The Orville
Reviews of The Orville are written and posted as the series airs. Please note that all reviews contain spoilers.
Season 1 (2017)
- 9/10/2017. Old Wounds
— Following the collapse of his marriage, Ed Mercer is named captain of the USS Orville, an exploratory vessel whose first mission is to answer the call of a science team that has invented a device that can accelerate time.
- 9/17/2017. Command Performance
— When Mercer and Grayson vanish unexpectedly without a trace, the inexperienced Lt. Alara Kitan finds her resolve tested as she faces her first command experience.
- 9/21/2017. About a Girl
— When Bortus' child is unexpectedly born female — something considered abnormal among his people — he asks Dr. Finn to surgically change the baby's gender, prompting a controversy among his shipmates.
- 9/28/2017. If the Stars Should Appear
— The Orville encounters a massive starship adrift in space that is actually an alien bio-dome housing an entire civilization that does not know the true nature of its world.
- 10/5/2017. Pria
— After the crew rescues a woman from a crashed mining ship, Mercer begins to fall for her while Grayson suspects she is not who she says she is.
- 10/12/2017. Krill
— Following an unprovoked attack on a Union colony by a Krill vessel, Mercer and Malloy go undercover to infiltrate a Krill ship in the hopes of learning more about the mysterious enemy.
- 10/26/2017. Majority Rule
— The Orville crew investigates the disappearance of two Union anthropologists who vanished on a world governed solely by popular opinion.
- 11/2/2017. Into the Fold
— When a shuttle carrying Finn, her two young sons, and Isaac crashes on an unfamiliar planet, Finn must escape her alien captors while Isaac looks after the children.
- 11/9/2017. Cupid's Dagger
— While mediating a dispute between two warring societies, the Orville takes aboard a specialist who turns out to be the man at the center of the affair that ended Mercer's and Grayson's marriage.
- 11/16/2017. Firestorm
— While struggling with guilt over the death of a crewmate she was unable to save, Kitan begins experiencing strange events aboard the ship that are not easily explained.
- 11/30/2017. New Dimensions
— Grayson discovers LaMarr has hidden potential that might make him a candidate to replace the departing chief engineer, so she gives him a challenging assignment when the Orville discovers a realm that exists only in two dimensions.
- 12/7/2017. Mad Idolatry
— A seemingly small action has massive consequences when Grayson heals a wonded girl on a primitive planet, which leads the society to establish an entire religion around Kelly.
Season 2 (2018-2019)
- 12/30/2018. Ja'loja
— The crew has some down time while traveling to Bortus' home world so he can carry out an annual personal ritual.
- 1/3/2019. Primal Urges
— As the crew studies a dying star system, Bortus finds himself descending into a pornography addiction amid his struggling marriage.
- 1/10/2019. Home
— Alara returns home after discovering that prolonged exposure to lower gravity is causing her body to deteriorate.
- 1/17/2019. Nothing Left on Earth Excepting Fishes
— When Mercer takes his new girlfriend on a romantic trip, they are captured and interrogated by the Krill for military information.
- 1/24/2019. All the World Is Birthday Cake
— The Orville makes first contact with an alien world, but the encounter unexpectedly leads to conflict.
- 1/31/2019. A Happy Refrain
— Claire finds she has feelings for Isaac, resulting in a challenging relationship between a human and an artificial intelligence that does not have emotions.
- 2/14/2019. Deflectors
— A visitor from Bortus' past is involved in an incident aboard the Orville that reveals a disturbing aspect of Moclan culture.
- 2/21/2019. Identity, Part I
— When Isaac unexpectedly shuts down, the Orville travels to his mysterious and isolated Kaylon homeworld to try to establish a relationship with its society of artificial intelligence.
- 2/28/2019. Identity, Part II
— The Orville crew reaches its most desperate hour as a fleet of Kaylon ships begins its invasion of Earth's solar system.
- 3/7/2019. Blood of Patriots
— On the eve of peace talks to broker a treaty between the Union and the Krill, tensions are raised when an old friend who saved Malloy's life escapes after 20 years in a Krill prison.
- 3/21/2019. Lasting Impressions
— The Orville crew opens a 400-year-old time capsule from 2015, and among the relics is a smartphone containing the life details of a young woman from a long-ago era.
- 4/11/2019. Sanctuary
— The revelation of a colony of female Moclans leads to a moral dillema that could have serious political consequences for the Union.
- 4/18/2019. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
— A version of Grayson from seven years in the past is pulled through time onto the Orville, leading both versions of Kelly to ponder decisions made in the past and future.
- 4/25/2019. The Road Not Taken
— In an alternate timeline where humanity has been nearly wiped out by the Kaylon, Grayson assembles the crew of the Orville in an attempt to change history from the past.