It is time again to go to the two captains’ logs. Strange New Worlds has wrapped up its first season, but Orville: New Horizons continues. Mr. DAPs and Murray are changing it up a bit to take a look at just one episode. Instead of declaring a winner of the week, it’ll be whether this was a hit or miss for the episode. And with that, here is the review of “From Unknown Graves.”
Music
Mr. DAPs: “Once again, the music by itself is great. With the episode, it tends to get overpowering. It’s the curse of Star Trek: The Motion Picture in my mind. It’s beautiful but it sometimes outshines what is happening on the screen. This week was better than others but I’d still like to see more restraint.”
Murray: “At first, the music was too prominent. And it almost didn’t fit. I can think of one scene with the Janisi ship that the music was almost not appropriate. But, as the episode went on the music blended into the background well. So, for me it was a bit more of a win this week than others.”
Designs
Mr. DAPs: “I was pretty happy with the different designs seen this week. We got two new species I believe that I thought both were decent enough to look at. For the most part, I was satisfied with most of the design of this series. There were a few details that drove my eyebrow up but, that might be nit picking.”
Murray: “The episode featured a great deal of aliens. The Janisi were an original species that had some great makeup to convey the matriarchal race. The aliens that created the Kaylon were also some greatly designed makeup. The visual effects were fairly good, though not a lot throughout. And that was probably for the best. I did have a problem with Timmis, the emotional Kaylon’s costume at times. It didn’t seem to fit the actor at the neck region and threw me off in some scenes.”
Story
Mr. DAPs: “There was a lot going on in this episode. In fact, I felt like perhaps too much. It feels like each episode they are trying to condense some major story arcs that are similar to those found in Star Trek: The Next Generation in a show that’s about an hour long. I’d like to see more episodes with more specific stories instead of so much crammed into them. I would have preferred seeing the Kaylon storylines in this and drop the other.”
Murray: “I feel like there were three storylines going at once. The Janisi was its own story, that maybe can’t be too fleshed out to be on its own. The whole Isaac/Timmis/Kaylon origin story was the main one, and was more reinforced by the third which was the relationship between LaMaar and Talla. I would have liked to see just an episode dealing with the Kaylons and LaMaar/Talla. The Janisi story just didn’t fit well.”
Hit or Miss?
Mr. DAPs: “For the most part, I felt like this was a decent enough episode… for really being at least two episodes crammed into one. Overall though, I liked it. This is especially true of the Kaylon storylines. The other with the matriarchal society I felt was almost added simply for comedic relief. My biggest complaint about this episode, and maybe soon the series itself, is the obsession with stairs on a spaceship. I just don’t get it. If they were just there and a necessary part of the set they built, great. However, it seems like whoever designed the set (and perhaps wrote the script) went out of their way to make sure the audience notices there are stairs on a spaceship… I don’t get it and I find it distracting Beyond the stairs and too many stories, I really did enjoy this episode for the most part. I really liked seeing the exploration of the Kaylons and am looking forward to seeing how that continues to play out. I would say this week was a hit, but am also glad I’m not pitting it up against a Strange New Worlds episode.”
Murray: “The storyline of Isaac and Claire intertwined with the origin of the Kaylons was one of the best of the whole series. It really gave a lot of heart with the revelation of the Kaylons. Then there was heartbreak with what happened to Isaac and Claire. I do think that the LaMaar and Talla storyline reinforced what was happening between Isaac and Claire. But, it was the Janisi plot that distracted too much. It made for some great jokes and was a great commentary on societies. However, it needed to be its own plot. Add to it a little bit of costume problems I had and I have to say it’s a reluctant miss. Though I say that, I do think this is an episode to not miss. It really was a great one for the whole series and I wish they made it stronger.”
