Spectacular, effect heavy conclusion to the 2nd season of the Orville. The story involves time travel, alternate timelines, and different versions of the main characters. The timeline has been altered by events in the previous episode, and the crew, as they now are, must attempt to restore reality as it once was.
Sound familiar? It should to many star trek fans! Yesterdays Enterprise is widely known as a top 5 ST episode, and to some people? Their very favorite - and for good reason! It is a damn near perfect episode that brought a ton of new ideas to prime time television (30 years ago). Not only are the effects and story epic, but the writing, acting and performances also live up to the spectacular nature of this all time ST episode.
So does this Orville episode live up to that legacy? Simply put, No! I have zero problem with imitation. The Orville is a clear lift from ST in basic conception, so to get upset about imitation seems silly. However, despite the epic storyline and amazing effects (that really do drive this episode from beginning to end), the writing and performances do not live up. There are some truly bad one liners that really expose the bad writing, but mostly - it's just very average lines delivered with baseline performances by the stars of this show. In other works - quite a bit of exposition to explain things and keep the episode moving, but zero depth. Its the kind of episode that is pretty good once, but does not ask to be re-watched via depth of dialog/performance. I've seen Yesterdays Enterprise at least 10 times, and enjoyed each viewing.
I really was impressed with the special effects though. All of the starship stuff is really fun to watch, and this episode is an audio visual treat. Considering this is the end of the 2nd season - I'm super satisfied how good this show has been, and think it can build into an excellent 3rd season. Hope so!
Sound familiar? It should to many star trek fans! Yesterdays Enterprise is widely known as a top 5 ST episode, and to some people? Their very favorite - and for good reason! It is a damn near perfect episode that brought a ton of new ideas to prime time television (30 years ago). Not only are the effects and story epic, but the writing, acting and performances also live up to the spectacular nature of this all time ST episode.
So does this Orville episode live up to that legacy? Simply put, No! I have zero problem with imitation. The Orville is a clear lift from ST in basic conception, so to get upset about imitation seems silly. However, despite the epic storyline and amazing effects (that really do drive this episode from beginning to end), the writing and performances do not live up. There are some truly bad one liners that really expose the bad writing, but mostly - it's just very average lines delivered with baseline performances by the stars of this show. In other works - quite a bit of exposition to explain things and keep the episode moving, but zero depth. Its the kind of episode that is pretty good once, but does not ask to be re-watched via depth of dialog/performance. I've seen Yesterdays Enterprise at least 10 times, and enjoyed each viewing.
I really was impressed with the special effects though. All of the starship stuff is really fun to watch, and this episode is an audio visual treat. Considering this is the end of the 2nd season - I'm super satisfied how good this show has been, and think it can build into an excellent 3rd season. Hope so!