Entries tagged with random thoughts

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Out of This World (Speculating on "The Orville", Again)

As usual in grim times (Covid19, I'm looking at you) I've been retreating into fictional worlds instead. And since everyone is worrying about a pandemic, I found myself wondering why the Kaylons haven't attempted biological warfare against the organic lifeforms they hate so much. You'd think it would be the obvious choice: they have no scruples when it comes to genocide, and they're in no danger from handling dangerous pathogens.

Then I thought, but are they capable of engineering a plague? They hate biological organisms so much that they stripped Earth of life entirely in a different timeline (and judging from what we've seen of Kaylon1, the same seems true of their home planet). For all their intelligence, there's probably a gaping hole where their knowledge of the biological sciences should be.

... But it's given me an idea for a story. Union troops capture a Kaylon base where they appear to have been doing research in germ warfare. Isaac is sent into investigate because he's the only person who can translate their research notes: Claire Finn is also part of the team because she's a medical specialist. So in the middle of a crisis she's forced to work closely with someone she still has conflicted feelings about.

Current Mood: thoughtful

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On Isaac and Bortus (And Other The Orville Things!)

More thoughts about The Orville. Though at one point Bortus says he's glad he's nothing like Isaac, by the end of Season 2 I'm seeing a lot of parallels. They've both had their horizons expanded by their time on the Orville, to the point where they're both seriously at odds with their home cultures. They've both actually taken up arms against their own people at different points. On the other hand, their personalities are so different I doubt either of them will see the similarities anytime soon.

On Kaylon Primary... I read a post somewhere wondering why Primary bothered keeping Isaac around after the Kaylon had taken over the Orville. He served no purpose, and in the end thwarted Primary's plans. However, looking at Primary's actions as a whole, I see he enjoys playing cruel mind games with people. Keeping Isaac around was a way of twisting the knife in the biological crew of the Orville. The same goes for his "loyalty" test where he demanded that Isaac execute Ty. The sensible thing would have been to have an ordinary "unit" kill the boy.

I wonder if this sadism is something that Primary learned from his Kaylon builders?

Lastly, something silly. In "New Dimensions" John LaMarr builds a shuttle which is bigger on the inside than the outside. In "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" Isaac invents time travel. Now all we need is Dr Finn to discover the secrets of regeneration and the Orville crew can be the first of a new race of Time Lords!

Current Mood: nerdy

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

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...