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Published Feb 1, 2026, 7:20 AM EST
Lloyd 'Happy Trails' Farley: the man, the myth, the legend. What can be said about this amazing - and humble - man that hasn't been said before? Or, more accurately, what can be said in public? Born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Lloyd is a master of puns and a humorist, who has authored one pun book to date - Pun and Grimeish Mint - and is working on a second. His time with Collider has allowed Lloyd's passion for writing to explode, with nearly 1,000 articles to his name that have been published on the site, with his favorite articles being the ones that allow for his sense of humor to shine. Lloyd also holds fast to the belief that all of life's problems can be answered by The Simpsons, Star Wars, and/or The Lion King. You can read more about Lloyd on his website, or follow his Facebook page and join the Llama Llegion. Happy trails!
Asking someone who the best alien character in sci-fi TV history is will result in many different opinions, be it Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Dr. Zoidberg (Billy West), Worf (Michael Dorn), or even Gordon Shumway, better known as Alf (Paul Fusco). But one name that is unlikely to come up, although it should, is Lieutenant Commander Bortus (Peter Macon) in The Orville. He has the demeanor of a Vulcan and the appearance of a Klingon, but he's all Moclan, baby, and he's one of the best.
'The Orville's Bortus Is Far More Complex Than You Might Expect From the Sci-Fi Comedy
Image via FoxThere are, in essence, two sides to Bortus. On the one hand, he can be unintentionally hilarious and serve as one of the funniest characters in the series. He's known for taking things too literally, missing the nuances of wordplay, or simply misinterpreting what's being said, and that trait fosters a wellspring of funny moments. In "Hidden Dimensions," for instance, Bortus claims that the ship, upon approaching a dimensional portal, is "now entering glory hole," not understanding the double entendre of the phrase.
His obsessive behavior is another trait mined for laughs, whether it be growing an increasingly odd-looking mustache and refusing to lose it, or discovering 2015-era cigarettes and smoking 500 of them a day. Innate Moclan abilities, like being able to eat literally anything — a whole cigarette or a piece of gelatinous engineering officer Lieutenant Yaphit (Norm Macdonald) — are funny, as are one-off oddities like singing Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" for karaoke.
On the other hand, Bortus is deeply complex and serious, serving as the linchpin of some of The Orville's most dramatic storylines. He is steadfastly loyal, and exemplifies profound, confident leadership when called upon to guide the ship and his crew in the absence of the captain. Bortus is the definition of a Moclan — rigid, conservative, fierce — but comes to challenge those definitions by placing compassion and love over expectations. And, in doing so, Bortus becomes the one character who experiences the deepest character development over the course of the series.
The Orville has the markings of a classic Seth MacFarlane production — one of the Moclan's great traditional rituals is the Ja'loja ("Great Release"), where a Moclan marks the start of a new annual urination cycle by taking a leak off a cliff, for one — but also makes some serious social commentary, topics of which are surprising for a sci-fi comedy to address in the first place. And there, in the center of it, is Bortus. In fact, one of the first things we learn about Bortus is that, given Moclus is an all-male society, he is in a same-sex marriage with Klyden (Chad Coleman).
The couple lay and nest an egg, and when it hatches, they're shocked to discover their child is female, which is a rarity. In their eyes, it's a horrifying and disgusting rarity. It prompts them to reach out to have the child's sex changed from female to male, and when Doctor Finn (Penny Johnson Jerald) refuses the request, and Captain Mercer (MacFarlane) refuses their request to order the doctor to do it, Bortus, coerced by Klyden, takes matters into his own hands and hails a Moclan vessel to take the child and perform the surgery.
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The act leads to a rift in their marriage, and pushes Bortus to seek affection from porn. It's a scenario that could easily have fallen into parody, but instead is approached as the real problem it is. It turns into an addiction, and the lies he tells his family and shipmates grow as he tries to hide the shame he has from it. But when a simulator releases a virus into the Orville's network, jeopardizing the lives of the crew and 75 lives on a planet being pulled apart ("Primal Urges"), Bortus is forced to talk about it (one reviewer calls it "perhaps the best monologue dealing with addiction (of any kind) I’ve yet heard in a major science fiction series to date").
It's one thing to make social commentary, but quite another for a character to be truly changed by it, and that's where Bortus becomes not only one of the best aliens on TV, but arguably one of its most inspiring. He doesn't stay rooted in the misogynistic traditions of his culture, but rather listens, learns, and comes to a moral reckoning that sees him embrace his child for who they are, and supports Topa's (Imani Pullum) decision to have the sex-change reversed. Klyden leaves, but Bortus tells Topa she's perfect as she is, capping off the character's journey from hard-line conservative to loving parent, eventually winning Klyden over and reuniting their family. Aliens on television can be hilarious or horrifying, but only a handful manifest true emotional depth and range... and Bortus is at the top.
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