Warning: This review contains spoilers for The Orville’s 11^th episode.

Well, we are almost at the end folks! Two episodes left in The Orville’s first season and then we’re on to season 2! I’m very excited to see how The Orville handles season finales, but to get to that point we’ve gotta dig deep with the penultimate episode.

In the last episode, we explored the concept of fear, as Alara struggled inside a simulation designed to help her discover and confront her fear after the death of a crew member. It was a good episode, but it was light on Sci-Fi elements. Let’s hope this next episode fits more in The Orville’s usual niche.

Episode spoilers begin here!

Episode 11, titled “New Dimensions” begins with a sendoff party on the Orville for Commander Newton, the chief of engineering. Newton is going to be helping design a new space station, so Kelly and Ed have set up a party to send him off properly. Meanwhile, John and Gordon have played a prank on Yahphit, putting a small piece of him in the buffet when Yahphit wasn’t looking.

Yahphit then goes to see Claire and when she tells him that she is busy, he mentions that it isn’t a social call. He feels like he has lost a piece of himself somewhere but can’t quite figure out where. We then see Bortus walk into the infirmary, citing digestive issues. This is strange, since previously in the series they proved that Moclans have a very strong stomach.

They then deduce that the piece of Yahphit is inside Bortus. Yahphit then insists that he needs to go inside Bortus to reunite with the piece and asks Bortus which entrance (or rather, orifice) he wants to go into. Bortus isn’t pleased by this idea and what follows next is what I can only describe as something reminiscent of Japanese adult entertainment involving tentacles… orally, not in any other fashion.

Afterward, Kelly calls John and Gordon into a conference room to talk to them about their prank. Kelly tells them that she plans to put a formal reprimand on each of their records and that she hopes Yahphit won’t file charges on them. While she’s putting things into the computer though, she discovers something interesting.

Kelly goes to Ed’s office, showing him what she found. Aside from Isaac, according to his aptitude rating, John is the smartest officer on board the Orville. She suggests that they investigate why John seems to downplay his abilities and also suggests that they consider John for the role of Chief Engineer. Ed isn’t convinced until she starts breaking down the numbers. John’s engineering test scores were off the charts, he’s a perfect candidate.

Ed mentions that John has never had to oversee a group or be a leader and Kelly counters that he has never gotten the chance. Before they can come to some sort of an agreement, the ship experiences some sort of turbulence, they’ll have to finish talking about this later. They go to the bridge and discover that they were knocked out of quantum drive.

No one knows exactly why except Isaac discovers that they are on the outer edge of a spatial anomaly. One of the quantum engines was knocked out of alignment, so while they fix that, they are stuck on the edge of the anomaly. Luckily, it isn’t a danger to them at the moment. Isaac goes to do scans and coordinate with Engineering, and Kelly suggests that John assist him.

Ed agrees and John goes with Isaac to do scans, and help Engineering fix the quantum engine’s alignment. Along the way, John and Isaac are found by Ty and Marcus, Claire’s boys. They ask to help and initially, Isaac is resistant until John and the boys are able to convince him.

They meet up with Yahphit, who tells them he found some strange readings, but can’t make sense of them. Isaac discovers that the room was subject to a quantum wake but since the room was unoccupied, nothing has been disturbed. However, Ty shows Isaac that the plants in the room are all dead, and they’re not sure why.

Isaac, John, Ed, Kelly, and Claire discuss the quantum wake in the conference room. Claire mentions that it should have no effect on living tissue but the dead plants are a mystery to all of them. Kelly and Ed then discuss John a bit more. Ed decides that in light of what is going on, they need to fill the Chief Engineer spot sooner, rather than later.

He wants to promote Yahphit and says that John doesn’t seem that ambitious, and may not want the job. Kelly suggests that they put John in the lead of the investigation team and says that he deserves a shot at this. Kelly accidentally lets slip that she was the one to suggest that Ed be in charge of the Orville. I knew this would come up eventually.

Ed is (justifiably) upset but Kelly points out that he would have gotten command eventually anyway. She just wanted to do something to make things better after she was the reason for his year-long slump. Ed now questions if his leadership is legitimate, though Kelly knows that it is.

When talking to the Admiral about the situation, Halsey mentions that in the eyes of the Admirals, Ed has proven himself. There is no doubt in their minds that he is where he needs to be, regardless of the situation that led to his posting. Ed still has his doubts though.

On the bridge, Gordon asks if they think that he should get a cat for the Bridge. The crew (minus Kelly and Ed) starts discussing the merits of a bridge cat and Isaac doesn’t quite get it. This eventually leads to Isaac petting Gordon, which confuses him.

Kelly calls John into her office and asks him why he never told anyone about his intelligence. He responds that it is his business, which leads to her discussing the evolution of human ambition. Money became obsolete after the Matter Synthesizer was created and humans began to rely on reputation alone to climb the metaphorical ladder.

John responds that he just wants a simple life and while Kelly respects that, she wants him to use his gifts and try his hand at command before he writes it off. So, she puts him in charge of the task force anyway. Back on the bridge, Ed discovers a ship heading straight for the anomaly and hails them to try and warn them.

The ship’s captain refuses to listen and when they pass through the anomaly, there are no life signs on the other side. Ed decides to take a shuttle crew to check on them, just in case. When the shuttle crew arrives on the ship, they find the captain dead. The power grid is out on the ship and Alara has found 20 crates of Krill plasma rifles in boxes in the cargo hold.

Back onboard the ship, Kelly tries to patch things up with Ed again, but he re-asserts that now he is always going to second guess whether he earned his place in command or not. Ed goes back to his office and Yahphit is there, demanding to know why John is in charge of the science team. Ed explains the situation, but Yahphit thinks it is because he is gelatinous.

Meanwhile, John is freaking out over his first command position. Gordon finds him and explains that he was a camp counselor once, and gives John some advice about how he broke the ice with the groups of kids he worked with. The ice-breaking exercise doesn’t go well, however, John and Isaac discover something interesting about the anomaly afterward.

They discover that it is a pocket, an aperture leading to a pocket of two-dimensional space. They explain that when the smuggler ship passed through, it caused the ship to go from three dimensions into two. Claire explains that the reason the smuggler died, is because living organisms have protein molecules that are defined by their three-dimensional shapes. Phasing into two dimensions is what killed him.

Before they can come up with a plan, three Krill ships approach, presumably after the weapons that were taken by the smuggler. Because the engines are down, they can’t evade the Krill ship. However, John suggests that they use the quantum field generator to shield them and hide in the aperture until the Krill ships leave.

Isaac suggests that it is theoretically possible, so they decide to try it. John works with the engineering team to pull off the plan and it is ultimately a success. They travel through 2D space, which is a very well done, beautiful sequence. As they travel through, the crew begins talking about what they are seeing. Isaac suggests that they may be seeing two-dimensional life forms and a two-dimensional civilization.

While they wait for the Krill ships to leave, Kelly goes to talk to Ed again. She calls him out on his prideful ideas of getting to where he is on his merit alone. She tells him that no one gets to where they are without help from someone, whether they know it or not. She’s right too, you can push yourself, and your merit does matter. However, eventually, someone has to be willing to hire you, to take a chance on you, or even just trust you enough to do whatever it is you’re aiming for.

Kelly tells Ed that he is great at seeing all sides of a problem, except when it comes to himself. She then says that she’s not sorry that she intervened on his behalf because she now gets to work for a captain she respects. Not only that but she gets to see him every day. Ed responds by telling her that he knows it came from a good place but he still needs time to work it out in his head.

Then comes a major problem. The quantum bubble begins to deteriorate. Ed orders Gordon to take them back to three-dimensional space but the anomaly has closed, so they are stuck. After a quick emergency meeting, Isaac suggests that he may have found another exit. John suggests that they use a shuttle to tow the Orville out and create a quantum field inside the shuttle so that only the outside of the shuttle is compressed. Yes, this is exactly like The Doctor’s Tardis from Doctor Who.

Ed volunteers to drive the shuttle, while John keeps the field stable. While they are installing the generator in the shuttle, John overhears the other science crew members talking about Yahphit, blaming him for the situation they’re in. John stands up for him, saying that he made the final call, so it is on him, not Yahphit.

The plan begins and though the transition to two-dimensional space is jarring, things proceed smoothly. Ed asks John why he hides his brain and John answers that on his home colony, they didn’t trust people who were smart. He wanted to be liked, accepted, so he played dumb out of habit. Ed tells John that when they get out of this, he wants John to be the Chief Engineer.

John asks if he is sure and Ed simply says that Kelly was right about John, and a lot of other things. The field starts to collapse and Ed has one last trick up his sleeve. He decides to take the shuttle to quantum speed and simply hope that they all make it.

They manage to make it out of the aperture and other than a cleanup request for the shuttle, nothing is amiss. Ed then goes to see Kelly and he apologizes. He says that the command of the Orville means everything to him and that it is more than just a job. Kelly knows this already and tells him that no one on the ship knows him better than she does.

Ed then thanks Kelly and tells her that if he ever doubts his leadership again, he’ll simply remind himself who has his back. He kisses her cheek and then leaves her office. I think their relationship is circling back towards romance folks.

The final scene involves John taking charge of his team, revealing that he accepted the position of Chief Engineer. I hope this doesn’t mean that we’ll see less of John moving forward. I think he’s a great character. I should also mention that it is great that they’ve put two people of color (Claire and John) in leadership positions on the Orville.

This episode of The Orville was great. It had great character work, great sci-fi, and it showcased a character that we didn’t get to see much beyond comedic work. I like that they are showing John as more than just a prankster. Every member of the team has a valuable skill, along with strengths and weaknesses.

We’ve got the Season 1 finale left, and I am very excited to see what comes next. This show has quickly become a sci-fi favorite of mine and this is coming from someone who has always had a love/hate relationship with Seth McFarlane’s work. I’m really glad that I have another whole season to review too, because I can’t imagine what the people who are caught up are going through, waiting for The Orville to continue.

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The Orville

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• Great Sci-Fi Plot
• Hilarious Comedy Bits
• Solid Character Development
• Beautiful Special Effect Work

Cons

• The Smuggler was Gross
• Ed was a Little Whiny