The third season of the comedy-drama science fiction television series '' The Orville,'' also known as ''The Orville: New Horizons,'' premiered on June 2, 2022. It streams on

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in the United States and on

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internationally. Filming began in October 2019 but was halted due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, and production ultimately completed in August 2021. This season is the show's first on Hulu, after airing its previous two seasons on

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

, as well as the first to premiere since the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney in March 2019.

Summary

Storylines for the season include the Union's conflict with the Kaylon, Claire's reconciliation with Isaac, Ed discovering that he shares a daughter with newly elected Krill chancellor Telayah, the reversal of Topa's sex-change operation and new crew member Charly Burke overcoming her bigotry towards Isaac for his part in her friend's death upon learning the origins of the Kaylon's own prejudice towards biologicals. Towards the end of the season, Moclus is expelled from the Union after Kelly and Bortus rescue Topa from a Moclan black site where she's tortured and nearly killed after agreeing to help Haveena smuggle newborn Moclan females (violating the agreement established in the previous season), so the Moclans form an alliance with the Krill against the Kaylon, who are coerced into a truce with the Union by a weapon powerful enough to wipe them out. Ironically, the Union are forced to ally with the Kaylon when the weapon falls into the hands of the Krill and the Moclans, culminating in a battle that does not come without sacrifice.

Cast

Main

Seth MacFarlane Seth Woodbury MacFarlane (; born October 26, 1973) is an American actor, animator, filmmaker, comedian, and singer. He is the creator and star of the television series ''Family Guy'' (since 1999) and ''The Orville'' (since 2017), and co-creator ...

as Captain Ed Mercer * Adrianne Palicki as Commander Kelly Grayson *

Penny Johnson Jerald Penny Johnson Jerald (born March 14, 1961) is an American actress. She played Beverly Barnes on the HBO comedy series ''The Larry Sanders Show'', Kasidy Yates on the syndicated science fiction series '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'', Sherry Palmer ...

as Dr. Claire Finn *

Scott Grimes Scott Christopher Grimes (born July 9, 1971) is an American actor and singer. Some of his most prominent roles include appearances in the 1984 cult classic ''The Night They Saved Christmas'', '' ER'' as Dr. Archie Morris, ''Party of Five'' as Wil ...

as Lieutenant Gordon Malloy *

Peter Macon Peter Jerrod Macon is an American actor. He is best known for his role as ''Lt. Commander Bortus'' in the Fox/Hulu television series ''The Orville'' (2017–present), and will portray an ape in ''Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes'' (2024). Early ...

as Lieutenant Commander Bortus * Jessica Szohr as Lieutenant/Lieutenant Commander Talla Keyali * J Lee as Lieutenant Commander John LaMarr *

Mark Jackson Mark A. Jackson (born April 1, 1965) is an American former professional basketball player. A point guard from St. John's University, he played for the New York Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers, Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, Toronto Raptors, Utah ...

as Isaac * Anne Winters as Ensign Charly Burke

Recurring

* Norm Macdonald as Lt. Yaphit (voice) * Kai Wener as Ty Finn * BJ Tanner as Marcus Finn * Victor Garber as Admiral Tom Halsey * Kelly Hu as Admiral Ozawa * Andi Chapman as Admiral Howland *

Chad L. Coleman Chad L. Coleman (born September 6, 1967) is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for playing Dennis "Cutty" Wise on the HBO series ''The Wire'' (2004–08), Tyreese on the AMC (TV channel), AMC series ''The Walking Dead (TV series), The Wa ...

as Klyden * Imani Pullum as Topa

Guest

Development and production

renewed the series for a third season in May 2019. In July 2019, it was announced that the series would be moving to

, targeting a premiere date in late 2020.

and

Jon Cassar John Francis "Jon" Cassar (born 27 April 1958) is a Maltese-Canadian television director and producer, known for his work on the first seven seasons of '' 24''. In 2006, he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series ...

were the only directors for the third season. Filming began in October 2019, but was halted in March 2020 due to the

, by which time approximately half of the season had been completed. Production resumed in December 2020 but was suspended once again in January 2021 following a COVID surge. Filming once again resumed in early February 2021 and wrapped in August. Norm Macdonald completed voiceover work as Lt. Yaphit prior to his death in September 2021, making it his final role. The premiere was dedicated to his memory. The episode "Gently Falling Rain" was dedicated to Lisa Banes, who completed her role as Speria Balask prior to her death in June 2021. The season introduced some changes to the show's production design, such as updated uniforms and sets, as well as Isaac and the Kaylon being redesigned to appear more robotic.

Episodes

Novella

The season was initially announced as consisting of eleven episodes, but one episode was not filmed due to pandemic-related travel restrictions. Titled "Sympathy for the Devil", it was instead adapted as a novelization written by MacFarlane, and takes place between "Midnight Blue" and "Domino". The audiobook is narrated by guest star Bruce Boxleitner. The novella was released on July 19, 2022.

Music

A soundtrack album for this third season of ''The Orville'' was released digitally by Hollywood Records on March 3, 2023.

Reception

Audience viewership

According to Parrot Analytics, which looks at consumer engagement in consumer research, streaming, downloads, and on social media, ''The Orville: New Horizons'' was the 4th most in-demand streaming show in the United States, during the week ending August 26, 2022, and the 6th during the week ending September 9, 2022. According to the streaming aggregator JustWatch, ''The Orville: New Horizons'' was the 6th most streamed TV show across all platforms in the United States, during the week of June 5, 2022. For August 1–7, 2022, the week the third-season finale aired, Whip Media's analytics ranked ''The Orville'' as the fifth most watched streaming original series in the United States, and Hulu's second most watched series behind ''

Only Murders in the Building ''Only Murders in the Building'' is an American mystery comedy-drama television series created by Steve Martin and John Hoffman. The ten-episode first season premiered on Hulu in August 2021. The plot follows three strangers played by Steve Ma ...

''.

Critical reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the third season has an approval rating of 100%, with an average rating of 8.25/10 based on 11 reviews. Den of Geek reviewer Michael Winn Johnson awarded the first episode "Electric Sheep" five out of five stars. He gave a favorable appraisal of the Isaac-centric storyline for dealing with the themes of prejudice and suicide. Johnson also praised MacFarlane and his creative team for forging an "extremely strong identity" for the show despite its influence from other science fiction franchises particularly ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...

''. Remus Norona of Collider gave the first episode an A minus, stating that the season premiere is "bigger, bolder, and a whole lot darker." He noted that the first episode explored themes such as trauma, suicide, and grief. Tell-Tale TV reviewer Nick Hogan observed that the third season had a higher budget than the previous two seasons, allowing more investment in both the practical and special effects. Hogan described the second episode "Shadow Realms" as a "cool, ''Alien''-esque horror story that thrills both psychologically and physically" but criticised the "bloated" storyline. Reviewing the third episode "Mortality Paradox," Johnson praised the episode's writer

Cherry Chevapravatdumrong Cherry T. Chevapravatdumrong (; born 1977), also known as Cherry Cheva, is an American author, screenwriter, comedian, and producer. She serves as an executive producer of ''Family Guy'' and a co-executive producer of ''The Orville'' and ''Resi ...

for mixing the third season with "thrills, humor, adventure and even a little horror. Digital Trends reviewer Michael Green praised the third season, describing it as a "loving homage" and the spiritual successor to '' Star Trek: The Next Generation''. Green also praised the family dynamic between the main cast members' characters Seth McFarlane (Captain Ed Mercer), Adrianne Palicki (Commander Kelly Grayson),

(Dr Claire Finn),

(Isaac),

(Bortus) and

J. Lee J. Lee (sometimes credited as J Lee) is an American actor, writer, and musician known for playing Lt. Commander John LaMarr on the Fox/Hulu science fiction comedy drama television series ''The Orville''. Early life and career Lee was born and ...

(Chief Engineer John LaMarr). Green further praised ''The Orville'' high production values and gave a favorable appraisal of its stories which explored philosophical, intellectual and human interest issues. Green praised the Season 3 episode "Midnight Blue" for exploring the ethical dimensions of

gender reassignment Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures us ...

surgery and its cameo featuring

Dolly Parton Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and businesswoman, known primarily for her work in country music. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton made her album d ...

. He also gave a favorable appraisal of the

time travel Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a w ...

episode "Twice in a Lifetime" which explored tampering with the past and sacrificing one's family for the "greater good."

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Orville (season 3), The The Orville 2022 American television seasons Television productions suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic