The Orville

[90'sCartoonMan]

Well I guess this explains why Newton was never a main character or even around when all the senior staff gathered, he was meant to be a placeholder until Lamarr took over the position. At least they didn't get rid of Yaphit, he's pretty great.

I think Bortus's job is really just 2nd officer - which might actually make more sense than a department head. He does come across as more Worf-like, but besides being the stiff and straight man, he doesn't come with the warrior culture vibe that was such a huge part of Worf.

So then he's less interesting than Worf. I guess since, unlike TNG where Picard and Riker don't go on missions together, they've got Ed and Kelly constantly on away missions, at least Bortus can take command in those instances.

For me, a large part of what makes this show enjoyable are the secondary characters who pop up. Yaphit, Unknown Name Corridor Guy, and Annoying Spotted Guy. ASG especially is a scream.

I kind of like Nurse Park. I was worried that it looked like they actually killed him a couple episodes ago.

[AndrewCrossett]

Well I guess this explains why Newton was never a main character or even around when all the senior staff gathered, he was meant to be a placeholder until Lamarr took over the position. At least they didn't get rid of Yaphit, he's pretty great.

Don't get too used to him... there are sexual harassment allegations.

[WhichDrWhowins]

harp, funny tv and it looks like many people avoided STD or Star Trek Discovery, wacky situation comedy like Family Guy or Galaxy Quest the Pilot directed by Jon Favreau smart move. McFarlane describes the series as "Trek meets MASH" i thought it was jinxed being Fox but its ok already been picked up for a 2nd season

[Osiris-Rex]

Interesting concept. Only 11 days passing in one universe while 700 years pass in another. Has this been done before? And the idea that anyone could have become a deity.
If not Kelly, it would have been someone else. So, was Jesus a space alien? Did he have a tricorder type device he healed the sick with?

[AndrewCrossett]

Letter of reprimand? Hell, in any real military Ed and Kelly would be facing a firing squad for the crap they pulled this episode. Really challenged my suspension of disbelief. It was a really interesting high concept, but I kind of wish they'd let Braga write this one. Seth doesn't always get the fact that character actions need to be plausible.

[Jim Kelly]

You have to figure that a lot of this is happening all the time, where the Union contaminates backward cultures, but they don't usually see the immediate results of their interference.

I liked the scenes of the crew in their off-hours. But it's funny how, in every TV show set in the future, the fashion sense leaves something to be desired. I just can't imagine anyone wanting to wear the clothes they were wearing, when not in uniform. The uniforms themselves are okay--if a bit garish in their colour schemes--and kind of what we expect from a Star Trek type of show; if only the civilian dress was of a similar quality.

[LoganAlpha30X33]

The engineer guy was a very lucky guy this episode imho-wouldn't mind her sticking around, as for the rest of it I'm not sure whether I want Ed and Kelly together and there was an episode of Star Trek Voyager where they got caught in the gravity of a planet that was spinning faster than normal time, so that like 10 minutes on the ship was like 10 months or so on the planet...

[Kirby101]

All Kelly did was heal a child. The rest of the religion and ideology grew around that was the work of the species on the planet. I think that is what Seth is saying about religion. It is more about the people than any divine inspiration.
If it wasn't Kelly, another occurrence would have started a religion that the planet would evolve through. But ultimately, to survive, they had to reach a place were logic and critical thinking dominated.

[LoganAlpha30X33]

Or his point was to belittle religion and attack it like Star Trek did...

[Gray Lensman]

I started out not really liking Isaac when THE ORVILLE began, because 1) he sounds too much like Brent Spiner as Data and 2) unlike Data, he has no real face. I thought that Spiner was owed some serious cash royalties for the use of his voice-likeness and that not having any facial expression would be a problem.

But maybe this is a problem that they wanted to tackle. There are several characters, like Darth Vader, where we don't see their face and we can't know what they are feeling or thinking from their facial expressions. And I think THE ORVILLE manages to use that mystery about Isaac for a good purpose.

But they still owe Brent Spiner a pot of money.

It hit me at work today that Isaac is more the love-child of Data and K2-SO. He has the latter's attitude at times.

[Kirby101]

Or his point was to belittle religion and attack it like Star Trek did...

Sure, that too.

[Jim Kelly]

Allowing that THE ORVILLE might want to say that religious fanatics are idiots, they shouldn't go in the other direction and say that Jesus was an astronaut or the Egyptian pyramids were built by aliens.

That kind of thinking is just as phony as it makes up some non-human explanation for things that are easily explained in human terms.

I'd rather believe this episode was trying to be funny and entertaining--and leave it at that.

[Kirby101]

I think they were saying people use religion, or religious stories for there own ends.
But evolving towards a society based on science and logic is the preferable path.

[LoganAlpha30X33]

Because science is never wrong and logic always works out...oh...wait...

[Kirby101]

Science is self correcting and logic and critical thinking usually lead to what is real.
Religion on the other hand....
But that is what this episode was saying, if you hated it, take it up Seth.