This article was originally published on 6/27/22.

Attention, crew members of the U.S.S. Orville: We hope you like reading! TVLine reveals a scrapped episode of The Orville: New Horizons will release exclusively as a novella.

Titled The Orville: Sympathy for the Devil, the outing was initially slated to debut as Season 3’s ninth episode. Seth MacFarlane, co-showrunner, executive producer, writer and star of the epic sci-fi series, called it an “outlier — a conceptually experimental story.” According to MacFarlane, COVID-19 shutdowns contributed to the episode’s shelving for TV. 

Here’s a synopsis of the novella courtesy of Disney.com: 

“When Captain Ed Mercer and the crew of the U.S.S. Orville comes face-to-face with one of humanity’s most vile ideologies. They must solve the moral conundrum of who to hold accountable for evil deeds, real… and imagined. Occurring just after episode 308, this is the Orville like you’ve never seen it before.”

RELATED: Engage quantum drive by reading our recaps for The Orville: New Horizons!

You can see the cover art in MacFarlane’s Instagram post below by Eisner-winning artist Bill Sienkiewicz. Upon The Orville: Sympathy for the Devil’s release, you can read it as an e-book based on MacFarlane’s script or listen to it as an audiobook narrated by Bruce Boxleitner, star of Babylon 5 and recent guest star on The Orville: New Horizons as President Alcuzan. 

The critically lauded and audience acclaimed series aired its fourth episode of the season, “Gently Falling Rain,” on June 23. MacFarlane’s Captain Ed Mercer joined a Union delegation comprised of President Alcuzan (Boxleitner), Admiral Halsey (Victor Garber), Ensign Charly Burke (Anne Winters) and Speria Balask (the late Lisa Banes) to sign a peace treaty on Krill. 

However, Mercer discovers Teleya (Michaela McManus), a Krill woman with whom he had intimate relations, staged a coup to unseat the Supreme Chancellor, placing herself in a position of ultimate power. Teleya hopes to stoke the fires of rebellion and continue the war between the Union and the Krill. 

Episode five of the show, “A Tale of Two Topas,” finds Commander Kelly Grayson helping Topa, Bortus and Klyden’s son, prepare for the Union Point entrance exam, causing tension with the Moclans. This outing will debut on June 30. 

The Orville: Sympathy for the Devil is available for pre-order here, with a release on Tuesday, July 19, 2022. Catch new episodes of The Orville: New Horizons every Thursday on Hulu.

Will you pick up a copy of the novella? Sound off in the comments below!

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