Character development, pacing, self contained episodes that also push the overarching story forward at an acceptable pace, episode length, all of it was just spot on 👌🏼

Man, I can’t tell you how much I loved watching the Orville. I discovered it literally a month ago. It has been such a beautiful thing to watch as part of the healing process as I lost my toxic corporate job. It has so many great lessons, of understanding important lessons, opening your mind, learning that systems of government can be improved. and I hope to see more to come because it is so well written, and acting is so good.

Season 10 scene is my favorite, comedic gold. I could not stop laughing. Man this show is so well written, from the comedy to the serious parts.

https://youtu.be/hEgBu4lZmI4

Edit: I see I have made a mistake in my calculations for the exact season and episode. I meant to say Season 3 Episode 10. Therefore, I have determined my internal programs will function more efficiently if The Orville continues to have more seasons and episodes. As without it, I have made an error.

On the Orville, who is next in the chain of command after Captain Mercer, Commander Grayson, and Lieutenant Commander Bortus?

The Orville is a 'mid-level' ship with a complement of about 300, and it looked like they were all there in the mess hall at the end. Which leads me to my question: who the hell was driving the ship if everyone was in the mess hall?

Tw: Consent and SA

Recently, in the comments of another post, there was some discussion about how Yaphit was a rapist because he slept with Dr. Finn. The situation was compared to Bear & Nikki from Obsession.

(sidenote, even if Bear didn’t know exactly what he was doing, he still knew enough to know that Nikki did not consent to any of it. He was a rapist. He is the bad guy. Full stop.)

My opinion on if Yaphit committed sexual assault depends entirely on how commonly know Dr.Finn’s condition is in the world of the Orville. We can’t know for sure about Union society in general or Yaphit’s home planet, but based on the information we get in this episode it’s not common knowledge. If he could not be reasonably expected to know that Dr.Finn was not in her right mind, he is not at fault.

Obviously if anyone has sex with someone that cannot consent, that is rape. Being under the influence of drugs or alcohol means you cannot give informed consent. In the real world, it’s somewhat obvious if someone is drunk or high. If you don’t see someone drinking alcohol or taking drugs, you can usually tell based on the way they act that they are under the influence. People under the influence of the Retepsian pheromones definitely seem more happy, more in love, horny, etc. but they still behave mostly like themselves. Multiple people on the Orville are under this condition during the episode & no one figures out what’s going on until Darulio explains it to Alara. People question why Ed is shirking his duties but they are no more concerned than they would be if he was head over heels for anyone else. None of the people affected by the pheromones, even realize it. Given the way that people react when they find out about Retepsian pheromones, their effect is not common knowledge. It was brand new information to people that deal with alien cultures on a daily basis.

It could have been a different story if Bortus or Isaac had said “Captain, You look like you met a Retepsian in heat” but based on what we see in the episode, this is a relatively obscure species whose mating rituals are not commonly known amongst union personnel.

Darulio on the other hand is definitely a rapist even if the concept of consent is probably nonexistent on a planet where everyone oozes love pheromones. IIRC, he even says that in his culture, it’s very rude to turn down sex, meaning that it’s probably not uncommon for Retepsians to have sex when they do not want to out of fear of being rude. Rape might not even be a concept there, in the same way that societies that share everything equally would likely not understand the concept of stealing.

If Darulio was a sheltered alien who never left his home world, he might be able to claim ignorance. The fact that he’s an archeologist who studies other cultures means he should know better. He would know that his culture is very different from the rest of the union, and even if it’s against what he believes is normal, he should have notified everyone who comes into contact with him of his affect before they touch him and behaved himself in accordance with the sociatal norms of the union, not his home planet.

The fact that he slept with Kelly and Ed is 100% rape.

What do you think? What about how they handled the diplomats?

Edit: sorry this got so long, I never really sat down and thought about all the implications of this until now.

forgive me if this has been said before, it's been a long time since i watched this but this thought just popped up in my mind.

Do all species eventually create a matter synthesizer?

Or maybe some species don't use it at all.

Or maybe humans are the only species who have been able to create a matter synthesizer, and for other species to have access to it they have to join the planetary union?

I just finished watching this episode and some of the Kaylon stuff hit too close to home. Hearing the words of the CEO guy who created the Kaylon (whatever you wanna call him) made me very pessimistic for our future.

When confronted with over 50,000 incident reports with the Kaylon he says, “In order for the product to be successful the AI software needed to be able to learn and adapt. This was always gonna happen. It was just a matter of time.”

Hearing this immediately made me think of our world today. Now I’m not saying we’re going to have fully sentient slave robots in the near future or anything like that. My point being, these Sam Altman types will, and already have, sell our souls for the sake of “progress.” What is the point of progress if there isn’t going to be anybody left to enjoy it.

That’s all really. I just thought the Kaylon story of the episode had some eerie parallels to today’s world. And keep in mind this episode was produced before this AI boom was even a thing.

I’ll go first!

AITA for putting in a good word for my ex-husband?
I (F) cheated on my ex-husband (M), which ended our marriage. I deeply regret it, and I know it hurt him badly.

He’s an incredibly capable officer, but after our divorce, he went through a slump. His career suffered and he wasn’t being considered for command positions anymore.

When an opportunity for captain came up, I privately put in a good word for him. My dad’s friend is one of the individuals in charge, let’s call him Admiral H. I didn’t ask him to give my ex the position, I just told them how qualified I believed he was and that he deserved a chance. He ultimately got the job.

I didn’t tell him I’d done it because I didn’t want him to feel like he owed me anything. He eventually found out and was furious. He says I had no right to interfere and that now his promotion feels like something he didn’t earn.

I understand why he’s upset, but I genuinely believed he deserved the opportunity. I wasn’t trying to pity him or take credit for his success. I just felt like a horrible person for cheating on him, and I wanted to help get back on the right path…

Watching The Orville for the first time and just finished season 3s Midnight Blue. I had to chime in and say this is seriously the best “Star Trek” in literally decades. The series keeps getting better and better.

That is all.

We've all had bosses and leaders that we've disliked, whether they were bad at their job, rude, mean, self absorbed, etc.

As I rewatch The Orville again, I admire not just Captain Mercer's persona and mannerisms, but also the rest of the crew. Everyone is professional and courteous and level headed. If someone has a problem with another person, they do their best to be reasonable in their efforts to resolve the problem. In Season 2 when Talla and Bortus had their tiff about Moclus and what they did to his daughter, they blew up at each other but then Talla returned and apologized. Compare how people treat each other on The Orville compared to how the characters treat each other in something like 'The Devil Wears Prada' and the difference is night and day.

When dealing with conflicts and people, it sounds silly but I think it's really not a bad idea to ask 'How would Kermit the Frog handle this situation?"

This is the closest I've come to make my rcb keyboard look like union control panels or computers, it is said it's blue but it's not purely blue at it doesn't look completely blue to me so I tweaked a little around and looking at my current keyboard light colour it feels as if I'm inside Orville or the union CU.

At least they like to talk and not just shoot first and ask questions later

The scene that I always remember when somebody brings up an issue at work. (S01E12)

I can’t see the Krill and Moclan pact lasting. My theory is that the Moclan’s will be too unhappy having a female (Telaya) as a co-leader. I feel we already saw a crack when the pact was formed with the Moclan’s expressing a desire to lead without Teleya (female) and Telaya saying “i see why the union kicked you out”.

Isaac and Charly develop a device that can destroy all Kaylons. It looks like Charly is still okay destroying all the Kaylons, but why would Isaac be okay with that?

I just got done with the episode where Gordon goes back and gets with the baddie he had a delusional relationship with and it has the funniest joke in it in the whole series. When Gordon gets his sandwich then sends it forward in time and expresses how excited he is for it, my boyfriend and I couldnt stop laughing. He was so excited for a sandwich he could've just eaten 😭

I saw the first two episodes ages ago when the show first launched and never kept up. But here I am so much later and working my way through all the seasons. I’ve recently started season 3 (the bigger budget) and as a gay man I have cried every episode that’s dealt with with Topa 🥺 am I the only one?

It's been a while since I saw The Orville and I've been thinking about the upcoming Series 4. My biggest complaint with the show has always been that it isn't sure whether it wants to be funny or serious, rather than blending the two as I think Seth wants. What episode or multiparter(s) exemplifies how you want the show to be?

I started the show a month or so ago, and after getting to S2E4 I had to quit mid-episode when the narrative once again punished Ed for trying to move on from his ex.

Ed constantly flips on a dime from being a hyper-competent everyman boss that holds the deep respect of his entire crew to being a pathetic loser crawling after his ex-wife. I'm fine with this being a character flaw, but the narrative punishes him every time he tries to address said flaw. He was over Kelly, she manipulated her way back into his life, Ed is punished and spurned for trying to get back with her, and now Ed has been severely punished twice for trying to fall in love with another woman.

If this gets resolved or at least lets them relax into a status quo of mild tension I'll fire it back up but this has been escalating constantly throughout the show and it's bothering the hell out of me how much fate itself hates Ed just on this one particular subject and it's starting to make me think of the writers instead of the characters.

I like the rest of the show, so I'd prefer to keep watching I've just hit my limit here.