I recall Deep Space Nine authors discussing how they had to “dumb down” phasers to have realistic battles.
The star trek phasers always seemed really ridiculous since no one would ever use the continuous beam to sweep their targets. They’d always fire their beam in one place the whole time, they may as well have been shooting a bolt action rifle. If you’re going to do that style of energy balls replacing bullets, you should at least have short little projectile bursts, not long beams. Every other sci-fi show seems to have figured that out.
The Kaylon head drone thing was kinda cool. Surprising but logical. Of course there’s absolutely no reason given for the ridiculously bad accuracy. I guess you can say it’s an homage to star wars/trek but some sort of in-universe explanation like some sort of defensive jamming/scattering/whatever system would’ve been nice.
Or put ten guys with Gordon and Mercer, have them killed stealing a replicator.
Isaak disabled all of the Kaylons that had commandeered the Orville by EMPing them (yet, somehow the Orville’s systems were preserved, which, in terms of actual EMP, would be highly unlikely). One might imagine the EMP-like weapons would have become a standard feature of battle-ready starships, since a hostile could be fully disabled without being destroyed.
This seems like a significant thin spot in the overall writing. Was there some sort of treaty-like thing that proscribed these kind of weapons? Perhaps it might have to do with a pulse causing serious damage to stored data on a vessel, which is kind of critical for battle intelligence and the raison d’être of an exploratory vessel.
EMP isn’t the magic bullet Hollywood thinks it is (Leverage, I’m looking at YOU). If it fries something, it fries everything, and it stays fried. But you can shield against it. Or you can use Voyager’s biogel computers, which shouldn’t be affected. (them you give a literal “computer virus”.)
Why did they bother to leave the bottom of the ocean before solving the time travel problem? Maybe I missed something, but there seemed to be nowhere to go; the challenge was breaking into the Kaylon neural network, which appeared to span the entire galaxy.
As to battle scenes, futuristic battle scenes became so stupid to me so long ago I’ve stopped caring about the inexplicable lack of automatic weapons, grenades, and beyond-visual-range weapons and the fact that futuristic combatants like the Kaylon would be wiped out by a few sections of today’s reservists. It’s just how Hollywood has done it for all my life.
Agreed on both points. There were some echoes of the *Alien *soundtrack when they were creeping around in dark starships, too.
Ed said he’d commanded the Union base at Epsilon Eridani - not the first time that system’s been mentioned in sf (in Star Trek, it might be Vulcan’s star system): Epsilon Eridani - Wikipedia
Cool to see the bombed-out, lifeless Earth.
I didn’t buy that the Orville would be in such great shape for having been knocked out of orbit and then spent months at the bottom of the ocean (and why would Bortus waste power for lights on decks he wasn’t even on?).
I know, my God, both the drones and the Kaylon ships! Yeesh. Clearly they’d all gone to the Imperial Stormtrooper School of Marksmanship.
Yes - good to see Alara again, too, as a brave rebel leader.
Heh. I thought, too. Maybe they needed a little exercise after being cooped up in the shuttle for weeks? Given their diet and exercise regime, they knew they’d have to *earn *that Twinkie.
No reason they would have to have such alien-looking masks, though, other than to make the reveal of who it was more surprising (which it wasn’t).
Now, now - don’t forget independently targeting particle-beam phalanx, tactical smart missiles, sonic electronic ball-breakers, knives and sharp sticks.
For all its many nits to pick, I enjoy the show and really hope it’s renewed.
“Get the cheese to sickbay” Sounds Orville-esque, but *Voyager *was playing it straight.
Fuck yeah! Orville renewed!
Yes!!
Woooot! Thanks for letting us know. 
And maybe season 4 will be on Disney streaming if Fox doesn’t renew.
That would make sense.
Woooohooo! I’ve had a rough year and this helps so much.
Yay!
More bortus!
And next year’s urination ceremony will be bigger than ever!
More Ja’loja!
I’m going to smoke a cigarette now!
I’d considered that, but she’d only have foreknowledge of the original timeline. IF the 2nd mindwipe didn’t work, from her perspective, the only difference between the “middle” timeline and the “final” timeline is Claire showing up, looking ragged in standard-issue post-apocalypse-wear, not telling her much, and giving her an injection. She might make the leap that Something Bad happened because she changed the timeline, so she should ignore her gut feeling and force herself to start a relationship with Ed, but the mindwipe taking is the simpler way for the story to go. (Also, if it didn’t work, it would make the part of the journey to retrieve the substance from Alara moot in retrospect. Only the time machine and a glimpse of Alt-timeline Claire would have really been needed). Dramatically speaking, it makes more sense to let the plan work. Takes some agency away from Past Kelly, but gives meaning to the alt-future crew’s work (including alt-future Kelly, most of all).
Oh, and Huzzah! for the renewal. I may grow a mustache to celebrate.