sinanju

The Orville is clearly fantasy with a science fiction coating. Dark Matter storm. Yeah. And axion particles. Uh huh. Plus, for bonus points, a time travel story that made absolutely no sense. But no worse than many a Trek episode. Plus, why is the helmsman surrendering control of the ship to Pria? In the pilot we were told he was a hot **** pilot par excellence. Now he's all "this is above my pay grade" about dodging some giant bubbles?
 
That said, I'm still watching. Gene Roddenberry once said that westerns (which were much more popular on tv at the time than they are now) were not about authentic 1870s characters, but about characters with the same values and traits of contemporary viewers. Which is correct. Just like the crew of the TOS Enterprise didn't act like people from two hundred years in the future--they were basically contemporary humans from the 1960s.
 
THAT'S where the jokes are in The Orville. It's people like us--or, at least, people like Seth MacFarlane--plopped into a Trek-style universe. They make the same stupid jokes people now would make. They watch the movies and tv shows we would recognize, even if they call them oldies. It was more jarring at first because you don't expect that from characters in a Star Trek show, but this _isn't_ Star Trek. It's an homage, certainly, but with less refined and genteel characters.
 
Plus, we learned something about the Orville universe in this most recent episode.
Their medical tech is good enough that a) the robot could amputate the guy's leg and heal it completely in the space of one night, and the doctor could regenerate it in only hours.
The Orville can travel 10 light-years per hour, and that's considered fast.
The Union apparently is well aware that time travel is at least theoretically possible, since they have a policy of not messing with the timeline.

I disagree. You should do what you think is right--which was the whole issue. Everyone in the episode was doing what he or she thought was right. The question then becomes: who decides? Aboard the Orville, the Captain decides. But when Bortus appealed to his homeworld and they took the child there, the authority to decide fell to the local tribunal. Mercer and company argued as strongly as they could for their position, but ultimately they accepted the decision by the local authorities. Nobody got punched or shot or threatened with either. It was all very civilized.
 
Also, I don't think we've seen any evidence that the Union has a Prime Directive in any case. 

Hmmm, went to watch the second episode and apparently it consisted mostly of the 4th quarter of the Denver vs Dallas football game, which had a delay. I don't see anywhere it is being repeated for now either. Anyone else have this problem? Did I give up to soon on my recording? The game said 12+ minutes left, and since I only recorded an hour, I figured wasn't worth it.

I actually liked Powerless, another show that wasn't all dark and depressing.....

And the fact that the Antifa showed up armed shows intent and malice aforethought. THAT'S the equivalency.

And many of the people attacked by the hateful bigots of Antifa were peacefully protesting. Everywhere Antifa goes, violence and rioting follows. That's not an accident.

It seems to me that Antifa helped stir the pot, and helped put the peaceful counter-protestors at risk. There's a disturbing trend of smaller agitator groups inciting violence at protests, and it looks to me that Antifa is in that camp, or at least some subset of them is.

With the exception of the guy behind the wheel of that car, neither did any of the protestors. Unless you know something nobody else does--in which case, you have notified the cops, right? Hateful bigots attacking other hateful bigots: equivalency.

Okay (and let me try to word this delicately), please stop equating Antifa with the brave soldiers of WW2. Antifa are not fighting a war against some genocidal axis of evil. They are merely a group dedicated to using tactics like violence, disruption of public order, destruction of property, and instilling fear to further their own ideological agenda. That the Neo-Fascists/Nazis are on the opposite side does not make Antifa better, it merely makes them the lesser of the two evils between the two extremist groups. I will happily and enthusiastically condemn the Neo-Fascists and all of their ilk but I think Anitfa should be held accountable for all of their transgressions as well. They just haven't outright publicly murdered anybody (to my knowledge) yet. I expect that it will not take long before they do.
 
This whole ideological/political climate stinks. Perhaps it is the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia, but I used to be able to identify with something. Now everywhere I look, all I see are bad guys. It kind of crushes hope and enthusiasm.
 
Think I better take a break for a few days. 

And the fact that the Antifa showed up armed shows intent and malice aforethought. THAT'S the equivalency.

And the fact that the Antifa showed up armed shows intent and malice aforethought. THAT'S the equivalency.

And the fact that the Antifa showed up armed shows intent and malice aforethought. THAT'S the equivalency.

No, we can't. 
 
Using the threat of violence--or actual violence--to intimidate and stifle the speech of people you disagree with is beyond the pale, no matter who you are. No matter who THEY are. If you want to claim to be better than Nazis and white supremacists, then be better. Don't pretend that some folk on your side aren't doing exactly the same things. Don't try to tell us it's different when you do it. It isn't.

How extremists (of any stripe) take his words is not Trump's responsibility--or any other politician's responsibility, when extremists take their words to mean whatever they claim. Extremists will hear what they want to hear, or claim to hear it. Some of those extremists will be on the other side, and will use those alleged words of tacit support ("dogwhistles") to villify the politician who spoke them.

No, we can't. 
 
Using the threat of violence--or actual violence--to intimidate and stifle the speech of people you disagree with is beyond the pale, no matter who you are. No matter who THEY are. If you want to claim to be better than Nazis and white supremacists, then be better. Don't pretend that some folk on your side aren't doing exactly the same things. Don't try to tell us it's different when you do it. It isn't.

A Polish farmer is ploughing his field when he hits an obstruction in the soil - a dirty old lamp. He picks it up and rubs it to clean it off, and a genie appears in a puff of smoke.
 
"Thank goodness you found my lamp I was getting bored," says the Genie. "I will grant you any three wishes you desire."
 
The farmer thinks and thinks and finally says: "I want the Mongols to invade Poland... and then go home."
 
The genie looks confused, but he shrugs, and snaps his fingers, and the Mongols invade. They rampage through the country, looting and pillaging... and then they go home.
 
"OK," says the genie, "that was your first wish. What else do you want?"
 
"I want the Mongols to invade Poland again... and then go home."
 
The genie sighs. "Fine, it's your wish, I guess." He snaps his fingers again, and the Mongols return. They set the farmhouse on fire, and steal the chickens, and then they go home.
 
"And what is your final wish?" asks the genie.
 
"I want the Mongols to invade Poland again, and then go home," says the farmer without hesitation.
 
So the Mongols invade once again, and steal everything that isn't nailed down. They steal the farmer's old wife, and his plough, and rough him up a bit, and then they leave.
 
As they are both standing in the smoking, ransacked ruins of the farmhouse, the genie says: "OK, I have to know. What the hell was that about? You could have wished for anything in the whole world, and you had the Mongols invade your own country three times, and totally destroy it. Why?!"
 
The farmer looks very pleased with himself. "Well, you see, in order to invade us three times and go home, they had to go through Russia six times!"
 
.

I was left in the company of four very obnoxious guys (and I was female in this dream, apparently). I decided to nope right on out of there, but one of the guys grabbed my wrist and expressed his displeasure (quite profanely) that I had the temerity to try to leave when he wasn't done with me. At which point he whipped out a knife.
 
Seeing as I was no match for him physically, I decided--being lucid enough to realize I was dreaming--that I'd be invulnerable. And a good thing too, because he tried to cut and stab me many times, all over. After this went on long enough to get me really annoyed, I snatched up a knife (I'm not sure if it was his, or another) and drove it up under his chin and into his brain and put an end to his assault. At which point I woke up and marveled at what I'd just dreamed.

I was left in the company of four very obnoxious guys (and I was female in this dream, apparently). I decided to nope right on out of there, but one of the guys grabbed my wrist and expressed his displeasure (quite profanely) that I had the temerity to try to leave when he wasn't done with me. At which point he whipped out a knife.
 
Seeing as I was no match for him physically, I decided--being lucid enough to realize I was dreaming--that I'd be invulnerable. And a good thing too, because he tried to cut and stab me many times, all over. After this went on long enough to get me really annoyed, I snatched up a knife (I'm not sure if it was his, or another) and drove it up under his chin and into his brain and put an end to his assault. At which point I woke up and marveled at what I'd just dreamed.

They go to the state police academy. How'd the right wingers take that over in a state that's run top to bottom by liberals exactly?
 
Here's a hint: The left wing side of the government is every bit as authoritarian as the right is. They're just backed by a different set of big money interests.
 
Edit: I apologize if that second paragraph sounded a bit snarky. It was. I know you probably didn't mean it in the same way I usually see people throw that kind of blame back and forth. This latest election cycle has made me over sensitive to how polarized our country has become. I know your smarter than that, and just had a knee-jerk reaction.

Things being worn down over time

Crafting miniature swords from nails

From the way it was depicted the fight between the two Supers looked extremely close -- like victory would go to whichever of them landed a critical hit first. That happened to be Kara.
 
On the relative experience of the two of them, I think it depends on their history in this world. If Superman is more along the lines of the classic version, he would have had little to no formal fight training, just picking things up as he goes along. Supergirl hasn't been at this game nearly as long, but she's had the benefit of intensive training by experienced professionals like Alex in hand-to-hand, and J'onn in the use of super powers.
 
But I have to say, it goes to the credit of this version of Superman that he acknowledged her beating him without rancor or ego. Just as he asserted that her giving up her love for the greater good was something he himself might not be capable of. That degree of both humility and security has been missing from most interpretations of Superman recently, and I find it refreshing.

Me three. Well, what I saw of it, anyhow. Which was only the last two or three episodes. (But I've read a number of things online that suggest that S2 was far better than a very rocky S1 for Legends.)
 
Worse, as far as prospects for future CW superhero shows on my tv go, is Supergirl. I watched...half of the season finale. And today I tried to watch the rest, but after a minute or two, I just deleted it unwatched. I. Just. Can't. Bring. Myself. To. Care. Too many flavors of stupid combined to create an unpalatable mess.
 
I've complained before in the Supergirl thread about how virtually every villain can give Kara a real fight, when that should very rarely be the case. That was part of it. Terry Hatcher shouldn't have a chance against her.
Words cannot express how much I detest Mon-El and the whole Mon-El/Kara "romance". (Not to get all SJW about this--since mostly I find those people annoying as hell--but they spent the whole first season showing Kara pining after James, only to dump that plot immediately so she could have a romance with the white dudebro space frat boy? Seriously?)
If we're gonna be subjected to romance (and this is the CW, so that's a big "definitely") I'd much rather watch Alex and Detective Girlfriend (I can't remember anyone's names tonight)
Or Kara and Lena. (I know they're never gonna go there, any more than Supernatural is ever gonna fess up to Dean/Castiel, but the less screen time Space Fratboy gets, the better.)
Plus, the "contaminate earth's atmosphere with lead" to drive away the aliens? Uh, okay, humans don't have an instantly-lethal allergic reaction to lead...but it's still bad for us, okay? Not a great plan.
 
So, I guess...the Flash finale, bad as it was, wasn't THAT bad. I did watch it all the way thru, in bits and pieces. I couldn't sit thru the Supergirl finale.

Yeah, that sort of no-escape-from-liberal-politics BS will drive me away when not much else could if it gets too frequent.
 
I concur with the apparent utter lack of concern for all the DEO redshirts, as well as the pilots, staff, and media pool (well, okay, not so much them...) of Air Force One. The very idea that a) the President would swoop into a warzone on Air Force One in the first place, or that the Secret Service would LET her is suspension-of-disbelief breaking in a big way. But, eh, I've seen worse.
 
Plus, HOW LONG has the DEO had the Invincible Maguffin? It seems to me like it could have been used in a lot of episodes prior to this one...unless it's so unwieldy it can only be aimed at city-sized spaceships or something....

And lots of chemistry with Cat. There's a reason the internet is awash in Kara/Cat and Kara/Lena fanfic.
 
On another topic, I really enjoyed Kara getting blown up in the whistleblower's car...only to rise slowly into the air from the flaming wreckage and then land, her clothing on fire and partially burned away, but completely unhurt and very annoyed. It's about time they remembered that she's SUPERGIRL. This is about the level of trouble most villains should give her. They can harm other people, whom she must try to protect; they can mislead, misdirect, feint toward goal A while really going for goal B, but most of them shouldn't be able to hurt her at all.
 
The Luke Cage Netflix show did this better than Supergirl does, and he's nowhere near as powerful as she is. But word got around that Luke Cage is bulletproof and superstrong. So what happens when he shows up at a crime scene? Most of the bad guys just run away. They *know* they can't hurt him. Shooting at him only makes him angry ("I'm about tired of buying new clothes.") and is pointless, so they flee. Or surrender. I'd like to see more of that on Supergirl. Not always. There can be bad guys (and gals) who can challenge her sometimes, but most bad guys? No.