Space Force: 5 Times We Felt Sorry For Dr. Mallory (& 5 Times We Hated Him)

This new Netflix sitcom follows a group of government workers in the new military branch called Space Force. The show has a zany cast of characters that includes military personnel, scientists, and marketing departments of the branch. Dr. Adrian Mallory, portrayed by John Malkovich, is the lead scientist attempting to help a crew safely reach the moon.

Although Dr. Mallory is one of the more sane characters in the series, he has made his fair share of mistakes throughout the first season as well. Here are some of the moments in the first series where fans felt sorry for Dr. Mallory and moments where fans hated him.

10 Felt Sorry: Constantly Having To Fight For Science

Although Space Force’s mission is to send a team to be on the moon for the long term, the department doesn’t appreciate the scientific team that is going to make it happen.

The department instead focuses on military strategy and General Naird (Steve Carell) is the final word on most decisions. This makes Dr. Mallory’s job more difficult as he has to continually fight and remind the military and marketing sides that science is the most important work at Space Force.

9 Hated: His Drunken Message

Naird finds that Dr. Mallory hid a heavily encrypted message on his computer and he decides to show Dr. Mallory’s hidden message to the control room staff.

They all watch the video for an uncomfortable amount of time as Mallory confesses his feelings for one of his experiment subjects, Jerome, by singing “It’s A Wonderful World” to him. Given that Dr. Mallory was observing him for an experiment, it gives the confession an unprofessional and creepy tone.

8 Felt Sorry: On His Own

Dr. Mallory seemed to be lonely at his job in Space Force. It’s not clear if he has family or friends outside of the department and although he and General Naird become close throughout the first season he still seems to be lonely.

From his drunken message directed toward Jerome to his isolation in the scientific side of the military branch, the audience feels bad for Dr. Mallory being on his own.

7 Hated: Choosing Unqualified People For Astronauts

Although this isn’t solely Dr. Mallory’s fault as General Naird is the one who moved the launch forward causing everyone to scramble, Dr. Mallory still allowed unqualified people to be part of the astronaut team sent to the moon.

They didn’t have many candidates to choose from and not much of a budget to work with, but it’s still not an excuse for an esteemed scientist to allow this team to be formed.

6 Felt Sorry: Overshadowed By War Games

In the same vein as Dr. Mallory having to continually fight for science and reason in the military branch comes the war games episode. There are two competitions between the two military branches that focus on a BB gun and balloon fight and solving a scientific scenario.

It’s no surprise that no one cares about the scientific competition and it annoys Mallory enough that he purposefully chooses the worse exoskeleton suit for the military personnel for their war games.

5 Hated: Immediately Backing Down From His Protest

Although it was good that Dr. Mallory didn’t really attempt to set himself on fire, he could have figured out another way to publicly protest what Space Force was doing.

He has Tony film him as he threatens to set himself on fire in protest, but he calls it off after he realizes what he’s doing. Tony was on board with sharing his protest and he could have found another way to protest without calling it all off.

4 Felt Sorry: Cleaning Up After Naird

General Naird is a rash and impatient man who often makes decisions that are out of his expertise and often doesn’t consult or listen to Dr. Mallory’s advice before he makes important calls throughout the series.

Naird’s quick decision making and stubbornness cause Mallory to have to clean up messes throughout the series and have to angrily argue with him to get his reasonable and logical points heard.

3 Hated: Letting Naird Send The Dog And Chimp Into Space

Although it’s not clear how everyone decided to send a dog and a chimp into space without a rescue plan in place for them, Dr. Mallory probably was in on the meetings and should have intervened.

A lot of Space Force’s staff is incompetent or makes decisions too quickly, usually Naird deciding they can do things even if science argues it’s not a good idea. Naird remembers they did this for marketing reasons and the viewer would hope that Dr. Mallory would’ve put an end to it before it happened.

2 Felt Sorry: Naird Thinking He Was A Spy

General Naird believes that there is a spy within Space Force and he is determined to find out who it is amongst the staff of characters. He finds that Dr. Mallory has encrypted files on his computer and although the two are close and Mallory pleads with him not to show the video to the staff and says he’s not a spy Naird does it anyway.

It turns out that Mallory is loyal and Naird embarrasses him by showing the entire drunken video message after the files are decrypted.

1 Hated: Defeatist Attitude

Although it’s understandable given Dr. Mallory’s work environment that he would have a bit of a defeatist attitude, it’s still frustrating as he could have tried harder to band together with his team of scientists.

The series doesn’t show Mallory connecting with his fellow scientists much to stand up to the military side of the branch, but Mallory often chooses to fight on his own. As Dr. Mallory begins to get through to General Naird, hopefully, they have a better understanding, if the show is renewed.

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