Octopus Overlords

To be fair, it's entirely possible that the actress just thought her role was too small and was offered a meatier part on a different show. It happens a lot, I would imagine.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Wed Jan 02, 2019 2:09 pm Maybe I'm not remembering correctly, but this S2 episode was actually supposed to be the ending of S1 - which makes more sense if you look at it from a story/pacing standpoint.

Regardless, I thought the opening was easily the most Star Trek thing they've done yet (a slow build to get to the main plot - a story about an annual urination ceremony) and I'm still enjoying the hell out of it.

FYI, the porn addiction episode was the episode from Season 1 that got pulled into Season 2. The Season 2 premiere was produced to be the Season 2 premiere.

hepcat wrote: ↑Mon Jan 14, 2019 11:07 am To be fair, it's entirely possible that the actress just thought her role was too small and was offered a meatier part on a different show. It happens a lot, I would imagine.

This is about right. By the scant accounts, she had an opportunity to shoot a movie that had a schedule that conflicted with the Orville's shooting schedule.

malchior wrote: ↑Mon Jan 14, 2019 11:10 am

hepcat wrote: ↑Mon Jan 14, 2019 11:07 am To be fair, it's entirely possible that the actress just thought her role was too small and was offered a meatier part on a different show. It happens a lot, I would imagine.

This is about right. By the scant accounts, she had an opportunity to shoot a movie that had a schedule that conflicted with the Orville's shooting schedule.

Ah, a movie is a little different than jumping for another series. Maybe Hentzau can tell us that, as an actor, if it's better to have a lead role on a small stage or a supporting role on a big one.

pr0ner wrote: ↑Mon Jan 14, 2019 11:08 am

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Wed Jan 02, 2019 2:09 pm Maybe I'm not remembering correctly, but this S2 episode was actually supposed to be the ending of S1 - which makes more sense if you look at it from a story/pacing standpoint.

Regardless, I thought the opening was easily the most Star Trek thing they've done yet (a slow build to get to the main plot - a story about an annual urination ceremony) and I'm still enjoying the hell out of it.

FYI, the porn addiction episode was the episode from Season 1 that got pulled into Season 2. The Season 2 premiere was produced to be the Season 2 premiere.

I heard differently, that the first two were originally for season 1, and that the 3rd one was the first newly written one for this season.

Rumpy wrote: ↑Mon Jan 14, 2019 2:26 pm

pr0ner wrote: ↑Mon Jan 14, 2019 11:08 am

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Wed Jan 02, 2019 2:09 pm Maybe I'm not remembering correctly, but this S2 episode was actually supposed to be the ending of S1 - which makes more sense if you look at it from a story/pacing standpoint.

Regardless, I thought the opening was easily the most Star Trek thing they've done yet (a slow build to get to the main plot - a story about an annual urination ceremony) and I'm still enjoying the hell out of it.

FYI, the porn addiction episode was the episode from Season 1 that got pulled into Season 2. The Season 2 premiere was produced to be the Season 2 premiere.

I heard differently, that the first two were originally for season 1, and that the 3rd one was the first newly written one for this season.

The production codes on Wikipedia show the season opener and last week as Season 2, and the porn holodeck ep as Season 1.

Thread got me curious. I'm not sure she has a starring role in said movie (IMDB shows her like 7th in the cast list) but still her aspirations may be on movies over TV or there might be something yet to come that could have interfered with where she was going in the series or she might have just had differences with the show or wanted a change or other priorities. *shrug*

I will say I'm surprised the Internet is so aflutter with speculation and I am also surprised at how totally different she looks from here character (and not being recognizable might be yet another reason to leave).

Well, that's weird. I think what's confusing is that they're airing out of order. The premiere definitely feels like more like a season-ender to me too in the way it's structured and the kind of story they told in a kind of "holding it in until the season is over" kind of deal, which has far less impact as a season opener. I think it may have been intended for S1 but never filmed until later as the season was shorter. Well anyway, 3rd one is definitely new.

I would think if she is simply doing a movie, a short leave-of-absence would just be required, not a complete write-off. Have her take time off to compete on the federation weightlifting team or some such. Unless the movie is Apocalypse Now. don't most movies have a rather short shooting schedule? I'd think especially with a made-for-Netflix movie you're not talking budgets big enough for shooting to span seasons. Maybe she just hates spending so much time in makeup? In any event, she was probably the most interesting character on the show, and if the replacement character is that thing with it's nose fused to its dick I don't seen it a harbinger of great things to come.

LordMortis wrote: ↑Mon Jan 14, 2019 2:42 pm I am also surprised at how totally different she looks from here character (and not being recognizable might be yet another reason to leave).

She wears makeup and prosthetics on Orville. In real life, her ears and forehead are normal.

She probably got into a bad relationship with Seth and chose to leave.

Or... they want to recreate what happened to Tasha Yar in ST:TNG by having the popular female security officer get written off.

rittchard wrote: ↑Mon Jan 14, 2019 3:27 pm She probably got into a bad relationship with Seth and chose to leave.

They did date briefly but I don't think she would have gotten that kind of send off if she and MacFarlane weren't on good terms.

hepcat wrote: ↑Mon Jan 14, 2019 3:21 pm

LordMortis wrote: ↑Mon Jan 14, 2019 2:42 pm I am also surprised at how totally different she looks from here character (and not being recognizable might be yet another reason to leave).

She wears makeup and prosthetics on Orville. In real life, her ears and forehead are normal.

Yep, same as in Nimoy. I know, hard to believe.

pr0ner wrote: ↑Mon Jan 14, 2019 3:31 pm

rittchard wrote: ↑Mon Jan 14, 2019 3:27 pm She probably got into a bad relationship with Seth and chose to leave.

They did date briefly but I don't think she would have gotten that kind of send off if she and MacFarlane weren't on good terms.

Man, that'd be a opening a jar of pickles.

rittchard wrote: ↑Mon Jan 14, 2019 3:27 pm She probably got into a bad relationship with Seth and chose to leave.

Or... they want to recreate what happened to Tasha Yar in ST:TNG by having the popular female security officer get written off.

If that was the case, wouldn't he have killed her off in some sexcapade with the Norm MacDonald blob gone horribly wrong?

Not everyone acts like a cad in Hollywood. I may find McFarlane annoying at times, but I will be the first to admit he seems well liked by a lot of people...both men and women alike. You don't get to that point being a jerk.

I heard he almost popped a Vietnamese dude's eye out.

Donny got him out of the charges.

The writers in an interview at Comic-Con seem to hint that there is a plot twist down the line for Alara and the new security officer that they are bringing onto the show.

(around 8:40)

So it very well may be that Halston Sage wanted time away from the show to make 2 movies that she's working on this year (one of them supposedly is shooting at the exact same time as Orville - in a different city). So they are working her absence into the plot.

Z-Corn wrote: ↑Mon Jan 14, 2019 7:30 pm I heard he almost popped a Vietnamese dude's eye out.

Donny got him out of the charges.

Did the ending to last night's episode rub anyone else the wrong way?

Love the show but never got around to finishing the first season off. lacked maybe 2 or 3 eps. I also haven't read this thread in forever. So my favorite character is gone? Great. Oh well. Im ok. Not really caring now days.

Wow. Last night's episode (featuring Issac) was...unexpected. Seems like a major/world/universe element has just been tossed into the mix. I'm having a hard time seeing how they're going to resolve this. I mean, ignoring all the plot holes you could drive s truck through, I'm still enjoying the show.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Fri Feb 22, 2019 12:29 pm Wow. Last night's episode (featuring Issac) was...unexpected. Seems like a major/world/universe element has just been tossed into the mix. I'm having a hard time seeing how they're going to resolve this. I mean, ignoring all the plot holes you could drive s truck through, I'm still enjoying the show.

I don't know about unexpected...

This show has heretofore lacked a story arc. Now they have one, unless they choose to wrap it all up in part 2.

Please don't solve it by introducing a computer virus.

The Orville has generally been a ST:TNG light and many of the episodes are very similar to Star Trek. In that sense, as mentioned above,

Was that a dark episode or what?

Btw, Mercer suggested Isaac scan his databanks for speeches when he said he didn't know any. What he came up with was... Sally Field's Oscar Acceptance speech from 1984. Both a nod to the Oscars airing this weekend and perhaps... TNG which started in 84?

Star Trek The Next Generation started in 1987.

Did it? I thought it went through syndication in 1987. Hah, oh well.

True story: I bought my first color TV and my first VCR so that I could watch STNG. Before that I only had a b&w portable gathering dust in a closet because there was nothing I wanted to watch -- I'd gone about five years without seeing any TV at all, but the VCR's "time shifting" superpower was a game-changer, and STNG was the new game.

At one time I had the entire run of STNG on videotape...with the original commercials. That would be a hoot to watch now. But a painful hoot; I recorded them on the low-rez slow speed. VHS tapes were expensive.

At least they weren't Betamax! I think those were even more expensive.

And they all ended up in the trash anyway. Did I ever watch any of them? Maybe once. It was ultimately a waste of time and money, but back then I enjoyed the process of collecting.

Back on topic, the last two episodes of the Orville are some of the Star Trekkiest they've done yet. I approve.

I skipped the latest episode because I thought it was going to be about more robot love BS. (Which, as we know, is forbidden by the space pope and robot devil!) I guess I should watch it now.

ps. It's not.

Not really how I expected that to go, but I guess things will continue to be interesting.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Fri Mar 01, 2019 1:30 pm Not really how I expected that to go, but I guess things will continue to be interesting.

Kraken wrote: ↑Sun Feb 24, 2019 2:56 am True story: I bought my first color TV and my first VCR so that I could watch STNG.

I used the same little 8" B&W TV that my grandmother gave me from 1st grade all the way until junior year at university.

Saw a little of The Orville for the first time in a motel last night. I liked the battle scenes however they're doing the CGI, normally I'm not a fan of CGI. I think I liked it because objects seemed to move slower, and they used sound to make you think they're moving fast?

While I enjoyed the episode and the direction that this show is taking, it suffers from common sf tropes that always bother me. Such as: crowding lots of enormous ships into tight formations so that they'll fit on the screen. And ignoring orbital mechanics in favor of old-fashioned dogfights (The Expanse is the only show I've ever seen get that right). And ships that come to a stop when they lose power. Ships that just happen to stumble upon other ships, or stop to say hello because they were in the neighborhood. Instantaneous messaging and ridiculously short travel times (even at 10x the speed of light, it would still take 0.4 year just to go from Earth to Alpha Centauri). And why anyone would design Jeffries tubes that are too small to crawl through. And so on, and so on.

I know these are just conventions that audiences accept, and The Orville is not trying to be The Expanse. But when you pile all of those cliches into a 40-minute episode, they're hard to overlook.

As for the story, I predicted at the beginning that I often annoy Wife by announcing major plot points before they happen, because the writing is simple and predictable.

And yet, in spite of all that, I still like this show. I just try not to think about it too hard while I'm watching and not to wish that it were something it's not.

They definitely took the easy/obvious path in this episode. While I still enjoy the show, I wish the stories were less predictable.

So I caught part two. Yep no stupid robot love story going on there, mostly.
Also I liked Gordon's comment about the Krill - "I told you I wasn't making any of this up!"

Seems like the online review sites are complaining about last night's episode, but I really liked it. It reminded me a bit of Lost in Translation - the pain of making an unexpected connection that you know has no future. I also thought the B story of the cigarettes was hilarious, even if I saw it coming from a mile away. I dunno; maybe I'm getting soft in my old age, but I thought it was a solid, standout episode.

Not watched the last season ending even but thats one thing I recall...always knowing what they were going to do. It was always so clear.