"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" is Shakespearean. It is a speech by Macbeth, which is fitting for a series that continues to pay homage to Star Trek TNG. It is hard to find a new time travel story, and for this episode the homage was to Second Chances TNG, when a duplicate William Riker was created in a transporter accident and left behind for years.
Okay, I'm being more than a little unfair though, because this Orville episode took that idea and ran away with it. While Thomas Riker was supposedly bitter about being left behind on a planet to fend for himself and denied the opportunity to date Deanna Troi or gain promotion, here we have time travel involved (Second Chances did not) and the duplicate of Kelly is seven years younger. So, this brought a whole host of factors into play that the TNG episode could not.
Older Kelly was quite right to think younger Kelly naive, but then younger Kelly could quite rightly ask why she hadn't succeeded in any of her life goals, while still having the opportunity to do so herself if she could. It is the Cat Stevens song, Father and Son theme - " You're still young, that's your fault" and "If they were right, I'd agree, but it's them you know not me." The problems of leadership and holding a Command post would be real, if your younger self was gossiping and partying with the crew. Of course, once younger Kelly saves the Orville, she realises what a difficult and tough job older Kelly actually has.
Then you have Ed dating a younger Kelly, which is exactly the same way that many older men cast off their older wives for younger models. When Ed tells older Kelly that either she try and make their relationship work again or he’ll date her time-travelling younger self, he does cross a line I think. Eventually, he does realise that a large part of his love for Kelly is their shared experiences of growing older together, something these men forget when they divorce, and must surely regret later. I'm not sure about the disco scene though, wasn't that simply being ageist?
So, I thought it was another good episode. I was caught out at the end too. Unlike TNG who kept Thomas as a recurring rebel character, they decided to return Kelly to the past she was taken from. I was disappointed in this and that they were going to wipe her mind and make this a reset button episode, but then she declined the second date from Ed. Everything changes. Unfortunately, Ed had taken the blame for the failed marriage, while it was actually Kelly who has the affair. They never told younger Kelly that. At least this might give some closure to the Ed-Kelly on-off romantic friction, that isn't particularly interesting, or funny, and is bad for the ship itself.
Okay, I'm being more than a little unfair though, because this Orville episode took that idea and ran away with it. While Thomas Riker was supposedly bitter about being left behind on a planet to fend for himself and denied the opportunity to date Deanna Troi or gain promotion, here we have time travel involved (Second Chances did not) and the duplicate of Kelly is seven years younger. So, this brought a whole host of factors into play that the TNG episode could not.
Older Kelly was quite right to think younger Kelly naive, but then younger Kelly could quite rightly ask why she hadn't succeeded in any of her life goals, while still having the opportunity to do so herself if she could. It is the Cat Stevens song, Father and Son theme - " You're still young, that's your fault" and "If they were right, I'd agree, but it's them you know not me." The problems of leadership and holding a Command post would be real, if your younger self was gossiping and partying with the crew. Of course, once younger Kelly saves the Orville, she realises what a difficult and tough job older Kelly actually has.
Then you have Ed dating a younger Kelly, which is exactly the same way that many older men cast off their older wives for younger models. When Ed tells older Kelly that either she try and make their relationship work again or he’ll date her time-travelling younger self, he does cross a line I think. Eventually, he does realise that a large part of his love for Kelly is their shared experiences of growing older together, something these men forget when they divorce, and must surely regret later. I'm not sure about the disco scene though, wasn't that simply being ageist?
So, I thought it was another good episode. I was caught out at the end too. Unlike TNG who kept Thomas as a recurring rebel character, they decided to return Kelly to the past she was taken from. I was disappointed in this and that they were going to wipe her mind and make this a reset button episode, but then she declined the second date from Ed. Everything changes. Unfortunately, Ed had taken the blame for the failed marriage, while it was actually Kelly who has the affair. They never told younger Kelly that. At least this might give some closure to the Ed-Kelly on-off romantic friction, that isn't particularly interesting, or funny, and is bad for the ship itself.