Red Dog

Gossip Girl. Thanks.

Bill Needle

Yeah they murdered a bunch of dudes who were just trying to feed their families, and to what end exactly? What was their grand plan once outside the gates with little but the clothes on their back on a planet they know virtually nothing about all while being rightfully hunted as murdering fugitives? Rescuing them was out of the question due to the harm it would cause in diplomatic relations, but them butchering their way out, well that's totally cool.

But once the "star" appears it's all birthday cake and singalongs...except for the fatherless children and widows of those pointlessly slaughtered by the heroes of the Orville. Turns out the jelliacs are OK, but those dicks from the Orville are the worst.

Something else that bugged me: What people that have yet to make outside contact nevertheless name their home planet Rigor-2?

The Cow

That I was okay with. They could see out into space and possibly know if other planets existed, and just got lazy on naming the planets.

I was pretty good with everything up until the resolution.

Bill Needle

What's that up there?
Looks like a planet. We shall call it Rigor.
Sounds good. But what about naming our planet?
Hmm... Rigor-2 comes to mind.

Or maybe all planets are named Rigor and theirs is simply "Rigor too."

The Cow

yeah, I'm just trying to justify it somehow. They originally called their planet CheeseHead, but then Bob Rigor, the great astronomer, was looking through a telescope and discovered a planet closer to their sun and then another one further away. To honor his findings, the Quorum of Astronomers (the QoA) decided from then on to name planets after Bob, and just add a number designation to indicate the order from the Sun. (I got nuthin')

Did the Orville have any name for the planet before they visited it? I can't remember if it was uncharted, or if they just didn't know it had life on it.

melasnus

Absolutely right on the money.
If they continue with episodes like this one the show won't last.
It would just be a bad imitation of TNG.

This was the most Trek-ish episode I can recall.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1221906/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

Orbi-Wan Techno

Despite some of the criticism of this episode, this and last week’s are the two most accessible Orville’s for my wife, who is a hardcore TOS/TNG/DS9/V/E fan. No puerile humor, but some laughs, and decent Star Trek style plots. My wife is a twin, so she found the whole “shared birthday” subplot very funny, plus Bortus' comment “An egg is easier” during the birthing scene.

Bill Needle

I think the humor is decent most of the time and that's why I wish that was the focus rather than serving as a holodeck simulation for Seth's fantasy of being on Star Trek which I'm sure he gets off on but doesn't do much for me.

dhmac

I think you're thinking something that's probably a wrong assumption. In this episode, there is no need at all for all of the planets (Regor 2, Moclus, Earth) to have exactly the same annual year length, just for the visitors to happen to have birthdays that coincided with the astrological sign of Giliac on the First Contact planet of Regor 2 at this particular time. From the perspective of the people on that planet, the basic idea that other planets have years of different length than their own is just as alien of a concept as the idea that other planets don't have the same astrology as their own. Merely the timing of their birthdays alone in relation to their planet was the issue, not the varying length of each planet's year which is totally unknown to them aside from their own.

dhmac

Egotastic Funtime's First Impression video of this episode

Eric F

If they are so blatantly ripping off TNG episodes, at least they should go for the good ones later on, not the crappy early season 1 episodes.

Tom Banjo

Yeah, I’d suck as a ship captain. I’d have just used a dropship to collect my crew and then blasted those fuckers from orbit.

TGM

the Federation's (or whatever) stance on this was dumb. just leaving 2 crewmembers behind. ridiculous.

knock out gas the entire area, grab your people and get out of there never to return. fin. certainly less of a breach of the prime directive (or whatever) than their ultimate solution.

also makes me wonder if they will ever incorporate transporters in this show.

Count Dooku

I hope not. Transporter was created o TOS due to budget costs of ship landing FX.
Notice on Star Trek how they always had to keep coming up with reasons why the transporter would not work when they created a situation that the transporter could solve instantly.

rw2516

Exactly. This is the point in my post about everybody speaking English. You're suppose to concoct a reason so the audience doesn't ask "Why don't they use the transporter?" or "Why do they speak English?".

Eric F

Count Dooku

They don't use a transporter because that technology does not exist in the universe of this show.

They speak English because this is a television show produced in the USA.

Seriously, if you are watching The Orville and wondering why everybody speaks English then you are watching TV wrong.

Count Dooku

I'm certain that Seth thinks having a female security chief and having a female be the physically strongest person on the ship is an important representation that he did not want to abandon just because Sage left the show.

Red Dog

Thank god this forum wasn't around when TOS, TNG, and DS9 aired. Add B5 to that.

rw2516

Everybody realizes that. Doesn't invalidate bringing it up.
Nobody questions why everybody speaks English on Hogan's Heroes. Why? Because the Germans all speak with German accents. This tells the audience that the German characters have learned English as a second language. Give a character an accent and all is explained.
Why do the Germans continue to speak in English when they are alone among themselves?
Correct answer: Because it's a tv show.
It's still a valid question.

Count Dooku

If everybody who watches the show understands that all the human characters and all the alien characters speak English because it is an American TV show, then why would you request that Seth insert some ridiculous explanation into the show for why everybody is speaking English?
These are people flying around the galaxy on a star-ship, 400 years from now, and they watch movies and listen to music from 40 years ago. None of it actually makes any fucking sense.

DVD Josh

fyp ( )

Josh-da-man

dhmac

Chipping in with a nerdy correction, but transporter technology actually does exist in the show's universe, however the Union does not possess it.

In the second episode of the show (S01E02 - "Command Performance"), the far more advanced Calivon civilization used some type of transporter to kidnap Ed and Kelly for exhibits in their zoo. If the show last long enough, maybe a future episode will depict the Union finally getting transporter technology, either through espionage or developing it themselves.

DVD Josh

Oddly enough I sort of liked this episode. And I am a huge critic of this show.