- Title: The Orville – About a Girl
- wiki: link
The third episode of The Orville makes a dramatic turn after two episodes setting up the show as sitcom with Star Trek trappings. “About a Girl” centers around the Orville’s second officer Lt. Commander Bortus (Peter Macon) and his mate Klyden (Chad L. Coleman) whose baby is born female – a cultural deformity according to the pair’s race. After Dr. Finn (Penny Johnson Jerald) refuses to perform a sex change on the infant, Bortus and Klyden request assistance from their government leading to a trial on their homeworld with Commander Kelly Grayson (Adrianne Palicki) pleading for the baby to remain female.
Feeling very much like a watered-down episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the episode at least takes more advantage of its sci-fi setting. Other than two bridge officers using Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer to change Klyden’s mind, the episode is played straight rather than laughs. While an improvement, the change is jarring given the time to set-up the show as a dim-witted space comedy. I’m not sure where the show goes from here.