By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
For a show hyped as a comedy Star Trek clone, The Orville quickly became a show packed with quality scripts focusing on social commentary. But it could also deliver epic space battles and drama in way reminiscent of the war seasons of Deep Space 9.
At first the show looked like a copy of Star Trek but without the transporters to save the day. It had the token Klingon-like officer, the robot trying to understand humanity and a super strong female alien security officer to add to the alien presence. We had the pilot becoming chief engineer just like Geordi La Forge did on the Enterprise. We know as an audience that we would learn more about each character as we go but never did we expect the plot twist in the two-part Identity. Such was the shock of it all, that the Orville universe would be changed forever.
Isaac is not a formal member of the Orville but an emissary for his species, the Kaylons. He has been sent by his people to study organics to see if the Kaylons will enter The Union as fully fledged members. Isaac has formed close associations with the crew especially with Doctor Claire Finn (Penny Johnson Jerald from Deep Space 9) and her sons Ty and Marcus. The boys have come to see him as a father figure and Claire has romantic feelings for him despite his lack of understanding of emotions.
They announce their relationship to the boys at the start of the episode but Isaac short circuits and collapses. The only way to save him is to return him to his homeworld Kaylon and deliver him to his people if he has any chance of survival. Ty and Marcus keep vigil over him with Ty telling the inert robot that he wants him to come back, marry his mom and become his father.
Photos copyright Fox
No Union ship has been to Kaylon. It is a totally robotic society closed to everyone and the visuals as the Orville flies amid its towering cities is impressive. Even the soundtrack is epic here conveying an ominous air as they arrive at Kaylon, far from home and all alone. Kaylon technology is far superior to anything the Union has. Without a word, the ship is scanned and landing co-ordinates are given.
Handing over Isaac’s body, the crew can only wait. It is somewhat unnerving to see a species with all the same face and same red eyes. Humans react best when they can look into the eyes of the person they are talking to and judge their inner thoughts by their expression. The Kaylons call to mind all the classic movie robots like C-3PO. Isaac has provided a certain comedy element in the series such as learning abut practical jokes with helmsman Gordon Malloy. Isaac sedates a sleeping Malloy and amputates his leg as a joke totally misunderstanding the concept of practical jokes. he is liked and trusted by all of them.
The superior attitude of the Kaylons grates with the crew especially when they tell them Isaac will be reintegrated to their society having fulfilled his function as Emissary. Claire is furious that he is discarding them so quickly especially her boys. He breaks the news to them and they take it badly.
The Kaylons are still analysing the data Isaac has gathered and their addition to the Union is far from certain. They tell Captain Mercer that it is not in their best interests to join the Union due to a violent history including history. They see Malloy’s practical jokes as abuse towards Isaac cancelling Mercer’s argument that that that sort of behaviour is long past. But little do we know that this is just a cover for a more deadly plan.
They even throw a party for Isaac and Ty gives him a drawing he has done of them as a family which the robot drops on purpose in a corridor. But security chief Talla and Bortus have detected some sort of factory making something en masse.
Young Ty, having found the discarded drawing, goes after Isaac launching a search for him. Bortus, Doctor Finn and Talla find him in an underground chamber which kicks the story into gear.
In the cavern are thousands of skeletons of a biological race. The planet is covered in these mass graves. The visuals for this are both horrific and creepy as we realise that discovering the Kaylon secret forces the robots to show their true hand.
Isaac’s mission was not to assess organics for admission to the Union but to assess the threat they pose to the Kaylon. The mass graves are the race that built them that the Kaylon exterminated in a slave rebellion. They distrust organics because their builders abused them. This is why they are so focused on Isaac’s “abuse” and human history of violence and slavery.
The Kaylons have been assessing the rest of the Union for mass extermination and after that will be the non-Union societies like the Krill. The construction they observed was in fact a fleet of orb-like ships to carry out this massacre. The Orville crew are restrained as the Kaylon invade their ship intending to use it as a Trojan horse to gain entry to Earth then destroy it from orbit.
And just when you think things can’t get any worse, the Kaylon reveal a hidden feature. Their heads split open to form weapons which can kill or stun. This image makes them unique and terrifying. Orville takes our expectations and turns them on their heads, literally in this case. Now the simple looking robots are almost demon like in appearance and a clear and present danger. They are strong, cannot be intimidated and go by a simple binary logic; kill of be killed. There are no other choices because of their limited code. They cannot conceive any other options because they have no imagination or gut instincts.
The gathering of the crew and civilians into cargo bays is reminiscent of the Star trek Voyager two parter and season cliffhanger ‘Basics’. In that story, Voyager is commandeered by the Kazon and Cardassian traitor Seska who leave the Voyager crew stranded on a primitive planet to die.
As they launch the Orville, we see their fleet of Kaylon ships rise and swarm behind the captured ship. The shots of the ships rising from the planet surface and their simple design is frightening. Their Ferris Wheel look is simplistic but effective given we have seen what the Kaylon are capable of. Trapped and helpless, the crew can only watch as they are flown to be witness to the mass extermination of everything they know. Even Isaac no longer responds to Claire’s anger as his fellow robots use his knowledge to secure the Orville.
Epic is an overused word these days but Orville can confidently claim this title, for not only this episode and the second part, but for the final shot of the entire Kaylon fleet rising into space with the helpless Orville leading the way.
Every show aims for a cliffhanger on par with Star Trek The Next Generation’s ‘The Best of Both Worlds’ or Star Trek Enterprise’s ‘Aati Prime’. Seth McFarlane comes close with ‘Identity’. Our expectations are subverted and I can imagine many thinking they know where this story is going; until the stool is kicked from under them. The job of any writer is to take the norms and turn the dial up to eleven; to surprise and make the audience sit up and take notice.
We have a great shift in a beloved character’s motivations and a deadly plot revealed that threatens allies and enemies alike. At one point, the Kaylon joining the Union would be a great advantage against the Krill bit now that is irrelevant. All species face the same enemy in a doomsday situation. The token annoying kid label that began with Wesley Crusher works perfectly here as Ty’s reaction to losing Isaac is genuine and heartfelt.
Of course this leads to the other moral ambiguity of having children from a sperm bank and raising them without a father. Then again, if Isaac had not been seen as such then the Kaylon plot would never have been exposed. The Union and everyone else would have died as the Kaylon burned the surface of Earth from space, never knowing why.
But if you want a ‘how the hell do they get out of this?‘ story then ‘Identity’ Part 1 is for you. Stunning.
The Time Warriors and Beyond 