Orville's Intentional Command

Hello, Fanaticals! I am super excited for this week, as it's one of my favourite shows ever. If you have never seen The Orville, you should head over to Disney+ or Hulu and watch it.

The Orville is-for the most part-very much a more modern-day type of Star Trek; they show and talk about very controversial topics, things that are still as socially relevant to this day as they were when Star Trek first aired. They cover so many things that span across gender identity, sexism, racism across even alien species, ethics, ect. Even when the "other species" look identical to them (such as Earth and Vargas 4) they are all still "aliens" to each other. While Star Trek focused heavy on plot and storylines, The Orville branches out a bit and shows more worlds and planets, while still having that background "constant enemy" looming over their shoulders in one form or another.

Today's theories about The Orville are going to come strictly from the pilot episode. This episode kicked off so much and drew a lot of people in from the get-go. I remember watching it the night it premiered and could not wait for it to continue. However, like everything else, things seem to happen for a reason. While things may seem coincidental sometimes, there are others that make you wonder if it was truly intentional; something like our theories today.

Intentional XO

At the end of the pilot episode, we discover that Kelly was the whole reason Ed received his Captaincy. In the early scenes, Ed is informed that they do not have an XO for him yet only a few minutes later to see him go into a massive freak out as he is told that his ex-wife is to be his XO. Obviously, Ed doesn't do well with the news but, here's the thing: were they really THAT SHORT on XOs?

The Union is huge, with not just a few species. There always seems to be someone that can replace someone else easily and quickly. The question is then how could the Admiralty still be looking for one? This theory is that the Admiralty already had plans to put Kelly into the XO position, they just didn't want Ed to know right away, and not without reason honestly when you think about it considering their history.

The Admiralty had to have known that they were going to send Kelly and decided to wait until it was basically too late for Ed to do anything about it. Considering that Kelly was the one who backed him getting the new position, they probably sent her to be his babysitter and keep him in line.

Claire's Assignment

Speaking of babysitters... While Claire told Ed that she intentionally asked for the Orville, she makes it sound as though she does it for the really green commands; and what could be greener than the current Orville command?

You have Ed who has never been a Captain, Alara who is 23 and a Security Chief, Gordon who was a suspended Helmsman and has never served on a ship before, and then you throw in Kely who is the XO and Captain's ex-wife. There is no way that being a Medical Officer like she is, that she didn't have access to the files and know exactly who was going to be Command before that first meeting that they all have.

Not to mention, she has Bortus and Issac as well, who are the only two of their species working on board. If there is any proof that Claire didn't know exactly what she was walking into, I would love to see it. The reason I can back this theory is because of how she handled Alara when she was in Command with Ed and Kelly missing, and Bortus nesting. It was like Claire knew being on the Orville she had multiple people she was going to have to take care of. She goes where she feels she will be needed, because she can see before the crew who will be there.

Claire definitely knew about the entire crew before boarding the Orville, probably right down to the possibility that Kelly was always going to be assigned there.

Do you think these were coincidences, or completely intentional? Was Kelly always going to be assigned to The Orville after she pushed for Ed? Did Claire know what was going to happen and requested it for that reason? Come join our community and tell us what you think! Join me tomorrow as we take a look at some opinions of the other planets involved in the show! Until then, keep on theorizing, Fanaticals!