THE ORVILLE S1, E11 "NEW DIMENSIONS"

[Romulan_spy]

He was already serving on the ship. It'd probably be a lot to do to go through the personnel records of everyone on the ship, read and review all of them and then know everything about them including test scores from when they were at the academy years prior. When a new manager starts in a store it's not like he reads all of the personnel records, you just look over the stuff of new applicants.

No. Looking up the service record of every single person on the ship would be time consuming, yes, but a good manager should look up the records for their key leaders. So a 1st officer should at least review the records for all the senior officers and bridge staff in order to familiarize themselves with the key personnel. That's just basic management 101. So, yeah, Grayson should have looked up Lamar's record when she first assumed the XO position back in the pilot and should have known about Lamar's test scores then.

 

[The Wormhole]

Great episode. It's hard to overlook the similarities of John being promoted to chief engineer to Geordi's sudden promotion to that position in TNG. Although, I suppose Chekov's sudden promotion to chief engineer in STID is an equally valid comparison. Only here, they actually take the time to explain how someone can go from a bridge post associated with flight operations to the head of engineering, over everyone else down there who arguably has more seniority in that particular job. That's certainly a lot more interesting a direction to take this storyline.

Although, now that John's in engineering, I'm assuming the navigator position is likely no longer a speaking role? I guess I can kind of understand, Gordon and John overlapped each other often enough throughout the season anyway. But on the other hand, it's kind of the frustration I've had with the Abrams Trek movies in that it doesn't seem anyone really understand the role of a navigator other than being a sort of "co-pilot." Aside from the warp jump off Titan's atmosphere, nothing in those movies reflected Chekov's expertise as a navigator, and indeed in STID when he was an engineer the replacement navigator wasn't a speaking role.

And while I certainly have no objection to John now being the engineer, it does seem kind of a waste that Chief Newton didn't really do much. Yeah, I know, he was never in the main cast, so they did as much as they had too. Still, if they were going to write the character off in the next episode anyway, I kind of wonder why they didn't just have him be the one they killed off to make Alara question herself in the previous episode. It wouldn't have changed much in the narrative of this episode, John and Gordon could still pull a prank on Yaphit, Kelly would still put a reprimand in their files, during which she discovers John is actually a genius and decides to screen him for the now vacant position of chief engineer.

I loved the Yaphit humour here ("you don't want a gelatinous senior officer on your ship." "No, it's not that. Some of my best friends are gelatinous.") It was interesting to see a more irritable side to him, both in his dealings with John and Ed and even Claire's kids. He had previously been so easy going with everyone, though I suppose what we saw here could be a combination of stress over not getting a promotion he felt he deserved, the idea that the guy who pulled a prank on him could become his boss, and the fact that he likely has no chances with Claire now because of that stuff a few weeks ago.

 

[B.J.]

When Gordon suggested Isaac get a cat, I was thinking "Are they seriously doing this with the Data analogue?" Then Isaac went and started petting Gordon.

If John's going to be down in engineering from now on, I'm going to miss the dynamic between him and Gordon on the bridge. I guess we're going to have a random crew member up front in addition to the one behind Isaac now? (I still don't know what that bridge station next to Isaac does.)

 

[Romulan_spy]

Then Isaac went and started petting Gordon.

That was comedy gold. The look on Gordon's face was priceless.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

When Gordon suggested Isaac get a cat, I was thinking "Are they seriously doing this with the Data analogue?" Then Isaac went and started petting Gordon.

If John's going to be down in engineering from now on, I'm going to miss the dynamic between him and Gordon on the bridge. I guess we're going to have a random crew member up front in addition to the one behind Isaac now? (I still don't know what that bridge station next to Isaac does.)

Maybe there's an uber-genius teenager on board that can occupy that position

Of course, maybe John can use the engineering console on the bridge, ala Geordy.

 

[Satron]

This was a weaker episode. Three stars. The character interactions were nicely done. Finally we get to see how LaForge transferred -- to -- sorry, wrong intellectual property.

 

[B.J.]

Maybe there's an uber-genius teenager on board that can occupy that position

You know, I think Wil Wheaton is available! Actually, it would be funny if he filled in at the navigator's station for an episode, but have no lines or anything, and they never mention anything about it. Kind of a blink-and-you-miss-it thing.

This was a weaker episode. Three stars.

So would you say this episode was two dimensional, that a lot of it fell flat, kind of a thin premise, missing a lot of depth?

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

You know, I think Wil Wheaton is available! Actually, it would be funny if he filled in at the navigator's station for an episode, but have no lines or anything, and they never mention anything about it. Kind of a blink-and-you-miss-it thing.

I'd pay real money to see that

Especially if he turned out to be the son of an admiral played by Patrick Stewart.

 

[Mudd]

"Aren't you a little old for a lieutenant, Mr Wheaton?"

I don't know whether I'm giving this one my first five-star vote. Need to watch it again.

Scotty spent a lot of time on the bridge, particularly during the original series.

 

[Mojochi]

I'm going to assume that no one bothered to look at Lamarr's record for some simple reasons. #1, Lamar wasn't picked by either captain or XO to join the crew. He was a hold over from the previous command. He came with the ship. #2, he's not a command officer really. He's just a helmsman.

I've been surprised that he's been on away missions at all frankly. #3, They've been fairly preoccupied with mission stuff, & #4 there's been no need to look into him. With a few exceptions, he's pretty good at his job

Does it stretch believability some, that they wouldn't look at the dossier of someone they're working directly with this much? Sure, but they don't even have money. They don't function like us really. So, I can hand wave it

 

[137th Gebirg]

Yeah, it's clear and obvious what they're doing here but it's also clear and obvious when The Asylum makes a movie called "Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies" the same summer "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" comes out, or any other time The Asylum makes a DTV movie that's similar to a Hollywood movie. You can't copy someone else's work, but nothing says you can't make something very similar.

Heh...sadly, that didn't stop George Lucas from trying to sue Glen Larson & Universal for Battlestar Galactica back in 1978-79. The judge was smart enough to agree that "similar but different" was enough to throw the allegations out of court, but because of that, BSG was forever vilified (unjustifiably, IMO) as a "Star Wars ripoff".

 

[Amaris]

I'm going to assume that no one bothered to look at Lamarr's record for some simple reasons. #1, Lamar wasn't picked by either captain or XO to join the crew. He was a hold over from the previous command. He came with the ship. #2, he's not a command officer really. He's just a helmsman.

I've been surprised that he's been on away missions at all frankly. #3, They've been fairly preoccupied with mission stuff, & #4 there's been no need to look into him. With a few exceptions, he's pretty good at his job

Does it stretch believability some, that they wouldn't look at the dossier of someone they're working directly with this much? Sure, but they don't even have money. They don't function like us really. So, I can hand wave it

Yeah, it's easy to wave away. I mean, for all we know academic scores are listed elsewhere in the dossier, and she missed them the first time around. Considering how many crew were on board, it could have been a blink and you miss it kind of thing.

 

[Tribble puncher]

One thing I enjoyed about this ep. was the conversation between Kelly and Lamarr when she was explaining that in a post currency society Respect and Accomplishment were the "new" currency. That little conversation explained it more than TNG really did, it explained why the average person doesn't just become a lazy hedonist. It was just a nice way to simply explain how a post scarcity society would work. (In the context of the show)

 

[marsh8472]

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The 2D aliens are back

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Does it stretch believability some, that they wouldn't look at the dossier of someone they're working directly with this much? Sure, but they don't even have money. They don't function like us really. So, I can hand wave it

I think they're just racist toward gelatinous beings.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

This one was a mixed bag for me.

I know I shouldn't look too much into it, but there's more to engineering and leadership than just being "very smart." You can't just move a navigator straight over to chief engineer without extensive training, eduction and experience. And that would be the case even if John was genetically enhanced, but he's just a really smart guy. I appreciate the nature of the story and how it played out, particularly how he defended Yaphit despite their friction, but the way of telling that story wasn't well thought out.

I get that the show isn't inherently a science-fiction show first, but I do wish the episode explored the two-dimensional universe beyond passing musings on Flatland. There's a lot of storytelling potential they could've focused on and it felt like wasted potential.

What I did like about the episode is how it addressed the matter of Kelly helping Ed get his command and how he adjusted to that knowledge. He may now think he was acting like a "whinny little bitch" (and to a degree, he was), but I also think his reaction was understandable. I do wish there was a more mutual understanding in that regard, but otherwise I enjoyed the conversations that helped Ed come to terms with Kelly's help.

 

[Trekker4747]

Yeah, Ed's reaction was understandable and it's good he came down and realized how he was behaving and that Kelly was right, no one gets to where they are by themselves.

I would've appreciated more of a cap on the dynamic between Yaphit and John, maybe something Yaphit does or says that shows that *he* isn't ready for the leadership role that he's lacking something John has and maybe John lacks something Yaphit has and the two of them together can better lead engineering. At the end they seemed to have reached neutral ground (Yaphit suggesting how they can get more energy to enter the anomaly, John defending Yaphit to the other engineering team) but it would've been nice to see more of an end on that.

 

[The Wormhole]

You can't just move a navigator straight over to chief engineer without extensive training, eduction and experience.

While I do agree, I will point out that this sort of thing does go on in the real world. I've seen similar things happen in my workplace. It's always turned out horribly, but inexplicably it still happens. At the very least, the fact there's tension between John and Yaphit over things at least helps sell the situation to me as a possible way to inject drama into future episodes, so I can accept it on those grounds.

 

[Mr Awe]

What I did like about the episode is how it addressed the matter of Kelly helping Ed get his command and how he adjusted to that knowledge. He may now think he was acting like a "whinny little bitch" (and to a degree, he was), but I also think his reaction was understandable.

I had the opposite opinion about that aspect of the story. I didn't like it and he was a whinny bitch. He got his dream job thanks to her but he was qualified and, as we've seen, has done a terrific job in it. To suddenly be so filled with doubts just didn't ring true to me. He was a whinny bitch about it.

That said, I thought the scene at the end with him and Kelly was great. I guess they had to create the fake whinny bitch drama to produce so they could reach that scene.

Well, to each there own! The technobabble managed to achieve TNG level. Like you, I enjoyed the 2D universe aspect but agree with you that it would've been nice to explore more. Also, I was hoping that when they went through the 2nd anomaly (conveniently appearing!) that they'd emerge in a higher dimensional universe--the sort that Gordon was talking about.

 

[The Wormhole]

While I could understand Ed feeling betrayed by the revelation and maybe giving Kelly attitude for the duration of the episode, to have him suddenly doubt his ability to do a job he's already done fine in for the past six months or so did seem kind of odd.