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Review of 'The Orville' 2.4

Billy Joel

By Paul LevinsonPublished 5 years ago 2 min read
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An instantly classic episode of The Orville—2.4—last night, in which Billy Joel plays a role. Yes, his long retirement tour proved to be a ruse for a trip in a time machine he took 400 years into the future to join the crew of the Orville. No, actually it was the music of Billy Joel that played a role last night, and it's thoroughly believable that it would still be listened to and much admired by Captain Mercer.

The centerpiece of the plot concerns his budding romance with the lady cartographer, who, in a nice piece of twist, turns out to be a Krill that Mercer has had some bad history with. He killed her brother. The Krill and humans don't get along. And Teleya used some kind of genetic masking to pass the Orville's sensors and be identified as a human.

Before the episode is over, she and Mercer are not quite back at the precipice of love again. But Mercer has saved her life, and struck an important blow for interstellar-species detente. It's the kind of moment we saw in the some of the Star Trek films. But The Orville is increasingly blazing a path of its own in the stars and our popular culture.

The subplot was good, too. Gordon wants to climb up the ladder to command. It falls to Kelly to guide him, and she does a good job of that with compassion and toughness, when needed. But I did miss Alara, and I'm still eager to know if she's off the show. A search of our 2019 internet shows no one knows what's going on with her. My recommendation: Weave her departure into some long-range plot to bring her back before the end of the season.

In the meantime, keep playing Billy Joel. My request for his next number: "Say Goodbye to Hollywood."

1st starship to Alpha Centauri... had only enough fuel to get there.

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About the Creator

Paul Levinson

Novels The Silk Code & The Plot To Save Socrates; LPs Twice Upon A Rhyme & Welcome Up; nonfiction The Soft Edge & Digital McLuhan, translated into 15 languages. Best-known short story: The Chronology Protection Case; Prof, Fordham Univ.

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