When two scientists under cover on an Earth-like world disappear, the Orville is sent to investigate. Kelly leads a rescue team of John, Alara, and Claire to find out what happened. They find a world where everything from law to science is decided by democracy. But when a video of John joking around goes viral, he’s arrested and most go on an apology tour. If pat the end of it he has under 10 million downvotes, he’s free to go. If he doesn’t, he’ll be ‘corrected’…

As usual there are two or three things going on at once here. The first is The Orville’s wry, actually very funny take on the ‘we filmed this on the back lot near our favorite Starbucks’ Earth-like setting. There’s a great scene early on where Ed just bristles with scorn at the costumes the team have to wear and the off hand description of money he gives is fantastic. This is an episode designed to save money. it’s an episode that knows it’s designed to save money. it’s okay with that.

The rest of the comedy is much less successful. Like poor Gordon last week, John is required to be a moron for the plot to happen. Not just that but so crushingly unprofessional you honestly wonder how he was employed. It’s such a shame too because, like Scott Grimes, J. Lee is a great comedian. There’s a couple of moments here where he gets genuinely good work but for the most part he’s got the thankless task of carrying the episode on his shoulders, and the weakest parts of it at that.

The remainder of the episode is a combination of a nicely Black Mirror-esque world and a couple of well handled workarounds. The set up is genuinely chilling but has the mundane edge that BM tends to lack. This feels like a dystopia we could get a decent latte in. The fact that the team are aided by Lysella, a friendly local played by Giorgia Wigham, helps matters even more. Her arc could so easily have been a standard ‘young people are feckless and must LEARN’ piece of fluff. Instead she’s grounded and fun, learns what’s wrong with her world and is changed by her experiences. She’s great.

The other element that impresses is Ed. MacFarlane’s scripts have improved in two major ways. The first is how good he is at ensembles, with Kelly, Claire, Bortus and Alara all getting good moments this episode. The second is in how much Ed has changed. The bitter incompetent of the first episode has been replaced by a grounded, crumpled, fundamentally decent man. His workaround here is genuinely inspired, and it’s a nice way to acknowledge the inevitable reset button and make it a feature not a bug. It’s just a shame the comedy/drama load is so unevenly distributed once again.

Verdict: This isn’t a bad episode of The Orville, it’s just not a very good one. A great idea is wasted on lowest hanging fruit jokes that damage the character they should be building up. That being said, there’s still lots to enjoy here. But we do wish the show would tweak the dials just a little. It’d really, really help. 5/10

Alasdair Stuart