By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Photo copyright Fox
Robots are ten a penny in sci-fi but in Seth Mcfarlane’s The Orville, we get one with a twist in the shape of the Kaylons.
The Orville is a virtual Star Trek show without the transporter. Isaac fills the role of Data. He is the observer of humanity but unlike Data is not wanting to be human. He seeks merely to understand humanity and its ways but as we discover the truth is far more terrifying.
A totally robotic race, the Kaylon have responded to the Union’s invitation to join them by assigning one of their own, Isaac, to be part of the Orville crew. His job is to work alongside the various alien species and determine if the Kaylons should become part of the Union. He has no emotions and says things as they are. He is not compromised by emotions and is a diligent crew member whose abilities can often save the day. He and pilot Gordon Malloy (Scott Grimes) engage in a practical joke where Isaac amputates his leg, not really catching the concept of jokes. In another they discuss getting a cat for the bridge as stroking furry animals is good for you. Gordon suddenly finds Isaac stroking his arm hoping to emulate the sensation. Isaac’s robotic nature comes in handy when the crew discover a planet whose orbit means centuries pass in it’s orbit while little time passes for us. Isaac is able to live and observe the species evolve across history first hand bringing invaluable data to be studied.
Isaac begins a relationship with Doctor Finn (Deep Space 9’s Penny Johnson Jerald), falling in love and becoming father figure to her two sons, Marcus and Ty. In their holodeck, Isaac assumes a human form for their dates and to be honest I don’t even want to think of the sexual side of their relationship. Isaac would again use a hologram shield to look human in season three when the Orville travels to the 21st century in search of a lost crew mate and minerals they need to get back home.
But sadly the truth about Isaac and the Kaylons proves much more terrifying than anyone thought. In the episode Identity, the Kaylon would go from wanna be Datas to Borg.
In the two parter Identity, Isaac suddenly shuts down and collapses. To save him the Orville must travel to Kaylon 1 and meet his people face to face. What initially seems a cordial welcome, Isaac is repaired and decides to stay behind much to the disappointment of Finn and her boys. In the meantime, the ship’s sensors discover a massive build up of circular ships being constructed on the planet surface. Young Ty sneaks off to the planet’s underground caverns and when Bortus and Alara go after them, they discover the horrifying truth behind the Kaylons. The cavern is filled with thousands of skeletons. Kaylon Primary tells them that they wiped out their makers and Isaac was never simply an observer. His mission was to assess if the ‘biologicals’ are worthy to be allowed to live or not. They have decided they must all be killed starting with the Earth. In a stunning cliffhanger the Kaylon take over the Orville and lead it’s fleet to Earth. The Kaylon weaponry is inbuilt. Their heads split open and blasters flank either side of their heads. Their heads are also detachable if need be to become flying armed drones.
However during the battle when Primary threatens to kill Ty, Isaac saves the boy and turns on his own people to save the crew and Earth. Thousands are dead and this echoes into season three.
Isaac is a pariah both from his people and the Orville crew. He is a traitor to both of them and lives in the lab. New navigational officer, ensign Charly Burle detests him as the woman she loved was killed by them in the battle. She tells him straight what she thinks and refuses to work with him. His relationship with Doctor Finn and Marcus is broken but Ty still loves him. Marcus writes ‘murderer’ on the lab wall and he lets all his feelings out about the battle and Isaac’s part in it.
Isaac’s logical mind perceives that as the crew would be better off without him and with no way to return home, he commits suicide. This is the first inkling that a Kaylon can evolve and experience real emotion. John LaMarr finds a way to restore Isaac who is surprised to be alive and returns to his lab. Marcus still can’t bring himself to speak to him.
In the episode Far From Graves Captain Ed Mercer, Isaac and a team travel to Situal 4. There they meet a scientist and a very obliging Kaylon by the name of Timmis who can also experience emotion. He forms a bond with Isaac who has the emotion enhancement done to him. However it fails to take as he is an older model of Kaylon but experiences emotion for the first time. For the first time he is able to tell Doctor Finn how he feels and relishes how love makes him feel.
Timmis (Christopher Larkin) had been badly damaged during the Battle of Earth and could not harm the scientists. They studied and modified the injured Kaylon, although Doctor Uhabbus later died. Eventually, scientist Villka managed to uncover pathways that the Kaylon had to be able to allow Timmis to experience emotion and named him Timmis after her father. He is a kind and sensitive Kaylon who sees biologicals through very different eyes that his kin. There does not seem to be any female Kaylons as they are all identical with either red or blue eyes like Isaac.
In the same episode we get to see the creation of the Kylons in flashback. They were were constructed by a biological species native to Kaylon 1 that they referred to as the ;Builders’. They were initially conceived by the Builder Yan who mass-produced them at his company Vandicon. They were to serve as a slave race subservient to every order the Builders gave. A Kaylon asks if he can go to school with the children of the family he is servant to. Vandicon installed pain receptors in all Kaylons so as to prevent them from getting above their station. It is alarming to see children inflict pain on their Kaylon so when the Kaylon rise up and murder everyone for abusing them, we see where the caverns full of skeletons came from in Identity.
The Kaylon mindset is formed by this so their distrust of biologicals is well founded and understandable. They see them as potential threats and even Isaac’s data on the Orville crew is not rationally studied by neutral eyes but through the eyes of the abused.
In the end of second season finale The Road Not Taken, Kelly accidentally changes history. By not going on a second date with Ed the future changes. They never got married or ended up on the Orville therefore the Kaylon invasion succeeded. Their massive orb ships are everywhere hunting down the resistance. Luckily Kelly and Doctor Finn prevent this future from happening.
Add to this the Krill threat and the Moclans having left the Union (when they are exposed as duplicitous and guilty of kidnapping and almost murdering Bortus’ daughter Topa), Isaac and Charly create a super weapon capable of destroying Kaylon ships on a massive scale. When the Orville goes to Kaylon 1 to use it as a deterrent and potentially forge a peace treaty, they are attacked and forced to fire the weapon. They agreed to a cease fire but Admiral Thomas Perry (Ted Danson) steals the weapon and gives it to the new Krill and Moclan alliance. They are going to amplify the effects so all Kaylon are irradiated ending their threat forever. Kaylon primary and a few others agree to work with the Orville crew to prevent disaster.
The Orville crew with its Kaylon contingent charge to stop them but the Moclans have already charged the weapon. Charly as established hates the Kaylon. She cannot stop the firing mechanism so has to overload the machine to prevent it from firing. The only problem is she has to there to do it. She succeeds leaving an emotional crew devastated at her loss.
Keely tells Primary that Charly hated them but still gave her life to save the entire species. This act sees the Kaylon join a provisional peace treaty and membership with the Union. Their information on biologicals is seemingly flawed and are indeed worthy of saving. When Isaac marries Doctor Finn in the season three finale, every Kaylon turns up to the wedding taking their fellow’s invitation literally.
Thee Kaylons are a great race to explore. They are both childlike and lethal at the same time. Their weaponry heads opening like something from John Carpenter’s The Thing is unnerving. Along with their eyes turning red, they are a force to be reckoned with yet sympathised with due to their time as slaves. They didn’t start the fire but it was their fear of biologicals that kept them isolated from the rest of the galaxy. There was never any chance they could see that not all biologicals were like the Builders unless they reached out. And even then their past tinted their perceptions. They saw humour and joking as attacks on Isaac which, unless you understand humour, is quite a justified view to take.
I’m sure poor actor Mark Jackson was roasted in that all encompassing suit he had to wear but he did a great job in taking what he had and forging a robot unique to the genre. Here’s hoping we haven’t seen the end of the Orville and its robotic hero.
The Time Warriors and Beyond 