• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

THE ORVILLE S2, E2: "PRIMAL URGES"

I’m glad they are giving Dann more to do. Also this show is how you do diversity. Love that you have a tardigrade, a blob, and a guy with a big head all on the same ship. It’s expanding the universe one episode at a time.
 
I liked them showing Bortus getting help for the thing. Loved the bit about saving the planet. And the gargle blasters were pretty. Effects of the dying planet were cool, too. Nice to see Kelly Hu back as Admiral Ozawa.
 
My reaction to Dann is, sadly, much like most of the characters' reactions: when will the elevator doors open?
 
This tragic situation and its implications for the survivors is something that has never been explored by Trek (again because of transporters).
Actually, there was a similar situation in Generations involving Borg refugees-- Guinan was one of those who were saved.

One of the biggest mistakes in TNG was to interpret the prime directive that way, that doing so was wrong because you might interfere in the 'Great plan of the universe' and one of those people might grow up to be the next Hitler.
While I have little patience with the tragically hip trend of bashing Star Trek, one of the things that I never liked about TNG- and Enterprise-era Trek was how differently they interpreted the Prime Directive. In TOS, the Prime Directive was essentially a statement about Vietnam-- leave people alone to run their own country (or planet). In later Trek, it got weird, with leaving people to die from natural disasters and not wanting to interfere with evolution. I guess it could be seen as a moral directive that became its own evil twin over time, which is not uncommon in human history. It would be a great subject to address in any post-24th century Trek, should that ever happen.

The Moclan "ways" are reminding me more of Klingons though. "Divorce before dishonor".
One thing I forgot to type in my post was that Moclans are not so different from Humans-- there have been plenty of people who have divorced their spouse with the business end of a knife. :rommie:
 
The Bortus porn storyline was hilarious. Voyager or DS9 should have done this storyline with the holodeck. I could imagine Harry Kim or Rom getting addicted to holo porn.
 
The Bortus porn storyline was hilarious. Voyager or DS9 should have done this storyline with the holodeck. I could imagine Harry Kim or Rom getting addicted to holo porn.

Not Tom Paris or Nog (pre-Academy days) :lol::lol:

As an aside, do you think "Hollow Pursuits" would've been a better remembered TNG episode had it shown Barclay's full-blown addiction by showing him hooking up with Holo-Troi? Or showing LaForge going all the way with Holo Leah Brahms ;) ? Just curious
 
Not Tom Paris or Nog (pre-Academy days) :lol::lol:

As an aside, do you think "Hollow Pursuits" would've been a better remembered TNG episode had it shown Barclay's full-blown addiction by showing him hooking up with Holo-Troi? Or showing LaForge going all the way with Holo Leah Brahms ;) ? Just curious

That's an interesting thought. I don't think we'd have seen Barclay again and probably wouldn't have met the real Leah later on but those episodes would certainly be more memorable:lol:
 
I think "Hollow Pursuits" could have made for a more compelling episode if it had dropped the storyline about Barclay's exposure to that substance causing problems ("Orville" one-ups this by linking it directly to the porn), and dealing with why Barclay is being so adventurous in the holodeck versus playing it (mostly?) for laughs.

And I just now realized the name similarity to "Holo Pursuits"...
 
I always assumed we were supposed to take it that Barcaly was doing the "obvious" stuff in the holodeck, just the show didn't want to explicitly "take it there" (particularly with recreations of the ship's crew) so it was just left inferred. His attraction to Troi and the garden simulation with Troi as the "Goddess of Love" (or whatever it was) was just a bit too much to not think he'd gone there with it.

TNG did have at least one case of a pretty clear, "I'm going to the holodeck to masturbate" joke, in "The Perfect Mate" where after being kissed by the metamorph (a female alien who can give a target man his most intense desires, played by Famke Janssen) and her leaving, we see Riker tensely collect himself for a moment before tapping his com badge and notifying the bridge that if needed he'll be in the holodeck.
 
But with Barclay at least it rather focused on "what you're doing is f-ed up and a little hilarious" rather than "we're concerned that you may have a mental illness and we'd like to try to help you". Granted he is shown in counseling in later episodes (maybe this one as well?), but IIRC the issue is more swept under the table or used to forward another storyline rather than being addressed head-on.
 
He was in the preview for next week so that's my guess.
The one at the end of the episode seemed to be more of a general season preview rather than preview just for next week's episode. There seemed to be way to much stuff going on there for just one episode.
 
But with Barclay at least it rather focused on "what you're doing is f-ed up and a little hilarious" rather than "we're concerned that you may have a mental illness and we'd like to try to help you". Granted he is shown in counseling in later episodes (maybe this one as well?), but IIRC the issue is more swept under the table or used to forward another storyline rather than being addressed head-on.

Actually, the real issue is "we're concerned that you may have a mental illness," not "what you're doing is f-ed up and a little hilarious."
 
Respectfully, not this viewer. "Our Heroes save a species before it's wiped out", is a Trek staple that we've all seen before. "Featured character deals with porn addiction that threatens to destroy his marriage"...I mean...we had the Barclay episode a long time ago, but I think that's the closest Trek ever came to this.

I don't believe seeking out strange new worlds has to be taken literally.
Um, there's the whole "Geordi falls in love with the Leah Brahm hologram he creating in TNG - "Booby Trap", to the point Geordi becomes a FULL ON and creepy sexual stalker of her when she shows up in 'real life' on the ship in TNG - "Galaxy's Child"

The writers of Galaxy's Child" also try (and laughably fail to pass this off with Geordi claiming "I offered you friendship.." AFTER she runs the Holo-Program from "Booby Trap" and confronts him, but the way they had Geordi acting towards her for the entire episode (especially the scene where he invites her to his quarters for dinner to go over the agenda - and have wine, soft lighting and what he considers romantic music running when she walks in really makes for the 24th century equivalent of a #metoo type situation.

Again, this whole situation came up from Geordi believing his Holo recreation was exactly like the real thing - and devolved into a really "Geordi is a staking creep..." because of it.
 
Yeah, Geordi's behavior when he meets the real Leah is just really odd, considering he knows it was simulation earlier and Leah has no idea it happened. But he's being a real creep, making a dish she really likes, inviting her to his quarters, etc. But Geordi was also always kinda odd around the ladies.

Hell, in Booby Trap's own beginning, Geordi is being odd and weird with Christy during a date on the holodeck complete with a Gypsy violinist and him kinda doing the "yawning and stretching my arms into a hug" thing with the poor woman.
 
The writers of Galaxy's Child" also try (and laughably fail to pass this off with Geordi claiming "I offered you friendship.." AFTER she runs the Holo-Program from "Booby Trap" and confronts him, but the way they had Geordi acting towards her for the entire episode (especially the scene where he invites her to his quarters for dinner to go over the agenda - and have wine, soft lighting and what he considers romantic music running when she walks in really makes for the 24th century equivalent of a #metoo type situation.

I could be wrong, but I always had the impression the writers actually wanted Geordi to be in the wrong (Guinan certainly dressed him down about it) but there were some studio folks who intervened saying that he had to be proven "right" by the end of the episode, which led to the horrifying way it played out.
 
1. Geordie is good enough with computers to write a program looking for all the people in the galaxy who have made a sex hologram of him, to have sex with, on a holodeck.

2. Chris, the son from Family Guy, we found out today also has a very serious porn addiction problem, just like Bortus
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top