Nine months on from the Kaylon destruction of Earth, Ed Mercer and Gordon Molloy are on the run. They’re rescued by Kelly Grayson and her ragtag group of survivors who tell them an incredible story; they can stop all of this happening. They can save everyone. And all they have to do is break through Kaylon defences, extricate the Orville from her crash site at the bottom of the Mariana Trench and send Doctor Claire Finn back in time to make sure Ed and Kelly go on a second date.

Seth MacFarlane has, for years, traded on being a hard bitten wry cynic and this episode especially reveals that he is absolutely full of it. MacFarlane is a marshmallow, he’s pillow fluff, his heart is made of Doris Day movies and his writers room is the same and that is exactly why this show is so great. Because in the end, the universe is saved by a second date. Well, not just that, but we’ll get to that.

This is a cracking alternate timeline episode. Everything you want is here from welcome cameos (Halston Sage is back! Briefly!) and heroic deaths to moments of hard-bitten and sweet romance and action. So much action. A ridiculous amount of action. Seriously, it opens with a Kaylon combat drone upgrade chasing Ed and Gordon across the snowy wastes, takes in an asteroid chase, through an ice world, another asteroid field, the event horizon of a back hole and finally the bottom of the Mariana Trench. This may have been written as a series finale, although thankfully isn’t needed as one now, and it leaves everything on the field.

But where this episode really soars is in the one place the show has previously stumbled: Ed and Kelly. MacFarlane finds a third version of Ed here which is both deeply endearing and clearly broken. He never had the ‘dare to be great’ moment the confidence he got from being with Kelly inspired. He’s not pathetic but this is the best take on the Everyman I’ve seen and it’s certainly one of the best performances I’ve seen MacFarlane turn in.

Even then though the episode is owned by Adrienne Palicki. Kelly has become one of the most interesting characters on the show this season and again, this version is fascinating. Driven, guilty but resolutely refusing too be haunted by her choice she’s functionally the lead here and every character is better for it.

But what’s really great here is the ending. Yes, everything is saved by a second date. But it’s also saved by a bad marriage, a divorce, the psychological weight of two people who love each other but love each other enough to know they can’t be together. That’s smart, clear eyed, kind writing of a sort you rarely see.

Verdict: The Orville is back next year and I really hope it finds the audience it richly deserves. Smart, fun, kind and ambitious, it’s a worthy addition to the flotilla of science fiction shows we’ve got right now. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart