Why don't you get us started?

So does the procedure change the person's DNA or inner workings, or just genitalia? Because if it just changes genitalia, it wouldn't affect intelligence or strength. They should've at least addressed this (unless I missed something)

I thought it was a great episode. Interesting story and few good laughs sprinkled throughout. I love the character development so far. I all in for this show.

@Lilpoetboy said:

So does the procedure change the person's DNA or inner workings, or just genitalia? Because if it just changes genitalia, it wouldn't affect intelligence or strength. They should've at least addressed this (unless I missed something)

Based on the discussion during the show it must be a very advanced procedure that actually does change the DNA or chromosomes in some way.

I was almost disapointed by the inserted jokes. This was a very deep episode involving forcing one culture onto another. I liked the arguments made on both sides. There were no straw men to knock down.

The only part that I found (In a sci-fi/fantasy show) was that the Maklans (sp) greatest author was alive. Like saying Shakespear was conveniently alive.

Frankly this felt right out a TNG Episode and that why i loved it. At this point i could care less about Discovery.

I was expecting a different ending -- maybe they'd discover that there are A LOT of females but they've all been kept secret. Instead they opted for an unhappy ending, which is actually kind of refreshing in a new TV show. Very TNG like , with a trial based on alien ethics. I love the way various characters behave: the helmsman abandoning his dignity and pretending to be an idiot in a good cause; the Captain trying to think of a human parallel to try to empathize with the alien point of view.

"The only part that I found (In a sci-fi/fantasy show) was that the Maklans (sp) greatest author was alive."

She might not have been their GREATEST author. But the episode established early on that the Macklans revere their writers and would be impressed by a quotation from a good one.

"I liked the arguments made on both sides. There were no straw men to knock down."

I agree. the legal situation was that there didn't seem to be a relevant law, so everybody was trying to think of a suitable precedent to compare to the problem

@CharlesTheBold said:

"I liked the arguments made on both sides. There were no straw men to knock down."

I agree. the legal situation was that there didn't seem to be a relevant law, so everybody was trying to think of a suitable precedent to compare to the problem

Are the Macklans somehow unable to create NEW laws?

I found the whole premise a bit too far out. Like they were just trying to throw some kind of argument in the audience's face without thinking about it much. There would be no reason for any species to have both male and female, as such, if both aren't required for reproduction. Even Earth species that lay eggs, have both male and female which are required for the process to actually work. For example, fertilized chicken eggs grow into more chickens. Unfertilized chicken eggs become omelets. And the female chickens - hens - cannot by themselves lay eggs that will hatch into chicks. If the Moclans (sp?) were truly single gender, they wouldn't really have gender at all, and "male" or "female" Moclans would be an oxymoron. They would be asexual.

"Are the Macklans somehow unable to create NEW laws?"

They seem to have a common-law system, just like the US. If an existing law doesn't apply, a court creates a new one. It happens all the time.

"If the Moclans (sp?) were truly single gender, they wouldn't really have gender at all, and "male" or "female" Moclans would be an oxymoron. They would be asexual."

Probably they originally had no concept of gender. When they started meeting other species like humans, they compared their biologies and decided that they were "all male" (Actually it might have made more sense to declare themselves "all female", because they can lay eggs. )

The concept of a one-gender species was dramatized in detail in Ursula LeGuin's 1970's novel LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS.

I looked it up, it's Moclan

@CaseyJones said:

I looked it up, it's Moclan

So did I, in the closing credits. I added the "(sp?)" before looking it up, and forgot to remove it after I did.

Well, I made it to episode #3, and found that "The Orville" is getting more and more interesting. So The State has spoken, since the baby's parents were unable to agree on how to raise her/him. This "somewhat Klingon" society prefers a united front of Warriors and has industrialized the entire surface of the planet. They do have Culture, though their great writer is female, though they didn't know it. This is reason enough to NOT pay-to-view "Star Trek: Discovery" once CBS seals it off after episode #1. Let's hope that the "teenage mutant TV programmers" don't pull a "Firefly" again.;)