ORVILLE, THE: COMMAND PERFORMANCE (TV)
Summary
One in this comedy science-fiction series about the oddball crew of The Orville, an outer-space exploratory vessel roaming the cosmos in the 25th century. In this episode, Bortus requests a leave of absence, explaining that he and his partner Klyden have laid an egg and will soon become parents. The Orville then receives a distress call from a nearby ship, the Bleriot, stating that it has been attacked by Krill. Ed is baffled to see his own unharmed parents aboard the damaged ship, and he places a nervous Alara in charge as he and Kelly head out to board the Bleriot and assess its needs. Kelly complains that Ed's mother Jeannie surely hates her because of her infidelity, but Ed assures her that their disagreements are in the past and that she "did them a favor" by ending an unhappy marriage. The Orville crew is then shocked when the Bleriot, actually a holographic projection, suddenly vanishes, taking Ed and Kelly's craft with it. Alara panics and begs Bortus for help, but he refuses to leave his egg, leaving her as acting captain.
Determined to secure her colleagues' respect, Alara overrides Isaac's warnings and orders the buoy pulled into the Orville to examine it for clues, but it triggers a defense mechanism and explodes, damaging the Orville and injuring several crew members, including kindly Ensign Parker. Distraught, Alara pleads with Claire to relieve her of command on medical grounds, but Claire instead gives her some stern advice, urging her to learn from the mistake and listen to her crew's suggestions. Elsewhere, Ed and Kelly are confused when they awaken in what appears to be their old apartment in New York, while back on the ship Alara decides to use the ship's emergency power to trace a recent energy pulse, which seems to have transported Ed and Kelly elsewhere. Back at "home," Ed and Kelly begin to reminisce about the happy early days of their marriage, wondering if they perhaps made a mistake in splitting up. Admiral Tucker orders Alara not to pursue the pulse into an "off-limits" sector of space, citing the dangers posed by the Calivon race, who believe themselves superior to all other beings. Ed and Kelly soon find that they have been placed in a Calivon zoo, with their cage designed to look like their "natural environment," and Ed realizes that the aliens used a recreation of his parents as a trap.
The Orville's crew is outraged when Alara regretfully admits that she has been ordered to leave Ed and Kelly for dead and return to Earth, but Claire reminds her that she has a choice, and when Malloy adds that Ed would surely risk his career to save her, Alara decides to disobey the admiral and head into Calivon territory. Stuck in their cage, Ed and Kelly realizes that their divorce was the right choice after all as they begin to squabble, and Isaac, hailing from the equally xenophobic Kaylon race, visits the zookeeper with his "pet" Alara in tow and claims that the new human captives have a dangerous disease. The zookeeper opts to "euthanize" the pair, but Alara, thinking quickly, offers a trade, and Ed and Kelly are saved from death by laser beams at the last moment. Back on the Orville, Ed awards Alara for her bravery with a medal, and she explains that she took Malloy's advice and appeased the zookeeper with a "very obscure" gift from Earth's cultural past: episodes of reality television. On the ship, Bortus and Klyden are shocked when their egg hatches – revealing an unheard-of female Moclan. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: Fox
- DATE: November 30, 1999 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:45:08
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 131075
- GENRE: Comedy, fantasy/science fiction
- SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy, fantasy/science fiction; Space exploration; Space aliens
- SERIES RUN: Fox - TV series, 2017-
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Liz Heldens … Executive Producer
- Jason Clark … Executive Producer
- David A. Goodman … Executive Producer
- Brannon Braga … Executive Producer
- Jon Favreau … Executive Producer
- Seth MacFarlane … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Wellesley Wild … Co-Executive Producer
- Cherry Chevapravatdumrong … Co-Executive Producer
- Howard Griffith … Co-Executive Producer
- Andre Bormanis … Supervising Producer
- Grace Kountzhouse … Co-Producer
- James Williams … Co-Producer
- Joy Fehily … Co-Producer
- Natasha Francis … Visual Effects Producer
- Robert Duncan McNeill … Director
- John Debney … Music by
- Bruce Broughton … Theme Music by
- Seth MacFarlane … Cast, Captain Ed Mercer
- Adrianne Palicki … Cast, Cmdr. Kelly Grayson
- Penny Johnson Jerald … Cast, Dr. Claire Finn
- Scott Grimes … Cast, Lt. Gordon Malloy
- Peter Macon … Cast, Lt. Commander Bortus
- Halston Sage … Cast, Lt. Alara Kitan
- J. Lee … Cast, Lt. John LaMarr
- Mark Jackson … Cast, Isaac
- Chad L. Coleman … Cast, Klyden
- Jeffrey Tambor … Cast, Ben Mercer
- Holland Taylor … Cast, Jeannie Mercer
- Larry Joe Campbell … Cast, Steve Newton
- Ron Canada … Cast, Admiral Tucker
- Brett Rickaby … Cast, Lurenek
- JD Cullum … Cast, Calivon Zoo Administrator
- Jerry O'Donnell … Cast, Captain of the USS Bleriot
- Andrew Bering … Cast, Technician Jennings
- Mike Gray … Cast, Ensign Parker
- Alaina Fleming … Cast, Technician Reed
- Jeremy Guskin … Cast, Furry Alien
- Maxwell Hurlburt … Cast, Greenish Alien
- George Tsai … Cast, Shuttle Bay Officer #1
- Ryan Dietz … Cast, Calivon Official #1
- Shannon McClung … Cast, Calivon Officer #2
- Sarah Buehler … Cast, Calivon Mother
- Armen Nahapetian … Cast, Calivon Child