I love the callbacks. Seth MacFarlane loves the 1980s, as do I, and it shows in the writing. When he called Isaac a "glorified Speak & Spell," I nearly lost it, I was laughing so hard. I wondered if anyone would have a problem with it. I say that because I remember people having a problem with TNG's "Measure of a Man" when the JAG said that Data was "a toaster." It's always good to be armed with extensive knowledge of a show people love when you know they may also hate the new show to which they're comparing it.
Rimmer called Holly a "jumped up file-a-fax" 30 years ago, not to mention all the names he had for Kryten (Commander U-Bend, Captain Bog-Bot, Khazi Droid). I haven't sensed anything particularly Red Dwarfish, but sci-fi comedy has been lacking in recent years.
Calling it a "fan film," for me, was shorthand for loving recreation of a style and tone of a show/era long since gone. ;P That said, any episode of Orville and the worst of 90s (or current Trek) is a helluva more professional, better written and well produced than any actual fan production.
And that's another issue I have - TheUnion DOESN'T have radiation suits to counter the solar radiation BUT, the folks on the planet (with no space faring capability) have radiation suits that'll work just fine. (Also, they said they were going to move the Orville closer so the shuttle didn't have to travel far; but on the VFX side of things that didn't really seem to happen.) And with 300 crew - you'd think Ed would maybe pool the engineering staff so they could get two shuttles up (and have Bortus and the android fly one each; but yeah compared to the 'Porn/Sex Addict/Couple's Counselling' story line, the actual; sci-fi aspect story line came across like an afterthought. It's just there so Bortus can see two people in a committed relationship say goodbye (and one sacrificing herself to save her husband and child) and realize what a fool he's been. Hell, it seemed they had more staff pop up to work on the Holodeck introduced virus then the one shuttle they chose to save the people. Also both the android and Bortus seemed to move slow and there was a lot of standing around in the cavern - IE to me there didn't seem a lot of urgency on either side. (IE you would think the people in the cavern would have already suited up in the radiation suits and not just have Bortus and the Android going "You have a way to get from this cavern to the shuttle in a hostile airless environment, right?..." When they said "We have no spacefaring capability and retreated here knowing wen would eventually die" - I as a Starship Captain wouldn't assume "Oh, they'll have the means to walk to the shuttle..." so yeah, that seems a bit of a not thought out/lazy writing scenario. Again, with all the prep required (the Shuttle) and the danger to his crew in just flying over - you'd think they would have MADE SURE they could get people in the cavern to the Shuttle before sending it over.
That's bull. First of all, I would have found it unrealistic for a civilization whose world is about to be swallowed by their sun not to have any suits that can resistant the radiation. Having no "space-travel capability" is not relevant. It's entirely possible for an advanced civilization to exist without space travel. As they said it's the last planet left, I find it weird as it would have been likely a frozen world for most if not all of its existence when their sun was still in the same stage our sun is these days. That tells me they may have more resistance thanks to their evolution. I think it's more likely they are a forgotten colony from millennia before.
These kinds of plot holes don't concern me; I've paid too much attention to Trek for the last 50+ years.
Yes, after I watched an older movie I liked to go there and get many questions answered of stuff I didn't understand. They could have closed them but still leave them for reading at least My main nitpick is that in the shuttle there was lots of space between the rescued and the two pilots. A few more people would have fitted in there. Why not pack it up to the last corner? Maybe it was less "we only have space for 30 people" and more a weight issue? Although - why does a small child count the same as an adult?
I thought for sure they were going to just save all the kids. Did any stay behind to die? I can't remember. Honestly, while I understand why it was there (to allow for the payoff in the A plot) the idea that this underground colony would continue to have children even knowing their planet was going to die within a few years is pretty fucking monstrous. I initially believed we'd see them all as middle aged/elderly people - basically having voluntarily chose to stop reproducing so as to not subject any further generations to the final moments before extinction.
Yes, children stayed behind. Families were split up. It was done by lottery. And Bortus dissed Isaac, which I loved.
They did. The First Minister stayed behind. Oh man, even though I'd only seen her on screen for about 30 seconds, her goodbye to her husband and her baby made me tear up.
Disco gonna sue! But seriously, that's two episodes I've enjoyed in a row, as relatively low-key as they arguably were. I'm happy to recommend the show to friends of mine who enjoyed TNG...especially friends of mine who enjoyed TNG but thought the characters were a bit stiff sometimes.
Like I said I thought it could have been written better. Also Bortus isn't human so why does he need to be flawed and fallible in a human way? There are already plenty of humans in the show for that.
Who says it's solely a human fallability? Perhaps he's flawed and fallible in a Moclan way. Klyden does become so angry he divorces him. Human or Moclan, you screw up an entire ship and it's going to bite you in the ass.
They don't need to have such obvious human flaws and fallibility. Isaac is a good example in the show.
A good example of a stand-in for Data without the drive to be human and with a great deal more openness about his own superiority, sure... (half-joking)
When the aliens are as human like as the Moclans are, it would make sense that they would have the same kind of issues that humans would. Another good episode, this one rates slightly higher than last week's since we got a real sci-fi plot to go along with the personal stuff. The stuff with Bortus was pretty good, I did not expect them to deal with it as a porn addiction, and I liked the way they connected it back to the stuff with his and Klyden's kid. We got some great performances from Peter Macon and Chad Coleman here. Even if they might not have been 100% scientifically accurate, we got some gorgeous effects from the planet being destroyed. I especially loved the shot of Bortus and Isaac leaving the shuttle with the star overhead. The scene with them on the shuttle was pretty good too. I was a bit surprised they didn't at least make a point of taking all of the kids, and then just filling the rest of the spots with the lottery. I liked how they tied into Bortus and Klyden's issues when Bortus saw the couple saying goodbye. The description I read said that they had to save the people on a planet about to be destroyed, so I was a bit surprised how long it took them to realize there were people there. Although the way that whole thing progressed, first wit them finding the underground structures and then later realizing there were people there made sense.