S02.E11: Lasting Impressions

[Bort]

5 minutes ago, chaifan said:

I was slightly disappointed that neither Bortus nor Klyden attempted to eat a cigarette.  They've sort of dropped that "Moclans can eat anything" joke from earlier in the season. 

Klyden did eat a cigarette.

[chaifan]

3 minutes ago, kariyaki said:

Klyden did eat a cigarette.

Seriously?  How did I miss that?  Thanks, Kariyaki. 

[Joimiaroxeu]

Wireless Telecommunications Facility.

So the recipe for and taste of beer won't change in 400 years? Ok.

Phew, I was scared we were going to find out that Laura was Gordon's ancestor because she married Greg who turned out to be his great-grandfather several times over. And since Gordon had sex with her, maybe she ended up pregnant and he was his own grandpa! Yeah, that's the ticket!

[tv-talk]

Klyden indeed ate a cigarette and loved the taste! 

[Good Queen Jane]

37 minutes ago, chaifan said:

I was slightly disappointed that neither Bortus nor Klyden attempted to eat a cigarette.  They've sort of dropped that "Moclans can eat anything" joke from earlier in the season. 

Klyden did eat one.

[LucidDreamer]

Couldn't help but wonder if giving the woman the name "Laura" was a nod to the famous film with that name -- where a man falls in love with the portrait of a "dead" woman. First thing that popped into my head, but then, I'm a classic film fan!

[The Kings Foot]

15 hours ago, TVSpectator said:

Eh, either way, Disney now owns The Orville. 

Back to the whole break thing, for some reason, I am not too worried since renewal/cancelations have to have already been made up by now. At least for a show like The Orville and it has been getting some solid ratings. Although, overall, the show is still on the fence and if it had a few more million live viewers then it would be in a very safe spot. 

Edit:

Disney bought out the entire FOX entertainment department (I do know that FOX News and some sports were not part of the deal but Disney pretty much owns (now) everything currently airing on FOX). 

Yes but the initial comment referred to scheduling. Which remains the purview of Fox broadcasting which is not Disney. 

[rmontro]

I'd like to see how that "friendship" between Gordon, Laura, and Greg was going to work out, when Gordon was totally focused on laser locking desire filled eyes with Laura every time he was around.  I'd like to be a fly on the wall watching that play out.  At least Gordon had the good sense to bow out.  

Bortus and Klyden bring new meaning to domestic violence.

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, kariyaki said:

I wouldn't even consider social media unvarnished. So much of that is used for marketing, whether it's for a product or a person, that a lot of it is staged/rehearsed/expensively produced.

I questioned that too, but when the holodeck program seemed realistic enough, I hand waved that algorithms in the 25th century must be able to factor in human intent etc.

[AnimeMania]

7 hours ago, vibeology said:

9 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

It was probably just a picture of a penis with Van Dyke facial hair.

I assume it was a poorly drawn penis, a poorly drawn van and two poorly drawn lesbians with an arrow pointing at one of them.

If there is one thing that I can imagine Gordon practiced drawing thousands of times, it would be a penis.

6 hours ago, marinw said:

I can't access stuff on Floppy Disks from the start of this century! A lot of digital material will degrade over time. A huge challenge for the archivists of the future.

For something like the movie "Star Wars" you would have Beta, VHS, Laser Disc, DVD, Blu-Ray, Digital Media, Collector's Edition, Director's Cut, 25th Anniversary, 100th Anniversary, etc., distributed in large quantities, widely around the earth.

7 hours ago, Emma9 said:

and considering what the [historian?] said about them not having access to unvarnished information about life in this age, I'm guessing not much was preserved from social media.

I could imagine many forms of social media completely disappearing because they were controlled by a single company, if something happens to the company or their servers all their data might disappear.

[Chaos Theory]

5 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

So the recipe for and taste of beer won't change in 400 years? Ok.

Why mess with perfection?

11 minutes ago, AnimeMania said:

I could imagine many forms of social media completely disappearing because they were controlled by a single company, if something happens to the company or their servers all their data might disappear.

No one uses snail mail anymore.   Most young people don’t bother with land lines.    I can see the Internet going the same way as technology advances to other things.  

[Bort]

3 minutes ago, Chaos Theory said:

No one uses snail mail anymore.   Most young people don’t bother with land lines.    I can see the Internet going the same way as technology advances to other things.  

To quote Raj from The Big Bang Theory: Think about DVD players. They used to cost, like, a thousand dollars, but just the other day I used one to smash a bug.

We're getting to the point where we aren't bothering to make actual hard copies of media. A big huge EMP could wipe out all data and the only thing that will survive is disc format stuff. 

[Raja]

14 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

And... another long-ass break.  Is something going on these next few weeks?  Because FOX's scheduling has been wacky lately.

Next week is the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Basketball tournament. I can't think of another event that they fear counter programming against.

[marinw]

14 hours ago, Ms Lark said:

So, Gordon is now a holosexual! (Term coined by a writer friend of mine waaay back in the days of STTNG.)

And Claire is (or was) a Robosexual. See: Futurama.

[Dobian]

Wireless Telecommunications Facility...LOL

500 cigarettes...LOL

This show knows how to bring the laughs.  But Gordon really stole the show, it was a very touching performance by the actor and elevated the main story significantly.  Very honest and bittersweet, just a well written and performed episode.  One of my favorites of the season.

[Happywatcher]

Star Trek TNG did this with a planet when picard played a flute and lived a life. This show did it better even though we have all lived the 2015s, we felt for this woman

[Deskisamess]

“I fee like I’ve been standing my whole life, and I just sat down!”

One of the funniest lines I’ve heard on a show in a long time. My husband and couldn’t stop laughing...

[legaleagle53]

9 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

Wireless Telecommunications Facility.

So the recipe for and taste of beer won't change in 400 years? Ok.

Phew, I was scared we were going to find out that Laura was Gordon's ancestor because she married Greg who turned out to be his great-grandfather several times over. And since Gordon had sex with her, maybe she ended up pregnant and he was his own grandpa! Yeah, that's the ticket!

Gordon would only have become his own ancestor if he had impregnated the REAL Laura in 2015 who died centuries before he was born. THIS Laura was a fictionalized holographic version that existed in 2419. Nothing that Gordon did would have affected the REAL Laura's history in any way, shape, or form.

[legaleagle53]

20 hours ago, chaifan said:

For all the "they ripped off the story line from Star Trek" comments - pretty much every story line on every show (no matter the genre) has been done somewhere else before.  For this show, it's constantly being compared to Star Trek episodes (no matter which series), and if not, then it's Farscape or BSG, or whatever.  If they didn't have something similar to a holodeck, people would complain about that.  People complain about no transporters, but if Orville had one someone would claim they ripped off Star Trek.  Star Trek ripped off Star Trek (DS9 tribble episode, which I loved). 

"Trials and Tribble-ations" wasn't a rip-off of the TOS "The Trouble with Tribbles." It was a deliberate homage to that episode that was meant to be DS9's part of the overall celebration of the entire franchise's 30th Anniversary celebration back in 1996.

Edited March 23, 2019 by legaleagle53

[rmontro]

1 hour ago, Happywatcher said:

Star Trek TNG did this with a planet when picard played a flute and lived a life. This show did it better even though we have all lived the 2015s, we felt for this woman

TNG also had Commander Ryker fall in love with a hologram woman named Minuet.  And someone mentioned before Geordi La Forge falling for a holgram simulation of a real woman.  So it's been done several times, and I bet there are other examples that haven't been brought up.

[roctavia]

I enjoyed this episode a lot, though knew it was going to have a sad ending for Gordon.  The cigarette thing was hilarious... too bad Bortus didn't still have his mustache. 

I know the crew was kind of worried about Gordon and his simulation, but I would have expected Ed to be more into visiting a construct of the real 2015 since he was so into early earth history stuff- Kermit the Frog, old school movies etc. I would love to see the crew playing pictionary or something. 

[Yeah No]

1 hour ago, rmontro said:

TNG also had Commander Ryker fall in love with a hologram woman named Minuet.  And someone mentioned before Geordi La Forge falling for a holgram simulation of a real woman.  So it's been done several times, and I bet there are other examples that haven't been brought up.

Thank you, I came here to add this one but you beat me to it.  So now we have the Minuet episode, the Leah episode, and some aspects of Inner Light.  I think I remember that Minuet sang and Ryker would watch her.  And like Gordon, he also felt that she was more "real" than any holodeck reproduction he'd ever met, which we later found out was due to alien intervention.  Once again though, a lot of similarity to TNG eps.

As previously mentioned, this episode also borrowed from Black Mirror episode "Be Right Back" where a woman is able to download her late boyfriend's information into an artificial reproduction of him based on all the information on his cell phone.

I enjoyed this episode but felt that Gordon's understanding or lack thereof of 21st century ways was either too much or not enough depending on the perspective.  If I had the time I'd go back to illustrate the specific expressions or situations I thought it would be a stretch for him to be familiar with almost 400 years in the future.  But I guess it's similar with Shakespeare.  When I read Shakespeare in high school I remember being amazed at how many expressions are still in use that first appeared in Shakespeare.  But if they wouldn't even know what WTF stood for, wouldn't Gordon stumble on some things in the simulation?  Or maybe the simulation avoids those kinds of expressions.

[shapeshifter]

20 minutes ago, Yeah No said:

But if they wouldn't even know what WTF stood for, wouldn't Gordon stumble on some things in the simulation?

I thought only Tuvak thought WTF meant  "Wireless Telecommunications Facility," no? I'd have to go back and see the responses on the faces of the crew to his pronouncement. 
And I did think Gordon was barely able to keep up with the jargon and figures of speech. No?
I should probably rewatch anyway, since it was my favorite episode thus far--although I've said that before, too, about other Orville episodes, heh.

[dwmarch]

I liked this episode and I'm glad it didn't get into the extremes of "holodeck addiction" like TNG did with "Hollow Pursuits". Gordon didn't have to be ordered out of the situation. His friends gave him an appropriate amount of grief about it (hinting that there is a taboo against falling in love with a holodeck character) and they let him figure it out on his own, which he did. I wish the show had expanded a bit on the particular societal mores that Gordon was stepping on. The holodeck is obviously capable of sophisticated simulations built on relatively trivial amounts of input so it is surprising that Gordon's situation doesn't come up more often. However, based on the reactions of everyone Gordon told, it's at the very least considered weird.

It also seems worth mentioning that there does not seem to be any kind of filter or censor as to what one can do in there so I hope someone is washing the holodeck between sessions. Otherwise Gordon just got a whole lot of Bortus' sloppy seconds there.

The holodeck itself runs on some strange rules. The simulation just keeps going to the point where it can interrupt Gordon while he's on the bridge. He might have set it up that way himself but does no one else use the thing, especially in light of what you can do in there?

The smoking plotline was hilarious, especially seeing Bortus with a smoke hanging out of his mouth while on the bridge. Highlight reel for that moment! There were a couple of things that made me wonder though. First and foremost, although Dr. Finn examines Bortus and Klyden, she never actually says the cigarettes are hurting them in any particular way. She only mentions withdrawal. Moclans can basically eat hand grenades wrapped in barbed wire so one would think a little smoke wouldn't bother them at all. Second, the crew reacts to smoking as if it is an exotic concept but I am certain there have been many weed references on this show so it is not as if the concept should be that weird.

[ketose]

21 hours ago, Meushell said:

The Laura plot was both boring and creepy. I kept waiting for Gordon to actually look her up. That he didn’t made it creepier. That would have made the plot much more interesting. I wonder if there was more to her on the phone that she deleted away, or just didn’t have on her phone. It would have also been interesting if they did the hologram plot without the added love plot. Imagine how interesting it would be if we could “talk” to someone from the 1600’s.

It was strange that hologram Laura had a picture with Gordon with Greg taking the picture. The plot bit seemed to be for Gordon’s sake. 

Anyone else wish we got to see that Dick Van Dyke drawing? Given Gordon’s drawing abilities, it couldn’t have been any worse than the sex addition plot.

I thought the cigarette plot would annoy me, but it was hilarious. 

Nice to see Tim Russ, though he felt wasted. I hope we see the character again.

Dick Van Dyke is kind of a dated reference for people born in the 80s, unless they happened to catch Diagnosis Murder.

17 hours ago, Emma9 said:

Same. When they introduced the time capsule, it felt like they'd be able to do anachronisms without an excuse for once, but then all the previous anachronism usage made their bemusement this time seem strange.

This was my first exposure to the actress who played Laura, and I thought her voice was amazing - fun to hear a Last Unicorn song as well. Would have enjoyed the plot much more if it didn't make for another Gordon episode, though.

Kelly's talk about how our experiences and relationships create who we are was nice, but it also felt a little too...basic?...for an adult to need explained to him.

And Greg or no Greg, the program was always going to have a time limit, ending with the phone going in the capsule. Unless Facebook archives still exist in some form and Gordon went trawling through them for Laura 2.0 - and considering what the [historian?] said about them not having access to unvarnished information about life in this age, I'm guessing not much was preserved from social media.

They specifically only mentioned texts and the address book in the episode. Given the phone was from 2015, the level of Facebook and Instagram might not as been as heavy as it is in 2019.

13 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

Wireless Telecommunications Facility.

So the recipe for and taste of beer won't change in 400 years? Ok.

I read about a beer company making a recipe dating back to the American Revolution, and it wasn't much different than some of the craft beers today.

4 hours ago, Happywatcher said:

Star Trek TNG did this with a planet when picard played a flute and lived a life. This show did it better even though we have all lived the 2015s, we felt for this woman

The Inner Light was one of the top ST:TNG episodes ever and tonight's Orville did not hold a candle to it in my opinion. iPhone Laura didn't like her job, had an on-again, off-again boyfriend and wanted to be a singer. This was the extent of her character development.

[fauntleroy]

Was there even a mission this week? Episodes of Love Boat and now a girl-in-holodeck romance rerun. It's a futuristic soap opera in New Jersey. Why do they even have a space ship?

[AngelKitty]

I kept worrying that Gordon was going to become his own grandfather like Frye on Futurama and then I remembered it wasn't real and then I was, like, WTF.

The Bortus and Klyden smoking plot was hilarious. I haven't had a cigarette in 5 years and I still want one...I really want one.

Oh, I also can cross one eye at a time. My other party trick is touching my nose with my tongue. I don't go to many parties.

[Raja]

1 hour ago, fauntleroy said:

Was there even a mission this week? Episodes of Love Boat and now a girl-in-holodeck romance rerun. It's a futuristic soap opera in New Jersey. Why do they even have a space ship?

The Orville does seem more of a warship that just sits in a patrol sector than the Enterprise being the flagship and showing the Federation flag when no scientific opportunity was in her area.

3 hours ago, ketose said:

Dick Van Dyke is kind of a dated reference for people born in the 80s, unless they happened to catch Diagnosis Murder.

I'll just head cannon that she had a text or email from mom who was a Dick Van Dyke show fan in her phone.

[Mr. Sparkle]

1 hour ago, AngelKitty said:

The Bortus and Klyden smoking plot was hilarious. I haven't had a cigarette in 5 years and I still want one...I really want one.

7 years for me, and every once in a while I get that urge... 

[AngelKitty]

I'm not expecting the feeling to ever go away. 😢

[tv-talk]

I dont see the Orville as a ripoff of ST in any way shape or form because it's absolutely McFarlane's homage to Trek and intended to be as such. They arent 'stealing' anything from ST, they're appreciating it. And thank goodness too with the absolute schlock ST has become with "Discovery." It's really McFarlane carrying on the ST tradition rather than ST at this point.

[Bort]

6 hours ago, dwmarch said:

The holodeck itself runs on some strange rules. The simulation just keeps going to the point where it can interrupt Gordon while he's on the bridge. He might have set it up that way himself but does no one else use the thing, especially in light of what you can do in there?

Gordon was shutting it off, we saw him do it one of the times. I guess it was running along in the background. 

5 hours ago, ketose said:

Dick Van Dyke is kind of a dated reference for people born in the 80s, unless they happened to catch Diagnosis Murder.

I found it odd that Gordon hadn’t heard of Dick Van Dyke. He was watching the original Planet of the Apes movie in the last episode. None of the old movies he’s watched had Dick Van Dyke in it? Is he just a Charlton Heston fan?

[Joimiaroxeu]

10 hours ago, legaleagle53 said:

Gordon would only have become his own ancestor if he had impregnated the REAL Laura in 2015 who died centuries before he was born. THIS Laura was a fictionalized holographic version that existed in 2419. Nothing that Gordon did would have affected the REAL Laura's history in any way, shape, or form.

I guess the sarcasm was too subtle. Darned internet.

[legaleagle53]

2 hours ago, AngelKitty said:

I kept worrying that Gordon was going to become his own grandfather like Frye on Futurama and then I remembered it wasn't real and then I was, like, WTF.

Wireless Telecommunications Facility, right?  😉

[Chaos Theory]

Has no one ever fallen in love with someone completely wrong or someone perfect but at the completely wrong time?  

[Bort]

19 minutes ago, Chaos Theory said:

Has no one ever fallen in love with someone completely wrong or someone perfect but at the completely wrong time?  

I’m sure a lot of people have done so, but the caveat to that is that they’re still real people. A person in the simulator, even being based on a real person who had lived, is still just a walking, talking cardboard cutout. I mean, that’s how the disconnect would be for me. And it looked like Ed, Kelly and Talla felt the same way. Gordon apparently had more difficulty with that.

[Affogato]

1 hour ago, kariyaki said:

I’m sure a lot of people have done so, but the caveat to that is that they’re still real people. A person in the simulator, even being based on a real person who had lived, is still just a walking, talking cardboard cutout. I mean, that’s how the disconnect would be for me. And it looked like Ed, Kelly and Talla felt the same way. Gordon apparently had more difficulty with that.

It is like fanfiction. People do become obsessed with some character in a story/tv show. They write stories to insert themselves, fix the character, change the story into one they like better and the result very often isnt the character they liked in the first place . Gordon realized it, a lot of people don’t. 

There are dating services that set people up with digital dates. 

[DarkRaichu]

There is a time when you watch the first 3 minutes of an episode and you know that the story is going to be heartbreaking, but you continue watching it anyway because you want to see how the story unfolds.  This was that episode for me.

There was a sliver of worry that this would turn to yet another simulator addiction episode but by the 6th minute I was worry it would turn out to be like that 1 TNG episode when Riker fell in love with a hologram created by a binary race.  It was in a way, but this episode was like an updated version of that story with much better writing 😄

Some people may think the story is a cliche, but I guess cliche written well can still provide enjoyment.  I mean it was basically a story of a boy who created a girl based on her captured memories. He fell in love with her, but then got dumped as the girl came back to her ex.  He removed the ex/his rival and realized he changed the girl since the ex had great influence in making the girl he fell in love with.

The cellphones capture a lot of people thoughts and personality.  Should there be computer system advance enough to extrapolate and fill out some gaps, it is entirely possible to create a holographic version of an owner of a cellphone based on the data in that cellphone.  I can even buy that simulation of Laura ran on the background since it was based on a cellphone/chat interactions which had timestamps.  That phone call in the bridge was so sad because I know this relationship would not last.

Having Kelly speaking to Gordon at the end was a good choice because of her history with him and Ed (and us), so her perspective came out genuine. "A girl who reached 350 years in the future and made a guy fell in love with her" was oddly a great way to help mend Gordon's broken heart but wouldn't come out as genuine had other character said that to Gordon.

I am going to use that jello story to help a family member who is afraid of flying. 

Great acting by Scott Grimes, btw.  He projected Gordon's happiness, curiosity, and sense of wonder very well
Loving the rotating focus of each cast member with the others being at the background yet still integral to the story being unfold.

Lol at nicotin addiction of Bortus and Klyden.  All of those cigarettes in the pillow case 😄 😄 😄 

This is an A+ episode for me since the A plot was written well and there was underlying connection between A and B plot (ie. how different crews responded to artifacts from 400 years ago)

Also, it is always good to see Tuvok on a starship where he belongs 😛

3 hours ago, tv-talk said:

I dont see the Orville as a ripoff of ST in any way shape or form because it's absolutely McFarlane's homage to Trek and intended to be as such. They arent 'stealing' anything from ST, they're appreciating it. And thank goodness too with the absolute schlock ST has become with "Discovery." It's really McFarlane carrying on the ST tradition rather than ST at this point.

This.  100%.  1000 likes for you !!

Edited March 23, 2019 by DarkRaichu

[Rockstar99435]

I'm really glad that Gordon didn't look up Laura's history. That would have made it creepy to me. In her little video introduction, Laura was excited to share her life. She gave the future people who found her phone permission to read her texts, look at her photos, watch her videos, etc. But she didn't give them permission for anything that wasn't on the phone. So I was okay with Gordon using her data to make a holodeck program, but looking for info of what happened after the phone would have been a violation.

I loved the smoking plot. The hidden cigarettes in the pillow made me laugh way more than it should have.

[Chaos Theory]

1 hour ago, kariyaki said:

I’m sure a lot of people have done so, but the caveat to that is that they’re still real people. A person in the simulator, even being based on a real person who had lived, is still just a walking, talking cardboard cutout. I mean, that’s how the disconnect would be for me. And it looked like Ed, Kelly and Talla felt the same way. Gordon apparently had more difficulty with that.

24 minutes ago, Affogato said:

It is like fanfiction. People do become obsessed with some character in a story/tv show. They write stories to insert themselves, fix the character, change the story into one they like better and the result very often isnt the character they liked in the first place . Gordon realized it, a lot of people don’t. 

There are dating services that set people up with digital dates. 

I think Gordon became overly infatuated with this great person who had this life he connected with in some way and got lost in it for awhile.  Is it something that could ever have lasted?  Of course not.  But that is not even really the point.  Like Kelly said Every time we form a connection it changes us in some way.  Whether it gives us some stupid eyeball trick or even something else we haven’t figured out yet.  No relationship is meaningless if we get anything at all out of it.

[fauntleroy]

2 hours ago, tv-talk said:

I dont see the Orville as a ripoff of ST in any way shape or form because it's absolutely McFarlane's homage to Trek and intended to be as such. They arent 'stealing' anything from ST, they're appreciating it. And thank goodness too with the absolute schlock ST has become with "Discovery." It's really McFarlane carrying on the ST tradition rather than ST at this point.

I'm gonna try this next time a prof gets me for plagiarism. Can't you see I'm doin an homage here! Maybe with a New Jersey accent.

Not just some lazy rehash. They are in a SPACE SHIP - go fly to interesting places. The funny Moclan cigarette B plot is enough homage, now come up with a real idea for the A plot. Stop dicking around and go do something.

Leighton Meester is a good singer!

Agree re Discovery. These shows aggravate in almost exactly different ways.

[vteal]

On 3/22/2019 at 2:06 PM, LucidDreamer said:

Couldn't help but wonder if giving the woman the name "Laura" was a nod to the famous film with that name -- where a man falls in love with the portrait of a "dead" woman. First thing that popped into my head, but then, I'm a classic film fan!

Yes!  This is what I thought of too.  Could not remember the name of the movie thank you for that! 

[Ottis]

This episode veered between boring (Gordon and his fake love) and obnoxious (the 15-minute commercial for smoking). 

Gordon was a twit on two episodes in a row. First “you’re jealous” last week, then falling in love in the holodeck. This would have been far better if it had been about the dangerous impacts of the holodeck, and it wasn’t Gordon. 

There was nothing wrong per say with the ep. it was just uninteresting. YMMV. 

[rmontro]

12 hours ago, tv-talk said:

I dont see the Orville as a ripoff of ST in any way shape or form because it's absolutely McFarlane's homage to Trek and intended to be as such. They arent 'stealing' anything from ST, they're appreciating it.

It's certainly derivative of TNG in particular, although some here claim it's more like Battlestar Galactica.  I see it as more of a tribute.  Doesn't matter to me either way, as long as it's entertaining.  In fact, I wonder if part of the reason for the comedy is so that it can claim that it is a "parody" of sorts, which might protect it from lawsuits.  Or might not, I'm not a lawyer.

[legaleagle53]

12 minutes ago, rmontro said:

It's certainly derivative of TNG in particular, although some here claim it's more like Battlestar Galactica.  I see it as more of a tribute.  Doesn't matter to me either way, as long as it's entertaining.  In fact, I wonder if part of the reason for the comedy is so that it can claim that it is a "parody" of sorts, which might protect it from lawsuits.  Or might not, I'm not a lawyer.

Except that Seth has repeatedly stated that the show is NOT a parody and was never intended to be one. FOX made the mistake of marketing it as a comedy last year, when it's clearly been so much more than that all along. The show is really sui generis, I think.

[rmontro]

41 minutes ago, legaleagle53 said:

Except that Seth has repeatedly stated that the show is NOT a parody and was never intended to be one. 

Okay, well there goes that theory, I guess.  Anyway, I like the humorous bits for the most part.  Life can be pretty funny, why not a science fiction show?

[legaleagle53]

Just now, rmontro said:

Okay, well there goes that theory, I guess.  Anyway, I like the humorous bits for the most part.  Life can be pretty funny, why not a science fiction show?

I think Seth has described the show perfectly: "A sci-fi/action cake with comedy frosting."  Only now it's more of a comedy ganache than frosting.

[Meushell]

10 hours ago, Rockstar99435 said:

I'm really glad that Gordon didn't look up Laura's history. That would have made it creepy to me. In her little video introduction, Laura was excited to share her life. She gave the future people who found her phone permission to read her texts, look at her photos, watch her videos, etc. But she didn't give them permission for anything that wasn't on the phone. So I was okay with Gordon using her data to make a holodeck program, but looking for info of what happened after the phone would have been a violation.

I loved the smoking plot. The hidden cigarettes in the pillow made me laugh way more than it should have.

How would it be a violation? Whatever they found would be public records or stuff she put out there. This is the sort of thing we do now all the times. In this case, it’s someone making a point to being remembered. Gordon started out curious about Laura, the woman who lived, but then objectified her by “dating” her hologram, and even going as far as rewriting who she was to satisfy his own desires. Looking her up would have a way to show that Laura was important without Gordon, that she wasn’t just an object of his addiction. 

[legaleagle53]

1 hour ago, Meushell said:

How would it be a violation? Whatever they found would be public records or stuff she put out there. This is the sort of thing we do now all the times. In this case, it’s someone making a point to being remembered. Gordon started out curious about Laura, the woman who lived, but then objectified her by “dating” her hologram, and even going as far as rewriting who she was to satisfy his own desires. Looking her up would have a way to show that Laura was important without Gordon, that she wasn’t just an object of his addiction. 

But what purpose would that have served, really?  Gordon would only have been reminded that the real Laura managed to live a full life that never could have included him because he had the bad luck to have been born in the wrong century. And how do you think he would feel reading about the date and circumstances of his historical lover's death sometime in say, the late 2070s or 2080s after she had lived that life without him?  If he hadn't fallen in love with the fictionalized recreation of her, it would have been fine if he'd looked up her history or even tried to find out whether she had any descendants living in 2419.  But the fact that he HAD loved a version of her would only have made learning of her actual fate that much more painful for him. He's better off NOT knowing what happened to the real Laura.

[Meushell]

29 minutes ago, legaleagle53 said:

But what purpose would that have served, really?  Gordon would only have been reminded that the real Laura managed to live a full life that never could have included him because he had the bad luck to have been born in the wrong century. And how do you think he would feel reading about the date and circumstances of his historical lover's death sometime in say, the late 2070s or 2080s after she had lived that life without him?  If he hadn't fallen in love with the fictionalized recreation of her, it would have been fine if he'd looked up her history or even tried to find out whether she had any descendants living in 2419.  But the fact that he HAD loved a version of her would only have made learning of her actual fate that much more painful for him. He's better off NOT knowing what happened to the real Laura.

He doesn’t have to look her up to be respectful, but he said himself how he learned that people of the past matter. He’s not treating her like she matters by turning her image and personal information into a high tech sex toy (he says girlfriend, but he’s lying to himself).