Incredible showcase for Mark Jackson (Isaac) here. It's impressive how much he is able to do without a face.

Isaac learning to provide comfort by holding hands is done effectively and his understanding that Claire needs the same is a genuine moment. I love the Isaac and Claire/Finn family pairing, so this episode does great by me. Can't argue with the classic "stranded on a hostile planet" structure, either. It's definitely a cliche by this point and the episode doesn't do anything to subvert it, but it solidly executes the premise. To some extent, solidly executing an existing idea is the whole point of The Orville, so I think the show is achieving its goals here.

The episode seems to have been important, internally. Penny Johnson Jerald described the episode as her favorite at the time, and Seth MacFarlane said that putting together a show that was serious, dramatic and character-led charted the course for season 2:

MacFarlane also spoke fondly about the Orville's first season, singling out one particular episode that helped convince him that the show's tone -- a target of critics -- worked well for him and fans.

"One of the really successful episodes to me in the first season was the one where Claire and Isaac are trapped on that planet alone," MacFarlane said. "It was a very dark, kind of somber episode that still lived in that world very successfully. That episode for me in the first season was a real test of how far we can take the genuine science fiction aspect to it."

• Seth MacFarlane, Television Critics Association winter press tour, 2018