The Orville’s Isaac is one of my favourite TV characters. He’s an artificial lifeform from Kaylon, sent to observe and assess the behaviour of organic life on a Union spaceship.

He’s wonderful because he exists outside social norms. This adds a lot of flavour to the show, as the other characters adapt their lives around him.

Because he’s a logical creature and someone who takes things literally, he goes to extremes and can be rude. For example, in one episode, he offers to exterminate troublesome children. In another, he cuts someone’s leg off as a practical joke.

In a human character, this behaviour would be worrying indeed. But Isaac is not like us, so when we watch him, we can take a break from our usual social thinking. He is science fiction’s equivalent of a fairy prince.

You might have seen characters like Isaac in other TV shows. The Orville is a tribute to Star Trek, so Isaac can be read as the show’s Commander Data. (I suspect Data was at least a partial tribute to Mr Spock.)

I think Data, also an artificial lifeform, is a far gentler character than Isaac. Instead, Isaac reminds me of Harry in Resident Alien. He’s also like the artificial construct played by Alexander Skarsgård in Murderbot.

The latter three characters all share the traits of murderous potential, a scathing opinion of humankind, and an amusing social abruptness.

I love characters like this, whether they’re robot, alien, or something else. Introducing a non-human into a group of human characters always expands the range of storylines and character interactions. This character can be gentle and naive, like Data, or dangerous and haughtily superior, like Isaac.