1x08 Into the Fold

[7.3/10] What do you get when you have Brannon Braga and Andre Bormanis working together to write and direct an episode of a space-bound T.V. show? You basically get Star Trek: Enterprise. Which is to say that “Into the Fold” veers much closer to “pretty good” than “great” territory, but it also feels more like genuine Star Trek than Seth MacFarlane’s fan fiction.

There’s zero mention of Mercer’s divorce and only one (actually half-decent) glory hole joke. The trade-off is that the episode doesn’t break any new ground -- basically amounting to “What if Dr. Crusher and Data crash-landed on a hostile planet akin to The Road -- but what it lacks in novelty it makes up for in better replicating the rhythms and tone of the franchise The Orville borrows heavily from.

Which is to say I like the fact that the characters have emotional arcs here, something given more priority on prior Trek shows (even shakily-written ones like Enterprise). Dr. Finn goes from being annoyed at her kids’ antics, to fearing for their lives, to being proud of the maturity they show in a crisis. Her son goes from being an irksome brat who prods his little brother and denigrates his mom into a mature young man who protects his younger sibling and apologizes for what he said to his mother. Even Isaac has an emotional journey here, going from not understanding kids or parenthood at all to forming a bond with Dr. Finn’s boys (Jurassic Park-style) and even providing her emotional support when she needs it.

It’s not necessarily the most original story in the world, and the writing is full of clichés, especially early in the episode, but everything is solid and well-thought out. Isaac having to look after the boys while they’re stranded and miss their mom makes for an engaging dynamic. Dr. Finn being locked up a prepper on The Road planet and having to make her escape, Misery style, to get back to her kids is more harrowing than expected. And the episode doles out details like the planet’s water being poisoned or the Orville going after its lost crewmen at a good clip to keep the urgency up.

This is also a great showcase for Penny Johnson as Dr. Finn. She gives easily the best performance on the show so far, between her dogged survivalism in taking out her captor, her emotional moments when she thinks her youngest son might be sick or lost, and the affected but measured tone she takes when speaking with her eldest as she both forgives him and expresses faith in his ability to help. The performances on The Orville have all been fine to this point, more or less, but Johnson’s the first actor to really make me sit up and take notice.

Otherwise, at points this episode feels like Star Trek by way of The Walking Dead, which isn’t a mash-up that’s necessarily natural, but which works well enough under the circumstances. There’s some humor in Isaac adjusting his affect to match the kids’ level of understanding and need, and there’s some real sweetness (and maybe sparks?) at the end when Dr. Finn thanks him for his help.

“Into the Fold” isn’t the greatest episode of The Orville there’s ever been, but so far at least, it’s the one that feels most like the Star Trek of old, with harrowing mission gone wrong, unique pairings, and emotional throughline. That makes it welcome even if it doesn’t set the world on fire.