I have to look things up from time to time (Memory Alpha is a good resource for this, invaluable during development of the game), but I’ve watched every episode of Star Trek at least once, and most of them more than that (I’ve been a fan since I was a child, but also, Netflix put all the Star Trek series up around the time I started writing Star Trek Adventures, so I made a point of watching every episode and every movie for ‘research’ purposes). So, yeah, I know the franchise quite well.
In this case, though, Amok Time is a fairly famous episode in its own right, and Seth McFarlane is exactly the sort of Star Trek fan to make this kind of homage to it.
I’d pondered a few ideas years ago, when Chris Birch first mentioned he was looking at obtaining the license, but the proper work didn’t really start until late spring/early summer of 2016, a few months before the playtest started. I went to see Star Trek Beyond at the cinema when I finished the first draft. Of course, I then spent months revising and refining the rules and responding to feedback during the playtest, which was a long process yet never felt like enough time to do everything…
I’d love to see The Orville in a game re-imagined as a post-Voyager series, maybe even taking place aboard an Intrepid-class vessel. Honestly, the tone is pretty much how my group plays most games anyhow, with some humor.
On a side note, Seth McFarlane also played engineering Ensign Rivers on Star Trek: Enterprise, 3x20 and 4x15.
While it’s an homage, it’s rapidly developing its own style. The lack of transporters, heroes having the cloak rather than enemies, the lack of convenient stun weapons…
Not to mention crew discomfort with certain alien practices amongst the crew, coupled with actually maintaining continuity and sequential character growth…
Best continuity moment for me? When the new security officer Keyali comments on the weirdness of something, and then Malloy and LaMarr promptly mentioning various other weirdnesses. “I almost got killed for dancing with a statue”
Saw Identity Pt1 a few nights ago, that really took a turn I wasn’t quite expecting. Although it kind of reminds me of Cybermen from Dr Who, so yeah we’ll have to see how this goes… Although really robots can “live” in areas that biological life can not, places without air, too not, too cold, whatever, seems like there’d be enough space for Kalons to coexist with biologicals.
True. Although I suppose I have to keep reminding myself, writers for TV and Movies are not scientists or engineers like myself, so they really don’t think about the science in science fiction very… functionally. I just have to keep reminding myself that its Science-Fiction not Science-Fact hehe.
It’s quite plausible that they Kaylon already depleted the local asteroids.
It’s actually quite hard to shed heat fast enough to make significant use of large terrestrial planets. Access to subcrustal or even deep crust mineral wealth is limited by the heat release capacity of the mining process. Radiation is slow- if it weren’t, earth would be considerably colder… as would Jupiter and Io…
Simply put, resources only count if you can get to them in a reasonable time for your goals.
Also, Identity (both parts) reveals clearly that the Kaylon are possessed of emotion. They may not realize it, but they have it. Their reaction is logical, but only if they actually have desire - and desire is, in essence, an emotion. Their method of securing approach to Earth is also illogical. Given their voice synthesis and replication capabilities, they need only use a simulation of the crew and using voice patterns recorded by Isaac to create a the right voices.
Likewise, the Kaylon not having stripped the bones down for useful minerals indicates an emotional reaction. A desire to keep a reminder of why they rebelled.
Desire for freedom is, fundamentally, emotional.
Isaac is young for a Kaylon. He is intentionally lacking certain elements. His lack of experience is in fact called out in Identity part II…
This is quite an interesting reversal of the Pinocchio trope; he’s almost to the Wizard of Oz reveal trope: you don’t need to search - you’ve had it all along, and your striving for it is proof you had it.
Well I just finished watching Identity part 2. It seemed like the Kalon made their fleet in like… less than a week? Everybody is gonna be in danger if they come back and do it again week after week after week.
I mean, that’s one thought. But they did detect some kind of increase in construction in part 1 right? Maybe that was just the preparation. Either way they severely underestimated how many ships they would need.
They probably wouldn’t notice them until they powered up and then they noticed their power signatures, drawing their attention to the strange orb-like craft all over the planet.
After I had the chance to view the first episodes in original, I think I know, what the problem is:
The German episodes are approximately 5min shorter the Original ones (give or take one minute, at least the ones I had seen)
Some scenes that doesn’t appear within the German version I had seen:
Alara is riding at the beach with the local horse-variant
Ed opens Alaras farewell gift
Kelly reminds Ed, that he especially asked for Xelayan replacement
And several more, some are not very important for the story, but after seeing the Original, I miss these scenes
That may also explain the rumours here in Germany, that the release of a Germany 2nd season will be much later, because they change the synchronisation studio during mid-production!?
But I am not sure anymore, what I can believe of these rumours. There is a saying: If you ever heard a rumour, it is most likely false!
Well, watched the season finale tonight. Kinda weak episode. This season hasn’t been as good over-all as far as I’m concerned. But still looking forward to season 3.