Warning: SPOILERS for The Orville season 3, episode 3, “Mortality Paradox.”
The Orville has always been a loving tribute to Star Trek, and season 3, episode 3 “Mortality Paradox” introduces a key element from the show that inspired it. Investigating how a previously barren planet could suddenly house a thriving civilization, Captain Ed Mercer (Seth MacFarlane) and his landing party become trapped in a variety of hallucinatory situations. After enduring teenage cruelty in a high school, a plane crash, and a terrifying sea monster, the landing party refuses to participate in any more games. It’s an enigmatic and engaging episode that once again allows The Orville to revisit Star Trek tropes.
The high school section cleverly recalls Star Trek: The Original Series season 3, episode 6 “Spectre of the Gun”, but rather than a gunfight at the O.K. Corral, the Orville crew are en route to a fight at the bleachers with the school bully. However, it’s at the episode’s climax, when the architect of the landing party’s hallucinatory journey misfortune reveals themselves that the true connection with Star Trek becomes clear. The deadly situations have been created by an immortal alien being, with the ability to mold reality to their will, that wishes to experience death. In introducing this species, The Orville has introduced their own version of the Q Continuum.
Aside from Seth MacFarlane’s own fandom, The Orville has a number of Star Trek connections. Writer and executive producer Brannon Braga worked on various Star Trek series throughout the 1990s and adds a level of authenticity to The Orville‘s loving tribute. Q, played by John de Lancie, was an integral part of not just Star Trek: The Next Generation, but also Star Trek: Voyager, in which he regularly appeared. It’s hardly surprising, therefore, that Seth MacFarlane’s loving Star Trek tribute has decided to introduce their own version of the character. They’ve already had great success with the Kaylon, who are essentially the Borg, and Bortus (Peter Macon) shares cultural similarities to Star Trek‘s Klingons. The immortal beings introduced in The Orville season 3, episode 3 share many similarities with the Q Continuum, not least their personal history with one particular crew member.
Recalling a classic Star Trek: Voyager episode, “Death Wish”, the immortal species have become bored by their eternal existence. In their constant search for discovery and new experiences, they choose the crew of the Orville to experience the sensation of a near-death experience. As immortals, they don’t have this fear of death and wish to understand it better through the minds of the Orville crew. This is why they put them through a series of near-fatal (but perfectly safe) hallucinations so that they can experience the sensation of believing that they are about to die.
It’s also revealed that the landing party has been chosen for a reason. In The Orville season 1, episode 12, “Mad Idolatry” Kelly (Adrianne Palicki) accidentally became a god on a planet that experienced time differently from the crew. Now that the planet has moved far beyond their primitive worship of her, they have become like gods themselves, and promise that they’ll meet the crew of the Orville again. This sets up an intrinsically-linked relationship between Kelly and this futuristic civilization that is similar to Star Trek‘s Q and Picard. It also creates the possibility that the crew of The Orville, like the Starfleet ships who encountered the Q Continuum, will be subject to more games and experiments by these immortal gods who want to live vicariously through lesser species.
The Orville: New Horizons releases new episodes Thursdays on Hulu.
