Category: Orville, The

Captain Mercer has been keeping a romantic relationship with the Orville’s new dark matter cartographer, Lt. Janel Tyler, hush-hush, but finally begins letting the word out ahead of a vacation shuttle trip with her. But as if often the case, Mercer can’t have nice things: a small group of Krill fighters seem to home in on the shuttle, even when it’s cloaked, until it is captured by a larger Krill ship. The Krill separate the two and demand Mercer’s command codes, and it is only then that he learns that Lt. Janel Tyler is Telaya, a Krill who Mercer met which disguised as a Trill himself. Acting as a surgically-altered Krill deep-cover agent, Telaya is returning the favor, but a surprise attack by another enemy of the Krill forces the two into an escape pod which sets down on a planet inhospitable to Telaya, who, like all Krill, cannot survive direct exposure to sunlight. With the Krill’s enemies hunting them down, Mercer has to find a way to signal the Orville…and protect a woman who’s holding him at gunpoint.

written by Brannon Braga & Andre Bormanis
directed by Jon Cassar
music by Joel McNeely

Cast: Seth MacFarlane (Captain Ed Mercer), Adrianne Palicki (Commander Kelly Grayson), Penny Johnson Jerald (Dr. Claire Finn), Scott Grimes (Lt. Gordon Malloy), Peter Macon (Lt. Commander Bortus), J Lee (Lt. John LaMarr), Mark Jackson (Isaac), Chad Coleman (Klyden), Michaela McManus (Telaya / Lt. Janel Tyler), Patrick Warburton (Lt. Tharl), Chris Johnson (Cassius), Michael Traynor (Krill Captain), Nathan Dana Aldrich (Krill Officer), Greta Jung (Comm Officer), Giovanni Bejarano (Security Officer), Michele Boyd (Lieutenant Dorsett), Fred Tatasciore (Krill voice)

Notes: Mercer and Gordon met Telaya in season one’s Krill, while “Lt. Tyler” boarded the Orville at the beginning of season two (Ja’loja), though Michaela McManus was not credited in that episode, presumably to avoid tipping the hand of this episode’s plot developments (and perhaps to confuse speculation as to who would replace Halston Sage as a series regular).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Convinced by Lt. Malloy that he’d look good with a moustache, Bortus boldly goes where no Moclan has gone before – to Dr. Finn, to have hair follicles stimulated on his upper lip. Dr. Finn, however, has other things on her mind: asking the Orville’s resident Kaylon science officer, Isaac, out on a date. Her children already love spending time with him, and despite his being an emotionless artificial life form, Dr. Finn has slowly grown to enjoy his company as well. Isaac, however, has one major problem: being an emotionless artificial life form, not only is he devoid of any feelings for Dr. Finn, but he regards human dating as a primitive mating ritual to be studied for a while, and then abandoned. Only after putting Dr. Finn’s romantic feelings for him through the wringer does Isaac realize that human relationships can be much more long-term – and that breaking those relationships off can cause major rifts in normal working relations with his shipmates.

written by Seth MacFarlane
directed by Seth MacFarlane
music by Andrew Cottee

Cast: Seth MacFarlane (Captain Ed Mercer), Adrianne Palicki (Commander Kelly Grayson), Penny Johnson Jerald (Dr. Claire Finn), Scott Grimes (Lt. Gordon Malloy), Peter Macon (Lt. Commander Bortus), Jessica Szohr (Lt. Talla Keyali), J Lee (Lt. John LaMarr), Mark Jackson (Isaac), Chad L. Coleman (Klyden), Mike Henry (Dann), Chris Johnson (Cassius), Norm MacDonald (Yaphit), Kai Di’Nilo Wener (Ty Finn), B.J. Tanner (Marcus Finn), Blesson Yates (Topa), Kyra Santoro (Ensign Turco), Mark Graham (Conductor), Aaron Goddard (Waiter), Brent Alan Henry (Bartender)

Notes: Both Mark Jackson and Norm MacDonald appear “in the flesh” as, respectively, Isaac and Yaphit, thanks to the environment simulator’s holographic overlays.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Orville returns to Moclus for a deflector upgrade, to be overseen by one of the Moclans’ most skilled engineers, Locar. He happens to be an old flame of Bortus’, but Bortus does his best not to associate with the distinguished guest. As his security liaison and escort aboard the Orville, Lt. Keyali spends the most time with Locar, and is caught off guard when he confesses that he is attracted to her. Since Moclans are (mostly) single-gender, a Moclan attracted to females faces being ostracized from Moclan society. When Locar goes missing after a walk in the environment simulator with Lt. Keyali, she replays the environment simulator records and discovers that he appears to have been murdered – and Bortus’ mate, Klyden, is the prime suspect. Klyden admits to confronting Locar about what Moclan society perceives as his perversity, but denies killing him. Keyali realizes quickly that, with Locar’s engineering genius, what seems like an open-and-shut murder case may be something much more complex…and perhaps not a murder at all.

written by David A. Goodman
directed by Seth MacFarlane
music by Andrew Cottee

Cast: Seth MacFarlane (Captain Ed Mercer), Adrianne Palicki (Commander Kelly Grayson), Penny Johnson Jerald (Dr. Claire Finn), Scott Grimes (Lt. Gordon Malloy), Peter Macon (Lt. Commander Bortus), Jessica Szohr (Lt. Talla Keyali), J Lee (Lt. John LaMarr), Mark Jackson (Isaac), Chad L. Coleman (Klyden), Mike Henry (Dann), Chris Johnson (Cassius), Kevin Daniels (Locar), Wren T. Brown (Captain Rechik), Norm MacDonald (Yaphit), Blesson Yates (Topa), Kyra Santoro (Ensign Turco), Chase Brosamle (Newsie), Rachael MacFarlane (Computer Voice), Vivienne Rutherford (Little Girl), Yvette Tucker (Window Dancer #1), Steve Hanneman (Window Dancer #2), Bruce Willis (Groogen)

Notes: Wren T. Brown is a two-time Star Trek veteran, having appeared in the Next Generation episode Manhunt (1989) and the Voyager episode Prophecy (2001). Kevin Daniels has appeared on Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Charmed, and Smallville. Bruce Willis’ guest voice role was neither credited on-screen nor featured in advance publicity.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Moments after Dr. Finn reveals to her sons that she and Isaac are an item, the Kaylon promptly keels over, showing no signs of life. Captain Mercer gets permission from the Planetary Union to visit the home planet of the Kaylons, not just to seek care for Isaac, but to see if they’re any closer to a decision on joining the Union. When they awaken Isaac, he announces that his mission – to join the crew to learn more about humanity and other organic life forms – has been completed, and that he will be leaving the Orville. Distraught, Dr. Finn’s youngest son sneaks out of the ship to look for Isaac, but in the course of hiding from other Kaylons, finds himself hiding in an underground chamber. When Dr. Finn, Bortus and Lt. Keyali find Ty, he has found something horrifying: a mass grave site of organic life forms. Scans of the planet reveal that these mass graves circle the entire Kaylon homeworld. When Captain Mercer presses the Kaylons for details, they reveal that the dead were the organic beings who constructed the Kaylons to be robotic servants, and then refused to give them rights when the Kaylons achieved sentience. The Kaylons wiped them out in a genocidal conflict, which rules out their ever joining the Union – which seems to suit them just fine, as they intend to board and hijack the Orville to facilitate a similar conquest of Earth.

written by Brannon Braga & Andre Bormanis
directed by Jon Cassar
music by John Debney

Cast: Seth MacFarlane (Captain Ed Mercer), Adrianne Palicki (Commander Kelly Grayson), Penny Johnson Jerald (Dr. Claire Finn), Scott Grimes (Lt. Gordon Malloy), Peter Macon (Lt. Commander Bortus), Jessica Szohr (Lt. Talla Keyali), J Lee (Lt. John LaMarr), Mark Jackson (Isaac), Chad L. Coleman (Klyden), Victor Garber (Admiral Halsey), Graham Hamilton (Kaylon Primary), Mike Henry (Dann), Robert David Grant (Kaylon Secondary), B.J. Tanner (Marcus Finn), Kai Di’Nilo Wener (Ty Finn), Norm MacDonald (Yaphit), Jay Whittaker (Kaylon Tertiary), Blesson Yates (Topa)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Under Kaylon control, the Orville proceeds toward Earth with a massive Kaylon fleet in tow. Another Union ship commanded by an old friend of Mercer stumbles across the fleet, and when Mercer tries to signal to them what’s happened, the Kaylons destroy the ship and execute a member of Mercer’s crew. Yaphit and Ty Finn squeeze through service ducts to reach a communications station from which they can transmit a warning to Earth, but they are discovered by the Kaylons, and the Kaylon Primary orders Isaac to execute Ty for his actions – something that Isaac finds he cannot do. Deciding to help his shipmates rather than his fellow Kaylons, Isaac guns down the entire Kaylon crew manning the Orville’s bridge and prepares to set off an electromagnetic pulse that will eliminate the entire Kaylon presence on the Orville…including himself. But the Kaylon fleet is still barreling toward Earth, intent on destroying humanity and seizing the planet. Commander Grayson takes on a risky mission of her own, gambling her life and the future of the human race to ask the Krill to join the fight against the Kaylons.

written by Seth MacFarlane
directed by Jon Cassar
music by John Debney

Cast: Seth MacFarlane (Captain Ed Mercer), Adrianne Palicki (Commander Kelly Grayson), Penny Johnson Jerald (Dr. Claire Finn), Scott Grimes (Lt. Gordon Malloy), Peter Macon (Lt. Commander Bortus), Jessica Szohr (Lt. Talla Keyali), J Lee (Lt. John LaMarr), Mark Jackson (Isaac), Chad L. Coleman (Klyden), Victor Garber (Admiral Halsey), Graham Hamilton (Kaylon Primary), Mike Henry (Dann), Robert David Grant (Kaylon Secondary), B.J. Tanner (Marcus Finn), Kai Di’Nilo Wener (Ty Finn), Norm MacDonald (Yaphit), Jay Whittaker (Kaylon Tertiary), Blesson Yates (Topa)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

In the wake of the historic battle in which the Krill joined in the defense of Earth against the Kaylons, the Planetary Union is eager to press for full-on peace talks with the Krill, and sends the Orville to a meeting at which Captain Mercer is expected to sign a preliminary document to open negotiations. But upon arriving at the coordinates for the meeting, Mercer finds not just the expected Krill cruiser, but a Krill shuttle which that cruiser then fires upon. Crewed by a Union prisoner of war (who also happens to be an old friend of Malloy), the shuttle crashes into the Orville’s shuttle bay and its pilot asks for political asylum. The peace talks are suddenly off unless Mercer hands the former prisoner back to his Krill captors to stand trial – and almost-certain execution – for war crimes. Malloy insists that his old friend can’t be guilty of the killing spree of which he is accused, and insists that Mercer can’t extradite him. Questions remain about both the pilot and the woman who is with him, who he claims is his now-grown daughter, who was captured with him years ago…and his behavior is odd enough that no one can quite erase any doubts about his innocence.

written by Seth MacFarlane
directed by Rebecca Rodriguez
music by John Debney

Cast: Seth MacFarlane (Captain Ed Mercer), Adrianne Palicki (Commander Kelly Grayson), Penny Johnson Jerald (Dr. Claire Finn), Scott Grimes (Lt. Gordon Malloy), Peter Macon (Lt. Commander Bortus), Jessica Szohr (Lt. Talla Keyali), J Lee (Lt. John LaMarr), Mark Jackson (Isaac), Ted Danson (Admiral Perry), Mackenzie Astin (Orrin Channing), Mike Henry (Dann), Robin Atkin Downes (Krill Officer), John Fleck (Ambassador K.T.Z.), Aily Kei (Leyna Channing), J. Paul Boehmer (Krill), Jim Mahoney (Brosk), Norm MacDonald (Yaphit), Francis Lloyd Corby (Crewman)

Notes: Though his more recent work has been in providing voices for Star Wars animated series such as Clone Wars and Rebels, guest star Robin Atkin Downes may be forever linked to his portrayal of the fandom-polarizing character Byron in the fifth and final season of Babylon 5. Guest stars J. Paul Boehmer and John Fleck are both recurring Star Trek guest stars, especially Fleck, who played the recurring role of the Suliban arch-nemesis Silik in Star Trek: Enterprise.

LogBook entry by Earl Green