Warning: SPOILERS for The Orville season 3, episode 6, "Twice in a Lifetime."
The opening sequence of The Orville season 3, episode 6, "Twice in a Lifetime," redoes Star Trek: First Contact, which makes their Borg, the Kaylon, much more dangerous. The Kaylon, artificial lifeforms who are waging war on the Planetary Union are the main antagonists of The Orville's universe. Where Star Trek's Borg Collective wants to assimilate all cultures, the Kaylon wish to destroy all organic life. The conflict with the Kaylon began in The Orville's critically acclaimed season 2 episodes "Identity" and "Identity, Part II," but this time they've been set up as a much bigger threat than before.
Seth MacFarlane's show is heavily influenced by Star Trek, and "Identity" is a clear homage to the classic, Borg-centric Star Trek: The Next Generation two-parter "Best of Both Worlds." In the opening sequence of The Orville season 3, episode 6, the Planetary Union comes into conflict with the Kaylon once again, when a routine mission to escort dangerous technology is ambushed. The technology, held aboard the Orville, is a device capable of sending items back and forward through time. Concerned about its use as a weapon, the Union wishes it to be locked away at a secure research station that has been attacked by the Kaylon, setting the scene for an almighty space battle that recalls the opening battle in Star Trek: First Contact.
The Orville season 3, episode 6, "Twice in a Lifetime," isn't a Kaylon-centric action movie, however. The battle is a precursor to the temporal accident that sends helmsman Gordon Malloy back to the 21st century. Malloy's life on 21st century Earth slightly mirrors Rios' plot in Star Trek: Picard season 2, but his actions in the 21st-century risk jeopardizing the very future of humanity, a pertinent reminder of the serious consequences of time travel. By showing the troubling results of a sympathetic character like Gordon's use of time travel, The Orville demonstrates just how dangerous it would be in the hands of the series' main villains, the Kaylon.
How The Orville's Borg Try To Weaponize Time Travel
The Kaylon attack the Union convoy to take control of the Aronov device, a temporal accelerator last seen in The Orville season 2, episode 14, "The Road Not Taken." Since then, Isaac and Lamar have been able to expand the device's quantum field, enabling it to send items backward and forward through time. The Aronov device is demonstrated in a comical scene involving an egg sandwich, but it has darker connotations for The Orville's future. The Aronov device is of particular concern to Ted Danson's Admiral Perry, who fears the consequences of the Union's enemies gaining control of it.
Many viewers of The Orville are well-versed in Star Trek lore and have already seen this play out in Star Trek: First Contact. Traveling back through time, the Borg intended to avert first contact with the Vulcans and assimilate the more primitive human society of the 21st century. Thanks to Gordon's sacrifice in attempting to destroy the Aronov device, the Kaylon don't get to repeat the actions of First Contact's Borg. Instead, it's an isolated and lonely Gordon who, seemingly abandoned by the Orville, eventually puts the future at risk by getting married and starting a family on 21st century Earth, creating a new and potentially disastrous timeline.
Typical for The Orville, season 3, episode 6, "Twice in a Lifetime," offers a more character-led, emotional take on the dangers of time travel, rather than the end-of-the-world stakes of Star Trek: First Contact. But in showing how the temptation corrupts one of the show's lead characters, it only serves to make the prospect of the Kaylon, which is their own version of the Borg Collective, attaining time travel even more dangerous.
The Orville: New Horizons releases new episodes Thursdays on Hulu.