If the Stars Should Appear

Episode Summary & Review

Summary

Ed and the Orville crew encounter a massive vessel adrift in space, which is in danger of colliding with a star. While some of the crew set out to help the ship’s inhabitants, Bortus, Gordon, and John stay behind and fend off a Krill attack on another Union ship.

Our Take

This one splits the difference between a fun space mystery and a fairly predictable planet-in-a-bottle story, and it mostly works. The discovery inside the giant derelict gives the episode a nice sense of scale, though the society the crew finds leans on familiar sci-fi allegory. Worth watching for the world-building alone, even if the resolution feels a bit tidy.