Exit Alara

It's true.
Alara, Halston Sage, has left The Orville.
A wonderful episode and a nice send off for a beloved character.
She was so cute.



I avoid spoilers as much as possible.
This was news to me.
Any scoop on why she is off the show?

Nothing concrete, the usual rumors she was hard to work with ect. She was also supposed to be dating Seth McFarlane so that was floated as a reason as well

I thought Alara's exit episode this week was one of the best Orville episodes yet. Nice that they focused an entire episode on her, and her family back on her home planet. as a going away thing. The graphics of her planet were terrific. Kind of a hyper-scientific Kryptonian kind of place with ridiculously high gravity. 

But mostly it was great to see Alara's world and her family, which was handled better than I'd expected. 

It appears that Salayans begin to lose their super-strength and relative invulnerability when they are in micro-gravity too long -- as in Earth normal microgravity. 

Shadar

Replacing an actress and character with the exact same character.

Seems like they have Alara plotted well into the future and didn't want to alter the dynamics of the cast to much.

Orville is a dumb show and, alas, the Alara exit episode was no exception.

1. As soon as her problem was revealed, I was thinking that they could havre solved it with a centrifuge. And at the very end, they figured out
that they could create an artificial gravity field. Since gravity shields are a matter of course, that should have occurred to them at the outset.

2. Xelayah is supposed to be an alien world, but it looks just like Southern California. And Xelayahan family life and customs, including marriage rituals, are justlike Middle America's. All that's missing are the Rose Bowl and fancy department stores. Oh, and there's a topical reference to our anti-vax movement, which is what sets off the villains of the piece.

3. Alara saves the day, but only by somehow recovering most of her strength almost instantly. But,because the episode was planned around Halston Sage's departure from the series, she decides to stay with the family to which she is now reconciled. Hello? In the Orville universe, visiting the family while on leave would be no bigger a deal that one of us living in New York visiting the folks in California.

4. As my wife pointed out to me, the whole scenario is sexist. She finally gets respect from her family for her career. Then she gives up her career to be with her family. Would a male character have left his career to go home and do nothing?

brantley wrote: Orville is a dumb show and, alas, the Alara exit episode was no exception.

1. As soon as her problem was revealed, I was thinking that they could havre solved it with a centrifuge. And at the very end, they figured out
that they could create an artificial gravity field. Since gravity shields are a matter of course, that should have occurred to them at the outset.

2. Xelayah is supposed to be an alien world, but it looks just like Southern California. And Xelayahan family life and customs, including marriage rituals, are justlike Middle America's. All that's missing are the Rose Bowl and fancy department stores. Oh, and there's a topical reference to our anti-vax movement, which is what sets off the villains of the piece.

3. Alara saves the day, but only by somehow recovering most of her strength almost instantly. But,because the episode was planned around Halston Sage's departure from the series, she decides to stay with the family to which she is now reconciled. Hello? In the Orville universe, visiting the family while on leave would be no bigger a deal that one of us living in New York visiting the folks in California.

4. As my wife pointed out to me, the whole scenario is sexist. She finally gets respect from her family for her career. Then she gives up her career to be with her family. Would a male character have left his career to go home and do nothing?

To my surprise, Brantley, Orville has grown on me. At first I thought it was horrible as I'm not a Seth McFarlane fan and it was obviously a bad spoof. Bad world-building, bad writing, etc. etc. But I kept watching, and now the characters have grown on me. Enough that I look forward to the show now.. The plots and world-building are typical for the majority of shows on TV today. Not every show can be an Expanse (which remains the gold standard for worldbuilding and believable SF, IMHO, for current SF shows). The norm in 21st century TV seems to be to bring current social issues into focus with very superficial world-buildin, usually only visual in nature. Orville isn't as preachy as some shows. 

And if you go back to the original Star Trek, it was always amazing that the people on various worlds, some which had had no contact with the Federation or any other human population for all recorded time, usually spoke in American west-coast or midwestern English accents (or else if they were non-human aliens, they used the magical Universal Translator to ensure that they did.) 

In the end, any show setting is merely a foundation for exploring the development of characters. I prefer a quasi-SF setting like Orville better than setting it in current-time Kansas City or whatever. (Although small towns, ala Twin Peaks, can be interesting if you dig in deep enough.) In the end, its all about the characters. 

As far as it being sexist, it doesn't seem unusual to me that Alana wanted to enjoy family life now that she was no longer unwanted and cast out. Now that she was appreciated. Are females more inclined to care about family life and family dynamics than men? Yes. Being that they bear children and do the bulk of the early upbringing, that's a natural result of being female. Extended family life is vital. Women have always been more willing to walk away from jobs to bear and raise children and/or support family life. 

Alana made a choice that felt right to me that doesn't fall under my model of sexism (which I define as inappropriate discrimmination based on gender.) 

Shadar

Sorry to see her go, but I thought "Home" was the best episode of the entire series so far.  Not only was that planet indeed beautiful, but the sudden change from sci-fi spoof to Cape Fear really surprised me.  Excellent use of Star Trek (and Seinfeld) alumni too.

I enjoy Orville. I was worried about it at first but it has grown on me a lot. As for the Seth MacFarlane and Halston Sage dating thing, I think the phrase "Don't shit where you eat" is the advice both of them need to take in the future. It never ends well.

willow wrote: I enjoy Orville. I was worried about it at first but it has grown on me a lot. As for the Seth MacFarlane and Halston Sage dating thing, I think the phrase "Don't shit where you eat" is the advice both of them need to take in the future. It never ends well.

The family-friendly version of that phrase is "Don't get your honey where you get your money."

lfan wrote: Her replacement will be another superstrong Salayan female played by Jessica Szohr. 

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ElF

She has a chiseled jaw line! I approve. There are some pictures of her as a fake blonde that are fun too.

I'll miss Alara.

Random321 wrote:

lfan wrote: Her replacement will be another superstrong Salayan female played by Jessica Szohr. 

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ElF

She has a chiseled jaw line! I approve. There are some pictures of her as a fake blonde that are fun too.

I'll miss Alara.

It all depends on Jessica's personality and how the writers handle her character. I don't know anything about Jessica, the actress, but Halston was cute, both in her initial youthful insecurity and also the way she validated her place on the Orville. They won't be able to duplicate that, so her role will have to take a different course. 

I wished they'd done more on her backstory earlier in the show, which would have better explained how such a super-strong person could be so insecure, but her bravery and resiliance was fun to watch develop. Regarded as an idiot on her hyper-intellectual world, and depreciated by her parents for her limited intelligence (although certainly not by human standards), her only attribute when joining the Orville was her native strength. But she proved soon enough that there was much more to Alana than just muscles..

Hopefully Jessica, playipng the former-Alana role, will also have an interesting backstory. But Seth has shown that he values the Security Chief role in his narrative, so hopefully she'll be an impactful player, and not just from her fists. (Although that is very OK too!)

While Alana's tall, blonde sister would be more believable as a super-powered Salayan, Jessica is only 5'5", which says she isn't going to look as tough as she is. Much like Halston in that way. 

Shadar