THE ORVILLE S2, E5: "ALL THE WORLD IS BIRTHDAY CAKE"

[picardjean-luc]

Eh, I think this one works much better because it's not explicitly religion. Just a wrong cultural value.

* Ed does talk about how the fact they're not born under the same sign and then realizes that the leader DOESN'T CARE. They only use astrology to control the masses and having studied the union, realize their control would be utterly borked if they let people contact other civilizations. It's just a way to break off diplomatic contact.

Agreed this would've made more sense. Call out the evil leaders like what they did in "If the Starts should Appear" and "Mad Idolatry," show that they're really power hungry demagogues. IMHO the two best S1 episodes.

A better plot: Let Ed pull an Alara by ignoring Admiral Ted Danson and stage a covert rescue for Kelly and Bortus. Had Isaac investigate potential frictions among the Rigorians and use them as informants for the rescue mission. I think it's a better escape plan rather than having Kelly and Bortus pulled a Rambo and killed appx. two dozen guards in their failed rescue attempt, a scene that has been pointed out by many reviewers to be ethically dubious and very un-Trek like.

* First Contact! The Orville arrives...and so does the Krill.

Would've been a nice plot too. Too bad they already have an encounter with the Krill episode last week...

* The Orville meets with the populace and finds out they have a dark secret. Maybe it's something a little less crazy like kidnapping Kelly but the fact they practice slavery (perhaps under the same astrological rules).

Aren't the Gilliaks in the prison camp treated like slaves already?

* Ed royally fucks up First Contact somehow due to his habit of being a judgemental prick.

That's exactly what happened in this episode IMO. Ed is the second weakest (after Gordon) character of the show. He has neither the wisdom and diplomatic skills of Picard nor the tough, street smartness of Janeway. From the way he runs his ship I can see why the Orville is a middle average Union ship staffed with second and third-rate crew members, although in fairness it seems many other Union captains seems to be worst than him.

* A plague spreads through the planet until we discover it's not from the Orville (which would be too dark) but terrorists who don't want First Contact.

Basically a repeat of Season 1, Episode 8 episode where Claire, her kids, and Isaac got stranded in the 'Walking Dead' planet.

 

[Mudd]

I liked Alara but I won't miss her. Change is good.

 

[Brennyren]

The vibe I got from Talla is that she's from a different social class than Alara. Tough, street-smart, lower-or-middle-class Xelayan to Alara's better-mannered, more soft-spoken, upper-class Xelayan. She seems unlikely ever to act defensive about choosing a profession that emphasizes her physical strength, possibly because pursuing higher education wasn't really an expectation for her.

 

[Charles Phipps]

I get the feel she's a bit like Alara ten years on. Whatever caused her to take a non-traditional Xelayan profession is something she dealt with a long time ago.

But it does make us wonder how she dealt with the gravity problems which decimated Alara.

 

[Kerock]

I like the fact there is no transporter in Orville. No magical beaming out of tight situations. I miss Alara but they did a good job with her replacement.

 

[DonIago]

I pretty much agree with all of this: https://www.jammersreviews.com/orville/s2/birthday-cake.php

 

[Qonundrum]

I like the fact there is no transporter in Orville. No magical beaming out of tight situations. I miss Alara but they did a good job with her replacement.

It adds much to suspenseful situations, and preventing outright the "When the ship gets back they'll beam out" trope. Of course the ship returns but the crew who then come in also have to face the dangers. Depending on how much time remains in the episode, it either gets wound up quickly (and hopefully effectively) or it's part one of two or more parts.

"Orville" lacks the budget of "Discovery" but, despite feeling like "21st century civvies in a military setting instead of more serious people in the future that despite evolving are still growing" (not unlike STD in that one regard) , "Orville" seems to tend to handle its sci-fi and human drama concepts a lot better. Even after season 2's premiere, DSC just had me laughing at inappropriate times and not due to retconning characters. Now if DISCO's writers did "Orville" and Seth'n'gang worked on STD, then it'd likely be a much different situation. Neither show is perfect but "Orville" hits the spot a lot more despite the nitpicks. IMHO, YMMV. But I can't fathom 23rd or 24th century Trek the way original Kirk and original Picard/Sisko/Janeway came about for mass audiences nowadays... and even I wished VOY didn't do the Vulcanized roboticized Federation "evolved humans" after a while since the episodes where they were allowed to emote tended to fare often...

 

[Trekker4747]

Yeah, Orville hits the "Trek spot" for me very well. More so than any Trek has done since TNG. It's not perfect by any stretch, some of it sort of silly and contrived but it just "works." Hell, it can easily be argued how "Voyager-like" the episodes are but they somehow work better -for me- than Voyager did. The characters work, and, well, Orville isn't handicapped by ignoring its own premise like Voyager was. ("We're 70,000 light years from home with limited resources, but we're going to keep stopping to do things and really show no concern for our resources unless it's some plot-driven reason.)

I do like that the transporter isn't there. The transporter idea works in Trek, but it was a crutch too many times and they too often had to come up with an excuse for why it couldn't be used.

But I'm not going to hate on Trek like... some... are doing here almost constantly, because I still very much love Trek (pre.... I'll go with the J.J. reboot in 2009, everything since has been underwhelming for me), Orville just gives me a nice feeling.

Every now and then I'll watch an episode and say it's the "best episode of Trek I've seen in almost 20 years" in which I speak more on averages. The "best" episode of Orville here has nothing on the very, very, best of Trek. But there's been some good, solid, episodes on par with Trek's averages. A great episode of Orville, for me, is better than most of Voyager.

But I'm not going to go all, "Well Trek's characters didn't act like people, they were so stiff and lifeless," or "Trek was so stuffy with the Prime Directive," etc.

They're different shows and different atmospheres am both work for their respective universes.

 

[theenglish]

I get the feel she's a bit like Alara ten years on. Whatever caused her to take a non-traditional Xelayan profession is something she dealt with a long time ago.

But it does make us wonder how she dealt with the gravity problems which decimated Alara.

I believe they mentioned in the episode Home that it is rare for Xelayans to contract that ailment, and that Alara leaving Xelaya very young in life might have contributed to it.

 

[Charles Phipps]

My take is the Orville is the Dragonlance to Star Trek's The Lord of the Rings.

It's very much in a genre that didn't exist until its predecessor and made from a place of love.

 

[tomalak301]

This season has been a disappointment. I enjoyed watching S1 as comfort food / nostalgia.

Aside from the episode where the Security Chief goes home, which was pretty well done and had some nice originality, this season has been a series of misses. Bad misses.

I agree with this. The Orville is kind of boring now. The episode where Alara left was the only good episode so far. This series is definitely in a sophomore slump.

 

[Mudd]

Nah. This year has been great four out of five weeks.

 

[Charles Phipps]

I agree with this. The Orville is kind of boring now. The episode where Alara left was the only good episode so far. This series is definitely in a sophomore slump.

I also approved of Enemy Mine rip-off.

 

[DonIago]

This last episode is the only one I considered really disappointing for the season.

 

[Mudd]

I also approved of Enemy Mine rip-off.

It's a Defiant Ones ripoff, actually. Enemy Mine was a Defiant Ones rip-off, as well.

 

[1001001]

It was okay.

I think some kind of reasonable protocol for first contact could have been observed.

A written exchange of laws and customs, for example. Brief controlled meetings to start.

The enthusiasm the crew showed for first contact was rather refreshing.

The birthday video was pretty funny.

 

[RJDiogenes]

But I'm not going to go all, "Well Trek's characters didn't act like people, they were so stiff and lifeless," or "Trek was so stuffy with the Prime Directive," etc.

Yeah, that always makes me laugh.

 

[Mudd]

But I'm not going to go all, "Well Trek's characters didn't act like people, they were so stiff and lifeless," or "Trek was so stuffy with the Prime Directive," etc.

It has the single virtue of being true.

 

[Mudd]

Someone elsewhere called to my attention that there's a pretty clumsy allegory to the birth of Jesus in this episode. Something like that had occurred to be relative to all the fuss about the star, but I didn't give it any thought because it was so silly. Really, makes the whole thing even worse.

 

[The Wormhole]

A friend of mine made a similar connection when I brought up it being unlikely that the star's return would prompt immediate release of the prisoners. He suggested that maybe they had a prophecy about the resurrection of the sun and then added "or maybe, the resurrection of the son." Made me groan.