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

Tonights ep was steady again in ratings - 0.7/3 3.04 million.
Might go up in the finals?
Are these enough?
I fear the days of sci-fi shows drawing big numbers may be long gone...
 
I mean I know WHY they did things (to push the plot forward) but there's a LOT that just makes no sense to me about this set up.........1) The whole ship landing instead of a shuttle 2) leaving millions of bodies instead of vaporizing them. 3) Nobody noticing a kid leaving the ship, on either side. 4) Allowing the kid to access the millions of dead bodies with no check points 5) Orville crew not contacting local authorities to alert them a child was missing on their world and just going to snoop around, while in diplomatic negotiations........there are more and like I said, I know WHY they did it...........but it is just a bit far fetched. I hope they do not have a big reset button next week, and this is a lasting thing, but I can almost see it coming.........

I agree with you on every point and let me throw in a couple more...

6) Strategically, the Kaylon's plan doesn't make sense, unless I missed or forgot something. The Kaylons, as far as I know, inhabit one (or maybe a few) planets in their system. Their intent is to attack Earth, a member of a interstellar union of more than 300 species with billions, potentially trillions, of people and thousands of planets from which to draw resources from. Now the Kaylons are technologically superior to Earth (or any member of the Union for that matter) and can probably overwhelm Earth defenses, but the entire Union? I'm thinking it would eventually become a war of attrition in which the Kaylons would get their metal asses handed to them.

7) Why keep hostages? Kaylons regard any and all biological life as a threat, as they did their creators, so why keep the Orville crew alive? I guess I can see keeping the senior leadership around in an effort to get around a random patrol ship that might otherwise tip off Union command if a shooting match started, but for 90% of the crew... They're really not needed as far as the Kaylons are concerned.

Despite my picking knits, I really enjoyed this episode. As I've stated in another thread, season 2 is kicking butt.
 
You didn't?

Bortus wanted a corner piece. Pretty much everybody likes corner pieces. But he was pretty hard core about trying to get one, probably like many people would like to be, until he got foiled by being handed a non-corner piece. Then social custom demanded he stick with that. It was truly hilarious.

Bortus has been, slightly, pushed back to this comedic awkwardness level; but it's great.
 
I agree with you on every point and let me throw in a couple more...

Despite my picking knits, I really enjoyed this episode. As I've stated in another thread, season 2 is kicking butt.

Yeah I enjoy it, but I do not understand the people saying it's amazing and taking Sci-Fi and a bold new direction...............it's popcorn entertainment at best.
 
Walk, if it's just that it's one up on STD, anyway.

I seriously can't talk to Trek fans any more who insist that they're watching something sophisticated, forward thinking or deeply meaningful and moving. I get that fans like what fans like, but pretending that Star Trek is other than a familiar and comfortable old shoe is just about the definition of watching through a nostalgic haze.
 
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Yeah I enjoy it, but I do not understand the people saying it's amazing and taking Sci-Fi and a bold new direction...............it's popcorn entertainment at best.

Agreed. It was good, but I wouldn't say ground breaking or stellar and, really a "twist" I saw coming back in S1. As far as "Earth is in danger from a cybernetic threat" cliffhangers go, BOBW wins hands down.

I really liked the episode and series, but this didn't floor me like it seems to have some people.
 
Agreed. It was good, but I wouldn't say ground breaking or stellar and, really a "twist" I saw coming back in S1. As far as "Earth is in danger from a cybernetic threat" cliffhangers go, BOBW wins hands down.

I really liked the episode and series, but this didn't floor me like it seems to have some people.

One of the things that impressed me was the cinematography. For a show like the Orville that is usually pretty low key, this episode went pretty big. The shot of the sprawling Kaylon city piercing through the clouds was impressive and the sweeping shot of the massive fleet of Kaylon ships with Orville leading the way, was a beautiful sight.
 
Are you trying to get back in the writers room? I've never seen you drool over something so much.
Discovery seems to be unlucky. Even when they put out a real good one, Orville still finds a way to eclipse it. This week's Discovery was amazing, and I already forgot what it was about because of the damn Orville. I'm kind of pissed at the writing team, I was mostly looking at Orville to chill, and they give me ENT: The Expanse / ENT: Twilight pre-credits, remixed with bits of The Empire Strikes Back and The Matrix. :lol: I have certainly not chilled through an Orville episode this season, except maybe for Borthus committing public urination without a citation.

A number of folks have suggested that, but I don't know what it's based on.
I have no idea either, but I independently thought of it too: Mercer is optimistic about improving relationships with the Krill, if there isn't even a tiny bit of improvement his efforts would feel too wasteful, and Kaylons wishing to wipe out all organic life forms seems like a good time to team up with your enemies (you're already teaming up with the Moclans anyway).
 
I have certainly not chilled through an Orville episode this season, except maybe for Borthus committing public urination without a citation.

:lol:

In a year and a half this show has done two shows that I felt were subpar - "Cupid's Dagger" and "All The World's A Birthday Cake..." and in the former case, I'll chalk it up to a matter of personal taste.* "About A Girl" struck me as an awkward misfire and misjudgment when it first ran, but looks better with time and with the show's revisiting of the many issues that Moclans seem to have.


*The latter was just plain bad.
 
Discovery seems to be unlucky. Even when they put out a real good one, Orville still finds a way to eclipse it. This week's Discovery was amazing, and I already forgot what it was about because of the damn Orville.
In what way is Discovery unlucky? It's a huge success, it revived Star Trek as a tv franchise with several new shows in development.
So you liked this week's Orville better ... ok but so what? The shows are not competing against each other.
 
Well, STD has managed to recapture those second-season Enterprise levels of viewership, certainly. Fortunately, in the streaming landscape that's more than sufficient to keep a show going.
 
Wow. That was pretty good. I don't watch this show every week, but I was impressed with this episode. I prefer when Orville divergences from its Trek inspiration, explores its own uniqueness, and this look at Isaac's homeworld and the twist with him were both cool to see. I suspect that Isaac will have a change of heart and help save the Orville crew and thwart the invasion, but still, I like that this show went in a different direction. It's like I've been thinking of Isaac as the Data-like character all this time, and he has a bit of Lore in him.

The production values for this episode seemed pretty high. In general, I've found the Orville episodes to generally look well-made, but it feels they put in extra money here.

About the only quibble I have is the invasion going to Earth. It is in keeping with Trek, but after Mercer had touted the Union's hundreds of peoples working together earlier I would've been fine with a more vague "in Union space" being in danger than just Earth.
 
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