THE ORVILLE S2, E8: "IDENTITY, PART I"

[Trekker4747]

A lot more gripping than a space battle.

But looks like there will be a bit of that, too, next week.

If Isaac doesn't save them all, Mark Jackson is out of a job.

Yeah, I agree with your above comments re:space battles. Not what I want to see, and why I've been enjoying Orville so much without them. Looks like we'll get some next week, which is fine, but I suspect it won't be overwhelming.

I'm going to go with a... "for a time I considered [their] offer, 0.6-seconds, sir. For an android that is an eternity" type resolution to this with Isaac. Maybe not he's playing along with them this whole time, but something will happen at near the last minute to get him to flip.

 

[Romulan_spy]

If we're going to play that game, Kalons are more like Cylons.

Really nasty Cylons!

 

[Romulan_spy]

That was the most epic cliffhanger I have ever seen!! WOW!

 

[Mudd]

I've got to say, that boneyard was way beyond anything I expect from this kind of TV show. Very T2.

 

[E-DUB]

Wow, just wow.

 

[Tuskin38]

The VFX before they landed on the planet felt very low quality but improved drastically after, I wonder if it was because they spent most of their budget on everything after it.

I noticed the same thing back during DS9’s run and their TOS episode, the shots of the view screen before the opening credits were very low quality, the blue/green screen replacement looked sloppy.

 

[OCD Geek]

I've got to say, that boneyard was way beyond anything I expect from this kind of TV show. Very T2.

Once I saw that first smaller (though still large) pile I thought, "Oh, okay. That's bad, but I kinda expected bigger." Then the bigger reveal happened and I was floored. Two weeks ago I thought this show was a shitty half-hour Seth MacFarlane sitcom. Then, after watching the first three episodes of Season 2 out of curiosity on Hulu, I was blown away and binged the whole series.

They more than deserve their Saturn Award, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if they end up with a Hugo nomination at some point. Maybe then people (like myself two weeks ago) will realize that that shitty sitcom they don't want to watch is actually an amazing hour-long dramedy. The FOX marketing department did these guys dirty.

 

[Tuskin38]

Probably my favourite episode of the entire series so far

 

[Trekker4747]

The FOX marketing department did these guys dirty.

Well, that's Fox.

I had the same feelings of "dread" last year/season when the show was premiering too. The trailers and stuff for it just looked so painful and filled with the MacFarlane humor I just don't go for. But after 2-3 episodes of Season 1, I was along for the ride and this season, for me, has been just as good and done even better with the humor.

I knew that it was large pile of bones, but I wouldn't have expected to get the full FX shot of it, just some dialogue about scans detecting the billions of corpses. But, no, they showed us the whole single cavern with the thousands of skeletons in it.

 

[SiddFinch1]

Wow.. that took an unexpected turn quickly. Intense

 

[eschaton]

As everyone else said, this was a great episode.

One minor quibble. Why did the Kalon decide to not shoot anyone who wasn't firing back? I mean, I understand from a story perspective we can't just have the Kalon massacre everyone, because then The Orville is over. But given they had no compunction about killing every single one of their creators, it is a bit strange that they would show any restraint in this particular case.

 

[thribs]

I kind have figured that was the Kaylon’s true intentions from the start. Who would have known dressing him up
As a mr potato head would start a war. I was also getting Matrix vibes from them as well.

It was a good episode but nothing truly shocking. I was also wondering why they didn’t just kill them all. Seems illogical to me.

 

[Trekker4747]

As everyone else said, this was a great episode.

One minor quibble. Why did the Kalon decide to not shoot anyone who wasn't firing back? I mean, I understand from a story perspective we can't just have the Kalon massacre everyone, because then The Orville is over. But given they had no compunction about killing every single one of their creators, it is a bit strange that they would show any restraint in this particular case.

Maybe they need the crew for some function only they can serve enroute or at the destination. At the very least to provide life-signs on the ship so they can penetrate in Union Space all the way to Earth, otherwise I'd think an unresponsive vessel without any life-signs on it would draw attention.

 

[thribs]

Maybe they need the crew for some function only they can serve enroute or at the destination. At the very least to provide life-signs on the ship so they can penetrate in Union Space all the way to Earth, otherwise I'd think an unresponsive vessel without any life-signs on it would draw attention.

But surely they could fake life signatures? They have that tech to make Mercer look and scan like a Krill.

 

[Admiral2]

It almost lost me when the boy left the ship, because I'm hopelessly allergic to little kids doing stupid things because "they're just kids! They don't know!" - Then there were the piles and piles of bones.

They went there. Trek never went there on camera.

The student has surpassed the teacher.

 

[Amaris]

HOLY SHIRTBALLS!

(checks calendar)

Why isn't this next week?! I wasn't expecting this at all, and it completely blindsided me. I thought we were going to see more episodes with Claire and Isaac feeling things out, but they did a sharp turn and now we're kissing elbows with Kaylon theta radiation weapons as they move to crush the Union before it becomes a threat.

Side note: Bortus not just saying "there's something you should see" but also opening up visual communication of what they were seeing. That always annoyed me on Trek with "Captain, you have to see this," followed by a "what, there's no way to just transmit what you're seeing? Nobody has some kind of analog for a camera phone in the 24th century?" So yay for fixing that one!

Seriously, though, this floored me, and yeah, the piles and piles of skulls was creepy as hell. This was a great first part, and now we have to see how they finish this.

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

1. I want this storyline to go on for a while rather than be finished by the end of the next episode.

2. Even if Issac changes sides and tries to help, I doubt the crew will ever forgive him.

Things just turned dark and I. AM. HERE. FOR. IT.

 

[DarthPipes]

Great episode. Definitely a game-changer. I'm impressed the show went there with Isaac and I like that they don't play it safe with the characters.

 

[CaptainMurdock]

Holy cow I am speechless. I haven't felt this tense since "Majority Rule" and I'm even more tense than I was seeing that for the first time. Any more tense and I might shatter like Ed's shins in "Home." Next week can't come fast enough.

 

[tomalak301]

A lot more gripping than a space battle.

But looks like there will be a bit of that, too, next week.

If Isaac doesn't save them all, Mark Jackson is out of a job.

But there was still action.

This episode could have been a finale. That was awesome.