The Orville - Season Two -- SPOILERS

[scottydog]

^^ You're absolutely right.

No episode tonight. Nor is there one next Thursday.

[RJDiogenes]

Something to tide us over:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsyJUeccMT8

[scottydog]

.

[RJDiogenes]

Yeah.

[scottydog]

^^ I just rewatched that episode. It really is a sweet love story between Gordon and Laura. His shipmates tried to rain on his parade, which was both understandable yet also cruel.

[RJDiogenes]

Yeah, that was one thing that was odd about the episode. The rest of the gang was uncharacteristically intolerant. I guess they had to move the plot along and that was the only way to do it, but that Pictionary scene was kind of unpleasant. Except for Talla with her long hair and glasses, which was pretty cool.

[scottydog]

Yeah, that was one thing that was odd about the episode. The rest of the gang was uncharacteristically intolerant.

Since The Orville is not shy about commenting on social issues, maybe the crew's intolerance was Seth McFarlane's way of warning us about the dangers of being addicted to our "devices". We do need to be grounded in reality and have "real" connections with people.

Interestingly, I thought Gordon's rebuttal to Ed Mercer's arguments were pretty strong. In some ways, Laura is every bit as real as Isaac -- and maybe more so.

[RJDiogenes]

That would really open up a can of worms. If she was real, then she would have the same rights as everyone else. So, for starters, she couldn't be shut off. She would have to be told that she is a hologram in the 24th century. She would have to be given the same freedoms to travel and so forth as anyone else in the Union. And then what about all those other people in the simulation?

[scottydog]

^^ Yeah, I remember TNG grappling with those issues. Didn't Picard decide to allow Moriarty to live in perpetuity in a simulation? It's been many years since I've seen TNG and I should go back and revisit all their arguments for and against holodeck characters being real people with real human rights.

[RJDiogenes]

Oh, yeah, I forgot about Moriarty. I think they whipped up a device to keep his simulation going even when the holodeck was shut down. Presumably, by that point in time, they would have some criteria or test to definitively establish if a hologram is sentient. It might even be illegal to create sentient holograms (although one wonders how that would stand up in court, given that people create sentient beings all the time), or at least safeguards to prevent it from happening willy-nilly.

[scottydog]

^^ Yeah, that Moriarty episode is begging for a sequel or follow-up.

Do we have a new Orville episode coming up this coming Thursday or do we have to wait another week?

[RJDiogenes]

Yes, the next episode is on Thursday. There are three left all together.

[scottydog]

Good. They still haven't announced that there will be a Season 3. I'm getting nervous.

[RJDiogenes]

I'm worried, too, but I'm reading optimistic predictions online, in part because of the huge tax break they're getting (the same one that the Picard show is getting).

[scottydog]

I'm very much pro-tax-break
.