[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Somewhere a long the line this series that was science fiction light and meant to make a fun Star Trek series has evolved into a really well written, intelligent science fiction show.

I've had lot of favorite episodes, the one where people were judged on social media. The episode where Alara left, the episode where Ed and Gordon infiltrated the Krill ship. But I came out of this episode saying to myself that this was almost a perfect episode.

Spoiler!

First of all I loved the opening with the alien species sending their first message into space and it was a simple "Is anyone out there".

What made it better is that when Ed announced first contact you saw the excitement and anticipation of the crew, that this was what they lived for.

Unfortunately nothing is ever perfect, and this show points out the difference between the Federation and the Union. The Federation has the Prime Directive, you can't influence culture or evolution of a species. Meanwhile the Union just barges in as the welcoming committee to the galaxy without knowing anything about the culture or the species.

And that's where they got into trouble.

The premise of a planet governed by astrological signs, where babies born under the wrong sign are condemned to lives in a concentration camp where a baby born under the right sign gets the life of leadership and privileged. This was a neat way of getting around the touchy subject of religious prosectution, but yeah, we were all saying the same thing. Holy crap these are space nazi's, and they did it well. From the high collared uniforms to the massive gatherings in the public square for speeches, to the bigoted sentiments of the leadership and the prison guards. This was a neat premise executed well.

I don't think I need to get into super detail on the plot points. But from the action sequence of the attempted prison break, to the heart break of the mother having the baby taken away, they hit all of the high points and hit them well.

I've noticed that they've really dialed back a lot of the off the cuff zany dialogue. They still throw it in, but they don't want it to overlay the plot or the development of characters. I mean I loved the joint birthday party stuff between Kelly and Bortas. And I loved seeing the Orville flying majestically into space while Celebration by cool and the gang played. But we don't get a lot of throw away humor.

Instead we get smart dialog, solid characters and really good plots.

I also wanted to address the new security chief. I really liked that this new security chief Talla is a opposite of Alara who I really liked. While Alara was like a unsure teenager who was really brave and heroic. Talla just seems to have a harder edge and is extremely confident in herself. The scene where she grabbed the doctor by the throat and held him up on the wall was a great one note introduction to that character.

Overall this was a great fun episode.

But its funny we're into the 4th episode and no sign of Norm McDonald. BtBut they did have Ted Danson.

I agree with all of this, and this was the best of season two thus far, except for the brutal plot hole:

Spoiler!

After Mercer went back to try to talk reason with buddy (can't remember his exact title) and was told (paraphrasing) "If space is full of people that just accept chaos then we don't want to be a part of it. Take you ship and never return," Mercer could of easily said "sure, and we'll leave a buoy in orbit warning anyone else to stay away as well and we will never come back. Now give us our people or we take them by force." I'm sure they could of managed it that way killing a lot less (if any) people than Kelly and Bortus did during the prison break. Phasers have a stun setting, guns do not. The story logic makes no sense.

And also, those specific constellations in their specific configuration as seen from that planet's surface only work from the view of that planet's surface. I am sure given their level of technology that they would understand, and seeing as both Kelly and Bortus were obvious born across the galaxy they obviously would not have been subject to being born under that constellation.