I don't remember a whole lot of details from the episodes - but the race of machines seemed to fit perfectly with what Spock described in TMP (after he mindmelds with V-ger and learns about the planet of intelligent machines that sent the probe on its mission).
Also, if I remember correctly, Issac's race regards humans (and all organic beings) as inferior - i.e. an infestation. I don't remember if they said anything like the humans need to be eliminated for infesting the Orville or that they acknowledged the ship almost as a being like themselves (like V-ger said about the crew of the Enterprise), but I believe they made that idea pretty clear.
I looked up "the Kaylons" for a little refresher course and see their origins are also very similar to the plots of the Terminator movies (machines created by biological beings as tools gain greater intelligence and eventually overthrow their creators to become the dominant force on the planet).
That all makes sense what you said about a V-ger tie in.
I hadn't thought about
Terminator but if you remember the original ST episode
What are little girls made of? The android Ruk tells Captain Kirk that the old ones who made the androids, grew fearful of their creations and tried to shut them down. The androids then fought back and destroyed their makers.
OK, the two things that struck me in the Orville episode as a V-ger nod, was when they first approach the Kaylon home world we hear a moog synthesizer making that distinct ba-waan-gah electronic sound, which was the theme sound for V-ger in STTMP.
And when the Kayon's scan the ship it's a distinct vertical scanning beam that travels across the bridge from one side to the other, just like in STTMP.
As far as the episode goes, I was disappointed. Not surprisingly the Kaylon home world couldn't match my expectations of what a V-ger type world would be like. The first 1 hour was decent, the second hour I was bored. I guess the space battle was big, but I don't like protracted action scenes of any kind.
I'm not sure how they could ever redeem Issac's character enough to have him be a part of the crew again? I know he had a change of 'heart' and protected the youngest boy of Dr Finn and went against his fellow Kaylons, saving the day. But unless I misunderstood something, it was stated that for all of season 1 and 2 Issac was on the Orville knowing he would eventually help exterminate all biological life in the galaxy. Or did I get that wrong?