Home (Spoilers)

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Graham Kennedy
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Home (Spoilers)

Post by Graham Kennedy »

So, the rumours prove to be true. Halston Sage, aka Alara Kitan, has indeed left The Orville.

I liked this episode. Seeing Alara gradually losing her strength is an interesting twist on the character, given that that's been her primary defining feature. And it does make perfect sense. I also kind of liked that they made a point that without her strength, she's somewhat limited as a security officer. Yes, as Mercer points out, there's a lot more to that job than cracking heads. But cracking heads is part of the job, and she wouldn't be able to do it. So many shows act like skinny little girls can be a physical match for big strong guys, when in reality it's not so.

Though that makes you wonder... are humans strong enough, on average, to be effective security heads? In an ideal world of course every security chief would be a Xelayan. That's not possible because so few join the military. But even without them, there are plenty of different species out there. They must have a range of physical strengths, so where do humans rank on that range? Wouldn't security officers tend to come from the higher end of the range?

This, incidentally, is why in my Coalition universe Humans actually rank as one of the larger and stronger species around. They're not the top by any means, but they're in the top 1%. The alien average is something like a foot shorter and half as strong as the human average.

Xelaya is interesting. I've been doing some reading up on it, and the consensus is that a rocky planet can't be more than roughly twice the radius of Earth. For an equal density body gravity scales with radius, so such a planet would have double the gravity. If you go above that, you reach a point where the gravity will gather an atmosphere so huge that it will turn into a gas giant rather than a rocky planet.

Now they've very carefully not told us how high Xelayan gravity is, but it has to be a lot more than double Earth's gravity. I'd estimate maybe 50 to 100 times greater? So such a planet is probably impossible. Then again, there's probably a whole lot we still don't know about what's possible with planets, so there's that.

Liked Alara's family stuff. Her dad's attitude seems so reasonable to him, but he's such an asshole to his daughter. It's nice to see him finally see that and start out on the path to change. And whilst Alara does love being on the Orville, it's perfectly sensible for the character to want to leave and reconnect with her family.

And oh wow, what a final scene! So sweet seeing her saying goodbye to everyone without saying a word. Beautiful.

And her final gift to Ed. I won't spoil this one, but I sat there wondering what it was as he opened it. And wow, what a perfect gift. I do like Orville's sense of humour, but this was by far the best joke they've ever done. I laughed my ass off! Superb, superb, superb.

And hey... did anybody notice that the first character to leave the Orville was their version of Tasha Yar? LOL!

I also like that they've left this open for Alara to return in the future, either permanently or for occasional guest spots. Maybe that will happen, maybe not, but I'm glad they didn't kill her off or anything.
Give a man a fire, and you keep him warm for a day. SET a man on fire, and you will keep him warm for the rest of his life...
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Re: Home (Spoilers)

Post by Monroe »

I thought it was their second or third best episode. Picardo's acting blew away my expectations. We saw him do some great scenes in Voyager, but I think this was better than any of those. The twist in the episode was done perfectly.
How many Minbari does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
None. They always surrender right before they finish the job and never tell you why.

-Remain Star Trek-
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Re: Home (Spoilers)

Post by Mikey »

Very good ep, although I am not thrilled to see Alara go. It was great to see her overcome her initial motivation to say “Screw you, Dad” and decide to return home after all. Picardo was great, Billingsley was good (though not nearly his best,) and Alara’s parting gift to Ed was both funny and poignant - if you care for subtext.
I can't stand nothing dull
I got the high gloss luster
I'll massacre your ass as fast
as Bull offed Custer
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