The Orville Season 3 Makes One Of Star Trek's Oldest Tropes Much Darker
Warning: SPOILERS for The Orville Season 3, Episode 1 -«Electric Sheep»
The Orville season 3, rebranded as The Orville: New Horizons, has opened with an episode that puts a dark spin on an age-old Star Trek trope. In season 3, episode 1 «Electric Sheep», the crew of the Orville are still dealing with the fallout of the revelations of Kaylon emissary Isaac's (Mark Jackson) true mission — to gather information on the Planetary Union. The Orville season 2, episodes 8 and 9, «Identity» saw the Kaylon use Isaac's information to take control of the Orville to launch a full-scale attack on the Planetary Union. While Isaac eventually rejected his own species to save his crewmates and the Union, it's clear that many on board the ship aren't ready to forgive him for his involvement in the attack.
«Identity» felt very similar to Star Trek's Borg 2-parter «The Best of Both Worlds», of which creator Seth McFarlane is a big fan. It also won an Emmy for the incredible work by The Orville's visual effects team in realizing the magnitude and scale of the space battle with the Kaylon. It's something that the show is clearly very proud of, as there are numerous flashbacks to the battle during the season 3 opener «Electric Sheep.» The battle with the Kaylon is just one of many ways that The Orville pays homage to McFarlane's beloved Star Trek, and the season 3 opener revisits the franchise's recurring trope of how artificial life experiences human emotions.
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Star Trek has regularly explored how androids or holograms wish to experience positive, and uniquely human emotions. Star Trek: The Next Generation's Data (Brent Spiner) experienced what it was like to laugh, love, and even
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