The Orville

[Robovski]

Yeah, it was enjoyable if kind of quiet. I did laugh hard at the sight gag or Isaac dressed to unimpress. I also found it notable that the Doc's favorite movie is from 2034 - a fictional work inside fiction instead of another 20th century or before reference but also without the ''sandwich'' where you refer to something the audience will recognize along with something they do not to ''get'' the equivalence.

[Zoinksberg]

I really appreciate that they found a decent way to make a robot "need" another person, and thus feel an attachment that could be considered "love". Data kind of started to say something similar about Tasha, but when he attempted to date Jenna he just felt nothing and the moral was that he was still more machine. I personally think this episode handled human/machine relations far better than TNG did.

I liked the simulator idea, and it was a good chance for Mark Jackson to get some face time. Also gave them a good excuse for the Norm McDonald cameo. I'm glad they found a way to get him in as more than just as a voice.

The only thing that started to annoy me was the extremely overdone transition of the Orville flying through space. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice ship and I do enjoy some starship porn, but after the first few times it started feeling unnecessary and then actually a bit annoying. It is weird because that would be something to add when you came up a minute or two short and didn't have anything to fill that in. But this episode had an orchestral scene, there had to have been additional footage from that they could have used. A little meta-humor with Ed talking about how he wishes everything in life came with a full orchestral score, even silly TV shows? Something to take a few of those transitions out.

I'm happy about where this show is going and hope it continues in this direction. Humor throughout, but not the primary focus. This is not a parody, this is an homage that is coming in to its own and showing that it can sometimes do TNG better than TNG. It's certainly better than any concurrent Star Trek-like series currently running, IMO. I do hope it begins growing again and is considered worthy of a season 3.

[Darth Wedgius]

I liked "A Happy Refrain" -- Claire and Isaac are two of my favorite characters on the show, and I thought the dialog between Kelly, Claire, and Talla had a lot of good points. I thought the environmental simulator use was clever.

I do wish the show would do less character drama and a bit more going boldly where no one has gone before. If Bortus's mustache had been dropped with a B plot of helping space refugees, exploring a space derelict, or resolving a space border dispute, I would have been happier with it.

[Artabax]

10/10. Standard ORV is jolly B plot aboot characters and Dramatic A plot about Adventure of the Week. This whole show is jolly B plot,until it becomes not jolly.

The obvious analogy is Data's love affair with Ensign of the Week whom we nevah see again because Continuity, what Continuity???

[TGLS]

Honestly, the switch showed up and I was happy that the show wasn't ossifying on soapy romances.

[Zoinksberg]

Deflectors was a good episode. I wonder how many people picked up on the Alan Turing parallels, a great mind silenced in his prime due to his sexual non-conformity. It's nice to get social commentary woven through the story and have some understanding of why the society and people in it are making the decisions they are making despite finding those decisions reprehensible.

Also, was that flower Bruce Willis?

[Sir Will]

I liked "A Happy Refrain" -- Claire and Isaac are two of my favorite characters on the show, and I thought the dialog between Kelly, Claire, and Talla had a lot of good points. I thought the environmental simulator use was clever.

I do wish the show would do less character drama and a bit more going boldly where no one has gone before. If Bortus's mustache had been dropped with a B plot of helping space refugees, exploring a space derelict, or resolving a space border dispute, I would have been happier with it.

His mustache only took up a couple of minutes of the episode though. It was a very, very small B plot. At least this episode held my interest throughout, even if it was another drama episode. Unlike the porn one where I was more interested in the small B plot with the destroyed planet and wished more focus had gone there (on top of the fact that the real heart of the matter shouldn't have been porn but the resentment Bortus feels). Or the first episode that was 4 drama plots but all felt pretty meh.

I'm still iffy on them getting back together. I mean, it subverts expectations. But she was right, it can't really ultimately work. Issac needed her back as a friend, but a lover?

[LittleRaven]

I'm still iffy on them getting back together. I mean, it subverts expectations. But she was right, it can't really ultimately work. Issac needed her back as a friend, but a lover?

Depends on what she needs out of a relationship. She's apparently gone most of her life single, so one suspect she's pretty independent.

[Darth Wedgius]

I liked "A Happy Refrain" -- Claire and Isaac are two of my favorite characters on the show, and I thought the dialog between Kelly, Claire, and Talla had a lot of good points. I thought the environmental simulator use was clever.

I do wish the show would do less character drama and a bit more going boldly where no one has gone before. If Bortus's mustache had been dropped with a B plot of helping space refugees, exploring a space derelict, or resolving a space border dispute, I would have been happier with it.

His mustache only took up a couple of minutes of the episode though. It was a very, very small B plot.
...

I wasn't bemoaning the mustache so much as the lack of some more interesting B plot.

[Darth Wedgius]

Deflectors was a good episode. I wonder how many people picked up on the Alan Turing parallels, a great mind silenced in his prime due to his sexual non-conformity. It's nice to get social commentary woven through the story and have some understanding of why the society and people in it are making the decisions they are making despite finding those decisions reprehensible.

Also, was that flower Bruce Willis?

I wondered if Turing was the inspiration, but given the setting of the environmental simulator as just post-WW2 it seems pretty likely.

I really enjoyed the episode, but I hope the Moclans don't become the civilization with all of humanity's bad habits.