The Krill Upset

Last night's new Orville, written by Star Trek writers Brannon Braga and Andre Bormanis, deployed one of my least favourite Star Trek plot devices--the heavy-handed political allegory. But, again, the show's production--I won't say "quality" but maybe "attitude"--is so good that I still enjoyed it. Every episode of The Orville feels whole in some way a lot of TV shows don't anymore.

I did like how much detail went into the Krill homeworld. They were played pretty much as a joke before and they still kind of are. But at least now I started to get a feeling that they're a three dimensional people.

The political allegory is a thinly veiled retelling of the 2016 US election when Trump was elected. I realise release of The Orville Season Three was delayed a lot by Covid, but a work of fiction tackling that election once again, repeated exactly the same opinions about it as so many other works have done, really feels tired.

A populist leader preys on feelings of disenfranchisement--mostly racist in this version--and uses fake news to win a dramatic victory against the person everyone thought was going to win. As soon as you know where it's going, the feeling it gives you is, "Okay, okay, let's wrap it up already." Braga--and I'm pretty sure Braga is mainly responsible for this stuff--lumps in everything he hates about the American right and puts it onto the Krill, even when it doesn't quite make sense. We get a scene about how the Krill are devoutly against abortion, which isn't quite logical for a warrior culture. I also feel like it was too minor a part of the episode to touch on such a sensitive and complex topic.

The non-allegory aspects of the story weren't bad, though. The drama between Ed and Teleya is good and I'm glad she's not just a Trump caricature. But the best part of the episode was the stuff I suspect was written by Andre Bormanis, who was technical advisor on Star Trek scripts. In this case, I suspect he was mainly responsible for the tactical, space battle stuff.

Now that was cool, and really felt like Horatio Hornblower. If a Rogue Squadron movie ever does get off the ground, this is the kind of writing they need.

The Orville is available on Hulu or on Disney+, depending on your country.

Twitter Sonnet #1594

Aggressive sounds were bleeding out the bell.
Confusing jousts conclude with salvaged arms.
The watchful clouds have secrets left to tell.
A slimy, snakey stone discreetly warms.
Some music makes a massive change to screen.
And yet a lousy script can break a knee.
A missing chunk of tale can scratch the dream.
Yet not a dying branch could kill the tree.
A glowing world could fall behind the tube.
Exciting ships were fast beyond the plot.
The square examined turned to be a cube.
We hid the shape behind an oval pot.
The double story doubly dropped the ball.
And yet the trek was worth the zombie call.