"When a fire breaks out on The Orville and a crew member dies, Alara begins to question if she is fit for her job, just as unusual and terrifying things start happening on the ship."
Huh, so many Trek homages just in that trailer alone. Kelly hanging out of the elevator leading directly into space definitely invokes TNG imagery, plus I'm seeing shades of Night Terrors as well.
Although predictable, the joke equating marriage to purgatory made me smile. As for the episode as a whole, it looks, well, no better or worse than the last few.
Yeah, it's an Alara-centric episode from all of the stuff I've read about it, which is great! I love some more Alara! (Though she's already had a focus episode this season.) It looks like it'll be pretty good with some good serious and "space moments." And Alara in the boxer's uniform back on the "holodeck" Yay!
I loved that little clip, shows the sort of "seriousness" and such the episode is going to have and more in with the "Trek Vibe."
I don't know who's more adorable, Lt. Kitan or Cadet Tilly... but I'm loving the... WHAT THE HELL THE DOCTOR IS ALARA'S DAD?!
So, an "it was all on the holodeck" episode with a dash of "amnesia episode" to spice things up. Got to be honest, I'm disappointed as the previews and feeling of the episode made it really feel like this was going to be an encounter with a powerful, 5th-Dimensional being of some sort that the crew had to somehow overcome and outsmart. It also seemed like an "easy out" at the end that Alara's various actions were mostly shrugged off at the end because no one was hurt but I guess, like Starfleet/The Federation The Union has an "if the ends justify the means" way of looking at things. (I.E. Alara going to save Ed and Kelly in the second episode.) Alara's actions didn't end up in anyone getting hurt so, hand wave. When she came out of the simulation and acted as if she was confused I was still partly expecting some 3rd party involvement messing with her mind like an outside alien presence or even one of her parents giving her some kind of hypnotic suggestion. All said, though, it was a good episode and the overall vibe and atmosphere of it all was very well done and the look of things was a good vibe too. One thing I've noticed is how good something as simple as the lighting is on this show when it wants to be dramatic (for example seeing Bortus on the birthing pot in the second episode, lighting and camera angles, as well as the bedroom shots of Ed/Alien Rob Lowe also using low lighting and low camera angles with a dash of "Austin Powers Nude Scene" camera positioning, the episode did good here in the look of the ship in the various states of power loss. Nice tidbit i noticed, I think this is the first time we've seen parts of the ship, other than the bridge, in a higher alert status and in yellow alert we see some of the ambient lighting in the corridors and rooms have a yellow tint. (The sconces in the "ready room" had a yellow tint to them as opposed to the usual plain white color.) Halston Sage did a good job carrying this episode as well as giving us more dramatic range and action-filled behavior as opposed to the previous episode focused on her. The humor in the episode, like most of the ones the last few weeks, was nicely balanced and worked in well with everything else without being too obvious or the show needing to stop for the sake of delivering the joke. .... So the holodeck has an observation window? With that I liked how it showed the simulation working with Alara "running in place" and the corridor scrolling by her from the observer's perceptive. Give a nice look at the "treadmill effect" of how the holodeck's simulation works to provide spaces larger than the room itself. Everyone in the cast did well and with this episode it seems more that MacFarlane's realizing his weaknesses as an actor and not taking the center stage as much allowing the other actors/characters to make up for what he lacks. (Though I think he's been decent so-far, but basically everyone else are more interesting characters played by better actors who make those characters interesting.) I give the episode a "Good." It would've been an "Excellent," honestly, if the events were being caused by a malevolent entity and this wasn't a "holodeck episode."
I was disappointed at the last commercial break and then delighted at the end - the twist that the whole thing was set up by Alara was marvelous. Saw anything but that coming. And Halston Sage is fantastic. Great episode.
She is fantastic, and this being all set-up by her, her memory wiped, all to test her own strengths, weaknesses and fears was good but... Ugh. I just hate the "it was all a dream" type stuff. It would've been better if all of this hard largely really happened and she worked through her fears to save everyone. Still a good character episode and a strong episode overall. Yeah, I really liked that too.
The episode was good and had some strong guest appearances. I would love to see Alara mom and dad in a episode. I swear I want to say "Fans Strikes Back".