The Orville [SPOILERS WITHIN]

They decided to save money by making the entire cast invisible for the season?

March 2022? Ugh!!

Only 6 months away, I guess.

Bruce Boxleitner and a couple of former Trek cast members are supposed to be in the new season.

I require some dialogue where he remarks on some alien race and their "encounter-suited butts."

Well, I don't really know what to make of two minutes of space battle plus Kasidy Yates' son running through miles of exploding corridors, but the music is cool. Kind of John Williamsesque.

Why is it "New Horizons" now?

I think New Horizons has something to do with the switch to Hulu.

1. "May the Force be with you."

2. Love all the subtle digs at being moved from Fox to Hulu. ("It's almost like yesterday was one life.")

3. I miss Halston Sage.

Awesome!! I'll have 2 shows every week to look forward to!

The Orville's Seth MacFarlane on Those Star Trek Comparisons

The Orville is similar to Star Trek? I hadn't noticed.

Wait, I didn't realize/remember that Brannon Braga was an exec on the Orville.

The Orville's Newest Crew Member Teases Her Role in Season 3

So does that mean there will be an episode about crawling inside a 50-foot alien woman's vagina?

It's nice to see two new episodes of Star Trek this week. The premiere episode was pretty good.

It was too damn long.

Worst episode of any show in history.

What the hell is wrong with the crew? When a bad guy is all "I've seen the error of my ways and I'm a good guy now," all is supposed to be forgiven. Half the crew still think he's a bad buy, and the other half are unsure. He's a good guy now you racist idiots!

Also, the new character, Charlay or whatever her name is, refuses an order because she's a robot racist and doesn't want to help one, and Mercer just relieved her of duty? He should have sent her ass to the brig. Then, she changes her mind and Mercer puts her back on duty? There should have been a court martial and she should have been dishonorably discharged.

Yeah, this one was a pretty big miss for me, and I don't like saying that because I really like the Orville. It just did not feel like a good season opener.

I also thought it was weird that not only was she allowed to speak like that of an officer (isn’t he an officer?) but had not been disciplined for refusing a direct order.

Did Mercer order her to help Isaac? I'm reminded of when Worf refused to help that Romulan.

One of the things that is a selling point for the Orville is the notion that it's basically TNG except the main characters are not perfectly evolved sticks-in-their-butts humans but are basically like normal folks today. So I think it's understandable that there's a bunch of the crew that has resented Isaac for being complicit in the crimes of the Kaylons.

I didn't like that Ed and Kelly were apparently clueless about the rampant anti-Isaac sentiment on the ship and on top of that, they didn't really do anything about it once they were made aware of it. At a minimum, they should have talked to Isaac to see how he was doing and frankly if staying on the ship was the best assignment for him. In terms of defending the Union against the Kaylon, it seems like he could serve a much better role being at headquarters or wherever.

I didn't like that most of the main crew being basically non-factors to have Marcus and Charly take up as much space as they did. Bortus in particular didn't have much going on.

I get that the show was about suicide and so it couldn't be a laugh riot. But part of what drew me (and I assume a fair amount of other fans) to the show was that it took a lighter approach to everything. Here they come back with a super-serious subject.

And then on top of that, they didn't really do the subject of suicide justice IMO. I realize that they touched on some with John's date and with Claire's reaction. But there's so much more that they could and should have addressed IMO. Instead of wasting time with the new single fighter vehicle and the retrofit stuff, I would have preferred that they talk about some of the deeper issues such as:

Why did Isaac commit suicide? Yes, obviously he said what he said about thinking that the ship would operate better without him than with him. But also obviously, that does not mean that self-termination is the proper course of action. He could simply take a shuttle and leave the ship, or arrange for a transfer, or probably do a half-dozen other things. It would have been good if someone raised this, and if TPTB had a more thoughtful answer. Is it that Isaac is actually not as logic-bound as he would like himself to be thought as?

Does it make sense to bring Isaac back, assuming that they can? Doesn't Isaac have the right to end his life on his own terms? What right does Ed have to disregard his final wishes? Won't bringing him back to a ship of people, many of whom hate him, just put him right back where he started?

Even if we were to think that Isaac's personhood is a non-issue, is it the right thing to do for either the Orville or the Union? The fact is that they don't know anything about how Isaac might return. He could come back as the base death-to-the-organics model that he started off as. He could come back as a fraction of the machine he was. Awakening him could alert the Kaylon to where the Orville is. Union headquarters might want to weigh in on this decision, since the Kaylon present a huge danger. But nope, Ed just does it on his own.

Hopefully the character of Charly improves from this introduction. It appears that Seth MacFarlane is dating the Charly actress, so I think she is likely to be front and center for the rest of the season and probably until either the show's cancellation or they break up. (I sometimes miss the character of Alara.)

Yes, Ed gave Charly a direct order to help revive Isaac, which she refused. He relieved her from duty. Then because Marcus asked her to bring Isaac back because he felt guilty about bulliyng him, she did it, and she was permitted to return to duty.

The way TNG handled the issue in "The Enemy" IMO was far superior. Capt. Picard knew it was unethical to order someone to take an action that was against that person's ethical beliefs, so he didn't order Worf to undergo testing. Worf had deeply held beliefs that he should not assist an enemy so he did not.

Here, Ed didn't care about Charly's ethical rationale for not assisting and gave IMO an unethical order. And Charly caved not because it was the right thing to do or because she realized Isaac deserved saving, or because of her duty to the ship, the Union or her crewmate, but simply because she wanted to help a teenager's feelings.

Picard explicitly told Worf it wasn’t an order, it was a request. I was a bit surprised Mercer ordered her to help. But, he did. Picard did not.

Dang ... this premiere is the episode that just won't end.

I guess Starfleet officers getting away with disobeying orders and such is a pretty standard thing, and The Orville should probably be able to do it too. Like, remember the time Worf committed an act of terrorism because he was all pissy that Jadzia and others wanted to have fun and enjoy their time on Riza? He didn't get any conduct unbecoming an officer charges or whatever over that.

Anyway, it seems like The Orville is starting to take itself too seriously. What made The Orville special is that it somehow managed to be both a spoof and an homage to Star Trek. If it starts trying to actually be Star Trek, that's going to ruin it.

P.S.: Charleigh or whatever still sucks.

I love The Orville and I'm glad I'm not the only one who was underwhelmed by the season three opener.

Also, did they change SFX companies? Because the effects in that episode seemed way more "CGI-ish" than in prior seasons. (I appreciate that the majority of effects these days are CGI, but there's good CGI and bad CGI. This seemed to be mostly bad CGI.)

I'll probably have to watch it again, but the opening battle scene looked like something from a video game, after the opening battle scene the VFX looked less CGI.

Both shows have scary part of space called the expanse, but other than that, I don't see much resemblance.

Back to back Penny Johnson episodes. Paramount needs to back up a dump truck full of cash to Avery Brook’s house and make DS9 reunion happen.