Umm… yeah, that episode was basically nothing like this one. Gordon from Orville becomes parasocially attached to a woman from her cellphone. He then creates the holo version for nothing other than fantasy exploration. That later comes to a head when he meets said woman when he got left in the past and ended up marrying her. It explores the morality of asymmetric information in relationships and the personal ramifications of parasocial relationships. The storyline ends with Gordon being forcibly removed from the past and having his memories wiped, since he refused to comply with his orders to return to his timeline. Wiped Gordon is shocked it would ever have to come to that.
Geordi created a holodeck version of a contemporary scientist to solve a problem, and then caught feelings. This episode is that coming to a head when Geordi gets called out for the privacy invasion and gets hit with the dissonance between the holo version and the real one. It explores the difference between parasocial and real relationships, and faces the larger social consequences of stealing someone’s identity.
Like, it’s fine that you don’t like The Orville. Them exploring similar ideas to TNG (which, duh, it IS a TNG parody) doesn’t mean they’re doing knock-off episodes. And while these episodes explore similar themes, they are extremely different in substance and conclusion
Like, The Orville was my first Trek, because it was a new universe so knowing lore wasn’t a requirement. It made Trek less daunting a franchise to enter, because of that. It certainly isn’t perfect, but it definitely isn’t some crap made to make money. MacFarlane loves Trek, this is his genuine approach to making his Trek show, and you can tell that a lot of love went into its making.
halcyoncmdr@piefed.social 4 days ago
Ah yes… Because a device from 400 years in the past could never be considered “ancient” by anyone.