The Orville: Who's Who On Fox's Space Voyage?

ALARA KITAN (played by Halston Sage)

STRONG POINT: "Alara comes from the planet Xelayan, where the gravitational pull is higher, so her strength is her literal, physical strength," boasts Halston. "It's really my favorite thing about her." (Just stay out of the security officer's way when she's pounding a desk in frustration!)

WEAK SPOT: "Probably just the way she walks!" laughs the actress, who had given Alara a distinct, brisk gate.

LT. COMMANDER BORTUS (played by Peter Macon)

STRONG POINT: The second officer's greatest strength is "his consistency and his no-nonsense [demeanor]," says Macon (who without all those prosthetics previously played dad to Carl's girlfriend Dominique on Shameless).

WEAK SPOT: More so than the fact that Bortus is part of a single-gendered species that lays eggs, Macon says the Moclan's biggest quirk is "he a very literal-minded person — there's no subtext with this guy — so he gets into situations where he's affected slowly by human behavior." 

CAPTAIN ED MERCER (played by Seth MacFarlane)

STRONG POINT: "Oh great, no f–king pressure!" the series' creator/star laughed after being told his castmates came up with winning answers for this feature. After a modicum of thought, he offered: "Ed's greatest strength is his optimism."

WEAK SPOT: "He really likes Kermit the Frog." (Yes, really. Which is a bit of a plot point in an early episode.)

The first two episodes of Fox's The Orville air Sunday, Sept. 10 and Sunday, Sept. 17 at 8/7c, before moving to Thursdays at 9 pm.

DR. CLAIRE FINN (played by Penny Johnson Jerald)

STRONG POINT: One of the most accomplished physicians in the Planetary Union, "Dr. Claire Finn is the mother hen of the Orville," reports the former Castle police captain — a quality that first truly comes to the fore in Episode 2, when a crewmate has a crisis of confidence at the worst possible time.

WEAK SPOT: The good doctor perhaps isn't always wielding the best bedside manner. "She's equipped with a tongue as sharp as a two-edged sword," warns Jerald.

GORDON MALLOY (played by Scott Grimes)

STRONG POINT: "Gordon's ability to find humor in dire situations" is the major thing the helmsman brings to the table, says Grimes. "He tends to lighten things up when they need to be." (That said, "He can also do the opposite, and be wussy in situations where he should probably step up and be a man.")

WEAK SPOT: "Is red hair a quirk...?" wonders Grimes. "They say that redheads are supposed to be extinct in 150 years, but this is [set] 400 years into the future. Maybe I'm the last redhead!"

ISAAC (played by Mark Jackson)

STRONG POINT: An artificial life-form from the planet Kaylon, "For the sake of the ship his greatest strength has to be his cold, inhuman logic. It saves the day a lot!" says Jackson. "He sees things the other characters wouldn't."

WEAK SPOT: Since Isaac hails from a machine society that thinks biological lifeforms are inferior, "He does come off as an asshole sometimes," Jackson allows with a laugh, "but that's just these aliens and humans projecting themselves onto him. For Isaac, it slides right off like water off a duck's back."

KELLY GRAYSON (played by Adrianne Palicki)

STRONG POINT: Having once been Captain Mercer's wife (prior to her infidelity with a blue alien), the first officer's greatest strength is "taming Ed," Palicki reports. "She's his better half and he knows it, and that's frustrating for him."

WEAK SPOT: Again, she is the captain's ex-wife. "Her love for Ed is her biggest quirk, because she can only be herself with him, in a weird way."

JOHN LAMARR (played by J. Lee)

STRONG POINT: The navigator's greatest asset "is being able to assess everything and everybody in a room," says Lee. Especially when compared to helmsman Gordon Malloy, "He might be quiet sometimes, but he's always paying attention."

WEAK SPOT: As witnessed in the first episode, "He loves to have soda when he's on the bridge," triggering one of Captain Mercer's pet peeves. "But as long as it's kept below the navigation panels, it's all good!"