The Orville - Season 2 (1 Viewer)

[Greg.K]

Just caught up with last week's episode. Orville is better without the dumb gags, and they're pretty minimal here. Probably the best episode of the series.

That said, it was very derivative of past Trek stories, and of "robot genocide" stories in general. Kaylons even sounds a bit like Cylons, now that I think about it. It even felt derivative of Guardians of the Galaxy 2 with the caves full of dead people.

I expect Isaac will have to be the one to save the day, and probably redeem himself in the process. But how will the crew be able to trust him after all of this?

 

[Francois Caron]

I believe I know how it'll work out, but I won't say anything in case I'm right. No spoilers!

Also, every sci-fi show made today will always be a derivative of something that preceded it. With all of the sci-fi shows that have been produced in the last 50 years alone, it's nearly impossible to produce something that doesn't have anything that resembles a past show, especially the Star Trek franchise which now has SEVEN separate TV series in the can and two more on the way!

So just ignore the comparisons and enjoy the show.

 

[Matt Hough]

While the resolution wasn't a big surprise, the display of special effects fireworks was very, very impressive on a TV budget. I'm sure that cost Fox a pretty penny!

 

[Greg.K]

My wife said that it looked like they spent the entire season's effects budget on it. It all looked a little too video-gamey but still pretty impressive.

Don't really buy them allowing Isaac to remain an Orville crew member but it is what it is. I would think they would at least want him to be involved in planning Kaylon defense for the entire Union.

And now we know he has laser cannons in his head. You know, those might have come in handy prior to now!

 

[TJPC]

Too bad with the quality of presentation that the only discs you can buy are DVD.

 

[Carabimero]

I liked it part 2. Probably the best TV space fight I've ever seen. My wife went "Wow" a couple of times under her breath. That takes a lot of doing.

I've never minded the riffs on Trek and TNG because I knew that going in, and I liked THE ORVILLE because of it. I continue to like it because it's Star Trek without being in the Roddenberry box (most of the time).

Hope it gets picked up for season three.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Nice resolution - wrapped up as I expected but it was enjoyable to be on the journey. I hadn’t anticipated the partnership with the Krill; I like that they went with something like that with the potential to add to the story, rather than a more simple and self contained solution.

Thursday nights this year are the best TV nights I’ve had since Twin Peaks a couple years ago.

By the way, since most of you are as crazy about space stuff as I am - there’s a new documentary about Apollo 11 that just opened in IMAX tonight, playing for one week only. It’s pretty amazing, check it out. Even if you think you’ve seen every bit of footage that’s out there..it’ll still surprise you.

 

[Francois Caron]

Part 2 left me feeling pretty underwhelmed, possibly because a certain plot point wasn't used as I was hoping for, but also because the "switching sides" storyline has already been used to death in other sci-fi and non-sci-fi stories, and it felt as if it were used very sloppily in this two parter.

I was hoping that, as the Kaylon were shutting Isaac down in the beginning of the first part, he would have fled into the ship's computer like he did in episode 5 of the first season, with the physical Isaac being nothing more than his original programming restored and appended with all of the previous reports sent to Kaylon. I was really hoping to see a "junior mint" message show up on a display during the second part, letting the crew know that the Isaac they knew and loved was still intact and willing to help them after his own species had already switched him off and abandoned him behind enemy lines.

This would have made the fake Isaac's initial behaviour and the real Isaac's willingness to save the human species much more plausible while still retaining the concept that the real Isaac could still pose a threat to organics. But instead, we had a single machine with conflicting "feelings" which for some unexplained reason the primary hesitated to shut down as a precaution when, in the first part, there was no hesitation in shutting down Isaac when he was no longer needed.

The rest of the episode could have easily been adapted to use the Two Isaacs angle with minimal changes. In fact, it was pretty solid storytelling all around with cinematic level music and special effects. And while I don't like to see children save the ship ("Shut up, Westley!"), having Ty risk his life to help Yaphit made perfect sense under the circumstances. I was already expecting Yaphit's abilities to be used in some kind of operation involving tight spaces.

That's about it.

 

[NeilO]

I enjoyed the second part of Identity. From the title most viewers should have guessed that Isaac ("named" after Isaac Newton - yeah, right -- guess the truth would have worried his Kaylon comrades too much) would turn and it was good that his relationship with Dr. Finn's family was key there. Overall, I thought it was handled well and I was glad to see the Krill help save the day.

The discussion of using Isaac for research against the Kaylons did not ring true. They have loads of deactivated Kaylons they can use. I don't recall anyone saying what was done with them.

I wonder what the Kaylons's next move will be. If they still need to expand beyond their home planet, they should be able to easily do that without harming anyone. Are they going to be on a more defensive footing with respect to protecting themselves from organics? Or will they try to extinguish organic life again?

 

[Francois Caron]

I suspect the Kaylon will eventually use bio-weapons. They're much easier to deploy covertly, and they still get the job done albeit a bit more slowly.

Expect a plague in season 3.

 

[Carabimero]

Just talked to somebody in the know who expects The Orville to be renewed for season three, assuming the Disney buyout doesn't hamper things.

Nothing is official, but the possibility of a third season is looking up.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

In theory the Disney buyout shouldn’t be affecting anything right now. According to long established laws concerning mergers and buyouts, Disney may not begin running Fox until they are 100% approved and sold, and Fox may not make changes in an effort to woo favor from Disney. If Fox canceled the Orville not because they wanted to, but solely because they felt Disney would want them to, that would actually be against the law.

My concern is more that Fox’s absurdly long hiatus and scheduling/preemptions issues are driving away its audience, and that it’s that factor that is worrisome when it comes to a season three.

 

[Carabimero]

In theory the Disney buyout shouldn’t be affecting anything right now.

I can tell you firsthand that Disney eating Fox is affecting several things right now, including more than one Fox-distributed property not being released (for years).

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I’m not disputing that it’s happening - just saying, legally speaking, it shouldn’t be.

 

[BobO'Link]

If I understand the Disney/Fox buyout the TV properties are not included so they shouldn't be affected at all.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

It’s not quite that simple. The main Fox broadcast network wasn’t part of the sale, but cable channels like FX were. And the Fox television studio was.

So Disney won’t own the channel that The Orville airs on, but they will soon own the studio that makes the show. Whether the Fox TV network will remain interested in purchasing shows now produced by Disney is an open question.

 

[TonyD]

So complaining or wondering out loud why the Kaylons would attack earth first..
There’s two obvious reasons.
One being that earth is home base of the Federa.....I mean the Union.

Two this is a show about people from earth.

 

[Jason_V]

"Identity Part II" sure looked good and made use of several different plot threads from prior episodes. After all the death and destruction, though, I can't imagine why anyone would want Isaac to remain on the ship, let alone in the Union. Even if he was being used as a puppet and had no real control over his actions, he still put all the events we saw into motion...including a whole lot of death and destruction.

The spacing scene may have been the coldest (no pun intended) thing we've seen from this show in two seasons. It felt right to me, if not unexpected.

 

[Tommy R]

My wife and I have been 1-3 episodes behind for most the the season thus far, but we finally caught up and watched the Identity 2-parter this week. That was some amazing stuff and we both loved it. It totally brought me back to the 90’s and how intense some of those 2-parter cliffhangers would be.

So far we have loved the entire series. Neither of us know enough of TNG to see any rip-offs or re-imagining or whatever you want to call it. But from the very first episode I just saw the whole concept to be a “Tribute” show to TNG and also trying to channel the way tv shoes were made back then. It’s just really fun to watch and be transported back in time.

 

[NeilO]

So complaining or wondering out loud why the Kaylons would attack earth first..
There’s two obvious reasons.
One being that earth is home base of the Federa.....I mean the Union.

Two this is a show about people from earth.

Maybe it was the editing of the first episode, but at the time it seemed a big leap from the Kaylon needing to expand to attacking the Earth. Just saying they need to expand does not necessitate all out war against organic life. Their actions made a lot more sense in the second part when they explained themselves further talking about slavery, etc.