Ep 7 : Majority Rule

[Graham Kennedy]

So, just saw episode 7.

I think I would call this a middling episode - not one of the stronger ones, nor really weak as such.

Obviously this was a commentary on the present day "like/upvote/subscribe" culture, which it parodies by showing it being taken a step too far. I found it amusing, but maybe a little too on the nose to be really good.

This is the first mention we've really had of anything like the prime directive. They didn't specify IIRC whether it was a general rule or not, or just for pre-warp - I mean, pre-quantum! - societies or this particular society or what. But it was basically don't tell them who you are and leave a "minimum footprint". Will be interested to see if that a recurring element the way it is in Trek.

I guess the Orville is less able to disguise people as alien species than Trek is via surgery. But here's the question - literally last episode they had face holo thingies that could make them look like Krill. So why couldn't Alara use one of those? And then just have it break down again to reveal her. Insert little joke about Isaac's people not being that good at tech after all since his stuff keeps breaking.

The other thing it didn't do that it should have was explain why they couldn't just hack the feed and rig the vote with their super-tech computers. Just a line about how it was protected by a tech-tech-tech device and they couldn't break in remotely would have done it. But I spent a large part of the episode wondering why they didn't just reset his count minus a million or two.

Thought it was a bit silly that their society is so absolutely identical to ours right down to the models of cars. But obviously budget limitations were at work and they did what they could to give it little differences.

Macfarlane wrote this one, thought it was interesting that he chose to just leave Mercer on the ship whilst Kelly had all the action on the planet. Nice that he didn't play himself up.

Oh, and apparently they have cloaking devices on their shuttles. Can they cloak the Orville? They didn't, but wonder if it's possible? And how good are these cloaks? We've not seen cloaks used before when they might have wanted to, so maybe not effective against modern sensors? Only good for fooling us primitives?

Maybe a 6/10.

[stitch626]

I feel similar, though I did very much like the acting from the woman that discovered them. The interaction with her and the crew/ship was very enjoyable. Maybe because it would kinda be ours (well for the less paranoid of us).

I do feel while the commentary was a little heavy, it was necessary. Way too many people treat social media much like how the episode portrayed (even so far as using popular to determine facts).

[Graham Kennedy]

I feel similar, though I did very much like the acting from the woman that discovered them. The interaction with her and the crew/ship was very enjoyable. Maybe because it would kinda be ours (well for the less paranoid of us).

I do feel while the commentary was a little heavy, it was necessary. Way too many people treat social media much like how the episode portrayed (even so far as using popular to determine facts).

Yeah, one thing they only touched on a little was the idea that the society doesn't just judge people via voting, but takes whatever people vote for to automatically be factual. They didn't get political about it, but obviously that could stray into the territory of having things declared to be "fake news" and such.

One wonders what would happen if ten million people voted that the voting system was not a good system. Logic implosion!

[Mikey]

I'd go up to a 7 or 7.5, myself. I didn't mind the obvious nature of the parody. I thought the unfamiliarity of the crew with the alien culture was well-portrayed, better than many similar situations in SF. I also wondered about the decision to influence the feed rather than just hack it, but just attributed it to some source-differentiation thingy.

The first thing to come to mind regarding cloaking tech is that it simply only exists on a shuttle scale, not a cap ship scale. I'm in agreement with GK about the disguise tech from last week not being available this week; there were a number of simple ways around that bit rather than just ignoring it.

Also... when do we get to hear Bortus sing?

[Graham Kennedy]

I'd go up to a 7 or 7.5, myself. I didn't mind the obvious nature of the parody. I thought the unfamiliarity of the crew with the alien culture was well-portrayed, better than many similar situations in SF. I also wondered about the decision to influence the feed rather than just hack it, but just attributed it to some source-differentiation thingy.

The first thing to come to mind regarding cloaking tech is that it simply only exists on a shuttle scale, not a cap ship scale. I'm in agreement with GK about the disguise tech from last week not being available this week; there were a number of simple ways around that bit rather than just ignoring it.

Also... when do we get to hear Bortus sing?

Oh hell yes, as soon as he said that I was like "Oh my god, we MUST hear him sing at some point!"

Though I have to admit, it would be kind of a cute running joke to have him keep declaring that he has hobbies or pastimes that he engages in, but we never once see him doing a single one of them. Kind of like Morn and talking.

[Monroe]

I'd want to see the cloaking technology in use again before we know for sure it exists. Sometimes tech can be mixed up in the s CGI department. That said, cloaking from radio and visible eye range is far different than cloaking from ship sensors. In RL we almost have invisibility cloaks, that doesn't mean a subspace sensor wouldn't see right through it.

My take on the prime directive is that it doesn't exist in Orville but a Captain can't make that call. There has to be a good reason to show yourself to an alien society. You can't just do it for no reason. And I think this more flexible prime directive is more realistic.

[Graham Kennedy]

I'd want to see the cloaking technology in use again before we know for sure it exists. Sometimes tech can be mixed up in the s CGI department.

Huh? They specifically order the shuttle cloaked. It's right there in the script, not just something the FX people did.

That said, cloaking from radio and visible eye range is far different than cloaking from ship sensors. In RL we almost have invisibility cloaks, that doesn't mean a subspace sensor wouldn't see right through it.

Indeed. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the cloak worked for simple visual and radar detection, but didn't do much at all against a ship's sensors. Time will tell.

My take on the prime directive is that it doesn't exist in Orville but a Captain can't make that call. There has to be a good reason to show yourself to an alien society. You can't just do it for no reason. And I think this more flexible prime directive is more realistic.

Yeah, if I had to guess it would be a policy they adopted on a case by case basis. Contact the ones who seem like they could handle it, avoid the ones who can't. Like I can see them having a hands off approach to that planet whose inhabitants ritually sacrifice everyone to their squirrel god or whatever it was.

[Mikey]

Ed’s discussion with the admiral seems to back this case-by-case review explicitly. And BTW, i’m A little tired of everyone putting down my choice to sacrifice to the squirrel god. You won’t be laughing when the world is destroyed by a hail of flaming acorns.

[DonP]

I, for one, welcome our new squirrel overlords.

[Monroe]

Huh? They specifically order the shuttle cloaked. It's right there in the script, not just something the FX people did.

I know, but that can have more meanings than the Star Trek one. It just seemed kind of out of place is all cause we hadn't seen it before. But that may go to my other point about cloaking technology being useless against Krill or other sensors.