LOS ANGELES: As the world clamors for the first “Star Trek” series in a more than decade, a streamlined usurper with no interest in Klingons is entering the space race.
Sci-fi parody “The Orville,” from Emmy award-winning Seth MacFarlane, debuts two weeks before “Star Trek Discovery” and critics have been remarking on the striking similarities.
Squint and you might think “The Orville,” which debuts on Fox on September 10, was a re-run of “The Next Generation,” save for the blue uniforms.
When it was presented at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Los Angeles on Tuesday, journalists wondered aloud if Fox was worried about being sued.
“Seth’s intention is to do something that clearly pays homage to ‘Star Trek,’ that clearly was inspired a lot by Star Trek,” Fox Television Group chairman and CEO Dana Walden said.
“He (also) talks about ‘The Twilight Zone,’ a show that examines the human condition in the future... through little morality plays.”
Walden said no one associated with “Star Trek” would think of the similarities between the two shows as “anything other than a compliment.”
Set 400 years in the future, MacFarlane’s series follows the exploits of the USS. Orville, an exploratory ship with a crew facing the wonders and dangers of space, as well as more mundane problems.
Down on his luck after a bitter divorce, Planetary Union officer Ed Mercer, played by MacFarlane, finally gets the chance to command his own ship.
Determined to prove his worth, his first setback comes when the first officer assigned to his ship turns out to be his ex-wife Kelly (Adrianne Palicki).
As the new commander, Ed assembles a qualified but odd-looking crew, including Bortus, an alien from a single-sex species, Isaac, an artificial life-form from a machine society and Yaphit, a gelatinous creature.
It’s not just the premise of “The Orville” that has the ring of familiarity.
Many of its crew members are “Star Trek” alumni going back decades, including veteran producer Brannon Braga, an intern on “The Next Generation” in 1990 who worked his way up to becoming a key creative figure on three of the franchise’s four modern series.
Also on board are Robert Duncan McNeill, who worked on “Voyager,” and Jonathan Frakes, who played bearded first officer Will Riker in “Next Generation” and is directing an episode of “Discovery” as well.
The show has its share of jokes but plays more like a dramedy than the broad comedy of Mel Brooks’s “Spaceballs” (1987) suggested by the marketing.
“Because we’re an hour-long show, it can’t just be gag, gag, gag,” says MacFarlane, an ardent Trekkie who created hit animated show “Family Guy” and directed live action comedy “Ted” (2012).
“There has to be some reality from where the comedy comes from... We really see it as a sci-fi comedic drama. We allow ourselves room for levity in ways that a traditional sci-fi show doesn’t. We’re trying to break new ground.”
Conceived in a more innocent age than the dystopian sci-fi movies of the 2000s, the original “Star Trek” series was imbued with the optimism of its creator Gene Roddenberry.
MacFarlane said he wanted to make sci-fi happy and upbeat again, adding that it “can’t all be ‘The Hunger Games,’ it can’t all be the nightmare scenario.”
“I’m tired of being told everything is grim and dystopian and people are going to be murdered for food,” he said.
“I miss the hopeful side of science fiction. Now things are very grim.”
Explaining how his show would be different from “Star Trek,” he pointed to the serious, grounded tone the new “Discovery” series appears to be taking.
“I think they’ve chosen to go in a different direction and it’s worked very well for them in recent years. What’s happened is that has left open a space that has been relatively unoccupied for a while,” he said.
“In a lot of ways, ‘James Bond’ moved into a different area than classic ‘James Bond’ and then ‘Iron Man’ came along and filled that void.”
While relatively unknown, “The Orville” ought to reach a larger audience than “Discovery,” as Fox is a widely-available broadcast network.
“Discovery” only goes out on the CBS All-Access streaming service after the September 24 pilot, guaranteeing a more specialized audience.
“I think there is room for two shows on a spaceship. There are more than two cop shows,” said David Goodman,” executive producer of “The Orville.”
“I don’t see us competing with them.”
Move over ‘Star Trek’: there’s a new show at the final frontier
Move over ‘Star Trek’: there’s a new show at the final frontier
‘Miracle’ survivor found 5 days after building collapse
- When we went down to the side of the slab we had uncovered, we heard somebody inside, and we stopped all the heavy operations
JOHANNESBURG: Rescuers and onlookers cheered and applauded on Saturday as a survivor was rescued after 116 hours from underneath the rubble of a collapsed building in South Africa, with the tragedy having killed at least 13.
Provincial premier Alan Winde said on X: “It is a miracle that we have all been hoping for.”
An apartment block under construction in the southern city of George crumbled on Monday afternoon while an 81-person crew was on site.
“When we went down to the side of the slab we had uncovered, we heard somebody inside, and we stopped all the heavy operations,” Colin Deiner, head of rescue operations, told reporters.
Rescuers then called out to the survivor, and he spoke back, Deiner said.
“He indicated to us that he’s got weight on his legs, and we’re very concerned about that after such a long period.” After several hours, the survivor was extricated and rushed to a hospital.
Rescue teams have been working against time since the structure came crashing down.
Twenty-nine people were rescued alive, while thirty-nine remained unaccounted for.
Winde said a “difficult” identification process was underway, and police were using fingerprints, DNA testing, and photographs.
The city had approved construction plans for a 42-unit apartment block in July.
The reasons for the collapse are still unknown.
Biden jokes Trump should have injected himself with bleach
- Biden also made light of Trump’s “love letters” from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un
- In a senior moment, Biden mistakenly referred to Kim as the president of South Korea
PORTOLA VALLEY, California: US President Joe Biden joked on Friday that he wished former President Donald Trump had injected himself with a little bleach, resurrecting one of Trump’s more head-scratching moments from the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden, at a fundraising event south of San Francisco for his re-election campaign, said the presidency of his Republican opponent was chaotic and that voters should keep that in mind. Biden and Trump are locked in a close contest ahead of the November election.
“Remember him saying the best thing to do is just inject a little bleach in your arm? That’s what he said. And he meant it. I wish he had done a little bit himself,” Biden said.
During the early months of the pandemic in 2020, Trump said that an “injection inside” the human body with a disinfectant like bleach or isopropyl alcohol could help protect against the virus.
Biden also made light of what he called Trump’s “love letters” from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, although Biden mistakenly referred to Kim as the president of South Korea.
Trump had met with Kim and exchanged a number of letters with him, copies of which he kept in a loose-leaf binder in the Oval Office.
A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Biden’s remarks.
Biden has made light of Trump’s bleach comment before, saying on April 24 in Washington that Trump had injected himself and “it all went to his hair.”
Meaty issue: German political party calls for €4.90 price cap on doner kebabs
- Die Linke appeals to government as price of national favorite hits €10 in some cities
- Scheme would cost taxpayer about €4bn
LONDON: German political party Die Linke has urged the government to cap the price of a much loved food item — the doner kebab.
The party has proposed providing daily vouchers to households that would limit prices to €4.90 ($5.28) and €2.90 for young people under an initiative known as Donerpreisbremse.
The scheme is projected to cost the government about €4 billion.
Introduced after the Second World War by Turkish immigrants who adapted the dish to suit local tastes, the doner kebab is a national favorite in Germany, with an estimated 1.3 billion consumed annually. But their soaring price has become a hot-button political issue.
Die Linke said the cost of a doner kebab had reached €10 in some cities, from €4 just two years ago.
“For young people right now it is an issue as important as where they will move when they leave home,” said Hanna Steinmuller, a lawmaker with the Greens party.
“I know it’s not an everyday issue for many people here … but I think as voter representatives we are obliged to highlight these different perspectives.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was famously confronted by a voter last year who demanded he “speak with Putin … I’m paying €8 for a doner.”
With public pressure mounting, Scholz recently acknowledged on social media that “everywhere I go, mostly by young people, I get asked if there should be a price cap for doner kebabs.”
Despite the appeals, the chancellor rejected the proposal, citing the impracticality of price controls in a free market economy.
Despite its humble origins as a street food, the doner kebab has become an unexpected point of political focus.
Last month, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier sparked controversy when on a visit to Turkiye he gifted 60 kg of kebab meat from Berlin to Istanbul in what some called a clumsy attempt to symbolize the strong cultural ties between the two nations.
A 98-year-old in Ukraine walked miles to safety from Russians, with slippers and a cane
- Describing her journey, the nonagenarian said she had fallen twice and was forced to stop to rest at some points, even sleeping along the way before waking up and continuing her journey
KYIV, Ukraine: A 98-year-old woman in Ukraine who escaped Russian-occupied territory by walking almost 10 kilometers (6 miles) alone, wearing a pair of slippers and supported by a cane has been reunited with her family days after they were separated while fleeing to safety.
Lidia Stepanivna Lomikovska and her family decided to leave the frontline town of Ocheretyne, in the eastern Donetsk region, last week after Russian troops entered it and fighting intensified.
Russians have been advancing in the area, pounding Kyiv’s depleted, ammunition-deprived forces with artillery, drones and bombs.
“I woke up surrounded by shooting all around — so scary,” Lomikovska said in a video interview posted by the National Police of Donetsk region.
In the chaos of the departure, Lomikovska became separated from her son and two daughters-in-law, including one, Olha Lomikovska, injured by shrapnel days earlier. The younger family members took to back routes, but Lydia wanted to stay on the main road.
With a cane in one hand and steadying herself using a splintered piece of wood in the other, the pensioner walked all day without food and water to reach Ukrainian lines.
Describing her journey, the nonagenarian said she had fallen twice and was forced to stop to rest at some points, even sleeping along the way before waking up and continuing her journey.
“Once I lost balance and fell into weeds. I fell asleep … a little, and continued walking. And then, for the second time, again, I fell. But then I got up and thought to myself: “I need to keep walking, bit by bit,’” Lomikovska said.
Pavlo Diachenko, acting spokesman for the National Police of Ukraine in the Donetsk region, said Lomikovska was saved when Ukrainian soldiers spotted her walking along the road in the evening. They handed her over to the “White Angels,” a police group that evacuates citizens living on the front line, who then took her to a shelter for evacuees and contacted her relatives.
“I survived that war,’ she said referring to World War II. “I had to go through this war too, and in the end, I am left with nothing.
“That war wasn’t like this one. I saw that war. Not a single house burned down. But now – everything is on fire,” she said to her rescuer.
In the latest twist to the story, the chief executive of one of Ukraine’s largest banks announced on his Telegram channel Tuesday that the bank would purchase a house for the pensioner.
“Monobank will buy Lydia Stepanivna a house and she will surely live in it until the moment when this abomination disappears from our land,” Oleh Horokhovskyi said.
Amazon Purr-rime: Cat accidentally shipped to online retailer
- Galena was found safe by a warehouse worker at an Amazon center after vanishing from her home in Utah
LOS ANGELES: A curious cat that sneaked into an open box was shipped across the United States to an Amazon warehouse after its unknowing owners sealed it inside.
Carrie Clark’s pet, Galena, vanished from her Utah home on April 10, sparking a furious search that involved plastering “missing” posters around the neighborhood.
But a week later, a vet hundreds of miles (kilometers) away in Los Angeles got in touch to say the cat had been discovered in a box — alongside several pairs of boots — by a warehouse worker at an Amazon center.
“I ran to tell my husband that Galena was found and we broke down upon realizing that she must have jumped into an oversized box that we shipped out the previous Wednesday,” Clark told KSL TV in Salt Lake City.
“The box was a ‘try before you buy,’ and filled with steel-toed work boots.”
Clark and her husband jetted to Los Angeles, where they discovered Amazon employee Brandy Hunter had rescued Galena — a little hungry and thirsty after six days in a cardboard box, but otherwise unharmed.
“I could tell she belonged to someone by the way she was behaving,” said Hunter, according to Amazon.
“I took her home that night and went to the vet the next day to have her checked for a microchip, and the rest is history.”
