S03.E02: Shadow Realms

[Joimiaroxeu]

Geez, more romantic soap opera with Claire?

I don't know about Kelly and Claire snarking on dating Krill. Seemed a bit speciesist to me. 😉

"May the force be with you." Hilarious. I really thought Seth would go after one of the ST TV series catchphrases but maybe that would've been too easy.

Holy crap, Paul was hella messy telling Isaac that he'd been with Penny too. Space Eskimo brothers?

Excellent job on the makeup for Paul after he'd been infected. I had to look away when the camera was on him and that extra eyeball he'd sprouted. Too realistic.

And then things went Alien/Aliens, with a bit of Predator on the side. Good to steal from the best I guess.

Of course it ended up with Claire having to go nuclear to get rid of that persistent ex who doesn't want to let go. Yep, it's like she was married to a member of the Borg, if that were even possible, ha ha.

Quote

the kids were the product of artificial insemination.

Which means they could be Paul's kids if Claire somehow had access to his sperm that had been banked for whatever reason. I bet the issue will come up again if/when Paul and his monster crew return in a future episode.

[DoctorAtomic]

I was thinking more about if they'd be mad that the Union showed that their 'demons' were a parasitic sentient race and not 'demon' demons. There's an actual explanation there. I would think it's good faith on the Union's part to share the intelligence in case the Krill do encounter the distress beacon or just happen to run into that ship. Or would the Krill just be mad that the Union is being dismissive of their religion. 

[Bort]

17 minutes ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

Which means they could be Paul's kids if Claire somehow had access to his sperm that had been banked for whatever reason. I bet the issue will come up again if/when Paul and his monster crew return in a future episode.

I hope not, because Paul clearly didn’t know anything about the kids existing, which would mean Claire used his sperm without his knowledge. I’m going with anonymous donor unless they say otherwise in the future.

[Joimiaroxeu]

Quote

which would mean Claire used his sperm without his knowledge.

Which while morally wrong (at least in the 21st century) it's not necessarily illegal. Still, I'm not condoning the possibility, I just get how it could have happened. At least one major daytime drama in the US has had two key characters created from such a scenario, with the sperm having been deliberately stolen from the place where it had been banked.

I guess it'll depend on whether Seth wants to address the issue of consent in artificial insemination and IVF. Given that Claire is a main character, I bet if he does do it the storyline would justify her actions in some way.

[PurpleTentacle]

1 hour ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

"May the force be with you." Hilarious. I really thought Seth would go after one of the ST TV series catchphrases but maybe that would've been too easy.

I think Star Wars exists as a franchise in this universe, but Star Trek does not, for obvious reasons.

[chaifan]

5 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I was thinking more about if they'd be mad that the Union showed that their 'demons' were a parasitic sentient race and not 'demon' demons. There's an actual explanation there. I would think it's good faith on the Union's part to share the intelligence in case the Krill do encounter the distress beacon or just happen to run into that ship. Or would the Krill just be mad that the Union is being dismissive of their religion. 

Of course, there's always the possibility that the fly/parasite aliens actually aren't the "demons" the Krill believe in.  There could be both, and it's just that the Orville ran across the fly/parasite aliens first.  Either way, yes, they should tell the Krill what they encountered.

[Yeah No]

Finally watched this episode.  I'll be honest, we were avoiding it because we were afraid we'd hate it.  We didn't dislike it as much as last week's episode but we didn't love it either.  I agree with the opinion that Brannon Braga is stuck in a rut with horror movie-like transformations.  This was just too much like so many Trek episodes, and I'm tired of that to be honest.  There was really nothing new to this except for all the more modern special effects, which don't make up for the repetitiveness of the plot.  I'm also not a big fan of horror and still missing the comedy.  The comedic teasers we got were not enough.  I still feel like the show was doing better toward the end of last season when it got a little more serious and action filled but still kept enough of the comedy and warmth.  This was a step in the right direction from last week, although still too long.

[Welshman in Ca]

9 hours ago, Yeah No said:

Finally watched this episode.  I'll be honest, we were avoiding it because we were afraid we'd hate it.  We didn't dislike it as much as last week's episode but we didn't love it either.  I agree with the opinion that Brannon Braga is stuck in a rut with horror movie-like transformations.  This was just too much like so many Trek episodes, and I'm tired of that to be honest.  There was really nothing new to this except for all the more modern special effects, which don't make up for the repetitiveness of the plot.  I'm also not a big fan of horror and still missing the comedy.  The comedic teasers we got were not enough.  I still feel like the show was doing better toward the end of last season when it got a little more serious and action filled but still kept enough of the comedy and warmth.  This was a step in the right direction from last week, although still too long.

Couldn't have said it better myself, a few glimpses of what it once was but not enough. Has to get better or I for one am out.

[Affogato]

On 6/11/2022 at 9:45 AM, shapeshifter said:

Kelly being warned against touching the alien ship with her bare hand was a Chekhovian premonition to the viewers, but also, more importantly (at least, to me) in a post-pre-Covid world, at least demonstrated an acknowledgement of the importance of avoiding infection or contamination.

So when Claire is back in her lab with no barriers like masks or gloves, I guess it's because the Admiral was her ex with whom she'd been intimate 25 frackin' years ago??? 🤷‍♀️

At least in the second visit to the organic-looking ship (makes Farscape's Moya look like a robot in comparison) the crew is wearing space suits with face shields. 
And I recall that before they first went aboard the alien vessel, it was announced that the interior was survivable or something like that.

It really bothered me that they didn't have a quarantine room, although that happened in Star Trek, too. It seems they would use a quarantine room all the damn time. 

[SmithW6079]

Nurse Park was turned into one of those spider things.☹️ I liked him in his small recurring role.

I knew this would be a horror movie, full of standard horror movie tropes, which doesn't mean it wasn't scary at times. Things crawling on the walls or ceiling always creep me out.

The biggest trouble with this episode is that it required people to be stupid and act stupidly. 

[shapeshifter]

4 minutes ago, SmithW6079 said:

The biggest trouble with this episode is that it required people to be stupid and act stupidly. 

I guess I should make note of these for next year's Primetimer Awards category of "Idiot Stick: Dumbest Character Moment" (presuming there is such a thing next year) but maybe I should first wait a few episodes to see what more idiotic character moments will unfold? 

[legaleagle53]

On 6/11/2022 at 6:45 AM, shapeshifter said:

So when Claire is back in her lab with no barriers like masks or gloves, I guess it's because the Admiral was her ex with whom she'd been intimate 25 frackin' years ago??? 🤷‍♀️

Or for the same reason they were never used in Star Trek. Masks and gloves would be obsolete by 2422 because medical technology would have developed a kind of force field that would have eliminated the risk of contamination. That was the explanation that Beverly Crusher gave in an episode of TNG as to why she never used them to examine patients or perform surgery.

[shapeshifter]

6 minutes ago, legaleagle53 said:

Or for the same reason they were never used in Star Trek. Masks and gloves would be obsolete by 2422 because medical technology would have developed a kind of force field that would have eliminated the risk of contamination. That was the explanation that Beverly Crusher gave in an episode of TNG as to why she never used them to examine patients or perform surgery.

On 6/11/2022 at 9:45 AM, shapeshifter said:

So when Claire is back in her lab with no barriers like masks or gloves, I guess it's because the Admiral was her ex with whom she'd been intimate 25 frackin' years ago??? 🤷‍♀️

*Sigh*  With all that extra time, would it kill them to have Claire mention something like that? It could have even been fun for her to name-drop Dr. Beverly Crusher or Dr. McCoy as an inventor of some technique. 

After a 20 year hiatus, L&O just finished a new season 21 that had similar deficiencies of clarity.

[juno]

hard to place it but there is something wrong with this show. There is something missing. Something is not right.

MacFarlane seems bored, no energy, no humor. Same with Palicki.

The show is way too long and it is very serious. Maybe they have run out of ideas. Not enjoying the characters at all this season.

[AnimeMania]

6 hours ago, Affogato said:

It really bothered me that they didn't have a quarantine room, although that happened in Star Trek, too. It seems they would use a quarantine room all the damn time. 

The brig didn't have it's own power source so if all the power goes out all the criminals go free.

[tkc]

On 6/9/2022 at 4:24 PM, Lugal said:

Not only did they wander over to the alien ship (that looked like a spider no less) but they have no protection, and they have not only the captain and commander, but an admiral as well. 

Star Trek trivia question: Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and Lt. d’Amato all beam down to the planet together. Which character does not make it back?

[CarpeFelis]

On 6/9/2022 at 11:08 PM, Chicago Redshirt said:

I don't know if that's so much a "they used to be married" thing as it's a "Ed is a guy who doesn't want to waste booze/used to have a drinking problem" thing.

I took it as “Ed needs plenty to drink to put up with the Krill for more than 5 minutes”. And either “they used to be married” or “nobody on this ship cares about germs”.

When they went into the alien structure all I could think of was Goose’s line in Top Gun “we regret to inform you your sons are dead because they were stupid”. Suit up, morons! Just because the air is breathable doesn’t mean it’s safe! (Again, it seems nobody on this ship cares about germs. Or anything else that could make them sick.)

And then later on, they finally pull out weapons to use on the transformed creatures and I wanted to yell “what took you so long?!”

Also, I wondered just how old the admiral was supposed to be if he looked much younger than he was, because he didn’t look all that great to me and I’m 64.

[iMonrey]

This was marginally better than last week's but that's not saying much. The dialogue on this show is really bad. It is very expository, like the characters are explaining things for the audience rather than talking to each other in a normal way. It's sort of like a medical procedural where the doctors are explaining what they're doing in medical terms for the sake of the audience even though every character should already know what they're doing and would never talk that way in real life.

The fight scene with Talla and the mutants was gratuitous and stupid. She's the head of security, why the hell didn't she have a gun? I know she's all bad-ass and the show probably just wanted a cool fight scene but I just kept wondering where the hell the guns were through the whole scene.

The show is overly long. An increased FX budget does not make up for poor writing. Sometimes less is more.

[jcin617]

On 6/10/2022 at 7:50 AM, Zaffy said:

So... did we just meet Orville's BORGs?

Well, with the Borg, "you" are still in there, somewhere, if you can be severed from the Collective.    This species doesn't appear to be a hive mind, and once they rewrite your DNA, it seems like you're pretty much gone.

[Colorado David]

13 hours ago, tkc said:

Star Trek trivia question: Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and Lt. d’Amato all beam down to the planet together. Which character does not make it back?

lol exactly. The beauty of TOS was the inside joke: if you wore the red shirt, you knew you were doomed either to do something incredibly dumb (redshirt in 'The Apple' running through the rock mine-field and blowing up), or be the victim of incredibly bad luck (2 redshirts on guard duty for 'Nomad', it did not appreciate being fired upon.)  We don't have that inside joke yet for Orville yet I don't think - if there's a pattern I'm not finding it yet.

Yeah they are making dumb mistakes, which happened in TOS as well. I think we are way less forgiving for Orville, because we expect better clever writing now.

Edited June 13, 2022 by Colorado David
changed and to or

[Lugal]

2 hours ago, Colorado David said:

Yeah they are making dumb mistakes, which happened in TOS as well. I think we are way less forgiving for Orville, because we expect better clever writing now.

And the Orville is based of TNG where Riker would lead away teams and Picard would stay on the ship.

[Chicago Redshirt]

On 6/13/2022 at 10:07 AM, jcin617 said:

Well, with the Borg, "you" are still in there, somewhere, if you can be severed from the Collective.    This species doesn't appear to be a hive mind, and once they rewrite your DNA, it seems like you're pretty much gone.

The aliens still have access to the knowledge of the original being. That is how Paul was able to use his command codes to effectively leave the ship helpless by shutting off key systems. Some part of the mind of the original being remains, and there is probably a way to undo the DNA rewriting process. 

On 6/13/2022 at 6:02 PM, Lugal said:

And the Orville is based of TNG where Riker would lead away teams and Picard would stay on the ship.

The Orville doesn't seem to make Ed operate on the TNG-era concept that the captain should generally stay with the ship. 

[EtheltoTillie]

This episode was like the movie  Alien to me.  Made into a Covid allegory. Meh. I remember being so terrified seeing the original release of Alien on opening day. Now, ho hum. Seth, bring back humor!  Too bad Norm MacDonald died. 

[Emma9]

I must not watch enough classic horror movies, because the main thing that jumped out (sorry) at me was the similarity to the 'Velociraptors in the kitchen' scene from Jurassic Park.

~

On 6/13/2022 at 2:40 AM, tkc said:

Star Trek trivia question: Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and Lt. d’Amato all beam down to the planet together. Which character does not make it back?

At least Lt. d'Amato has a name. He's not just...Guy.

Edited August 10, 2022 by Emma9

[edhopper]

You didn't wear suits in a completely unknown structure because the art is breathable?

Also, how did all the aliens leave the ship?

[Raja]

On 6/13/2022 at 4:02 PM, Lugal said:

And the Orville is based of TNG where Riker would lead away teams and Picard would stay on the ship.

I don't know if it is fair to say based upon TNG and not on Trek in its entirety, or at least pre Kelvin movieverse. Where Enterprise mostly served to get on the decisions makers on the ground so Captain Kirk took his big 3 often with the Red Shirted Scotty staying back.

Then again nothing plays different in this episode if the CO or XO stayed back on the Orville with another main cast member rounding out the pairs on the station before the Admiral got infected by the microscopic face huggers.