this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2026
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TenForward: Where Every Vulcan Knows Your Name
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The alliance was what put sentient biological life at risk. The Moclans were incapable of reconciling with the Kaylons and only pushed the entire Planetary Union towards intergalactic war. The question put before the crew was of political alignment, not annihilation.
And it is reflective of modern global politics, wherein liberals surrender to their fascist neighbors to satisfy a hunger for human sacrifice that transgender people only fulfill on a temporary basis. In the end, it is the upstart working class who can be reasoned and negotiated with, while the religious zealots and fascist chauvinists who rush towards galactic annihilation.
The choice of political alignment, though, had strategic consequences, no?
The binary was:
a) Turn over the girl to the Moclans in violation of PU ethics. This would secure Moclan cooperation in the war against the Kaylon and help the odds of organic life surviving.
or
b) Keep the girl in accordance with PU ethics. This would alienate the Moclans, risk the military alliance, and increase the odds of destroying all organic life.
And as I recall, this wasn't a choice the crew made, but a choice the PU made as Peter Griffin argued for it.
Maybe it's from a later season?
But, anyway, as a critique of Democratic Party Politics, I don't find it very satisfying. The problem with the Democratic Party is that it's captured by corporate capitalist interest and we are prevented from building an effective political narrative (the rich are out to destroy all of us) because they are funded by wealthy interests that would be threatened by the raising of class consciousness.
As a result, Dems are just sort of stuck being the party of vaguely nice people, which includes being for minority inclusion, but, you are quite correct to say that this does NOT ever really extend to trans-people. But the problem is that everyone assumes Dems do support trans rights because it makes perfect sense to that they would, but because Dems won't actually DEFEND the position they are ACCUSED of, they lose everyone--unaware people who just assume Dems support trans rights, and people tuned in to the fact that Dems throw trans-people under the bus at every opportunity.
I don't know you make that fine grained analogy in an epic military space opera, tho.
What I remember: Kaylons refused military co-operation unless the PU turned over the girl Moclan. Without this alliance, there was a greater risk of annihilation. Is that correct?
Kaylons are the robots that were trying to wipe out all organic life until the season 3, you mean moclans?
Yes, actually, that was a brain fart, I do know what they're called.
The Moclans refused military co-operation to battle the Kaylons. But then the Orville crew learned more about the Kaylon history and discovered their deep hatred of biological life stemmed from their long history of enslavement and abuse at the hands of biologics. So the crew reconciled with the Kaylons, but ended up in a fight with the Moclans who joined the Krill to wage war on the Union, pretty much entirely unprovoked.
The alliance with the Moclans and Krill was ultimately always doomed, due to the natural ideological conflict between them and the Unions. The Kaylon were the natural allies, but only achieved this allegiance through good faith efforts by each of the factions.