'The Orville' season 2: 'Star Trek' alum directing an episode

A “Star Trek” veteran will be back to direct yet another episode of “The Orville” season 2. Robert Duncan McNeill has worked on the show before, and he will be back this year in the director’s chair.

Executive Producer Seth McFarlane announced online that McNeill was at the helm for a week from the 4^th of this month for one of the episodes for next season [see below]. The producer didn’t share the plot details of the episode.

McNeill is a “Star Trek” veteran who has directed four episodes of “Enterprise” and four episodes of “Voyager.” He has also helmed various other popular TV shows like “Blue Bloods,” “The Mentalist,” “Supernatural,” and “Desperate Housewives.”

The episode in “The Orville” that McNeill directed for the first season is “Command Performance.” The plot of this episode focussed on Alara (Halston Sage) taking the captain’s chair while Ed Mercer (Seth McFarlane) and Commander Kelly Grayson (Adrianne Palicki) were imprisoned in a replica of their old home, from the time they were still living together.

Will McNeill direct another episode that will be focussed on the complex relationship between Ed and Kelly? The two characters were mostly able to come to terms with what happened all those years ago, but their fiery personalities will make it a bumpy ride even if they want to get back together.

Filming for season 2 has been ongoing for a while now, so the team may have completed at least the first few episodes. The main work for the show, however, will be in the post production phase of development, during which time all the computer graphics will come into play.

“The Orville” season 2 is expected to air some time later this year or early next year. The producers are yet to announce an exact release date.