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THE ORVILLE S2, E4: "NOTHING LEFT ON EARTH EXCEPTING FISHES"

eschaton said:
I honestly wasn't feeling this one as much as last week. Both the A plot and the B plot seemed to be somewhat...contrived.

The whole thing with "crewman Tyler" was obviously some sort of reference to Discovery's first season. People were predicting it as of the season premier because they reused the same actress. I was honestly hoping for a bit more of a slow burn along several episodes. Regardless, while I could see what was going to happen from a mile away, the story beats were rather predictable. Barring that is one head-scratching moment - why she saved Ed when the ship was under attack, rather than just leaving him to die and finding her own escape pod. At first I figured that perhaps she still believed he had actionable intelligence, but since she initially intended to kill him as soon as she was rescued from the planet that wasn't the case. Maybe it was - as Ed said - just because she wasn't faking it as much as was suggested. I did like the conclusion of the episode - their continued attempts to humanize the Krill as individuals even as the culture itself remains a cartoon - but it didn't make up for this really badly plotted twist mid story. It would have been much better if she was somehow knocked out and he rescued her and dragged her into a life pod.

As for the B plot, it was nice for Gordon to finally get some development since Season 1 treated him solely as a joke character and didn't really ever give him a plot of his own. That said, it sort of felt perfunctory on the part of the show, and like it was sort of came out of left field rather than being a logical development of the character.
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I feel the same way. This one lacked energy that I liked last week, and it went back to kind of being boring.
 
I thoroughly enjoyed the episode. This one was darker, had more emotional impact than previous episodes, and does a good job of reconnecting season one and closing a story that many of us, myself included, wanted to see come to fruition. Even though she tried to kill Ed, I like Teleya, because I get the feeling that if it were not for her anger with Ed's murder of her brother (something Ed feels shame for and has expressed as much), I think she would find him much more appealing. Am I shipping it? Yes, I am. Maybe I'm not wrong, who knows?

I also liked Gordon's side story and how Kelly gets to the bottom of just why he wants to pursue command out of nowhere. It's a nice break from the tension of the main story, while not just shoving off into wacky hijinks. That said, I *loved* the corbomite reference. Loved it.

All in all, a great episode, and I think everything worked out for the best, with the show giving us a good example of what it can do when it's just a little more straight laced. I am definitely enjoying this season.

I'll watch DSC when I get the chance tomorrow, but I *had* to see Orville first, and it was worth it.
 
thribs said:
Was that supposed to be their version of the Kobryashi Maru that Gordon was taking? Their’s seem to have a solution though.
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I think it was just a command test primer. Kind of an informal "this is what you're getting yourself into" scenario for testing the waters.
 
Another great episode. I really enjoyed it. Mercer and Telaya getting a feel for one another was nice to see and I'm glad Gordon got a nice chunk of spotlight. Looking forward to next week. :)
 
thribs said:
Was that supposed to be their version of the Kobryashi Maru that Gordon was taking? Their’s seem to have a solution though.
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The indication was that it was much more a beginner's test than the full on Kobyashi Maru, or even the TNG - command an officer to death test, which are tests we're meant to believe are final stages of command. She mentions that there is a diplomatic solution. So I read that to mean, all he had to do was say the right thing to diffuse the situation
eschaton said:
I honestly wasn't feeling this one as much as last week. Both the A plot and the B plot seemed to be somewhat...contrived.
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If I'm being honest, all the premises of this show's episodes are somewhat contrived. I actually think they are doing it purposely, taking standard Trek episode tropes & playing them out just for fun. I mean how many times have we seen the "Two dissimilar characters gain a better understanding of one another on an alien world/survival situation etc..."? We're they ever going to do that & have it play entirely fresh? I think the point of this show is to let that stuff go & just go along for a fun ride
eschaton said:
Barring that is one head-scratching moment - why she saved Ed when the ship was under attack, rather than just leaving him to die and finding her own escape pod.
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Well, she did suspect that he hadn't given them the real codes, which he hadn't, but I also suspect some actual latent affinity for him.

I kind of recall that during the King & I movie night scene, while he's waxing on about his geekdom, she has a genuine moment of amusement near the end, which he doesn't notice. It's a moment she's having on her own, & why would that be the case, if everything she's doing is supposed to be to lead him on? I suspect she really liked him in that moment
 
Yeah, I was impressed from the beginning that she didn't have a forced or furtive moment while in disguise, which goes very much against the grain of most TV storytelling.

Ed has somewhat perplexed Telaya since the last scene of her first episode. How could you not become fond of Ed, anyway?
 
Mojochi said:
If I'm being honest, all the premises of this show's episodes are somewhat contrived. I actually think they are doing it purposely, taking standard Trek episode tropes & playing them out just for fun. I mean how many times have we seen the "Two dissimilar characters gain a better understanding of one another on an alien world/survival situation etc..."? We're they ever going to do that & have it play entirely fresh? I think the point of this show is to let that stuff go & just go along for a fun ridet
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My major issue with the episode is basically at no point did Janel/Teleya seem like more than a plot device. Given her background and her culture, she should have been more than willing to die for a cause. Yet the episode repeatedly shows her more interested in self-preservation than her mission. Perhaps this is to be expected, as they recruited a former teacher, but still.

Ed was arguably acting a bit out of character as well. I mean, it's been established given his past with Kelly that he's someone who doesn't get over romantic interests easily. He was essentially knifed in the back by a woman he thought he was falling in love with, and he's both calmly professional in a crisis and tries to reach out to her immediately afterward. If they played up his romantic interest a bit more even after the reveal - made it seem like he was still infatuated with her despite the reveal, and the impossibility of making it work - it would have been more in character. But he comes across as if he's interested in nothing more than friendship with Teleya.
 
It's strange, this episode was predictable but for no real fault of its own. As soon as Janel was introduced as "Lt Tyler" everyone began making jokes she must be a Krill infiltrator. The actress of course played Teleya last year, and the name Lt Tyler has already been used in two other sci-fi franchises for alien infiltrators, most recently and infamously on Disco, and also over a decade ago on Stargate. So when Janel begins luring Ed away on leave, all the pieces fall in place there.

Thankfully, in spite of the predictable setup, the rest of the episode stays fresh and worthwhile. Okay, Ed and Teleya on the planet is basically an Enemy Mine type storyline to an extent, but this works better when the two opponents have a prior history with each other as they do here, so it's all good. And the scene at the end where they meet with the Krill to return her was a well done scene, though I'm sure someone will complain that we shouldn't be hearing Billy Joel in the future.

Gordon and the command test was amusing and offered some interesting insights into the character. As someone who has become so good at my job I got bored with it once, I can relate to his desire to branch out and try to advance his career. Not sure if command is necessarily the right fit for him, but I get it seems like a convenient way for him to score with girls. And he did land a date out of the whole thing, so I guess it's working out.

And I'm glad the show is self-aware about how annoying Tharl is that they're using him in small doses. Amusing as his scene on the bridge at the start was, I got more of a kick out of the scene where Bortus was airing frustration with him, particularly with his habit of wearing sandals.
 
eschaton said:
My major issue with the episode is basically at no point did Janel/Teleya seem like more than a plot device. Given her background and her culture, she should have been more than willing to die for a cause. Yet the episode repeatedly shows her more interested in self-preservation than her mission.
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At what point was she more interested in self-preservation than in her mission?

Her mission ended when she delivered Ed and the codes, which she did flawlessly.
 
I have to watch this again, but I think it's in my top five. I like it better than "Krill," which now seems - plausibly enough - as the set-up to an ongoing series of stories.
 
The Wormhole said:
It's strange, this episode was predictable but for no real fault of its own. As soon as Janel was introduced as "Lt Tyler" everyone began making jokes she must be a Krill infiltrator. The actress of course played Teleya last year, and the name Lt Tyler has already been used in two other sci-fi franchises for alien infiltrators, most recently and infamously on Disco, and also over a decade ago on Stargate. So when Janel begins luring Ed away on leave, all the pieces fall in place there.

Thankfully, in spite of the predictable setup, the rest of the episode stays fresh and worthwhile. Okay, Ed and Teleya on the planet is basically an Enemy Mine type storyline to an extent, but this works better when the two opponents have a prior history with each other as they do here, so it's all good. And the scene at the end where they meet with the Krill to return her was a well done scene, though I'm sure someone will complain that we shouldn't be hearing Billy Joel in the future.

Gordon and the command test was amusing and offered some interesting insights into the character. As someone who has become so good at my job I got bored with it once, I can relate to his desire to branch out and try to advance his career. Not sure if command is necessarily the right fit for him, but I get it seems like a convenient way for him to score with girls. And he did land a date out of the whole thing, so I guess it's working out.

And I'm glad the show is self-aware about how annoying Tharl is that they're using him in small doses. Amusing as his scene on the bridge at the start was, I got more of a kick out of the scene where Bortus was airing frustration with him, particularly with his habit of wearing sandals.
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The way Bortus said "...sandals," had me laughing hard. :lol:
 
Great episode. Big action but also really nice character beats. I liked Mercer's talk about how different civs react to finding like on other planets. it gave some depth to the Krill. And the B plot with Gordon was fun too.

And I have to say I love the choice of episode titles. "Nothing left on earth excepting fishes" and next week's "All the world is birthday cake" are great titles. They remind me of TOS episode titles. They have that poetic quality to them. And next week's episode looks great too. It appears it will follow the trek trope of visiting a planet that appears nice and welcoming at first but turns out to have a secret.
 
Yeah, how do all these planets keep these terrible secrets? We broadcast our world-wide dysfunction to the Universe in full 4K now.
 
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