Alara Rides the Alien Horse

[setsuled]

Strength is relative, especially when you come from a planet with exceptionally strong gravity, like Alara on The Orville. Last night's new episode found Alara forced to return home, and to the parents she has a turbulent relationship with. The Earth-like gravity on the Orville is starting to soften up her muscles. Her homeworld has strong gravity that gave her strength, and her family may be responsible for her psychological strength because, headed by a patriarch played by Robert Picardo, they certainly seem like they must have been a gruelling exercise to grow up with. This episode was written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, who wrote the far bolder episode "Firestorm" from last season, which was also the episode that introduced Robert Picardo and Molly Hagan as Alara's parents, so it seems Chevapravatdumrong has a particular attachment to Alara.

Chevapravatdumrong is a writer for Family Guy but she also writes young adult fiction under the name Cherry Cheva. "Home", last night's new episode, had a very young adult feel to it with its focus on Alara's need to define herself while finding validation from her parents. For this kind of story, it succeeded pretty well and effectively incorporated some cool Sci-Fi concepts. But maybe the best part of the episode was in its many great guest stars.

Spoilers after the screenshot



In addition to Robert Picardo, there was also Jason Alexander (happily, his bartender character does indeed seem to be recurring), John Billingsley (Phlox from Star Trek: Enterprise), and Patrick Warburton as the temporary security officer with an oesophagus for a nose.



This character cracked me up. Lines that aren't especially funny turn into magic with Warburton's delivery. Him explaining to Bortus how his extra oesophagus lets him just "pound" food was hysterical--that inappropriate, Steven Seagal-ish, flat bragging tone that seems to savour the brilliance of his own words . . . Oh, he's so good. If only he was permanent.



It seems this is Alara's last episode, at least for now. I guess Halston Sage has decided to leave the show--maybe she considered The Orville just a stepping stone to a more lucrative gig that didn't require her to wear prosthetics. It certainly didn't feel like the long term plan from the writers--story wise, it doesn't feel right for Alara's thread to stop here. The end of the episode, where she decides to stay on her homeworld, had a subtle tonal difference from the rest of the episode, as though the thing was originally written and shot without anyone knowing Sage was leaving. Alara's reasoning seems hasty for all the confidence in her tone--she says she was only on The Orville because she needed a family but she's decided to stay on the planet because now she has her biological family. I thought she was on The Orville because she wanted to be in the military. But I suppose there are plenty of security posts on her homeworld.



I'd certainly watch a spin-off about Alara and her father. I've been looking forward to Robert Picardo's return as the character since I saw him in the first season and I certainly wasn't disappointed. From early on in the episode, it was clear the plot was going to be about a situation occurring where Alara had the rare opportunity to show to her parents the value of the vocation she's chosen and Picardo brings a lot of nice complexity to his end of that dialogue. We can see he's intelligent, even if he's holding onto a belief that's detrimental to his daughter's mental health.



But seeing Picardo and Billingsley together was even better, Billingsley it turns out being capable of a fine, complex performance as a villain. I liked his motivation for taking Alara's family hostage, an academic argument about a vaccine. You can easily see how such a little thing could lead to such large and small scale problems. There's intellect and duty on Picardo's side and on Billingsley's side there's also intellect and duty but also his emotional investment in his son, which brings another facet to the story about parents' pride in the offspring.

It was a nice, engaging episode. I look forward to seeing Alara's replacement, who I hear is remarkably similar to her. Maybe they'll call her Alara Pulaski.

Twitter Sonnet #1194

The mazes built in liquid eyes were ice.
Repeated steps became a stair to rails.
In bundled ropes the eyes were kinds of splice.
It's only water waiting late for sails.
The tracks were made for trains to roll to steel.
The cars were built for glass to cover up.
The book was writ 'cause beasts were ever real.
The stove was lit so folks could cook and sup.
The question mark ascends the slimy cliff.
On tables set the check was red and white.
The pantry wall was covered full of 'if'.
Rebounding eyes could not resolve a sight.
The silver petals wink propulsive turns.
The evening sky was left with scarlet burns.

Comments

[meridian_rose]

I have mixed feelings about the episode. There were a lot of goodbyes, all poignant, that last one especially so, but how many do you need?

That fantasy dream of Alara riding the wild beast is beautiful but I'm not quite sure what it means. Freedom since she's still unable to walk at that point? Something deeper about the creature representing her homeworld?

Always good to see guest stars I know from other sci fi and Marfarlane shows :)

I know they wanted Alara to give her dad the 'believe in you' speech she never had but with his injured hand and seeming lack of courage compared to Alara's sister, maybe he wasn't the best choice to try and climb down and drag Ed to the ship.
Also why given the danger didn't Gordon have his own suit? Surely the pilot should have a gravity suit in case he needed to make repairs outside the shuttle? Bit of plot device nonsense to allow for Alara's father to be heroic.

Also new guy with the trunk/oesphogeous. Ed says they only stock regular uniforms but doesn't all clothing come from the replicators, uniforms or jackets with many zippers alike? Surely it's not difficult to upload new schematics for any crew member's particular needs? Essential part of accomdating various species.

I liked the idea of Alara needing to stay on her home planet for an open amount of time better than her refusing the cure to stay and make amends with her family - if it was a matter of her still taking the time to heal up naturally but with a specific time period to see if it worked.

In fact I'd have gone with a plot similar but:
Alara needs to go home to regain her strength
She argues with her family and says she'll be glad when she can leave
The family is in danger and Alara saves them, earning her father's respect
Alara tells the crew she's beginning to get her strength back but she's taking a sabbatical for six months/a year to rebuild things with her family

I do hope she gets to return in some capacity if the show gets renewed. I know people have said the jar of pickles is there to show if Ed needs her, he only has to ask and she'll help.

I read an interesting fanfic Half-Power Apocalypsewhere Alara had temporarily lost her strength and she and Ed got trapped in a hostile situation, which showcased her abilities beyond superhuman strength. It might have been nice for the show to have touched on that a bit more, though as we'll be getting a new Xeylanan officer they still could. I'm still not sure how Alara 2.0, another attractive female Xeylayan will work, and how they'll ensure she has her own identity.

I wrote all that before reading your article so now I'll comment on specifics; Firestorm is my favourite of season one and agreed, Chevapravatdumrong clearly loves Alara :)

The official story is that Sage got a part in a movie filming in New York and couldn't commit to a whole season of The Orville which had been a long time in getting renewed. Alara was definitely not meant to have left and I think you're right about how much of this was pre-written and then tweaked to accomdate her departure, hence the many, many goodbyes!

Some people complained about the anti-vaxx storyline but given how badly things have gone in the real world because of one man's fraudulent research paper it seemed timely. Science relies on being able to prove and replicate findings and it was right for Alara's father to call out poorly researched papers that could have cost many lives, even if the antagonist clearly was grieving for his son.

[setsuled]

That fantasy dream of Alara riding the wild beast is beautiful but I'm not quite sure what it means. Freedom since she's still unable to walk at that point? Something deeper about the creature representing her homeworld?

It seemed to me like someone working on the show, possibly even Halston Sage, just wanted to see Alara riding a horse at some point even though it never quite fit in with anything. It didn't really bother me.

with his injured hand and seeming lack of courage compared to Alara's sister, maybe he wasn't the best choice to try and climb down and drag Ed to the ship.

He still looks stronger than Alara's sister. I guess they could've come up with more reasons why it had to be him but since he needed to be the one to do it for what the story was saying about the characters the smaller points of the logistics didn't bother me.

Also why given the danger didn't Gordon have his own suit? Surely the pilot should have a gravity suit in case he needed to make repairs outside the shuttle? Bit of plot device nonsense to allow for Alara's father to be heroic.

Maybe the suit is such a rare piece of tech the Orville only carries one. Maybe Ed and Gordon just didn't foresee the emergency and weren't prudent enough to bother carrying a second. There are plenty of possible explanations. But I wasn't bothered by the story going to a place where Picardo's character is shown being physically heroic.

I read an interesting fanfic Half-Power Apocalypsewhere Alara had temporarily lost her strength and she and Ed got trapped in a hostile situation, which showcased her abilities beyond superhuman strength. It might have been nice for the show to have touched on that a bit more

Yeah, that would've been good.

though as we'll be getting a new Xeylanan officer they still could. I'm still not sure how Alara 2.0, another attractive female Xeylayan will work, and how they'll ensure she has her own identity.

I like the actress playing her better than Halston Sage, though I had nothing against Sage. But I wish they writers would do more to distinguish her from Alara.

Some people complained about the anti-vaxx storyline but given how badly things have gone in the real world because of one man's fraudulent research paper it seemed timely.

Yeah, that's true. I honestly wasn't thinking about anti-vaxxers when watching the episode, I just thought it was an intriguing, credible motive behind the conflict, but if it plays any role in persuading someone to get their kid vaccinated I think that would be great.