When last we left our heroes…
Mercer runs over the blobby character voiced by Norm McDonald. Sure, why not? 1.0 laughs
Mercer throws a hissy fit at his commander. Not sure if this is supposed to be funny so I won’t give it a rating on the humorometer.
Malloy demonstrates his maturity and professionalism. 0.0 laughs.
Isaac, despite being a living computer and superior to humans, doesn’t know what the word “suck” means, so the crew has to explain that to it. 0.0 laughs.
Time for a tiff between the two divorcees.
Yes, he’s over it, that’s why he threw a hissy fit at the Admiral.
Grayson explains that her infidelity was a mistake, but now she’s going to correct it by becoming Mercer’s second-in-command! Makes sense right?
The first 20th century reference in the show, not bad for the pilot! 0.0 laughs. Does he call all blue aliens Papa Smurf?
Here we finally have a mention of what I was wondering about. Couples counselling! They needed it! I’m confused, though, why wouldn’t he call his wife’s brother-in-law simply “my brother?” And so I guess he dismissed the entire idea of counselling because they couldn’t come to an agreement on a suitable counsellor? Anyway….
A little bathroom humour to lighten the mood. 0.2 chortles.
Not a terrible joke. 0.9 chortles.
In this shot we see a dog licking itself. This will be fine and amusing, as long as nobody calls attention to it and explains the humour!
Damn. So close!
Here’s a thing I like abuot this series. No transporter beams! Just shuttles. Thumbs up. I wish that Star Trek: Enterprise had stuck with this concept.
A little passive-aggressive showmanship by Captain Mercer. 0.3 chortles just for the language.
I liked the delivery on this joke. 3 chortles!
The scientist explains they have a quantum field generator that affects time. They accelerate the age of a banana before the captain’s eyes. But this man who is described as “smart” and “top of his class” by other characters has no idea what he’s looking at. Joke rating: 0.9 chortles.
No rests are given to the passive-aggression.
1.0 laughs.
Just a hard science thought – inside the bubble her head is aging rapidly (100 years within seconds), but outside her body ages normally. Is her body delivering blood and carbs and other chemicals that her brain needs for 100 years? If not, then she should die – to us – instantly, rather than screaming inside the quantum bubble for 100 years.
Aliens attack, but the crew just wants to get off work. 1.75 laughs.
The whole pizza party gag is spot-on. One full guffaw! Possibly the best jokes of the show.
…continued.
The bad aliens come down to get the device. Hey, bad aliens! Make sure you destroy the Union shuttle that’s sitting there! Or sabotage it! Or be waiting on board when the crew returns!
Nice. Makes sense and we never see this sort of thing in sci-fi shows or TV shows in general. 1.2 laughs.
Again, the design department is rocking it. The makeup in this show is better than any Trek series. Yes I will go that far!
Ok soldiers, when in a firefight make sure you stand out in the open!
Malloy demonstrates his piloting prowess by “hugging the donkey.” I don’t know why it’s called hugging the donkey but that’s perfectly fine. 0.9 chortles
The commanding officer is insecure about his abilities. 0.3 chortles.
here we establish that Alara can do super-leaps, at least on Earth-like planets. Let’s keep this in mind for the future episode where she doesn’t do a super-leap when it would otherwise solve a problem.
So bad. 0.0 laughs.
Aha! The krill DID infiltrate the Union shuttle. But only one soldier? And he plans to take the device AFTER they all get into the shuttle? Weird.
Helmsman Malloy executes a whacky maneuver that he says will never work….and I believe him! Even if he did manage to get the hangar bay to line up with the out-of-control shuttle while he was “hugging the donkey” – at that speed the shuttle should be destroyed. But…it’s only a show, I should really just relax.
1 chortle for this joke. But more importantly, who is hugging the donkey while Malley abandons his control panel to deliver the line?
Great! 1.9 laughs!
Mercer has had a rough day. Also – they still use “friggin'” in the future!
Okay…how intensely stupid does he think the krill commander is? Surely the krill will send over an inspection team to recover the device themselves, because there’s no way they would trust a remote-controlled shuttle which will CLEARLY contain some kind of bomb.
Wait, what’s this? The two senior officers are working well together, perhaps even re-forging their bond in this crisis situation?
Tree gets big! Sure, apart from the idiotic decisions of the krill, this is a fine resolution to the time device story. And the joke gets a full 1 out of 3 chortles from me.
The debriefing, interrupted by the space welder guy. 3/3 chortles (not a full laugh)
Mercer relents his whining and sees the value of having Grayson on board. But don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll see more infantile outbursts when things stop going his way in the next episode.
Just a re-affirmation here that Mercer is considered to be smart. Remember all the smart things he did this episode?
In conclusion, my main problems with this episode are:
- The infantile humour, which is out of place in an otherwise serious homage to Trek, and with very few exceptions doesn’t land. Compare this to Red Dwarf, which is a comedy series in space. It works because nothing about the show takes itself seriously.
- Mercer is totally unfit for command and does not show any of the intelligence the rest of the cast expresses on his behalf.
- The complete lack of awareness both by the Admiral and Commander Grayson that putting two ex-spouses in command together would severely compromise the safety of the ship and crew on any delicate or dangerous missions. But hey, it’s a comedy show, right? …Right?
As I said, there are good points to this show. It’s fun, the production values are set to 10, and it’s light (in contrast to the actual new Star Trek series which is the darker than the darkest mirror universe episodes from Deep Space Nine).
My only other quibble with the show is that the lighting is very bright overall especially on the Orville itself. It’s preferable to being dark of course, but it’s presently at the point of being a monotone wash, which makes the visuals a bit boring.
Also, I am very thankful there is no laugh track.
Thanks for reading this far! I didn’t think you would. Want me to do this for episodes 2 and beyond? Let me know and why not support me on Patreon?
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