S02.E14: The Road Not Taken

[Raja]

23 hours ago, marinw said:

Great episode, very reminiscent of Yesterday’s Enterprise. I love the lengths Ed and Gordon went through to recover a microwave. If all your food is replicated, you probably wouldn’t keep any real food around, except for emergency rations.

Nice to see Alara agian.

I couldn't help myself but once the premise was set I spent the rest of the episode looking for a Denise Crosby cameo

8 hours ago, welnoc said:

In the original timeline, yes. Because she slept with another guy, Ed couldn't fogive and turned into a drunk. Before that happened, he was a great officer in the Union and probably would have received command on a ship without Kelly's help.

In the alternate timeline, they never got together and she didn't intervene on his behalf because she didn't know about the consequences of her actions. So, it may well have been that his confidence was destroyed and he never made it far enough to command a ship.

I missed the rank of the never married Ed, I just assumed he had gotten a better command before The Orville became his rehabilitation comeback assignment in the prime timeline. 

[Chyromaniac]

Thrill! as Ed and Gordon steal a microwave, then escape via the original ride film for Star Tours.

Overall I think I liked it. It was nice to see Halston Sage back with a harder edged Alara. All of the alternate timeline characters were fun though- just different enough from our regular crew.

On the other hand, I know they were going for symmetry with last weeks show, but I kind of wanted a final scene in the “present” showing things back to normal. Especially since we don’t have a renewal yet- I’d hate for the last we see of the show to be essentially a callback from another episode.

[Dobian]

Really exciting finish to the season.  It was such a nice surprise to see Alara again.  I was wondering about why the actress left and if their was a problem between her and the producers. I hope she makes more return visits next season.  I did have a bit of an issue with the ending.  As we saw, younger Kelly got replaced in the past by younger-future-younger Kelly, who had lived through the alternate timeline and remembered the whole thing.  I'm sure it was better that Claire just wiped her memory of everything, but even if it failed, Kelly still knew that she needed to accept that second date with Ed so the whole galaxy didn't get overrun by Kaylons.  It's still pretty funny that the future of the galaxy hinged on a second date and a bad marriage, lol.  Ed and Gordon sharing a Twinkie was another great moment.  Two guys whose lives are in peril, definitely snack cake time.   The CGI Empire Strikes Back-style chase scene really showed how you can do those kind of special effects on the cheap today that cost a fortune to do decades ago in major movies.  Can't wait for season 3.  You better not cancel this, FOX.

Edited April 27, 2019 by Dobian

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Dobian said:

I did have a bit of an issue with the ending.  As we saw, younger Kelly got replaced in the past by younger-future-younger Kelly, who had lived through the alternate timeline and remembered the whole thing.  I'm sure it was better that Claire just wiped her memory of everything, but even if it failed, Kelly still knew that she needed to accept that second date with Ed so the whole galaxy didn't get overrun out by Kaylons. 

Having the mind wipe fail again but with Kelly going on a second date could still have failed, because Kelly could have worked at making their marriage more successful, and then, even if Ed did get to be captain of the Orville, Claire might not have joined the crew because it might not have seemed so "needy," which would mean she didn't have a relationship with Isaac, and the Kaylons still won the war. Still, it could have been an interesting variation on Stargate SG1's "Window of Opportunity" episode, in which they have to keep trying until they get it "right."

[Yeah No]

On 4/25/2019 at 10:21 PM, DrScottie said:

I was thinking of Yesrterday's Enterprise too or any of the other dystopian ones that Worf encountered in "Parallels."

Thanks for mentioning "Parallels", one of my favorite STNG episodes.  While watching this I couldn't stop thinking of my favorite quote from that episode from one of the many "mad Rikers" from alternate timelines, "The Federation's gone, the Borg is everywhere!"  Of course on this episode just substitute the Borg for the Kaylons.  I am not familiar with a lot of other Sci Fi shows but reading this thread has made me realize how ingenious this show is in borrowing from other sci fi TV and movie franchises.  It seems to be able to borrow from many in one episode without sacrificing anything.

This episode made me realize that these days I even pick apart old STNG episodes for plausibility so it's not like I'm singling this show out when I do that.  A few of the things that bugged me were:

• Wouldn't superior non-sentient beings be more accurate in their shooting?  Those Kaylons in the first scene where Mercer and Gordon steal a food replicator were incredibly bad shots.
   
• So the Orville sits at the bottom of the Marianas trench for how many months and is right and ready to fly out without any need of maintenance or cleaning?  Yeah, right.
   
• And if the Kaylons were so thorough that they didn't leave anything living in the oceans, why was Bortus still there?  And why was he just sitting there anyway?  I was very tired while watching this episode and probably didn't catch that.

[jacehan]

5 hours ago, Rambler said:

By definition, an event horizon is the point at which gravity is so great that nothing can escape it, not even light. The ship flying into and out of the event horizon like it was nothing was just absurd. However, since this is a comedy show, when I see stuff like that, I just roll my eyes and go with the flow. I think it's the same thing with the time loop stuff. You just gotta shrug it off because I kinda think the writers didn't think it out as deeply as if they were working on say, a Star Trek episode. Although judging by that last episode of Discovery, I'm not quite sure how deeply Star Trek writers think about the subject either. 😄

Well, but if you have ships that can go faster than light, that would mean they would be able to escape from the event horizon, no?

[MoldySpiceGirl]

17 hours ago, Emma9 said:

Them being 'attacked' by scavengers reminded me of a ToS novel called Prime Directive where the crew reunites in basically the same way.

See, and I immediately went there with Firefly.  "Wearing our skin as a suit" is totally a Reaver move.

[Ottis]

This ep was everything that is right and wrong about Orville. The tale itself was good, as were the mostly excellent visuals. And the return to the Orville. 

All the bad science and plotting.... hiding inside a black hole event horizon, taking the whole team and the kid down to the Orville, Bortus attacking humans in a war against machines... so many dumb little things that could have been cleaned up. And the predicability.

But worst of all, having it all based on Ed and Kelly and their fucking relationship that Ed wants and she doesn’t and because they didn’t go out again the universe was destroyed... just let it go, McFarland. The lady said no in the real timeline. I ended up fast forwarding every time they were alone. “I wondered if I could take YOU out again.” Is it 1953?

And while you are at it, drop the false modesty “you got the wrong guy” after you just cocommanded a raid and escape against the Kaylon. You know you are always the designated hero, Seth, uh, Ed.

it was very sloppy and immoral Star Trek. But it was great Star Wars. 

Edited April 27, 2019 by Ottis

[Yeah No]

7 hours ago, jacehan said:

Well, but if you have ships that can go faster than light, that would mean they would be able to escape from the event horizon, no?

I might be remembering wrong, but isn't the theory is that there is a "point of no return" at the event horizon after which you can never return?  I'm not sure if you're not yet at that point whether you would still emit light.  Still, wouldn't they be stretched like spaghetti?  That's what I've always heard.

ETA:  This site (and a few others I read) says it's not possible to escape from a black hole (I presume once past a certain point) no matter how fast you're going because the shape of space is curved.

And even if it were possible to go in as far as they did without consequences, why wouldn't the Kaylons know that?  They knew enough to hang out at the edge waiting to see if they showed up again, so if they could go in, why wouldn't they?  Perhaps they knew they wouldn't be able to see them if they did anyway.

Edited April 27, 2019 by Yeah No

[tv-talk]

12 hours ago, kicotan said:

On 4/25/2019 at 11:10 PM, Danielg342 said:

oh, and Adrianne Palicki was downright smoking hot in that leather jacket/tank top combo.

If you can get past the horrible job her plastic surgeon did with her implants...sure.

Kelly has been so attractive in these 2 episodes as to almost be distracting to the scenes, Always find it funny Gordon's role is as the sad sack with no dates and in reality that's his girlfriend. 

[chaifan]

Kelly and Claire were picture perfect models of the two types of post-world disaster, dystopian women.  Model A (Kelly), somehow manages to acquire makeup and keep it perfect throughout any type of disaster with nary an eyeliner smudge.  Not to mention wearing at all times the obligatory cool leather jacket.  Whereas Model B (Claire) looks like she hasn't bathed in a month and yet for some reason bothers to put random braids in her hair.  (Why are there always random braids?)

[Ubiquitous]

9 hours ago, Yeah No said:

I might be remembering wrong, but isn't the theory is that there is a "point of no return" at the event horizon after which you can never return?  I'm not sure if you're not yet at that point whether you would still emit light.  Still, wouldn't they be stretched like spaghetti?  That's what I've always heard.

ETA:  This site (and a few others I read) says it's not possible to escape from a black hole (I presume once past a certain point) no matter how fast you're going because the shape of space is curved.

And even if it were possible to go in as far as they did without consequences, why wouldn't the Kaylons know that?  They knew enough to hang out at the edge waiting to see if they showed up again, so if they could go in, why wouldn't they?  Perhaps they knew they wouldn't be able to see them if they did anyway.

The Event Horizon is named because even the speed of light isn't enough to escape the gravity well, but what about FTL travel  based on warping spacetime or making a wormhole between two spots? What do astronomers say about making a tunnel thru spacetime between in the inside and outside of the gravity well?

Yeah, I kinda wondered why the Kaylon gave up so quickly? Not worth it? Figured they went in too far and trapped or destroyed?

Edited April 27, 2019 by Ubiquitous

[Ubiquitous]

15 hours ago, Rambler said:

By definition, an event horizon is the point at which gravity is so great that nothing can escape it, not even light. The ship flying into and out of the event horizon like it was nothing was just absurd. However, since this is a comedy show, when I see stuff like that, I just roll my eyes and go with the flow. I think it's the same thing with the time loop stuff. You just gotta shrug it off because I kinda think the writers didn't think it out as deeply as if they were working on say, a Star Trek episode. Although judging by that last episode of Discovery, I'm not quite sure how deeply Star Trek writers think about the subject either. 😄

Apparently,  you didn't see the ep of Voyager in which they escaped a black hole's event horizon by shooting a hole in it with their phasers! 🙄

[fauntleroy]

10 hours ago, Yeah No said:

• Wouldn't superior non-sentient beings be more accurate in their shooting?  Those Kaylons in the first scene where Mercer and Gordon steal a food replicator were incredibly bad shots.

Yea. If they could shoot properly the writers would have to give more thought to these interchangeable tedious chase sequences. Also the silly marching in lockstep attack at the outpost.

I lose track of 'alternate' vs 'fixing' timeline. As in 'in this timeline, blah blah blah'. Either there are multiple timelines or there aren't. If there are, then the 'original' one is out there, they are just aware of it when ordinarily they would not be. They don't have to 'restore' it, as it were.

Time nonsense doesn't bother me as much as bad shooting though, because nobody can reconcile the paradox of time travel, whereas the popgun shooting scenes are just lazy.

[DrScottie]

14 hours ago, Raja said:

I couldn't help myself but once the premise was set I spent the rest of the episode looking for a Denise Crosby cameo

Essentially, we got the equivalent with Chief Security Officer no longer on the show Halston Sage coming back and her sacrifice made it possible to restore the original timeline as she and her team stalled the Kaylons long enough to get the beta-secretase off the planet. 

John LeMarr was the MVP of the night. Ladies' man Geordi LaForge was just awesome. 

Edited April 27, 2019 by DrScottie

[iMonrey]

Quote

It was such a nice surprise to see Alara again.  I was wondering about why the actress left and if their was a problem between her and the producers. 

My understanding is that the actress got a role in a movie.

Quote

Whereas Model B (Claire) looks like she hasn't bathed in a month and yet for some reason bothers to put random braids in her hair.  (Why are there always random braids?)

Heh. Braids are short-hand for dystopia. 

[ketose]

I'm sure there's a huge book on wormhole physics. The book on what we actually proved about wormhole physics could fit on a postcard. We just found the first observed evidence of a black hole a few weeks ago.

There's always going to be a little narrative magic about faster than light travel and the technology of spacecraft. If I have the choice between the time dilatation scene and 2 more minutes of Ed and Kelly dating, I'll take my chances with the black hole.

[welnoc]

4 hours ago, chaifan said:

Kelly and Claire were picture perfect models of the two types of post-world disaster, dystopian women.  Model A (Kelly), somehow manages to acquire makeup and keep it perfect throughout any type of disaster with nary an eyeliner smudge.  Not to mention wearing at all times the obligatory cool leather jacket.  Whereas Model B (Claire) looks like she hasn't bathed in a month and yet for some reason bothers to put random braids in her hair.  (Why are there always random braids?)

I've always chuckled at Claire's various hair styles on The Orville and assumed there's a little nod, or poke, to ST:TNG and Gates McFadden supposedly being fired after season 1. Apparently she kept showing up with new hairstyles on set and it was causing difficulties with continuity or something. When she returned, at the demand of the fans, she had to wear a wig.

[shapeshifter]

5 hours ago, Yeah No said:

13 hours ago, jacehan said:

Well, but if you have ships that can go faster than light, that would mean they would be able to escape from the event horizon, no?

. . . This site (and a few others I read) says it's not possible to escape from a black hole (I presume once past a certain point) no matter how fast you're going because the shape of space is curved.

So I guess an FTL ship hiding in the lip of a black hole event horizon is like being "a little bit pregnant." At least that's what the fly on the wall of the writers' room told me.
I'll show myself out now.

[marinw]

1 hour ago, welnoc said:

've always chuckled at Claire's various hair styles on The Orville

Isaac had noticed: "Have you changed the configeration of your hair?" At some points Claire has a patch of green in her hair that matches her uniform.

Edited April 27, 2019 by marinw

[tv-talk]

20 hours ago, Dobian said:

It was such a nice surprise to see Alara again.  I was wondering about why the actress left and if their was a problem between her and the producers.

Funny enough given some of the talk here about Ed being creepy for pining after Kelly and wanting to date the 7yr younger version and the odd dynamic of having a capt and 1st officer dating...well pretty sure McFarlane is dating Halston Sage (Alara), she is 25. Wonder if there was ever an issue at work with that? I think she is in a movie tho, probably why she left as it's so much more money.

[Chaos Theory]

I really liked this episode.  These alternate history episodes are tricky but the show based it on a fun and concept because Ed only became captain of the Orville because Kelly Recommended him.  What would have happened if Ed and Kelly weren’t on the Orville.  

The one part I missed was the Finns.  Were were they?  

I really enjoyed this episode 

[Starchild]

I may have missed it, but...

Whatever caused the Orville to crash into the Pacific...did they fix it before taking off back into space? Because if they didn't, how could they get it airborne again? And if they could anyway, why did it crash in the first place?

[rmontro]

23 minutes ago, Starchild said:

Whatever caused the Orville to crash into the Pacific...did they fix it before taking off back into space? Because if they didn't, how could they get it airborne again? And if they could anyway, why did it crash in the first place?

I think the issue with why the Orville was still on the bottom of the ocean was that Bortus couldn't operate the ship on his own.  He had remained behind to see that all of the escape pods were launched.  

I'm guessing whatever caused the crash was easily fixed, or maybe it's not that there was something wrong with it.  Maybe it's more that it was forced down by the Kaylons.

[EllenB]

I am so, so happy that I can enjoy shows like this without nit-picking every bit of technical and scientific crap.  Never cared for TNG, loved DS9, liked Voyager.  Except for an occasional cast sighting from those (and other sci-fi) shows, I do not give a giant intergalactic alien rat's ass if the science is totally believable or not.

[legaleagle53]

11 hours ago, tv-talk said:

Kelly has been so attractive in these 2 episodes as to almost be distracting to the scenes, Always find it funny Gordon's role is as the sad sack with no dates and in reality that's his girlfriend. 

His fiancée, actually. They got engaged a couple of months ago.

[welnoc]

7 hours ago, marinw said:

Isaac had noticed: "Have you changed the configeration of your hair?" At some points Claire has a patch of green in her hair that matches her uniform.

Not quite sure what this has to do with my observations?

I know Isaac noticed; I watched the episode. That's still one of my favourite episodes.

[Danielg342]

2 hours ago, EllenB said:

I am so, so happy that I can enjoy shows like this without nit-picking every bit of technical and scientific crap.  Never cared for TNG, loved DS9, liked Voyager.  Except for an occasional cast sighting from those (and other sci-fi) shows, I do not give a giant intergalactic alien rat's ass if the science is totally believable or not.

I think the rule with any kind of "alternative" fiction (be it science fiction, alternative history, fantasy) the key has to be that the story follows a certain internal logic. Speculative fiction will always draw someone who will nitpick its flaws- it's inevitable because speculative fiction relies on the writer completely using their imagination and, let's face it, there will be times it gets away from the writer.

What you hope for as a writer is that whatever "alternate truth" you are asking the audience to buy that whatever inconsistencies that arise from that truth don't affect the plot too much. Usually you do this by maintaining internal consistency within the story- that is, if a certain effect works one way during the story, it'll work that way later in the story, unless there's a reasonable explanation about why it would work differently.

In this episode in particular, we can nitpick all the inconsistencies that come with time travel but at least this version of time travel:

• It took a lot of power to execute
• It needed Issac's calculations
• It needed the correct people near the machine in order to properly infiltrate the different timelines

In other words, they didn't "change the rules" of time travel halfway through the episode. They didn't decide that someone was now a time travel expert when previously they weren't an expert, they didn't decide that time travel needed a lot of power one minute and then nothing the next and the machine always sent back the closest individual to it each time (I believe Kelly was near Claire when she was sent away).

We can argue about whether or not any of that actually makes sense, but, at the very least the writer made the story easy to follow along by keeping the explanations consistent.

[Orbert]

21 hours ago, MoldySpiceGirl said:

See, and I immediately went there with Firefly.  "Wearing our skin as a suit" is totally a Reaver move.

Yes!  I thought the same thing.  Scavengers = Reavers.

[ganesh]

5 hours ago, EllenB said:

I do not give a giant intergalactic alien rat's ass if the science is totally believable or not.

I highly recommend Farscape. 

On 4/25/2019 at 8:44 PM, phalange said:

I loved the alternate timeline look; it had a very Star Wars-y vibe.

The first half was nearly a shot for shot on Endor. I'm totally fine with that because it looked like they weren't really mincing words about it. 

On 4/26/2019 at 1:10 PM, ketose said:

That's the way Babylon 5 handled it. Sinclair basically said that certain things would happen over and over and he could only change so much, which is why he didn't let Garabadli go with him to B4.

Watch your back, Michael, and beware of shadows.

I actually would have liked for this "universe" to last more than one episode. It reminded me of Farscape with the outlaw mentality. I'd like to see that as a future plotline - where the Orville goes rogue. 

I'm not really a fan of 'ship in the tv shows I watch, but I do like that Ed and Kelly like to drink together. 

[Meushell]

19 hours ago, Ottis said:

All the bad science and plotting.... hiding inside a black hole event horizon, taking the whole team and the kid down to the Orville, Bortus attacking humans in a war against machines... so many dumb little things that could have been cleaned up. And the predicability.

I don’t think there was a safe place to stash the kids. Leave anyone in orbit, and you are just inviting an attack. 

After nine months alone, I think Bortus has every right to be jumpy when the ship was suddenly boarded.

Personally, I don’t have an issue with the event horizon. Maybe they didn’t use quite the right term, but they clearly meant the “light can’t escape” horizon, not the “nothing can escape” horizon. They have a faster than light ship after all. 

[marinw]

8 hours ago, welnoc said:

Not quite sure what this has to do with my observations?

You observed how Claire keeps changeing her hair.

[Raja]

4 hours ago, Meushell said:

I don’t think there was a safe place to stash the kids. Leave anyone in orbit, and you are just inviting an attack. 

After nine months alone, I think Bortus has every right to be jumpy when the ship was suddenly boarded.

Maybe he came across the Battlestar Galatica skinjobs while studying the "historical documents" in his time alone. 😀

[jaigurudeva]

On 4/26/2019 at 9:29 PM, Yeah No said:

So the Orville sits at the bottom of the Marianas trench for how many months and is right and ready to fly out without any need of maintenance or cleaning?  Yeah, right.

And after it had apparently been damaged enough to "fall out of the sky" and require the crew to abandon ship. Speaking of which, given that the Union is on the verge of war with the Kaylons, all non-essential personnel should be shipped out to their home worlds, to make evacuations faster and minimize civilian casualties.

10 hours ago, Meushell said:

Personally, I don’t have an issue with the event horizon. Maybe they didn’t use quite the right term, but they clearly meant the “light can’t escape” horizon, not the “nothing can escape” horizon. They have a faster than light ship after all. 

I could buy this of they were burning their quantum drive the entire time to combat the gravitational pull of the black hole, but there was no mention of maintaining the exact speed they'd need to remain within the event horizon but not spaghettified and sucked into the singularity.  It seemed the ship just flew into the "darkness bubble" they seem to think the event horizon is and flew out with no problems, even through the gravitational pull of a collapsing star was once a problem they struggled to pull away from.

But if course, this isn't a really hard sci-fi show, and it's more about the ensemble's relationships, not the realistic physics or military strategy.

[k2p2]

Luckily, trying to sort out the logic of time travel and whatnot gives me a headache, so I mostly ignore it and just enjoy the ride. With that approach, this was a very enjoyable episode. (However, Mr. K2 and I did toss a side eye to "Hey, let's fly into an event horizon!")

I really liked the tough edge that alternate Alara had developed. It made her character more interesting than just "tiny, cute, and super strong."

Was it Talla who said, regarding the absence of fish, " The Kaylon were very thorough"? That was chilling.

In a couple of spots, the CGI was a little too obvious, such as when the Kaylon were marching out of their ship. But then head lasers took flight, and that was cool. But if they can't shoot any better than they did, the Kaylon may want to reconsider how they deploy that weapon.

Now, Fox, please renew the show. Thank you.

[Bort]

Was so surprised to see Alara. I hadn't realized how much I missed her. I also love Talla now, though. Can we keep them both?

[Chaos Theory]

I complain a lot about how other people compare this show waaaay too much to Star Trek for my liking but it is evident at least that Seth and the writers are at least genuine fans of science fiction.   

[Yeah No]

11 hours ago, jaigurudeva said:

And after it had apparently been damaged enough to "fall out of the sky" and require the crew to abandon ship. Speaking of which, given that the Union is on the verge of war with the Kaylons, all non-essential personnel should be shipped out to their home worlds, to make evacuations faster and minimize civilian casualties.

I could buy this of they were burning their quantum drive the entire time to combat the gravitational pull of the black hole, but there was no mention of maintaining the exact speed they'd need to remain within the event horizon but not spaghettified and sucked into the singularity.  It seemed the ship just flew into the "darkness bubble" they seem to think the event horizon is and flew out with no problems, even through the gravitational pull of a collapsing star was once a problem they struggled to pull away from.

But if course, this isn't a really hard sci-fi show, and it's more about the ensemble's relationships, not the realistic physics or military strategy.

Exactly.  At least when Geordi LaForge came out with something like, "Let me see, if I can just recalibrate the phase inducing transmogrifiers to a higher frequency I might be able to prevent the ship from being sucked into the singularity" it gave what they ended up doing some measure of plausibility even if it was complete fictional gobbledygook.  I'm not asking for the science to be 100% accurate by our present standards or I'd never buy that they were able to go faster than the speed of light in the first place, but at least make it sound like they realize there's a problem going into the event horizon of a black hole and are able to find a way to overcome it.

[tv-talk]

While I would like a bit more gobbledygook out of engineering a la ST when they do some of these things, what actually annoys me is that the race of super computers that wiped out most of organic life in the galaxy in all of 9 months...is too scared or ignorant to simply follow the Orville into the black hole's periphery and destroy them poste haste. At least give me a "the EM pulses this close to the event horizon are too powerful, the Kaylons wont risk coming in."

Similarly just axe any scene that involves hundreds of Kaylon blasts missing humans on foot 100 meters away, I mean come on they cant even target Ed and Gordon but punch holes in planets and destroy moons? I think when you set the Kaylons up as having destroyed everyone in less than a year you set a high bar for interactions with them.

[marinw]

1 hour ago, tv-talk said:

Similarly just axe any scene that involves hundreds of Kaylon blasts missing humans on foot 100 meters away, I mean come on they cant even target Ed and Gordon but punch holes in planets and destroy moons?

It's hard to miss a moon!

I see your point, the Kaylons have even worse aim than the original  Battlestar Glactica Cylons. (Yes, I'm that old)

Edited April 29, 2019 by marinw

[benteen]

This was a good episode although I thought it needed another episode to really fully develop the alternate world they were in.  Still, the episode was a very fun ending to a GREAT Season 2.  Here's hoping Season 3 will be greenlit soon.

Very nice to see Alara back.  Great action, battle scenes and special effects.  Great shots of the snowy landscape.  Evil Isaac's comments to Lamarr were pretty amusing.

Anyone else think that Bortus kept himself amused to holo porn during his nine months underwater?

Seth built on the strong ending of Season 1 and really delivered with Season 2.  Well done!

Edited April 29, 2019 by benteen

[marinw]

50 minutes ago, benteen said:

Anyone else think that Bortus kept himself amused to holo porn during his nine months underwater?

Good point!  And what did he do when it was time to empty his bladder?

[Bort]

21 minutes ago, marinw said:

Good point!  And what did he do when it was time to empty his bladder?

Maybe that's why the shuttle bay doors were open. Bortus had to flush out the Pee Corner.

Although I don't think he'd be able to use the simulator for his porn since he said he was running on minimal life support.

[Ubiquitous]

On ‎4‎/‎27‎/‎2019 at 7:24 PM, Starchild said:

Whatever caused the Orville to crash into the Pacific...did they fix it before taking off back into space? Because if they didn't, how could they get it airborne again? And if they could anyway, why did it crash in the first place?

I was under the impression that once the Kaylon no longer needed The Orville, they ditched it and it just happened to crash in the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean.

2 hours ago, benteen said:

Anyone else think that Bortus kept himself amused to holo porn during his nine months underwater?

Without Ed as captain, would the events that led up to that have happened?

[ganesh]

In this rogue timeline did Bortus mention the gender reassignment of the daughter? Because he only mentioned him by name. The porn stemmed from that. 

[AdorkableWitch]

I just assumed the Kaylons being unable to hit anything as a nod to Stormtroopers syndrome.

[ketose]

You can't kill main characters, but you want to show off your cool-ass CGI lasers. The math reveals itself.

[ganesh]

Literally every scifi show goes that route, and when then don't, the guns are on stun or whatever.

[Chaos Theory]

I like this show because there isn't a whole lot of technobabble.  Maybe some of course but not scene after scene of it.   

Quote

And if the Kaylons were so thorough that they didn't leave anything living in the oceans, why was Bortus still there?  And why was he just sitting there anyway?  I was very tired while watching this episode and probably didn't catch that.

They didn't actually say but killing  large group of things is easier then killing just one.  Bortus might have just done a good job of hiding.  Or....just because the story says so.

Quote

   ON 4/27/2019 AT 8:42 PM,  ELLENB SAID: 

I am so, so happy that I can enjoy shows like this without nit-picking every bit of technical and scientific crap.  Never cared for TNG, loved DS9, liked Voyager.  Except for an occasional cast sighting from those (and other sci-fi) shows, I do not give a giant intergalactic alien rat's ass if the science is totally believable or not.

I think the rule with any kind of "alternative" fiction (be it science fiction, alternative history, fantasy) the key has to be that the story follows a certain internal logic. Speculative fiction will always draw someone who will nitpick its flaws- it's inevitable because speculative fiction relies on the writer completely using their imagination and, let's face it, there will be times it gets away from the writer.

What you hope for as a writer is that whatever "alternate truth" you are asking the audience to buy that whatever inconsistencies that arise from that truth don't affect the plot too much. Usually you do this by maintaining internal consistency within the story- that is, if a certain effect works one way during the story, it'll work that way later in the story, unless there's a reasonable explanation about why it would work differently.

But that is also the problem with nitpicking.   Sometimes you just have to go with the way the writers produce the show and just let it be.  I thought the "alternate truth" was realistic.  Ed and Kelly never dated so Kelly never cheated on Ed and out of guilt never got him that Captain's chair he was always vying for.    Because of that Claire didn't come aboard the Orville with her sons and Ty never became friends with Isaac.  Internal logic makes sense to me.  What I really loved was that it wasn't Ed but Claire who was important to the story.  

Edited April 30, 2019 by Chaos Theory

[Toaster Strudel]

Claire looked fantastic with her long hair down.

Her normal hairdo bugs me.