News Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville

Never said otherwise! The Orville is very much like past ST.

The relevant point being that it's not character development if she continues on as she was before!

 

Yep - what you have there is a misused phrase in search of a criticism.

"Cupid's Arrow" may be my least favorite of the season, and I liked it a lot.

 

That's the point of the episode. The fire at the start of the episode shattered her confidence in herself. The situation she then put herself into was designed to rebuild her confidence in herself. In a sense you are right, it is a reset button. But it is a reset button created by the character in the episode itself to reestablish herself.

 

"Majority Rule" and "Cupid's Dagger" are my favorite episodes so far. I'd say "The Krill" is at the bottom of the list, with "Into The Fold" just a little bit above it. And I liked both of those episodes, they were just lacking the sense of wonder that the other episodes have had.

 

Firestorm taking place in the "holodeck" isn't a "reset button."

A "reset button" is when through an episode there's consequences and major events that's entirely forgotten by the next episode or even the end of the very episode, those events having no impact whatsoever. Voyager was guilty of this a lot, compounded by the situation it was in, where an episode would have the ship take damage, expend resources, or whatever and in the next episode it's back to 100% operational and, often times, them cautioning about not expending resources they don't have (when in the previous episode they didn't seem to care about those very same resources.)

It's not a reset button when events that occur aren't real and it was part of a journey for a character. (Even if it's a journey the character will only go on for the single episode.) Nothing in this episode is "reset" by the end. Nothing in this episode is shrugged off. This episode was about a journey for Alara exploring her fears and that was the goal of it. It'd be more of a reset button if all of these events really happened and at the end Alara did something that caused it all to be undone and everyone, including her, forgot about them.

 

There's also no reason that it should ever be referred to again.

So...arguably, if we ever again see Alara unable to act because of childhood trauma this would be a meaningless and forgotten incident. Yeah, how likely do you think that is?

 

I mean by this logic "The Inner Light" uses a reset button since Picard awakes from an emotionally heavy dream and he's back to normal by the end and following episode.

 

This one is actually more of what a friend of mine used to call an "Orange Tang" story:

Our people find themselves in an inexplicable landscape - endless orange sands, orange sky above, etc. They have no idea where they are or how they got there, or how to get out.

Pull back: they're trapped in a jar of Orange Tang.

It's ridiculous, but not as intrinsically annoying as a so-called "reset button" story. The Matrix is an Orange Tang story; sadly, so are some old Twilight Zone episodes (not "sadly" because they were bad but because Serling was so good that bad writers still imitate his plots).

 

Technically speaking, there was no reset. It was established he was there on the Bridge the whole time, which was very short in-verse time.

 

Sort of my point, there wasn't a reset here either.

 

You're right, my mistake.

 

Exactly so. My point was more a reaction to those claiming it was character development when in fact her character has not changed. That's not even really criticism--just a statement of fact. Certainly 99% (maybe even 100%) of the Berman era ST episodes exhibit the same lack of development, and this series certainly harkens to those days.

 

She has grown as a character. She and the audience is now aware of a new aspect of her character.

 

"Reset Button" is like "Filler Episode"-- a non criticism.

 

Thus-Far Reviews:

Old Wounds 2/5: Enjoyed mostly for the nostalgic and VERY strange feeling of watching a TNG episode with dick jokes and buffoonish behavior from main characters. The humor has a flat out "WTF" effect on me that I find strangely compelling.

Command Performance 2.5/5: Felt a lot like the "Geordi / Harry Kim is left in command and has their leadership skills tested" stuff that popped up in Star Trek quite a bit. The B-Plot about being trapped in an alien zoo (as horrifically derivative as that could be) was saved by the chemistry between the two main characters. Enjoyable, despite itself.

About A Girl 4.5/5: This was a legit great time! Very good scifi premise, fun performances by all the cast, and a classic courtroom "outmaneuvering." This would have been very much at place in the Twilight Zone or Star Trek universes as a near-classic.

If the Stars Should Appear 3/5: Fun, action/adventure science fiction...even though its premise was lifted almost directly from TOS. I think Kelly is actually a great officer...probably one of the only officers on the show who I believe would have actually made it as a space exploration professional.

Pria 2/5: Kind of meh. Charlize Theron does a nice job, but some cool scifi premises are beaten down by an obvious and predictable twist / outcome.

Krill 3.5/5: Despite having everyone walking around in prosthetics the whole episode, there was some good tension and great story elements in this one. I like looking at the Krill culture from the inside-out, and I thought the moral dilemma Mercer faced in the end was very well done.

Majority Rule 2.5/5: This felt more like an under-cooked Black Mirror episode than anything else (probably because it was directly lifted from "Nosedive"), but still had some fun elements. Despite the behavior of LaMarr and the suspension of disbelief necessary to believe that this guy would EVER be allowed onto a spacefaring vessel, let alone on an away mission, there is some fun and compelling stuff here. Any time Kelly is leading an away mission...the show seems to work.

Into the Fold 2/5: Kind of meh again. There were some very interesting concepts here (like- as a weird fanboy, I've always wondered what visiting aliens would think if they decided to visit our planet in a post-apocalyptic state like The Walking Dead), and a nice exploration of single-parent family dynamics. but this was mostly just bizarre. The doctor murders her savior/captor brutally and shoots a bunch of people in the forrest, but then lectures about how we don't kill...or something. I don't know.

Cupid's Arrow 1/5: Worst episode of the series yet. Convoluted and tropey outing with people unnaturally falling in love with each other due to external influences. Rob Lowe guy has some funny quirky moments...otherwise this was nearly unwatchable dross.

Firestorm 3/5: This was a fun episode that would have been right at home on Star Trek Voyager (but that is also its greatest weakness). I find Alara kind of uninteresting, so the fact that we've had two stories focused on her thus far is perplexing. That said, there was some fun tension here, and I didn't see the twist coming.

Overall, I enjoy the show to a moderate degree thus far, but it is a bewildering experience to say the least. The show is so polarizing in that it introduces some truly interesting premises, but really falls flat in exploring them. Likewise, it has very interesting and engaging characters (Mercer, Grayson, Isaac, Bortus) and others who are just idiots and / or people I wouldn't want to spend any time with whatsoever in real life (LaMarr, Malloy, Finn, Blob Guy). The same can be said about the humor...some of which is spot-on and hilarious (Bortus about to sing karaoke, for example) and others is just trying to hard and sophomorically gratuitous (glory hole). The biggest strength is the charm of Mercer and Grayson, the "I take myself WAYYYY too seriously alien of Bortus, and some of the fun adventure stuff. The biggest weakness is the lack of originality in the sci-fi plotting and the uneven approach to everything.

Looking forward to seeing the show find its legs over the next year!

 

I've rated them all 4/5. They have all been great fun.

 

Well, if we're rating episodes, mine would be:
Old Wounds: 3/5
Command Performance: 4/5
About a Girl: 5/5
If the Stars Should Appear: 4/5
Pria: 3/5
Krill: 4/5
Majority Rule: 5/5
Into the Fold: 3/5
Cupid's Arrow: 4/5
Firestorm: 4/5

Also, just want to add, this show does a really good job on episode titles.

 

The doctor uses the resources available to get back to her kids, regretting the absolutist limitations the whole time. Once back with her kids, and with resources that give her the ability to make a choice, she opts for the more humane option. It's not that big an unknown.

 

It was inconsistent writing for a relatively inconsistent episode.