The Orville (Star Trek Spoof series)

[direwolf]

Damn, that was a heavy and emotional episode. Well done.

[Yamer]

I almost broke in half when Klyden said that to Topa.

[CMPunk]

Ed is a dick

[Canadianman]

Interesting episode. I was about to get mad about their options until they remembered they could time travel again.

[CaptainCrunch]

I thought it was well written, last week I talked about Kelly knocking it out of the park, this week Scott Grimes got his own centric episode and knocked it out of the park.


Star Trek has always been obsessed with temporal effects. If someone goes into the past and sneezes do we get another Hitler? Or an extinction event? So on that side of things, you can understand Ed's vehemence and reliance on the rules, He also in appealing to Gordon's sense of duty didn't understand or handle it well. To me the cruelest thing was him telling Gordon what his plan was. Instead he caused a last few minutes of misery for Gordon in that time line. He could have simply said, "Fine Gordon, you've made your choice, we'll leave you alone, stay out of the timeline".


Instead he basically said, I'm going to murder your kids before they're born and destroy any motion of happiness.


The only other thing that I didn't really like is that Gordon gave Ed and Kelly the easy out when they told him, and tried to console them. I get it, it was a family that I never had. But and to borrow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer "I was warm, and I was loved. I think I was in heaven, and then I was ripped out by my friends". Ok it was a loose quote, but whatever.


But even if it was a life I didn't know, but I was in basically the garden of Eden and everything that I wanted, I'd be a little resentful. It felt like rushed resolution, and I hope that they show a bit of resentment from Gordon in the future.


I am a bit grateful that they aren't rushing to resolution or a thawing between Charlie and Isaac. Not even a bit. Tough I expect they'll do a quick resolution and Isaac saves her life maybe at the cost of his own. Hey its the last season, it could happen.



Anyways a good episode with some flaws. The show continues to knock it out of the park with effects and soundtrack, and the shuttle has slowly become a favorite ship design.

[Locke]

That was a great episode.

Often doing the right thing is doing the hard thing, and that has consequences.

[Hemi-Cuda]

If going back 10 years to get Gordon at the correct point was an option, then why bring Kaylee to strong arm the older one and terrorize his family? And then why tell his family the plan to terrorize them further? None of that final showdown made any sense

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

If going back 10 years to get Gordon at the correct point was an option, then why bring Kaylee to strong arm the older one and terrorize his family? And then why tell his family the plan to terrorize them further? None of that final showdown made any sense

Also, if his children were a potential danger to the timeline, why were they originally willing to take Gordon but leave his pregnant wife and son behind?

And another thing, they were able to look up his obituary before they went back in time, so his presence in the past had already been a part of their history and made the timeline what it was. Removing him from it, may have caused even more problems.

[KTrain]

What obituary doesn't mention the dead person's wife and kids?

This is why time travel is so hard to do well. It's too easy to start picking out plot holes.

[dammage79]

I got sucked into Orville as it was a good bit of campy fun but I find myself having a hard time with this season. They're just star trek reruns at this point. With very little entertainment value.

[Canadianman]

Originally Posted by dammage79

I got sucked into Orville as it was a good bit of campy fun but I find myself having a hard time with this season. They're just star trek reruns at this point. With very little entertainment value.

Interesting. Given how terrible Picard and Discovery have become, I loved Orville as an homage to the old, good Star Trek. Now that we have Strange New Worlds, I still enjoy Orville for what it is.

[timun]

Originally Posted by KTrain

What obituary doesn't mention the dead person's wife and kids?

This is why time travel is so hard to do well. It's too easy to start picking out plot holes.

It was a fun episode, but as you say time travel plots cause all sorts of problems. E.g. Ed and Kelly didn't decide to go back to 2015 until they encountered Gordon in 2025. But if they went back to 2015 to get him out before he contacted anyone of that time then the Gordon of 2025 who 'convinced' them to go back to 2015 wouldn't have existed in the first place. And in fact if they went back too closely to Gordon's arrival they could have picked him up before he sent the message to "rescue" him in the first place!

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by timun

It was a fun episode, but as you say time travel plots cause all sorts of problems. E.g. Ed and Kelly didn't decide to go back to 2015 until they encountered Gordon in 2025. But if they went back to 2015 to get him out before he contacted anyone of that time then the Gordon of 2025 who 'convinced' them to go back to 2015 wouldn't have existed in the first place. And in fact if they went back too closely to Gordon's arrival they could have picked him up before he sent the message to "rescue" him in the first place!

I think they're going to follow up on this. The paradox line wasn't just a throwaway.

[timun]

I kinda figured they would revisit this too.

[Yamer]

I'm looking forward to that sandwich reappearing at some random juncture.

[CaptainCrunch]

Halfway through the 3rd season and we don't know if this is the last season or not. All of the actors have been released from their contracts, so it feels like in the next handful of epsiodes they have to end the two wars on two fronts.



I'd be sad to see the series end on a question mark.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by getbak

Also, if his children were a potential danger to the timeline, why were they originally willing to take Gordon but leave his pregnant wife and son behind?

And another thing, they were able to look up his obituary before they went back in time, so his presence in the past had already been a part of their history and made the timeline what it was. Removing him from it, may have caused even more problems.

Well that part at least they did explain briefly, with Isaac saying they were in a state of flux because they hadn't made a decision yet on what to do. I actually liked that explanation to get away from the endless discussions about paradoxes, the timeline is in a blender until they take a course of action and either repair it or a new timeline is created

[CaptainCrunch]

It would have been odd if they had taken Gordon out of the time line after he had his family.


The guy vanishes leaving behind a wife and kids, plus he ran a business, paid taxes and was part of society.


For all of their musings about damaging the time line, pulling Gordon out of it there would have probably meant that Gordon's son grows up hearing tales about his dad coming back in time, and then being abducted by Ed Mercer and the others, and might have gone out of his way to completely screw up the future. Stomp on every butterfly he could, punch out politically important figures and by the time Ed and Gordon got back instead of what they had, it would have been the mirror universe version with humanity being made up of insect killing grandma punching technologically regressed humans.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Halfway through the 3rd season and we don't know if this is the last season or not. All of the actors have been released from their contracts, so it feels like in the next handful of epsiodes they have to end the two wars on two fronts.



I'd be sad to see the series end on a question mark.

My understanding is that this is it and that they know it. So they'll probably wrap it up.

[Shazam]

Well they said they're all interested in coming back and doing another season, so who knows.