite good.

I just saw the first episode of the new season and I must say it's looking rather good. Perhaps even better than Star Trek Strange New Worlds. I used to have The Orville rated at 3.5 (ST Discovery at 4.3), but I already felt before, that I was being rather hard on it because of the woke angle/approach similar to ST Discovery, so its rating for me went down right alongside ST Discovery. Even though I had a bit of a gap between the ratings of these 2 shows (0.8) I did consider them more or less equally poor and because of that I neglected giving any credit for some of the better stuff that was already in The Orville (spaceship battles, war with the Kaylons, Sci-Fi eye candy). But now I feel I have an excuse to rate it almost as high as my current rating for ST SNW, which went down from 5.9 to 5.4 after my latest adjustments to my ratings list (and the lacklustre episodes 3 and 5, and the somewhat mediocre episode 2).

The Orville's current rating for me stands at 5.3, but if it continues down the path it's currently heading, I see no reason not to increase that further beyond ST SNW. For comparison, after the last season of Picard, its rating (for me) went down to 4.7. Other (space-based) Sci-Fi shows in my rating list that I've seen:

Stargate SG-1 (10) (the standard against which I compare all space-based Sci-Fi)
Babylon 5 (9.5)
Star Trek DS9 (9)
Stargate Atlantis (8.9)
The Expanse (8)
Stargate Universe (7.5) (ignoring the stone-mindswap scenes, otherwise 7)
ST TNG (7.4)
Space: Above and Beyond (7.3)
The old BSG (7.2) (BSG = Battlestar Galactica)
The Mandalorian (7.1)
Obi-Wan Kenobi (7)
Halo (7)
Loki (7)
Firefly (6.9)
The Book of Boba Fett (6.8)
ST Voyager and Enterprise (6.5)
Foundation (6.5)
Farscape (6.1)
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (5)
The new BSG (4.9)
Lost in Space (4.2)
Andromeda (4)
Krypton (4)
Dark Matter (3.4)
Raised by Wolves (1)

a reply to: whereislogic

Thanks for all the rankings I really dig sci-fi, and most of those I've seen I semi-agree with your assessments.

But amazingly Ive never watched Stargate, even the original movie I only saw once and it was when it first came out. Im intrigued it's so highly rated that Ive heard others rave about it. So should I jump into the series or do I need to watch the movie?

I agree Raised by Wolves was such a disappointment, Ive tried watching the Expanse but I think my mind was elsewhere and I need to revisit

I watched several episodes last night and was really
Digging it!!
Loved the characters, the Sci-Fi Aspect, The Jokes
It’s Silly at the right time and serious enough
At other times!
Love Seth Macfarland!!

a reply to: putnam6

You don't really need to watch the Stargate movie to watch the show (although it may help with a few details in the pilot, but it's not very complicated). The funny thing is (if you consider that I'm now such a big fan), I never wanted to watch Stargate SG-1 when it was on TV, cause I felt it was too much earth-based (or planet-based) and not enough space and spaceships like my favorite shows on TV at the time, ST DS9 and Babylon 5, so I always watched those and avoided Stargate, which seemed cheap to me in comparison (less space and spaceships is less costs for CGI).

I did occasionally see some bits and pieces when zapping during commercials of the other 2 shows, which were usually on at the same time, and once I ran into a scene that had the pyramid shaped spaceships in it (quite a few, so we're talking my favorite form of entertainment, space fleet vs space fleet, which is what makes Babylon 5 and ST DS9 so good, interstellar wars with large spacefleets), and I thought, 'maybe I should give it a try'. But because there was still plenty of Babylon 5 and ST DS9 to watch, I still didn't end up watching it on TV. Then years later, there was a bit of a dry spell for decent space-based Sci-Fi shows (around the time Stargate Atlantis started, 2004), so I was expanding my horizon to shows like Farscape, and Firefly, watching them online (well technically I downloaded them rather than streaming). I was watching Star Trek Enterprise, but that one wasn't as great as DS9, it was alright I guess. Then when that one ended as well and the dry spell really became apparent, in 2005 I think, I saw a trailer for Stargate Atlantis on TV and I was blown away by how good it looked (CGI-wise, with spaceships), so out of desperation for good Sci-Fi shows I started watching that show (download again, the new BSG also wasn't at all what I was looking for in my Sci-Fi entertainment, even though it started out pretty good). Stargate Atlantis made me a Stargate fan, and once I was done with that show (up to what was available, I think season 3 was still running, perhaps season 2), I decided to also watch Stargate SG-1, but I decided to start with season 3 cause I figured the first 2 seasons would be too cheap (having seen bits and pieces of it on TV already and it not looking very good in the spaceship/spacebattle department), figuring that if I skipped a bit, I would be closer to the big spacefleet scene I had seen during zapping between channels that I mentioned earlier. I got hooked fairly quickly and once I was done with all 10 seasons, I immediately went back to season 1 and watched the whole 10 seasons again. It's such a long fun adventure (I also like to read thick books, so it'll last a while before I'm done).

I think the big spacefleet scene that I had seen was from S4E14 The Serpent's Venom, aired Sep 29, 2000. But the show is so much fun and adventurous, I didn't even mind not having spaceships in every episode, there's always something to enjoy or laugh about. There are only very few episodes where there's almost nothing to enjoy for me (unlike ST TNG and Voyager, which had a lot of those soap-like filler episodes with little going on, and even DS9 is rather slow to get going with the whole Dominion stuff, and the Klingons and Cardassians at war, with lots of filler episodes again).

When I watched SG-1 again I realized that the first 2 seasons weren't that bad at all, but then again, I did just come off a long fun adventure with these characters for 8 seasons (3-10), so I already was more intrigued about what was in the first 2 seasons. I wonder if my enjoyment of the first 2 seasons was bigger just because of that, and if I hadn't skipped them at first I would have enjoyed them less, and perhaps even given up on the show (for lack of spacebattles, ship vs ship, and spacefleet battles). At that point, it already had become a bit more about the characters for me. O'Neill is the best.

Stargate SG-1 is all about fun (including lots of humor) and adventure. And the chemistry with Daniel Jackson is in my opinion unmatched in any show I've watched:

I think by now I've re-watched Stargate SG-1 at least 6 times or so. Mostly because modern shows are not that great (trying to gain converts to vote for the Democratic Party).

Coming back to my rating list and mention of many soap-like filler episodes in ST TNG, that's the main reason I've got it rated at a mere 7.4, much lower than most other people (Star Trek fans) would rate it (IMDB: 8.7). Also, because they skipped the battle with the Borg at Wolf-359, that was cheaping out for something they had been building up to since season 2 episode 16 (Q Who). They did show the battle in the pilot of DS9, but by then it was too late, no build-up, no anticipation, and I already knew the endresult. When watching the 2nd episode of that 2-parter on TV, after missing the beginning, I actually thought for years that I had just missed it because of tuning in too late. Years later when I watched it online I realized that they had just skipped it altogether, very disappointing.

"Carter, I should be irked currently, yes?" Hilarious:

"Njet."

I can't get enough of this...

When I watch these Stargate SG-1 videos on youtube, I almost know every line that is coming next, word for word, including the tone and facial expressions.

Yep, I'm definitely a huge Stargate fan. And it's not for nothing that SG-1 is the longest running show of all the comparable Sci-Fi shows (Doctor Who is not comparable, which I've rated at 2.7 btw, it's just not my type of show, I lost interest in season 7, after the wedding ending in season 6, a wedding is not Sci-Fi, that's for women who prefer to watch shows like Melrose Place and the Bold & the Beautiful).

I only started watching Doctor Who because Stargate Universe had ended (which I watched after the new BSG ended). I did recently finish season 7 because of not having anything else to watch (during the Corona pandemic when every show was sitting on their ass), but then the site where I was watching didn't have the Christmas episode, where they switched Doctors, so it was really hard for me to get into S8E1, knowing that I missed an episode (which also happened in between season 6 and 7, the streaming sites I usually go to don't have those Christmas episodes listed).

a reply to: putnam6

What the movie, then you have to watch the series, and the mini series in succession. Keep in mind, they came out with movies that play into the stargate timeline too.

Camain

The ratings for modern Sci-Fi shows have dropped quite a bit for me compared to the rating list I gave here. Sometimes it's because of a new season, but in the case of the Expanse for example, it's because of a lack of new seasons and episodes, not having enough content for re-watchability value (compared to my standard, Stargate SG-1 with 10 seasons of at least 20 episodes each, and a new season coming out every year, compared to modern shows often taking longer than 2 years for a new season with only 8-12 episodes, it doesn't really provide much re-watchability value). After re-watching Babylon 5, ST DS9 and Stargate Atlantis I've also made some adjustments at the top because I can't choose which one of these I like best (I've also tried re-watching the old BSG, but I couldn't finish, it's a bit too outdated and not as good as I remembered watching it as a kid, so that rating went down as well; with Farscape I also got stuck in season 1, so I went back to Stargate SG-1).

Stargate SG-1 (10)
Stargate Atlantis (9) (season 4 and 5 lose a bit of ground for me, still some decent episodes in those seasons, but less than before)
Babylon 5 (9)
Star Trek DS9 (9)
Star Trek TNG (7.5)
Stargate Universe (7) (gotta count those stone-mindswap scenes that I mentioned in the OP)
The Expanse (7) (really deserved at least 60 more episodes, in 3 seasons, over a period of 3 years)
Space: Above and Beyond (6.6) (it's just the one season, not really enough to warrant a 7 or higher)
ST Voyager(6.5)
ST Enterprise (6.4)
The Mandalorian (6.2)* (eg. season 1: 7, season 2: 7, season 3: 4.5)
Firefly (6.1)
Andor (6.1)*
The old Battlestar Galactica (BSG) (6)
Farscape (5.9)
Red Dwarf (5.7) (have only seen a few episodes though)
Halo (5.3)* (quite a disappointing 2nd season, also took forever to come out for just a few episodes, still a few more to go, so maybe it will improve)
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (5)
The new BSG (4.9)
Foundation (4.8)*
Picard (4.7) (eg. season 1: 5, season 2: 2, season 3: 7)
The Orville (4.6)
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (4.5)*
ST Discovery (4.5)*
Loki (4.4)*
Obi-Wan Kenobi (4.3) (I previously thought this one was going to continue, hence the high rating before, now it's just 6 episodes, not worth it compared to Stargate SG-1)
Lost in Space (4.2)
Andromeda (4)
Ahsoka (3.9)*
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (3.7)*
The Book of Boba Fett (3.7)
Krypton (3.6)
Dark Matter (3.5)
Beacon 23 (3.1)*
The Ark (2.8)*
What If...? (2.5)*
Doctor Who (2.5)* (watched 7 seasons)
Raised by Wolves (2.5)
Invasion (2.2)*
Falling Skies (2.2)
Constellation (1)*

So if you filter out all the shows that have already ended, which would leave only modern shows, or should I say, shows for "modern audiences" as they like to say, (of course some modern shows have already ended as well) you get a rather pitiful rating list:

The Mandalorian (6.2)* (eg. season 1: 7, season 2: 7, season 3: 4.5)
Andor (6.1)* (which will probably get worse in the 2nd season as well, I'm already being generous)
Halo (5.3)* (-1.7 compared to the OP; which will probably end lower at the end of season 2, unless it gets significantly better in the last 2 episodes)
Foundation (4.8)* (-1.7 compared to the OP; in hindsight, I'd probably give season 1: 6.1, season 2: 3.5, or a little more for season 1 and an equal amount less for season 2)
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (4.5)* (it's no better than ST Discovery, same crap)
ST Discovery (4.5)*
Loki (4.4)* (-2.6 compared to the OP! Biggest drop, not counting my misunderstanding with Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Book of Boba Fett, which I thought were going to be like The Mandalorian, a TV show, not a miniseries. Really went down the drain fast, and it already wasn't that great to begin with, not to mention it took forever for a few more episodes, all of which were garbage; season 1: 6, season 2: 2.8; Only good for making fun of it on youtube: "make it make sense")
Ahsoka (3.9)*
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (3.7)*
Beacon 23 (3.1)*
The Ark (2.8)*
What If...? (2.5)*
Doctor Who (2.5)*
Invasion (2.2)*
Constellation (1)* (not really Sci-Fi, but I've skimmed through it anyway, because it just takes too long for new seasons and new episodes of other shows; and I've just finished Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis for the gazillionth time, watching Babylon 5 now)

Coming back to my last remark about Loki, this is what I was thinking of: