So Who Wants to Live in the "Real World"?

[neuralclone]

Real life is a bit shit at the moment (mostly work, *sigh*) so naturally I've retreated into an imaginary universe which is much more fun. Which lead me to the random thought: I'd really like to see a "Luke, I am your father!" moment between the Orville's Isaac and Kaylon Primary. Though it would probably go more like this: "Isaac, I am your programmer! Search your system files, you know it to be true."

Which then lead me to think about the Claire/Isaac relationship. While I think it has become abundantly clear that Kaylons do have emotions, I'm not convinced that Isaac is a sexual being.  And that, um, makes their romantic relationship all sorts of creepy especially from Claire's side.   At best she's projecting on him, and worst she's using him.  However, since I do love their friendship, and Isaac's role in co-parenting her boys, ideally I think I'd like them to wind up as BFFs.   And since Isaac will probably outlive Claire by millennia, possibly he could keep an eye on succeeding generations of her descendants?

To Doctor Who now.  I've just finished watching "State of Decay" - the one with the giant space vampires!  This serial was firing on all cylinders: the sets, the scripts, the costumes, the acting.  All right, the special effects were a bit dodgy, but we are talking about early 80s Who here.  The story itself was a bit of a throwback to the 1970s when Doctor Who had a run of Gothic pastiches.  Not that I mind that, as it was something the series did very well.  "State of Decay" had all the vampire tropes down pat, from the aristocratic vampires living in a tower, to the cowering peasants living in fear in the village below.

And we got a look into the Time Lords' history: it seems back in their distant past they had a war with giant space-faring vampires!  Now there's something for New Who to pick up and run with...

Comments

[astrogirl]

I'm not convinced that Isaac is a sexual being. And that, um, makes their romantic relationship all sorts of creepy especially from Claire's side.

I think he's probably not, fundamentally, and I do find it a little hard to know how to feel about what that means. If he's perfectly happy to go along with it because she enjoys it, because it's an easy-for-him way to maintain a relationship he values, and because it's an important human experience and he's really interested in and excited by participating in those, maybe it's not particularly creepy. I do ship them, so I'd very much like to look at it that way. But it's entirely possible to see it as her using him, and even easier to it as her putting human expectations that she shouldn't really have onto him. And to me, some of what's really interesting and complicated about that relationship is in the extent to which Claire has been projecting too much onto him -- something she does seem to have decided she was doing -- and what might or might not be left when she stops. I would love to see canon explore that more, and to see them find their way to someplace healthier, whatever that might look like.

[neuralclone]

She almost seems to veer to the opposite extreme in "Identity" Part 1, telling Ty that Isaac had no emotions at all... which is so inaccurate! By the end of "Identity" Part 2 she seemed to have come back to a more moderate point of view.

(I wonder how the "Kaylons have no emotions" myth is going to hold up, given the senior bridge crew have witnessed Kaylon Primary's obviously emotional reaction to past wrongs?)

[astrogirl]

(I wonder how the "Kaylons have no emotions" myth is going to hold up, given the senior bridge crew have witnessed Kaylon Primary's obviously emotional reaction to past wrongs?)

I suspect Kaylon Primary himself believes it, but is he fooling anyone but himself? :)

[neuralclone]

Well, he did accuse Isaac of feeling sympathy...