So I just finished up season 3 of The Orville.
Trying to describe what The Orville is or isn't can be a challenging exercise, particularly it's relationship to Star Trek. Is The Orville a parody, an homage. But over it's three seasons, it's best to say that The Orville is it's own thing.
Although rebranded as The Orville: New Horizons, much of season 3 builds on the work of the previous 2 seasons.
The relationship of Isaac to the rest of the crew is impacted by the Kaylon assault on the Planetary Union in season 2. Yeah, Isaac was able to throw off the programming of the other Kaylon and help the Orville and the Union fight the Kaylon but not before many the deaths of many Union officers and citizens take place. There are those on the Orville who do not think Isaac should be forgiven.
Being ostracized by so many on the crew, Isaac lacks an emotional response but sees this anger and hatred as a detriment to crew efficiency and thus decides to terminate his own existence. Suddenly we are thrust into a deeply profound examination of suicide. Yes, since Isaac is a machine, the crew can technobabble him back to life but it nonetheless remains a remarkably troubling and thought provoking episode.
Perhaps nowhere does The Orville demonstrate it's new found maturity more potently than in "A Tale of Two Topas", written and directed by Seth McFarlane.
In season 1, crew member Bortus and his mate Klyden of the planet Moclus have given birth to a daughter.
Which is a problem because all Morclans are male, have always have been and will always will be according to Moclan biology, Moclan science, Moclan law, Moclan tradition, etc etc etc.
You get the idea.
Except...
It's not true. Morclan births are just as likely to produce a female as a male. The myth that all Morclans are male is maintained by forcing gender reassignment surgery on females immediately after birth.
Bortus is open minded enough to let Topa stay the way she was born, Klyden is a hard nosed traditionalist who insists that all Moclans are male and this is the way and no other.
In the season 1 tale, there is a legal challenge which naturally Moclan law sides with Klyden and their daughter Topa becomes their son Topa.
Which brings us to season 3.
Because of Moclan biology (or simply the magic of TV aging all kids seem to go through), Topa is a teenager who feels there is something wrong with him. Finding out the truth, Topa decides to return to being a female and asks Dr. Finn to reverse the gender reassignment surgery.
Klyden says no. The Moclans say no. The Union says no not wanting to piss off the Moclans who are the principal suppliers of Union weaponry.
The crew of the Orville collectively pull of a con to allow Isaac (who is technically not an Union officer) to perform a reversal of the gender reassignment surgery.
Topa is the female she was born to be and she is finally at peace with herself.
Her journey is not without price. True to his thick headed obstinacy, Klyden leaves his family and the Orville behind.
A couple of episodes later in "Midnight Blue", the issue of the Moclan's cruel and short sighted oppression of females raises it's ugly head once more and the Union finally decides it's had enough of this shit and votes to expel Moclas from the Union.
Klyden comes to his damn senses and returns to his husband Bortas and accepts Topa as his daughter.
Special kudos to Imani Pullum who makes her professional acting debut as Topa.
"Midnight Blue" is the episode with the guest appearance by Dolly Parton as a hologram version of herself who dispenses some very helpful advice and performs a song from her new album. It sounds silly on paper but it is a truly effective and moving sequence.
Anne Winters joins the cast in season 3 as Ensign Charly Burke who as the tricky role of being a total bitch to Isaac without being completely unlikeable. During the Kaylon war, her would be girlfriend Amanda is killed before Charly could ever tell her she loved her. So Charly has zero love lost for having to working around Isaac.
But Ensign Charly Burke has some mad engineering skills which are essential to helping Isaac recover from his self termination in episode 1. And in episode 9, she actually sacrifices her life to save the Kaylon race as a whole. It's complicated but it was important. Charly was loyal to the Union to the last and her last thought was she would get to see Amanda again.
Dammit, McFarlane! Don't make me care like that!!!
I would be remiss not to mention our favorite gelatinous engineer blob Lt. Yaphit. Norm Macdonald completed voiceover work Yaphit prior to his death in September 2021, making it his final role. Yaphit could have easily been a one joke character but he became so much more. Norm will be greatly missed.
If The Orville began as a lark, let's have some fun with the tropes of Star Trek where characters actually swear, get drunk and cite cultural references more recent that Shapespeare, The Orville: New Horizons propels the show into dramatic new territory, unafraid to approach complex social and political issues such as gender identity, depression, suicide, racism, sexism, toxic nationalism and more.
The Orville: New Horizons has moved far beyond the limits of parody or homage and most certainly it's own thing. And something that I hope that continues it's mission of exploration. A decision on a season 4 is not a done deal.
I'm hoping for a positive outcome on that decision.
Next week, we take a look the second season of Only Murders In the Building. Who the fuck killed Bunny Fogler? And why?
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.
No comments:
Post a Comment