I absolutely did not remember that this episode came so early in The Orville's run.

Having Jonathan Frakes along to direct is obviously a good get for the show, both in the presentation and for the Trek bonafides. Frakes intentionally played to the Next Generation style in his presentation, having directed about 30 Star Trek episodes and two movies, across TNG and beyond. Frakes was interviewed by IndieWire in 2017, where he contrasted The Orville/Next Gen-style against Discovery; notably, Frakes has directed episodes of all three.

“Stylistically, your responsibility as an episodic television director [is] when you do a show like ‘The Orville,’ you want that show to look like ‘Next Generation,'” he said. “And when you go to Canada to do ‘Star Trek: Discovery,’ they want that show to have the feeling, and look, and vibe of the J.J. [Abrams]-era ‘Star Trek.’ Much more cinematic, a lot of crane work, and a lot of movement, a lot of dutch angles. On ‘Next Generation,’ the traditional framing, and the things we became accustomed to as fans of the show, we see in [‘The Orville’] because that’s the look.”

When it came to “The Orville,” Frakes said that “I was afraid that it was going to be like ‘Family Guy,’ and it’s not really, but it’s also not really as serious as ‘Next Generation.’ I think Seth [MacFarlane], and Brannon [Braga], and whoever else is involved in all this, they found a tone that clicks with this audience, either the millennial audience or the old school audience. Everyone is very pleasantly surprised at how well the show has been received. I’m happy to see the homage, and I’m happy to see success for whoever wants to steal good ideas.”

Added Frakes, “It was a very conscious, and I think quite successful, homage. ‘Orville’s’ coming back for a second season, so is ‘Discovery.’ There’s room, obviously, in the fans’ hearts for both types of ‘Star Trek.'”

This feels like the first “new” episode of The Orville. What I mean is, everything that came before (maybe except for About a Girl) feels like the original idea for The Orville. The original Fox pitch to get them to allow it in the first place. Pria feels like an idea that was had, or acted on after The Orville started production.

The humor is smarter and flows so much better. The whole leg gag is very overt but it’s also still one of the funniest things in the series for me so far. But stuff that they say off-handed no longer has a “pause for laughter” feel to it like a typical Family Guy joke does. They just drop the joke and keep going with the assumption you caught it.

This is also the first time that you see Ed and Kelly look like they’re ready to be friends and leave their past behind them.

And of course, Charlize Theron is a great guest star, not simply one of Seth’s friends doing a cameo.

Pria is a very standard bottle episode, but I’ve been waiting for this one because of the leg gag, the excellent visuals, and canonizing flying spaghetti monsters as a real race of beings.

Regarding the time travel, this is the third time seen this episode and I think I finally understand how the timeline changes work. The way this show regards time travel, and this comes up in a not small way later in the series, is that the presence of quantum mechanics prevents anything from being set in stone in both directions. If you tamper with the past, the future doesn’t suffer the consequences right away, it’s still possible to keep the “old” future or correct the changes. If those quantum variables are removed from the equation, it solidifies everything related to it.

So when Ed orders the singularity destroyed in the 25th-century, everything that happened up to that point was set in stone - The Orville was not destroyed, Isaac has to clean up his slightly-roasted body, Gordon still needs a new leg. But everything future-tense was reset - Pria disappeared because she never traveled back in time in the first place. Even though Pria and 29th-century tech saved the ship.

Did all 29th-century looting of the past get undone? Since stuff only gets taken right before it’s destroyed, would it even be possible to know the difference? It’s also possible that something completely different happened on the 29th century side of the singularity.

And between Seinfeld, Junior Mints, Mr. Potatohead, and a reprise from Ed’s Kermit doll, this episode has a LOT of product placement for some reason.

Even so, this episode is one of the highlights of the first season.

(Those ceiling panels are clearly not load-bearing. Rookie mistake by Isaac to hide a leg there.)