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Deadly Robots: The Orville’s Kaylons
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Photo copyright Fox
Robots are ten a penny in sci-fi but in Seth Mcfarlane’s The Orville, we get one with a twist in the shape of the Kaylons.
The Orville is a virtual Star Trek show without the transporter. Isaac fills the role of Data. He is the observer of humanity but unlike Data is not wanting to be human. He seeks merely to understand humanity and its ways but as we discover the truth is far more terrifying.
A totally robotic race, the Kaylon have responded to the Union’s invitation to join them by assigning one of their own, Isaac, to be part of the Orville crew. His job is to work alongside the various alien species and determine if the Kaylons should become part of the Union. He has no emotions and says things as they are. He is not compromised by emotions and is a diligent crew member whose abilities can often save the day. He and pilot Gordon Malloy (Scott Grimes) engage in a practical joke where Isaac amputates his leg, not really catching the concept of jokes. In another they discuss getting a cat for the bridge as stroking furry animals is good for you. Gordon suddenly finds Isaac stroking his arm hoping to emulate the sensation. Isaac’s robotic nature comes in handy when the crew discover a planet whose orbit means centuries pass in it’s orbit while little time passes for us. Isaac is able to live and observe the species evolve across history first hand bringing invaluable data to be studied.
Isaac begins a relationship with Doctor Finn (Deep Space 9’s Penny Johnson Jerald), falling in love and becoming father figure to her two sons, Marcus and Ty. In their holodeck, Isaac assumes a human form for their dates and to be honest I don’t even want to think of the sexual side of their relationship. Isaac would again use a hologram shield to look human in season three when the Orville travels to the 21st century in search of a lost crew mate and minerals they need to get back home.
But sadly the truth about Isaac and the Kaylons proves much more terrifying than anyone thought. In the episode Identity, the Kaylon would go from wanna be Datas to Borg.
In the two parter Identity, Isaac suddenly shuts down and collapses. To save him the Orville must travel to Kaylon 1 and meet his people face to face. What initially seems a cordial welcome, Isaac is repaired and decides to stay behind much to the disappointment of Finn and her boys. In the meantime, the ship’s sensors discover a massive build up of circular ships being constructed on the planet surface. Young Ty sneaks off to the planet’s underground caverns and when Bortus and Alara go after them, they discover the horrifying truth behind the Kaylons. The cavern is filled with thousands of skeletons. Kaylon Primary tells them that they wiped out their makers and Isaac was never simply an observer. His mission was to assess if the ‘biologicals’ are worthy to be allowed to live or not. They have decided they must all be killed starting with the Earth. In a stunning cliffhanger the Kaylon take over the Orville and lead it’s fleet to Earth. The Kaylon weaponry is inbuilt. Their heads split open and blasters flank either side of their heads. Their heads are also detachable if need be to become flying armed drones.
However during the battle when Primary threatens to kill Ty, Isaac saves the boy and turns on his own people to save the crew and Earth. Thousands are dead and this echoes into season three.
Isaac is a pariah both from his people and the Orville crew. He is a traitor to both of them and lives in the lab. New navigational officer, ensign Charly Burle detests him as the woman she loved was killed by them in the battle. She tells him straight what she thinks and refuses to work with him. His relationship with Doctor Finn and Marcus is broken but Ty still loves him. Marcus writes ‘murderer’ on the lab wall and he lets all his feelings out about the battle and Isaac’s part in it.
Isaac’s logical mind perceives that as the crew would be better off without him and with no way to return home, he commits suicide. This is the first inkling that a Kaylon can evolve and experience real emotion. John LaMarr finds a way to restore Isaac who is surprised to be alive and returns to his lab. Marcus still can’t bring himself to speak to him.
In the episode Far From Graves Captain Ed Mercer, Isaac and a team travel to Situal 4. There they meet a scientist and a very obliging Kaylon by the name of Timmis who can also experience emotion. He forms a bond with Isaac who has the emotion enhancement done to him. However it fails to take as he is an older model of Kaylon but experiences emotion for the first time. For the first time he is able to tell Doctor Finn how he feels and relishes how love makes him feel.
Timmis (Christopher Larkin) had been badly damaged during the Battle of Earth and could not harm the scientists. They studied and modified the injured Kaylon, although Doctor Uhabbus later died. Eventually, scientist Villka managed to uncover pathways that the Kaylon had to be able to allow Timmis to experience emotion and named him Timmis after her father. He is a kind and sensitive Kaylon who sees biologicals through very different eyes that his kin. There does not seem to be any female Kaylons as they are all identical with either red or blue eyes like Isaac.
In the same episode we get to see the creation of the Kylons in flashback. They were were constructed by a biological species native to Kaylon 1 that they referred to as the ;Builders’. They were initially conceived by the Builder Yan who mass-produced them at his company Vandicon. They were to serve as a slave race subservient to every order the Builders gave. A Kaylon asks if he can go to school with the children of the family he is servant to. Vandicon installed pain receptors in all Kaylons so as to prevent them from getting above their station. It is alarming to see children inflict pain on their Kaylon so when the Kaylon rise up and murder everyone for abusing them, we see where the caverns full of skeletons came from in Identity.
The Kaylon mindset is formed by this so their distrust of biologicals is well founded and understandable. They see them as potential threats and even Isaac’s data on the Orville crew is not rationally studied by neutral eyes but through the eyes of the abused.
In the end of second season finale The Road Not Taken, Kelly accidentally changes history. By not going on a second date with Ed the future changes. They never got married or ended up on the Orville therefore the Kaylon invasion succeeded. Their massive orb ships are everywhere hunting down the resistance. Luckily Kelly and Doctor Finn prevent this future from happening.
Add to this the Krill threat and the Moclans having left the Union (when they are exposed as duplicitous and guilty of kidnapping and almost murdering Bortus’ daughter Topa), Isaac and Charly create a super weapon capable of destroying Kaylon ships on a massive scale. When the Orville goes to Kaylon 1 to use it as a deterrent and potentially forge a peace treaty, they are attacked and forced to fire the weapon. They agreed to a cease fire but Admiral Thomas Perry (Ted Danson) steals the weapon and gives it to the new Krill and Moclan alliance. They are going to amplify the effects so all Kaylon are irradiated ending their threat forever. Kaylon primary and a few others agree to work with the Orville crew to prevent disaster.
The Orville crew with its Kaylon contingent charge to stop them but the Moclans have already charged the weapon. Charly as established hates the Kaylon. She cannot stop the firing mechanism so has to overload the machine to prevent it from firing. The only problem is she has to there to do it. She succeeds leaving an emotional crew devastated at her loss.
Keely tells Primary that Charly hated them but still gave her life to save the entire species. This act sees the Kaylon join a provisional peace treaty and membership with the Union. Their information on biologicals is seemingly flawed and are indeed worthy of saving. When Isaac marries Doctor Finn in the season three finale, every Kaylon turns up to the wedding taking their fellow’s invitation literally.
Thee Kaylons are a great race to explore. They are both childlike and lethal at the same time. Their weaponry heads opening like something from John Carpenter’s The Thing is unnerving. Along with their eyes turning red, they are a force to be reckoned with yet sympathised with due to their time as slaves. They didn’t start the fire but it was their fear of biologicals that kept them isolated from the rest of the galaxy. There was never any chance they could see that not all biologicals were like the Builders unless they reached out. And even then their past tinted their perceptions. They saw humour and joking as attacks on Isaac which, unless you understand humour, is quite a justified view to take.
I’m sure poor actor Mark Jackson was roasted in that all encompassing suit he had to wear but he did a great job in taking what he had and forging a robot unique to the genre. Here’s hoping we haven’t seen the end of the Orville and its robotic hero.
TW Watches The Orville: New Horizons: Twice In A Lifetime
By Owen Quinn author
I love a time travel story. You might have noticed from all The Time Warriors books I’ve written, so sci-fi is the greatest backdrop upon to paint such tales.
In the third season of The Orville: New Horizons, we get a time travel episode that truly looks at the reality of it and how it can impact, not the galaxy but one person’s life. In season two an old cellphone was discovered. Accessing it, helmsman Gordon Malone (Scott Grimes) was able to interact with the videos within and fall in love with a musician Laura.
In season three the crew are testing the Aronov device, a literal time machine. When the robotic Kaylon sneak attack to take thee device for themselves, Gordon Malloy races to destroy it before they can take it. But he is hit by a beam of energy and believed to be dead. But they receive a message from three hundred years in the past from Gordon asking to be rescued.
Checking they find he became a civil engineer and pilot before dying in 2068. Union law states that if any officer finds themselves trapped in the past they must isolate themselves and leave no footprint in time which could affect the timeline. To do otherwise will incur serious punishment. As Bortus points out, since Malloy lived and died, they obviously did not rescue him. Since history is intact then their mission is already accomplished.
Isaac points out that events are still in flux given they have not made their decision yet as to go after him or not. Now this doesn’t make sense to me but then it is time travel so when does it ever. History is intact, Malloy had a full life with no consequences and this did not implode the space time continuum so it should be all good.
But Mercer’s logic is that his friend called out for help and cannot be left in the past alone. They must go after him. But when they go back, they damage the Aronov device and worse still, have arrived ten years after Malloy. They find him at the commercial airport in the full flow of his life.
While Charley and a disguised Isaac go searching for the mineral they need to fix the device to get them home again, Kelly and Ed start acting, to be frank, like idiots. And this is what I mean when I talk about the flippancy or careless attitude of the Orville crew, especially the Captain and first officer. They attack Malloy for creating a life for himself; warning he will face serious charges when he gets home. Ed berates him saying that he had no right to build a life for himself. Kelly comments on how he has acclimatised to life in the twenty first century. He tells them about deodorant and personalised car plates and says he has no intention off returning to their time. And they soon learn why. Malloy is married to Laura and they have a son, Edward and another on the way.
Malloy has broken the law and in Mercer and Kelly’s collective eyes in the most terrible of ways. He is a criminal who needs to be brought to justice. Given their past, are the recent glories between thwarting the Kaylon invasion and Krill alliance gone to their heads? Since when were they so duty bound that they take such a narrow and insular view? Especially when he is Mercer’s best friend.
Malloy warns them to go and not come back but they are determined to take him back. He agrees but only if his family come too. Mercer refuses seeing them as anomalies that should never have been. It is true that Malloy used his previous knowledge of Laura to find her but he was already in love with her from the previous episode. And it is here that Mercer and Kelly get an up close and personal look at the harsh reality of obeying the temporal law. It looks great on paper but to physically go through it is tougher than you think.
Ed tells them he did what he was told to and hid himself away from all other people. He lived by killing animals and eating them. That equates him to being a mass murderer. But the loneliness and isolation was too much to bear. Faced with a life of anguish and torment, Malloy spent three years alone but he went seeking Laura. Humans are not built to be alone and the temporal laws are not viable to the species they were written for. What they ask for is an impossibility and when no-one showed up, Malloy did what he had to.
Malloy pulls a gun on them and tells them to leave and never come back. He is happy and about to become a father again. It all seems very black and white to Mercer and Kelly to the point that they bring the super strong Tala as back up to rip Malloy back with them.
The scenes of Edward and Laura’s fears about him being taken are touching and show another aspect to this situation. But before they can take Malloy, Lamarr contacts them and tells them they have fixed the Aronov device and can leave. This new information gives Mercer another option. He is going to go back to the original arrival date and take that Malloy instead. This will cancel out this future.
Mercer is condemning the Malloy family to death.
Those final scenes of the Malloys sitting on the couch watching television knowing they are about to be wiped from existence are tragic. What Mercer is doing is killing an unborn child. They go back and rescue the recently stranded Malloy.
Now with him retrieved, do Mercer and Kelly have regrets about what they did in the name of The Union? They tell Malloy what they did but he is very understanding about it saying it must have been a terrible decision to make. We end with the Malloy we know oblivious to the exact consequences of what was done. he is no longer the Malloy that would die for his family. If you look at it, being part of the Orville crew is holding Malloy back from finding true happinerss and becoming a three dimensional man with a purpose in life. His family brought him to maturity while maintaining his comedic side. but Malloy is oblivious tot his. While there he sees others gain promotion or haver better sex lives than he does but separated from them, he becomes his own man. That’s an interesting theme. What if the people you call friends are in fact holding you back from a truly happy life? it is clear that they had no problem putting rules before friendship and Mercer is hypocritical as he bends the rules to suit himself. So is his friendship with Malloy real or a comfort blanket as Mercer took the Orville command in an unconfident mind. It is clear from this episode that Mercer puts duty over friendship at the drop of a hat when he and Kelly have broken the rules time and again. And let’s not forget, Mercer has a ha;f Krill daughter he has kept secret.
Let’s face it, none of this would have happened if Mercer had simply accepted that his best friend was gone, lost to the past where he lived a full life. Details of his family would have been on his bio that was found, yet for some reason (plot convenience) they fail to see that information. In fact it is Isaac that opens the argument that they cannot ignore this.
But it is clear that what they did was the wrong thing to do.
They saw that Malloy survived and thrived without them and made a very happy life for himself. The only reason this happened could be that Mercer could not bear to be without his best friend. The fact is that he witnessed first hand Malloy’s happy new life and how settled he was. Bortus was the only one here that spoke any sense.
The real crime here is what Mercer and Kelly did. Twice In a Lifetime is a perfect example of how laws are not always right; that life is not a straight road and the people that write the rules may not necessarily see all the consequences of their law. As they say, it’s easier said than done. Humans are creatures hat need contact with others to survive. Isolation is toxic to our very nature.
If ever there was a story screaming for a sequel then this is it. Somehow I don’t believe that the Malloys were simply wiped from the timeline. And while Mercer and Kelly might be happy with the way things turned out, I doubt that family man Malloy will see it like that. Indeed he may see it in a very different, perhaps vengeful light.
Highly recommended.
Forgotten Heroes: Sandra Bullock as The Bionic Woman
By Owen Quinn author of The Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Photos copyright Universal
I’m betting you all think that the ladies that have played the Bionic Woman consists of Lindsey Wagner and EastEnder’s Zoe Slater herself, Michelle Ryan. But did you know that there was another Bionic Woman in the eighties that lasted one episode and went on to movie super stardom?
And if things had gone a little differently then there would have been a brand new Bionic Woman series complete with several of the old cast returning. And the new Bionic Woman’s name would have been Kate Mason played by the one and only Sandra Bullock.
As a premise this wasn’t bad and given it was the eighties and Star Trek had successfully rebooted, why not the bionic family?
The old crew were back like it was a crossover episode from the old days. Jaime was the one to prepare the wheelchair-bound Kate for the surgery. Steve Austin was there as was Oscar Goldman and Rudy Wells, the genius behind the invention of bionics. but sadly there was no Max the bionic dog but Lee Majors real life son as Jim Castillian. Of course nobody ever remarked how much Jim and Steve looked alike. Anything to tell us Steve? That’s okay because Jim doesn’t look like you when he stands beside you or talk like you at all….Thank God Jeremy Kyle is no longer running his show.
Added to the cast was Jim Goldman (Oscar’s nephew) played by V’s and Star Trek Voyager’s Jeff Yagher, Kate’s love interest.
Kate’s bionics were very different from Steve and Jaime’s. She was not an amputee and thanks to the constant evolution of technology, these bionics were implants placed into the paralysed muscles through the body. Jaime, now a therapist, has been guiding Kate every step of the way. We get to see family home movies showing Kate and her family in Kate’s first scene.
Now remember that this was not only Sandra Bulloch’s very first television appearance but her first leading role. Now the writing is okay for the time but writers then seemed to think it was important to show disabled as hating themselves and in a constant cloud of dejection. This was so the audience would identify with Kate on an emotional level because better her than them, right?
Jaime finds her siting in the dark watching these movies and refers to herself as the gimp. Now that would come to mean something else in years to come so best we skip that. But it does show that Kate sees herself as a burden. Kate has a congenital disease and muscular degeneration and has been in a wheelchair since she was six years old. She is terrified that she will not be the same person if the bionics work so Jaime tells her what happened to her.
I have to say I quite like the new theme music and titles, updated as it could be for the eighties.
Her bionics work thanks to a mini-computer in her brain stem which controls all the others throughout her body. We discover that Jim Goldman is in love with Kate long before she became the new bionic woman. He even persuades her to let him go undercover with her as her trainer. But he has a rival in the form of OSI agent Alan Devlin, who is very protective of Kate.
My question would be how is she going top explain this to her friends and family? Well, her family would have been told which was also explored in the Six Million Dollar Man two part episode, The Bionic Boy to great effect.
Kate is plunged into her first mission amid a background of Oscar going off the rails, a traitor at the OS, another bad guy bionic person on the loose and an international threat to the Unity Games. Kate joins the track team but must control her speed for fear of her cover being blown. It is also very sexualised as her costume is skimpy to say the least much in the way Wonder Woman’s was.
You can see through her performance that those little Sandra traits we will come to the fore when she goes global starting with Speed. She does have an arc, no longer seeing herself as the gimp when she beats the bad guys. Kate learns that not everyone around her is as they seem when Alan is revealed to be not only the traitor but bionic as well. Not only that he is super bionic meaning Rudy’s work has already been taken and expanded on. Kate is not invulnerable as their enemies have developed a bionic disruptor which if fired will drop her on the spot as it will attack her brain implant controlling her body. Her limbs are as invulnerable as Jaime and Steve but the bionic moves have had a terrible update.
While Jaime and Steve still have the old go-slow effects with the classic sound effects, Kate and Alan blur from view in a kind of rainbow effect and whooshing sound effects which don’t do it for me. You want to see our bionic heroes in full flow not obscured behind a rainbow.
I remember this coming out on video and hoping there would be a full series as they really try to honour the originals to their fullest and bring them up to date in a decent manner. But it is so eighties in his presentation with its synthesizer soundtrack mixed with hard rock. But the bionic Showdown does what it set out to do. It presents a potential new Bionic Woman ready for the new era and with Kate Mason they certainly deliver. Sandra is a great actor, versatile and the audience falls in love with her. But I for one would love to have seen Kate Mason in full bionic flow.
Zombie Blues 3 now on sale!
By and copyright of Owen Quinn
Welcome to Zombie Blues 3!
Here we go again!
“The ending of Toy Story 3 was a horror story. It was as shocking as Ripley falling to her death with the alien popping out of her chest. It was like Brad finding his wife’s head in the case at the climax of Seven. I didn’t cry along at all with the dewy eyed masses enraptured with Woody and the others.
Stuck in the cinema, I stared open mouthed but inwardly was screaming at the screen, ‘NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!’
The zombie rollercoaster continues as the undead continue to give us their view of being a rotting corpse under the control of Mother Nature.
This time round we meet Comic Book zombie and the zombie who thinks the ending of Toy Story 3 is sacrilege. What happens when a zombie’s faith in God is rocked to its very foundation and why is the spirit of Elvis Presley still going strong in the vast
roaming herds?
A zombie tells why the covid pandemic was much preferable to being undead and why having a club foot makes you feel normal as a zombie. Plus more zombie characters than you can shake a stick at.
In this third book in this series we meet fifteen new zombies!
1 The Zombie with all the Answers
2 47 Year Old Orphan Zombie
3 I F***ing Love It Zombie
4 Far From Home Zombie
5 Faithless Zombie
6 Faithful Zombie
7 My Dog Died Today Zombie
8: Comic Book Zombie
9 The Zombie Who Left the Building
10: Comparison Zombie
11: Club Foot Zombie
12: World Through a Window Zombie
13: Don’t Call me Andy Zombie
14: How My Parents Died Zombie
15: Photographic Zombie
Plus a bonus taste of the Time Warriors as they face a game changing old enemy in The Time Warriors The Belbridge Mystery
1
Dublin Horror Con First Guest Announcment
We are delighted to welcome a terrifying name as our first guest for Dublin Horror Con…none other than Art the Clown himself….David Howard Thornton!!
David is best known as Art the Clown in “Terrifier” and “Terrifier 2”, The Joker in “Nightwing: Escalation”, The Mean One in “The Mean One”, Tim Cobb in “The Dark Offerings”, and more!
Tickets will be on sale soon for Dublin Horror Con!
Dublin Horror Con – Nov 8th/9th, National Show Centre, Swords, Co. Dublin
#dublinhorrorcon#dublincomiccon#comicconireland#arttheclown#theterrifier#davidhowardthornton
Dublin Comic Con Announce Horror Con
Get your calendar out and mark the dates, Dublin Horror Con is coming this November 8th and 9th to the National Show Centre, Swords, Co Dublin (beside Dublin airport and back to the birthplace of DCC!)
Join us for horror themed guests, displays, SFX demos, panels and more!
We have our first terrifying guest announcement coming this Friday so be sure to check back then!
Tickets are not yet on sale but don’t worry, once live (or undead….whichever your preference!) we will post links and more information!
(Please note: Due to the nature and theme of event, parental discretion is advised if bringing children)
TW watches The Orville: New Horizons: Shadow Realms
By Owen Quinn author
Photos copyright Fuzzy Door Productions 20th Television
Thanks to their new alliance with the Krill, The Orville becomes the first union ship to cross into unexplored space. But the Krill warn them that legend says demons await them; demons that can consume the most righteous of souls. Before long, they enter a region of space with no stars. At the heart of it lies a mysterious space station, one that contains a horror that will see every crew member consumed.
When it was launched The Orville was touted as a comedy version of Star Trek and while there was attempts at slapstick humour and puns, the show quickly fell into serious mode with storylines that were both intricate and intense.
Just like the show it homages, The Orville explored serious issues e.g. child mutilation as early as season one when we discovered that, the all-male race the Moclans, of which Bortus and Clem are members, surgically alter any girls into boys at birth. It is a literal crime to be born into a body society deems wrong. Soon we had human rights being explored in a way that stood with the best of Star Trek.
Through the three seasons, The Orville did indeed have superb episodes and with season three New Horizons would see the titular ship explore new space thanks to an alliance with former enemies, the Krill. However the religious Krill warn them that in the Kalan Expanse to which they are headed, demons dwell that consume men’s souls. Not eve the most righteous of souls can stand against them. The atmosphere is begun here as the fierce Krills seem rattled at the very thought of the humans going there. None of their ships have entered there for over a century such is their fear of it.
Before they leave they say a prayer over the crew; a prayer for those who are about to die. The monsters are foreshadowed when captain Ed Mercer reveals the Krill Bible speaks of eight eyed demons with big fangs. Hence begins an episode that thrusts the crew into a horror that they are almost helpless against.
It is interesting to see just how flippantly the Krill warnings are dismissed as religious hocus-pocus by all but Captain Ed Mercer (Seth McFarlane) and Admiral Halsey (Victor Garber). There is an arrogance among the crew in many situations and this episode will see that slapped down.
Every story needs a core of humanity to help the audience connect and in this case it is the arrival of one Admiral Paul Christie (James Read). He is to accompany the crew on this voyage. We discover he is the ex-husband of ship’s doctor, Claire Finn. There are unresolved issues for the Admiral who still has his wedding ring. He stood Claire up at the altar twenty five years ago and now is hoping they could possibly reconcile. he even consults her current romantic focus, Isaac.
Christie is excited to explore the Expanse especially when they detect a distress signal coming from within. But there are no stars and helmsman Gordon Molloy compares it to entering a haunted House.
Now all good horror movies entail a dark place with a mysterious something contained within. They find a space station made from some sort of semi organic technology. It is red in colour immediately giving the audience the message that this is something hellish. Indeed the horn like structure reminded me of the final shot of Maximillian at the climax of the Black Hole. Going aboard Admiral Christie finds some sort of jellyfish like flower that expands in his face then closes.
Returning to The Orville, they are examining the data they have collected when Christie begins convulsing badly and his face begins to change. Returning to the station they discover the jellyfish flower actually spat spores into Christie’s face and began rewriting his DNA into one of the creatures. Claire begins working on a cure but before long Christie has fully morphed into a spider like alien with eight eyes and fangs. it seems the Krill legends are all too true. He then uses his command codes to disable The Orville and plunges the ship into darkness.
It is again interesting to note that on their second trip to the alien station, the crew wear masks. Surely that should be standard before entering an alien environment as in the case here, alien spores almost destroy everyone. It’s a nice piece of character evolution as the crew have been almost complacent up to now. But now the threats are totally unlike anything they have faced before so extra measures must be taken.
There a quite a few references to other horror and adventure genres here. Alien of course with the alien face in the dark jump scares; the dash across the screen of something that you can’t quite see has been done in many shows and works every time. Jurassic Park is referenced when Claire’s kids, Ty and Marcus are hiding from the monsters à la the Jurassic kids avoiding raptors in the kitchen. Christie’s mutation make-up is disturbing to say the least and Read does a great job of a man helpless before his fate. The alien design is lovely and their agility makes them even more dangerous. Think of a spider hanging above your head as you pass waiting to drop down and bite you.
The Fly is echoed when the Christie alien vomits over a crewman’s face which immediately changes him into one of the aliens. Christie was the first so it took time to turn him but now in the dark, crew members are jumped and converted. Too late they discover the signal from the station has changed and is actually a mating call. With such rapid mutation, every one of the crew will be turned before whatever arrives to get them. Only the robotic Kaylon, Isaac, will survive but he may be attacked and destroyed by these things en-masse.
Putting kids in danger especially in the presence of such a horrible death gives a real fear factor so the scenes of ty and Marcus being pursued are on the edge of your seat stuff. Having them witness the graphic transformation of a crew member into one of the creatures up close is traumatising to say the least. credit to both young actors for convincing us just how scared they are having seen that. Horror movies can shock audiences by killing kids just as Mimic and Children of the Corn did.
The greatest threat is the one you never even knew existed. There is a genuine air of terror here as Chief Engineer John Lamarr, unaware of the aliens, is chased by several of them. Helpless against their speed and ferocity, he just about manages to seal himself in the brig, safe behind the force field. The acting here is spot on in conveying the fear the crew feel. Claire realises that the creatures are still forming when super-strong security officer Talla barely survives an attack but manages to bring a dead one for the doctor to examine. She is able to force them off the ship by threatening to release a virus that will kill the aliens before their ship arrives. Before they go, Christie warns they will go but not forever.
This begs the question has The Orville crew awakened an ancient evil just like the humans did with The Wraith in Stargate Atlantis. Sadly we will not know unless further season of the show are commissioned. these nameless aliens are by far the scariest the crew have ever faced.
These aliens can wait until a colony is asleep for example and by the morning not one human will survive. Indeed the inference is that aliens like Bortus and Talla can also be converted to swell the alien ranks. When examining the alien corpse, Claire says she can no longer tell what species it was to begin with; at least until she detects white blood cells that show it was once human. This is the clue Claire needed to create her virus. They simply need to vomit on you to turn you into one of their kind. Would this also de-stabilise the Krill alliance given the revival of these demons will be a galactic threat but more so to the Krill because their territory is on the demons doorstep.
Shadow Realms delivers on every count as a thrilling and frightening episode with cool design and direction. There is no reset button or magic cure à la Star Trek. In the end there is only death in the shadow realms.
New Guest Announcement For Dublin Horror Con
We are delighted to announce another amazing guest for @dublinhorrorcon happening this Nov 8th and 9th, none other than Damien Leone!
Damien is a director, screenwriter, producer, and SFX technician best known for “All Hallows’ Eve” aswell as the one we have to thank for bringing us the “Terrifier”, and “Terrifier 2″…and “Terrifier 3”, and more!
Duo photo ops with David and Damien will be available when tickets launch!
Get Your Teeth Into Dublin Comic Con Spring 2025
How about a guest announcement you can sink your teeth into!
We are delighted to announce Kayvan Novak and Harvey Guillen will be joining us for Spring Edition this March 15/16th!
Kayvan Novak is an English actor and comedian. He co-created and starred in the comedy series Fonejacker (2006–2008) and Facejacker (2010–2012), winning the BAFTA Television Award for Best Comedy (Programme or Series) in 2008. He also portrayed Waj in the comedy film Four Lions (2010), the vampire Nandor the Relentless in the mockumentary series What We Do in the Shadows (2019–present), and Fabian Kingsworth in the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth seasons of Archer (2021–2023).
Don’t forget to get your tickets now via https://www.tixr.com/…/dublin-comic-con-spring-edition…
Photo ops are available now via https://www.tixr.com/…/dublin-comic-con-spring-edition…
The Time Warriors and Beyond 