Having watched the episode, I will comment that it has proven, absolutely beyond question, that all members of the crew of the Orville are in fact themselves holographic projections. In fact, it is now obvious that the entire interior of the ship is one giant hologram, as that is the only way to explain the final scene on the bridge.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Tuesday, February 05, 2019 - 11:26 pm: Edit

The season 1 soundtrack set is now available on the aforementioned 2-CD set, as well as on iTunes.

It sounds good thus far, though I am somewhat disappointed that it does not have the music from the "departing dockyard" scene in the pilot episode.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Friday, February 22, 2019 - 12:55 pm: Edit

So, any thoughts on this week's "part 1" episode?

I'm trying to avoid any hint of a spoiler, but it does seem to mark a significant escalation of events, akin to what part 1 of "The Best of Both Worlds" did for TNG.

By Richard Wells (Rwwells) on Friday, February 22, 2019 - 02:10 pm: Edit

Part one of a two part episode written by Brannon Braga. Not a promising sign. I will wait until part two airs to see if this time he managed to put as much effort in the ending as the beginning.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, February 22, 2019 - 03:09 pm: Edit

I am not going to give anything away, because I know many people have not watched it yet, and most of those will probably wait until they can see both episodes (part #1 and part #2) back to back.

What I will say is that from my personal standpoint part #1 was the kernel of an idea badly written and thus badly executed.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Friday, February 22, 2019 - 03:48 pm: Edit

Sounds like the whole series to me.

But that is strictly my personal opinion.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, March 01, 2019 - 02:08 pm: Edit

Reminder, not everyone has seen the second part, and some have not seen the first part, of the two part episode (because they want to watch them back to back), so please refrain from commenting for now.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, March 01, 2019 - 02:10 pm: Edit

Reminder, not everyone has seen the second part, and some have not seen the first part, of the two part episode (because they want to watch them back to back), so please refrain from commenting for now.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Friday, March 01, 2019 - 02:16 pm: Edit

[deleted my original, potentially spoilerish, comment]

I will say that my wife and I honestly thought this two-parter was the season finale. The stakes were certainly high enough.

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Friday, March 01, 2019 - 02:36 pm: Edit

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What I will say is that from my personal standpoint part #1 was the kernel of an idea badly written and thus badly executed.

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By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, March 06, 2019 - 01:06 pm: Edit

I think enough time has passed for everyone to see it.

Overall, from the moment the Kaylons(?) revealed their plans, I knew Isaac would end up betraying his "people" and save the day. It is such an old and repeated plot device that there simply was no way it would work out any other way. There is no "imagination" to that.

The Krill, however, were a surprise, and I will give Kudos for that. It is not that the idea of getting help in such a situation has not been used before, but you rarely see a fanatic enemy come to save the day from another fanatic enemy.

I was also (perhaps because of all that time I invested in wanting to be a soldier) was grateful not to have the more or less standard "fight to the last ship" on the part of the Kaylons(?) (almost a staple of the entertainment industry), and to have them ultimately retreat.

But (among many problems) another problem is the ship they encountered on the way to Earth. I am sorry, but before that ship approached the Orville and the Kaylon(?) fleet, it would have noted the fleet where none was expected, and "called higher" to report the contact. And when no follow-up reports were received, a red alert would have already gone out, and forces would have started being recalled to Earth (since that would have been the reported course), presence of the Orville or not.

In all seriousness, while I (again) appreciated the appearance of the Krill, I would have been pleasantly surprised if it had turned out that the Kaylons(?) in fact had generated everything in the minds of the Orville's crew as a means of testing whether or not they wanted to join the larger galactic organization (so no one died and there was no "mass genocide" on their home planet). But what we got was pretty much is what I expected. But at least it was a flashy space battle, it is amazing what computer generated special effects can give us these days.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Wednesday, March 06, 2019 - 02:38 pm: Edit

The battle scenes exceeded what was often done in feature films, just 10 years ago or so. Quite impressive.

I was really hoping they would have the guts to make Issac's betrayal be permanent and he and the Kaylons be the new "big bads". It would have left a rift in the Orville crew to explore and plots involving the Union having to find a way to work with the fanatical Krill. Maybe having some tough moral quandaries along the way.

Perhaps too dark and gritty for an avowed light-hearted show.

I do hope they don't hit the "reset button" regarding Issac's role and character too soon. Everyone on the Orville was put at extreme risk, a bunch of the crew died, a lot of crew on other Union ships died, and that shouldn't be water under the bridge. He may still be there, but I hope not in normalcy.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, March 06, 2019 - 03:12 pm: Edit

Definitely a great episode, and we definitely need to have lingering after effects.

The "prime" robot is dead, so we can presume that back on the planet the chief of production and chief of the fleet are having a contest to decide who will be in charge. Then they have to decide if the policy is build a bigger fleet and try again, or to engage in peaceful relations while building a secret bigger fleet to try again.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, March 06, 2019 - 03:40 pm: Edit

One wonders if the Union is currently suppressing the "Rabid Colonel Petrick" who is demanding that the Union assemble a fleet of maximum potential (we know that at least Bortas people have their own fleet, so lets gather all the Union fleets and fix this problem) and destroy the Kaylons NOW, NOW, NOW before they build a larger fleet and attack again.

I imagine myself being locked in a deep dark cell that the Union will deny it has for espousing such a thought.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, March 06, 2019 - 06:09 pm: Edit

I would dispatch a squadron of observation to Kaylon ASAP and order them to keep an eye out and run away if challenged. I would invite the Krill to do the same, from the opposite side of Kaylon.

Then a team of really smart naval officers are going to decide what to do in the long term. Can we plant a sensor mine cloud around their planet to tell us when they're moving. Can we bombard the shipyards outside of the ground defense grids? Can we just build/recruit a frakking big fleet and go burn their planet to the bedrock?

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Saturday, March 09, 2019 - 08:17 pm: Edit

A clip from the battle scene has been posted to The Orville's YouTube channel.

At this point, there is a growing range of ships and empires which could be used if anyone were to work up some sort of Orville-themed starship combat game.

Also, there will be a set of Clix figurines (characters, not ships) released later in the year, as well as a new comic book series published.

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Sunday, March 10, 2019 - 12:52 am: Edit

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A clip from the battle scene has been posted to The Orville's YouTube channel

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By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Saturday, April 13, 2019 - 01:23 pm: Edit

I would have to say that this week's "The Orville" was pretty good.

Yes, I have nitpicks, but I really do think this was a good episode.

One of my nitpicks (given the back ground of the pervious episodes leading to the strategic situation) is that mentioning allying with the Krill against the Kayzon needs to take into account that the Krill have another enemy.

Another is that I am extremely unimpressed with the "combat prowess" of the Moclans in ground combat. I mean, there was not even an effort to establish that the colonists had extensive training in hand to hand combat, and the Moclan troops were being overrun as a result of a relatively minor diversion and were utterly unable to organize themselves to offer effective resistance. So, yes, I was unimpressed by the whole staging of that scene. I mean the Orville's crew put up better resistance when they were being overrun by the Kayzon then the Moclan troops offered.

I am more than a little annoyed by timing issues. And more than a little annoyed with the "shuttles" on the Orville. They seem to have shuttles "at the needs of the plot." Sometimes the ship seems to have only one shuttle (if they had two, Issac could have flown one and Bortas the other to rescue the survivors on the planet before it was sucked into its sun). But somehow the "rebel base" (my term) happens to be in easy shuttle flight of Earth, although they apparently took days to get to Moclus, and days to get to the nebula from Moclus.

I can go on with "nitpicks," but I state again that it was a very good episode and touched, however briefly in many cases, on a great many issues, to include differences in cultural bias.

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Sunday, April 14, 2019 - 02:34 am: Edit

The 'differences in cultural bias' thing is where I think Orville does its best at capturing the Trek-ness of its inspiration.

I mean, I like Discovery A LOT...but while it goes more into action sequences and traditional Trek "difficult decisions" (*cough*)...it never wavers from the 'we are Star Fleet, and we are Morally Right, and that's the story, and conflict arises from that'. Which is fine. It's impossibly idealized, but why not? They ARE morally right, conflict WILL arise from that...interesting stuff.

Orville just feels a LOT more grounded in modern times than that, though. It's less clear. You're going to need to ally with people you don't get along with. You CAN'T get along with - they are morally opposed to universal truths you can't negotiate on. But you remain allies, because the alternative is worse. That...well. THAT makes for some very interesting stories, itself.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, April 14, 2019 - 09:27 am: Edit

As I see the situation, the Moclans could use the colony as a "steam release valve" to quietly deport dissidents.

The Moclan concern is that the dissidents may try to return and overthrow the established order. Some of the females on the colony said as much. They don't have to wait decades or centuries to grow population; the 6000 colonists are already enough to form a boiling cauldron of revolution. It was established that dissidents were easily moving back and forth. The colony does not need more people to be the safe haven for the revolutionary headquarters.

The solution might be some kind of enforceable treaty by which the colony is the exile site for dissidents who agree to leave and never return home

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Sunday, April 14, 2019 - 10:21 pm: Edit

The "spot the Star Trek alumnus" mini-game remains amusing, too.

The chair of the Union council was the alien bad guy from Star Trek: Insurrection.

The head of the Moclan delegation, of course, Worf's brother Kurn.

Naturally everyone recognized Counselor Troi as the substitute teacher on the Orville.

And then Commander Riker directed the episode.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Monday, April 15, 2019 - 03:00 pm: Edit

Xander Fulton:

I did not recognize the "alien bad guy from 'insurrection,'" probably just too long since I saw it.

I honestly did not recognize "Kurn," but can honestly say only that I recall, with your reminder, that Worf had a brother.

I can honestly say that the "substitute teacher" was vaguely familiar, but until I read your comment, I absolutely did not recognize her.

Maybe if I read the list of guest stars I might have, and Jonathan Frakes has been a director enough times I would no doubt have recognized his name.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Monday, April 15, 2019 - 03:02 pm: Edit

I will, however, say again that it was a good episode covering a lot of things that could have made for interesting table conversations over lunch or dinner. There are a lot of real world issues today that were tangentially touched on as a result of the episode.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Monday, April 15, 2019 - 07:26 pm: Edit

Tony Todd (Kurn) also played the elderly Jake Sisko still trying to save his father decades later, in a classic episode of DS9. He also had a role as the Alpha-Hirogen on Voyager.

He is probably best known as the titular "Candyman", from the 1980s Clive Barker horror film of the same name. He also had major roles in films like Platoon, The Rock, and The Crow, along with numerous tv roles (X-Files, Xena, SG SG-1, etc.). He was in the running to play Benjamin Sisko, and would have done well with the character - However, I can't imagine anyone other than Avery Brooks in the role.

He's one of those character actors who is in lots of things, but not often noticed, as he does supporting roles so well he's just moving the plot along without calling undue attention. I can usually pick him out, even under lots of SFX makeup, as he is tall and lean and has one of those distinctive sonorous baritone stage-trained voices and delivery (Star Trek loves their Shakespearean stage actors).

I've followed his career, as that role as the elderly Jake Sisko is the only time an actor's portrayal (and good writing) made me shed a tear watching a tv show.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, April 19, 2019 - 03:14 pm: Edit

Hold off discussing last night's Orville until we can be sure everyone has had a chance to see it.

But, not giving anything away: Temporal physics always gives me headaches.

And for those who like to watch two-part episodes back-to-back, this is apparently the first part of a two-parter, part #2 being the season finale.