The Orville: New Horizons (Season 3) Trailer Discussion

Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm pretty good for a Thursday. It won't be long before the second episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds airs on Canadian television and I'm pretty excited for it after how good the pilot was last week. However, the final trailer for The Orville: New Horizons a.k.a. The Orville season 3 dropped earlier this afternoon, along with a new poster for the season and I kinda wanna talk about it. So let's get into it.

 I'm not going to say too much about the new season 3 poster, but I love it. The thing that bothered me about the season 2 posters is that Alara Kitan, played by the wonderful Halston Sage, is on both of them, but Talla Keyali, played by Jessica Szohr, isn't shown at all. I'm pretty sure it had already been announced that Halston Sage was leaving the show by the time the second season's teaser poster dropped online and when the second poster was released like two weeks before the season premiere, we definitely knew that Halston was leaving the show, but Talla didn't appear on any season poster, nor did she show up in either of the trailers for the season. On this poster though, we've got the new character for the season, Charly Burke, who I'll be talking about shortly, AND she's appeared in the trailer that dropped earlier today, which means that she'll be an important addition to the cast, like Talla was in season 2.

The trailer itself was awesome. It gave each character a shot, which is good because the strength of The Orville, like Star Trek in the '90s, has always been its characters. From Ed to recurring characters like Yaphit and Dann, the show has a solid cast of characters. Honestly, this trailer has made me excited to see the only new character coming onto the show, Lieutenant Charly Burke, played by Anne Winters.

I'm not familiar with Anne Winters's work. She was on 13 Reasons Why but I've never seen it, nor have I seen the other movies and TV shows that she's been in. But from this trailer alone, I think Charly Burke is going to be a very interesting character. One of the things I've heard people say online about the character is that it's going to bring back that young, innocent energy to the show that Alara brought to it in the first season. When Talla came on in season 2 you very much felt the difference between her and Alara. Alara was the youngest member of Ed's senior staff on the ship, despite being a Lieutenant and holding the position of Chief of Security. Her age left her insecure and unsure of her place on the ship. Whereas Talla was older so she was more experienced and confident than Alara was. And you even saw that in how Alara interacted with the rest of the crew versus how Talla interacted with the rest of the crew. But I think Charly will bring that more innocent energy that Alara had back to the show.

I also think that Charly and Gordon will end up being a thing by the end of the season. Based on the trailer, Charly is the new navigator, which is a position that hasn't been permanently filled since LaMarr got promoted to Chief Engineer at the end of the first season. And because she's the new navigator, she'll be working with Gordon closely being that he's the ship's primary helmsman. Being that Gordon and LaMarr became best friends while LaMarr was the navigator, either he and Charly will become very good friends or they'll start hooking up, similar to how LaMarr started hooking up with Ensign Turco after he moved down to Engineering and they started working together.

Aside from the spotlight that Charly Burke had in this trailer, it had a real emphasis on a mix of continuing the Kaylon threat plot from season 2, the exploration factor that has been as much a part of the show as it has been on Star Trek, as well as the personal consequences that the events of "Identity Part 2" has on Isaac. The "Identity" two parter came late enough in the season that it never circled back to Isaac and how people handled his decision to turn against his own people. He just simply went back to work as Science Officer as if nothing had happened. So it'll be interesting to see how they handle it this season.

I think that's all I have to say about the trailer and the poster. I am really excited for season 3 of The Orville. It's been a little over three years since season 2 ended and I am itching to return to the Orville after a very long shore leave. Mind you, I did rewatch the first two seasons with my sister last year, so it hasn't been THAT long since I last joined the crew for their adventures, but it'll be good to get back.

That's going to be it for me for tonight, but I will be back tomorrow for my review of this week's episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which airs here in Canada in an hour and a half. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.