The Orville 1.11: Eating Yaphit

That might have worked as a title for tonight's excellent episode 1.11 of The Orville tonight - "Eating Yaphit" - but there were lots of other contenders, in an hour brimming with literary references, including

• Abbott's 1884 Flatland, a little novel about a literally two-dimensional world - hey, I have a three-dimensional copy of the book, right on my shelf
• Jane Austin, which Ed asks Kelly if they're living in (one of her novels, that is), when Kelly calls Ed a "prideful ass"
• Dr. Who's phone booth (aka police box), and its more room on the inside than it actually has on the outside

And the story was pretty good, too, drawing on both Flatland and Dr. Who with "The Orville" being sucked into and struggling to get out a swath of two-dimensional space, and the strange effects it has on living things.   John also plays a big role, being promoted in the end to Chief Engineer, because Newton is being transferred to help design a new space station [in my original review, I incorrectly said Newton was retiring; thanks to Cellophanity Frog on Twitter for pointing this out].

The ascension of John is in itself is a significant nod to the fine line The Orville has been flying between Star Trek: TOS and Star Trek: TNG.  On the TNG side, before tonight, there was the Data-like Isaac and the Klingon-like Bortus on the bridge, and everything else TOS.  But now we have the portly, Anglo Newton being replaced by the African-American John - or, in Star Trek terms, Scott of TOS giving way to Geordie of TBG.

Next week's the season finale, and my only regret is having to wait a light year to see more.

See also The Orville 1.1-1.5: Star Trek's Back ... The Orville 1.6-9: Masterful ... The Orville 1.10: Bring in the Clowns

1st starship to Alpha Centauri ... had only enough fuel to get there