setsuled

Last night's new Orville, written by Star Trek: Enterprise and Family Guy writer David A. Goodman, wove together four separate plots into a pretty satisfying piece of television. Maybe the weakest episode this season so far but it was not bad.

The ship hosts a diplomatic party from a fiercely matriarchal culture who expect all men to be treated as slaves. This is as good a premise as any but it ends up going nowhere. A few jokes about how Moclans are the opposite in their impression of the sexes come off a bit awkward coming after "A Tale of Two Topas".



Meanwhile, the crew also encounters a Kaylon capable of emotion. This leads to the inevitable question--should Isaac get an emotional upgrade? Those of us who remember how Data's emotion chip changed the character would probably all say, "No." Fortunately, this subplot's best moments are still about contemplating the nature of emotion, and whether or not Isaac's actions without the modification could be interpreted as emotionally motivated.



Throughout the episode, we see flashbacks to the Kaylon homeworld in ancient times, when a biological species created and owned the Kaylons as servants. Most of these scenes focus on a single family and their casual mistreatment of one Kaylon. I'm not quite sure what physical pain could mean to beings incapable of emotion and the fact that they seek revenge for it seems evidence enough in itself that they in fact do have emotions.

This subplot on The Orville doesn't bother me as much as Disney's attempts to reframe the droids in Star Wars as an enslaved sentient species. But in either case, I still find George Lucas' version more interesting--droids that can't truly think the way sentient beings can.



Finally, there was kind of an amusing romantic subplot between Talla and Lamarr. She keeps injuring him during sex because her species has super strength. And apparently insufficient self control. I wonder why they didn't consider restraints.

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

Twitter Sonnet #1601

The polka dots were caught disrupting threads.
For style points the casa fell to earth.
With pickled fish the shrimps remade the beds.
A sloshy stomach speaks of human worth.
The swirling stream conceals desired flicks.
You'll never watch the darkness yield a show.
As hours pass, your dinner's bucket kicks.
You wait for films but only dreams will know.
The rapid day decelerates to naught.
The static cake was cooked in velvet night.
The dizzy fish is seldom quickly caught.
And now the storm compels the dancing mite.
Companion pictures suffer same as you.
The final soldier's thirst requires dew.

Last night's new Orville, written by Star Trek writers Brannon Braga and Andre Bormanis, deployed one of my least favourite Star Trek plot devices--the heavy-handed political allegory. But, again, the show's production--I won't say "quality" but maybe "attitude"--is so good that I still enjoyed it. Every episode of The Orville feels whole in some way a lot of TV shows don't anymore.

I did like how much detail went into the Krill homeworld. They were played pretty much as a joke before and they still kind of are. But at least now I started to get a feeling that they're a three dimensional people.



The political allegory is a thinly veiled retelling of the 2016 US election when Trump was elected. I realise release of The Orville Season Three was delayed a lot by Covid, but a work of fiction tackling that election once again, repeated exactly the same opinions about it as so many other works have done, really feels tired.

A populist leader preys on feelings of disenfranchisement--mostly racist in this version--and uses fake news to win a dramatic victory against the person everyone thought was going to win. As soon as you know where it's going, the feeling it gives you is, "Okay, okay, let's wrap it up already." Braga--and I'm pretty sure Braga is mainly responsible for this stuff--lumps in everything he hates about the American right and puts it onto the Krill, even when it doesn't quite make sense. We get a scene about how the Krill are devoutly against abortion, which isn't quite logical for a warrior culture. I also feel like it was too minor a part of the episode to touch on such a sensitive and complex topic.

The non-allegory aspects of the story weren't bad, though. The drama between Ed and Teleya is good and I'm glad she's not just a Trump caricature. But the best part of the episode was the stuff I suspect was written by Andre Bormanis, who was technical advisor on Star Trek scripts. In this case, I suspect he was mainly responsible for the tactical, space battle stuff.



Now that was cool, and really felt like Horatio Hornblower. If a Rogue Squadron movie ever does get off the ground, this is the kind of writing they need.

The Orville is available on Hulu or on Disney+, depending on your country.

Twitter Sonnet #1594

Aggressive sounds were bleeding out the bell.
Confusing jousts conclude with salvaged arms.
The watchful clouds have secrets left to tell.
A slimy, snakey stone discreetly warms.
Some music makes a massive change to screen.
And yet a lousy script can break a knee.
A missing chunk of tale can scratch the dream.
Yet not a dying branch could kill the tree.
A glowing world could fall behind the tube.
Exciting ships were fast beyond the plot.
The square examined turned to be a cube.
We hid the shape behind an oval pot.
The double story doubly dropped the ball.
And yet the trek was worth the zombie call.

Last night's new Orville was written by Star Trek writers Brannon Braga and Andre Bormanis. So for a show that's normally modelled on Star Trek's '90s television tone, this one felt especially Star Trek. It also reminded me a lot of Prometheus, a great, underrated film that marked its tenth anniversary recently, as I was reminded by Caitlin R. Kiernan's blog. As an example of--what? Let's call it DNA horror--last night's Orville couldn't hope to compete with Prometheus but it was still pretty nice.

Like many episodes of TNG and DS9, it features a personal relationship plot that is tied to a previously separate Sci-Fi plot in the second act. In this case, we meet a new character, Claire's ex-husband. He wants to rekindle things but Claire's not up for it, a situation that's complicated when he's hit by some kind of alien spore that starts to rewrite his DNA.



The makeup is pretty nicely horrific while he's on the operating table but falls a bit into Power Rangers territory when he's up and running around. Still, I enjoyed the fight scene between two of the monsters and Talla. The choreography and effects weren't great but it was still fun watching her punch one of them and watching it snap back against the wall.



I remember when the first season of The Orville aired I found myself comparing it to Star Trek: Discovery. Now I'm comparing it to Obi-Wan Kenobi and one thing the makers of Orville understand that I wish Obi-Wan Kenobi's makers did is the importance of build-up. John Debney's lush, full orchestra score helps a lot as always. But also the Krill planting the idea of the strange space station being inhabited by demons and the slow approach by the shuttlecraft were all great. It would've been better if the alien station's set design looked a lot less like a set.



But okay. They can't be Prometheus on their budget. Still, it was a nice piece of television.

The Orville is available on Hulu and on Disney+ in various countries.

Here a giant Picard poster grimly holds vigil across the street from the San Diego Convention Centre as though to say, "So. It begins." By which he'd mean Comic Con. Preview night was last night, Wednesday night, and to-day's the first official day. I feel like I'll probably be wandering the floor a lot this year, there are only a few panels I really want to see--the Farscape panel for certain. I'm going to have to choose between the Expanse panel and the Orville panel--they're both on the same day in different rooms. Both are also competing with the Star Trek panel, which wasn't much competition at all last year. Hardly anyone seemed interested in Disco. This year might be different with Picard since Patrick Stewart will be here.

If there's something you would like me to check out and report on and/or take pictures of, let me know.

Well, I asked The Orville to flesh out Kelly a bit more and the show delivered last night with not one but two Kellys. "To-morrow, and To-morrow, and To-morrow", written by Janet Lin, also showed, once again, The Orville is at its best when it focuses on relationships.

Spoilers after the screenshot



I always love a Shakespeare reference--the title, "To-morrow, and To-morrow, and To-morrow," is one of the famous lines from Macbeth; the title character speaks it when he's contemplating a prolonged, hollow existence. It doesn't have a lot of relevance to this fun time travel episode in which the ship's first officer, Kelly (Adrianne Palicki), encounters a version of herself from seven years ago, brought forward in time by an experimental machine developed by Isaac (Mark Jackson).



I guess we're never going to get the follow-up I wanted with Isaac. Did we not even get a moment where he explained why he chose to turn against the other Kaylons? Oh, well.



This episode has a lot in common with the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Second Chances" in which the first officer, Riker, encounters a second version of himself created by a transporter accident. Like that episode, "To-morrow, and To-morrow, and To-morrow" explores the value of maturity and experience compared to the energy and idealism of youth. But on The Orville, the first officer is the ex-wife of the captain, Ed Mercer (Seth Macfarlane). He's been wanting to get back with her for a while so when seven years younger Kelly asks to go out with him he ultimately can't say no.



I loved the end of their first date on the ship and the flirty lines surrounding their good night kiss. The actors play it really well with just the right amount of awkwardness and evident desire on both sides.



The shots with two Kellys generally felt a bit stiff but Palicki did a good job distinguishing the two versions of her character. Though younger Kelly's hair and makeup kind of made her look like Aurora from Disney's Sleeping Beauty.



The episode's climax is a surprisingly effective suspense sequence with the Orville hiding in the ice rings of a planet from a couple prowling Kaylon ships. CGI is still especially good at making ice.

I still feel like most of Kelly as a character is based on her reactions to Ed but it was cool watching her reflect on what her ambition to be captain meant. It looks like next week we get an alternate timeline. I wonder if we'll actually see her in charge of a ship?

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".

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.

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.

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.

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.