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I always suspected Isaac was doing recon for a robot invasion. Nonetheless, quite shocking to see so much of the crew gunned down. I don’t think we’ve seen the Orville take casualties before, especially on this level.

The one thing I liked is that they didn't even care that they had been discovered. Presenting these AIs as true sociopaths and not some hateful, fearful, or "evil" incarnation of the human psyche is much better.

 KamikazeCanuck wrote:
I don’t think we’ve seen the Orville take casualties before, especially on this level.

Yeah. I suppose it's the nature of the show that meant I assumed they were stun beams or something and the guys being shot would be pulled up and herded in with the rest of the crew but no, those bodies were definitely just left there dead...

Although it begs the question (and the main answer is 'it's a family show') why the whole crew haven't just been mercilessly executed by the Kaylons? I suppose they could be useful human shields on the approach to Earth (for all their tech superiority, the Orville itself is presented as a scout/exploration vessel so you'd assume the Union has battleships that could tear it apart).

 Riquende wrote:
Although it begs the question (and the main answer is 'it's a family show') why the whole crew haven't just been mercilessly executed by the Kaylons?

While the Kaylons May be highly advanced, their weapons are still no match for the Orville’s plot shield technology.

Ya I mean the real answer is cuz then that would be the end of the show but I think the Kaylons will reveal their reason next episode.

Catching up. Just watched Deflectors. I was initially bored but the level of writing caught my attention. I like that things are not nicely tied up at the end of every episode. Also it shows the Union is a real Confederation, not wordspeak for a Federation style where everyone acts perfectly and identically, but that the different worlds retain their own customs, strengths, and rights. I doubt the Federation would permit a Moklin to join it, frankly.

Shows hope that after the Krell and the Reman Ork guys get sorted, they could join as well. Mayhaps in the next season the three groups join forces against the Cylons er Kaylons...

Its a shame the Kaylons don't have their own Caprica Six.

Sssssssoooooooooooooo... Yeah, I was pretty near spot on. All I really got wrong was

I missed it and had to watch it on their website. It was definitely almost entirely predictable and occasionally illogical in a very TV scifi trope way but enjoyable nonetheless. I can see where they spent the money they saved on all those character episodes in a row that they showed.

I just hope that Isaac doesn't make it out of this alive (in a sense), but he probably will.

I enjoyed the episode. It was reminiscent of the Borg attack on Earth but these guys aren’t completely indestructible like the Borg snow it made for a cool battle. Also, Yophrit to the rescue!

Isaac’s betrayal was entirely predictable and utterly disappointing. For as big a deal as they harp on about their lack of emotions, they clearly have to have some or he should never have done that. Honestly I was hoping the show might be brave enough to let him stay with his people, but I didn’t expect it to.

Yeah, honestly this was the most disappointing episode of the show so far. Everything was just a bit too convenient, too easy, there didn't really seem to be much of a "message" to it, and despite all the deaths and 'splosions there wasn't much of a sense of threat to it all.

Best of Both Worlds it ain't.

It did wrap up a bit too easy. No one of any significance died. And those who did were created in the episode specifically to die. Hopefully the season pulls through a good couple episodes at the end, instead of fizzling out.

Eh, I don’t mind them not killing off named characters. The only one I would have wanted to go was Isaac simply due to how his character should have been imho. Otherwise I didn’t think it was too easy or anything. The Kaylon’s weren’t wiped out, so they can easily come back. You got the heavy casualties from both sides, but it’s not like they were going to destroy the series’ namesake. The budding Krill alliance was a thing I expected and I liked how they did it, with the Captain kind of dismissing them until pursuing sphere showed up and demonstrated its superior capabilities, and then their attitude when they did help saying try not to get in our way. I was a little surprised they did the teamup without any assistance from Mercer’s Krill girlfriend. My only real complaint will continue to be Isaac’s about face, where he had been well depicted as an emotionless machine until this one episode, where he suddenly decides to murder his leader and betray his race over attachment to a kid.

Just caught up on the latest episode, well that was predictable. Very pretty space battle but not a lot else, I hope things start getting better soon as this entire season has been pretty poor in my opinion. Wonder if this is going to lead to a Krill/Union v Kaylon war or just be a one off brushed under the carpet type affair.

 ingtaer wrote:
Just caught up on the latest episode, well that was predictable. Very pretty space battle but not a lot else, I hope things start getting better soon as this entire season has been pretty poor in my opinion. Wonder if this is going to lead to a Krill/Union v Kaylon war or just be a one off brushed under the carpet type affair.

Very nice space battle. Is it me or did the Union have some ships (battleships?) that looked so big that the Orville was fighter sized next to them (scene where its flying through a Union ship's ring as it explodes).

There were definitely some Union ships that dwarfed the Orville.

 AduroT wrote:
There were definitely some Union ships that dwarfed the Orville.

So, was that the Union fleet or just the Human fleet? I noticed the Meklins have different ships, uniforms, etc.
Is it that each planet has its PDF navy while the Union fleet is their deepwater navy?

I imagine it’s similar to Star Trek where the Star Fleet ships tend to be human ships, and member races still have their own distinct designs. So that was probably the main human fleet. Would have liked to see a better mix now that you mention it.

 Frazzled wrote:

 ingtaer wrote:
Just caught up on the latest episode, well that was predictable. Very pretty space battle but not a lot else, I hope things start getting better soon as this entire season has been pretty poor in my opinion. Wonder if this is going to lead to a Krill/Union v Kaylon war or just be a one off brushed under the carpet type affair.

Very nice space battle. Is it me or did the Union have some ships (battleships?) that looked so big that the Orville was fighter sized next to them (scene where its flying through a Union ship's ring as it explodes).

I thought there were three classes of ships on the Union side, the small Orville class (mid range exploratory), the cruiser size we saw in the last season and a battleship sized but would have to watch it again to be sure.

 Frazzled wrote:


So, was that the Union fleet or just the Human fleet? I noticed the Meklins have different ships, uniforms, etc.
Is it that each planet has its PDF navy while the Union fleet is their deepwater navy?

I didn't notice the line in the episode, but a YT review said Halsey apparently said the on-screen fleet was 10% of the Union fleet.

I assume that most Union planets have their own 'militia' for planetary defence, and presumably have ships for civil tasks like short range transportation & exploration, industrial usage etc, with the Union fleets being a sort of 'UN/NATO' long term and/or crisis mission force. Earth seems to be the driving force of the Union so perhaps forgoes a local force so that the unified command is dominated by Human personnel (to save on the Union's CGI/make up budgets)

edit: Christ I can't spell tonight.

On the Union ships shown at the Battle of Earth, according to the wiki there were;
Fighters.
Leviathan class (heavy cruiser).
Science class.
Colossus class (Battleship).

I am pretty confused about how the Moclans (and presumably other races) fit in with the whole Union structure, hopefully some of the politics can be expanded upon.

I saw the heavy cruisers introduced last season but I don't recall a battleship. Is it somewhere in this clip?

I was disappointed that...


But otherwise the episode was good.

Presumably, the wiki is pretty sparse and I would have to watch the whole thing again. The reference pic for the Colossus is;


Another pic shows the Colossus and the heavy cruiser so one can see they are not the same ship;

Though looking at it in the massive image I actually think that the third ship shown isn't a Colossus at all, the lines of the bow sweep to amidships on the flank don't match and on the third pic that looks like a Exploratory class to her right and the scale would suggest the pic is actually of something far smaller.

Edit again; got a screen shot from the battle that shows the Orville as well as the other ships;

The Orville is in the foreground.

 warboss wrote:
I saw the heavy cruisers introduced last season but I don't recall a battleship. Is it somewhere in this clip?

i thought it was in the battle scene before this, where the Orville flies through one of the Quantum struts that explodes in front of them of a much much larger union ship.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Breotan wrote:
I was disappointed that...

Spoiler:

...they went with the "we were slaves and then we rebelled against the masters" cliché. It's just lazy writing to do that.

But otherwise the episode was good.

Actually I liked that myself. Your mileage may differ which is fine.
I would have liked a more cute Caprica 6 model though than...Isaac.

I ==

 ingtaer wrote:
Presumably, the wiki is pretty sparse and I would have to watch the whole thing again. The reference pic for the Colossus is;

Spoiler:

Another pic shows the Colossus and the heavy cruiser so one can see they are not the same ship;

Spoiler:

Though looking at it in the massive image I actually think that the third ship shown isn't a Colossus at all, the lines of the bow sweep to amidships on the flank don't match and on the third pic that looks like a Exploratory class to her right and the scale would suggest the pic is actually of something far smaller.

Thanks. I took a look at the wiki before posting and found that same blurry intro image as well. I definitely saw the heavy cruiser multiple times though and like that design. From the single pic of the battleship, I don't really have an opinion yet. In general, I'm ok with the nautical shapes on spaceships (I did like and build Covenant ships for the failed Halo Fleet Battles games) but that one seems a little too bulbous possibly at that angle.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Frazzled wrote:
i thought it was in the battle scene before this, where the Orville flies through one of the Quantum struts that explodes in front of them of a much much larger union ship.

Yeah, I remember that scene as well but couldn't find an easily viewable version of it short of rewatching the whole episode with commercials on the orville website (which is how I watched the episode as I missed it on tv).

Ok, time to test out how predictable this episode will be. It's only 16 minutes in so I'll make some educated guesses.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
I'm pleased to report that I was wrong!

Had never considered that. I thought it was super telegraphed that the daughter was the weapon. I was expecting somehow psychic or something, but was otherwise correct in my expectations of how it would all play out.

I actually had both thoughts - "What will the Humans do with this shuttle" as a test, and then when they were all going on and on about the sweeps showing nothing and saying the girl hadn't been checked out that she was doing something...somehow.

I also thought they did some minimal makeup on her to give a slightly non-human edge (around the eyes) which could be explained away as a haunted, emaciated look.

Really good episode for me. Like a lot of Orville episodes you can point to the clear TNG influences (I guess that one with Riker and his ex-Captain, plus some of the Cardassian political stuff) but it had enough of its own spin.

I would have preferred to hear the rubber glove 'snap' over the comm rather than have the joke hammered home but that's a minor quibble.