setsuled | Entries tagged with seth macfarlane

It was a cute little season finale for The Orville last night, possibly the series finale. It was a little odd following from a big, extravagant battle episode but I felt a little better about it when one character mentioned three months had passed.

This episode was written and directed by Seth MacFarlane and, despite the fact that it has a strong romantic comedy vibe to it, he faithfully maintains Isaac's emotionlessness throughout. Despite the fact that it's about him getting married to Claire.

Sometimes it almost feels like MacFarlane is playing a joke on the audience, especially during the wedding vows, when the best Isaac can still manage to say is that he prefers efficiency and seeks to avoid error. Claire says she believes, on some level, that Isaac really loves her. That's a lot of faith.

It was mainly a comedy episode, especially all the stuff with Bortus and Clyden. But, in addition to the surprisingly thoughtful stuff with Isaac, this episode also had a b-plot with the surprising return of Lysella (Giorgia Whigham). She's from a season one episode about a world driven mad by social media. Looks like she'll be the replacement hot party girl now that Charly's gone. This episode also featured a surprising return of season one's hot party girl, Halston Sage, at Isaac and Claire's wedding.

So it's nice to see MacFarlane stays on good terms with these young ladies, something that may bode well for his potential future relationship with Disney, and therefore a potential return of The Orville.

Lysella's story involves The Orville's version of the Prime Directive. The scenes where Kelly explains the nature of the Union confirms it is, essentially, Star Trek's Federation.

When she explained that reputation has replaced money in the Union, I wondered if maybe MacFarlane momentarily forgot that reputation is king on Lysella's world, too. Kelly needed to explain why the things in the Union were worthier of good or bad reputations. But those might have been tricky waters to navigate, which goes to show just how easy it is to slide into cancel culture.

I do hope Disney brings the show back. But more than anything, I'm hoping they took notes in the interest of improving their version of Star Wars.

Twitter Sonnet #1608

Surprising water waits in glowing glass.
Beneath the surface, ancient coins appear.
Competing kilts arrive in business class.
The scribble proved the map was insincere.
A dreaming woman plays the saxophone.
But ancient stones surpass the joys of sax.
Important time inscribed the fossil bone.
To ride the bull she paid a heavy tax.
A fragile glass supported yards of ore.
Recited spells were switched around the tube.
Reluctant phones would rarely ring for war.
A leading role designed a stagey cube.
Above, the palms resembled spiky clocks.
Another pack of guns has claimed the docks.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Space
Current Music: "Sound and Vision" - David Bowie

On Thursday night, The Orville, the inconveniently popular science fiction series by Seth MacFarlane, finally returned after three years for its third and probably final season. And it was a really good premiere, directed by MacFarlane, with action sequences that were both lavish and composed with real tension. It also featured again the kinds of conversations Star Trek used to be best known for--using its remote, sci-fi setting to engage in discussions you really couldn't have with a story with a contemporary setting. In this case, mostly the conversation was about suicide and hatred.

Picking up after the brutal Kaylon war in season two, the episode finds the Orville's resident Kaylon, Isaac (Mark Jackson), finding many of the rest of the crew deeply resent him for his part in the conflict. He ended up saving the day but only after he'd collaborated with the Kaylons.

Among those who bear him a particularly potent grudge is a new character, Charly (Anne Winters), who replaces LaMarr (J. Lee) as navigator. Like Halston Sage, who left the show after the first season, Winters seems suspiciously like a young party girl who just possibly could be sleeping with MacFarlane. But I have no proof. Anyway, she's not giving a particularly interesting performance but she's not distractingly bad.

At first, Isaac takes it all in stride, seeing it as an opportunity to observe a new aspect of human behaviour. But then he very logically concludes his presence is too harmful for morale and decides to kill himself. His recorded suicide note is a laundry list of potential improvements to mechanical efficiency aboard the Orville. His character has always been modelled on Data on The Next Generation but in this case he's doing a much better job of coming across as a being totally devoid of emotion. So this provides a nice springboard for a very rational discussion over the ethics of suicide.

It leads to a scene that perfectly highlights the show's strengths. We find LaMarr in bed with a pretty alien woman covered with short spines. She casually mentions how in her culture suicide isn't stigmatised, that the decision that life might not suit one's tastes is regarded as simply a valid personal decision. The scene, which begins as comedy, unobtrusively slides into a real and provoking philosophical discussion. I mean, it's not Socrates, but it gets viewers thinking who otherwise might not bother thinking at all.

The episode is interspersed with some exceptional action sequences. I particularly liked a scene where Mercer (MacFarlane) uses what Grayson (Adrianne Palicki) describes as "submarine warfare" tactics.

The show really does feel like Star Trek: The Next Generation with better special effects at this point. It has many of the strengths and weaknesses of TNG, the latter being a general feeling of being too clean and easy. But its strengths are otherwise totally absent from television and film nowadays and MacFarlane succeeds in demonstrating that a truly great form of storytelling has been largely lost in the medium.

This is the first season to air after Disney bought 20th Century Studios and it's been recently announced MacFarlane has begun work on a Ted television series for Peacock, the NBC streaming service. This follows after many years of MacFarlane working for 20th Century Fox despite how vocal he's been about his dislike for Fox News. One would have thought he'd be happy to be working for Disney now so perhaps it's Disney who doesn't want to work with him. Maybe the company feels they're full up on space opera franchises having both Star Wars and Guardians of the Galaxy. Maybe MacFarlane wants too much creative control. Maybe he wants too much money. It could be all of these things.

All of this makes The Orville even more of an anomaly, a fly in the soup of the modern corporate smugness that controls the entertainment media. It's more popular than the ultra-expensive, zombified version of Star Trek that's somehow continued to lurch along at Paramount, and it's better written than Disney's Star Wars series. But somehow, this massive show has found a very precise crack to fall through. I suppose it will always stand as an edifying example of just how tough it is to get something interesting made for film or television.

The Orville is available on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ in other countries.

Twitter Sonnet #1587

The silent voices push the helmet off.
Above the hill, a flying tree abides.
Polite but forceful corpses start to cough.
Beware the cut of apple whips on hides.
Above potato houses roots descend.
We checked the exit twice but lost it still.
On all the doors our rangers now depend.
With little hands we built the mental hill.
With burning flags the guard has held the fort.
The dusty slope was flat beyond the rise.
A heavy head was lightened thanks to port.
But sherry saves the driest apple pies.
With normal flowers floating down the stream
We try again to live inside a dream.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: A curvy ship
Current Music: "Cheek to Cheek" - Fred Astaire

"The Road Not Taken", last night's season finale for The Orville written by David A. Goodman, followed up on the previous episode to explore an alternate timeline. It has some particularly nice chase sequences and a really credible premise, but conceptually it was a bit redundant and a let down compared to how good last week's episode was. Still, it wasn't bad.

Spoilers after the screenshot

We join an alternate Ed (Seth MacFarlane) and Gordon (Scott Grimes), scavenging and barely staying one step ahead of the Kaylons, who rule the universe because Kelly (Adrianne Palicki) wouldn't go on a second date with Ed. Lucky for them, the Kaylons seem to be worse shots than Imperial Stormtroopers--even worse than Imperial Stormtroopers on Rebels, and that's saying something.

I was surprised to see a few Star Wars references last night, including a door that looked quite a bit like the one belonging to a certain shield generator on the Endor Moon. And then Yaphit's (Norm McDonald) head popped out like the eye droid at Jabba's palace. That was maybe the funniest moment in the episode which was low on laughs.

Kelly chooses a sexy top to meet up with Ed. Coincidence? Maybe not, though obviously it's too late to fix things. Goodman comes up with a plausible explanation for why the Kaylons took over just because Kelly wouldn't go out with Ed--they didn't get married so they didn't get divorced so Kelly didn't get Ed a command so Claire (Penny Johnson Jerald) didn't feel compelled to join the Orville crew (Ed being captain apparently being what made her feel she was "needed"). So Claire and her kids didn't establish the relationship with Isaac (Mark Jackson) that made Isaac betray the Kaylons. Which is the closest we've finally gotten to addressing Isaac's motive for that crucial action. He's always so certain about everything, I seriously want to know how he squares that with himself.

As plausible as it is, I thought it was a bit unfair of Ed to guilt trip Kelly over her decision to change the timeline. So she didn't want to pursue a relationship that was doomed to failure. Is that really so unreasonable? Though, then again, "failure" might not be the best way to describe their relationship.

Alternate timeline Alara (Halston Sage) makes a surprise appearance but doesn't stick around long enough to make an impression. I suspect the scene was shot much earlier in the season, probably before Jessica Szohr was cast as Talla, which would explain why she's not with the away team at that point. A confrontation between the two would've seemed like an obvious thing to have. But since, later, Ed uses the "jar of pickles" line with Talla, I wonder if it was the production crew's way of underlining Alara's been replaced.

The score was pretty good and I loved the shot of the Orville at the bottom of the ocean. But it proved once again the pattern of the season--really good episodes about relationships interspersed with poor to decent action/adventure episodes. Hopefully, if their new Disney masters permit them to return, the Orville will strike a better balance next season.

Twitter Sonnet #1229

With linking arms the people took themselves.
Beneath a cloak of coats the shoulder's bare.
In ancient limbs a tree supports the elves.
A loop of cookies circles round the stair.
A group of clues determined tact for now.
Above the sheets a message caught the wind.
Persistent spray engulfed the rocking bow.
And swinging lanterns canvas lit to mend.
A winding clock was silent near the cash.
A boat of wine conducts a standing cat.
Suggested breeze was spoken round the sash.
A gentle word was whispered 'neath a hat.
Beneath the garden ancient pools would flow.
At night a pair of waiting eyes would glow.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Underwater
Current Music: "Loving You" - Elvis Presley

I liked last night's new Orville but I admire its intentions more than its execution. Written by Joe Menosky, "Sanctuary" combines and reconfigures many contemporary issues to allow the viewer to contemplate the fundamental ideas and concepts with hopefully as little prejudice as possible. More than ever, I feel critical thought needs to be stimulated and this is a very classic Star Trek way of doing it. Personally, though, I always liked it better when Star Trek writers avoided allegory entirely; I'm of the opinion fantasy fiction comments best on current issues when the writer just organically hits on them while trying to discuss personal preoccupations.

This is certainly the most Star Treky pedigreed episode of The Orville, in any case. Menosky has written many episodes of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager, and has even cowritten an episode of Discovery. "Sanctuary" was directed by Jonathan Frakes and had two guest stars with a prominent history on Star Trek, Marina Sirtis and Tony Todd. Appearances by F. Murray Abraham, Rena Owen, and Ted Danson make this a very strong cast indeed.

Spoilers after the screenshot

The show finally comes back to the surgical sex change forced on Bortus' (Peter Macon) and Klyden's (Chad L. Coleman) offspring in an unexpected way when Bortus discovers another Moclan couple, visiting the ship, are secretly carrying an infant female Moclan they're taking away from their homeworld.

In a later scene where Ed (Seth MacFarlane) sits down with a group of admirals, the issues are thoughtfully explored--who are the people tampering with the children against their will, the ones forcing the sex changes on them or the ones forcing them to remain in a biological condition that will make them fugitives from their own culture for the rest of their lives? Of course, we all love women (at least me and all my friends do) so naturally we're going to be predisposed to side against the people who want to force an entire species to be male. This would seem like a no brainer except there are existing cultures that consider women to be biologically and mentally inferior. If the episode really wanted to discuss the issue, it ought to have included a real contrary argument--the boys' club Moclans just seem vaguely stubborn and ornery. Even in a scene where Klyden confronts Bortus while the latter's having lunch with Kelly (Adrianne Palicki), nothing is really accomplished except that Bortus points out Klyden's behaviour reflects his dislike for a two gender culture. There needs to be some discussion as to the value people like Klyden see in this tradition or it's not really going to be a conversation.

We're still long overdue for an episode that fleshes out Kelly as a character but I liked the way Frakes shoots her in this episode. Frakes shows again how adept he is at creating tension and excitement in cuts between bridge interiors and ship exteriors. Steadycams sweeping around an anxious Talla (Jessica Szohr) naturally flow with shots of the Orville nose to nose with a Moclan war ship.

It's nice how the conflict with the Kaylon continues to influence events--no controversy exists in isolation and any action the Union takes must take into account Moclan weapons are necessary to fight the Kaylons. Ed argues that if they don't help the Moclan women they would be ignoring their values. The counterargument isn't said, though--what good are those values if they get everyone killed? They're both vitally important points.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: A nebula
Current Music: "Aguas de Marco" - Tom Jobim

There were things I enjoyed about it but last night's new Orville, "The Blood of Patriots", was my least favourite episode of the series so far. Maybe it's inevitable the episode to follow "Identity" would be a let down but this one disappointed me on too many levels.

Spoilers after the screenshot

I was hoping we'd get some follow up with Isaac (Mark Jackson)--some self analysis from him, figuring out why he made the decisions he made; some crew reactions--is everyone really still okay serving with Isaac?--maybe some further insight into the Kaylons. But Isaac only had, I'm pretty sure, one line in this episode and seemed to be reintegrated into the crew as though nothing happened.

I did like the awards ceremony with Yaphit (Norm Macdonald) who really was great in "Identity", something I failed to mention last week because I had so much else I wanted to talk about. And the premise of "Blood of Patriots", a possible treaty between the Union and the Krill, is a follow up to the conflict with the Kaylons.

"Blood of Patriots" begins with a Krill shuttle fleeing the Krill ship the Orville is scheduled to meet with. Ed (Seth MacFarlane) decides to allow the shuttle and its mysterious occupant to take shelter in the Orville shuttle bay. Orville crew enter the shuttle to discover the fugitives are none other than Gordon's (Scott Grimes) old friend Orin (Mackenzie Astin) and Orin's traumatised daughter (Aily Kei).

The episode begins to resemble many episodes of Deep Space Nine featuring Bajorans who can't understand why Bajor or the Federation want to work with Cardassians. Or the Next Generation episode "The Wounded" when Picard is surprised when a Federation captain decides to attack Cardassians against orders. All of these episodes worked better than "Blood of Patriots" because the Star Trek series did a better job establishing a history with the Cardassians and the complexities of their relationships with their victims. In "Blood of Patriots", we have one guy who was abducted after his family was murdered who managed to deal serious damage to his captors after years imprisoned, who dealt this damage apparently without even knowing there was a ceasefire.

I was waiting for Ed to say to the Krill ambassador--these were acts of war no worse than yours. I appreciated the idea and I think we should have fiction that talks about the challenges in getting past atrocities committed on both sides in the interest of peace but this plot just skipped over too much.

I did like the conversation between Gordon and Talla (Jessica Szhor), I liked how he awkwardly prefaced the talk with drinks. But the jokes in the episode mostly felt like the especially tired episodes of Family Guy. Seth MacFarlane wrote this episode and I would have said it's a sign he needs to hand the reins to more out of work Star Trek writers except he has written two very strong episodes this season, "A Happy Refrain" and "Identity part II". I could do with more episodes like those and fewer like this and "All the World is Birthday Cake".

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: The shuttle bay
Current Music: "Red Sails" - David Bowie

What a wonderful episode of The Orville last night. Once again patterning itself on 90s era Star Trek--I was particularly reminded of "The Die is Cast", the 1995 Deep Space Nine episode, but The Orville hits the sweet spot of character and pacing that defies any attempt to explain it by breaking it down to the sum of its parts and influences. I guess you could say it's sentient.

Spoilers after the screenshot

That battle scene in the climax, wow. As it was happening I was brought back to how excited I was to watch a showdown between the Dominion, Cardassians, and Romulans on Deep Space Nine. I remember my friends and I in high school talking about how great it would be to see something like the Battle of Endor from Return of the Jedi on Star Trek but knowing a television effects budget would never accommodate something like that. Even in The Next Generation's "Best of Both Worlds", most of the battles were off-screen as the Borg cut their bloody swath to Earth--we didn't really get a sense of the scope of battle until a flashback in the pilot episode of DS9 years later.

Now we have cgi and we can have those large scale battles any day of the week but I realised it's more than the relative cheapness that makes such things generally feel less special. Too often we get the spectacle without the context that gives it any real weight, the established relationships with characters and their problems. Last week "Identity part 1", written by Brannon Braga and Andre Bomanis, presented a captivating sequence of events and this week, "Identity part 2", written by Seth MacFarlane, picked up with another set of linked subplots, all of them effective, building to that climax.

In one moment I really liked, Ed (Seth MacFarlance) tries to give a coded message to another Union ship while the Kaylons have custody of the Orville. It's one of those gambits seen from so many episodes and movies--in this case, it fails and Ed has to bear the burden of responsibility for his gamble; the loss of a whole other Union ship. Then the Kaylons decide to punish Ed by murdering another crewman, something that finally forces Isaac (Mark Jackson) to switch sides.

I said last week I didn't want Isaac to switch sides by suddenly discovering he has emotions. In the crucial turning point in this episode, when Isaac saves Ty (Kai Wener), I realised I didn't mind so much though it's worth wondering if it's really emotions that Isaac is discovering or if he simply decided the Kaylons have become irrational. Whether or not Isaac is capable of sympathy or empathy, he's the one who's stepped outside Kaylon 1 and breathed the fresh air of varied experience. The Kaylons are forever locked in the experience of their former suffering under their biological enslavers and are content evaluating all other potential relationships on those terms.

It's telling that Kaylon Primary (Graham Hamilton) refers to Roots, the 1976 novel by Alex Haley, for knowledge about slavery on Earth. Roots is a work of fiction--why not examine one of the many actual slave narratives from the 18th and 19th century? He could have examined the works of real former slaves such as Ouladah Equiano, Harriet Jacobs, or Frederick Douglass. For a species dedicated to decisions based on real data, they curiously prefer a work that is manifestly a commentary rather than a primary source.

Meanwhile, Gordon (Scott Grimes) and Kelly (Adrianne Palicki) are on a risky mission to Krill space where they deal with a people unabashedly devoted to an irrational religion. Despite my dislike for MacFarlane's unnuanced perspective on religion, I did like the idea of the more complex Union being caught between the two hostile factions of the extremely rational and the extremely irrational.

I wonder how much this episode will affect future episodes. There's plenty of material to digest now with Isaac, the Krill, and the Kaylons. With this episode, the universe MacFarlane created really feels like it's taken root. Happy Arbour Day.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Space
Current Music: "North by Northwest Overture" - Bernard Herrmann

Last night delivered the best episode of The Orville yet. "A Happy Refrain" didn't merely follow the pattern set by Star Trek: The Next Generation but actually improved on one of the older series' more memorable episodes. Just as I suspected, the show has used Claire and Isaac to create a story like the fourth season TNG episode "In Theory" in which Commander Data and a human attempt a dating relationship. For The Orville, Seth MacFarlane has written something smarter about artificial intelligence and more insightful about human nature than its predecessor. In the process, he creates several scenarios that are both thought provoking and very funny.

Spoilers after the screenshot

"In Theory" portrayed the relationship between Data and a young human woman, Jenna, as arising from his desire to learn more about what it means to be human and her desire for a more emotionally reliable partner. It ends up not working because Jenna discovers she needs a companion who can understand and sympathise with her emotions. The Orville could've gone this route, and in the relationship that's developed between Claire (Penny Johnson Jerald) and Isaac (Mark Jackson), such a trajectory might be plausible from how useful he's been to her in helping care for her children. Instead, though, we find a woman who has a good idea of exactly what she's getting into.

Both Ed (Seth MacFarlane) and Kelly (Adrianne Palicki) remark on how they consider Claire the wisest person on the ship so they're less worried about her than they would be anyone else. When it's suggested that Claire is just projecting her own ideas onto Isaac, Claire provocatively argues, "Don't we all do that, in any relationship, especially when someone's being a little mysterious?"

Arguably, "Happy Refrain" has a point of view completely opposite that of "Primal Urges". What is Isaac if not an elaborate simulation? One could say the relationship interferes with Claire's life--it causes her distress when he's insensitive and who knows how it might complicate the relationship with her kids. Couldn't this be construed a form of porn addiction?

But just like with Data, the point of the episode is to explore the ambiguous edge of sentience; what is the something that distinguishes Isaac from metal and wires? Dwelling on that question too much is a little fruitless when we're talking about a fictional being who's really as sentient as the writers decide he is. But years of commentary and parodies have shown up the flaws in the old concept and MacFarlane is obviously well versed in them. He knows to avoid many of the cues that gave Data away as more human than he was supposed to be. Isaac is much more of an asshole, heartlessly casual about breaking up with Claire because he's had sex with her. The hilarious scene where he follows LaMarr's (J. Lee) bad advice to break off the relationship by acting like a jerk, forcing Claire to break up with him, only further emphasises his limited concern for her feelings.

So when Isaac creates a human simulation for Claire to more satisfyingly share a kiss with we see what a difference a face makes. It's not just the physical contact of a kiss, it's the extra, tiny bits of information one instinctively reads from every minuscule change in a human facial expression.

It doesn't hurt that actor Mark Jackson's not a bad looker, either. Projecting indeed.

With the great, absorbing central plot the episode has a lot of excellent garnish; the two social circles of the guys in engineering and Kelly, Claire, and Talla (Jessica Szohr); Bortus' (Peter Macon) moustache (that alone almost killed me); and a surprisingly cool sequence with a symphony orchestra in the shuttle bay conducted by Mark Graham, who's "head of music preparation" for The Orville and has also worked on the past few Star Wars and Marvel films.

"A Happy Refrain", especially after last week was a bit disappointing, was really great to see. The performances by Mark Jackson and Penny Johnson Jerald were amazing, too--I have to say I really underestimated Johnson Jerald. But I don't remember her ever being this good before. If I had six thumbs they'd all be up for this episode.

Twitter Sonnet #1201

A straying mount conveys his rider wrong.
Addresses writ on ev'ry stone were odd.
The even blocks were tasked to prop a song.
This castle's known to neither witch nor god.
In corners gathered webs absorb the shade.
The rider's steps resound in mould and stone.
In glittered motes the light begins to fade.
At length she finds a plate of ravaged bone.
Abandoned chairs were placed about the hall.
A banquet long decayed awaits the guest.
A whisper cuts the dust behind a wall.
The rider spies an eye but late at rest.
A sudden rain barraged the broken door.
A flash of light revealed but little more.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Space
Current Music: "Apart" - The Cure

The second season of The Orville premièred last night, just barely qualifying as a 2018 season, with a low key, entertaining relationship comedy episode. Most of the humour fell flat for me but there were still a lot of jokes that did land, particularly the cold open. An episode that seems at first like it's going to be about Bortus ends up being a rumination on the conflict between logic and emotion in relationships, expounded through the dubious choices and opinions of the show's characters. It was certainly nice to see them all again.

Spoilers after the screenshot

I guess this was the episode that was originally intended to be the finale of the first season and the big guest star teased turned out not to be Patrick Stewart, as many people assumed--Stewart's been on most of Seth MacFarlane's other shows, it seemed obvious he'd be on MacFarlane's Star Trek: The Next Generation homage show. Instead, we got Jason Alexander as the easy going bartender with rhinoceros horns. His appearance was brief but good, hopefully we'll see him regularly as the show's Guinan.

Ed (Seth MacFarlane), after not ending up getting back together with Kelly (Adrianne Palicki), is depressed and drinking a lot. Alara (Halston Sage) joins him at the bar and the two talk about how much they have in common, the biggest hint so far of a possible relationship between Ed and Alara, something I'm in no hurry to see, as much as I like both characters. I have nothing against people having relationships with big age disparities but the way their chemistry's been developed so far he feels a lot like her dad. Fortunately, the scene ended with the one laugh I got from the episode's central-ish plot; Bortus (Peter Macon) interrupts them essentially to say they need to stop the ship so he can get out and pee. Of course, there's more to it--Bortus' species, the Moclans, only urinate once a year so they have a big ceremony when they do. His deadpan exposition, the alarmed and confused reactions of Ed and Alara, and the crescendoing stinger with a fade to black just about killed me.

After this, I was done with Bortus' ceremonial piss. I didn't laugh at Gordon (Scott Grimes) and LaMarr's (J. Lee) comments in the conference room or Ed struggling to fine polite euphemisms in conversation. I did enjoy Gordon's attempts to learn from LaMarr how to flirt with women. The bit with the jacket zippers was funny as was the dating simulator.

There are three other plots going on in this episode--there's Ed poorly adjusting to Kelly's new boyfriend, Cassius (Chris Johnson); there's Alara dealing with her blind date with Dann (Mike Henry) and its fallout; and there's Claire (Penny Johnson Jerald) dealing with her kids and her oddly evolving relationship with the artificial lifeform, Isaac (Mark Jackson).

MacFarlane doesn't write the dynamic between Claire, her kids, and Isaac nearly as well as Brannon Braga but her eldest child, Marcus (BJ Tanner), falling under the influence of a problem classmate does have a very Jake Sisco and Nog feel to it. After Marcus and his friend hack into a replicator to get a bottle of vodka, arguments result and Claire turns to Isaac for advice. His idea that she punish Marcus by giving him a dangerous amount of vodka was too much of a sitcom cliche for me but with Isaac's other pieces of brutal advice the point is made that Claire, while angry in the moment with Isaac, ultimately appreciates his candour and logic. I wonder if they're heading in the same direction as the fourth season TNG episode "In Theory".

Meanwhile, Dann does not appreciate Alara's brutal honesty when it comes to his bad poetry and Ed has to explain to Cassius that when your girlfriend's upset one of the worst things you can do is tell her to calm down. "A woman can't really love a man unless he's part dope," Ed explains in his infinite wisdom, apparently indicating Cassius should've been supportive of Kelly's feelings rather that pointing out her flawed logic. As though Ed himself has never needed illogical emotional support. But what was Kelly so upset about?

Ed had done a "drive by"--he'd taken a shuttlecraft out and flew past her quarters to find out who her new boyfriend was. I had two stages of reaction to this--when Cassius more or less defends Ed's behaviour as bad but understandable, I was amazed. How could you excuse Ed spying into Kelly's personal quarters? But then I thought about the term "drive by" and imagined an ex-boyfriend driving by a girlfriend's house and seeing her with her boyfriend through an open window. That seemed to fit the tone of the discussion better--bad behaviour but not horrendous. I found myself wondering why Ed flying by in a shuttlecraft looking in from the outside of a viewport seemed worse than a car driving by a house. I guess it's because I infer more of an expectation of privacy on Kelly's part, though maybe I shouldn't. It's not like that apparent black void is really empty of any eyes, and come to think of it, it's not unreasonable to expect there are sensors capable of simply looking in on the various portholes--this feels like I'm overthinking it.

Anyway, it was a decent episode. I'm looking forward to the rest of the season and hopefully some more Brannon Braga episodes.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: The bar
Current Music: "Mananitas" - Lucha Reyes

It sure didn't feel like last night's new Orville, "Mad Idolatry", was the season finale, probably because it wasn't intended to be, the original finale having been moved to the beginning of next season. But on the other hand, last night's episode did reaffirm the show's essential concept, a vision of an optimistic future, in a nice way.

Spoilers after the screenshot

As usual, there are many episodes of Star Trek or other works of Science Fiction that one could point to as influences. Most obviously the third season Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Who Watches the Watchers", which is unquestionably a superior version of the story. The planet in "Mad Idolatry" that jumps ahead seven hundred years every eleven days is a cool concept but "Who Watches the Watchers" allows us to watch in real time the effects of an encounter with advanced technology on a humanoid culture that doesn't even have steel yet.

The pope character introduced only briefly in "Mad Idolatry" comes off as much too broad, one moment condemning a child to corporal punishment, the next willing to hold to principle in revealing the truth to his people about their deity. In the end, the show acknowledges that Kelly (Adrianna Palicki) was only a convenient image for a phenomenon that mainly evolved due to the nature of the sentient culture itself. But it would have been nice if this had occurred to someone on the Orville sooner. Then again, this isn't a crew of deep thinkers, at least not as deep as Picard and his people, a distinguishing feature of the show I do enjoy.

I also thought the optimism in the end was sweet, in addition to being the thing that distinguishes it from "Who Watches the Watchers". And I loved the Richard Donner Superman Krypton costumes.

The Kelly worshipping culture becomes a mirror of the Union culture, a reminder to the crew that human beings had the same kind of destructive religions and rose above them. It works as an affirmation, for the crew and the viewers, that this is the ultimate course of sentient nature. I'm not sure I'm quite that optimistic myself but I'm happy that some people are.

I enjoyed Ed (Seth MacFarlane) and Kelly hanging out. And the sequence at the beginning of the episode was pretty funny, especially Gordon's (Scott Grimes) line about his jammies. Ed breaking the rules to protect Kelly was a nicely plausible motive for them deciding not to get back together at the end, too.

Anyway, I look forward to next season, this one was certainly a good start. Next season I hope they draw in more Star Trek writers and I'd like to see more scripts by Liz Heldens.

Current Mood: groggy
Current Location: 寺
Current Music: "The Ballad of Hollis Brown" Bob Dylan cover - Nina Simone

Anyone accusing The Orville of being a two dimensional show would be partially right, at least regarding last night's entertaining new episode, "New Dimensions". It's my least favourite episode so far, the fact that I liked it a lot being largely due to the strength of the series as a whole. It's really built something with these characters so even in a weaker episode their return is still a very welcome experience.

Spoilers after the screenshot

The episode begins with a cool shot of the Orville docked at a space station followed by a not especially funny bit where Gordon (Scott Grimes) and John (J.Lee) play a prank involving feeding a piece of Yaphit (Norm Macdonald) to Bortus (Peter Macon). As often happens on the Orville, particularly in episodes written by MacFarlane himself, like this one, the comedy isn't nearly as good as the character building and the Sci-Fi elements of the plot. The only moment that really made me laugh in this episode was Isaac (Mark Jackson) stroking Gordon's arm, misunderstanding his advise on learning about human bonding via a relationship with a cat.

MacFarlane isn't as good at writing the chemistry between his character, Ed, and Kelly (Adrianne Palicki) as Liz Heldens was but their conflict in this episode is more intellectually interesting. It touches on the ego-born fallacy of the "self-made man". At first I was a little annoyed that Ed was making such a big deal about it but in the end I find the conversation worthy enough to have, particularly on a popular family show. It's another way the show is distinguished from Star Trek: The Next Generation--Picard may have had issues, most notably in dealing with children, but the captain of the Federation's flagship doesn't have some of the humbler character flaws of the lower level Union ship's captain. It was another moment where I felt MacFarlane was drawing more on the strengths of sitcom story-telling than on Sci-Fi, particular since it ties into the ongoing tension between him and Kelly.

John's story was also very good and I loved how, despite possessing a hidden great intelligence, he's a complete klutz at management. Gordon's immediate reaction to learning of John's new management position--a sympathetic, "That sucks!"--is great and nicely followed by some really stupid advice about gumdrops John's too inexperienced to recognise for what it is. His frustration is well played after the slow build on how bad an idea it is to give out gumdrops to his team and ask them to share their feelings.

I also really liked the two dimensional realm. The buildup, by showing the characters reacting to it in wonder before actually showing it was a really wonderful idea and made the special effect seem better than it might have otherwise been. Though it kind of reminded me of the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

And I really liked the disgusting smuggler slurping noodles on the viewscreen. For an episode I thought relatively weak it was pretty damned good.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: 紙
Current Music: "Why is It Always This Way?" - Ramones

While The Orville is generally a mixture of drama and comedy, it showed last night that in the comedy department at least it can outdo Star Trek. The occasional comedy episode of any Star Trek series is usually pretty awkward but in a homage to the "Naked Time" and "Naked Now" episodes of Star Trek and Star Trek: TNG last night The Orville showed it's much more of a natural at comedy--even while maintaining the sincerity of its universe. A lot of the credit here goes to writer Liz Heldens and director Jamie Babbit who are both clearly more at ease handling relationship humour than MacFarlane and they finally gave Kelly (Adrian Palicki) more of a personality in the process.

Spoilers after the screenshot

The episode also features a guest appearance by Rob Lowe, playing the blue skinned alien who was in bed with Kelly when Ed (Seth MacFarlane) walked in on them in the pilot episode. This is the crisis that led to Ed and Kelly's divorce so naturally it's uncomfortable that duty requires Lowe's character, Darulio, to be onboard in his professional capacity as archaeologist. He's examining the DNA on an ancient artefact that factors into territorial strife between two species with exceptionally impressive makeup and wardrobe.

This subplot mostly falls by the wayside as Kelly finds her flame for Darulio rekindled. Ed, of course, is passionately angry until . . . he also falls for Darulio.

One review I've read has claimed that the joke here is that Ed is lusting after a man--something I'd find improbable just from the fact the episode's director is gay--but while Ed's monologue about the uselessness of labels is funny (as is Malloy's helpless counterargument "I--think it's just easier to have words . . .") the joke is in the extreme shift in Ed's feelings. This bit is at least as old as Midsummer Night's Dream but it's deployed well here and MacFarlane delivers Heldens' dialogue sincerely and with nuance.

It ends up that Darulio's species emits some kind of pheromone when they go into "heat" that makes them irresistibly attractive, something that has an unexpected effect on the recurring slime creature named Yaphit (Norm Macdonald) who suddenly finds Dr. Finn (Penny Johnson Jerald) responding to his advances. The surprising part of it is how sweet Yaphit comes off showing Claire around his quarters and explaining how mitosis turned his mother into himself and his brother.

And this episode definitely had Kelly's best moments since she was interrogated by Robert Knepper. The scene where she thanks Darulio for the cheesy move where he brushes a stray strand of hair from her face was perfectly played by Palicki, her sudden clear attraction explaining why she's cool with the move being conveyed subtly to make the shift funnier.

Also featuring some nice stuff with Alara (Halston Sage) getting business done and a surprisingly effective space battle at the end, this mostly felt like a light episode but it was still pretty satisfying.

Current Location: 船
Current Music: "Mountain Dew" - The Pogues and The Dubliners

Last night's new Orville, "Into the Fold", was the most Star Trek-ish episode yet--no surprise considering it was written by Brannon Braga and Andre Bormanis and the episode was directed by Braga. It felt very much like an episode of Voyager where Janeway or someone else, having crash landed on a planet, has to rely more on her wits than technology to survive but "Into the Fold" brings in the element of a single mother in an interesting way coming, I suspect, from the insight of at least one writer who's a parent. It also distinguished Isaac a bit from Data in that, while his business with the children at times felt like Data's awkward interactions with kids in episodes of TNG like "Hero Worship", Isaac seems much more like a parent's wish fulfilment; he's a character who's free to say those things an exasperated parent would love to say to kids but hopefully has too much of a sense of responsibility to actually say.

Spoilers after the screenshot

Braga was a showrunner on Voyager and also worked on Star Trek: The Next Generation and the character interactions, particularly between Dr. Finn (Penny Johnson Jerald) and her kidnapper, felt like something from 90s Trek in a very effective way. The way Finn deduces and acts on the kidnapper's attraction to her when she convinces him to go and get the first aid kit from the shuttle was nicely done. I like how much it trusts the audience to pick up on that subtext without directly explaining it. Mind you, I have seen a few people on the internet criticise Finn for shooting a guy who was just trying to help her, apparently choosing not to consider the significance of the fact that Finn was locked in a cell and not permitted even to use her communicator. It's nice that The Orville, isn't pitching for the lowest common denominator. I still have some hope that if you treat an audience like they're intelligent even the normally less intelligent might be inspired to improve.

I'm still not completely sold on Penny Johnson Jerald and I don't quite understand why I'm the only one who seems to find her a bit flat and unconvincing. Maybe she's a Robert Forster type, I didn't appreciate him at first either, specialising in playing a kind of low key, emotionally walled off person I'm not attuned to. But I loved Forster on Twin Peaks where I kind of got him as a Gary Cooper type, maybe I'll get to that place with Jerald, too. Certainly her character, Finn, shines in the episode being saavy and quick. She is a bit like John Wayne or Gary Cooper in a 50s western, able to draw and shoot on someone when she has to but remembering to teach her children to use stun when they can on principle.

I guess the nearest equivalent on Star Trek to Finn's relationship with her kids would be Benjamin Sisko and his son Jake on Deep Space Nine but never on Star Trek did you get the credibly messy rivalry dynamic you see between Ty and Marcus--not even in "Disaster" when Picard was stuck in a turbolift with a bunch of kids. Finn casually saying that she decided to be a single parent raises eyebrows when considering she has to corral these two and work as the ship's doctor. In a world where no-one has to work for money, such a decision doesn't make a whole lot of sense so it's a lucky thing Isaac (Mark Jackson) seems to have earned a place in the family by the end of the episode. I'm not a parent but I've had enough dealings with kids to get some catharsis when Isaac took Marcus' game and blasted it.

"Into the Fold" was co-written by Andre Bormanis who has serves as a technical consultant on The Orville, a job he also had on Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. I suspect this is why the suspenseful shuttle crash sequence had a nice feeling of authenticity to it that helped create that tension.

Twitter Sonnet #1050

As wigs'll gallop past a polling steed.
As timeless tungsten clicks a hand.
A gripping cloud's a field of wheatless need.
Beside a river scythe's a deathless land.
The last in patchy jacket boxes smokes.
Above the seat a pack of cards'll plot.
Their newest suits include the wheels and spokes.
Collected stars insert a steward dot.
As stripes define the brown a shoe returns.
In closing, plaids absorb the light beyond.
A mountain claimed a ship's galactic turns.
With cookies lined for age the chips abscond.
Confusing saxophone conditions blurt.
Internal buses can the stomach hurt.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: 世界
Current Music: "Cherry Came Too" - The Jesus and Mary Chain

A particularly entertaining new episode of The Orville last night, "Majority Rule", provided suspense, insight, and satire based on the idea of social media run amok. Like most episode concepts on The Orville so far, this one has plenty of precedent--I was reminded of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Justice", the Doctor Who serial Vengeance on Varos, and the Dave Eggers novel The Circle. But unlike those stories, the Orville leans more into the comedic half of its comedy/drama premise providing some of the best laughs on the series yet.

Spoilers after the screenshot

The concept of a world with parallel evolution, where the species and civilisation on an alien world resembles our own, is an old one, often used on Star Trek without any idea of convincing the audience that it's plausible (despite the TNG episode "The Chase" coming up with an explanation for it). The point was to provide a scenario where the futuristic crew could interact with a version of Earth's past where some aspect was exaggerated, whether it was the idea that the Nazis had won World War II or that the Roman Empire was still around in the 20th century. Hopefully audiences aren't too wise ass to accept the concept here, especially since the episode is lampooning wise asses.

I was also reminded of the Next Generation episodes "First Contact" and "Who Watches the Watchers" and, like the latter example, "Majority Rule" is about anthropologists on the planet who have gotten into trouble. The crew of the Orville are tasked with finding and saving them despite the fact that very little is known about the culture--presumably that's why the anthropologists were there. One could knitpick and say the Orville's level of technology should allow them to send down cloaked probes or something but then you'd be shifting the subject of drama and comedy in the episode into the realm of exposition so such knitpicks miss the point of this kind of fantasy.

In a funny conversation about the appropriate level of grinding one should expect in a dance partner, John (J. Lee) obnoxiously demonstrates his technique on a statue of a folk hero, netting him thousands of "down votes" when the locals of course catch him on camera. This turns out to be a real problem because ten thousand down votes mean he'll be lobotomised.

The episode in a way picks up where The Circle left off. You might be unaware of the fact that a film version of The Circle was released this year starring Tom Hanks and Emma Watson. "What?" you say. "Did you just make that up?" No, no, it was a real movie--see, here's the Wikipedia entry. John Boyega and Karen Gillan were in it, too, and it was Bill Paxton's last film. How did you miss it? Probably because, if you were one of the few who saw an ad for it, it was too generic for your brain to register. But the studio sure didn't seem eager to promote it. It's an unremarkable film, curiously with a message in almost direct ideological opposition to its source novel which criticises the potential corrosive culture that might be created by social media run rampant. The novel and film end just as the kind of voting seen in "Majority Rule" are about to take over the world but the book spends a lot more time exploring the psychological impact on characters than "Majority Rule".

But the episode does have a few moments that explore what this environment is like for a variety of people. One woman can't even order a cup of tea because the cafe doesn't serve people with over 5,000 down votes. She's forced to explain to the barista that it's because of mistakes she made in her youth--in this world, even the barista is an arbiter on your life history. A nice scene on the Orville later has that barista, Lysella (Giorgia Whigham), discussing her culture with Ed (Seth MacFarlane), Bortus (Peter Macon), Isaac (Mark Jackson), and Alara (Halston Sage). It's a polite conversation that lets anyone watching in on the problem in what Ed calls "absolute democracy"--Lysella doesn't sound crazy when she asks what about all the voices that go unheard in a merely representative democracy. Bortus and Isaac offer the statements "Voices should be earned" and "I think you're confusing opinions with knowledge" politely enough but it would have been nice if they'd elaborated more. Anyone criticising the show for not being original here, though, ought to be reminded that some things definitely bear repeating.

In one of the funnier parts of the episode, a man angrily approaches Alara because she's inadvertently worn a hat belonging to a culture or belief system she doesn't know about. His level of anger at her innocent cultural appropriation is hilarious and, unsurprisingly, some reviewers have no sense of humour about it, including a reviewer from The A.V. Club who puts the blame on Alara for incident. So while the message of "Majority Rule" might not be new, it's certainly not obsolete.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: 宇宙
Current Music: "London" - The Smiths

Last night brought "Krill", the first episode of The Orville not written by Seth MacFarlane and the first written by someone who used to write for a Star Trek series, David A. Goodman. Having worked on four episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise as well as having been a writer for Family Guy and Futurama--the famous Star Trek parody episode--Goodman seems ideally suited for The Orville and "Krill" was pretty good, featuring genuinely tense action sequences, some thoughtful moral dilemma, and comedy.

Spoilers after the screenshot

The episode begins with one of the funnier moments on the series so far as crewmembers are delighted that Bortus (Peter Macon) seems able to eat any and everything. Mostly, though, the comedy was one of the weaker aspects of this episode--Gordon's (Scott Grimes) references to 20th century car rental companies not being particularly funny, though I don't necessarily think it's an anachronism. Who's to say 20th century commercials aren't considered classic art of some kind in the future? Despite this, I really enjoyed the chemistry between Ed (Seth MacFarlane) and Gordon.

The Krill actually remind me of the new Klingons on Star Trek: Discovery--they both seem more like vampire Cardassians than Klingons though the vampiric angle is a little more literal on The Orville with Gordon actually calling them space vampires. The differences in the shows' budgets is clear from this similarity; the ships, costumes, and makeup for the Discovery timeline Klingons being for more beautiful and intricate. But as in other points of comparison, The Orville outstrips Discovery with better writing and the Krill's motives are much clearer, being a religious crusade founded on a belief in racial superiority. I'm still not clear on what the Discovery Klingons expect to get from war with the Federation.

Ed's moral delimma is much clearer, too. By the end of the episode, he asks the very natural question, what the hell else was he supposed to do but wipe out the whole crew who were bent on destroying a defenceless human colony? Yet the point that the children he went out of his way to save are likely to grow up hating the Union goes to show that a victory to-day puts the ultimate goal of peace that much further away. This may have been what Discovery was trying to say with Michael killing the leader of the STD timeline Klingons.

Twitter Sonnet #1043

In silent thought the pocket watch debates.
As steeping tea observes automatons.
A molten tide in labs in truth abates.
Solutions sleep within the arced batons.
Without a further car the train relents.
In facts escaping out the spout was steamed.
No celery the sortied troop laments.
Or salary o'er metal wig the dreamed.
To-night the frosted window breaks the page.
Untimely ink reforms to blackest sheets.
The linking numbers walk for love and rage.
The rhythmic heart returns on reddest beats.
The hour pins describe an arcing day.
A lantern lit in green illumes the way.

Current Mood: hungry
Current Location: 寺
Current Music: "Red Right Hand" - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Last night brought the best episode of The Orville yet and not just because Charlize Theron was in it. Director Jonathan Frakes brought his A game, particularly when it came to action sequences, the episode's plot was more inventive than I thought it would be, and it was the funniest episode I've seen so far.

Spoilers after the screenshot

I expected the episode to be a bit like the Firefly episode "Our Mrs. Reynolds" and to some extent it was. The Captain, Ed (Seth MacFarlane), falls for a beautiful guest star who isn't what she claims to be. Pria's (Theron) true identity as a time travelling thief of historical artefacts makes her a bit like Vash from Star Trek: The Next Generation, too, something that makes me wonder if we'll be seeing her again. Theron has certainly been vocal about her fondness for MacFarlane so it would hardly be a surprise.

And she's good in the episode in a role that naturally becomes a focal point because she's subject of a debate over whether or not she can be trusted. It seems pretty clear from the beginning that she's going to betray the Orville crew at some point but Theron still makes the most of scenes where we're invited to scrutinise her, seemingly having a lot of fun.

My only real complaint about the episode is that I wish Ed had given some new insight in his pillow talk with Pria regarding his relationship with Kelly (Adrian Palicki). Saying he was too focused on work is starting to sound like a broken record.

But that accounts for only a moment. I enjoyed Kelly and Alara (Halston Sage) investigating Pria's rooms and I really loved Isaac (Mark Jackson) and Gordon (Scott Grimes) playing practical jokes on each other. Frakes uses the right understated wide shot when Isaac walks onto the bridge with the Mr. Potato Head gear.

And gods, the leg business. It's the first bit of humour that really felt like Family Guy but still didn't feel like parody. It's the right amount of sudden over-the-top when the shot begins making you think it's going to have something to do with Gordon's alarm clock and suddenly, nope, his whole leg is gone. Gordon's anger and then grudgingly admitting that it was a great joke were also perfectly played.

John Debney's score for the episode was a real standout during the effectively taut tension of the shuttlecraft escaping from the asteroid, in the dark matter storm, and in the wormhole sequence. This was some of the most effective sci-fi action I've seen in years.

Current Mood: groggy
Current Location: 日
Current Music: "Days of Wine and Roses" - Frank Sinatra

You travel through space, sooner or later you're going to run into one of those whole civilisations who don't know they're living on a space ship or a robot or a giant slug, until you need to tell them they're going to collide with a sun or something. It's happened already to the Orville in the fourth episode of Seth MacFarlane's series, once again an episode written by MacFarlane, and once again a pretty entertaining one.

It was only a few months ago we saw another new iteration of this plot, in the season finale of Doctor Who where it was one of a bunch of concepts thrown in as window dressing for the main conflict between the Doctor, the Master, and the Cybermen. Of course it wasn't the first time Doctor Who has used this kind of plot--it's not unlike The Ark from the First Doctor era, or Underworld from the Fourth Doctor era. And of course it's happened on Star Trek more than once, the most obvious model being the concisely titled "For the World is Hollow and I have Touched the Sky".

Spoilers after the screenshot

The Orville episode, "If the Stars Should Appear", presents a less complicated version of the concept than the one shown in the recent Twelfth Doctor finale, allowing the crew to gradually learn about this society and its totalitarian theocracy headed by the menacing Robert Knepper as the villain Hamelac.

The scene where he tortures Kelly (Adrian Palicki) for info is one of the scenes that highlight exactly how the show is distinguished from Star Trek--we may have seen scenes like this dozens of times, but Kirk, Picard, or Spock would never say the people the torturer seeks were last seen having sex with his mother and high fiving. A lot of the humour on this show feels like MacFarlane was watching Star Trek years ago, wishing dialogue would be pushed just a little further. Now that he's doing it it is refreshing.

At the same time, the simplicity of his presentation of this well used concept is intriguing. As good as that Doctor Who finale was, it's nice to see someone saying these old stories are worth stopping and dwelling on rather than using them as wallpaper. Because ideologies preventing us from confronting our self destructive treatment of the environment certainly haven't gone away. One might think it's too transparently talking about climate change, but it's about the same level of subtlety Gene Roddenberry was aiming at in the 60s.

Of course, if it'd been more like Star Trek in the 60s, Ed (Seth MacFarlance) would have at least one make out session with a native. As it is, there's some indication that Alara (Halston Sage) is starting to get a crush on her captain. This might go over better if it's handled by writers other than MacFarlane, but I'd certainly like the show to explore other relationship issues aside from one partner complaining the other spends too much time focusing on their career.

The scene between Bortus (Peter Macon) and Klyden (Chad Coleman) at the beginning of the episode was cute but it would have been better coming before last week's--it's hard to settle into a little domestic scene when the memory of Klyden forcing their infant to get a sex change is too recent.

Otherwise, though, I enjoyed the action sequence and LaMarr's (J.Lee) "Boom, bitch!"--another moment of Star Trek dialogue being pushed into something just a bit more down to Earth--and I liked Isaac (Mark Jackson) puzzling over the inferior humans. Liam Neeson's cameo at the end of the episode helped lend the story just the right amount of gravity, too.

Current Mood: hungry
Current Location: 内
Current Music: "Monkey to Man" - Elvis Costello and the Imposters

There shouldn't be any mistaking The Orville for a parody now, though I'm sure people still will. Last night's new episode, "About a Girl", is the third written by Seth MacFarlane, making that three more episodes written for The Orville than MacFarlane's written for Family Guy in the past ten years. It presents the kind of issue episode that has been absent from television since Star Trek and while I have one or two quibbles about it I'm mainly excited to see it. The Orville even goes some places Star Trek never dared to go.

The modern trend in television to present season long arcs has led to some wonderful story telling but it makes it difficult to tell the kind of story seen in "About a Girl". Bortus (Peter Macon) and Klyden (Chad Coleman), a couple who belong to an all male species called the Moclan, give birth to an incredibly rare female infant. The mostly human crew of the Orville are shocked when they learn the two wish for the child to undergo a sex change operation.

I was expecting the episode to get more flack for using "gender" and "sex" as synonyms though I haven't seen it yet in nitpicky reviews of the episode. I have seen some anger that these people in the future apparently aren't up on the same sociological literature as some viewers. One could argue that the crew of the Orville ought to be using state of the art terminology but maybe this is an area where a comparison to Star Trek isn't appropriate. The Orville isn't the flagship and it's crewed by at least two people we know to have had troubled careers. So instead of the best minds of the Federation tackling these issues, we have some mostly adequate minds of the Union muddling through.

In this way, the show actually turns some familiar, illogical plot devices of Star Trek into somet more feasible and even thought provoking prompts. It didn't really make a lot of sense that the Enterprise bridge crew were constantly being drafted as lawyers in courtroom episodes, for example. Here, I can believe that Kelly (Adrianne Palicki), with only one year of law training, is the most qualified person available to defend Bortus when he decides he doesn't want to allow his baby to receive a sex change. And we also get some instructive demonstrations of why certain arguments about sexual equality, while satisfying, might not be very effective in getting the point across.

It's satisfying watching Alara (Halston Sage) beat Bortus in a boxing ring and it's funny hearing Gordon (Scott Grimes) on the stand demonstrating that men can be intellectually inferior to women. But virtually all of Kelly and Ed's (Seth MacFarlane) evidence is anecdotal and nearly all of it relies on aliens. No-one who pays attention to this episode will come away thinking men are superior to women, the flaws in Ed and Kelly's arguments are useful to get people to think about what doesn't work when you're engaging with people of an opposite opinion. I really like the fact that what brings Bortus around is watching Rankin/Bass' Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, which demonstrates the unexpected power art can have.

The episode is somewhat similar to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Outcast" about a member of a sexless species, the J'naii, who becomes female. The Moclan differ from the J'naii in that everyone is male rather than neither male or female, which should raise a question. How does one define sex or gender in the absence of any other? And of course we find out that the Moclan aren't single sex at all, that the prevalence of male Moclan is at least partially the product of misogyny endemic to the culture. Biological females have been effectively bred out of the populace, something that doesn't seem far-fetched for a technologically advanced misogynist people.

Like "The Outcast", one of the nice things about "About a Girl" is that by recontextualising so much it introduces new ways of thinking about issues and highlighting abstract connexions that might not have even been consciously considered by the writer. It introduces the concept of a basically liberal people allied with a culture that fundamentally rejects more socially liberal values, though at the same time, Bortus and Klyden are a same sex couple in the main cast, something Star Trek hasn't managed to do on television yet, though a same sex couple is apparently forthcoming on Discovery.*

In fact, my only real complaint about the episode is that I wished more time had been spent developing Bortus and Klyden's relationship before getting to this story. The conflicts here would probably have been a lot more interesting portrayed late in a second season. But that's a minor quibble compared to my delight that there's a thought provoking show, willing to engage with issues, that has an enormous number of viewers.

*The relationship between Dax and a former lover's symbiote in a new female body on Deep Space Nine was close but not really the same thing.

Twitter Sonnet #1036

The curling shoe was like a thunder clap.
As winds are bending trees to castle ears.
In just a moment dripped from wooden tap.
The final court arranged a time for beers.
Uncopied eyes arrange around the monk.
A dragging stone arrives atop the game.
The worth of weight was not in how it sunk.
The waiting paint absorbs a shrinking frame.
As sparking space enclosed the ship they watched.
Although the canvas blinked it caught the sight.
Beneath the dime in time to wrench the botched.
In ordered stakes the bet amends the light.
A sign regressed to shell amid the head.
Ideas append the tort remained unsaid.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: A shuttle
Current Music: "I Do, Do You?" - Dinah Shore

Many people seem to feel that the second episode of The Orville, "Command Performance", which aired last night, is an improvement over the first episode and in some ways I agree. It had the first moment that really made me laugh thanks to a cameo by Jeffrey Tambor and Holland Taylor as Ed's parents. The scene takes the fractious relationship between Deanna Troi and her mother and pushes it to the higher comedic pitch Orville allows by having them discuss Ed's colon over the main viewer. Yet even this scene doesn't sabotage the reality of the story as a similar moment in a parody might--I believe Ed might have parents who embarrass him this much. And this represents what might be really interesting about the show if it can get through some growing pains, though I might settle for it becoming more of a straight forward space opera--that stuff tends to land more on the show than the comedy stuff does.

I think one of the reasons this episode represents an improvement is actually the directing--surprising given the first episode was directed by Jon Favreau. Robert Duncan McNeill, who played Tom Paris on Star Trek Voyager and who directed several episodes of that series, brings even more of a Star Trek feel to The Orville. The beats at the beginning especially, with an establishing shot of the ship followed by a low momentum scene in Ed's office felt exactly like the beginning of so many Voyager, Deep Space Nine, and Next Generation episodes. This episode was again written by Seth MacFarlane and it made me even more eager to see how the show might be with a teleplay by a Star Trek writer.

"Command Performance" combines two relatively familiar plots--humans getting caught in an alien zoo and someone taking command for the first time--you could cite TOS's "The Menagerie" and Data's subplot in TNG's "Redemption" along with many other examples. In this case, the human zoo plot is used to put Ed (Seth MacFarlane) and Kelly (Adrianne Palicki) in a locked room together to hash out some of their relationship issues. It was a nice scene, it helped Kelly feel like more of a character, especially thanks to a nice, open, conversational performance from Palicki, and it really gave a sense of the two of them having had a relationship. The story about the opera and Ed being so high he believed he would be paralysed if he sat still too long was funny in a fairly authentic way.

The other plot centres on the ship's security chief, Alara (Halston Sage), who has to take command in the absence of Ed and Kelly because the normal third in line, Bortus (Peter Macon), has laid an egg and must sit on it for twenty one days, an idea which sounds like it'll be explored more in the third episode. I liked Alara's plot, especially the scene where she rushes down to the shuttle bay after an accident that's ripped an impressive hole in the deck. I found myself really caught up in her anxiety about responsibility and there's also a nice conversation between her and Dr. Finn (Penny Johnson Jerald) about the burden of command.

Maybe this means I'm getting old but I wish Alara was played by an older actress. I think in the first episode it's established that Alara's species matures faster but I would have liked to have seen some evidence of this in the episode. Her taking the tequila shots from the replicators was a nice bit of humanising but it would have been nice if she'd had a moment where she really showed there was an older mind inside that body. I think there've been some complaints about a young actress being in this role purely for sex appeal. I don't have anything against sex appeal myself, even if it stretches credibility--it is fantasy, after all. But it would have been nice if I could buy into her character a little more. On the other hand, maybe I'm thinking of this as too much like Star Trek--this isn't the flagship so maybe a really young security officer isn't far fetched at all. Halston Sage does a decent job in the role--I found her halting delivery a little distracting but I think she's doing it to sound alien.

Less impressive is Penny Johnson Jerald as Dr. Finn. Jerald is actually a Star Trek veteran--she played Cassidy Yates on Deep Space Nine, but unfortunately I'm only reminded of how boring I thought that character was, largely because of Jerald's lacklustre performance. But I don't know, maybe she'll grow on me. I liked her reference to Obi-Wan Kenobi, I only wish the name had slid off her tongue a little more naturally. I'm still looking forward to the next episode.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: The bridge
Current Music: "I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down" - Elvis Costello and the Attractions

I've been kind of fascinated by the extreme gulf between critical and audience reaction to The Orville, the new Sci-Fi adventure comedy that premièred on Sunday. Rotten Tomatoes currently says the show's scored 22% positive in critical reviews but the audience score is 90%. It's not just on Rotten Tomatoes I see this divide--nearly every online review I've read is negative, some downright vitriolic, while in the comments section I see mostly people puzzled and somewhat taken aback by all the negative reviews. The general consensus among the comments I've looked at seems to be that while the pilot episode is flawed the show's not bad at all and has a lot of potential. This is basically my feeling after having watched it.

At Comic Con this year, I was already hearing a lot of jabs at Orville on panels, more than one person calling it a rip-off of Galaxy Quest, which it certainly isn't. The film Galaxy Quest is a spoof centred on the actors on a Star Trek style show while Orville is clearly not a parody at all but an earnest attempt to create a space opera with heavy homages to Star Trek but with a more comedic tone. This might have been close to the Galaxy Quest series that has been in development for a long time but at best I'd say it's two shows in the same genre. If you're angry at Orville for being too much like Galaxy Quest you might as well swear off Deep Space Nine for being too much like Babylon 5 or Battlestar Galactica for being too much like Space Battleship Yamato.

The pilot of the Orville is directed by Jon Favreau and shots of the ship in dock and leaving it are nicely done, clearly loving homages to shots of the Enterprise leaving dock in the first two Star Trek films and I really, really love the idea of wanting to create that sense of awe at the sight of a starship again. Seth MacFarlane in the lead role as Captain Mercer and Scott Grimes as helmsman Gordon Malloy in the approaching shuttle craft have comedic dialogue about drinking too much the night before; it's silly but it functions within the reality of the show. I found this moment, like many others in the episode, not laugh out loud funny but amusing and in its way it enhances the coolness of the space stuff by the contrast.

One of the things that makes the show different from Star Trek and many other space operas is that the Orville and its crew are by no means top of the line. It's not the flagship, it's not an awesome prototype, it's just a nice ship. The helmsman and the navigator, John LaMarr (J. Lee), take the usual buddy dynamic seen between LeForge and Data or O'Brian and Bashir and dial it to something more low brow, though Malloy is supposed to be a great pilot and one of the surprisingly effective parts of the climax is that his "Hugging the Donkey" manoeuvre is actually pretty cool and you can see how it might be genuinely effective and difficult to pull off. These two guys might just be exceptionally regular but I also like the idea of there being some real assholes among the crew--which was sort of Alexander Siddig's initial idea for playing Bashir; you can see he's intentionally playing unlikeable in the DS9 pilot. Even Jayne on Firefly ended up having a heart, though. It would be nice to see one of these shows sustain a real jerk but I don't think MacFarlane intends to go that route.

I think one of the reasons critics hate him so much is the ironic humour on Family Guy has gone so stale. I kind of suspect MacFarlane's sick of it too. What I took away from watching Ted is similar to what I picked up on from Orville--MacFarlane, at heart, has a real, sincere love for the old formulas in sitcoms and dramas. So there's nothing really ironic about him throwing Ed and his ex-wife, Kelly (Adrianne Palicki), together as captain and first officer. He wants a chemistry like the leads on Cheers or Who's the Boss much as he wants to invoke the milieu of Star Trek--not to roast it but to truly keep this kind of storytelling alive. I'm never been a fan of sitcoms like that but I find something endearing about MacFarlane's sincerity, especially since he gets so much shit for it.

That said, I would like Kelly to be developed more. Her motivations in the pilot are entirely based on Ed and I would like to hear more about her motivations that have nothing to do with him. Why did she join the fleet? Did she also dream about being an officer on a ship since she was a kid? The show has several Star Trek directors slated to direct episodes, including Jonathan Frakes, I hope it brings in some Star Trek writers, too.

I do like MacFarlane in the lead. There is something Shatnerian in his unabashed hamminess though he doesn't project authority as much as Shatner does. But I can see as much potential in that being a distinction for the show as a drawback. Time will tell.

Twitter Sonnet #1033

A cup emerged between the lily pads.
A draught impressed in steaming rooms at night.
The other side survived on higher rads.
The blue of sea contained the vessel tight.
Too many veg'tables are on the moon.
A secret book confirmed a fever dream.
In smi'ling Play-Doh men you'll find the boon.
The fitting shapes of blocks aren't all they seem.
In transit apes are caught inside the wall.
Prepared in sight the pudding fell to plague.
The walking voice proceeded down the hall.
The agent's shining limbs are somewhat vague.
The dice replaced a drink within the cup.
The birds of fortune turning home to sup.

Current Mood: hungry
Current Location: Space
Current Music: "Automatic" - Prince