TL;DR – We look to the past and find out how much we have changed, the show included

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Review –

Time travel, oy vey, nothing quite gives me a headache like a temporal mechanics headache and today we are looking a doozy of one. Now, of course, this is not the first time that The Orville has dabbled in the world of time travel with Pria happening all the way back in Season One, which also set up some stuff that the show has yet to quite follow through with. However, today’s temporal jump is a much more personal affair.

So to set the scene, we open with Ed (Seth MacFarlane), Kelly (Adrianne Palicki), Talla (Jessica Szohr), and Gordon (Scott Grimes) sharing a drink and reminiscing about the past. Talking about the past has Ed reminiscing about lost loves but Kelly makes it clear that it would not be good for the ship or them if they repeated the past. The next day Isaac (Mark Jackson) and John (J. Lee) are showing Kelly a potential new temporal device when the ship is hit by a massive gravity wave. Not only does the damage the ship but it interacts with the device and all of a sudden a Kelly from seven years ago is standing in the science lab. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

I think where this episode works the most is by focusing in on the ‘what if’ but also be reinforcing the awkwardness of it all. If you had another chance with a lost love, without all the damage of the past, would you take another chance? However, what is the impact of time, as you are not the same person you were seven years ago, you have lived all that time and you have a better view of the world. I have to give Adrianne Palicki full props to playing two characters that are inherently very similar but still making them feel like different people, but also the same person.  

All of this is amplified by the fact that both old and young Kelly are both on the same ship, they both have the same past, but very different futures. Are they the same person? So who has the rights to the past, who has the rights to the future? Is it okay for young Kelly to start back a relationship with Ed? What about those memories that old Kelly would not like shared, does she have a right to them when they are not just hers? These are all really interesting concepts that the episode explores and it does not beat around the bush with the effects that this sort of situation would have and the potential damage it could do.

One area I was really impressed with is how they filmed the episode with regards to having the two Kelly’s in the same scene. Having some kind of doppelganger in an episode is not something new for science fiction or even TV in general. In most case what you do is have someone else dress up in the wig and shoot over their shoulders to give the impression that both are in the same scene. Or you do what The Next Generation perfected with filming both actors separately and then cutting the film and splicing the two scenes back together. Today with blue screens and face replacement technology it is a little easier but all of that cost money. So I was really impressed with just how much cross over and coverage they gave to both Kelly’s in the same scene. It really showed the work of a lot of talented professionals that I never once noticed any seams.

While all of this episode was really interesting, like reinforcing the Kaylon threat, or the iterations of the crew and old/young Kelly. It is the ending that has me the most intrigued. As a drunk Deanna Troi once said “Timeline? This is no time to talk about time. We don’t have the time!” At the end of the episode, they find a way to send back young Kelly to the moment she was taken, and to make sure the timeline is not affected they (with her consent) wipe her memory. This all seems right because old Kelly does not remember the Orville, so it must have worked. Well no because the first thing young Kelly does when coming back is turned down Ed’s request for a second date. Which asks the question, did young Kelly just start a new branch of the timeline or will have everything changed next week, and if it is later, oh boy, that is a big shift.

In the end, do we recommend Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow? Yes, yes we do. Not to sound like a broken record here, but it is another solid episode in what has been a really solid sophomore season for The Orville. And I for one, can’t wait to see what happens in the season finale next week.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen The Orville yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.   

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of The Orville
Directed by – Gary Rake
Written by – Janet Lin
Created by – Seth MacFarlane
Production/Disruption Companies – 20^th Century Fox, Fuzzy Door Production, Fox Network & SBS Viceland.
Starring in Season Two – Seth MacFarlane, Adrianne Palicki, Penny Johnson Jerald, Scott Grimes, Peter Macon, Jessica Szohr, J. Lee & Mark Jackson also Chad L. Coleman, Will Sasso & Norm MacDonald