Brief sidebar: This one has a guest appearance from my pal, John B. He's going to do a Q&A with the board after the episode airs (NDA's are serious business these days), so watch for that announcement shortly. Thanks! Carry on.
So I noticed on this episode's IMDB page they're listing the new cartographer as "Lt. Janel Gillis" despite the fact she gave her name as Janel Tyler in Ja'loja. Indeed the actress's own IMDB page even lists her as Lt. Tyler for Ja'loja and Lt. Gillis for Primal Urges. Just an IMDB screw up, or are they already changing the character's name?
I believe this is the episode where Nana Visitor was scheduled to guest star as the leader of the planet that faces extinction from the supernova, but then she had to pull out from the role due to a conflicting engagement. Wondering who is replacing her for the role instead. Also, when I read the episode's synopsis I thought its premise is similar to this TNG episode: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_Ensigns_of_Command_(episode)
Janel Gillis was the name in a FOX press release last month, so people foolishly assumed the writer(s) of the press release double checked it and that somebody was over them checking the final copy. So, at the time it was submitted to IMDb, it was deemed correct. Janet Miller was originally going to be her name, according to info' online. I'll go submit a correction. EDIT: I see instead of correcting the listing, some stupid dumbass simply deleted her credit from both episodes. Fucking morons.
Actually, according to a video posted in the main Orville Season 2 thread, Visitor's agent never told her she got the role until she was at a convention in Europe the day filming was supposed to start.
So, one wonders if the clip from the season trailers where a number of the crew are apparently in a prison is really part of Bortus's Environmental Simulator fantasy.
This episode feels a lot like a later TNG episode, with the personal A plot/helping some planet or encountering some anomaly B plot. The Moclan thing where they talk about conventional domestic things in strong declarative statements is funny, but I think they go to that well more than it's worth. Good episode over all so far, in the 'comfy nostalgia' category.
I'll admit that the Bortus-centric episodes aren't really my favorites, & I probably could've done with a few less Moclan porn scenes & a couple more about the B plot instead, but all in all, I didn't dislike the episode. Parts of it are really good. Claire as their marriage counselor played really well imho The A plot is kind of reminiscent of Reginald Barclay's Hollow Pursuits too... taken to its extreme of course lol