Add me to the charming brigade. It was pretty obvious The Orville was building toward this episode, as they've hyped the relationship between the two characters for awhile. It was a silly episode, and after watching the preview, I wasn't entirely looking forward to it. In the end, I thought the humor landed about right. If The Orville is going to do Isaac-centric episodes, then you have to anticipate something like this. Isaac breaking up with the doctor was cute. I even thought the mustache gag was okay, as was the cameo from Norm MacDonald (glad they kept it brief).
What I liked most was the "life aboard Orville" aspect of the episode. The extended symphonic performance was nice (I didn't want to hear the whole piece and was thinking Seth might go there, as musical numbers are such a big part of his shows). The ship had a bigger look and feel, even if some of the expansion was due to holodeck programs.
I moved last week's episode to my "stinker" file. It was an interesting idea poorly executed. This week's episode has been done before, but it was a fresh take. Penny Johnson is such a good actor. I also warmed more to the new security chief, even though I prefer Alara. I got a better feel the new chief through her girl talk scenes than with the random problem solving tasks they gave her to do in last week's episode. In random Orville news, she is another of Seth's ex-girlfriends.
I agree that the season feels a bit disjointed and that Sage's early exit forced them to position a couple of average (or below) episodes into a less than ideal order. Alara's final episode, "Home", along with "Excepting Fishes" were as good as it gets. Either of these episodes slots seamlessly into 90s Star Trek.
Out of six episodes this season, I've loved two, disliked (or been indifferent) to two, and thought two were decent.