An Attack Beyond Tears - Part Three
"Were we right?"
Last week we watched as our heroes wrestled with the ethical dilemma of whether or not to kill a harmless alien life form in order to save their own skins. This week, we kick things off by watching Makara and Orion decide to not give a crap about ethics of any kind.
As sparks tumble down on their catfish shaped spaceship, Makara gives Orion the go-ahead to destroy X Bomber.
Lee is very alarmed at the arrival of this behemoth, and Dr. Benn orders Shiro to do his duty– which in this context means blow the cute little mon-mons to smithereens.
As noted previously, the crew of X Bomber have not tried any non-violent solutions to this problem, such as making a really loud noise or spraying bear repellent.
Obviously, the Imperial Alliance are approaching with meanness in their hearts and will have no compunctions about destroying the mon-mons (they consider them hideous monsters) along with the X Bomber. SO if there’s got to be shooting, why not just let the baddies do it? The conscience of the crew would be clear, the mon-mons would be eliminated, and X Bomber would be free to take off– most likely none the worse for wear since it’s proven to be quite resilient at withstanding laser torpedo fire. They would even be justified in raising their shields at this point, which also might scare the mon-mons away, possibly without doing them any injury at all.
However, Shiro and Benn choose violence.
Rather than firing a warning volley into the air, it appears that Shiro just opens up into the crowd like Rambo. However, when we cut to the mons, there don’t appear to be any casualties.1 Just a bunch of bovine creatures slowly waddling away from the ship and towards the floor that’s about to be lava.
“They’re dispersing!” Shiro cries in relief. Dr. Benn gives the order to launch.
“Bury X Bomber in that sea of lava forever!” Makara orders.
Explosions go off as X Bomber easily withstands the firepower of Makara’s forces. In fact, Dr. Benn even has time to tell everyone to go to their stations, even though they obviously know that they need to do that in order to launch. Just launch already!
Benn gives the order to launch a second time before they actually do. Shiro can’t even jump in to return fire.
Orion is startled that X Bomber is able to take off. I guess he didn’t reckon that shooting at them would also free them from the grip of the mon-mons– a theme we’ll return to in a future episode.
“How do they do it?” he wonders, as Makara lambasts him.
The music is all business now as X Bomber goes for “full quantum speed.” What the implications are for going this fast within the atmosphere is anyone’s guess.
As X Bomber races for the skies at high velocity, Makara orders her ship to turn around and give chase at the same rate of acceleration. The only thing is that Makara’s ship is moving a lot slower than X Bomber. So perhaps quantum speed is relative?
When Shiro reports that the Alliance is giving chase, Benn orders evasive maneuvers. “Hey, Hercules,” Shiro says, apparently acting on his own initiative, “let’s give ‘em something to think about!”
The special effects don’t match the dialogue again. X Bomber actually dive bombs towards the enemy, something that could only be considered an evasive maneuver in the tactical manual of Admiral Nelson or General Patton. If defense is the best offense and the X Bomber has just survived aliens, lava, and direct fire then it is logical to assume that they have a chance in this fight. Especially since Makara isn’t moving around too fast in the planet’s atmosphere.
“Fire Hercules!” Shiro calls out. But wait– what weapon are they firing with? I’m glad you asked.
Yes, friends, X Bomber has once again revealed a new capability that has never before been previously mentioned. Apparently, there is some sort of energy beam weapon on each of the four forward wingtips. When fired, these four beams converge together to form one powerful beam like the Death Star lasers. This weapon isn’t given a name here and is by no means as effective as some of X Bomber’s other means of attack, but it gets the job done in this case.
Having performed a hit and run, Dr. Benn resumes a course for the stars. Specifically, somewhere called Beta sector.
X Bomber’s brief attack seems to have done some serious damage. Orion reports there is a fire in the engineering section, neglecting to mention that the bridge is also obviously in flames. Ignoring the smoke, Makara fumes that her quarry is once again escaping.
Her seething is interrupted by the Imperial Master, who we haven’t seen or heard from in quite a while. If you were watching Star Fleet late at night, you might imagine he was something you dreamed up. He is real enough to Makara, though, who answers his call subserviently using both her own voice and the voice of her symbiont.
It turns out the Imperial Master has been watching Makara and he isn’t too pleased with the results of her campaign. He orders her to return to home. 2
The symbiont begs for a reprieve, suggesting that they can still capture F-01 and defeat Dr. Benn. The Imperial Master is having none of it. They’ve been defeated one time too many and now they are officially recalled.
His final order proclaimed with echo and reverb cranked to eleven, the Imperial Master ends the Zoom meeting, leaving Makara and Orion in silence.
Makara broods. Orion looks to her, seeking guidance. Clearly, Makara is thinking how she can twist the situation to her advantage. Orion, interrupting this line of thought, unwittingly waltzes into her crosshairs.
“Will you be punished for your failure?” he asks, a hint of slyness in his voice. Perhaps he’s hoping to be promoted into her job. After all, there’s been several occasions in the first seven episodes where following his advice would have resulted in a much better outcome. Unfortunately, Makara seizes on the opportunity presented in his comment.
Makara nearly forgot– she has the perfect fall guy standing right in front of her! Surely her and her clever symbiont can find a way to convince the Master that it’s all Orion’s fault!
Orion, naive as ever, is now quaking in his boots. “I was only doing what you asked me!”
Makara says she must accept responsibility for Orion’s failures, but that the Imperial Master will know “the truth.” As they set sail for the Thalian Zone, it seems we are in for our first hint of political intrigue in the next episode.
Triumphant music plays as the Alliance leaves with their tail between their legs and the X Bomber returns to the quest to find the Skull.
There is just one loose end– the ethical dilemma that was never fully resolved. Shiro is clearly troubled. “The Alliance were relying on our human instincts not to kill those innocent creatures,” the older man tells him. Dr. Benn deduces that the Alliance was responsible for the volcanic eruption and implies that their casual disregard for all forms of life is the real cause of the evil. 3
Shiro takes the out he’s offered, seemingly willfully forgetting that the X Bomber crew were unaware of the Alliance’s presence until after the order to fire on the mon-mons was given.
Lamia interrupts this discussion. As she approaches, Shiro hangs his head in shame. “I’m sorry,” he says, “I didn’t want to do it.” As he saw it, there was no other way.
In a bit of a surprise move, Lamia backpedals on her own beliefs. She now thinks she allowed her emotions and her “love for all creatures” to get the best of her. She now sees that escaping from danger was really the most important priority in that moment. “You were right,” she tells Shiro, before asking for forgiveness.
This is quite a weak switch. Assuming the X Bomber heroes really were faced with no alternative, Lamia’s arguments against firing on the creatures were still quite strong. She is basically apologizing for being an independent thinker– now suggesting that she was a woman being hysterical rather than a whistleblower pointing out a serious ethical concern.
Dr. Benn steps into the breach here. “The natural kindness in your heart is a precious gift,” he begins. Lamia offers this love without reservation to every living thing in the universe. “When all of us can feel your compassion, there will be no more wars or killing,” Dr. Benn states.
This is quite a noble moment. The crew look on in silence as Dr. Benn solemnly makes this pronouncement. Somehow, the way of Lamia is the key to universal peace. This despite the fact that the way of Lamia was disregarded in the heat of battle in order to save everyone’s backsides. The thorny ethical problem remains.
Having sidestepped the issue again, Benn orders everyone to their stations (they’re all still at their stations) and demands full quantum speed. “We have a mission to accomplish!”
Anxious to move on, Shiro and the gang head off. The narrator tells us4 that the Alliance has been shown an example of mankind’s humanity– but have they? After all, humans did fire on the mon-mons. Besides, the Alliance already knew about their human compassion… that was the whole point of the trap Orion set for them. What the baddies didn’t expect was the goodies ability to rationalize away the ethical problem and simply take action.
In conclusion, this matter of morality is definitely the highlight of the episode for me. Shiro, Herucles, Lee, and Benn are all striving for a high standard which Lamia is much closer to meeting. Yet, when confronted with a challenge to those beliefs, they are all forced to reach a compromise in order to survive. When and where is it appropriate to make such compromises? Philosophers such as Kant and Kierkegaard have mused on this subject at length and it is a recurring theme in literature. Not usually the stuff of Saturday morning sci-fi puppet shows for TV. Although the episode does wrap itself into a conclusion, the audience is left unsettled, uncomfortable, and without any easy answers. Indeed, if there were easy answers, then war on Earth would be a thing of the past. Instead, each viewer is left to wrestle with the problem in their own life.
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The very astute reader Craig Black pointed out that the apparent lack of casualties is the result of English meddling with the Japanese version. In the original, the mon-mons are shown exploding! Despite having seen this version before, I had never noticed the change and overlooked it in preparation for this article.
I find this a fascinating word choice. Rather than “base” or something more military, he uses the word “home” which is loaded with nostalgic and snug connotations in English.
There is a phenomenon psychologists call “self-blame” where an individual falsely believes that something caused by external factors (e.g. mental illness, natural disaster, the loss of a friend, etc) is the fault of the individual. Ultimately, the cause of the evil here is the Alliance, since they damaged the X Bomber, forcing it to land on this planet. However, the crew members should still hold some responsibility for their own actions within this context. Exactly how much responsibility is up for debate.
He also tells us that the X Bomber team have no more clues as to the location of the Skull, even though Dr. Benn has a clear idea of where to start. There is also a quick update on Star Fleet Command– apparently they have still figured out nothing about F-01.
I'm vaguely aware of various tiny cuts and edits throughout 'Star Fleet' as a whole, but I know this episode has one of the more major cuts - Shiro's disposal of the mon-mons was rather more graphic in the original 'X-Bomber' version. Obviously the dubbers must have decided that actually showing the little furballs getting blown to bits would be going a little too far!