All the World Is Birthday Cake

In the latest installment of The Orville, the series once again used Star Trek as a jumping off point for an original tale. The episode was all about making "first contact" (and even began, as The Next Generation's "First Contact" episode did, from the alien culture's perspective).

The Orville has picked up a transmission from an emerging civilization looking for other life in the universe. The crew is eager to reach out to them, pursuing the Union's primary mission of meeting new aliens. But first contact with the Regorians quickly turns sour when the aliens arrest Grayson and Bortus and send them to a concentration camp. Their "crime" is one of birth; they were born under a bad astrological sign, and there is nothing Mercer can do to appease their superstition beliefs.

Plenty of Star Trek episodes, particularly of the original series, have made a villain of religion, and have painted aliens as primitive for their religious attitudes. The Orville found an interesting way to twist that idea by not literally going after religion, but after a spiritual pseudo-science. It was a fun premise, though one that doesn't hold up as much more than a gimmick when you start to scratch at it. (Setting aside all the stuff internal to the planet itself, does the concept of "birthdays" even hold up between people from different planets with different rotations and orbital periods?)

Even more, though, I question the behavior of our regular characters this episode. I'm not sure it really worked to make this story play out over a month of time as it does. It's hard to believe Grayson and Bortus would try no escape sooner, that the crew aboard the ship would have no ideas worth showing us sooner, that any of this crisis would go on for a month. (Then again, whose months are we talking about? How long are they?)

The ultimate resolution to the problem, at least, is a bit more fun. After 50+ years of Star Trek, even casual fans have a sense of Starfleet rules governing alien worlds. The Orville is very like Star Trek, but the rules aren't quite as explicitly articulated here. And this solution feels decidedly un-Star Trek, conning the aliens with a technological deception.

This episode introduced the ship's new security officer, Talla Keyali. I found it odd that they've just put a new woman of the same alien species in the show. Yes, it seems she's more aggressive and self-confident than Alara. But until her personality develops more, there's very little difference between the two characters. And while the show has continued to keep mum about the reason why Alara was written off (and whether it's permanent), this seems to suggest that the writers at least were not looking to make a change -- they've decided not to use this opportunity to tweak the formula.

And speaking of cast members, we got another fun viewscreen cameo, this time in the form of an admiral played by Ted Danson. (I know Ted Danson has had many successful shows over his long career, but I found it impossible not to think of The Good Place, seeing him in a pristine office on a projected holographic screen.)

There were interesting ideas in this episode, but also a few kinks in how it was told. I give "All the World Is Birthday Cake" a B-. A fun enough effort, but not among the series' best.