The Mandalorian Season 1, Chapter 4: Sanctuary

This week on The Mandalorian we get another obvious homage episode, but it's a good obvious homage episode. 

Sanctuary most definitely takes its inspiration from Akira Kurosawa's classic Seven Samurai, as Manny lands on a remote planet and helps a group of peaceful farmers fight back against a band of Raiders.

As I said last week, I kind of wish they'd dial back the homages, but eh... Star Wars has been influenced by westerns and pulp sci-fi from Day One, so it's unlikely to start changing now.

That minor reservation aside, so far The Mandalorian hasn't let me down. It's still consistently good and I can't wait to see where the series is going. To be honest, the show's making me a little nervous. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop and the producers to deliver a dud. Hopefully that won't happen.

This week's episode introduces Cara Dune, an awesome new character and the first female of note in the series so far. More on her later.

I'm definitely liking the low stakes in this series, as we get episodes set in the outskirts of the Star Wars Universe, away from all the Skywalker business. It's nice to see there are planets in which the inhabitants know nothing about the Force and all that.

Sanctuary was directed by Bryce Dallas Howard of all people. Yeah, that Bryce Dallas Howard! Looks like she's following in her famous father's footsteps, as she dips her toe in the world of directing. She's previously directed a series of shorts, but nothing of note. Despite her inexperience, she does a great job here.

SPOILERS!

The Plot:
On the backwater world of Sorgan, a lightly populated backwater world. A community of humanoid krill farmers harvests their shallow ponds. Suddenly they hear a noise from the nearby woods. Laser blasts fire from above, causing the farmers to scatter for cover. A young girl named Winta freezes, and her mother Omera runs to save her. They hear something coming, so they hide in one of the shallow krill ponds.

Just then a group of Klatooinian Raiders bursts from the forest. They steal the villager's krill harvest, destroying their equipment, huts and droids in the process. Fortunately they don't spot Omera and Winta, huddling under an overturned basket in the pond.

Cut to Manny and Baby Yoda flying through space in the Razor Crest. Last week Manny "liberated" the baby from the clutches of The Client, and the two are now on the run from dozens of Guild bounty hunters searching for them.

Manny realizes they need to find a place to lay low till the heat's off. He scans nearby systems and spots Sorgan, and figures it'd make a good spot to hide for a while.

Manny lands on the planet and tells Baby Yoda to stay put while he checks it out. Of course the baby doesn't listen, and toddles along behind him. They enter a pub in a small community, where they grab a bite to eat.

Manny notices a suspiciously bounty hunter-looking woman eyeing them. After a beat the she disappears. Manny tells the proprietor to mind the baby, and goes looking for the woman.

Outside, Manny tracks the woman with his helmet's infrared mode. Suddenly she attacks him from above, and the two tussle for a bit. Their battle ends in a draw when they both pull their weapons on one another. Manny recognizes the woman as Cara Dune, who he's met before.

Inside, Dune infodumps her backstory, saying she was a Shocktrooper for the Rebel Alliance. After the Empire fell, she mopped up Imperial stragglers on various planets for a while. Eventually she decided she'd had enough "peacekeeping" and retired on Sorgan. When she saw Manny, she assumed some former enemy had sent him to kill her. She tells Manny she got to Sorgan first, and he'll have to vacate the planet for reasons I don't quite understand.

That night Manny tinkers with his ship as he prepares to leave. Two of the krill farmers timidly approach, and offer him money to rid their village of the Raiders. He's not interested at first, until he finds out they live "in the middle of nowhere." Thinking he's found his sanctuary, he agrees to help.

Manny tracks down Cara Dune and offers her the money to team up with him against the Raiders. Amazingly, she accepts. The farmers take Manny, Dune and Baby Yoda to their village, where they're welcomed as heroes. Omera sets up a space in a barn for Manny & the baby. She's clearly intrigued by the mysterious Mandalorian bounty hunter.

Winta and the other children are fascinated by Baby Yoda and become attached to him. Omera brings a meal to Manny, and asks when was the last time he removed his helmet. He tells her he took it off yesterday. She asks how long it's been since he removed it in front of someone, and he says never. He says he's worn it since he was a child, when his parents were killed and the Mandalorians too him in.

Omera leaves, and Manny removes his helmet long enough to eat (although we don't see his face). He stares out the window at the kids playing with Baby Yoda.

The next day Manny and Dune track the Raiders to their camp. They discover they have a decommissioned AT-ST, left over from the Empire. Dune says the walkers are tougher than they look, and that she didn't sign up for this sh*t.

Back at the village, Manny & Dune tell the villagers they can't fight an AT-ST, and they'll just have to move to a Raider-free area. The villagers refuse to leave, offering to help fight. Manny realizes they're determined to stay and gives in. He loans the villagers his weapons, while Dune trains them in how to fight. For some reason, Omera's the only one who knows how to shoot and turns out to be a crack shot (?).

Dune tells the villagers they can't destroy the AT-ST with blasters, but they can trap it. She orders them to dig a deep hole in one of the krill ponds, while the other villagers set up wooden barriers to hold back the Raiders.

Sometime later, Manny & Dunn infiltrate the Raider camp. There's a brief struggle as they battle several Klatooinians, and Manny blows up their main building with a thermal detonator. The remaining Raiders chase after them, along with the AT-ST.

Manny & Dune return to the village, where they tell the farmers to be ready. The AT-ST appears and begins firing, striding right toward the pool. Unfortunately the drivers sense something's amiss and stop just short of it. Suddenly the rest of the Raiders appear, and the villagers begin fighting them.

The AT-ST blasts away at the village, while refusing to step into the pond. Finally Dune runs through the fray and jumps into the pool, where she begins firing up at the walker. After killing one of the drivers, the other wades into the pool after her. The AT-ST immediately sinks up to its head. Manny attaches another detonator to it and blows it up real good.

The villagers cheer and fight the Raiders even harder. With their main weapon gone, the Raiders chicken out and head for the hills.

Manny & Dune remain in the village for several weeks, but there are no further raids. Dune says he should stay here and make a life for himself with Omera. She asks what would happen if Manny ever took off his helmet in front of someone, and he replies he'd never be allowed to put it back on.

Omera approaches Manny and says he could have a peaceful life here. She gently begins lifting his helmet off his head, but he reaches up and stops her. He says it's not possible, and a disappointed Omera says she understands.

Omera comments that Baby Yoda seems happy here, and Manny says he plans to leave him on Sorgan. She promises to raise him as her own child.

Cut to a bounty hunter in the woods, targeting Baby Yoda in his blaster sights. He's just about to squeeze the trigger when a shot rings out. The bounty hunter falls to the ground, revealing Cara Dune behind him. Manny thanks her, and discovers a tracking fob on the bounty hunter. He realizes the baby is still a target, and he can't leave him here.

Manny & Baby Yoda say their goodbyes to the villagers, who promise they'll never forget them. He and Dune say their farewells, knowing their paths will eventually cross again. Manny and the baby return to the Razor Crest.

Thoughts:
• This week Manny decides to hide out on the backwater world of Sorgan. This marks the first time in the series that a planet has actually been identified by name.

• In true Star Wars fashion, the krill farmers live in a remote village with both primitive and advanced technology. They collect krill in crudely woven fishing baskets, but also have a harvester droid wading around the pools.

This is similar to Luke Skywalker, whose family lived in a hole in the deserts of Tattooine, but also had droids and anti-gravity landspeeders.

• When the Raiders attack the village, they steal their entire krill harvest. That I understand. But they also destroy their huts, tools and krill-gathering implements. That I don't get. Why the hell would they do that? 

The Raiders want to swipe the villagers' sweet, sweet krill, right? So why make it harder for the farmers to harvest them? Now they're gonna have to waist time making new baskets and such. Seems like it would make way more sense for the Raiders to leave the tools intact and just steal the harvest.

And why the holy hell would the Raiders destroy the villagers' droids? Couldn't they use those for themselves? They had a lot of hi-tech equipment in their camp, plus their own functioning AT-ST. Surely they could have scavenged parts from the droids to keep all that running!

I guess maybe the takeaway here is that the Raiders are just dicks and aren't particularly smart.

• The Raiders who attack the village appear to be Klatooinians.

We've seen their race before, most notably as guards in Jabba's Palace in The Return Of The Jedi.

• After landing on Sorgan, Manny and Baby Yoda head for the nearest settlement. For frak's sake Manny, pick up the goddamned kid and carry him. Sure it's cute as all hell to see him waddle along after you, but he's gonna have a heart attack trying to keep up!

• When they reach the settlement, Manny & Baby Yoda wander into a small local pub. As they walk through the crowd, the baby encounters a grumpy Loth-Cat that growls at him. Loth-Cats first appeared in the Star Wars Rebels animated series, where they looked a lot more cartoonish than they do here.

• This week we meet brand new character Cara Dune, an ex-Rebel Shocktrooper. She's the first unmasked female character of note to appear on the series, and she is freakin' awesome! She's a complete badass and I loved her character from the first frame.

Dune's played by Gina Carano, who's a former MMA fighter trained in Muay Thai. She definitely looks like a fighter, and I have no doubt she could kick my ass without even trying.

I think what I liked most about her is she doesn't preach or constantly remind the audience that she's a female. In fact her gender doesn't seem to factor into her character at all. She's a kickass bounty hunter who just happens to be a woman. End of story.

Even better, the producers didn't elevate her by tearing down the male characters around her. At no time is Manny belittled or made to look stupid to contrast her capabilities. The two of them seemed pretty evenly matched, and simply joined forces to battle a threat. And they made a darned good team!

Pay attention, Hollywood! THIS is how you write a strong female character! Make her interesting and formidable, don't have her emasculate her male costars and above all don't make her lecture the audience in her superiority. Show, don't tell!

• Apparently Manny's helmet has an infra-red mode. This is the first time we've seen him use this particular function on the series. Although it's cool and all, I hope we're not gonna get a new piece of Deus ex Machina tech each week. It's gonna be hard to cook up any sense of tension or suspense if he can simply pull out an appropriate hi-tech gadget to get him out of any possible situation.

• As usual, Baby Yoda (or I guess technically The Baby Of Yoda's Species) is the cutest thing on two legs. That said, ever since the series began there's been something about him that's been bugging me. Something I couldn't quite put my finger on...

This week it finally realized the problem— it's his eyes! Baby Yoda has enormous, ridiculously large puppy dog pupils that fill his entire eyeball! You can't see a hint of the sclera (the whites) anywhere. He's like an alien Keane painting!

Compare that to Yoda from The Empire Strikes Back, whose pupils were much more normal looking.

Obviously they made Baby Yoda's eyes so big to up the cuteness factor, but I think they went a bit overboard. OK, a LOT overboard. With those giant eyes he almost looks like a completely different species than the original. Maybe this race's pupils shrink as they age?

• In this week's episode Manny confirms that he wasn't born a Mandalorian, but was a foundling taken in by them. We already knew that based on his flashbacks of course, but this is the first actual onscreen confirmation of it.

• For the first time in the series, we see Manny actually remove his helmet (even though we don't actually see his face). He does so in order to eat.

I've been wondering how he eats ever since the show first stated that Mandalorians never remove their helmets. Does he shove food up his helmet? Does he slurp liquefied food through a straw? How about brushing his teeth? Does he ever wash his face? And what about sleeping? Does he wear it to bed? Does he swap it out for a special sleeping helmet? 

Thankfully we now know how he does all these things, by occasionally taking off his helmet in private.

I still have a few more questions about Mandalorians and their helmets though. Are they allowed to marry? I guess they have to, if they want to preserve their race. Can they remove their helmet in front of their spouse? What about during sex? That'd be kind of awkward, clanging their helmets together.

• When Manny asks the villagers if any of them have ever fired a weapon before, Omera's the only one who raises her hand. In fact she turns out to be quite the markswoman, consistently hitting her targets.

I get the impression she's lived in this tiny farming community her entire life, so I have no idea where she could have learned to shoot as well as she can. Obviously she has some sort of backstory, but we never find out what it is. And unless the series plans on revisiting Sorgan in the future, we never will! 

By the way, Omera's played by actress Julia Jones. She looked really familiar to me, but I couldn't figure out where I'd seen her to save my live. Turns out she played Leah Clearwater (the Native America wife of one of the werewolf guys) in the Twilight films. And yes, I'm embarrassed to admit I know her from that series.

• Cara Dune tells the villagers there's nothing on Sorgan that can harm an AT-ST's legs. What about Manny's disintegrator rifle? It can instantly vaporize people, so why not metal? And if it can't, why not? Does it only work on living flesh?

• "The hour's approaching, just give it your best. You've got to reach your prime.
That's when you need to put yourself to the test, and show us a passage of time,
We're gonna need a montage! Oh, it takes a montage!"

"Show a lot of things happening at once, remind everyone of what's going on.
And with every shot you show a little improvement, o show it all would take to long/
That's called a montage! Oh, we want a montage!"

Yep! It's a training montage! Led by Dune, as she attempts to teach the peaceful farmer how to fight the Raiders with their makeshift weapons.

We've seen this exact same training montage in dozens and dozens of movies over the years. In every one of these scenes, some sort of experienced fighter always trains a group of unprepared villagers to use pitchforks and spears against a large technologically advanced army.

You can find this "Training The Peaceful Villagers" trope in Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven, Battle Beyond The Stars, Three Amigos, High Plains Drifter, Dragonheart, Death Wish 3, Army Of Darkness and more. 

• The Klatooinian Raiders use the stolen krill to brew a glowing blue alcoholic drink called Spotcha. Mm-mmm! Shrimp-flavored booze! Yum!

• Kudos to The Mandalorian for making AT-STs a genuine threat for the first time in Star Wars history. Up to now they've been played for laughs, wobbling around on fallen logs or getting smashed to bits by Ewoks. With its glowing red eyes and superior firepower, the one seen in this episode is downright terrifying.

• At the end of the episode, a bounty hunter follows Baby Yoda to Sorgan with a tracking fob. But how? Did Doctor Pershing implant some kind of chip in him? 

Now that I think about it, how do the fobs detect anyone? What exactly are they tracking? Last week Manny broke the Guild rules by abducting Baby Yoda, and within seconds every bounty hunter's tracking fob began blinking and indicating his location. How'd the signal go out so fast? And how'd they know the alert was for Manny? There's no screen on the fobs, just a blinking red light.

It's almost like they're magic rather than technological.

• At the end of the episode, Omera tries to get Manny to stay on Sorgan. She even goes so far as to gently try and remove his helmet before he stops her.

Good! After finding out that Mandalorians never remove their helmets in public, I hope we never see Manny's face. At this point I honestly think it would ruin the character if we ever did. Far better to keep it covered and preserve the mystery.

These scenes regarding Mandalorian helmets are obviously seeds that are being planted for a reason.  In fact I think I know how the season's likely to end. Manny will find himself in a situation in which he has to remove his helmet— most likely to somehow save Baby Yoda. We'll then get a cliffhanger as he has to decide whether to take it off or not.

I'm terrible at predicting plot twists though, so who knows.

The Orville Season 2, Episode 12: Sanctuary

This week on The Orville, we find out that Moclan females aren't as rare as we thought, along with some parenting issues, some fun Union world building and Dolly Parton (of all people!) thrown into the mix!

I have to admit I audibly groaned when I realized this was yet another Moclan episode. MacFarlane seems absolutely fixated on this race, as this makes the FOURTH Moclan script so far this season! Fortunately Sanctuary turned out to be one of the more compelling episodes of the entire season. It featured a worthwhile message about tolerance and respect, and was well-written and well-told to boot.

We learn a lot more about Moclus this week as well, including the fact that the all-male species may not be as male as we were led to believe.

MarFarlane uses the Moclan situation as an analogue for our real world politics. Moclus treats its females like animals, but the Union ignores their barbaric ways because they need their weaponry. This is an obvious parallel between Saudi Arabia and America. They treat their women like sh*t, but we give 'em a pass because they have something we desperately need—  sweet, sweet oil.

The Moclan/Sanctuary situation is also somewhat reminiscent of China's relationship with Taiwan in our own world.

Pretty serious stuff for a sci-fi show that started out as a parody!

Klyden also continues to be a dick this week, and I think it's only a matter of time before Bortus has enough of his crap and divorces him.

Lastly, a big part of this episode revolves around the music of Dolly Parton, specifically her song 9 to 5. I'm not a fan of her music— I don't hate it, it's just not to my taste— but I fully Dolly Parton is a national treasure. Look up some of the charity work she's involved in, and prepare to be amazed. 

She heads up an organization that sends a free book a month to any child who signs up. If that wasn't enough, a couple years back the Gatlinburg, Tennessee area was ravaged by a devastating wildfire. Dolly gave $10,000 to each area family that lost their home in the area, as well as organizing a telethon to raise money for victims of the blaze.

And if that wasn't enough, she's been married to her husband Carl Thomas Dean for over FIFTY years! That would be an impressive feet for an ordinary citizen, but for a celebrity, it's absolutely amazing!

I can't imagine Dolly's much of a sci-fi fan, but I hope she saw this episode and laughed her ass off!

SPOILERS!

The Plot:
Admiral Halsey informs the crew that in light of the Kaylon situation, all Union ships will be getting weapon upgrades. To that end, he orders them to report to Moclus (groan!) for the enhancements.

Sometime later, we see the Orville docked at a space station above Moclus. Mercer's informed that the upgrade's complete, and weapons power has been increased by 30%. The Orville's then ordered to pick up and transport two Moclan scientists to the Nekkar system. 

The two scientists, Toren and Korick, land in the Shuttle Bay. Talla takes them to their quarters, where they ask to be left alone. Gosh, that's not the least bit suspicious. Once in their quarters, they open a large case they brought. They gaze at something glowing a bright blue inside (maybe it's Marcellus Wallace's soul).

Meanwhile, Bortus' son Topa is in class, where he gets into a fight with a girl student. He says females are weak, and shoves the girl to the floor. The unnamed Teacher (played by Marina Sirtis!) scolds him as she comforts the girl. Later the Teacher meets with Bortus and Klyden, telling them this isn't the first time Topa's had a problem respecting girls. Klyden of course says they should stick the females in a separate class. Bortus says he'll speak to Topa, and assures the Teacher it won't happen again.

In their quarters, Bortus asks Topa why he shoved the girl. He replies it's because females are inferior. When Bortus asks where he heard that, he says from Klyden. Bortus tells Topa to go to his room, and asks Klyden what the hell. Kylden says he's just instilling good ol' fashioned Moclan values into their son. Bortus says they'll have to tell Topa about his corrective surgery some day, and hopes in the future Moclus will be more tolerant. Klyden says if it was up to Bortus' "perverse" attitudes, their son would still be a girl.

The fight's broken up by Mercer, who tells Bortus there's an unauthorized power drain in the Moclan scientists' quarters. He asks Bortus to check it out (because he's Moclan, I guess?). Bortus enters Toren and Korick's quarters and asks about the drain. They claim they boosted the power on their Food Synthesizer. Bortus doesn't believe them and scans their quarters. He determines the power drain's coming from their large case, and demands they open it. They reluctantly do so, and Bortus sees it contains a female Moclan baby in stasis.

Bortus asks what's going on, and the two confess that the girl (named "Mersa," of all things!) is their daughter, and they don't want to subject her to corrective surgery on Moclus. They're seeking asylum on Retepsia, and the Orville's delivering them to a research vessel that'll take them there. They assure him they're up to no foul play, and ask him to keep quiet until the rendezvous. Bortus is reluctant to lie to his captain, but agrees for the sake of the girl. He tells Mercer the Moclans need the power for a "sensitive experiment," and provides them with a portable power source.

Sometime later Bortus visits the school and asks the Teacher how Topa's doing. She says so far so good. He asks if he can take him out of class early for a "family matter." Bortus takes Topa to Toren and Korick's quarters and shows him the baby girl in stasis. Topa's confused, saying there's no such thing as a female Moclan. Bortus says only a few are born, and they're feared by the public. He tells Topa there's nothing to be afraid of, as females are no different from males (well...). He swears Topa to secrecy, and his son assures him he won't tell anyone.

The Orville rendezvous with the Moclan science ship. Toren and Korick thank Bortus for his discretion, and transfer over to the other ship. Shortly afterward Bortus is called to Mercer's office. There he sees Mercer, Kelly, Dr. Finn and Talla all giving him the stinkeye. Klyden and Topa are there as well. Apparently Topa blabbed about the baby girl, and Klyden immediately ran to Mercer's office and tattled.

Mercer asks Bortus why he lied about the "stowaway." He says he's sorry for the deception, but didn't know how they'd react, and didn't want to see the child or its parents harmed. The staff is suspicious of Toren and Korick's story, and wonders if they're hiding something or even transporting something dangerous. Mercer orders the crew to track down the Moclan science ship to find out exactly what's going on.

Isaac's able to figure out a brainy Kaylon way to detect the Moclan ship's ion trail, and tracks it to a dense, colorful nebula. The Orville enters the cloud and finds a star system inside it, complete with three planets in ridiculously close orbits. Talla scans the largest planet and picks up thousands of Moclan life signs.

Mercer, Kelly, Bortus and Talla fly a shuttle down to the planet. They're immediately surrounded by a squad of Moclan guards— FEMALE Moclan guards. They're taken to a small village that's inhabited by Moclan women and children. Korick and Toren are there as well with their baby girl. The Orville crew's taken to a small hut. Inside, Mercer's surprised to see Heveena, the Moclan woman he met back in About A Girl.

Mercer asks Heveena what's up with the colony, and she says there're far more Moclan females born every year than the government admits. Rather than have them forcibly undergo corrective surgery or imprisonment, she's set up a secret sanctuary for them inside the nebula, complete with an "underground railroad" to smuggle them in. She says there are over 6000 Moclan females in the Sanctuary. Heveena says now that they've been discovered, they'll have to evacuate.

Mercer suggests another alternative— petitioning the Planetary Union to be recognized as a sovereign state. Mercer contacts Admiral Halsey, who approves a hearing. He says the Moclans are up in arms over the thought of a planet full of females, and are demanding to know its location. He orders Kelly to stay with the Orville to protect the colony, while Mercer and Heveena go to Union Central on Earth.

During the shuttle trip, Heveena asks Mercer what Earth is like, and asks if the women there are free to create. He shows her the shuttle's database, which contains info on Earth culture. She listens to 9 to 5 by Dolly Parton, claiming it's a powerful anthem to womanly independence and freedom, and will be the symbol of her revolution.

At Union Central, Heveena appears before the members of the Council. The Moclan Ambassador objects to having to listen to a freakish female, but Admiral Halsey tells him the Council's agreed to hear her out. Heveena gives an impassioned speech, saying her people chose exile to avoid persecution and mutilation. She says she hopes the Council will recognize her people, so they can become part of the grand diversity on display in the Union. She then closes by quoting lyrics from 9 to 5.

The Ambassador gets his turn, and says if the female colony's recognized, then Moclus will renounce its Union membership. He reminds the Union that Moclus is their key provider of weapons, which they can't afford to lose with the looming Kaylon threat. The Council murmurs uneasily.

Back in the nebula, a Moclan ship approaches the planet. Kelly asks what they're doing, and the Captain says they're there to monitor the colony. Kelly tells Bortus to take the Orville to yellow alert.

Meanwhile, the Union admirals meet to discuss the situation. Admiral Halsey clarifies the situation, saying if they refuse the colony's request, the females will all be subjected to corrective surgery. If they do recognize them though, they'll lose their main weapons supplier. Mercer says it's always been a bad idea to rely on only one planet for arms. The argument continues, until Mercer says if the Union's willing to abandon its principles when it's not convenient, then why does it even exist?

Kelly and Bortus discuss the situation on the Orville. Klyden appears and demands Bortus come home. Bortus finally calls out Klyden on his crap, saying it's obvious he's repulsed by women, as he rarely leaves their quarters or socializes with the rest of the crew. He accuses Klyden of clinging to old, outmoded ways.

Just then four Moclan shuttles head toward the planet. Kelly contacts the Moclan Captain, who says his orders are to round up the colonists for extradition. He warns the Orville not to interfere. Kelly tells Talla to get Mercer on the horn now.

At the Union Council, Halsey is informed of what the Moclans are doing and warns them to stand down. The Moclan Ambassador says they're rounding up fugitives involved with child trafficking, which is their legal right. Halsey tells Mercer that the Union's official orders are not to interfere, but notes that "communication inside a nebula can be spotty." Mercer takes the hint and contacts Kelly, telling her to stop the Moclans.

Kelly and Bortus launch a shuttle to the planet. Unfortunately it's caught in a tractor beam by the Moclans. Talla, who's now in charge of the Orville, orders Gordon to target the ship's tractor emitters. He reminds her that's an act of war, but she insists he follow her order. Gordon fires on the ship, knocking out the beam and freeing the shuttle. The Moclan ship then begins firing on the Orville.

Down on the planet, Moclan soldiers are rounding up the females. Suddenly Kelly and Bortus appear, ordering them to stop. The soldiers ignore her (cause she's a dumb old girl), so Kelly and Bortus begin firing on them. An intense laser battle ensues. Above the planet, Gordon does his best to outmaneuver the larger Moclan ship. He temporarily leaves the nebula to confuse the other ship's sensors.

Back at the Union Council, the Moclan Ambassador once again threatens to secede. Halsey says that'll open the door for the Kaylons to attack them all. The Ambassador says if that happens, then Moclus will just ally themselves with the Krill. Mercer gets an idea, and says even the Moclans and the Krill combined won't be able to stop the Kaylons. But the hidden colony might just escape detection, so the Moclans would still be a single sex species— but female instead of male. That shuts up the Ambassador.

Admiral Halsey suggests a compromise— the Union won't recognize the colony, which will shut down its trafficking network. In exchange, the Moclan government will leave the colony in peace. On the planet, the battle continues. Suddenly the Moclan soldiers retreat, saying an agreement's been reached.

Cut to sometime later on the colony planet. Mercer tells Heveena he's sorry they didn't win. She says they might not have won, but they didn't lose either, as the colonists are now free to live their lives without fear of discovery. She says the revolution has begun, and in time they'll succeed. She asks Mercer if he thinks Dolly Parton would be proud of them. He says yes.

Back on the Orville, Bortus pays a visit to the classroom. Inside he sees Topa getting along with a human girl. Bortus uncharacteristically smiles.

Thoughts:

• There's a lot going on in this episode's forty six minutes. In fact, the Orville crew doesn't even discover the Moclan Sanctuary until around the nineteen minute mark— nearly halfway through the episode!

• Sanctuary was written by The Orville's co-executive producer Joe Menosky, his first for the series. Menosky's a prominent Star Trek alum, as he was a producer on TNG, Star Trek: Voyager and even Star Trek: Discovery (shudder). 

He wrote quite a few episodes of modern Trek as well, penning scripts for TNG, Voyager, Deep Space Nine and Voyager. Among his TNG scripts was Darmok, one of my all-time favorites of the series.

Menosky's also responsible for starting up the whole "47" phenomenon in modern Trek (look it up).

• As near as I can tell this is the first episode not to feature J Lee, aka John Lamarr.

• This episode was definitely a Trek class reunion! Here's all the alumni I spotted:

William Frakes: Directed this week's episode. Starred as Commander Riker on TNG.

Marina Sirtis: Played an unnamed Teacher this week. Starred as Counselor Troi on TNG.

F. Murray Abraham: Played the Union Chairman. Appeared as Ru'afo in Star Trek: Insurrection.

Ron Canada: Played Admiral Tucker. Guest starred as Martin Benbeck on TNG, Ch'Pok on DS9 and Fesek on Voyager. 

Tony Todd: Played the Moclan Ambassador. He appeared as Kurn on TNG and DS9, Old Jake Sisko on DS9 and an Alpha-Hirogen on Voyager. Whew!

• Um... guys? Was there really no other place to put the rating snipe in this scene? Any second I expected Mercer to reach up and peel that thing off his face. Looks like Mercer's officially the Jerry Gergich of The Orville!

• At one point in the episode, Mercer and the senior staff tear Bortus a new butthole for not telling them that Toren and Korick smuggled a baby girl aboard the ship in a stasis box. Talla seems particularly incensed at Bortus, saying, "They boarded a Union ship under false pretenses. For all we know, they kidnapped that baby!"

Woah there, Talla! Back up a bit. She's the goddamned Chief Of Security of the Orville. It's her job to inspect (or at least scan) every bit of cargo that comes aboard. Instead she escorts Toren and Korrick as they sashay through the ship with the stasis case, never once asking them what's inside.

In my opinion Talla should have been in just as much trouble as Bortus!

• Take a look at that keypad on the wall as Talla punches in the entry code. Notice how each button momentarily glows when pressed? For two seasons now I've been trying to figure out if those buttons are a practical effect, or if the glows are a CGI enhancement. 

If they're real, that'd require quite a sophisticated touch screen system and expensive customized software. If they're CGI, that'd be a LOT of manpower to enhance them in each episode.

In order to settle the button question once and for all, I reached out to actor Shawn Andrew, who played Toren in this episode. I asked him if he had a chance to explore the sets between scenes, and if he could tell me if the buttons actually glow when touched. According to Andrew, they do! They really are a practical effect. He said the producers "spared no expense" when building the elaborate sets.

So there you go. Glad to finally get an answer to this burning question!

• I was getting definite Pulp Fiction vibes anytime a Moclan looked inside that glowing blue travel case!

• As mentioned above, Marina Sirtis has a cameo this week as the Orville's unnamed teacher. I thought maybe she was Cassius' replacement, but the kids in her class are all a lot younger than the ones he was teaching. Apparently there must be multiple classrooms on the ship.

Maybe if Sirtis returns next season her character will finally get a name!

• The Teacher meets with Bortus and Klyden about Topa's classroom behavior. Based on the screen behind her, it looks like today's lesson was all about color theory!

If you zoom in, you can see the center screen is demonstrating the difference between additive vs. subtractive color mixing. As a graphic designer, that's a topic on which I'm all too familiar! The diagram on the left shows that if you combine every hue of colored light, you end up with white. The right side demonstrates that mixing every color of ink or paint, you get black.

• Seems odd to me that Topa calls both his dads "Papa." How do they know which one he's talking to? "Papa? No, not you, I meant Papa!" Wouldn't it make more sense to call one "Father?" Or "Papa Bortus" and "Papa Klyden?"

• Man, that Moclan baby had an unfortunate name: "Mersa!" I assume she has a brother named "C.Diff?"

• Bortus brings Topa to Toren and Korick's quarters to show him that Moclans are sometimes born female. OK, I get that Bortus was trying to instill some empathy into Topa by showing him the girl, but it was still a stupid thing to do. It was pretty much a given that Topa would squeal about what he saw.

• Klyden really doubles down on the assholelery this week, which easily makes him the most despicable and unlikable character on the show. Despite the fact that he's a colossal dick, I actually feel kind of bad for Klyden.

Think about it— his whole life he's been taught to believe a certain way, and he joyfully upholds the values of his world. Now he's suddenly confronted with an entirely new system of belief, which completely contradicts everything he's ever known.

Even worse, not only does he realize his world-view is suspect, but his mate is now beginning to go along with these "perverted" new values. Bortus is changing without him, which must be terrifying for Klyden.

Klyden's now trapped by his own beliefs. He can't admit this to himself though, as that'd be acknowledging his entire life has been a lie. He's a dinosaur trying to figure out his place in a brave new world that scares him. In a way I kind of feel sorry for him.

• Not a sight you want to see when you're called into the Captain's office...

• The Orville tracks the research ship to a "Class-Six Absorption Nebula," which contains three planets orbiting a K-type star.

Wow! Those planets are reeeeeeeeally close together! So close they're almost touching! I don't think that's scientifically possible, but let's just move on. 

As implausible as the planetary system is, I loved all the spectacular shots from within the nebula. I wish more sci-fi shows would give us colorful views of space like this. Endless black star fields might be scientifically accurate, but they're boring!

• As the ship approaches the innermost planet, we see it appears to have a purplish atmosphere and a spectacular view of the surrounding nebula.

And then the shuttle lands on the planet and the sky's a plain old blue, just like here on Earth. Even more puzzling, the sky's completely blank! No view of the nebula anywhere.

OK, so maybe it would be scientifically accurate for the atmosphere to filter out or block the nebula from view. But they just showed us three planets almost touching one another— obviously science isn't much of a concern. Give us a purple sky filled with nebula clouds already!

I'm assuming there probably wasn't enough money left in the budget for such shot?

• There's a definite makeup malfunction going on when the female Moclan guards first appear. If you zoom in, you can see a distinct seam under this Moclan's left eye. It looks for all the world like her prosthetic's not glued down properly. It's obviously not supposed to look like that, because the seam's not present on her other eye.

• As Mercer and the others walk through the female Moclan Sanctuary, we see Toren and Korick there as well, holding their baby girl. So were they just dropping her off in the colony, or are they going to stay there and raise her? Are men allowed in the Sanctuary?

• Heveena agrees to go with Mercer to speak before the Union Council. She then says the following:

Heveena: "Every revolution begins with a single act of defiance."

Kelly: "One of yours?"
Heveena: "Actually, I don't know who said it."

Was that supposed to be a Star Trek reference? In the TOS episode Mirror, Mirror, Kirk tells the evil, goateed Spock, "In every revolution, there is one man with a vision!"

Not an exact match, but pretty darned close!

• Up until now, I thought I had a pretty good understanding of Moclan physiology and reproduction. Although the Moclans claim they're an all-male species, technically they'd be more accurately described as hermaphrodites, as they're able to both lay and fertilize eggs. When they share "The Sexual Event," I figured whichever one is... um.. on the bottom is the one who's impregnated and lays the egg.

I assumed that most Moclans tend to exhibit male behavior, but occasionally one's born that displays more female characteristics. When that happens, they surgically alter them to be more male— as was the case with Klyden and Topa.

This episode flushes all that speculation right down the crapper. According to Heveena, Moclan society has a dirty little secret— far more females are born every year than the government admits.

This implies that the Moclans may have been a dual sex species at one point in the past. Then for some reason the guys decided they didn't need the gals, so they eliminated them and altered themselves into hermaphrodites.

This didn't prevent females from being born though, so the government has to stamp them out whenever they crop up, to maintain the "single sex" lie.

I have a feeling this isn't the last we've heard of this, and it's going to play a huge role in the show next season!

• On the way to Earth, Heveena searches the Union database and punches up a Dolly Parton song, which she decrees will become the anthem of her revolution.

Lucky for Heveena she called up Dolly on her first try. She could just have easily have accessed something like Eminem's So Much Better!

By the way, there was a subtle moment during this scene that I really liked. When Heveena was listening to 9 to 5, she asked who it was. Mercer leaned over, looked at the screen and announced it was Dolly Parton. It was a nice little touch, and proved that the Orville crew doesn't know EVERYTHING about 20th Century pop culture!

• Welp, now we know why the last two episodes have been bottle shows. They were saving up their dough for this one! The makeup budget alone for this episode must have been massive, as the Union Council featured dozens of elaborate alien prosthetics and costumes.

Here's a look at the various alien delegates present at the Council meeting:

First up is F. Murray Abraham as the Council Chairman. He's obviously a Xelayan, just like Alara and Talla.

There're also two Retepsians present. We've seen their kind on the show before too. In fact Kelly cheated on Mercer with a Retepsian named Darulio in the very first episode, Old Wounds. Darulio also appeared in Cupid's Dagger. 

Let's hope these two have their pheromones in check, as they can have a disastrous effect on other species!

Two unidentified froggy-looking ambassadors.

Are these two members of Dann's race? Their heads are the right shape, but their skin looks a bit darker than his. Plus they don't have spots on their bulbous noggins like Dann does. I guess his people could have various skin tones like humans do.

Another unidentified species, although we've seen their race before. One was on display in the Cavalon Zoo back in Command Performance.

Speaking of Cavalons, these two look a little like that race, but their skin's nowhere near red enough. Plus the Cavalons aren't members of the Union, as they view everyone outside their world as nothing more than animals. Chalk these two up as another identified species.

Sitting behind the Not-Cavalons are two members of an unidentified squid-headed race. We've seen one of their brethren onboard the Orville, hosting Karaoke in the Mess Hall in Cupid's Dagger and Ja'loja.

If you zoom in, you can see a series of thin eye slits above the noses of the two squid heads. In previous appearances, it looks like the CGI artists erased the slits, for a more natural appearance. They either forgot to delete 'em here, or ran out of money. Whoops!

A bloated species I don't think we've seen before.

Representatives from the Planet Of The Outrageous Bouffants.

Here's a couple of Jasons, from the planet Alexanderia. I kid, I kid! Actually, they're the same race as Olix, the Orville's resident bartender (who's played by Jason Alexander). He first appeared in Ja'loja, and was also in Home, All The World Is Birthday Cake and Identity, Part 1.

A couple of turtle-like reps, again with amazing hair.

And behind them are two humanoids with absolutely fabulous hoods.

Two representatives from the Granny Planet!

And hey, look! There's two Yaphit's (Gelatins?) in the gallery!

• Actor Tony Todd (Candyman, the Final Destination movies and various episodes of modern Trek) plays the Moclan Ambassador. I didn't recognize his face under all those prosthetics, but there was no mistaking that voice!

• This episode's also Old Home Week for Union admirals! All four of the admirals who've made cameos during the first two seasons return for this episode.

From the left there's Admiral Tucker, played by Ron Canada (sorry, no relation!). Tucker previously appeared in Command Performance and Majority Rule. 

Next up is Admiral Halsey, as played by Victor Garber. He's made the most appearances, showing up in Old Wounds, Cupid's Dagger, New Dimensions and Identity, Part 1 and Identity, Part 2.

Then there's Admiral Ozawa, played by Kelly Hu. She was in Krill, Mad Idolatry and Primal Urges.

Last is Admiral Perry, played by Ted Danson. He previously appeared in All The World Is Birthday Cake and Blood Of Patriots.

It was fun to see all the admirals together in a room at the same time. Believe it or not though, there are actually people online angrily complaining about the lack of diversity among Union admirals, as they're all human! Apparently the fact that one's a black man and another's an Asian woman doesn't count for anything. Jesus wept.

How about this? Maybe these admirals are all human because this part of the story takes place on Earth? So they're stationed on their homeworld? I would imagine there are probably Moclan Admirals over on Moclus, and Xelayan ones on their planet.

• Admiral Halsey tries to subtly give Mercer permission to save the colonists, without "officially" sanctioning the action. I love Victor Garber's little patronizing look when Mercer finally figures out what he's attempting to tell him.

• Kelly and Bortus fly down to the Sanctuary to protect the colonists from the Moclans. There's a LOT to unpack in this scene.

First of all, wouldn't it have made way more sense for Kelly to have sent Talla down to the Sanctuary? She could have used her superstrength to mop the floor with the Moclan soldiers. I feel like she'd have been much more effective in battle than a willowy human like Kelly. What? It's true!

I'm betting the only reason Kelly's there is because the writers realized she hasn't gotten much screen time lately.

So what happened to all the female Moclan warrioresses? When Mercer & Co. first landed on the planet, the gals surrounded them almost instantly. Now four squads of Moclan soldiers storm into their village, and the women guards are nowhere to be seen. 

They do finally show up, but only after a good two to three minutes into the fight. Maybe the Moclan males caught the girls napping?

Lastly, Heveena told us there were 6,000 females in the Sanctuary. Were the Moclans planning on stuffing them all into four measly little shuttles? Or where they gonna make several hundred trips?

• The Orville fires on the Moclan ship's tractor beam emitters to free Kelly and Bortus. The Moclan ship then begins pummeling the Orville with volley after volley of blaster fire. The Orville tries its best, but can't get away from the larger ship.

I was gonna ask why Gordon didn't just "hug the donkey" again, like he did to avoid an attack by a massive Krill Destroyer in Old Wounds. When I watched the scene a second time though, I realized that the Moclan ship was bigger than the Orville, but it wasn't THAT much bigger. There really wasn't enough space to hide under it.

• I was glad to see Topa sharing and getting along with a girl at the end, but... when the hell did this change in attitude happen? And how?

Yes, we saw Bortus bring Topa to see the baby girl in the stasis box, and explain to him that females aren't something to be feared and reviled. But then five minutes later Topa runs to Klyden and squeals about what he saw. That doesn't exactly scream "changed world-view."

Topa's transformation comes totally out of nowhere, and as such feels completely unearned. We needed a scene in which he has an encounter with a girl that changes his feelings about them. In fact it almost feels like a scene's missing here.

• I think this is the most we've ever seen Bortus smile!

• This Week's Incongruous 21st Century (And Earlier!) References:

At the beginning of the episode, Mercer says that with all the ferrying of various dignitaries,  the Orville's starting to feel like a taxi. Kelly makes a remark about "starting the meter." I guess it's not impossible that they'd still have taxis in the 25th Century, but they definitely wouldn't have meters, since people no longer use money.

Of course much of the episode is built around Dolly Parton and her music.

• This Week's Star Trek Swipes:
In the TNG episode New Ground, Lt. Worf's son Alexander comes aboard the Enterprise-D to live with him. After being enrolled in school, Alexander begins acting up in class. Alexander's teacher, Miss Kyle, meets with Worf and tells him his kid's being a dick.

The same thing happens here in Sanctuary— practically shot for shot! Granted, there's probably a limited number of ways to film a kid acting up in school and a teacher meeting with parents, but it's amazingly close.

There were several "Colonies In Peril" episodes on TNG , including The Ensigns Of Command, The Masterpiece Society, Birthright, Part II and Journey's End. They were all vaguely similar, in that they featured colony worlds suddenly faced with destruction. None were exactly like this episode though, so I'm chalking it up to coincidence.

In the DS9 episode Equilibrium, Jadzia Dax, a member of a joined species called the Trill, discovers her homeworld is lying about how many citizens are able to be paired with a symbiote. This is mildly reminiscent of this episode, in which Heveena says way more females are born on Moclus than the government admits.

• This Week's Best Lines:
Bortus: "You do not make things easy."
Klyden: "I am simply teaching our son the traditional values on which we ourselves were raised."
Bortus: "Klyden, has your time on this ship not changed your perspective in any way?"
Klyden: "It has obviously changed yours."
Bortus: "What harm can come from allowing him to discover his own path?"
Klyden: "Topa may decide he wants to live on Moclus one day."
Bortus: "In that event, we must tell him the truth of his origins. What happened to you must..."
Klyden: "What happened to me did not shatter my faith in our ways."
Bortus: "Perhaps when Topa is grown, Moclus will not be so intolerant."
Klyden: "Who are you to question our core beliefs? You are only one Moclan. What makes the rest of our society wrong and your perverse vision right? If it were up to you, our son would still be female!"

(The Orville crew searches for the Moclan's ship.)
Kelly: "How can there be no trace?"
Gordon: "Isaac, do you have any way to scan for masked ion signatures?"
Isaac: "I believe so."
Gordon: "Okay, this one time at Union Point, my roommate and I took a shuttle out, and we turned it into, like, a party bus, and we used a tractor beam to neutralize our ion trail."
Mercer: "They didn't catch you?"
Gordon: "Well, we plowed into a tree when we landed, and that's when they caught us, but before that, we were completely invisible."

(Heveena discovers the music of Dolly Parton in the Orville shuttle's database.)
Heveena: "She speaks with the might of a hundred soldiers!"
Mercer: "Yeah. Yeah, I guess she does."
Heveena: "THIS is the voice of our revolution!"
Mercer: "Well, you know, there's actually a whole bunch of stuff..."
Heveena: "NO! It is she!"
Mercer: "Okay, then. Go, Dolly."

Heveena: "Thank you, Chairman. And thank you to the esteemed members of this council. It is with hope and pride that I stand here today as a voice for those who have been voiceless for so long. It is true that we have been living in exile, outside of the laws of our native planet, but to do otherwise would invite persecution, mutilation and even extinction. If our plea to be recognized as an independent state fails, I fear that our voices will be silenced forever. As I look upon all of the exquisite diversity in this great hall, I am reminded that most of us share something in common. Over the course of history, there have been people on nearly every planet who were, at one time or another, oppressed by those who were stronger or greater in numbers for reasons that now seem insignificant to us. The history of moral progress can be measured by the expansion of fundamental rights to those who have been denied them. We ask only to be included in that expanding circle of justice. There is a visionary Earth poet who I have recently come to cherish."
Mercer: "Oh, boy."
Admiral Halsey: "What?"
Heveena: "With power and dignity, she boldly cried out so that all the cosmos would know of her suffering. 'Working 9 to 5. For service and devotion, you would think that I would deserve a fat promotion. Want to move ahead, but the boss won't seem to let me. I swear sometimes that man is out to get me.' In the spirit of her courage, please hear our voices.
Thank you."

Mercer: "Look, why don't we just call this like it is. The Union turns a blind eye to Moclan custom because we need their weapons."
Admiral Perry: "You're out of line, Captain! And you're oversimplifying a very complicated situation."
Admiral Tucker: "We can't afford to alienate the Moclans right now.
Without their weapons supply, how soon do you think the Kaylon would wipe us all out?"
Mercer: "Look, I've been telling the council for years that it's crazy to rely so heavily on one planet for weapons manufacture."
Admiral Ozawa: "Don't politicize this, Captain."
(Um... it's a little too late for that, Admiral!)

Mercer: (to the admirals) "Look, I understand what's at stake. I'm just saying that if we are not willing to stand up for the values that this Union was founded on what exactly are we defending?"

Kelly: "What will you do if Moclus leaves the Union?"
Bortus: "I do not know."
Klyden: "Bortus. I have been looking for you. Come home. It is late."
Bortus: "I will be home soon."
Klyden: "We have much to discuss."
Bortus: "There is nothing more to say until the council reaches its decision."
Klyden: "We cannot ignore the possibility that we will be going back to Moclus."
Bortus: "I imagine that would please you."
Klyden: "What do you mean?"
Bortus: "You have never been comfortable aboard this ship. There are females here, and it sickens you."
Klyden: "It does not."
Bortus: "You did not bother to greet Commander Grayson. And you have not acknowledged her presence since you have been standing here."
Klyden: "Listen, guys, I'd rather not get in the middle of..."
Bortus: "No. Please, stay. (to Klyden) You rarely leave our quarters or socialize with the crew. You cling to traditions that serve no useful purpose. Your mind remains closed, and you wish to raise our child to embrace this ignorance."

Kelly: "I'll give you one warning. Lower your weapons and walk away from those people. Do it now."
Moclan Soldier: "Do not interfere, human. This does not concern you."
Kelly: "Typical guy. Never listens."

Mercer: "Admiral, if I may. Ambassador, the Moclans and the Krill can't stop the Kaylon alone, and you know it. Moclus would be destroyed. But that little planet inside the nebula might just be insignificant enough to fly under the radar, and if that happens, the only Moclans left in the galaxy would be female. But, hey, you'd still be a single-sex species."

Heveena: "The women of this colony could be back on Moclus, undergoing forced corrective surgery, and very likely spending the rest of their lives in prison. But they are here, safe in the knowledge that their lives, their identities and their destinies are their own."
Bortus: "What of your underground?"
Heveena: "It is gone, that is so. But just as we took that bold first step, in time, others like us will take a second one. The revolution has begun. We will rise, one small victory at a time."
Kelly: "I believe you will."
Heveena: "Captain. Do you suppose Dolly Parton would be proud of us?"
Mercer: "Oh, yeah."