What do you think?
Rate this book
The Orville Season 2.5: Digressions
Join the starship Orville on these new missions set between seasons two and three of Seth MacFarlane’s hit sci-fi TV show! Across space and time, Captain Ed Mercer and his crew explore some of the galaxy’s greatest mysteries in these two thrilling adventures written by Executive Producer David A. Goodman.
In “Digressions,” after being pulled into the future and then sent back with her memory intact, Kelly rejects Ed’s offer of a second date. As a result, she, Ed, Gordon, and Claire never end up serving aboard the Orville. When Kelly realizes this will result in the destruction of Earth, she races to unravel how to bring her would-have-been crewmates together and undo this alternate timeline before the Kaylon burn the galaxy to cinders.
In “Artifacts,” Ed’s old astro-archeology teacher puts the Orville in grave danger when, in pursuit of a legendary fleet of starships from a lost civilization, he leads them into a system so hazardous no ship has ever successfully navigated it. Realizing that the professor hasn’t been entirely forthright, Ed must uncover the truth if the Orville is to survive this perilous endeavor.
Collects The Orville #1: Digressions Part 1 of 2, The Orville #2: Digressions Part 2 of 2, The Orville #1: Artifacts Part 1 of 2, and The Orville #2: Artifacts Part 2 of 2.
In “Digressions,” after being pulled into the future and then sent back with her memory intact, Kelly rejects Ed’s offer of a second date. As a result, she, Ed, Gordon, and Claire never end up serving aboard the Orville. When Kelly realizes this will result in the destruction of Earth, she races to unravel how to bring her would-have-been crewmates together and undo this alternate timeline before the Kaylon burn the galaxy to cinders.
In “Artifacts,” Ed’s old astro-archeology teacher puts the Orville in grave danger when, in pursuit of a legendary fleet of starships from a lost civilization, he leads them into a system so hazardous no ship has ever successfully navigated it. Realizing that the professor hasn’t been entirely forthright, Ed must uncover the truth if the Orville is to survive this perilous endeavor.
Collects The Orville #1: Digressions Part 1 of 2, The Orville #2: Digressions Part 2 of 2, The Orville #1: Artifacts Part 1 of 2, and The Orville #2: Artifacts Part 2 of 2.
96 pages, Paperback
First published March 29, 2022
About the author
David A. Goodman
30 books61 followersDavid A. Goodman is an American writer, producer, and president of the Writers Guild of America West. He has been a writer for several television series, such as The Golden Girls, Futurama, where he was also a co-executive producer and wrote the notable Star Trek parody episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before", and Star Trek: Enterprise.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 23, 2022
Another pair of well done stories to read while one waits for the ever rumored and delayed return of the show.
July 16, 2023
After watching too many clips from it on TikTok, I finally decided to give The Orville a try. Sure enough, it lived up to its billing as a slow-burn show that, after a bumpy first season, became much better by the second one. It wasn't until I was nearly done with the third season, however, that I discovered the comic books, particularly one that filled in the backstory to one of the best storylines from the second one.
This two-issue series builds off of developments in the second season episode "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" while setting up the situation at the start of "The Road Not Taken." To summarize, The comic is about how this decision played out, showing how the events that followed led to the present of the alternate timeline in which the robotic Kaylon have destroyed the Planetary Union and taken over most of known space.
As a comic designed to provide a backstory to a unique set of circumstances, it really helps to have a good command of the show before reading it. For those equipped with this, however, it's a real treat that offers a "what-if" scenario that proves to be great fun. Through it David Goodman provides an entertaining exploration of the characters and their interrelationships with one another. My main complaint (as is so often the case) is that his examination of the alternate universe is a little too cursory, but for those who are fans of the series the issues are a fun and worthwhile read.
This two-issue series builds off of developments in the second season episode "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" while setting up the situation at the start of "The Road Not Taken." To summarize, The comic is about how this decision played out, showing how the events that followed led to the present of the alternate timeline in which the robotic Kaylon have destroyed the Planetary Union and taken over most of known space.
As a comic designed to provide a backstory to a unique set of circumstances, it really helps to have a good command of the show before reading it. For those equipped with this, however, it's a real treat that offers a "what-if" scenario that proves to be great fun. Through it David Goodman provides an entertaining exploration of the characters and their interrelationships with one another. My main complaint (as is so often the case) is that his examination of the alternate universe is a little too cursory, but for those who are fans of the series the issues are a fun and worthwhile read.
March 13, 2023
“The Orville Season 2.5: Digressions” (published by Dark Horse Books, March 2022). Written by David A. Goodman, art by David Cabeza, colors by Michael Atiyeh, lettering by Richard Starkings and ComiCraft’s Jimmy Betancourt.
Dark Horse Books (a.k.a., Dark Horse Comics), third and last (so far) trade paperback collection of comics they released based on the Seth McFarlane sci-fi television series, “The Orville” (which ran on Fox for two seasons, 2017 to 2019, and a third season exclusively streaming on Hulu, June to August 2022).
Dark Horse released their “Orville” comics as mini-series, one or two per year in 2019, 2020, and 2021. They released some of these mini-series with somewhat confusingand contradictory titles, some with both an overall “The Orville” series title (numbered issues #1-4) but at the same time also titled as “The Orville: [First two-issue story title] Part 1 of 2” and “Part 2 of 2”, followed by “The Orville: [Second two-issue story title] Part 1 of 2” (as seen in the two Orville trade paperbacks that came out prior to this one, "The Orville Season 1.5: New Beginnings" (which contains two separate two-issue stories, "New Beginnings" and "The Word of Avis") and "The Orville Season 2.5: Launch Day" (which contains the stories "Launch Day" and "Heroes).
This third Orville trade paperback, “The Orville Season 2.5: Digressions” (2022), reprints “The Orville: Digressions” #1-2 (May 2021-June 2021) and “The Orville: Artifacts” #1-2 (October 2021-November 2021).
"Digressions" is by far the more interesting of the two stories in this collected edition as it follows upon the events of the season two Orville episode, "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow", in which a younger version of Commander Kelly Grayson (played by Adrianne Palicki) is accidentally brought through time to the show's present day and learns all of the things that has happened to her in the intervening years before the crew finally figures out a way to send her back to her proper time. As seen at the end of that episode, however, the "mind wipe" that was supposed to make her forget everything she has learned prior to being sent back fails and she remembers everything.
"Digressions" continues this story by showing how different decisions she makes in her life based on that knowledge have far reaching consequences, ones that ultimately threaten the survival of the Union and all of those on Earth when the inevitable Kaylon invasion occurs. This is a very well done two-issue story which, unfortunately, ends abruptly at the end of the second part with a note saying, "Continued in 'The Road Not Taken'..." (which isn't the second story in this collected edition but instead is where the story picks up on the television series). "Digressions" is basically a "filling in the gaps" bridging story between those two episodes, something which I didn't realize when I first started reading it (and therefore couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed when I realized it wasn't a complete story in and of itself).
The second story in this collection, "Artifacts", is a decent enough (if at the same time very forgettable) story of an old academy professor of Captain Mercer's convinces Mercer to take his ship into a dangerous region of space obscured from the rest of the galaxy by a unique four-star phenomenon, inside of which may be hidden an ancient legendary fleet of warships from a now extinct species. The professor has ulterior motives, however, that only perennial goof-off Orville helmsman, Gordon Malloy, seems to be suspicious of.
I ended up giving this Orville collected edition (as I did the previous two) three out of five stars on GoodReads.
(For those who might be interested, Dark Horse has also released a more expensive “The Orville: Library Edition” hardcover collection that is an omnibus of all three of the trade paperbacks (containing all of the Dark Horse “Orville” stories in one volume.)
Dark Horse Books (a.k.a., Dark Horse Comics), third and last (so far) trade paperback collection of comics they released based on the Seth McFarlane sci-fi television series, “The Orville” (which ran on Fox for two seasons, 2017 to 2019, and a third season exclusively streaming on Hulu, June to August 2022).
Dark Horse released their “Orville” comics as mini-series, one or two per year in 2019, 2020, and 2021. They released some of these mini-series with somewhat confusingand contradictory titles, some with both an overall “The Orville” series title (numbered issues #1-4) but at the same time also titled as “The Orville: [First two-issue story title] Part 1 of 2” and “Part 2 of 2”, followed by “The Orville: [Second two-issue story title] Part 1 of 2” (as seen in the two Orville trade paperbacks that came out prior to this one, "The Orville Season 1.5: New Beginnings" (which contains two separate two-issue stories, "New Beginnings" and "The Word of Avis") and "The Orville Season 2.5: Launch Day" (which contains the stories "Launch Day" and "Heroes).
This third Orville trade paperback, “The Orville Season 2.5: Digressions” (2022), reprints “The Orville: Digressions” #1-2 (May 2021-June 2021) and “The Orville: Artifacts” #1-2 (October 2021-November 2021).
"Digressions" is by far the more interesting of the two stories in this collected edition as it follows upon the events of the season two Orville episode, "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow", in which a younger version of Commander Kelly Grayson (played by Adrianne Palicki) is accidentally brought through time to the show's present day and learns all of the things that has happened to her in the intervening years before the crew finally figures out a way to send her back to her proper time. As seen at the end of that episode, however, the "mind wipe" that was supposed to make her forget everything she has learned prior to being sent back fails and she remembers everything.
"Digressions" continues this story by showing how different decisions she makes in her life based on that knowledge have far reaching consequences, ones that ultimately threaten the survival of the Union and all of those on Earth when the inevitable Kaylon invasion occurs. This is a very well done two-issue story which, unfortunately, ends abruptly at the end of the second part with a note saying, "Continued in 'The Road Not Taken'..." (which isn't the second story in this collected edition but instead is where the story picks up on the television series). "Digressions" is basically a "filling in the gaps" bridging story between those two episodes, something which I didn't realize when I first started reading it (and therefore couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed when I realized it wasn't a complete story in and of itself).
The second story in this collection, "Artifacts", is a decent enough (if at the same time very forgettable) story of an old academy professor of Captain Mercer's convinces Mercer to take his ship into a dangerous region of space obscured from the rest of the galaxy by a unique four-star phenomenon, inside of which may be hidden an ancient legendary fleet of warships from a now extinct species. The professor has ulterior motives, however, that only perennial goof-off Orville helmsman, Gordon Malloy, seems to be suspicious of.
I ended up giving this Orville collected edition (as I did the previous two) three out of five stars on GoodReads.
(For those who might be interested, Dark Horse has also released a more expensive “The Orville: Library Edition” hardcover collection that is an omnibus of all three of the trade paperbacks (containing all of the Dark Horse “Orville” stories in one volume.)
March 29, 2022
More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/
The ever-delightful Orville returns with more classic sci-fi, very similar to Star Trek: The Next Generation. At this point, it feels like Orville has completely forgotten its original premise of being a parody of sorts, and has fully transformed into an actual drama. In these comics even the previously present comic reliefs and gags are no longer present.In this set we have two stories, both in two parts - the titular "Digressions" and "Artifacts".
"Digressions" deals with the alternative time plot introduced in the second season where a younger version of Kelly is brought to the Orville and then later returned with a memory wipe. The story starts from that point - the memory wipe having failed. Now armed with prior knowledge of the future for the next 7 years, she makes different choices than before and the whole timeline progresses differently. The story itself is a pretty standard what-if, fairly enjoyable but does not reach the best of its kind (like "Tapestry" from TNG). Slightly annoyingly the story does not complete in this set and is left on a cliffhanger.
"Artifacts" is similarly a fairly run-of-the-mill story of discovery of a long lost fleet of super powerful starships from a long gone civilization, complete with an overly obsessed professor of archaeology. I did like this one, even if you can easily guess from the start exactly what will happen and what the 'twist' will be.
If you are like me and enjoy Orville because it really is just like TNG , these two stories are just like watching two new middle-grade TNG episodes. You'll enjoy them, won't hate them but they will not stand out as the best. Neither have anything in them that would bridge the gap between seasons two and three - these appear to be completely standalone. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.
August 16, 2023
(3,7 of 5 for good Orville TV series methadone in the form of comics)
At home, we loved the Orville series. Star Trek, but funnier and without losing its wit or some moral hint. And the comics very much hold to the TV series feeling.
Of all 2,5 books, this one has a Disgression story as the first half of this thin not even 100 pages long book. And the story is only the first half and I didn't manage to find the second "The Road Not Taken". The second half of the book is another short story, complete. It's about looking for an ancient forgotten hi-tech space race, I know, what a cliche. But I love this theme and the story is fairly good, for a short one.
The art is still the same as for previous Orville comics.
At home, we loved the Orville series. Star Trek, but funnier and without losing its wit or some moral hint. And the comics very much hold to the TV series feeling.
Of all 2,5 books, this one has a Disgression story as the first half of this thin not even 100 pages long book. And the story is only the first half and I didn't manage to find the second "The Road Not Taken". The second half of the book is another short story, complete. It's about looking for an ancient forgotten hi-tech space race, I know, what a cliche. But I love this theme and the story is fairly good, for a short one.
The art is still the same as for previous Orville comics.
July 2, 2022
Nothing wrong here, but the first half is kind of a waste. As someone who loves (and writes) alternate timeline stories, there's not much point in showing up something that we basically surmised from the last episode of season 2.
The other story was more fun and interesting (though a ripoff from Star Wars). The ending was predictable, but satisfying.
Fun enough, but not as good as The Orville can be.
The other story was more fun and interesting (though a ripoff from Star Wars). The ending was predictable, but satisfying.
Fun enough, but not as good as The Orville can be.
August 1, 2022
"Digressions" fills in blanks nicely from the Season 2 finale episodes. But my favorite was definitely "Artifacts" and further cements that though he may just seem like the comic relief, Gordon Malloy (Scott Grimes) is so, SO much more than that. I know Grimes didn't write it, and it was probably never filmed, but he was all over this mission, and hats off to David Goodman for capturing him so well.
August 7, 2022
The first 2 part story is basically a filler story to show what happened between the penultimate and the last episodes of season 2 of the TV series. It was okay, nothing special IMO.
The second 2 part story is great. I can totally see that being a Trek episode. You can see it took inspiration from old TNG Trek episodes actually. The old evil scientist doing whatever they can to complete their work, ancient civilizations with technology far beyond current Union tech that causes awe among the crew, and a dangerous space thing to damage the ship and injure/kill some red shirts.
2.5/5 Stars
The second 2 part story is great. I can totally see that being a Trek episode. You can see it took inspiration from old TNG Trek episodes actually. The old evil scientist doing whatever they can to complete their work, ancient civilizations with technology far beyond current Union tech that causes awe among the crew, and a dangerous space thing to damage the ship and injure/kill some red shirts.
2.5/5 Stars
September 13, 2022
This book is a great addition to the Orville universe. It is not require reading to appreciate the series but it does fill in some background details while adding two additional and authentic stories to the mix.
November 28, 2021
The Orville comics have the same entertaining and clever flavor as the television series.
July 11, 2022
Still worth reading, but I'm not sure we really needed a prologue to "The Road Not Taken".
August 16, 2022
3.5 STARS
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews