The Orville has really tried to stick to character building episodes that are pretty low on action, but long on character development. The first two episodes dealt with Bortas and his struggles in his life. Similarly this episode dealt with Alara and her relationship with her family.
Right from the start this episode was purely on Halston Sage and everyone else took a back seat except for the new security chief who was purposefully designed to be really annoying.
Without going to deep in to detail this episode was all about Alara overcoming her lack of self confidence and fixing a fracture relationship with her family, they threw in a crisis where a man and wife tried to get revenge on Alara's father for destroying their sons life which lead to him killing himself. But somewhere Alara found that she didn't need super strength to face a dangerous situation.
And its fitting that in the end she found herself, and she found out that she had a family and no longer needed the artificial family on the Orville.
That's right, at the end of the episode Alara decided to leave the fleet and return home to get back the time with her family that she lost.
The emotional scene of her saying goodbye to the crew felt very real, and the final scene where Ed opens the gift from her and it was a jar of pickles was touching and emotional and really well done.
I know most fans of the show have been clamoring for a shoot em up episode and it looks like its coming as next weeks episode features the return of the Krill. We also might get an answer on
Spoiler!
If its a coincidence that Michella McManus who played Lt Taylor the new crewmember also played the Krill woman in an episode last year.
Overall I liked the episode, but I'm a big softy at heart and departure episodes always hit me right where I live. I like Halston Sage's portrayal of Alara and she's a character that could be missed in the crew mix
As an add on it was fun to see two doctors from the star Trek universe facing off as we got Robert Picardo playing Alara's father and John Billingsly playing the villain.
Also in other cameo's the great Patrick Warburton played Lt Tharl
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Last edited by CaptainCrunch; 01-10-2019 at 09:58 PM.
Before the season started I heard that they would have a bigger budget and a more serious tone. I was a little worried about both, part of what made the first season endearing to me was the campiness of it and that now they might take themselves too seriously. I am delighted that while the Orville has made a shift to taking themselves more seriously, I don't think it has taken away from the realness of the show. "Home" was a great example of this to me.
Spoiler!
Arm wrestling the android was an awesome start. It was a good callback to the TNG episode "Peak Performance", but with actual betting. You really got to see the budget in full effect on Xelayah. I thought the imagary was vivid and I loved the juxtaposition of Gordon's realization that he (humans) is just trash in comparison. Even the crazy horse on a beach scene was well done. I could almost see the CGI budget for this episode matching all of last season's.
The other budget item is the music. I loved the orchestra last year, but this seems to have just kicked it up a notch. For some reason in the last fight scene I lost the dialogue portion and only had sound effects and music. Well it was actually wonderful. The brain may pick up subconciously a lot of the nuance, but without the noise of dialogue I really felt how the music matched the scenes, especially the departure. So well done.
The Star Trek Alum really outdid themselves. Picardo putting his hand in the boiling pot was such a powerful moment, his expressions were spot on and I really felt the pain. He really conveyed the same kind of dismissive love that Sarek showed Spock, you are my offspring but you don't really measure up.
Patrick Warburton was his funny self, I think there is more they could do there so I hope to see him back. Totally have a boner for him, not a boner boner, a professional boner. I also thought it was appropriate for him to guest star on a episode with someone in a wheelchair and when Ed gets his legs crushed it made me think of Joe on family guy and his super thin legs. This MacFarlane guy knows how to give subtle (and not subtle) nods.
A read some reviews that panned the episode or called it middling, but I really enjoyed it. The acting was superb, the emotional impact was on point and it was a more emotional goodbye to a character than I think most Star Trek episodes every did.
I love a good running joke and when she gave Ed the gift at the end I told myself if that isn't a jar of pickles then I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
I really hope this show can continue to find the viewership and legs to continue.
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One of my few complaints about this series is Seth McFarlane's acting, which sometimes takes me out of the show a little. It was noticeable yesterday, he says something super serious but looks like he's trying not to laugh
Loving the green streaks in Claire's hair. Has that always been there?
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One of my few complaints about this series is Seth McFarlane's acting, which sometimes takes me out of the show a little. It was noticeable yesterday, he says something super serious but looks like he's trying not to laugh
Loving the green streaks in Claire's hair. Has that always been there?
The Green Streaks, its been there for a while.
Seth is never going to win an oscar for acting. Once in a while he'll pull a really strong scene out of nowhere and you'll go, wow maaaan not bad.
The most touching scene was Alara's farewell in the shuttle bay, it seemed real in terms of the emotions.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
To me, I was screaming that she was a traitor since she came on the Orville (thanks a lot IMDB).
I think everyone knows me by now, I'm a bit of a slow burn type of guy. Instead this felt rushed, they could have really built the relation ship for a few episodes while she was actively betraying Ed. then the reveal would have had more meaning.
I did like the relationship stuff, but you know what I liled better? Gordon taking the command test, for some reason I really liked the psych test, and that he was using it as a way to pick of chicks because he really doesn't see value in who he is now.
It was a pretty decent episode, but it could have been so much more.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Last edited by CaptainCrunch; 01-18-2019 at 12:24 AM.
To me, I was screaming that she was a traitor since she came on the Orville (thanks a lot IMDB).
I think everyone knows me by now, I'm a bit of a slow burn type of guy. Instead this felt rushed, they could have really built the relation ship for a few episodes while she was actively betraying Ed. then the reveal would have had more meaning.
I did like the relationship stuff, but you know what I liled better? Gordon taking the command test, for some reason I really liked the psych test, and that he was using it as a way to pick of chicks because he really doesn't see value in who he is now.
It was a pretty decent episode, but it could have been so much more.
Spoiler!
Wasn't the guy on Discover who was really a Klingon, named Tyler? And didn't people figure that out long beforehand? I kind of got the feeling Janel's arc created specifically to counterpoint that, saying "We know you know who it is, so there's no point in taking half a season to reveal it."
Don't think it worked, but I got the feeling that was the point.
