Who’s the worst?

I recently watched all three seasons of The Orville, Seth MacFarlane’s parody/homage to Star Trek. Mostly just to kill time until the next real Star Trek show drops. The first season was as bad as I imagined and worse, but a handful of characters were charming enough to bring me back. The show improves a great deal with each consecutive season, finding its own identity as a sci-fi comedy that wears its influences on its sleeve. The Orville was able to take on missions that would have been far too controversial or salacious for the Enterprise, and with a better sense of humor than any other Trek show made before Lower Decks.

Despite being quite possibly my most favorite thing ever, Star Trek has one consistent, glaring narrative flaw. Unlikable characters, the ones who are rude and offensive to our heroes, almost always turn out to be villains. If someone acts like a jerk on Star Trek, there’s a very good chance he is hiding a secret that could start a war or end the universe. The scientist that’s a little too proud of his work, the admiral that thinks Starfleet has gotten soft, or the old Klingon warrior looking for a glorious last stand. Anybody who behaves unprofessionally is immediately suspect, and usually up to no good. But real people are more complicated than that—the guy that always annoys you at work isn’t a malicious mastermind, just an obnoxious person that won’t take a hint.

The Orville wholeheartedly embraces moral ambiguity in its better stories. And one thing it has that Star Trek doesn’t is people who are difficult, but not evil. There are characters who are quite unpleasant antagonists without crossing into full-on villainy. The other characters and the audience may come to hate them, but they are usually revealed to just be scared and angry people lashing out. The Orville has plenty of characters that range from mild irritants to major nuisances without ever escalating to mustache-twirling. 

Which begs the question—who is the most unlikable character on The Orville? 

Let’s narrow our selection by eliminating the actual villains. Teleya uses misinformation and fear-mongering to goad the Krill into a never-ending holy war. Isaac has a redemption arc, but he only needed one because he betrayed all of his friends and facilitated the murder of thousands of innocent people. And every member of the Moclan government we have ever seen is a rabid misogynist willing to mutilate or murder any women unfortunate enough to be born on their world. Those people are all up to some supervillain shit, so of course we’re not meant to like them. But what about characters who are just abrasive, not bad?

The Kaylon

Captain Ed Mercer was unbearably naive in the first season, abandoning all reason every time a pretty girl pays any attention to him, and afterward he wonders why he’s so easily manipulated. But he actually grows and becomes a better person and a leader over the next two seasons, so I’ll give Ed a pass. Same goes for Dann, who becomes less annoying as we slowly learn more about him over time. Yaphit could use a refresher course on appropriate workplace behavior, but he’s not really hurting anybody. All of these characters are tedious to put up with at times, but they’re hardly hated. No, when it comes to the least liked characters of The Orville, there’s really only two contenders: Klyden or Charly Burke.

Klyden is a civilian, the mate of Second Officer Bortus. They are Moclans, members of an all-male race, and their culture has some very regressive attitudes toward gender. Females are seen as weak, an aberration to be “corrected.” Any alien societies that include women are viewed as inherently inferior. While Bortus has kept an open mind and learned to form healthy working and personal relationships with different people from across the galaxy, Klyden remained a staunch traditionalist who was disgusted by the very idea of women and avoided interacting with them as much as possible. And when Klyden’s vitriol for the feminine was revealed to be a reflection of his own twisted self-hatred, he discarded any possibility to learn or grow from it. Instead he defends the cruel system that created him, and teaches its intolerant values to his child. Klyden was the one who insisted upon an unnecessary sex change operation to turn his infant daughter into a son, and then taught her to look down on others and despise herself just as he did. And when she finally dares to assert her own identity, he tells her he wishes she had never been born, which has got to be the cruelest thing a parent can tell you on any planet. Klyden is such a hateful bigot that he even reaches out to ruin the lives of other people in his free time.

Charly Burke is an ensign on the Orville, the navigator. She joins the crew after her previous ship, the Quimby, was destroyed in the war against the Kaylon. Unlike the rest of the crew, Burke is not willing to forgive Isaac for helping the Kaylon kill so many human beings. She avoids him when she can, and loudly protests his presence when she can’t. She is openly racist, deliberately cruel, and wildly unprofessional at times. Many viewers also complained that she was a hyper-competent Mary Sue, but where else would a young highly motivated and super talented overachiever in a post-utopian space-faring future go if not the bridge of a starship? It would actually make less sense if she wasn’t one of their most brilliant officers. And I have to point out that real Mary Sue characters don’t get entire episodes dedicated to learning they were wrong. 

That’s the key difference. In the end, Charly Burke learns and changes. She tries to make up for her mistakes. She even sacrifices her own life to prevent the genocide of a people she considered her enemy because it was the right thing to do. Klyden does not have any such redemptive moment. Only after his daughter is kidnapped and tortured by the Moclan government does he make apologies and beg forgiveness. His sudden realization that he should love and protect his child whether they be a son or daughter is really the bare minimum of parenting. Klyden’s awakening feels all the more late and unimpressive considering Bortus, his mate, arrived at the same conclusion the moment their child was born. Maybe Klyden would have continued his journey to redemption in the mythical fourth season, but he has consistently displayed the least awareness and concern for others, doing the most collateral damage, and playing the victim while surrounded by all the fires he lit. By the end of the show, every time Klyden was on screen I found myself asking “What the hell does Bortus even see in him?” Bortus has called out Klyden on his ignorance and hatred, as well as expressed serious concern over how his attitudes were affecting the development of their child, on multiple occasions. Despite Klyden making no effort to change and doubling down on his most toxic beliefs and behaviors, Bortus not only stays with him but renews their vows in a ridiculous Moclan ceremony. Honestly, I kind of judge Bortus for his choice to keep such a terrible influence in his child’s life. His daughter was contemplating suicide because of how Klyden treated her. How could you possibly welcome a person like that back into your family? It’s not like Klyden made some heartfelt gesture to show he had changed. He just showed up and said sorry. Which is an important first step, but that’s all it is. As far as what’s on screen, we have seen no evidence that Klyden has truly improved as a person.

By contrast, we see Burke confront and grapple with her own preconceptions. When she receives new information, she re-evaluates her beliefs and changes them. She’s still plenty obnoxious, with her holier-than-thou attitude and a tendency to run her mouth in front of her superiors, but she is actively making an effort to be a better person. On two separate occasions she saves the life of an enemy because she acknowledges that her prejudice is not an acceptable reason to let a person die, while Klyden’s unchecked bigotry drives him to harm others who never did him any wrong. When confronted, Klyden never admits wrongdoing or remorse—he is only ever sorry that he got caught.

So there you have it. Klyden’s the winner—he is the The Worst on the Orville. While lots of people suck, it takes a special kind of asshole to realize just how much you suck and actively decide to do nothing about it. Who knows, maybe Klyden would have continued a redemption arc is some future episodes that never got produced. But based purely on what happens on-screen, Klyden was a violent hateful bigot whose ignorance and abuse did unspeakable damage to his family and even cost the lives of many innocent bystanders. He may seem like a nice guy upon first meeting, but once you get to know him, he is most definitely not.

Because this is the internet, I need to add this explainer at the end. Declaring Klyden the most unlikable character on The Orville is not a value judgement on how the character is written or acted. Klyden is unlikable because of his actions, and I believe that is an intentional choice by the creators to have him serve a narrative function in their storytelling. I’m not saying that anybody made a mistake or did anything wrong. Klyden is unlikable on purpose, and the character is very well-executed by both the writers and the actor to promote such a visceral reaction in so many people. He is not a bad character, he is a bad person.

The Orville in flight