The Orville, S2.14: “The Road Not Taken” offers a familiar yet enjoyable ride…

****BLACK-HOLE SIZED SPOILERS!!**** The Orville continues to revisit ‘roads not taken’ with various Star Trek story elements, while executing them with enough panache, humor and entertainment value to make them well worth revisiting. Last week’s episode, “Tomorrow…” was a nearly scene-specific remake of Star Trek: The Next Gen’s “Second Chances” (both saw First Officers dealing…

The Orville, S2.13, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” is a blast from Kelly’s past…

****PLANETARY RING-SIZED SPOILERS AHEAD!!**** The Orville’s latest, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” (a title alluding to Shakespeare’s “MacBeth”) is, in many ways, another Star Trek: The Next Generation remake. In this case, the Commander Riker-centered “Second Chances”, which saw Riker facing a transporter-created doppelgänger unknowingly left behind on an away mission. The Orville comes at…

The Orville, S2.12: “Sanctuary” tackles gender inequality…

“The Orville” continues to explore Star Trek-style allegory but with its own unique brand of humor, and this week was another quality entry that managed that delicate juggling act, delivering scathing commentary on international gender inequality with…Dolly Parton. The Story. Capt. Ed Mercer (writer/creator/producer/star Seth MacFarlane) and his first and second officers, Kelly Grayson (Adrianne…

The Orville, S2.10, “The Blood Of Patriots”…

The latest episode of The Orville, “The Blood of Patriots”, is written (once again) by series’ star/producer/writer/creator Seth MacFarlane (“Captain Ed Mercer”), and is directed by Rebecca Rodriguez, a former editor from “Machete.” “Blood…” focuses on the character of Gordon Malloy (Scott Grimes), the wiseass helmsman who, until season 2, was little more than a…

The Orville takes on pseudoscience in S2.5’s “All the World is Birthday Cake”…

****UNION STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!!**** Once again, The Orville takes a familiar Star Trek-trope, in this case the event of first contact between a sophisticated spacefaring race and a less-developed planet. Star Trek has long held to its ‘prime directive’ that forbids revealing the existence of spacefaring civilizations to such planets unless they have asked for help,…