There's a strange battle for the stars going on at the moment – with Star Trek rip-off homage The Orville broadcasting at the same time as the actual Star Trek reboot, Discovery. We don't know, you wait for one Trek series and two fly along at once (sort of).

While both are trying to recapture the magic of the William Shatner-led original series, only one's successful. If you went on the critics, you'd assume that was Discovery, but which one is it actually with the fans? Start the music…

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And let's fight!

Series' Rotten Tomatoes Score

If you look at the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, the space-scrap's over before it's even begun. Seth MacFarlane's first live-action series, following the crew of the USS Orville (ECV-197) as they explore space in service to the Planetary Union, has not been well-received by critics. It scores a pathetic 18% on the reviews aggregator.

Meanwhile, Star Trek: Discovery, which is set roughly a decade before the events of the original Star Trek series and follows the adventures of Sonequa Martin-Green's Michael Burnham (a science specialist on the USS Discovery), has a far more respectable 83% score.

So, it's all over, right? Wrong. Because if we go episode by episode using the IMDb scores as a guide, it's a very different story…

Episode 1: Old Wounds (The Orville) vs The Vulcan Hello (Star Trek: Discovery)

Fox

Opening episodes for new series are always a bit tricky. You've got to introduce a whole bunch of fresh characters and a setting, as well as establishing a situation andcreating a compelling story that makes the best of all of those things.

Orville's opener takes the tone of a Guardians of the Galaxy or a Galaxy Quest, but features far fewer actual jokes than you'd expect from the creator of Family Guy and American Dad. Meanwhile, Discovery feels more like a Game of Thrones or a Westworld.

IMDb users rated The Orville's first episode as 7.4, compared with Discovery's opener, which is at 7.3.

Close, but Orville wins. 1-0 MacFarlane.

Episode 2: Command Performance (The Orville) vs Battle at the Binary Stars (Star Trek: Discovery)

'Command Performance' finds Captain Ed and First Officer (and ex-wife) Kelly prisoners in a replica of their former home. In 'Battle at the Binary Stars', Burnham joins her captain in a daring plan to end a battle with the Klingons that's threatening to turn into war.

Again, Orville comes out on top, with IMDb users rating 'Command Performance' at 7.9 and 'Battle' coming out as 7.6.

2-0.

Episode 3: About a Girl (The Orville) vs Context is for Kings (Star Trek: Discovery)

Fox

For its third episode, Orville went for a socially relevant tale about an ethical quandary two parents face when deciding whether or not to reassign the gender of their baby.

Meanwhile, over at Discovery, Burnham is on a new ship – the titular USS Discovery – with a new captain, the mysterious Gabriel Lorca.

This episode of Orville is ranked at 7.9, as is Discovery! Yay, a draw – finally! Point each.

Episode 4: If The Stars Should Appear (The Orville) vs The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry (Star Trek: Discovery)

CBS

Two loooong titles for relatively simple episodes. In The Orville, the crew encounter a ship that's about to crash into a star. In Discovery, Burnham is still settling into her new role.

On IMDb, Orville gets 8.5 and Discovery gets 7.4, with audiences preferring The Orville's take on old-school sci-fi. (That's 4-1 in case you lost count.)

Fox

In episode five of The Orville, Ed falls in love with a mysterious alien. Over at Discovery, Captain Lorca is captured by the Klingons, joining prisoner of war Starfleet Lieutenant Ash Tyler and notorious criminal Harry Mudd in custody.

Orville gets 8.2, Discovery gets 7.6 – disappointing for an episode that brings back classic character Mudd. 5-1.

CBS

Episode six of The Orville involves our heroes going on an undercover mission to infiltrate a Krill (basically The Klingons) ship and steal a copy of their bible. In Discovery, the crew are intrigued by new crew-member Tyler (who's probably a Klingon).

Another trouncing in favour of The Orville – 8.3 against Discovery's 7.5.

6-1.

Episode 7: Majority Rule (The Orville) vs Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad (Star Trek: Discovery)

Okay, so if you've already seen the Black Mirror episode 'Nosedive', you'll feel like you've already watched this Orville episode, mainly because it's got a very similar premise – it's about a society that is allowed to vote on everything, and it satirises social-media storms.

But if you haven't seen that episode, it's decent enough.

Meanwhile, Discovery also looks to another episode of a different series, but at least this one's in the same franchise, and its take on The Next Generation's 'Cause and Effect' was popular with fans, many of whom felt this was the first episode of Discovery to feel like 'true Trek'.

Still, it wasn't enough to beat The Orville – whose 8.4 IMDb rating for this episode was miles ahead of Discovery's 7.5.

So there we have it, on an episode-by-episode basis, The Orville wins almost every time with a 7-1 mauling, even if it wasn't as much of a hit with critics as Discovery. But, hey, why not boldly go and watch both, and make your own mind up?

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