Bortus and Klyden’s child has been born.

And she’s female.

As Bortus pushes to have her gender changed, he and the rest of the crew find themselves caught up in an age old dispute about Moclan culture. One Bortus will find himself on a very surprising side of…

Remember those middle three or four seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation? The ones which had a long string of issue-driven drama that balanced science fiction with current affairs?

This is as good as that run of episodes.

It would have been so easy for The Orville to play this situation for laughs. And in fairness, there are still a ton of jokes this week. But the good news is the vast majority of them work and the better news is the show continues to bring its characters into focus. Ed and Kelly in particular are really coming on now and Ed is becoming more of a convincing leader with every passing week. There’s a real honesty and compassion to him now that’s fundamentally likable. Better still, Kelly and he are now so comfortable together they bust each other’s chops rather than snipe at one another. They’re sweet and funny, smart and flawed and doing their best. That aspirational element MacFarlane has talked about a lot is very definitely here.

But this episode belongs to Peter Macon. Bortus has, in three episodes, upgraded from a one-note character to the show’s Worf. He’s complicated and flawed and spends this entire episode having everything he believes in challenged. Macon rises to the challenge with aplomb and the character is vastly more interesting as the episode ends than he’s ever been before. Likewise Chad Coleman as his mate, Klyden does a lot of the episode’s heavy lifting and lands every serious note in the exact place it needs to be.

Best of all, there’s no quick fix or easy win. If there was one thing The Orville desperately needed to not carry over from Star Trek, it’s the reset button and this episode doesn’t have one. Instead, it leaves the Moclans in a complicated, compelling situation I genuinely hope the show returns to.

Verdict: There are still problems of course. Gordon is the butt of a few jokes too many for one. But overall this is the best episode of the show so far by a mile. Funny, hopeful, and kind in a way neither previous episode has been it’s a perfect jumping on point for the show and a genuinely good piece of drama. More of this please. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart