One of the better episodes, but I found myself bored through most of it. So bored, I started noticing all the heavy sighing McFarlane puts into his emotional scenes, like the one in the mess hall/10-Forward set with Kelly.
I have to call bullshit on the "reputation is our currency" line Kelly used, since the whole upvote planet plot was about how that was a really bad idea. I get where she's coming from, but man did it sound tone-deaf!
The 2D universe, while beautiful, made no sense, visually. It looked like a waste of CGI money, to be honest. Visually, I kept expecting the
Orville to have to race a light cycle.
So Yaphit is okay with things now, because, John is smart? Because who needs to be chief engineer when the guy who you said was too inept to lead accepted your idea? This is the downfall of episodic shows. Yaphit's thing is hitting on the Doctor. Which, if you hadn't watched the Blue Rob Lowe episode, you'd have no idea that the two had been intimate, because the already had Finn's kids interact with Isaac, so they hit their continuity limit. So, you can't have him maintain two things, adding on being jealous of John/angry at Mercer. And the engineers thinking that Yahpit was incompetent was way out of left field. Too bad, though, it would have made for a really entertaining subplot for future episodes, but on an episodic show, John yelling at them solved the problem. Hooray!
I'm glad Mercer's crisis of faith was so easily solved. Piloting the shuttle really would alleviate all of my doubts that I was good enough to be a Captain. Certainly better than a heart-to-heart about their similar issues.
As for the theme, I fast forward through it. It's boring and non-offensive.
Discovery's theme, however, sends shivers up my spine and gives me goosebumps. Every. Single. Episode.
Speaking of
Discovery, I still maintain that the fact that so many of you bash it every chance you get in every
Orville thread shows how thin this show is. As for the beginning part of the thread and the "We don't have anything else to discuss," then why are the threads posted so far in advance? This is a
discussion board. If there's nothing to discuss, why bother having the thread open? Furthermore, no one mandates that you post in it. It's perfectly fine to keep the discussion in the thread centered around
The Orville and jump into one of the numerous
Discovery threads to discuss that show. Even better, create a "
Orville vs. Discovery" thread and have it out there. But if discussing
The Orville requires constant digs at
Discovery, then again, and as blatant as I can make it--
THE ORVILLE ISN'T AS GREAT A SHOW AS YOU WANT/HOPE IT TO BE. 
