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So after last week's which I thought was slightly dissapointing, I thought this one was really back on form.

Some fun bits of continuity - Like Mercer, I just assumed the Krill wore helmets in the pilot because it made them look more military, and frankly to save makeup budget. But now we find they have a strong phobia for bright light. That's a clever little setup, and I like that their baddies have an interesting weakness to exploit.

And I like that the Krill are not being depicted as evil... yet at the same time, they obviously are a serious threat and aren't going to suddenly be good guys once we learn the right way to talk to them.

One wonders why the Union is so reticent about them, though. From everything we see, the Krill are basically at war with the Union already. They openly attack, apparently frequently, and are happy to use weapons of mass destruction without any provocation. Yet the Union doesn't seem to treat it like a war, more like they're dealing with occasional bits of piracy. Interesting.

Also fun to see Malloy complaining "that's a brand new leg!" as a continuity nod to last week.

And fun too that I said "Orville was called a midsize vessel, I'd like to see their idea of a big ship someday" literally five seconds before their idea of a big ship appeared on the screen.

And the big ship... basically the same design as the Orville, just scaled up to at least twice the size or more. One wonders how it would fare in a straight fight with the big Krill ship the Orville took on at the start.

All in all, lots of fun!

Not much to add here, as Graham covered it all. Looking forward to next week, and hoping for a season 2.

Really great episode I thought. I think the Union is worried about the holy war as it seems that the Krill vessels are more advanced. It's the difference between an occasional raid and an armada. It'll be interesting if any of the technology from the destroyer makes it onto the Orville.

Interesting that Moclans can eat anything... literally.

I feel that as time is passing, Seth's acting is getting much better. Even under the makeup he was very good in this one IMO.

Also, I can't think of any phallic humor this time. All of it was pretty normal.

It didn't have an entirely positive ending. A well done bit there.

I thought the humour worked better in this episode than any other so far - not necessarily the funniest jokes as such, but more consistently funny.

I did wonder... why'd the Admiral send those two, rather than officers from her own ship? We know that Mercer isn't exactly regarded as the best and the brightest, and her choice of Malloy was a little odd. She chose him because he was the best pilot in the fleet, but very little skilled piloting was involved. And again, he's not exactly the most well regarded officer around.

But I guess it does make sense... if you assume that she didn't think the mission had any real chance of success. Send people who you won't mind losing too much, maybe?

My thinking too. They weren't the best, they were the expendable.

Perhaps the admiral needed her best officers for another mission and Mercer would have been better then anyone she could have spared. He may not have been the most well regarded officer in the past, but he has done some good things since taking over the Orville that may let the admiral give him the benefit of the doubt in her eyes to give him a little trust.

As for Malloy, he does seem to have a reputation as one of the best pilots in the fleet. Those skills may not have actually been needed according to the plan. But there could always be a "just in case" where a good pilot is needed.

Chances are that most of her own staff were just that - staff. Be that as it may, I also thought this was a really well-done ep. The humor, as GK began to say, was more organic and unobtrusive; I absolutely loved the mundane and personable touch of Ed beginning to address the Krill ship and Alara interrupting to say, "Uh, I haven't done it yet."

I thought that the idea of a fundamentally religiously-motivated enemy may run into some problems, either from getting soap-box-y or derivative, but so far so good and we'll just have to see.

So far Orville has addressed serious issues without coming off as preachy. Episode 3 was all about gender issues and sexual reassignment surgery but I heard nothing but praise from the right who has been attacking STD for being preachy while doing the same thing.