The Orville: Mortality Paradox
June 16, 2022 7:25 PM - Season 3, Episode 3 - Subscribe

When scans show a barren planet suddenly teeming with life, five crewmembers head to the surface to explore. They find themselves in mortal danger.
posted by Monochrome (12 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Callback to the Season One finale: Mad Idolatry
posted by Monochrome at 7:26 PM on June 16, 2022 [2 favorites]


Maybe related, maybe not... I was reminded of a Twilight Zone episode
posted by Monochrome at 7:30 PM on June 16, 2022 [1 favorite]


Was really hoping for the Kelly statue from Mad Idolatry to show up again. One of the producers from the show had pictures of it in their offices a while back, so I know they still have it!

That was a fun one. Also Bortus is working on his summer bod!
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 9:56 PM on June 16, 2022 [1 favorite]


Just... shooting the thing instead of, I don't know, turning it off seems hasty.

Also, they must have left an impressive power source undiscovered and undestroyed - luckily! think of the energy release!

But! Total Perception Control is a neat scifi premise with an immense cascade of implications. I used that once to end a tabletop campaign, probably inspired from a Moriarty episode in TNG that had aired recently.
posted by porpoise at 10:15 PM on June 16, 2022


The Orville has a Q now
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 11:17 AM on June 17, 2022 [1 favorite]


The one thing that show didn't need was a Q.
posted by zadcat at 8:51 PM on June 17, 2022


My life expectancy is about 250,000 more hours. I just spent one of them watching this. I have definitely fathomed my own mortality.
posted by Nelson at 9:55 PM on June 17, 2022


After watching last week's episode on a plane, let me just say that I am quite glad that I did not watch this week's episode on a plane.

When will this crew learn to not send the entire command structure on away missions, and to not go on away missions totally unprepared? Once again, they go down onto a mysterious journey with no idea what's actually down there, with no protective devices, suits, etc. Not that I guess it would have helped, but come on.

I admit that I spent the entire episode hoping that John de Lancie would show up, but also simultaneously hoping that he would not show up. I ended up liking the fake-out resolution more than that actual deus ex machina, but I guess it had to be this way. Also a weird shoehorn of what I guess was the theme of the outing (as noted in the episode title). Did like the closing line though — I seem to agree that the curse of mortality is having to live a story you never see the end to.

A lot more lightheartedness and comedic bits this time around, which is appreciated after the first couple of episodes. In general, a pretty fun one, psychological thriller tropes aside.
posted by General Malaise at 11:50 AM on June 18, 2022 [1 favorite]


Oh forget to mention my favorite moment of levity: when one of the high schoolers go off on what happened when he forgot to pay Randall and it's just a seemingly long litany of teen trends like TikTok and Bortus just takes a beat and says "what." (I was also unsure what time period the high school was supposed to be set in before that.)
posted by General Malaise at 1:44 PM on June 18, 2022 [1 favorite]


I'm really enjoying how weird this show is getting this season.
posted by rednikki at 5:23 PM on June 20, 2022 [1 favorite]


I can't help thinking that "We chose you to mess with, because we are familiar with you" is code for "We chose you to mess with, because we're still butthurt about that fake religion"
posted by Mogur at 4:50 AM on June 21, 2022 [2 favorites]


Just caught up with this. A really neat one, and one of the most Trek-y yet. All that stuff with the planet with the disappearing civilization and the modern high school in the forest, it was weird in that perfectly Star Trek way and I was just loving it. McFarlane even gave himself a classic Kirk moment where he looks to the heavens and says something like, "No more, do you hear? We're not going to be your entertainment any longer!"

My first thought was that some aliens had gotten hold of a 21st century teen show and based their society on it, but that seemed a little too Trek... and then Randall showed up and that idea went right out the window. I also wondered if the scenarios were based on dreams. Getting bullied at school, being on an airplane with no pilot, that's all classic dream stuff. It really gave me some classic Trek vibes, where we're right there with the characters, wondering, "Could it be this? Maybe that?"

It hadn't occurred to me that the alien lady could be this show's version of Q. She's not fun and over-the-top like Q, but she does have a certain smug smirkiness to her and it's hard to tell if she'll be a villain or not. She was intriguing but I wasn't too impressed with her design; she looks straight out of Tron.

I feel like I can fathom my death and total oblivion pretty well. I've always kind of assumed everything will fade out like when I'm anesthetized for a surgery. Have enough surgeries and you get pretty familiar with waking up from absolute unawareness. Death would presumably be like that, without the waking up.

When will this crew learn to not send the entire command structure on away missions, and to not go on away missions totally unprepared?

You have watched Star Trek before, right? That stuff is baked in deep.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:43 AM on June 26, 2022 [3 favorites]


« Older Mystery Science Theater 3000: ...   |  Movie: We Need to Talk About K... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments