It's a bit weak.
Bortis' ciggie addiction was the subplot I kept asking "Can we get back to this? Can we get back to this? Can we get back to this?" every time they got back to Gordon.
I liked the twist that she already had a main squeeze in her life. But heteronormativity being de facto, she's not into triads or bi or polyandry or open relationships or anything else that might have potentially livened up this episode or deftly educated the audience without being sledgehammer heavy, it's just an hour of dopey boring bland yawnarama. Even Doctor Who showcased polyandry as a plot point in 1986 with a funny retort from Peri...
The story starts out bad enough; it's a smartphone that can somehow last 500 years. And, yes, I was forcing myself to suspend disbelief - even the shiny new newspaper was easier to accept at face value, to see where the story would go and this is the first time Orville dropped the ball with innovating on tropes. (Season 1 is replete with fantastic examples of the show taking sci-fi and drama to the next level. Season 2 has been a bit uneven and after a few wins, we now have comparatively superficial filler (IMHO) - but that's true for any show of any season.)
Why doesn't Yaphit squish into the phone the same way he did into the also-waterproof Kaylon in order to figure out how it worked instead of all the guessing technobabble? (unlike the Kaylon, there's no voltage or amperage of any sort to fry him.) And how they revive the lithium battery is also laughably bad. Amazing how quickly they figured that out, but the phone didn't even have a power supply on the table (unless I missed it) since even the PSU would show cable polarization, voltage, amperage, etc...)
So the simulation is running 24/7, even when he's not in there?!
He states 'save program' and then everything vanishes and he falls onto the floor (never mind the ship is guessing that 'save program' now means 'save program and abruptly close and be glad you're not skydiving with a simulated parachute or are trying to experience the life of Wile E. Coyote'.)
That also begs the question, since it's rather implied, there's no sweat or anything else on the floor since the simulation isn't using real matter (in other words:
eww)...
Just how narcissistic is the character featured? (Do all smartphone owners act like that?!)
And dim, not even a 4 digit PIN passcode or that stupid connect-the-dots where all one need do is turn the phone to an angle and notice the bleepin' pattern needed to unlock it?! Sigh...
And, of course, product placement for a platform that isn't #1 in the marketplace. Especially when Android phones are far easier to navigate through with the touching and the finger swipes and so on... then again, it's not 1995 anymore when #1 platforms are given namedroppiong for "accessibility". Remember "Microsoft Doors" in "Sliders" as opposed to giving Apple's Macintosh (or other platforms still existing) a leg up? Then again, some news articles claim iPhone users are more extroverted and/or vain so that ties into the narcissistic bent a bit more easily into the story's narrative, so it doesn't not work... but Gordon still falls for her? Must be due to solely facial looks and not personality, how vain...
She's a great singer. Not my genre but she's very talented. Has a great duet with Gordon.
The data transfer was also silly; limited by the speed of the 21st century's phone's chips and with all that video data, it's not going to be done in a handful of seconds. I could buy into the simulation being created comparatively quickly but this episode is just another "dangers of holodeck porn addiction" trope...
Never mind a lot of computer hardware made nowadays doesn't last 5 years - never mind 500. Possibly due to chip density (14nm fabrication process, I'd guess). Now if this were a 100nm or 200nm process I'd be more inclined to buy into it; computers several decades old still run without issue.
The throwaway about the political issue was also as oversimplified as it was heavyhanded and parochial in scope. Do a proper episode on that, not empty throwaway filler in a show that usually has a more poignant message, regardless if it uses comedy or sci-fi or horror. Or even episodes not having big messages (e.g. "New Dimensions") they still carry things off, but it could be seen as filler too. Some people don't care for what amounts to "90210 in Space" as much as others would prefer every "Orville" episode to be 90210 in space instead of exploring harder-edged sci-fi concepts. The show has room for both, we're not obligated to give every episode a 10/10.
And are centuries 22-25 so devoid? Or the 16th for that matter, as nobody froths over Shakespeare or DaVinci anymore... (at least TOS had)
Sincerely yours,
Nerball #8675310.
