The Orville

[tabo61]

I like the interactions between the doctor and that blob like crewmember.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Damn, how'd they get Liam for this?

[AndrewCrossett]

Well, that was a straight-up TNG episode right there. Heavy on the drama and high concept, light on the jokes. (I only laughed twice really... once at Bortus's WTF? look at Klyden eating ice cream and watching The Sound of Music... and once at LaMarr's reaction at blowing up the Krill ship.)

I did kind of have a problem with the lack of consequences for the lead bad guy... the guy was a murderer, sadist and tyrant but he gets a mulligan, I guess.

And I don't think the reaction to opening the dome would look quite like that. Obviously Seth has never read Asimov's "Nightfall." (But he's read his Lord Emerson Keats.)

Somehow it seemed a lot shorter than I remember TNG episodes being.

[Jokerz79]

Damn, how'd they get Liam for this?

Seth is friends with him just like it how he's getting Charlize Theron next week. I'm waiting now for my Patrick Stewart cameo

[Jim Kelly]

Another good episode. The city set seemed like something we've seen before in other TV shows, including Star Trek. I wonder if this is a classic Hollywood set. While I thought last week's episode was profound, I think this one was the best at balancing the humour with the drama. The jokes felt organic to the characters and the plot.

It pays to have Seth McFarlane as an exec producer, when he can get such talent to show up.

[Qwerty]

I like the interactions between the doctor and that blob like crewmember.

It felt out a place compared to last week's episode where she flat out told him no. If not for the conflict between bortas and his mate I would have thought the episodes aired out of order. But even still where was the baby?

[AndrewCrossett]

It felt out a place compared to last week's episode where she flat out told him no. If not for the conflict between bortas and his mate I would have thought the episodes aired out of order. But even still where was the baby?

You could see the baby in a cradle at the foot of their bed.

I don't know what they're doing with Yaphit (Blob Guy) other than giving an excuse to put Norm MacDonald's name in the credits. I assume he'll have greater significance in some future episodes.

I have to say I liked this paragraph from the AV Club review of the episode:

Ed celebrates this welcome return to enlightenment by making the terrible decision to open the colony ship’s retractable roof and reveal the cosmos to a population that only knows the sunlight, effectively turning off the sky to a clan of space hermits who’ve been living in religious ignorance for millennia. They sure as hell wouldn’t look up at the yawning black void murdering the life-giving day with a sort of gentle, milk-soft bemusement. They’d be screaming in tongues, wearing each other’s heads for hats and offering their entrails up to the sky in desperate hopes of appeasing the god who has condemned them to nothingness. The Planetary Union must not have any sort of prime directive.

I kind of like that they don't have a prime directive, but yeah... that scene was kind of eye-rolling.

[Jim Kelly]

I heard Seth say in an interview that doing effects like Yaphit was costly, so that's probably why he's only in some contained scenes. And many people worship at the foot of Norm MacDonald--and doubtless Seth MacFarlane is one of them--so that's probably a good enough reason to shoehorn him into an episode. And for Norm it's an easy gig, since he just has to record the voice.

While sometimes you want a lot of details from your science fiction--I'm of the opinion that it's good to get just a few bread crumbs. Especially for fan-based fantasy like Trek--I'm not sure we need everything fleshed out the way it has been in some TV shows and movies (not to mention novels and comic books). Give the fans just enough and they can extrapolate from there.

So sure, they could have explained more about the people on the ship-world but we're smart enough collectively to come up with our theories and fill pages on how it all worked. As far as the people being in awe of the revealed night--I can extrapolate that Henri Ducard gave them instructions for when this would happen and they incorporated that into their religion. Besides we only saw a small selection of people, not everyone (probably millions of people) and only for a minute when the night came--so what happens next is something we can speculate about. Which is a lot of the fun in science fantasy.

[AndrewCrossett]

I hope the writing on the show is eventually expanded to writers other than Seth MacFarlane. It might start to get stale if it's just his voice. I think the show would profit from input from some other experienced science fiction and comedy writers.

[vitruvian]

And I don't think the reaction to opening the dome would look quite like that. Obviously Seth has never read Asimov's "Nightfall." (But he's read his Lord Emerson Keats.)

On the contrary, Asimov is probably the only reason Seth or his writers knew the quote... but Ed doesn't know either.

[Toreador]

Nice little remake of a classic Trek episode. Since the Orville is on a exploratory mission I hope Seth refers back to this episode by backtracking the flight path of the ship and find where the ship originated from and how that planet is different from the people/culture of the ship.

[Sighphi]

Damn, how'd they get Liam for this?

they probably asked him and paid him money.

I mean, it was a short scene and all he needed to do is dress up and get some spots painted on.

It felt out a place compared to last week's episode where she flat out told him no. If not for the conflict between bortas and his mate I would have thought the episodes aired out of order. But even still where was the baby?

There was a joke last week in the holodeck where they said that they get only one hour a week of free time so a whole week's time probably passes between episodes.

But Fox is known to play crap out of order. And given that these things are self-contained, it could be that they moved a strong episode up so people can tune in to the new slot. I actually missed the episode when it aired and after seeing it later i did make me tune in the next time.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Nice little remake of a classic Trek episode. Since the Orville is on a exploratory mission I hope Seth refers back to this episode by backtracking the flight path of the ship and find where the ship originated from and how that planet is different from the people/culture of the ship.

I doubt it would be that easy. They may have been drifting for 2000 years, but their engines were working at one time. More than that, the universe itself moves over time, so finding their homeworld would be all but impossible.

[The Cool Thatguy]

There was a joke last week in the holodeck where they said that they get only one hour a week of free time so a whole week's time probably passes between episodes.

But Fox is known to play crap out of order. And given that these things are self-contained, it could be that they moved a strong episode up so people can tune in to the new slot. I actually missed the episode when it aired and after seeing it later i did make me tune in the next time.

In fairness, Mercer sid he only gets an hour of free time. Which, given that he's the captain, makes sense.

I'm honestly surprised by how military (for lack of a better word) the series has been for a comedy infused show. But then, it is early...

[AndrewCrossett]

they probably asked him and paid him money.

I mean, it was a short scene and all he needed to do is dress up and get some spots painted on.

Liam was in A Million Ways To Die in the West, so he and Seth already had a relationship.

I doubt it would be that easy. They may have been drifting for 2000 years, but their engines were working at one time. More than that, the universe itself moves over time, so finding their homeworld would be all but impossible.

I'm sure the location of their homeworld can be found in the ship's logs if they care to look.