The Orville: Season 2 Review

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm demonstrating my ongoing commitment to occasionally posting something to this site that isn't Babylon 5 related by sharing my opinions on some Orville episodes! Not full scene-by-scene recaps or analysis, just opinions.

In fact I'll be writing about the entirety of season two in one go, all 14 episodes from Ja'loja to The Road Not Taken, so for both our sakes I'll be keeping my reviews brief. Though to be honest, I actually wrote about each episode right after watching them, so if it seems like I'm clueless about where the season's going, that's because I was.

Warning: there may be SPOILERS for for both seasons of The Orville, and I'm also going to be talking about the fates of certain Star Trek: The Next Generation characters and a particular notorious plot development in Star Trek: Discovery's first season. Being any less vague would be a spoiler.

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I'm not great with review scores but it seems like a shame to have 14 episodes in a row and not give you a way to tell what I thought about them at a glance, so have some numbers. They're based on how much I gave a damn about what I was watching, adjusted slightly if I thought an episode deserved it. So an episode that bored me to tears but had Bortus doing something funny might be raised to a 5 or 6, depending on the quantity and quality of the Bortus humour.

10	I don't use 10.
9	I don't think I'll be using 9 much in my Orville reviews either.
8	A great episode that isn't quite the pinnacle of what TV sci-fi can do.
7	A good solid episode that wasn't particularly exceptional.
6	It was either good but flawed, or watchable with elements that elevate it.
5	I didn't hate it, but it was on the verge of losing my interest.
4	I might have been distracted but I was still listening to it!
3	I didn't turn it off but I can't say I was paying much attention either.
2	This really wasn't my kind of thing.
1	This shouldn't be anyone's kind of thing.

The Orville - Season 2
2-01	Ja'loja	5
Two things struck me as I was watching this episode, the first being that it felt very Deep Space Nine. Though not like DS9's epic season premieres, more like an early 'slice of life' story made entirely of B plots. Plus for an episode about people finding a date for Bortus' piss party it was surprisingly Bortus light, and Dr Finn's plot seemed like it was from a different episode entirely. Still, it's nice that the weird bond between Issac and the Finn family is getting stronger. But the main thing that struck me was HOLY SHIT they're still doing the Ed and Kelly relationship? Did they get feedback from viewers saying they wanted more of this? If so those viewers are wrong and bad. The last season finale resolved it so well that it was painful to see it dragged back up again in the very next episode. At least I learned a valuable lesson about how you can never have too many jacket zippers when you're on a date. Plus we got a new crew member who isn't a walking punchline! Though in less cheerful news, it turns out that if I ever have to hear "As Time Goes By" on piano again just one more time I'm going to strangle myself to death. Seth MacFarlane's love of music is actually driving me hate it.
2-02	Primal Urges	6
This is the episode that was filmed last season but held back, though I couldn't tell while watching it as they must have sneakily reshot the scene in the mess hall so that it has the new season two tables instead of the crappy season one tables. I was kind of dreading this one as I had no interest in seeing Bortus' porn collection, but it turns out the guy can make anything hilarious with his Spock-Worfy personality and line delivery. I also appreciated that it led to the revelation that he's still not over the events of About a Girl, which is the kind of continuity that makes both episodes stronger. The visual effects during all the various crises were great as well, better than in most stories about porn addiction and computer viruses, and I always like a bit of fake James Horner hero music. Though it was hard to care about the plight of the survivors when they were given barely enough dialogue and personality to deliver an epiphany to Bortus and nothing more.
2-03	Home	6
I'm sure that The Orville isn't deliberately copying Star Trek: The Next Generation with the black navigator getting promoted to run Engineering and the female security chief leaving the show less than a couple of dozen episodes in. Well maybe 'sure' isn't the right word, but I don't think that's what they did here. It's just a weird twist of fate that Alara Kitan is sharing the fate of Tasha Yar... well aside from the 'dying' part. Though she might actually be more of a Beverly Crusher and come back in season 3, and that'd be fine with me as I thought she was one of the better characters on the series. Alara I mean, not Dr Crusher. In fact it was only her and the fact that Star Trek doctors kept showing up (still not Dr Crusher) that really kept me interested during the first half of this story, before things took a turn and everyone was held hostage. Not that the second half picked up much. I wouldn't say Robert Picardo was wasted on this role, because he's exactly what was needed, but it's a shame all he got to do in his (presumably) final appearance was be unsatisfied with his daughter's choices for a bit until he was finally proud of her at the end. I was actually kind of relieved though that the writers remembered that Alara's from a high gravity planet and put Ed in a suit when he visited. I know that it's the entire gimmick of her character, but I guess I lost my faith in writers to know the lore of their own show at some point. Other thoughts: bottle crushing was cool, leg crushing was nasty, I was hoping Alara got Ed a little Ms Piggy to go with his Kermit but a jar of pickles worked, and the second new crewmember is a walking punchline.
2-04	Nothing Left on Earth Excepting Fishes	7
I wasn't that keen on the title at first, but then the episode helpfully explained the reference and now I like it. This episode's basically Krill, Part II, even if it thinks that it's Pria at first, and it manages to push the arc forward and bring the Krill teacher back in a way that doesn't diminish the ending of the earlier episode. There's not a huge amount of comedy in the story, but the fact they stole the infamous twist from Discovery season 1, even down to making the double agent the main character's love interest and calling them Tyler, is bloody hilarious. Also 'Tyler' is practically an anagram of 'Teleya' so it's like she was trying to twist the knife a little with how low-effort her deception was (though it was apparently going to be 'Gillis' until Fox's legal department said it didn't clear, so it's all just a coincidence). Poor Ed, he got totally Pria'd by a woman again... hey Pria was pretty good at dark matter as well now that I think of it. We were about due to learn about another player in the Orville galaxy, so I'm hoping the new guys stick around. The Krill's holy mission to murder everyone makes them a decent recurring antagonist, but it also makes them a little one-note, and it'll be nice to see some of the hurt they've been inflicting come back at them to complicate things. Right now though they were kind of dull, along with everything else in the story (and the season so far). And I have zero interest in watching Ed fall in love with the wrong people anymore. Though that's not entirely true, as I did like how Ed obviously still cared about Teleya even when she turned back to a Nazi-sympathising Nosferatu and I hope she comes back. I'm rooting for them to work this out! Especially after the Billy Joel at the end (plus it doesn't hurt that the actress is good). To be honest even with its problems this is my favourite episode of the season up to this point. Which surprised me as it's by a pair of Enterprise writers, Brannon Braga and André Bormanis!
2-05	All the World is Birthday Cake	6
Man they're really stepping up their title game here. This time watching the episode didn't give me any clues to what it means, but birthday cake's always good, so whatever. They've got back to the 'irrational alien beliefs are screwing everything up' well here, which is The Orville's next favourite thing after kicking the dead horse that is Ed and Kelly's failed relationship. The story had a little bit of Majority Rule, a little bit of Mad Idolatry and a little bit of every third episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, but even though it felt very familiar I found I enjoyed it well enough, once it'd got past the unbearable tension of the first 15 minutes. It was tough waiting to see how they'd embarrass themselves and ruin everything. It was nice to finally get another planet of the week story, and their high-tech astrological discrimination was a clever problem as it made Orville crewmembers a target (even aliens have a birthdate), but they couldn't just use their advanced science to show them the light. Until they literally did I mean. Once again the Orville crew were banned from sending in the space marines (due to an order from Admiral Ted Danson this time!) so they heroically screwed up the culture of the entire planet by sticking a mirror in space under the assumption that they'd free all their prisoners if they saw a new star in the sky. Even the ones who were about to be executed for attempting a attempted prison break which left a dozen guards dead. It's kind of daft but I could buy it, considering that a change in the stars put their society in this mess to begin with. My only problem with it is how ridiculously close to the planet the mirror was, but I can put that down to artistic licence. Overall I thought the episode was mostly just alright, but I always like it when Kelly gets to take charge and do things. Plus they've managed to make New Alara different enough to her predecessor, despite having the same alien makeup, super powers, job, uniform, sex, skin tone, hair colour etc. She's got the self confidence Alara was missing and she doesn't just rely on her strength to solve problems. Though maybe next time she should do the research before they go down to visit new people.
2-06	A Happy Refrain	5
When I got to the scene where an entire orchestra was playing Singing in the Rain in the Orville's shuttle bay two things crossed my mind: 1. Either this episode was written by Seth MacFarlane or someone really sucking up to the boss. 2. They'd all be screwed if that forcefield at the back failed. I'd never trust a forcefield myself, I've no idea how the folks over on Discovery are comfortable leaving the back door open all the time. Turns out that this is a Seth MacFarlane written episode, and he even directed it too! He did his 'stupid superstitions are stupid' episode last time and this is one of his 'relationships are tricky' episodes. And it's a pretty good one as well, as it plays to the show's strengths, uses the whole cast well, and it made me laugh a few times (Bortus' moustache, Isaac in his Y fronts). But I found I was only half paying attention to it a lot of the time, partly because it's not really my thing, partly because I've seen the Next Gen episode In Theory and I was just waiting for poor dumb Isaac to break Claire's heart. I suppose all the time the crew spent just listening to music was a clue I should've been thinking of the DS9 episode His Way instead. But it was nice to see the actor outside of the suit for once (plus a cameo by actual Norm MacDonald) and I was kind of surprised to see them actually back together at the end of it. Though I was distracted by my concern for their bridge set. It looked properly soaked! Though in reality it was actually just a flawless visual effect. The 'we're really happy for you but we're also soaking wet' acting by the bridge crew was pretty great as well.
2-07	Deflectors	4
I was barely paying attention to this one to be honest, though it's not entirely the episode's fault. At this point in The Orville whenever I see a scene of two characters on a date or discussing their relationship I stop paying attention (especially if one of them's Ed or Kelly), and it wasn't until the surprise murder halfway through that I started watching the screen again. I even started to come up with theories, like maybe the guy had set up his own murder using Chekhov's tech skills (I wasn't that far off). I knew it couldn't have been Klyden who killed him at least, because there's no way this series would ever willingly give up one of its core relationships. It's got no problem with making us hate the guy though. Klyden was already turning into the series' Keiko O'Brien, who does nothing but bitch about everything, but this season's been working hard to strip away any sympathy we have for him. It hasn't been that long since he literally put a knife through his husband's heart, and now he's tried to ruin a guy's life for being heterosexual. Sure he's just following his culture's traditions and acting as the show's representative of a typical Moclan, but that just has Ed wondering how long their alliance is going to last. To its credit the episode didn't cop out by swerving away from a bleak ending or by trying to redeem its characters despite their beliefs and actions. Plus Gordon and John brought the episode up a notch for me whenever they turned up, like in the scene where they listed the weird things that Talla had missed out on in the last twenty episodes. I'd put Talla in the 'positives' column as well, as she fits right into the series like she's always been there. But a few good moments and a worthy subject can't always save a story. I wouldn't call this a bad episode by any means, in fact the acting, writing etc. seemed pretty decent, but it's the least I've ever cared about the series.
2-08	Identity	7
The series has just taken a shocking turn into events that I can actually give a damn about! I suppose the drama around Isaac leaving at the start was a bit by the numbers, but putting Bortus and singing or Bortus and cake together can elevate any scene. I wasn't even that put off by how much focus Claire's kids got, even if I did find it a bit strange for the series' first big two-parter. In season one we got to see Earth and Moclus and this season they've also visited Xelaya and now Kaylon. So we just need to see Yaphit and Dann's homeworlds and we've got the set! If there's one thing The Orville excels at, it's shots of a ship flying through a futuristic cityscape and their trip to Kaylon was as pretty as any of them. Though this was a special event two-parter so this time they brought the Orville herself down (somehow managing to avoid kicking off the war early by accidentally clipping a skyscraper). I was left a bit confused why they brought the ship down though, until I realised it was so that Ty could just walk right out of an airlock and discover the Kaylon's dark secret. Turns out that they're less a planet of Datas and more of a planet of Cylons who did a Judgment Day on their parents, and Isaac's known about it all along! He's obviously going to turn against his people and save the crew in part two, because this is television, but he gives no hint of it in the first part. Wait, Kaylon, Cylon... the clue was right there from the start! The ship being taken over by a hostile alien force is nothing new for Star Trek, but it's new for The Orville and it makes it feel like things just got real. Not that the episode didn't have a sense of dread hanging over it right from the first appearance of the Kaylons and their red eyes (like in Alara's nightmare simulation of evil Isaac). Actually we've known for a while that they're not eyes, but I didn't really suspect there'd be fold out laser cannons behind there! Isaac managed to keep that little secret well all this time. Hopefully they can switch those things to stun, because otherwise they just slaughtered a significant number of this comedy spaceship's crew. I suppose they've still got a ways to go before they match Red Dwarf's kill count though. Next on The Orville: the crew are the only people who can protect humanity from Polite Skynet, a race of robots so advanced that they can effortlessly defeat us at any game. So basically the Earth is doomed and it's all Gordon's fault for making Isaac look like Mr Potato Head.
2-09	Identity Part II	8
This season is starting to seem like a cruel experiment by Seth MacFarlane to see how long he can get me to keep watching a series I don't like. Just as I was ready to give up on his show, he suddenly throws in one of the best space battles I've ever seen, on television or anywhere else. How am I suppose to quit the series with the best space battles? It's just a shame that the rest of the episode wasn't as good. I mean it was pretty good, I probably liked it more than the first part actually because it didn't take so long getting to the point, but it suffered from being very predictable. The episode made a good point about clichés becoming clichés because they stand up to endless repetition, but you've got to execute them in an interesting way or else your story's just a retread. They messed up the last minute save by the Krill, for example, by never giving us a chance to forget that they're coming. Though I didn't expect Tony Almeida showing up as a starship captain! I haven't seen Carlos Bernard on a starship bridge since the pilot movie to Babylon 5: Crusade. Plus I was a little surprised at how on board Issac was with the Kaylon plan; he wasn't completely sold but he wasn't secretly waiting for his opportunity to turn either. It took a combination of his fondness for Ty and his boss being a jerk to get him to make a face turn, and I can kind of see why considering it meant he had to kill every Kaylon on the ship including himself. Lucky they had a special EMP which took out the robots and not the ship, seeing as they needed the ship afterwards for the space battle. I also wouldn't have called that the first steps to peace with the Krill would come from a war with another race, as it seems a bit too cynical for this series. Then again the Union only puts up with the Moclans because they need them, so I guess the series can be plenty cynical when it wants to be. It also has a sense of humour sometimes, which is cool. Because many series have had a group of prisoners trapped in one place but only Orville would dare to mention the pee corner. Well okay Farscape would've probably mentioned the pee corner too if the situation had come up. So many extras in that scene by the way, plus the 20 or so Cybermen. The producers had clearly been saving up their pennies. The downside of the crew being stuck in one place is that the main cast got barely anything to do. It was Yaphit and Ty who did the majority of the work here saving the Union, to point where I was worried that the expensive CGI blob man was going to have to make a heroic sacrifice for the sake of the ship and the budget. At least now we've learned that in a fight between Alara/Talla and Isaac, it's Yaphit who would win. We've also learned that Isaac is named after Newton, not Asimov, and that you probably shouldn't give someone a copy of Roots to read before demanding that they change their name. Plus the episode confirmed he has the head cannons too, meaning that he and a main Star Trek character both demonstrated head-mounted weaponry in episodes airing just one week apart.
2-10	Blood of Patriots	6
I wanted to like this one, as I'm grateful for any story without an awkward date scene in it these days, but my attention was wandering. The plot was alright, with Gordon torn between his loyalty to his friend and his ship, while Ed was torn by everything, but the dialogue was so dull and obvious in a way that shouldn't have been possible with Gordon turning up in so many scenes. It was nice to get a serious Gordon episode for a change though, and I appreciated his Gordon-fu at the end. I've seen enough sci-fi now that I called that the girl was the weapon, but I didn't expect she'd be an alien with exploding blood. I guess the clue was in the title. Now Talla's going to be worried all the time that the next person she punches is going to explode. I mean in a fiery bomb kind of a way, not the usual way people explode when a Xelayan punches them. I also called that Gordon's heel turn was a clever trick, because this is a remake of a season 1 Deep Space Nine episode, but I'm not going to complain about being right. I like being right! It actually had a happier ending than I expected though, which was nice. I figured that their epic triumph in the last episode would lead to a road bump in the peace process here, but once again Team Orville got the job done. I like that Admiral Ted Danson had to admit that when it comes to the Krill, they are the most qualified people now. Which would've been a scary thought if they hadn't played it so straight this week and made the crew straight up competent. I figured they'd at least get part of their ship blown up. Though Talla came this close to starting a galactic war that doomed the Union and Krill to mutual annihilation when she sent the ambassador to the pee corner and then got the latex glove out. If only they'd put the 'daughter' through the same boarding procedure, they'd have saved everyone a lot of trouble.
2-11	Lasting Impressions	6
Just what I wanted from The Orville: more romance, except set in the present day this time, away from all that rubbish space sci-fi rubbish. Plus a full three minutes of nothing but music! Actually I didn't want that, I'm pretty tired of it to be honest, but despite that I just couldn't bring myself to hate this story. It's funny how the season has two Gordon episodes in a row and they're the opposites of each other. Blood of Patriots was all space drama about how hard it is to let hatred go after a conflict, but the writing was so bland that I struggled to get into it, while Lasting Impressions is everything I've grown sick of, written so well that even I had to appreciate how natural the scenes between Gordon and Laura were. It's weird though that he started off such a fish out of water despite all the TV he watches. It's like MacFarlane read all the criticism that said all the characters were too modern day and decided to put Gordon in the modern day to show the contrast. Plus it had a bit of a moral at the end. Not that it was wrong for him to edit her boyfriend away, that'd be crazy, it's a simulation. But that we are who we are because of the people in our life. It's like they took the plot of the notoriously terrible Voyager episode Fair Haven and somehow made something closer to the classic Next Gen episode Tapestry out of it. And even though it wasn't real, this woman from the 21st century has lived on in the lasting impression she's made in Gordon's life. Plus the others are probably going to have nightmares about being stuck playing that game of Pictionary for years to come. I could definitely relate to them in that scene, because that's how I've been feeling watching this season of The Orville. I also liked how they were questioning self-awareness, with Gordon basically asking why Claire can date an AI and he can't. It's a bit worrying that they're still debating whether their simulator can accidentally create life if someone plugs an iPhone into it, but then Star Trek had the same problem. I was more bothered by the way everyone was trying to break the two of them up but no one had a good reason why, besides 'he was late one time and answered a call from his video game girlfriend on the bridge'. It's weird as there's some obvious things they could've pointed out, like he'd have to lie to her forever about everything, he could never bring her into his life on the ship, and his godlike power over her and her world was too much of a power imbalance. It was a shame because of how smart the rest of the script was, with Gordon's argument that it was real because it's based on complex data instead of being written by an author coming back to bite him when he rewrote it to suit him and turned it into a fantasy. The real tragedy is that the two of them might have been able to make it work without the edit if he'd just worn a jacket with more zippers. The b-plot of Bortus and Klyden going through the stages of cigarette addiction did make me laugh, because apparently 'that's way too many cigarettes' is a joke that works on me no matter how many times I see it. Or maybe it's just that Bortus is always funny, and props only amplify that, even if he does have real problems with addiction. At least he had the courtesy to replicate the cigarettes instead of just walking off with the ancient artifact like everyone else was doing.
2-12	Sanctuary	7
It's such a relief to watch a proper episode of The Orville again without all the relationship drama! Well okay there was a bit of drama between Bortus and Klyden, and the only comedy in it came from inappropriate Dolly Parton music, but this felt more like the Orville I used to watch. In an ideal season this would be pretty average, but the way this season's been going I'd put it in the top three. Which is funny because it was written by my Deep Space Nine nemesis Joe Menosky. Incidentally, this was way better than the DS9 episode of the same name. It's also better than Star Trek: Insurrection, but then you'd hope so seeing as it's director Jonathan Frakes' second try at the story. And it features everyone's least favourite Moclan, Klyden, who ruins everything every time he shows up! I still can't help but be sympathetic to him though, even as he raised his kid to hate women and sold out the Moclans smuggling out their daughter, because of how personal it is for him after he found out that he was born female himself. It's no surprise he's turning Topa into a tiny version of himself as the guy's got issues. Plus, as he points out, he's the one who's morally right according to their culture. Bortus, on the other hand, has allowed himself to be exposed to other cultures and ideas and his own doesn't look so great right now from his new perspective. But is he right and the rest of Moclan society wrong? The episode reveals that the rest of Moclan society isn't entirely unified in their thinking either, as Moclans are smuggling girls off planet to save them. It also confirms what About a Girl hinted at, that there's are a lot more female children being born on Moclan than the government is telling them. Seems that the powers that be are very keen to keep themselves a single-gender species. The episode left Klyden and Bortus' relationship as strained as ever, but fortunately no one got stabbed in the heart this time, and Topa was entirely cured of his sexism from one look at a baby, so it was a fairly happy ending. It was definitely an episode with opinions on it subjects and sometimes it even slowed down long enough for a character to express them. A lot of the time this episode was jumping around like crazy though, barely giving anyone a chance to say a line before it cut to another scene. Though I guess that helped give the impression that this was a major event that the characters were being swept along with, rather than a story about them. The episode was split between Kelly and the Orville trying to defend Moclan Themyscira, and Ed and the council of high-ranking guest stars giving speeches on Earth, and man they got some good guest stars for this one. Not only were all the admirals in it (Victor Garber, Kelly Hu, Ron Canada and Ted Danson), but they got Tony Todd as a Moclan and Marina Sirtis as a teacher on the Orville! Oh, plus F. Murray Abraham as the council chairman! Not entirely the opposite of his role in Insurrection, but close enough. Like Deflectors the episode started with the ship getting an upgrade from the Moclans and it turning out that their passengers have a secret, but it was actually about the concerns Ed was left with at the end of that story. Their differences go to the core of their values, so how long can an alliance with a culture like that last? And what is the Union willing to sacrifice to make it last? Are Moclan weapons worth betraying their principles? The debate didn't really go much further than raising the question (and the fact that they're only in this situation because they put all their arms development eggs into one misogynistic basket), but it's nice that the subject wasn't just dropped. It's also nice that they've confirmed that Moclan is part of the Union. Though when Ed went with the "if we are not willing to stand up for the values that this Union was founded on what exactly are we defending?" cliché I wanted one of the admirals to reply "Billions of lives." But Ed didn't really change anyone's minds or save the day with his speech, it was Admiral Halsey's compromise that got the situation resolved, to no one's particular satisfaction. Kelly's side of the plot featured her and Bortus using all that prison escaping experience from a few episodes back to save the women of the village from being carrying off in the night. It might not have been the best use of their resources to have the starship commander go down to do the violence while the super-strong security officer stayed to command the starship, but I've got no problem with Mockingbird getting to be a superhero again occasionally. It was a bit strange to introduce the village by having the crew captured at gunpoint, then end the episode with two officers having to save them all, but I suppose to be fair the guards were in bed at the time of the attack. They all joined in eventually, and it amused me that while the other female characters were punching faces and shooting guns, the episode still managed to include the cliché of a woman contributing to the fight by throwing a pot over someone's head.
2-13	Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow	6
That's so cruel, tormenting me with the possibility that they're wiping out the Ed and Kelly relationship drama forever when there's no way the new timeline is going to stick. Though I should've predicted the memory wipe would fail really, seeing as the next episode's called The Road Not Taken. Everything up to the mindwipe failing was far more predictable, though it was a pretty well made episode I thought. More interesting than Blood of Patriots at least, despite being about Ed and Kelly's marriage again. I can't say I hated it, and it actually held my attention for the most part. Maybe I've reached the 'acceptance' phase where instead of being annoyed that it's about relationship drama again, I just grit my teeth and bear it. Though I have to admit, I've gone from disliking the Ed and Kelly plot that's been running throughout the series to outright despising it, which is unfortunate seeing as this episode had two Kellys in it, and one of them started dating Ed again! The episode reminded me a lot of Next Gen's Second Chances actually, with Ed in the place of Deanna Troi, except Past-Kelly got bangs instead of a scruffier beard. The way she was dealing with the fact that her future self had already lived seven years of her life and was overshadowing her was very familiar. Though the only reason she was in that situation was because Ed decided to go straight from 'we can't hold her prisoner' to 'we should tell her absolutely everything and even give her Kelly's diaries.' It's like they were trying to break history. And putting 'your marriage will be a miserable nightmare' right at the front of her mind right before the mindwipe probably didn't help either. Even though the premise of the episode was so noxious it burns my fingers when I try to type about it, Adrianne Palicki did a great job at making the two Kellys distinct. I know I shouldn't be surprised when a professional actor shows they're skilled enough to play two characters, but I can at least be impressed by the way she frequently played against herself in the same scene and made it convincing. She even made me interested in their weird situation, which the episode explored pretty well... when it wasn't putting her together with Ed. The episode was mostly about Kelly coming to terms with who she was, what she wanted to be, what she's achieved, and what she wants now. But it also found time to show that Ed's too old to enjoy going to a club anymore or understand video games, which just made the scenes with them together even creepier. I do have to give it bonus points for Bortus and Klyden dancing though, even if 'Bortus responds to something in a comical way you wouldn't expect' is a joke they keep returning to this season. It's nice to see them happy together without cigarettes or anyone getting stabbed. Trust Seth MacFarlane to have music bring a couple back together. And it's also good to see the consequences of Identity still playing out... as they had to hide from Kaylon ships instead of Krill ships this time. The appearance of the Kaylon here makes me think that the next episode is going to feature a desperate alternate timeline where the Kaylon won in Identity, Part II and the Orville crew are going to have to fix history to save humanity! Either that or it's going to be about Ed and Kelly's relationship again. I think 'both' is the best I can hope for.
2-14	The Road Not Taken	7
A season two finale all about using time travel to avert a timeline where AI will destroy all sentient life in the galaxy... why is that so familiar to me? There are two kinds of 'bad timeline' episodes: There's the type where one or more characters visit the other world, see what their lives could've been like, and come away learning something. And there's the type where the ship explodes and everything goes back to normal with no one being any the wiser, which is what they went with here. In fact, The Road Not Taken was so committed to pulling a Voyager that the entire plot is about erasing the memory of the one person who remembers anything! It's funny that Kelly's knowledge of the true timeline is both what doomed this timeline and their only hope for fixing it. Well it amuses me anyway, because it means that this is the second season finale in a row where she's screwed up on a civilisation-altering scale. Only the Orville crew could be incompetent enough to fuck up history this badly by accident and skilled enough to properly fix it again afterwards. In her defence she had no way of knowing that her relationship with Ed was the foundation of the entire TV series, second only in importance to Claire's relationship with Isaac. The only times this episode took a break from the plot for a moment was so that Ed and Kelly could chat over food or a drink about their doomed love. To the point where it was almost a B plot. You'd think that the other characters might have talked to each other about how this road they've taken has worked out for them, but nah there's no time for that. In fact the alternate timeline Orville crew turned out to be indistinguishable from the normal one, showing that removing Ed, Kelly, Gordon and Claire from the events of the last two years has had basically no impact on anyone but Isaac. Alara still got her low gravity treatments without Claire to invent them, Talla still joined the ship without Ed to request her, John's still openly a genius now. Ed focused on his career instead of his drinking and even he was basically the same, despite being the commander of Babylon 5 (that's the outpost at Epsilon Eridani right?) The only time we got to see something out of a character we couldn't get in the real timeline was when we learned that Bortus heroically went down with the ship. The lack of change is especially jarring coming a few episodes after Lasting Impressions, which was all about how we're affected by the people in our lives. I'm torn on the episode, because it was a proper action-adventure sci-fi story like I've been wanting, and 'oops we're in the bad timeline' stories are usually worth a watch because the series gets to cut loose and dial up the mayhem, but it was kind of soulless and by the numbers really. Lots of scenes of spaceship chases in tunnels and people running from robots. On the plus side, the focus on flying spaceships and solving tech problems over any real character moments or substance meant that Gordon and John really got a chance to shine as the only people who were doing anything. So the serious plot rested on two comic relief characters, and everyone else got to look serious while Star Wars music played. They also visited some Star Wars places, like the snow planet, the asteroid field, the forest planet with the bunker, and the door with the eye that comes out. Though finding their original security officer there was more of a Yesterday's Enterprise homage, even if she did nothing but hint at a relationship with John that went badly. Like relationships can go any other way on this series. Anyway it wasn't a great episode, but the pretty effects and location filming bumped it up a notch for me.

CONCLUSION

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Back when I reviewed season one, I put The Orville up against Star Trek: Discovery's first year and concluded that I'd enjoyed them pretty much equally, for very different reasons. This has changed. The Orville's first season was a bit of a mess as the writers tried to find the right balance between sitcom, sci-fi and soap opera, but the characters were likeable and it seemed to me that it had the potential to be a decent series once they'd nailed down exactly what kind of series it was. In its second year The Orville has found itself, but it's lost me in the process.

I was really hoping that they'd carry on remixing those old Star Trek and Twilight Zone episodes and drop romance driven stories like Pria, but they went and did the opposite! I should've known something was up when they kicked off the year with Ja'loja, a story about Ed being jealous of Kelly, Gordon trying to get a date, Alara on a date, and Isaac getting closer to Claire's family. I thought it was a weird choice at the time to start the season with the relationship episode, but in retrospect it was setting up the whole year. Seth MacFarlane said they'd be shifting a bit more towards drama this season and that sounded great to me. Fewer awkward jokes shoved into the gears, messing up the tone. I didn't realise he meant relationship drama!

This year's all about love and messy relationships, with Ed falling for a Krill, Claire falling for Isaac, Isaac developing a parental love for her children, Gordon falling for a simulation etc. and it's relentless. Look at how many screencaps there are up there of two people at a table together having an awkward intimate conversation that I didn't feel invited to. I didn't even realise that was my kryptonite until I watched this season, though maybe I'm just suffering from an overdose. But it's not just the repetition of the relationships, it's the fact that they always end with misery and nothing ever moves forward. I realise that they put those two chairs together on the bridge for a reason, but I am done with Ed and Kelly talking about how great it was, or how terrible it was, over and over and over and over. I can't take one more scene of it.

The season also left me thinking 'well I never need to hear 'x' song ever again now', as MacFarlane found plenty of opportunities to show off his love of music this year. Excessively. I know the guy made this series so he could indulge in all of his interests, but I liked it a lot better when he was channelling his obsession with Star Trek. Not that the series has lost the 90s Star Trek tone, and the season's still got a bit of sci-fi and social commentary in there, but it seems to have been dialled back along with the comedy. The Orville and Star Trek: Discovery are still like one series split by a disturbing transporter accident, but this time around Discovery's taken more of the fun, imagination and comedy, leaving The Orville with all the scenes of characters hanging around off duty. I'd say that The Orville is still the more thoughtful and coherent of the two shows, weirdly, and it's done well at threading themes and continuity throughout the year, but Discovery has been determined to make viewers feel something and Orville has been surprisingly soulless and dull by comparison. It's like the season was almost entirely made up from faded copies of the Next Generation and Deep Space Nine episodes I'd skip on a rewatch.

I know I'm in the minority on this, as this time around critics loved the show as much as the audience, giving it 100% on Rotten Tomatoes (compared to 34% for the first season), but that just means I've got no hope that the series is getting a major course correction for its third year. So I'm going to quit watching it here. It's never been worse than 'alright', I still like the characters, the jokes often landed for me, and the space battles were occasionally fantastic, but I can get all that in other shows and I don't need to watch a series that frustrates me. Plus I can always check YouTube for new Bortus clips.

Farewell The Orville, I'll always remember the good times we had. And that bloody clown.


My top three season 2 episodes:

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1. Identity, Part 2 (8)
2. Identity, Part 1 (7)
3. Sanctuary (7)

Turns out that I like flashy space scenes. And playing '9 to 5' over the fight scene in Sanctuary worked way better than it should have.


Bottom three season 2 episodes:

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1. Deflectors (4)
2. Ja'loja (5)
3. A Happy Refrain (6)

Deflectors probably wasn't really that bad an episode, but it started with Kelly and Cassius talking about their relationship and that put me in a bad mood from the beginning.

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NEXT TIME

The Orville will not return I'm afraid, not to this site anyway, but next on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm writing about the return of Bester in Babylon 5's Dust to Dust.

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