It’s probably understandable that a 25th-century spaceship crew doesn’t know what a newspaper is. It’s not understandable that a 21st-century production design and\/or prop team can’t be accurate.<\/p>\n
In last week’s episode of “The Orville”<\/a> (a show I have fangirled about here before<\/a>), one of the crew falls in love with a 21st-century woman after resurrecting her iPhone from a 2015 time capsule. (It is reminiscent of not only the Star Trek TNG episode “The Booby Trap,”<\/a> but also “11001001”<\/a> where Riker falls in love with a hologram.) Also in the time capsule was a copy of USA Today<\/em>, but an entirely wrong one.<\/p>\n Here’s where someone missed the boat twice over. First, the paper is close to accurate on font and design for early 21st-century editions of USA Today<\/em> until September 2012<\/strong>, when the paper got an entirely new design<\/a> for its 30th anniversary. I guess the “Cool Balls”<\/a> aren’t cool enough to stick in people’s minds, or the people in charge of wrangling\/creating that prop hadn’t seen a copy since then. As much as I hate periods being used in date stylings, the current design of the paper would’ve provided a clear scene-setting beacon.<\/p>\n Now the other part: You’re doing a science fiction show … referencing a newspaper … from 2015. The most blindingly obvious Easter egg is sitting there for the taking \u2014 use the actual USA Today<\/em> from October 21, 2015. For the record, here’s what the top of the front page looked like that day.<\/a>\u00a0Or, if that’s too subtle, use the paper from October 22, which referenced the sci-fi significance of the previous day<\/a>.<\/p>\n A newspaper in a time capsule probably would had to have been vacuum-sealed to even attempt to be white and non-brittle after 400 years. (It’s not shown on screen that way, but the handling of the capsule’s contents is portrayed incredibly sloppily by everyone including Trek alumnus Tim Russ.) Here’s what a copy of the Des Moines Register<\/em> looked like<\/a> after 50.<\/p>\n But the fake\u00a0USA Today<\/em>\u00a0had other facets of weirdness, too, referring to a “Port Authority” with a picture of the U.S. Capitol, headlines with the capitalization style very few papers\u00a0have used for decades, and a sports promo for “gridiron picks for the cup.”<\/p>\n Based on the comments on the recap linked above, the writers\/continuity team also flubbed an area code that wasn’t around until 2017. Getting the immediate past right is hard, I guess.<\/p>\n Finally, if a three-week hiatus is baked into the schedule, why in the world do you not<\/em> start it on opening day of the NCAA Tournament?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s probably understandable that a 25th-century spaceship crew doesn’t know what a newspaper is. It’s not understandable that a 21st-century production design and\/or prop team can’t be accurate. In last week’s episode of “The Orville” (a show I have fangirled … Continue reading
![here’s what the top of the front page looked like that day.<\/a>\u00a0Or, if that’s too subtle, use the paper from October 22, which](\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/CR14KPiWUAApJUq.jpg\"){kind=link}