Spoilers The Orville: New Horizons Season 3 Discussion

[The Wormhole]

Unless specifically designed like it from the cast/character makeup of the show ( The Last Ship comes to mind) nobody wants to see a no named Lieutenant lead a squad of no named troopers on an important mission because we want to see the main characters of the show in action.

Even The Last Ship went back on this trope all the time, in that the ship's Captain was leading tactical assault teams on a weekly basis, even in the later seasons when he was an Admiral and the head of the US Navy. Ironically, the one time he actually stayed behind on the ship was the one time they actually needed him in the field.

You can always just say Starfleet regulations are much different than modern military regulations. Not that Starfleet is a military...

Except it has nothing to do with military regulations or whether something is a military or not. We see this trope go on on all kinds of TV shows, regardless their setting. Like on cop shows where you see the precinct captain getting involved with every routine crime scene week after week. Hell, just look at NCIS, as the head of the agency, Director Vance should not be the one Gibbs answers to on a regular basis. There should be an Assistant Director or Deputy Director who should be the one who deals with Gibbs and his team for day to day stuff. And that's before you factor in all the times Vance has taken a direct involvement in the weekly cases.

It does look like it will come down to whether or not Disney wants to invest in this show. It is very expensive to produce. That can be the deciding factor.

Just spitballing here, but how about they transition to three 90 minute episodes/movies per season? They're already doing close to movie length episodes this season anyway. And the three 90-minute format has been widely used in Britain (ex. Sherlock) and I think with a show that's so expensive like the Orville, this may actually check all the boxes. It will allow the cast to have more opportunity with other projects. It will enable them to put more eggs in the basket in terms of production value but keep the budget at a reasonable cumulative cost. They can produce them as Disney plus exclusive "event" movies.

Even in Britain the Sherlock model is rare and was only done because the show was only ever intended to be a small scale semi regular show. If anyone knew its popularity would explode the way it did, they'd likely have done the show in a different format.

 

[trekfan_1]

Even The Last Ship went back on this trope all the time, in that the ship's Captain was leading tactical assault teams on a weekly basis, even in the later seasons when he was an Admiral and the head of the US Navy. Ironically, the one time he actually stayed behind on the ship was the one time they actually needed him in the field.

Except it has nothing to do with military regulations or whether something is a military or not. We see this trope go on on all kinds of TV shows, regardless their setting. Like on cop shows where you see the precinct captain getting involved with every routine crime scene week after week. Hell, just look at NCIS, as the head of the agency, Director Vance should not be the one Gibbs answers to on a regular basis. There should be an Assistant Director or Deputy Director who should be the one who deals with Gibbs and his team for day to day stuff. And that's before you factor in all the times Vance has taken a direct involvement in the weekly cases.

Even in Britain the Sherlock model is rare and was only done because the show was only ever intended to be a small scale semi regular show. If anyone knew its popularity would explode the way it did, they'd likely have done the show in a different format.

Well If the Orville was starting up, the three 90 minute episode format wouldn't work . But they have 35 episodes of ground work to spring off of so I think it can work. Personally I would have them produced in separate productions. Filmed either back to back or spread out depending on the actors work schedules
Maybe release them separately. One in Sep, one in Jan, one in April for example.

 

[Marc]

Even The Last Ship went back on this trope all the time, in that the ship's Captain was leading tactical assault teams on a weekly basis, even in the later seasons when he was an Admiral and the head of the US Navy. Ironically, the one time he actually stayed behind on the ship was the one time they actually needed him in the field.

Adama might be the only commanding officer in recent sci-fi tv who's stayed on board his ship.

 

[The Wormhole]

And even he has some notable exceptions.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

And even he has some notable exceptions.

Yeah, but when he got into the midst of things, you know it was serious.

 

[fireproof78]

You can always just say Starfleet regulations are much different than modern military regulations. Not that Starfleet is a military...

Except, it's not a part of being in the military. The day to day work is not done hands on by the top leadership, either in an organization or in a combat unit. You have rungs of leadership to that, all the way down. Even in my organization for community mental health we have a very distinct reporting chain. And while my boss' boss could certainly step in and do clinical face to face client work, that would be the exception, not the rule.

 

[The Wormhole]

Indeed, but as mentioned earlier, TV show casts always put the ones in authority in the main casts, leading to the unlikely scenario that the bosses are the ones who end up doing all the work.

 

[asupackman]

Just finished the audio-book of "Episode 8.5", I'd highly recommend it, I hate that we didn't get to see the actual episode but I did enjoy the audio version because the format allowed us to get the internal thoughts of the subject of the "episode" which I thought really helped with the delivery.

Now continuing the coundown to the season finale...

 

[Aragorn]

Indeed, but as mentioned earlier, TV show casts always put the ones in authority in the main casts, leading to the unlikely scenario that the bosses are the ones who end up doing all the work.

It's like the crime procedural where the crime scene investigator also leads raids, questions witnesses and interrogates the suspect in addition to all the lab work. And somehow they get all their work done and are able to clock out at a reasonable time.

 

[tomalak301]

They paid off the sandwich. I'm so glad they paid off the sandwich.

 

[tomalak301]

That was very very nice. Just finished and while I would like a season 4, if that's the end I'm very satisfied with that ending. I was reminded (in a good way) of the end of DS9's What You Leave Behind with the reception. I loved Alara's cameo, and I think my only minor quibble was no acknowledgment of Charley. Also, I was expecting some big action sequence (either on Lysella's planet or from the Kaylon) and what we got instead was a very nice, very low key finale. I'm going to be sad if this show doesn't come back, but I'm happy I got to see it.

 

[asupackman]

Just wrapped up, 1:30AM review: After so many episodes in a row of such high stakes, I'm glad they did this one last. There are parts of it I could quibble with but overall it was a sweet nice wrap up of the season. I love these characters and this episode was a bunch of great little character moments to send the crew off this season. As much as I loved the last episode, I'm glad this was the season finale as opposed to Domino. As much as I hope there's a season 4, if this is it and this is good bye, it was a fun ride all the way.

 

[asupackman]

Ok, I do have to say, when Issac came to the bridge to ask Gordon to be his best man. Issac sits and says something to the effect of "Lt. Malloy" to get his attention, and when Malloy spins around in his chair and reply's "Speaking!" There's something in the way Scott Grimes delivers that line that had me on the rolling, I rewound it three times to watch it again.

Also loved Kelly and Ed's interaction when he walks in on the Claire, Kelly, and Teleya discussing whether Claire should say yes to Issac.

"You have been useful sober man, go away now." lol

 

[Voltron64]

Well those were some of the best damn explanations for the Prime Directive I've seen.

 

[asupackman]

They paid off the sandwich. I'm so glad they paid off the sandwich.

I love how it was just a little moment too, they played it just right. Love Lamar's reaction too lol

 

[firehawk12]

This episode felt like the "Family" to last week's "Best of Both Worlds" and I'm all for a more character driven finale that closes out the Isaac arc.

I'm not sure if the B-story was really necessary - it was a nice callback, but there weren't really any surprises either so it really felt like a story to pad out the running time. Still, it didn't necessarily detract from the episode at least.

I hope they have a chance to do more, but if that had to be how it all ends, then I'm fine with that. I'm sure people had very low expectations of the series when it first came out 4 or 5 years ago, but I feel like it's turned into the TV equivalent of Galaxy Quest and basically part of Star Trek canon at this point.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I prefer Star Trek to the Orville, but I think it's insulting to the Orville to say that it should be considered part of Star Trek canon. It's its own thing, with its own identity and it's carved out its own niche. It's unique and should be treated as such.

 

[thribs]

That Mochlan tradition was interesting. I should try that with my girlfriend one day.
I enjoyed this episode very much. Felt the most season 1/2 episode of the bunch; with the perfect balance of seriousness and humor.
Issac inviting the entire Kaylon race to the wedding was funny. Thank god they don’t have to eat.
It was nice seeing Alara back. Still a shame she can’t come back permanently.

 

[thribs]

Well those were some of the best damn explanations for the Prime Directive I've seen.

Why didn’t Kelly just show her that from the start? Or at least some Star Trek episodes.

 

[Vince A]

It was pretty good. If we had a a poll I'd score it a 9 out of 10.

Great comedy, I laughed a lot during this one. When Claire stormed into engineering to read Lamarr the riot act I laughed my ass off. Also, Mercers line of "Ok we can all agree I'm useless" LMAO.

So nothing negative to really complain about, but I felt like it was missing that little extra something that I can't quite put my finger on.

Here's to hoping we get a season 4.