# The Orville-Seth McFarlane **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 17, 2017, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814 "2017-05-17T03:28:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 68
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2017, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/1341 "2017-11-21T17:42:09Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > They got that from Gordon - he said he hated surgery (Isaac must have extrapolated a bit there). Just me, then. :smack: Thanks…I have no idea how I missed that. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2017, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/1342 "2017-11-21T19:07:41Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > And the way to deal with the fact that the CO might go nuts or get drunk is not to make the system vulnerable to a security chief who gets drunk or goes nuts - it’s to create a system that allows a group of lower officers (say, any two of the ship’s doctor, the ship’s XO and the ship’s security officer) to override the CO. Good point. Kind of like the 25th Amendment. > [@RickJay](#): > > “Order 38” or whatever was a totally unnecessary end around to a problem that did not exist, to my mind, and created more problems than it solved. The entire concept of it could have simply been dumped; don’t mention it, and just don’t have Mercer demand the simulation be stopped. Or have him say “this is crazy, we have to get her out of this thing” and have any other character convince him that it needed to be carried out to its conclusion. I agree that “Order 38” created more problems than it solved. But why did they even have to know she was doing it at all? Why couldn’t she come back to duty saying “feeling much better, sir” and have everyone be like “huh, okay…glad to hear it” while she winks at Isaac? > [@muldoonthief](#): > > “Ah yes, the humans. The hillbillies of the galaxy.” That was the highlight of the episode for me. > [@friedo](#): > > IMO a more interesting story would be if we find out that it’s a simulation much earlier, and the crew, realizing what Alara has done, must go inside it to convince her to end the program. Then they have to convince her that they are real and not the horror versions of themselves. Hijinks! OTOH this is a cool idea too. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2017, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/1343 "2017-11-21T19:16:33Z")
I liked the show. Sure, it had some trope-ish elements, but what episode of Star Trek didn’t? The horror was generally done well and reasonably scary, the characters were engaging, etc. At first, I didn’t think she was in a simulation - I thought this was a different take on ‘Day of the Dove’ from TOS, and that the Orville had taken on a being that could control minds and which fed off of fear. ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2017, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/1344 "2017-11-21T19:38:10Z")
I did like that the conversation that she had with her parents indicated that Alara is kind of a loser by Xelayan standards. That puts a little more light on her insecurities on the ship. She is not considered good enough by her own people’s standards and fears that she is not good enough by Union standards. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2017, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/1345 "2017-11-21T19:48:46Z")
> [@Death\_of\_Rats](#): > > I did like that the conversation that she had with her parents indicated that Alara is kind of a loser by Xelayan standards. That puts a little more light on her insecurities on the ship. She is not considered good enough by her own people’s standards and fears that she is not good enough by Union standards. Yup, another good point. That conversation was a keeper, but could have been the “B plot” while they used the “A plot” for something else entirely. I wonder BTW what her parents would have thought of the zoo where Isaac had to ask the zookeeper to talk to Alara because he thought of Xelayans and humans both as beneath him. I’ve got to think they would be tempted to argue not that he was being unjust in general, but that Xelayans naturally belonged on the other side of the divide. Kind of like you sometimes saw with light-skinned blacks in the Jim Crow era. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2017, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/1346 "2017-11-21T20:17:39Z")
The show is uneven but I’m still watching, and usually enjoying, it. The next best thing to having another _Star Trek_ series. > [@Mijin](#): > > …I thought at the end when mercer asked for [the doctor’s] report she’d express some regret, but no… Yeah, you’d think a doctor would be troubled by having killed somebody, even in self-defense. Hope we see her wrestling with this a bit more. > [@muldoonthief](#): > > I loved that Claire’s kids were always fighting, complaining, pains in the ass. Normal. Not like the “perfect with one fault that’s cured by the end of the episode” kids you’d occasionally see on Star Trek… Yes, but they were SO bratty and poorly-disciplined I was annoyed. > [@Quercus\_alba](#): > > I was thinking that with their technology, they ought to be able to throw individual force fields around squabbling kids to keep them apart and may block out the bickering as well… > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Best $400 I ever spent. You can get it for $375 down at the Union SuperStore. > [@SlackerInc](#): > > No one’s talking about the latest episode yet? The build-up to Bortus singing Celine Dion (and then it being a fakeout at the last moment) was priceless. The weird sex between the doctor and the…whatever he is…wow. That was something. :eek:… Preach it. I can’t think of another sf program that showed interspecies sex on-screen. > [@SlackerInc](#): > > Do I just have a sick mind, or did others take it as more like that was him ejaculating? Definitely. > [@kunilou](#): > > I’m okay with it. If Mercer and Darulio had actually consummated, then Grayson would shut down every argument with, “You slept with him TOO!” This way the writers can keep that particular plot element going. Heh. I expect no less. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2017, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/1347 "2017-11-21T21:01:21Z")
> [@Death\_of\_Rats](#): > > I did like that the conversation that she had with her parents indicated that Alara is kind of a loser by Xelayan standards. That puts a little more light on her insecurities on the ship. She is not considered good enough by her own people’s standards and fears that she is not good enough by Union standards. Are the writers good enough to play on that? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2017, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/1348 "2017-11-22T15:22:32Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > I thought this was the best episode yet (and I liked all the previous ones a LOT!). And yes, Rob Lowe’s name was in the opening credits. Hey, if he can play Drew Peterson, he can certainly play this role with impunity. He played the same blue guy in the series premiere, uncredited, IMDB says. > [@Folacin](#): > > I’m going to have to disagree with the ‘ejaculation’ hypothesis, if for no other reason than it doesn’t happen until after several seconds after they are interrupted. > > It seems more like an involuntary startle/flee instinct, akin to a squid squirting ink or various animals regurgitating. So you know all about that species’ sexuality, do you? Come on. This is Seth MacFarlane’s show. Of _course_ it’s a cum joke. > [@Andy\_L](#): > > Absolutely. I was sure it was Spiner when I first heard him, and it still sounds a lot like him. I agree, but it’s a British actor, Mark Jackson: [http://deadline.com/2016/12/mark-jackson-cast-seth-macfarlane-fox-series-orville-1201867326/](http://deadline.com/2016/12/mark-jackson-cast-seth-macfarlane-fox-series-orville-1201867326/) > **[Mark Jackson | Actor](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2961481/?ref_=tt_cl_t8)** > > Known for: The Orville, Peppermint, The Royal Today > [@friedo](#): > > …IMO a more interesting story would be if we find out that it’s a simulation much earlier, and the crew, realizing what Alara has done, must go inside it to convince her to end the program. Then they have to convince her that they are real and not the horror versions of themselves. Hijinks!.. Yeah, that would’ve been better. > [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > That “emptiness of space” and “You don’t know what’s coming for you” speech reminded me of Cordwainer Smith’s stories “Scanners Live in Vain” and “The Game of Rat and Dragon”. Best part of the episode. And consider Q’s sly comments in ST:TNG “Q Who”: “Picard, you are about to move into areas of the galaxy filled with wonders you cannot possibly imagine. And terrors to freeze your soul!.. If you can’t take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It’s not safe out here. It’s wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it’s not for the timid.” > [@muldoonthief](#): > > “Ah yes, the humans. The hillbillies of the galaxy.” Heh. Best line of the episode. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2017, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/1349 "2017-11-22T16:44:46Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > “Ah yes, the humans. The hillbillies of the galaxy.” reminds me of a Kathleen Madigan stand-up bit where she said she wasn’t sure whether she’d want aliens to visit us, because “what if Earth is the ‘Alabama of the galaxy?’” ---
**Author:** ![Mars\_Horizon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mars_horizon/32/2804_2.png) [@Mars\_Horizon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mars_Horizon)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2017, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/1350 "2017-11-27T17:57:05Z")
I think the score played in the Alara v. Isaac scenes was an homage to **Aliens**. The way Alara slung the rifle over her shoulder was reminiscent of Ripley confronting aliens with a flamethrower. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2017, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/1351 "2017-11-27T18:25:56Z")
> [@Mars\_Horizon](#): > > I think the score played in the Alara v. Isaac scenes was an homage to **Aliens**. The way Alara slung the rifle over her shoulder was reminiscent of Ripley confronting aliens with a flamethrower. they’ve done that a few times. in ep. 4 when the crew is investigating the generation ship, the music is very reminiscent of the “cloud” scenes in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2017, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/1352 "2017-11-28T16:22:33Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > they’ve done that a few times. in ep. 4 when the crew is investigating the generation ship, the music is very reminiscent of the “cloud” scenes in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Although I generally like this show a lot (other than the most recent episode), there is one mode of criticism of it that I couldn’t really dispute. If someone said they just can’t be okay with it being so derivative (perhaps calling it a “ripoff”), I couldn’t really dispute that point. I like it regardless, but it’s definitely a valid critique. ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2017, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/1353 "2017-11-28T19:04:28Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Although I generally like this show a lot (other than the most recent episode), there is one mode of criticism of it that I couldn’t really dispute. If someone said they just can’t be okay with it being so derivative (perhaps calling it a “ripoff”), I couldn’t really dispute that point. I like it regardless, but it’s definitely a valid critique. I… But… I. Mean The show exists to be derivative. If it wasn’t it would not be in production. That’s the whole point. It’s Star Trek/space opera TV pastiche. That’s what it’s doing. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2017, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/1354 "2017-11-28T19:06:02Z")
I would call it more “pastiche” than rip-off. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2017, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/1355 "2017-11-28T19:36:16Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > I would call it more “pastiche” than rip-off. Homage.😛 ---
**Author:** ![Randolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Randolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randolph)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2017, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/1356 "2017-11-28T20:18:37Z")
Minimalistic reinterpretation. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2017, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/1357 "2017-11-28T21:19:41Z")
Ka-Ching! ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2017, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/1358 "2017-11-29T02:29:33Z")
> [@NAF1138](#): > > I… But… I. Mean > > The show exists to be derivative. If it wasn’t it would not be in production. That’s the whole point. It’s Star Trek/space opera TV pastiche. That’s what it’s doing. Hey, other than the current episode, I love the show. But I think it would be fair to say that it’s not necessarily designed just to appeal to people who “get the references”. Several episodes have been pretty straightforward TNG type episodes (complete with creative inputs from many who worked on that show) but without getting authorization or paying royalties. Basically, like high-budget, for-profit fanfic, but which also plays well to audiences who never saw the inspiration. And as much as I generally enjoy it, I do have the nagging sense that it’s a little shady. I would feel much more comfortable if MacFarlane had gotten the rights to do a Star Trek spin off. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2017, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/1359 "2017-11-29T02:40:03Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > I would feel much more comfortable if MacFarlane had gotten the rights to do a Star Trek spin off. Do we know that he did not? ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2017, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814/1360 "2017-11-29T06:30:00Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > If this were a more serious show, I’d expect to learn that Claire’s past involves more than doctoring. She killed two guys with minimally aimed center-mass shots using a non-Union weapon in. That’s not readily explained away by mom rage. > > But I still don’t quite know where to place my expectations when it comes to The Orville. It’s hard to say whether it’s convenient writing or not. MacFarlane has built his career 22 minutes at a time - one of Family Guy’s running gags is that there’s no continuity whatsoever. So what can we do but wait and see? It is also of note that soon after those killings she instructs her son to put his weapon on stun because something along the lines of that they may kill but we don’t. I do not believe that quick contrast between what she does on her own and how she acts in front of family and fellow crew is just messy writing. This is not Family Guy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814.md?page=67) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-orville-seth-mcfarlane/786814.md?page=69)