The Orville has their version of the Prime Directive and this episode sought to explain that better. It was a bit ham-fisted, shoving a character from the second season into the episode rather suddenly so that one of the characters on the ship could then spend a number of scenes explaining stuff to her. But I thought that what they did was intelligent, at least in terms of dialogue. We were told that the technology doesn't make things better, the people have to be better before they are ready for the technology. And we're shown an example where the Union did share their technology with a society that was not ready and it went very badly. So they have their reasons.However, there is something that they didn't really explain, which is sort of key to their whole non-interference directive: when and how do they determine it is okay to make contact? Star Trek had a shortcut to this: if a race had created warp technology, then it was okay to contact them. That makes sense, because if they have warp drive, they're going to travel around the galaxy and eventually run into you, so it's okay for you to contact them. If the Union had that same rule, I did not hear it.And if you think about it too much (I think about stuff too much), the logic starts to fall apart. Look at the Krill: they have advanced technology, and yet they're brutal and a threat. So it's not like a society evolves to a point where they can handle their technology responsibly. The premise is rather wobbly.The other obvious problem--and Star Trek faced this too--is that other advanced races may not have the same attitude. So the Union won't interfere with a primitive planet, but somebody else might. What happens is the Krill go to a planet and give them all kinds of tech and really mess things up, and the Union has its hands-off policy? That planet could be even more messed-up, and it could become an ally (or slaves) to the Krill.Yeah, it's just a TV show. But there's a risk when you start coming up with a premise like this and then stating it in an episode. It creates restrictions and contradictions that can cause problems for later episodes and for the logic of the created universe.
1-For all the reasons you outline, I think it's just as well they left this one until the last episode. Now the writers have a choice - either (a) address it properly next time around or (b) forget about it entirely.2-FWIW, I did enjoy the way they handled the Kaylon fleet turning up to the wedding (tiny little Orville was rather out-numbered!), plus the way the Kaylon acted during the service... Clever. Just very clever.
This has to move the needle somehow!
Now that it has been a year since the show premiered on Hulu with no news, I think it's fair to say that it is dead. Nothing in the streaming industry provides hope, and the writers' and actors' strikes don't help. The one surprise is that Disney has not formally canceled it yet. Maybe that's so they don't annoy Seth McFarlane or something.
If they keep Seth McFarlane around, they might want a showrunner to try and salvage Star Wars. Moving either Dave Filoni or John Favreau up the ranks at Lucasfilm (or firing them) would create some holes.
Quote from: Lampyridae on 07/27/2023 04:55 pmIf they keep Seth McFarlane around, they might want a showrunner to try and salvage Star Wars. Moving either Dave Filoni or John Favreau up the ranks at Lucasfilm (or firing them) would create some holes.I don't think that's it. McFarlane has his hands in a lot of shows, and Disney may not want to annoy him, and keeping The Orville in limbo rather than canceling it might be how they do that.I forget what giant corporate entity owns what other giant corporate entities, but doesn't Disney own Fox? And Fox has some of McFarlane's legacy shows like Family Guy. So maybe they are trying to play nice with a moneymaking producer so they don't drive him elsewhere.
I post this with an eye roll and a face palm. There are a few Orville super fans who keep pushing the claim that the show is coming back. And it seems like one of the things they do is re-post older comments hinting that maybe, just maybe, it is coming back. I've been involved in hopeless fandoms before (Firefly), so I'm sympathetic. But it's hard to see how this one comes back. Maybe as an animated show or something with much lower production costs.
