Online Series: The Orville : New Horizons - March 10, 2022 on Hulu

[Osprey]

Well there's the part about their entire race being racist towards carbon based life forms...

It sounds like you're prejudiced against racists. Don't you think that racists have the right to find love just like anyone else?

 

[Jussi]

It sounds like you're prejudiced against racists. Don't you think that racists have the right to find love just like anyone else?

Not really. Especially artificial alien life forms.

 

[ThePhoenixx]

I don't know of other complaints, but that was really boring and stupid.

I fast forwarded through the majority of the episode.

I avoid watching Soap Operas for a reason. I don't enjoy them.

 

[Mimsy]

Add me to the charming brigade. It was pretty obvious The Orville was building toward this episode, as they've hyped the relationship between the two characters for awhile. It was a silly episode, and after watching the preview, I wasn't entirely looking forward to it. In the end, I thought the humor landed about right. If The Orville is going to do Isaac-centric episodes, then you have to anticipate something like this. Isaac breaking up with the doctor was cute. I even thought the mustache gag was okay, as was the cameo from Norm MacDonald (glad they kept it brief).

What I liked most was the "life aboard Orville" aspect of the episode. The extended symphonic performance was nice (I didn't want to hear the whole piece and was thinking Seth might go there, as musical numbers are such a big part of his shows). The ship had a bigger look and feel, even if some of the expansion was due to holodeck programs.

I moved last week's episode to my "stinker" file. It was an interesting idea poorly executed. This week's episode has been done before, but it was a fresh take. Penny Johnson is such a good actor. I also warmed more to the new security chief, even though I prefer Alara. I got a better feel the new chief through her girl talk scenes than with the random problem solving tasks they gave her to do in last week's episode. In random Orville news, she is another of Seth's ex-girlfriends.

I agree that the season feels a bit disjointed and that Sage's early exit forced them to position a couple of average (or below) episodes into a less than ideal order. Alara's final episode, "Home", along with "Excepting Fishes" were as good as it gets. Either of these episodes slots seamlessly into 90s Star Trek.

Out of six episodes this season, I've loved two, disliked (or been indifferent) to two, and thought two were decent.

 

[peate]

I had an evil thought when Isaac was describing his home world and the fact he was studying and gathering information about "humans" was a little Borg like. Maybe his species is planning an invasion of some sort. Would be a good story line, he's an interesting character, and his wearing dirty underwear was hilarious.

 

[RobBrown4PM]

This getup!

Spoiler

 

[JetsFan815]

This episode was quite possibly one of the worst episodes of tv I have seen. I thought it was going to make some commentary on human relationships but nope nothing. I avoided watching The Orville when it premiered for a long time because of the initial reviews and this episode is what I imagined this show would be like when I was trying to avoid it.

 

[NyQuil]

I’ve liked all the episodes this season aside from the Bortas porn episode.

Isaac in a wife beater and white briefs, being as displeasing as possible was funny.

Having the voice actors get to play themselves was a nice touch.

 

[NyQuil]

I had an evil thought when Isaac was describing his home world and the fact he was studying and gathering information about "humans" was a little Borg like. Maybe his species is planning an invasion of some sort. Would be a good story line, he's an interesting character, and his wearing dirty underwear was hilarious.

I was thinking the same.

I’m actually getting a bit of a Changeling vibe where Odo/Isaac will have to justify the value of the Union and humanity.

 

[Osprey]

I agree that it would be a good story line to have Isaac's race use its knowledge of humans (provided by Isaac) to attempt to conquer and exterminate or subjugate them. After all of the racist and rude things that Isaac has said, it would be completely redeeming for him to ultimately stand up to his people and help the humans. It's far too early now, since he needs more time to gather information and come to be fond of his crewmates (and, on top of that, his put-downs are still quite funny), but it would be neat to see maybe late in Season 3 or 4 (if the show even makes it that far).

 

[Seedtype]

I finally caught up on the Orville.(I've been doing it completely free, which on the official Fox website means I have to wait 8 days after an episode airs to view it)

Overall, I'm still liking the show, and it definitely feels like it's TNG 2.0. That being said, I'm in agreement with others, stuff needs to start happening. I appreciate the character stuff, but something needs to start happening in the universe. The good news is that they do keep track of continuity(mentioning previous events). Maybe they are thinking of something. /shrug

 

[Osprey]

With there not being an episode last week, I started re-watching Season 1. I was a bit afraid that it wouldn't hold up so well, but it does. In fact, I might even be enjoying it a bit more the second time since I'm just doing that instead of judging whether I like each part or comparing against previous episodes.

A few observations:

* I wasn't terribly impressed by the CGI quality when I saw it on TV, but I'm now watching online in high-bitrate 1080p and it looks a whole lot better. The picture quality, in general, is a visual feast.

* I had forgotten that Bortus reveals in the series premiere that his species urinates only once per year. Even though the Season 2 episode that deals with that is still one of my least favorite, at least being set up over a year before makes it a little more tolerable.

* You can tell that these episodes were written and filmed before the "Me, too" movement, since there are references to drawing penises on viewscreens and Yaphit sexually harasses Doctor Finn by forming part of himself into an erect one. I originally thought that MacFarlane listened to fans simply not liking the Yaphit character, but it's more likely that he realized that Yaphit's shtick was a no-no in the new social climate. He's probably bummed, since Yaphit's ability to form himself into obscene shapes and, in general, just be a perv, is probably a main reason why he created the character in the first place.

 

[Jussi]

Yay, more awkward Maklan relationship stories...

 

[JetsFan815]

I enjoyed this episode quite a lot. Probably my 2nd favorite of the season. Really liked how the episode handled the underlying tension and how the resolution was not a forced happy ending. The entire Moklas thing- both in this episode and the season 1 episode with Bortus' daughter is critiquing the West's alliance and relationship with countries like Saudi Arabia. I am glad Ed pondered to Kelly at end about Moclan values being in stark contrast to the Union's values and wondered how long such an alliance can last, I was thinking the same to myself the entire episode.

 

[Osprey]

I enjoyed this episode quite a lot. Probably my 2nd favorite of the season. Really liked how the episode handled the underlying tension and how the resolution was not a forced happy ending. The entire Moklas thing- both in this episode and the season 1 episode with Bortus' daughter is critiquing the West's alliance and relationship with countries like Saudi Arabia. I am glad Ed pondered to Kelly at end about Moclan values being in stark contrast to the Union's values and wondered how long such an alliance can last, I was thinking the same to myself the entire episode.

That's an excellent observation. I hadn't thought that it was, perhaps, an allegory for our real world relations with Middle East nations that don't share all of our values. I'm not a huge fan of the moral judgment being laid on quite so thick, though. I would think that a few hundred more years of evolution and encountering alien cultures would make them more open, but they're just as judgmental of others' values as we are today.

In TNG, Federation officers didn't often get up into people's faces to condemn cultural values that they disagreed with. I guess that MacFarlane is trying to be a bit edgier and going for drama, but I prefer TNG's more evolved way of handling issues. It was something to aspire to, rather than just projecting our crude methods and manners into the future. On The Orville, issues are handled a bit more in a way to validate viewers' convictions rather than challenge them with a different perspective, it seems. It's more science fiction for the sake of drama, rather than science fiction for the sake of science fiction (like TNG was), though, so it's not surprising.

 

[montreal]

really enjoyed the episode and overall the season has been very good.

 

[Blender]

That's an excellent observation. I hadn't thought that it was, perhaps, an allegory for our real world relations with Middle East nations that don't share all of our values. I'm not a huge fan of the moral judgment being laid on quite so thick, though. I would think that a few hundred more years of evolution and encountering alien cultures would make them more open, but they're just as judgmental of others' values as we are today.

In TNG, Federation officers didn't often get up into people's faces to condemn cultural values that they disagreed with. I guess that MacFarlane is trying to be a bit edgier and going for drama, but I prefer TNG's more evolved way of handling issues. It was something to aspire to, rather than just projecting our crude methods and manners into the future. On The Orville, issues are handled a bit more in a way to validate viewers' convictions rather than challenge them with a different perspective, it seems. It's more science fiction for the sake of drama, rather than science fiction for the sake of science fiction (like TNG was), though, so it's not surprising.

I think MacFarlane is trying to be more like Kirk, who while respectful of different cultures and beliefs, wouldn't hesitate to jump in and confront people if they were morally wrong on an issue.

 

[RobBrown4PM]

That was a very good episode, and an incredibly well done ending.

BTW, I still can't look at Klyden and not see Fred Johnson.

 

[Jussi]

Really not digging this season so far. Basically all filler episodes.

 

[SJSharksfan39]

Really not digging this season so far. Basically all filler episodes.

Well Orville is an episodic series so that is to be expected. Next week is part one of a two part episode though.

 

[peate]

I liked this episode, although I wonder why MacFarlane is focusing so much on personal relationships this season. I guess Klyden won't be coming out of his room any time soon. He's not going to be very welcomed anywhere. I liked the way Talla put him in his place. She's growing on me. Two-part episodes are usually always good, can't wait.

 

[Osprey]

I agree that it feels like mostly filler episodes so far. I'm hopeful that the rest of the season (starting with the two-parter) is stronger and more dramatic and they just decided to put those episodes at the end so that the filler episodes weren't interrupting them. For example, it might've felt disjointed to have the Finn/Isaac relationship episode follow the upcoming two-parter. I did read somewhere that this season was supposed to be "intense," and it certainly hasn't been that yet, so, hopefully, the best is yet to come.

 

[Bubba Thudd]

Yay, more awkward Maklan relationship stories...

Getting ready to tune out this show if that's what they're going to focus on half the time.

 

[Roo Returns]

I have no factual information but there's a good chance Allara leaving to the film the movie and then coming back later in the season changed plans drastically. It either caused rewrites, or episodes filmed/aired out of sequence. Hence the heavy emphasis on character development.

 

[Blender]

Latest episode was ok, but I agree this season has way too much Moclan stuff. 3 of the first 7 episodes have had Moclan culture plots.