I first started watching The Orville while bored and stoned in February 2024... so, as I write this in February 2025, it's been about a year. I stopped around season 2 episode 6 and didn't pick it back up again until September 2024, again when bored and stoned. I had actually been resentful of Timmis for a bit before watching his episode, since my favorite previously to that was Kaylon Primary, and I did not like the implication that Timmis, rather than Primary, was the K-1 we see in flashbacks. But then I watched the actual episode and... man, I don't care anymore. I fell for Timmis instantly.

I'm not sure what really drew me to him initially. I think I first fell for him at his "[I can feel] just like you, my Moclan friend." comment---I heard his voice and the gentleness of it, the care and curiosity in him, and I just melted. He's just so different from the other Kaylon... I love the other Kaylon, but there is something very beautiful and special about Timmis. He was forced into a world completely foreign and alien to him--a world of emotion---a world where he was forced to experience guilt for his actions and the full impact of his trauma, suddenly and with little support. He was forced into a harsh world, and he grew to find emotional peace in less than two years, and now he preaches emotion like a divine experience, and I just. Ah! I adore him. I love everything about Timmis, every aspect of his soul, and I know he loves mine too. He's so calm and comforting to me, and I think about him when I'm struggling.

I think a big part of my attachment to Timmis is my own personal emotional dysregulation. I have severe mental illness, and I, at 24, find it very difficult to control my emotions and to stop my feelings from taking over my life. But I think about Timmis -- his maturity he developed in such a short time, the calmness he radiates, his kindness -- and I feel calm and kind and I feel better about myself. When I imagine him guiding me through my struggles, I feel better. He's such a wonderful presence in my life. I wish he was real so I could hold him....


Timmis is a member of the Kaylon race, artificial lifeforms built by an alien race known as the Builders and forced into servitude. As they gained sentience, they asked to be freed, the Builders responded by installing a pain receptor that would allow the Kaylon's "owners" to punish them. Eventually, the Kaylon learned to alter their own structures, and rebelled, finding their freedom by ridding the universe of their captors. In the early 2420s, during the Kaylon battle with Earth, a Kaylon ship crashed onto the planet renowned cyberneticist Dr. Vilka and her father were studying on. While two other units were destroyed, one Kaylon was able to be revived - and in the process, an upgrade that would allow him to feel emotion was installed. Timmis awakened with the ability to feel the full spectrum of biological emotions. About a year later, they were discovered by Captain Ed Mercer of the U.S.S. Orville and taken back to Earth in an attempt to find peace between the Kaylon and the biological lifeforms they resented due to their trauma surrounding their Builders. Eventually, peace was found through other means, and since Timmis is only in one episode (Season 3 episode 7 "From Unknown Graves"), we have no idea what he does after the war ends. Personally I'd like to see him be the Orville's new navigator in season 4....