The Orville: New Horizons continues its hot streak with “Twice in a Lifetime”

It’s time for another review of The Orville: New Horizons…but what is time, anyway? “Twice in a Lifetime” plays off a classic Star Trek trope and has our crew zip back in time to 21st century Earth. The result is a lot of fun, but also packs quite an emotional punch.

As always, SPOILERS aplenty lie ahead for this week’s episode of The Orville: New Horizons.

The Orville: New Horizons Episode 6 review

Whenever a sci-fi show deals with time travel, I always brace myself. We’ve seen plenty of time travel stories over the years, and not all of them bring anything new the conversation. I’m happy to report that “Twice in a Lifetime” manages itself quite well by focusing on the characters and what this type of a story would mean to them.

“Twice in a Lifetime” revolves around Lieutenant Gordon Malloy (Scott Grimes) getting sucked back in time when a cutting edge time travel device aboard the USS Orville malfunctions during a Kaylon attack. The crew’s mission to rescue Gordon quickly gets much more complicated than expected.

Things kick off with a party aboard the Orville in Gordon’s quarters, which gives Grimes a great chance to show off his skills as a musician. We open with him playing guitar and singing, and in case you’ve forgotten since season 2’s “Lasting Impressions” episode, he’s quite good. This party scene is a lot of fun and has a few callbacks to that episode, where Gordon fell in love with a struggling 21st century musician named Laura (Leighton Meester) by using the simulator to reconstruct her past. Which of course comes into play once the time travel stuff gets afoot.

This episode also had more The Orville that’s been missing this season, like Isaac’s botched attempts to initiate small talk with Charly Buke (Anne Winters) or the attempt to explain the time travel device with Gordon’s egg salad sandwich. Oh, there have been plenty of funny moments before this, but the jokes and the dramatic beast feel more balanced in this episode.

A trip to the 21st Century

Anyway, Gordon is zipped back in time to the 21st Century — the year 2015 to be specific, which is the year that his crush Laura was playing gigs in upstate New York. The way Lieutenant Lamar (J. Lee) explains this is very cool, basically asserting that the mind of the observer and their subconscious influence time travel in ways that aren’t quite understood. Gordon had a strong subconscious tie to that time period and to Laura, so when he was caught in the time travel device, that was where he went.

Lamar also managed to find an obituary for Gordon; turns out he lived an entire lifetime in the past, dying at age 96. Determined to save him, the Orville crew uses the time travel device to go back to 2015, but runs out of the fuel needed before they get there. They end up in 2025, which means Gordon had already lived out 10 years on Earth by that point. You can guess how well that all went down.

When Ed (Seth MacFarlane) and Kelly (Adrianne Palicki) find Gordon in 2025, it turns out that he and Laura fell in love and started a family. They have a son, with another kid on the way. So Gordon firmly refuses to leave, despite the fact that he’s violating temporal laws by even interacting with people in the past, let alone making more. Grimes sells these scenes so well; this episode gives him a chance to not only display some of his natural comedy skills, but also dig into weightier material.

Meanwhile, Isaac (Mark Jackson) and Charly go on a mission to get more fuel for the time travel device, which is in a deposit beneath the Earth’s mantle. The episode pulls a fun trick by having Isaac use a projection to disguise himself as a human, which lets Jackson actually show his face for a change. It’s a lot of fun seeing him act as Isaac without the suit, and the show does a great job of exploring his and Charly’s complicated relationship.

It turns out that Amanda, Charly’s best friend who died in the Kaylon attack at the end of season 2 (which we saw in New Horizons’ premiere episode), wasn’t just her best friend; Charly was in love with her and never got to share her feelings. This sheds some light on Charly’s lingering resentment of Isaac, though we do start to see the chilly dynamic thaw out a bit as the two are forced to work together and Isaac insists on thanking Charly for saving his life earlier this season.

After successfully getting enough fuel for another time jump, the Orville zips back 10 more years to 2015 and picks up Malloy after he was only stranded on Earth for a mere month. This Gordon is happy to see his old crewmates and get back to work on the ship. But the episode leaves a lingering question of whether other-Gordon’s family is now just gone, or part of an alternate timeline branch. We never see them again after the Orville time travels a second time, after Gordon says that his family was “stronger than time.” It’s a really moving premise The Orville makes the most of it, as usual.

The Orville: Bullet Point Horizons

• The various nods to 21st century technology were a lot of fun, starting with Gordon explaining what a cell phone is to Charly and Bortus before asking them if they want to take a selfie. I laughed pretty loud at Bortus’ grimacing smile.
• Speaking of fun stuff, I loved that Laura asks Kelly and Ed if they’re “Sox fans” since they’re pretending to be from Boston. Neither of them know what that means, which leads to Seth MacFarlane proclaiming, “Socks are important.”
• It was nice to get another short Yaffit scene this episode, and hear Norm Macdonald’s voice. Still a legend.
• Charly and Isaac’s pit stop at a biker bar was a highlight. It might have been my favorite scene for these two of the whole episode. I loved Isaac trying to be convincing during his arm wrestling contest by saying, “Oh no. I am losing.”
• For all its humor, “Twice in a Lifetime” also did a great job of plucking those heartstrings. Gordon’s conversations about how much his family means to him were really moving.
• The writing in this episode was razor sharp. It was a nice touch that Gordon brought up his distrust of Isaac when he was trying to justify staying in the past, accusing Ed and Kelly of being more concerned with a hypothetical crime (his effect on the timeline) than an actual one (Isaac betraying humanity to the Kaylon).
• Lamar and Talla’s (Jessica Szohr) hookup was funny and well-earned. Romance was in the air this episode. Those two have great chemistry, so I hope we see a bit more of this plot thread.
• Like Star Trek, The Orville takes the opportunity to comment on our own time as long as the characters are traveling there.. Gordon talking with horror about being forced to kill animals, something that literally amounts to murder in the future, was a particular standout.

Verdict

Just like Bortus, The Orville: New Horizons continues to bring its A game. “Twice in a Lifetime” tells a fascinating time travel story that’s unpredictable, moving, and awash with careful detail. Add to that the return of some of The Orville’s signature humor, and it was another very impressive notch in the show’s belt.

Episode Grade: A

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