THE ORVILLE S2, E4: "NOTHING LEFT ON EARTH EXCEPTING FISHES"

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Serveaux, Jan 11, 2019.

  1. CaptainMurdock

    CaptainMurdock Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Well he did fall for Prya pretty quickly as well and even jumped right into bed with her.
     
  2. Astra

    Astra Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I had read about all this in here before. I am not watching Discovery but I do clearly remember Stargate Lt. Tyler. It's the first thing that comes to mind with this name.

    Yet I had completely forgotten about it all. It was so nice to see happy Ed in the beginning, and that fond scene with Kelly. They do have a great connection.
    All the promos of course left Teleya out so I thought I was getting into a scenario where he ends up on the planet alone and has to fight for survival. I wondered how she would disappear when they both were in the shuttle.
    Then the Krill turned up and it all fell into place. I also had thought it would go on through the whole season instead.

    So instead of feeling sorry for her when she was "tortured", all I was watching was Ed's face.

    I don't know if it was in here or somewhere else but back in season 1 there were complaints about Seth MacFarlane's bad acting. I think this entire episode should shut those people up.

    That look he gave Kelly at the end? Aw, man...
     
  3. Serveaux

    Serveaux Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    MacFarlane isn't a bad actor; he's a very good voice actor, for one. But he has a limited range when doing dramatic material rather than comedy. What makes Ed Mercer work is that unlike a lot of truly bad actors Seth does not generally try to compensate by overacting, going big in the dramatic moments - instead he's very low key and in so doing, I think, trying to suggest something going on with the character internally.

    It's not always working all that well. But it's easier to like than scenery chewing. :lol:
     
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  4. Astra

    Astra Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    The best acting for me is always when you forget that you watch an actor and are so immersed into the story that you really feel for this person. And I certainly do that. And this was going from happy Ed to worried Ed to reliable Ed to forlorn Ed. It was quite a rollercoaster.

    There are a lot of American TV series whose actors and characters leave me cold. I watch them and feel nothing.

    The Orville is my happy place right now.
     
  5. Serveaux

    Serveaux Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    Same here.
     
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  6. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    I'm partly disappointed the "reveal" aligned so well with the speculation I was seeing. It just felt too... obvious for it to be the case and it made more sense to me that they just liked the actress so they cast her for a new role. The "explanation" for her also seemed sort of contrived, "Erm... I escaped. Yeah, that's it!" It's a kind of logic/plot point that feels like it's out of some old western or 80s TV show where people can just "escape" from custody, even when they're imprisoned in a futuristic society with FTL travel.

    But as soon as they were in the shuttle and the Krill craft seemed to be able to detect them I had a feeling where this was heading.

    That all said, I still really liked it. It was a good, solid, episode and I liked the dynamic between Ed and the female Krill (and the stuff with them reminded me of several Trek episodes. Not the least of which being "The Enemy" and the one with Quark and Odo stuck on a planet together needing to get to a higher location to send out a transmission.)

    I just really miss Alara. :(
     
  7. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I kind of do, but also kind of don't. You know they had to be pretty bad for someone like Gordon to react the way he did. I didn't really see anything in any of them.
    Subtlety is definitely not one of our strong suits as a species.
    I loved this one, it was my favorite of the season so far.
    A lot of people on here were predicting the whole Janelle/Teleya twist, so it wasn't a surprise for me, but it was still well done with good performances from Micheala McManus and Seth McFarlane. I was a little disappointed with them doing something so similar to to what Discovery did not that long ago, but it played out differently enough that I wasn't to bothered by it in the end.
    The stuff with them on the plane together was the best part. I hope this isn't the last we see of Teleya, because this really feels like something that could continue and go in some interesting directions. The last scene was really good, I'm a big Billy Joel fan and I loved the use of Only a Woman there.
    Gordon's story with the command test was really good too. It was nice to get something more than just jokes from him. His psych exam with Dr. Finn and the simulation with the Krill were fun. I wasn't really sure if it was just about picking up chicks or if he was being honest about wanting to do more than just fly a ship the rest of his life.
     
  8. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    What, for me, makes the humor in that scene work is that we don't know what it is he saw. I think the two obvious thing to have done would have been to make the objects something that'd clearly be ready "wrong" ways. (Making them as phallic or sexual looking as could be allowed on Network TV.) That's kind of the.... "broader" humor the show went for in the first season (like Gordon pointing out the dog liking its crotch in the pilot) but this season the humor seems a bit more honed in. (Like in the aforementioned dog/crotch scene. The image of the dog liking itself on the viewer is humorous enough, pointing it out is taking the joke and rubbing it in your face.)

    So that the images weren't of anything "obvious" (to us the viewer) and that Gordon was seeing stuff in them that was freaking him out is funny.

    Sort of along the lines of.... I dunno not seeing the shark much in Jaws or why it was good idea in Bird Box for them to not show the "creatures." In Jaws they weren't confident enough in their effects to show it much, so the score and the bits we do see work well enough to make the shark a threatening presence. In Bird Box the victims are supposedly seeing their deepest fears to the point they're driven to suicide, if they showed *us* that (and from the BTS stuff of what they were planning on making the creatures look like) we'd see what was scaring them so much and be like, "that's it?!"

    Sometimes NOT showing something is the way to go. And the images Gordon was seeing not being obvious to us on how they'd freak him out, and him not saying WHAT it was he was seeing, makes it work.
     
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  9. Noname Given

    Noname Given Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    if you love Berman/Braga TNG/VOY tropes this is your show:

    - Shuttle gets attacked, but NEVER calls to the Capital ship because reasons (IE if they do, the Orville shows up and ep is over. Hell, they even considered calling Union Command first.)

    - Krill are supposed to be 'very military' yet during the attack they never show the Krill ship firing a shot. (Been plenty of fire anytime we've seen the Orville vs a Krill ship previously).

    - Ed doesn't even consider trying to talk to the Krill enemies (Hey, it's a species the Union doesn't even know, and the Krill invaded their territory. But maybe they'd rescue him as he IS a prisoner; but no, the thought never enters his mind because he has to escape so that we can get the tried TNG Trek 'You may be my enemy, but I know I can reach you...' bit.

    - Can someone please explain to me why the Krill couldn't shoot her own gun at the approaching enemies herself?

    - To the above I love how Ed (a Union Captain) again, just shoots at a species the Union has never met - basically ensuring the next time they do, these guys will now consider the Union a threat as well.

    - And the Ships that attacked the Krill ship DON'T stick around to protect their own landing troops [IE the Orville shows up, see the Krill ship wreckage, but the other ships are totally gone. (Again can't have extraneous logical plot bits to deter the standard 'last minute' wrap up can we.)

    There's little to nothing TOS left in the Orville, it's 'Family Guy' meets TNG - with the same tired TNG plot tropes. You'd think Braga and Co. would be a bit more creative after a 12 year break away from TNG, eh?

    For me this season their 1 for 4 (IE 1 I did like; but 3 very lackluster eps.)
     
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  10. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Because daylight is fatal to her and she needed to use Ed's jacket to shield herself from it.
    I was under the impression the ships landed, we do see Ed looking at two objects entering the atmosphere.
     
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  11. thribs

    thribs Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Grand Tour comes out an hour before Discovery. Technically in America, the day before
     
  12. Kai "the spy"

    Kai "the spy" Admiral Admiral

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    Excellent use of Billy Joel there at the end.
     
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  13. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    Agreed, really liked that touch; and the little flash-drive thing he gave her.
     
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  14. LJones41

    LJones41 Commodore Commodore

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    A lot more entertaining than the previous episodes. But . . . the plot is similar to many Trek episodes I have seen in the past. Like most of the previous episodes, it wasn't that unique.
     
  15. Gryffindorian

    Gryffindorian Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I've heard a lot of comparisons to old Trek episodes like "The Enemy," but to me it would have been more apt to call this episode "Face of the Enemy," when Deanna Troi impersonated a Tal Shiar operative aboard a Romulan Warbird (a reverse version of it anyway). And no one has mentioned "Thine Own Self," when Troi took a series of bridge officer's tests she couldn't pass.
     
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  16. Ar-Pharazon

    Ar-Pharazon Admiral Premium Member

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    So...space Orcs?
     
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  17. Serveaux

    Serveaux Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    Yeah, I don't try to find correspondences with old Trek episodes. Most of those plots were pretty generic; some went way back to westerns.
     
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  18. ISS-Magnum

    ISS-Magnum Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Those new guys looked like Remans from Nemesis.

    Anyway, great episode. Yes, I have seen this many times before, 'Enemy Mine' and whatnot, but I don't care. It was like meeting old friends again.
     
  19. ISS-Magnum

    ISS-Magnum Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Because Ed grabbed a gun and held the girl at gunpoint. When they crashed on the planet, Ed has lost consciousness, and they switched places.
     
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  20. theenglish

    theenglish Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Or in Spanish as well.