This was a fantastic episode; I started watching The Orville on a whim because a friend liked it and I never expected to care about the characters this much. This is a great episode, it's managed to be an action-heavy episode while never losing focus of the character at its heart, Alara, who is probably my favorite in the show. The episode also used the opportunity to use other character traits of the rest of the crew as part of the plot, which was both very clever and an excellent use of narrative. The first few episodes really fell flat for me because of the out-of-place humor, but the Orville has started learning that the situational humor of being on a Starship and the irony of sci-fi tropes creates plenty of opportunity for satire. At this point i'm actually sad this isn't some far-off corner of the Trek universe, because I'd love to see some of these characters interact with Trek ones. I've also been pleasantly surprised by the way the production quality of the show has gone up, with particular improvements in the directing and lighting, especially this episode which had a really great and atmospheric color palette compared to the rather beige first episodes. All in all, an outstanding, well-rounded episode that was balanced wonderfully between character development, action, suspense, and humor.
