The Orville

[Robovski]

Conspiracy was a great thread for a future plot that they just did nothing with ever.

[Redem]

So....just how many issue the most recent episode raise up? I don't exactly think it truly fails at adressing them, but mostly kept it simple (and at time perhaps too much so)

One that come to mind, but don't seem quite approach directly is the one of transgenderism. Klyden and Bortus conversation seem to have some framing of a conversation given to one that learn his partner is transgender. One particularity is that a female to male transition in Moclan society is seen as something one do to fit in with the rest, but it raise certain question like what do Moclan in a situation where someone assign male at birth would want a sex change to female. A point the episode failed to mention was the possibility of Gender dysphoria. It his hard to know if Moclan sex change procedure can somehow preven it from developping in an individual and if so I think it only raise more ethical issues (Mainly because one could argue, depending on circonstance, that if Moclan can change people gender identity so thoroughly they might be doing a form of brainwashing).

Transgenderism does seem to exist in the Earth/Union society Dr. Claire Finn can apparently make the same procedure as the Moclan. The details of it are also not given, though if the Moclan are indication it is quite torough and incredibly fast. Considering the crew pretty much all sided against Moclan, the issue seem less the sex change in itself than say the fact that Moclan pretty much impose one gender and that the procedure was done on a newborn. Captain Mercer seem to have been not unwilling to have it done had the child was older and had its own identity and opinion on the matters, which I feel must be the mainstream opinion in the Union.

A secondary point I'd like to ponder is the issue of language and how it affected the argumentation of case. Mainly it was frame very much in term of male/female (I saw on this on another board and overall agree, but the overall of the episode seem to be "women should be allowed to exist"). Considering Moclan have abilty that are far different from a cisgender human male (I am mainly refering to in term of reproduction), one could wonder if it was right to apply the term "male" to define them in the first place and how different the case could have gone if say they had been define as another category by the Union whole separated class of gender (the episode intro sorta mention it with the blob alien, though I wonder if it was intentional or not). One has to wonder how the universal translator deal with all this.

Also there's a lot questions of political question, mostly about the relation between the union and the Moclan. the human crew member seemed largely unaware of the Moclan pratice and pretty much all of them disagree with it, but apparently Moclan entrance by the union was not oppose despsite the fact that one could argue Moclan culture seek to apparently stamp out the female species from its species and see their presence as weakness, considering the Union has mixed gender crew one has to wonder if this doesn't cause trouble in the long run (though perhaps both humans and Moclan use a system of cultural relativism and so mind less female of other species or Moclan law so long it's only applies on Moclan populated world)*

*I think that can of worm would have been avoided had they just made Moclan's gender their own thing rather framing female and male.

[Darth Wedgius]

So....just how many issue the most recent episode raise up? I don't exactly think it truly fails at adressing them, but mostly kept it simple (and at time perhaps too much so).

I closest real-world analogue I can think of would be babies born with ambiguous external genitalia. Though some alterations may be medically necessary (undescended testicles can sometimes be prone to cancer), but there has been a lot of pushback against surgeries that aren't medically necessary.

I don't know how good the answers are (or how good the answers could be) but I think it did a decent job of asking questions.

[Mercury01]

One that come to mind, but don't seem quite approach directly is the one of transgenderism.

Please don't use the term "transgenderism" as it pathologizes being trans. Being trans isn't an "ism". It's who you are, not what you have.

A trans person can experience gender dysphoria, but that is not, in and of itself, a defining trait of trans people.

I closest real-world analogue I can think of would be babies born with ambiguous external genitalia. Though some alterations may be medically necessary (undescended testicles can sometimes be prone to cancer), but there has been a lot of pushback against surgeries that aren't medically necessary.

Rightly so. Unless there is an immediate threat to the infant's health, their genitals should remain intact.

[Redem]

Please don't use the term "transgenderism" as it pathologizes being trans. Being trans isn't an "ism". It's who you are, not what you have.

A trans person can experience gender dysphoria, but that is not, in and of itself, a defining trait of trans people.

I apologize

[Redshrit Survivor]

there were three messages

1 Love your kids no matter what
2 don't force sex changes on people until they are mature enouth to have a say in the matter
3 Don't euthanize Mutated offspring....They Could save Christmas one day.

[technobabbler]

there were three messages
one day.

#4 we can all agree that no one would've had any problems if Bortus aborted that fetus egg before birth

i ain't touching that issue other than bringing it up

[MadAmosMalone]

Tonight's episode was uncannily similar to the old 70s show, The Starlost. Admittedly there are certain tropes common to most all generation ship stories but there were concepts and even scenes from the debut episode of Starlost in tonight's ep.

[cilantro]

Tonight's episode was uncannily similar to the old 70s show, The Starlost. Admittedly there are certain tropes common to most all generation ship stories but there were concepts and even scenes from the debut episode of Starlost in tonight's ep.

I have never seen Starlost but I would agree that there are common tropes to generation ships. Overall, it was decent but I felt like it wrapped up too nicely. But hey it still feels like a Trek show over watching the Discovery and I liked the story. I also liked that they gave the crew back on the ship something to actually do and that they thought ahead to leave a message for them.

[Redem]

If there's one guy that could build a starship that could last 2000 years, it's liam Nesson