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In the first season of the sci-fi comedy series “The Orville,”<\/a> actor Halston Sage appears as security chief Lieutenant Alara Kitan. Alara comes from the planet Xelaya, which has gravity much greater than that of Earth’s, giving her amazingly high muscle density for her size. Although she’s young and small, her super strength makes her a formidable fighter among Earthlings. The makers of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” must have been paying attention to “The Orville,” as one of the core characters on the show, Lieutenant La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), looks very similarly to Alara, wears the same colored uniform, is also a security officer, and is even similarly equipped with superhuman strength. (In La’an’s case, though, it’s due to genetic enhancements.)<\/p>\n Alara is a great character who’s conflicted since her skill at fighting clashes with her secretly timid nature. Weirdly, however, she was written off the series in the third episode of season 2. It’s explained that Alara’s muscles have become used to Earth-like gravity, causing her to lose her superhuman abilities. Thus, she returns to her home planet to spend more time with her parents. Sage has only come back to play Alara periodically since then, turning up in one episode later in season 2 and then for one episode in season 3.<\/p>\n Even stranger, Sage didn’t ask to leave the show. Indeed, the reasons why Alara was written off the series seem to be entirely for dramatic reasons. Sage had no beef with the show’s producers, nor did she request to step away from the series. It seems that “Orville” creator\/showrunner Seth McFarlane just wanted to give his show a dramatic character twist. Indeed, at a 2019 TV Critics panel (via ScreenRant<\/a>), Sage merely said her departure was 100% about what was best for the series.<\/p>\n