It looks like it is a Seth regular: Mike Henry
I knew it was Mike Henry from the voice.
Also helps he was somewhat right. Not the racist bit but the unfairness of it. He seemed to be in line with the skills and experience to be the next CHENG or at least the acting CHENG in case someone more qualified was sent, meanwhile John is a goofball navigator that has put in no time in engineering.
On the other hand, Yaphit has had his own issues so far. Pretty much harassing the doctor. We also don’t know if he actually is a good engineer or just good at getting into places that are tough for less gelatinous beings.
ETA: I’m a little slow, Mike Henry is playing Lieutenant Dann {a crewmember serving in Engineering aboard the USS *Orville} *Where have I seenLt Dan before.
Yes. If everyone gets wasted after they do John’s whatever plan, who repairs the next engineering emergency? Are there other watches for engineering?
Yeah, that’s been there all along.
Thanks, but that article is blocked for me; I’ll try again at work.
It’s nothing earth-shattering:
It was not the most advised idea to make a big deal out of John being pushed into a way, way bigger job by virtue of his being smart. The episode was otherwise decent, but that just didn’t make a great deal of sense. In the 21st century you wouldn’t promote someone two steps up into a new job they didn’t want to do and lacked experience and skills in just because you found out they did well on an IQ test, and the reason you wouldn’t do that is because it’s a stupid thing to do. They don’t know that in the 24th century?
If the intent was to get J. Lee off the bridge and into the Engineering section, that’s fine. The did the same thing on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” making Geordi the Chief Engineer in order to expand his character and the range of the show. Could have found a better way, though.
Don’t get me wrong, I still love the show, but I remain a little bit offput by the handling of LaMarr.
It was very dumb, yeah. Apparently he’s crazy-suited for bridge crew because in addition to being a great navigator he’s a “level 9 pilot” or whatever.
Instead of his file just saying, “yo this guy is really smart,” it could have said that he’d actually quadruple majored and had been responsible for a ton of new designs and innovations while he was in school but never completed his engineering dissertation (or whatever). Maybe he even turned down an offer to be CHENG on one of the flagships because he doesn’t want to be in charge of anyone.
The episode could have proceeded identically, except it would have made sense this way.
Yep this is the main problem with the show right now.
They’ve done well to flesh out an interesting universe and characters, the stories are good, and I think enough of the jokes land.
But the writing is sloppy at times; characters sometimes do things that either don’t make sense, or would have far-reaching implications if they cared about continuity.
It’s not a huge issue, but I hope they can tighten up this aspect.
I’m not sure I agree with some of the points you’ve (general you) have made wrt LaMarr. I suspect that the Admiralty gives Mercer a lot of leeway as to how he runs his ship, more in line with a wartime Navy and less like a peacetime one as long as the job gets done and not too many regs are broken along the way. It isn’t like LaMarr was automatically given the ChEng position, he was given an interim opportunity to prove himself as a potential leader and use his abilities to their potential. This is something a really good leader does.
In the end, he got his team to perform together and shut down the negative talk about Yaphet which a good leader would do. Fostering Esprit de Corps is a huge part of the job and LaMarr does that at the end by saying “Get the job done, and then we can go party…” (paraphrasing) On a personal note, I used to run a section and wrote up a junior person over a senior one in the merit list because they were doing a better job. Time in rank only counts for so much and doesn’t (nor should it) guarantee a promotion.
But LaMarr wasn’t doing a better job than Yaphet. He wasn’t doing a better job than anyone in Engineering. He wasn’t even IN Engineering. Your point is obviously valid in theory - seniority isn’t everthing - but putting LaMarr in as Chief of Engineering doesn’t make sense for any reason.
“John is smart” is a meaningless thing. My kids are smart, but I wouldn’t give one of them a job at my company. Lots of people are smart, but being smart is a very small part of almost any job I can think of.
Although if CBS or Roddenberry’s heir(s) decided to sue, that would certainly help their case.
you’ve really got a bug up your bum about that, don’t you?
Thanks - I was able to read it. Glad I did.
I thought I caught a hint they loaded them into the Orville. 
Yep, I think this is response to fan complaints.
How do you figure? The first 13 episodes were filmed and wrapped before the first episode aired.
(Johnny Carson) “I did not know that.”:smack:
Yes! You are correct, sir!
I liked when this happened, he then yelled “This is why I’m not a good leader” or something like that. Then Issac (the robot) just turned and stared at him, as if to say “You seemed pretty leader-like to me”