THE ORVILLE 1x05 "Pria"

I haven't found a review of The Orville as hard to open as after last night's fifth episode, "Pria". There's so much that can be said about "Pria" that I simply don't know where to begin.

   Perhaps with Charlize Theron, award-winning movie star making a widely publicised guest appearance as the episode's titular character, Pria Lavesque. She begins the episode as a member of a mining corporation whose ship was trapped on a comet making a "kamikaze dive" into a dying star, and finishes as a conscience-less retriever and purveyor of historical artefacts from the 29th century, who travels through time using a wormhole.

Pria at the helm of The Orville
Image: FOX

   This episode is all about build-ups and shocking reveals, the most significant of which is Pria's true agenda: we know from trailers and promos that Pria will be a threat to The Orville, but unraveling her deceptions takes quite a while. This is good from a writing perspective, as it leaves the audience guessing, but it does mean that the most interesting part of the episode - post the reveal that Pria's rescue of The Orville from a dark matter storm in which the crew all should have died was faked in order for her to take control of the ship and sell it on to collectors in the 29th century - isn't revealed with enough time remaining to be properly developed. (Part of the surprise of the reveal was that I had not expected The Orville to travel down the path of time travel as a plot device, although in retrospect this is a Seth MacFarlane show and of course time travel showed up.)

   But Pria's storyline was not good only for an intriguing mystery that blew the audience out of the water: it also allowed a focus on some established character dynamics (after watching them bond last week on the bio-ship, we saw Kelly and Alara's closeness developed in their willingness to break rules to expose Pria), and gave the show a chance to circle back around to the Ed/Kelly divorce drama. This had fallen by the wayside in episodes 3 and 4, but Pria's arrival - and Ed's romantic interest in her - brought it back to the surface at the right time for it to further develop; with Ed's assertion he will no longer ignore his XO's warnings, hopefully we shall see less tension between him and Kelly in the future.

   Other positives of Pria's storyline included the audience finally seeing Yaphit in a context other than being trodden on or trying unsuccessfully to woo Dr. Finn: he appeared in one scene in the engineering room, a fresh set for us to feast our eyes upon, and (although off-screen by this point) spotted the object Pria had used to gain control of the ship; secondly, we saw more of Isaac in his actual role aboard the ship, Isaac being another character who hasn't had much chance to show off his raison d'être thus far.

   And that provides a great segue into some comments on the subplot: Gordon trying to teach Isaac about humour and practical jokes. I'm a huge fan of characters in TV shows who misunderstand human norms, or whose personalities or conditions cause them to function quite individually (see any of Elementary, The Good Doctor, Lucifer or Scorpion for some of my favourite examples), and Isaac as an AI is no different. It's why his idea of a practical joke, once he grasps the "directives" that define a practical joke, is something as extreme as the amputation of a limb, where Gordon's was sticking Mr Potato Head pieces to Isaac's face. And it's why Isaac is the undisputed king of practical jokes. I was crying from laughter when Malloy's leg was revealed to have been cut off. It's also another example of the episode's excellent use of build-up to a shocking and unexpected reveal.

With writing this clever, I expect even more from The Orville in the next 8 episodes, although I do hope the episode endings improve. That isn't to say they are bad, but I do feel as if the endings are either a little tone-deaf compared to the episode they close, or a little too abrupt. Pria's disappearance due to quantum physics after the wormhole was destroyed seemed remarkably fitting, but still somehow left me thinking something had been missed. It was the only bad note in the entire episode.

RATING: 9.5/10

POINTS OF NOTE

• Alara: "What happened to your leg?"
  Gordon: "HE amputated it while I was sleeping!"
  Isaac: "Ha ha. Got you. I have retaliated. That is my practical joke."
  Gordon: "This isn't a joke, you psychopath, you dismembered me!"
• Does anyone remember a Lieutenant Commander Bortus? I'm sure he was a character on this show at some point.
• The graphics were, once again, insane - aside from that one scene with Pria and Ed in a holographic world admiring beautiful scenery. That was painful green screen.
• Charlize Theron was absolutely the right person to play Pria Lavesque.
• Pickle jar count: 3.

EPISODE 1x06 "Krill" - PROMO