If the Stars Should Appear

Perhaps Asimov's most famous short story, "Nightfall" quotes from the same Ralph Waldo Emerson poem about a society that sees the stars only once every thousand years. This episode involves a biosphere within an enormous spaceship that's been adrift for a thousand years and the people living there are clueless that they are even on a ship until the Orville crew open the "walls" that form the artificial sky in the biodome and the stars shine through. Also reminiscent of Robert Heinein's "Orphans of the Sky" (1941) also involving a ship so long adrift that the memory of being within a ship moving through space has been lost.

This is not rooted in Star Trek, this is taken from probably the best sci-fi short story of all time: Nightfall by Isaac Asimov. It is not even close storywise but it has the same makeup. The short poem by Emerson is from the book too.

Best episode of the season so far,(Still catching up on Hulu).

I wish this was a two part episode cause it was so well written.

So far this show is smart, funny, and serious all at the same time.

One of the best new shows on TV that's for sure.

If they keep churning out episodes like this one...it'll turn into a classic.

I just hope it's not doomed because it's on Fox.

I'm up to the 3rd series episode 1.

But this is still my favourite, this is what I want from this programme. Great story, great guest star and great premise.

Excellent episode rooted on Star Trek the original series with a bit of the Next Generation on it. Instant classic that presents important topics and Sci-Fi tropes to a new generation of watchers in a very entreating way. Bravo! to Seth and his team, still clapping episode three, I praise this one too.