Ja'loja (Spoileriffic)

[Graham Kennedy]

So my thoughts...

Interesting way to kick the season off, this. There's no real driving story to it - the ship isn't in danger, the Krill aren't attacking, there's no emergency. Everyone is just chilling out and honestly they mostly seem kinda bored. What we do get is a lot of character stuff. I rather liked that, it was a nice change of pace.

So we see that Ed is taking Kelly's telling him they couldn't be together hard. He's bored, he's boozing pretty heavily. I like the Rhino bartender - Jason Alexander! I wonder how he felt about being under such a heavy makeup job?

They also come up with a new way for broken hearted guys to be creepy. Ed checks a shuttle out and literally goes to hang outside Kelly's quarters to spy on her. That's a cool moment, don't know that I've ever seen it done before. And I always appreciate anything that gives us a sense of connecting the inside of the ship to the outside like that, it makes the ship feel more real to me.

And I love that the Moclans actually make a ceremony of their once a year urination. I have to wonder if they always had this in mind - the once a year thing came across as a throwaway joke in the pilot episode, it's a nice touch to see them taking that and running with it. I also love that after all the buildup, we never got to see him actually doing it. I wonder, what would be funnier? If it was some gigantic torrent of pee that went on for ages... or if after a whole year he just produced a little dribble?

That actually set me thinking about the biology of this seriously. Water is incompressible, so Bortas can't have that much stored up. No more than five times as much as a human, say. So if I had to guess, I would guess that Moclans drink as we do and have some organ that uses water to filter out the stuff we don't want. But then most of that water is probably dumped through the breath, sweat, etc. What remains is a super-concentrated form of urine, of which only a very small amount accumulates per day. And by the end of the year there's about as much as a human produces, more or less.

It seems certain that Alara is going to be leaving, and I guess they are showing her being dissatisfied as a way to set that up.

Nice to learn more about Dann. I love that guy!

I still don't care about Finn's kids. I find myself wondering if they're here to be Wesley antidotes. Everyone hated him because he was too smart, too perfect. These kids seem designed to be precisely not that. I appreciate the realism, but geez, they're just annoying as hell. And how dumb is picking out the simulator to have your illicit booze session? Seriously? I don't care how many simulators they have, there are going to be waiting lists a mile long for these things. It's probably one of the worst places on the whole ship to try and hide!

I like Tyler. Hope we will be seeing more of her. And I have to wonder, if dark matter cartography a new science? In Pria they didn't even know how to detect the stuff until she showed them. Did they pass that tech on and the Union ran with it?

Overall a good start to the season. A good way to introduce newbies to the characters, and fun to catch up with them all.

[Mikey]

Honestly, I give it a solid “meh.” I don’t feel like we really got anything out of this except Ed’s fallibility in being driven to creepiness, and Gordon’s anxiety regarding women.

I confess I didn’t get the same read about Alara, and I hope you’re wrong - I really like what her character brings to the ensemble.

[Graham Kennedy]

I think the idea here was to introduce new viewers to the characters and dynamics between them. It worked well at that.

A thought I've seen online - their new dark matter lady, Janel Tyler? She's played by the actress who played the Krill lady in Krill last year. The one who swore revenge on the Union for killing her brother and crew! There's a possibility that Orville is riffing on Discovery and the Klingorc guy who turned himself into a Human. He even had the human name Ash Tyler.

I hope this isn't the case, because Orville doesn't need to be ripping off Discovery stories. Not even to make fun of them. Hoping it's just a coincidence.

[T'Pau]

I too felt a bit "meh" about the episode. Getting the balance between drama and comedy seems troublesome for Seth at times, almost as if his 13yr old boy brain is stuck in the toilet humor ridden Family Guy/American Dad mode, without an exit strategy. And per the toilet humor in this episode, it might have been nice to have the doctor explain some details about Bortus' physiology and how urine retention works, and if the same is true of other excreta. Nothing overtly graphic, but still informative. Here's hoping that further episodes this season push past 'meh' and gain ground on 'Yay!'

[Bryan Moore]

I am thrilled it was back. This wasn't a groundbreaking episode, but followed the second-season tradition going back to the days of M*A*S*H of re-introducing characters to the audience after along respite. The comedy was solid and I absolutely loved the Ja'loja build up/non-pay off! I'm completely fine if every episode is as insignificant as this, as long as the comedy stays funny. This doesn't need to be the "real" Trek for those who hate Discovery - let it be exactly what it is, a comedy with some really good dramatic effect when needed. The only "low" point of the episode was the kids, but even that was far better than Wesley's worst.

[Nutso]

I am thrilled it was back. This wasn't a groundbreaking episode, but followed the second-season tradition going back to the days of M*A*S*H of re-introducing characters to the audience after along respite. The comedy was solid and I absolutely loved the Ja'loja build up/non-pay off! I'm completely fine if every episode is as insignificant as this, as long as the comedy stays funny. This doesn't need to be the "real" Trek for those who hate Discovery - let it be exactly what it is, a comedy with some really good dramatic effect when needed. The only "low" point of the episode was the kids, but even that was far better than Wesley's worst.

I honestly feel that McFarlane just wants to make Star Trek, and the humor is just in this show so it can be classified as satirical, thereby protecting Fox and McFarlane from a Star Trek copyright infringement lawsuit.

As for the subplot with the kids, I got the distinct feeling that the Doctor will fall in love with Isaac. Nah, that's too dumb.

[McAvoy]

Moclans never said they don't take a dump any frequent to humans. I'd imagine them getting rid of liquids goes through their 'dump'. Makes sense for this show to have a species have the forever hershey runs.

So maybe he shoots out a pellet?

Also find it funny reading all these reviews after catching up and how many of you guys theories come true.