The Orville is fighting a ghost. And, y’know what? Through four rounds, it’s holding its own. There’s nothing terribly subtle about The Orville: Seth MacFarlane wrote a Star Trek fan-fiction where he gets to play captain. And if it’s done well there’s nothing wrong with that. After a promising (if rough) pilot, the second and third episodes were remarkable improvements and in a very short period of time the show established its identity as a fun spaceship show. For some, it seems there’s no room on TV for a show that doesn’t inundate its audience with life-threatening visuals and dutch-angled cliffhangers. But, at least if the ratings are to be believed, there’s clearly an audience for a show that doesn’t leave viewers in shock and depressed after every hour.

Sitting down and talking with people you encounter in space? What an idea!

Episode 4, “If the Stars Should Appear,” is a very typical genre episode. The USS Orville comes across a “big metal turtle” adrift in space and an away team goes to investigate. Mercer (MacFarlane), first officer Kelly Grayson (Adrianne Palicki), Dr. Finn (Penny Johnson Jerald), and security chief Alara Kitan (portrayed by series break-out star, Halston Sage) are joined by Isaac, the ship’s sentient android tasked with studying human behavior. They find themselves in a bright, rural countryside, cut off from communication with the Orville. The ship is called away to save a colony ship under attack by the Krill, resulting in a fun spacebattle, but leaving the away team extra alone. The Captain, the Doctor, and Isaac link up with the heretics who reject the laws of Dorahl (go ahead and phonetically articulate “d-r-l” backwards) and believe there is more to the universe than what they can physically see. Kelly and Alara are confronted and fail to one-liner their way out of the situation. While Alara bleeds out at the bottom of a hill, Kelly is taken into custody and tortured by the big bad, Hamelac (Robert Knepper). Again, she fails to one-liner her way free, but they are some great one-liners.

Hamelac holding a scale replica

Our characters all meet up in the City and although Mercer fails to convince Hamelac that they come in peace, the gang gets free and finds the ship’s control center. There they come across the last recording of Captain Dorahl himself (Liam Neeson) and learn that the ship was never meant to be a permanent home, but if the inhabitants take care of it, the biosphere can last indefinitely. It’s not a particularly subtle allegory for Planet Earth but it works as the type of thematic message that has come to define the show. In a weirdly gratifying subversive twist, Mercer opens the biosphere’s dome, showing the inhabitants the “Beyond” in all its dark, mysterious glory. Where the traditionalists fought to maintain the orthodoxy and history of Dorahl’s ever-lasting light, Mercer gave them the cleansing darkness of night and with it, the promise of a new beginning.

Dorahl has a particular set of skills… that apparently don’t include basic engineering

“If the Stars Should Appear” was filmed before the previous two episodes that have aired, and it shows. There’s much more focus on Mercer’s/Grayson’s divorce, the dialogue and characters are just a bit rougher, and the recurring dick jokes can easily become grating. And yet, the bigger themes are all there. Even the dick jokes serve a purpose, reinforcing the thematic exploration of fear and inadequacy: Mercer remains afraid of his inadequacy as a leader; Kitan openly questions her place on the crew after the dumbest man in the galaxy — “Josh” — dumped her; and the native leader Hamelac is driven to dangerous demagoguery by fear that the heretical Reformers might actually be right and prove him to be ignorant to the truth of their situation. But of course their fears are dealt with head-on and become strengths: Mercer’s leadership saves the society from crashing into a star and Alara’s superhuman body keeps her from dying. Even Hamelac seems to accept the truth as he stares up into the Beyond.

The Orville is certainly not a perfect show but it’s not given enough credit for its ambitious plots and character development. After four episodes, the audience already knows (and likes) the main characters, their personality quirks, their goals, and their fears. What else can we ask for?