THE ORVILLE - S1, E5: "PRIA"

[McDuff]

Another great and fun Orville episode. The story and humor continues to gel better together.

I would have like if the ending was better explained in term of time paradox and time travel mechanics and would have preferred if the Pria character was more ready to defend herself. Unless I missed something, it's a bit strange Pria wasn't truly ready to defend herself after taking over a ship (even if she has a nice story about saving the lives of the crew at the exact moment of their death). For example, they could have shown us during the episode Pria resisting a phaser fire with, lets say a personal shield like the Goa'uld, then have her shield disabled later on (maybe by Isaac). She's from the future, she could have other powerful technology beside the personal transporter device. Otherwise, it's strange for her to not be ready to defend herself and be in that type of business.

I hadn't considered that Theron's character was lying about how The Orville was destroyed in her past and what would happen to them in the future, ergo her disappearance means the ship was never redirected to save her and was never caught in the storm in the first place, but usually you're TOLD that kind of information instead of having to come up with it to explain story inconsistencies.

Only if Pria was lying about some aspects of her actions can the ending be explained. This is entirely possible but we're supposed to have at least a few clues leading us to that direction.

Beyond those 2 nitpicks, it was a great episode. Looking forward to the next episode in what is becoming one of my favorite TV series at the moment.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Warp 9.99, said to require nearly infinite power, would take 6 hours to cross 5 lightyears.
Warp 9.9999 on the TNG scale is the speed of subspace radio where it takes 13 minutes to cross 5 lightyears.

Yeah, I don't think Seth thought any of this out. "Hey, that sounds fast!"

Any time now I'm expecting one of those turbolifts (or what ever they call them in the show; I only heard "elevator" from Isaac in reference to one on another non-Union ship) to have wild travel times, where it takes three minutes to go down a deck or two.

What I find hilarious is how one review said Seth did amazing world building. LOL, where??? I see barely any world building what-so-ever. It's a quilt patch-work of Star Trek shows in general. That's not a bad thing, but the internal world building is flimsy.



Having said that, this is the best episode so far. But I think viewers aren't staying to find that out.

 

[Marc]

Another subtle Trek nod - Pria has been mining in the Mutura sector.

At one point I was expect the story line to jump and that upcoming eps would take place with the Orville in the future.

also think we need some more Bortus. He had one big ep and now he's pretty much just in the background.

 

[Matthew Raymond]

10 LY / Hour?! The fastest speeds for Starfleet's ships was something around 3-4 lightyears / day!

Math aside, Light-Years per Hour isn't that bad a unit of speed for FTL.

(In Trek it seems limbs are replaced with advanced artificial ones.)

They use biosynthetic limbs. I'm not entirely sure how that differs from cloned tissue.

It would be easier to get behind The Orville if they could show they can come up with *one* original idea.

I thought the idea of a robot taking a practical joke too far by removing and hiding a someone's leg was pretty original, albeit a B plot.

On the nitpick side, how likely is it that the term "hell" has disappeared at some point between the 25th and 29th centuries? The mythological concept of hell has already existed for thousands of years, I don't see what's going to change after the 25th century that it's no longer known four hundred years later. If Seinfeld, Kermit the Frog, Destiny's Child, Rudolph and the bloody Kardashians last into the 25th century, hell will last into the 29th century.

We no longer make common references to Helheim, which is probably where we got "Go to Hel!" in the first place. In all honesty, though, I suspect what Seth MacFarlane was implying was that everyone would be an atheist by the 29th century.

 

[Salinga]

Ratings:

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/daily-ratings/tv-ratings-thursday-oct-5-2017/

 

[Amaris]

Ratings:

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/daily-ratings/tv-ratings-thursday-oct-5-2017/

Seems like they're doing okay to me. Of course, I only have a general grasp of how these things work.

 

[JD]

Another great episode.
I have to admit, I did not see the reveal of who Pria was and what she was up to coming.
The stuff with Issac and Gordon was good. Isaac with the Mr. Potato Head face was hilarious, and him taking Gordon's leg was pretty good too.
We finally found out what Yaphit does.
I do agree with some of you that the time travel stuff at the end doesn't make a ton of sense, but it wasn't enough to ruin it for me.
The dark matter storm and travel through the black whole were pretty cool effects sequences.

 

[tharpdevenport]

I don't really care for the actor cast for Steve Newton. I think comedian/actor Mike McShane would have been a better choice.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Seems like they're doing okay to me. Of course, I only have a general grasp of how these things work.

I'm not expert but here's the numbers compared to last week:

SEP 28
8:00PM Gotham 0.8/3
9:00PM Orville 1.1/4

OCT 5
8:00PM Gotham 0.9/3
9:00PM Orville 0.9/3

Football held steady and Will and Grace is down some after it's return on the 28th so competition wise it looked about the same or less.

Next week will be interesting as Gotham/Orville has Supernatural/Arrow to contend with as well.

 

[ria 75]

I agree with Trekker4747 and JirinPanthosa about the time paradox error (barring the possibility that Pria lied about the ship being lost, but then the look on Mercer's face should change as he forgets ever meeting her). Either the Orville should be erased from existence, or they should be stuck with Pria.
Also, the tractor beam is stronger than the shuttle's engine and the gravitational pull of the star? Wow.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Also, the tractor beam is stronger than the shuttle's engine and the gravitational pull of the star? Wow.

I was surprised they didn't show it giving a boost to the shuttle's engines but it did look like it was all the tractor beam.

 

[CorporalClegg]

This one really didn't click with me. I found it to be a bit of a bore.

 

[BillJ]

Seems like they're doing okay to me. Of course, I only have a general grasp of how these things work.

I tend to think it gets 13 episodes next year. Sometimes it takes a while for MacFarlane's shows to catch on. FOX cancelled Family Guy twice.

 

[MPH]

http://www.showbuzzdaily.com/articles/the-sked-thursday-network-scorecard-10-5-2017.html

The last episode got a 0.9 rating. Down from last week.
This is dangerous territory. It might still get renewed with those ratings, but the show really can't afford to lose much more viewers. Then it would definitely be over.

https://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/the-orville-season-one-ratings/

It drops every week, this show is well getting canned!

 

[ria 75]

Ratings, competition... Can't we just enjoy our shows (all of them) while they last?

 

[Cyrus]

After the set-up the other week between Yaphit and Finn, it struck me that the slimeball was getting away with a lot when he extended his, uh, pseudopod to Pria for what she thought was a handshake.

Yeah, that was pretty naughty. He got a beautiful woman to grab and shake his appendage.

Yaphit's comment about white women was kind of odd, but it explains his interest in the doctor. But the doctor is too smart to go for the handshake trick.

 

[Jayson1]

It comes up on Hulu the next day. So we watch on Fridays.

If it helps I notice that it comes to Hulu at 2:00 in the morning and I am in Oklahoma. So if you want to stay up late you could kind of catch it the same night. I noticed this because I sometimes stay up late and I noticed it.

Jason

 

[Sophie74656]

If it helps I notice that it comes to Hulu at 2:00 in the morning and I am in Oklahoma. So if you want to stay up late you could kind of catch it the same night. I noticed this because I sometimes stay up late and I noticed it.

Jason

If I didn't have to get up at 6am for work I would stay up for it

 

[Trekker4747]

It'll be more telling to see what the shows numbers are once the DVR numbers are in, going against the Will and Grace revival has to be tough competition. I suspect Fox, given their history with MacFarlane, will give the show a bit of a pass to really build, find, and secure an audience. Overnights aren't enough any more, the OnDemand viewings, on line viewings and Live+ viewings are all factors to how many are watching the show. But against Will and Grace and Thursday Night Football? A lot to fight against.

Its also gettin more viewers than Gotham as a lead in so that should count for something.

 

[Amaris]

If it helps I notice that it comes to Hulu at 2:00 in the morning and I am in Oklahoma. So if you want to stay up late you could kind of catch it the same night. I noticed this because I sometimes stay up late and I noticed it.

Jason

Yep, and on Fox's Orville site it airs at 3 AM (ET) the next day. So it's pretty easy to catch up on. I don't really watch standard TV, so that's how I catch it.