Death on Planet M
Episode 15 of Star Fleet
Yes, friends, it’s X Blogger time again and we’re in for a fun one. This episode, misleadingly entitled Death on Planet M on the DVDs1, features some exciting battles as well as a female coming-of-age story and a bit on the subject of doubt. Lamia has been permanently altered by her encounter with Halley and will never be the same again. Her milquetoast days are coming to a close. But what is next for this young heroine?
As this tale begins, she stares vacantly out the window at her reflection. Who does she see sitting there in her quarters? Her thoughts dwell on Captain Halley and her image of him is almost seductive in nature. She can’t seem to stop thinking about him.
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But why settle for a hazy and inaccurately worded flashback guy when you can have the real deal? Yes, actual Halley pops right into Lamia’s thoughts. Although he can’t be seen, she can suddenly hear his voice. This might be creepy but Paul Bliss’ music tells us that this is all part of the magic of Lamia’s story and nothing to be concerned about. Of course, when Halley says that it’s good to see Lamia “so grown up” today’s adults may feel a bit uncomfortable about it. Just what is going on between them?
Though presumably only Lamia can hear Halley’s telepathic communique, Kirara’s antennae are raised and the furry beast awakes. Charmingly, as he sits up from the crumpled posture he takes for naps, his eyes slowly resume their usual glow.
Halley tells Lamia that they can now officially chat via telepathy: “if you want to.” Although she’s having trouble hearing, he assures her the clarity improves with time. Incidentally, the audience has no problem hearing him at all.
Since she wants to know where he is, he clearly and simply tells her his location so they can meet in a straightforward and non-clandestine fashion.
Just kidding, he evasively tells her he’s on a planet 5,000 millitons away. Space is pretty big so I would guess there’s only one planet in that range, but why not just be specific?
Either because he’s a jerk and hangs up without giving any more details or because Lamia’s powers weaken when she gets agitated, there’s no answer to repeated requests for exact coordinates. The mysterious people of the Skull remain mysterious.
Like a support animal, Kirara has been trained to recognize his mistress’ emotional distress. He knows something is up and plays it safe. He pushes the alarm.
A flashing red light activates at the back of bridge. We’ve seen this board before, but I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned that it shouldn’t really be where it is. The crew have to turn around to look at it but it does make for some dramatic camera work.
Somehow, from the nature of this signal, Lee deduces that there are “voices in Lamia’s room.” Perhaps Kirara activated the intercom and Halley is audible to others after all?
Shiro naturally volunteers to see what’s wrong with the lady. Hercules does too. Astoundingly, given the events of last week’s episode, Dr. Benn tells Hercules to stand down and that Shiro will handle matters. This is an incredible act of faith on Benn’s part. Hercules is flabbergasted. Perhaps he is feeling envious and frustrated playing second banana to Shiro’s leading man.
In her room, Lamia breaks it to Shiro– her new friend is sending her thought messages that she can hear.
Shiro, king of logic, declares this to be impossible. Never mind the improbability of ESP, he says that “there’s no communication equipment in here.” I guess the alarm doesn’t count as communication?
Lamia is insistent and won’t let Shiro dismiss her as overwrought. They are communicating and X Bomber should head for a planet that is 5,000 millitons away. Why? Because Halley is there waiting.
While Shiro stews, Orion reports to Makara. With their superior data, he has determined that the Skull is heading somewhere called “the Callusion Peter” which is a star cluster 5,000 millitons from Makara’s current position. “Older than the Milky Way,” Makara muses, “with evidence of a highly sophisticated civilization.”
There’s a lot wrong with this picture. First, Callusion Peter isn’t much of a name for a star cluster, I presume it is an artifact left over from the literal translation of the Japanese script given to writer Michael Sloan at the beginning of the rewriting process. It sounds a bit like a name for a constellation (like Orion the Hunter) gone through a game of telephone. Second, it’s an amazing coincidence that X Bomber and Makara are both the exact same distance from the Skull’s current hideout.2 Third, why does Makara care about ancient dead civilizations?3
Orion doesn’t care how old the stars are, he wants to conquer them. Makara doesn’t care what Orion wants, she wants “the Skull’s home base.”
The termoids are tracking X Bomber and report that it is heading toward the Callusion Peter. Makara is determined to kidnap Lamia before the Skull can make contact with her.
X Bomber has indeed followed Lamia’s advice and set course for a planet 5,000 millitons away. Hercules is a bit put out by this. The planet, he reckons, exists only in Lamia’s delirium. If you subscribe to the Hercules/Shiro/Lamia love triangle theory, you could say that Hercules is lashing out because of jealousy and over-protectiveness.
John Lee feels like Lamia has changed. “She’s different from the rest of us,” he thinks she now has “a kind of aura!”
Hercules does not want to think about Lamia having anything like an aura, but Shiro thinks there may be something to it.
He remembers Halley firing a beam at Lamia’s pendant. She was literally enveloped in an aura. “She’s changed since then.”
Hercules calls it a fantasy, but Dr. Benn is on Shiro’s side.
The doc thinks it is not ESP, but “more like telepathy.” We may be splitting hairs a bit. In any case, even Dr. Benn isn’t quite sure what to believe at this point.
As has happened before, Lamia waltzes in while the boys are speculating about her true nature. But there’s no time for an identity crisis right now. She announces that an Alliance warship is right in front of them.
Everyone is dumbfounded. The scanners show nothing up ahead. But Lamia insists that it is so with quiet, firm confidence. As Lee scans, Hercules is getting more and more upset.
“You’re treating her like some kind of goddess,” he says after calling her “overcome” and “off the wall.” He flatly objects to putting the ship in danger on her orders. He has a point, since she’s no ranking officer in EDF or Star Fleet.
Her unknown powers could very well be dangerous. It’s a great vocal performance by Constantine Gregory, who doesn’t even need to raise his voice to communicate the depth of Hercules’ concern.
The worst person who could pipe up now joins the conversation. PPA, who has a long standing battle with Hercules over discipline, chooses this moment to tell Hercules to shut up and just follow orders. “I ain’t a darn robot!” he growls, “Am I the only one who’s questioning this?”
He asks why he should “believe in” Lamia to her face. “I don’t know why,” she says with eerie calm, “but I can see it.”
Hercules storms off the bridge and announces that he is quitting. They let him leave to cool down.
When Dr. Benn asks Lamia what else she can see, she closes her eyes and we get a rare peak at her point of view. Her visions are vignetted by a kaleidoscopic effect. How psychedelic!
Not only can she see things, she can also tell precisely how far away they are. Despite her estimate of 300 millitons, PPA and Lee can’t confirm. Incidentally, this gives us an indication of how far X Bomber’s scanner range is, although perhaps the Imperials have stealth tech to avoid long range scans.
While PPA is still talking, the bad guys come into range. Lamia’s visions are proven to be correct. Dr. Benn calls a red alert.
Hercules made for the briefing room, where he is now pacing up and down. He’s clearly disturbed by Lamia’s powers and by everyone else’s complete and unquestioning confidence in those abilities.
As he muses, who should walk in but Lamia herself? Naturally, her psychic powers informed her that he would be here and not in some other place.
She tells him the Alliance is closing in and that he needs to return to the flight deck. He refuses. For some reason, the red alert hasn’t been sounded yet. He has to take her word and he won’t do that.
It’s becoming more and more clear why Hercules feels the way he does. Lamia’s behavior is strange and the others don’t seem to acknowledge the alienness of it.
“How come you know so much? Who are you?” he demands. It’s as if the woman he knew has been wiped away and in her place is a strange duplicate.
Lamia seems startled by the question. Could she be the F-01? He demands answers from her as if interrogating an Imperial Alliance spy.
Hercules closes on her, demanding that she use her clairvoyance to explain the mystery of F-01 and what the Alliance is really after. It’s scary to see him advance so aggressively, but he’s interrupted when the whole ship begins to shake under Imperial fire. Both are thrown to the ground.
As laser torpedos rain down, Kirara enters the scene.
From the floor, Hercules seems to snap out of it. He returns to his protective and caring attitude towards her. As Kirara scoops her up, Hercules tells the beast to look after her while he heads to the bridge.
Shiro is manning one side of the turret laser battery by himself. He sends PPA to fetch Hercules. The ship is taking a pounding.
Finally, a critical system is hit. The rush of air indicates it’s life support.
Instantly, Hercules begins to feel groggy. “What’s happening?” he moans.
Benn orders Shiro to transfer power to main shield and prepare for a laser blast, but before he can comply, he collapses. He can’t breathe. Soon the rest of the bridge crew suffer from the same affliction. Lee goes to switch to an auxiliary backup system, but the control is in the other room and he’s knocked down before he can even get out the door. Surely if you were designing a spaceship, you’d keep the backup life support controls handy?
While Lee crawls off the bridge, Benn calls out for PPA. He doesn’t need air and is there only hope. The speed at which this all happens suggests that not only is the system damaged, but there has also been explosive decompression somewhere. Dire straights indeed!
John Lee has made a heroic effort, but chokes at the finish line in more ways than one. Is this the end of X Bomber?
Luckily PPA is buzzing around nearby. He was supposed to be looking for Hercules, so he clearly went off course somewhere, but it’s a good thing he did since he’s just in time to throw the switch and save the day. Yay!
But they’re not out of the woods yet. The auxiliary system is down too. PPA trundles off to make a repair job while the humans pass out and flail around on the floor.
Makara congratulates Orion on his improving assault tactics. He keeps an eye out for the Skull, instead of just… y’know. Finishing the job.
PPA now has this flashing cart thing that is either an elaborate janitor’s trolley or else a rejected prop from Doctor Who: Paradise Towers. Just kidding, it’s neither of those.
As he makes a tremendous amount of noise and fuss, he draws the attention of Hercules who has managed to remain awake.
“Are you alright?” PPA asks as the big man collapses. He’s very insensitive, this robot.
As he attempts to fill Hercules in on the situation, a huge and heavy-looking girder falls from the ceiling and traps him. But the camo-clad warrior still has the strength to free him. It’s fun to see these two working together in a tight spot when normally all they do is fight.
While PPA wields his wrench with Hercules, the others are passed out or floundering on the bridge. Their salvation is about to come from an unlikely source. After all , there’s a major character missing, isn’t there?
Suddenly, her eyelids fly open. Apparently, she is not bothered by the “thin” oxygen4 and immediately springs into action.
X Bomber is drifting helplessly in space, unmolested. Time for Makara to make her final move, right?
But no dice. Before she attacks, Makara orders her crew to find out WHY X Bomber appears to be in distress. Who cares? This is your chance you red-haired, mini-skirted, symbiont-wearer! To their credit, the termoids carry out the sensor sweep in milliseconds and determine that there is a fault in X Bomber’s life support. But Makara’s only order is for the fighters to stand by while the battleship maintains its course. Sometimes I feel like the lower the rank, the smarter the Imperial officer.
Lamia is on the bridge. Ordering Kirara to take the fallen to sickbay, she takes her seat at Dr. Benn’s station. There, she contacts Halley telepathically and asks for a safe place to land. He recommends Molthane, which is 1,000 millitons away. Of course, Halley won’t be turning up there himself. Because the Imperial Alliance is “watching” him.
Is this planet different from the planet they were supposed to meet at that was 5,000 millitons away when this started? Aren’t the Imperial Alliance watching everyone? Just how far is a milliton anyway?
Lamia, without pausing to ask these silly questions, just makes for the planet at best possible speed. She’s taken charge in an admirable way and it doesn’t go unnoticed by her adversaries. When the termoids report that X Bomber has changed course, Makara intuits that Lamia is “beginning to show her ability as F-01.” The Imperial Alliance is in hot pursuit.
Welcome to planet Molthane, the land of perpetual sunsets and beautiful lens flares. Seriously, some gorgeous looking shots in these sequences.
I need more chunky levers.5
I need more golden hour starships.
Lamia lands safely, which is more than can be said for most X Bomber landings under duress. She tries to wake up Shiro but with no success. As she prepares to issue Kirara back to sickbay, she is interrupted.
It’s Commander Makara. “There appears to be no one left who can fight,” she sneers. Obviously, she’s never mud wrestled with Kirara. Falling back on her standard Lamia-catching technique, she threatens to destroy X Bomber unless the alleged nascent F-01 gives herself up.
Astonishingly, this ruse seems to be working again. Lamia is always eager to sacrifice herself to the enemy. It’s like a complex with her. She almost seems to be in a stupor, asking PPA why everyone is in sickbay, when she knows damn well there’s something wrong with life support. Maybe it’s affecting her too?
She tells the robot that they’ll recover soon since the planet has lots of oxygen. I wonder if X Bomber’s windows open?6
When she confesses her intention to leave, PPA resolves to stop her. But Lamia insists she has no other choice.
Since PPA can’t physically restrain her as Shiro has done in the past and since he also doesn’t have the soothing voice of reason that Dr. Benn has, he appeals to her compassionate nature and asks her to treat the crew before she leaves. Clever, PPA!
While Makara hovers over X Bomber like Snoopy in vulture mode, Orion has been keeping watch for the Skull. Smart move, since the two ships are always rescuing each other out of jams like this. Of course, Makara won’t stand for sensible tactics and so recalls Orion to join in the glory of the capture of F-01. D’oh.
While Lamia concludes that the crew will all recover, PPA tries to talk some sense into her. She won’t have it. Makara calls yet again.
It’s Doctor Benn who finally convinces her. Rolling over in his sleep, he points out the obvious. Sacrificing herself would undermine all the efforts of X Bomber. Imperial dominance would spread across the cosmos. He even goes so far as to say that all of their lives are of no consequnece in pursuit of that higher goal of protecting the Solar System. He means galaxy, I think, but he is in an oxygen deprived state. He begs her not to go.
His speech over, he collapses back into unconsciousness. Ironically, Lamia has always been forced to comply with Benn’s commands to stay put. Now that her powers are blossoming, the choice is hers and hers alone.
While Makara muses on Lamia’s silence, Orion urges her to give the order to storm the castle. “This is our moment, there is no one to stop us!” he declares. Waking up to the reality that giving X Bomber time only permits them more latitude to launch counter measures, Makara authorizes a fighter strike.
We’ve seen these guys a thousand times, but they look so great on this planet. The director of photography has gone so over the top with color, it’s almost like an episode of the original series of Star Trek.
“It’s your decision now!” PPA places the fate of everyone in her hands. She runs to the bridge. There’s no one left to control, manipulate, counsel, or cajole her now. What will she choose?
PPA has followed Lamia to the bridge. “Well?” he asks. “I’ll never surrender,” Lamia says defiantly. ATTAGIRL!!! “Let’s fight to the end.” PPA is so beside himself with combat excitement, he can hardly follow her orders to get Kirara.
Yes, readers, Lamia actually mans a turret gun herself. The lady who was so distraught over the slightest harm to local wildlife is now taking up arms to defend herself. It’s a joy to watch someone who the writers have kept weak finding the strength to defend herself, but of course there is also a sadness to it. It is impossible to have the strength of maturity without the loss of the innocence of youth.
To really drive the point home, the filmmakers show Lamia hiding her eyes as she shoots down an Imperial Fighter— before cutting to his horrifying screams as he dies in a white hot fireball. Growing up isn’t for the squeamish.
To keep the mood from getting too heavy, we cut to the more comical scene of PPA giving Kirara a crash course in rotatable weapon mounting platforms.
More fire and more death and destruction blaze from the heat of our heroine’s gun. What can the enemy do to withstand this retributional Lamia?
While Lamia pauses to take a breath, Makara recalls fighters and commands Orion to send in ground troops.
Now what happens here is interesting to me. The Imperial Carriers seem to have a beam down function– an almost Star Trek level technology. Doesn’t this open up a lot of possibilities for storytelling? But like most of the special features seen in vehicles from X Bomber, it is used once and then never seen again.
The beam of light turns into– a battle minivan? Although the term “minivan” dates back to the 50s, it was in the 80s when it became mainstream thanks to hits like the Dodge Caravan, the Renault Espace, or the Nissan Prairie. Star Fleet predates all of these.
Could this Mad Max-style creation have inspired the likes of the Honda Odyssey or the Toyota Sienna? Seriously, what kid wouldn’t want to deck out the “soccer mom-mobile” in all this kit?
More and more of these babies beam down and begin to converge on X Bomber’s position. “We’ll cut our way in from below,” a termoid snarls villainously.
It’s PPA who spots the baddies. Lamia lays down some heavy fire and Kirara joins in the action but this time it’s not enough to stop the attack.
It’s just a really fun battle scene, weirdly enhanced by the fact that some of the shots make the vehicles look like toys. In Derek Meddings’ more expensive effects for the Gerry Anderson shows, the vehicles were usually filmed in slow motion to make them seem larger. Here, the battle minivans just bounce along. It’s adorable.
In another surprise feature, the ground vehicles also have hydraulic platforms that enable the baddies to get up close and personal with the X Bomber under carriage.
It would be interesting to see how this show plays on radio.7 Here, the termoid basically describes everything out loud as it happens.
“This is the end of us!” PPA exclaims as alarms blare. The enemy are boarding from below and Lamia dispatches the robot to try and wake the rest of the crew.
PPA does succeed in waking the warriors. They spring up quite quickly all things considered. Makes you wonder if some breathing gear or a spacesuit might have been a better option for recovery than sickbay. Perhaps the rest of the series is just a dream from their oxygen deficient slumber?
The episode ends on one hell of a cliffhanger. Bad guys are aboard X Bomber in force and the young space pilots are asleep or half awake. Lamia’s capture seems certain. I remember it being quite surprising to see the Alliance get so far as a kid. One of the many things I love about this show is it’s ability to establish rules for itself and then break them in order to ratchet up the drama.
While writing this, it occurred to me that Lamia’s transformation is a mythical coming of age story with a specifically feminine bent. A futuristic tale of a girl becoming a woman. The Japanese crew, especially the writers and directors, seems to have been predominantly male. As such, they may have found the notion of female puberty to be mysterious and alien, much more so than the females on the team would have. The mythologizing of the feminine is a rich tradition in fairy tales, including The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter upon which Star Fleet is based.
In a way, it is a bit dehumanizing the way men can put women up on pedastels in stories. They become such distant, lofty figures that they hardly feel real and actresses aren’t given much room to explore the full range of emotions. On the other hand, this episode proves to be a strong vehicle for Lamia, possibly her best in the whole show. It’s where she begins to take action for herself. The show focuses more on her and less on the men, to the point that all the men are knocked out for the entire final act. Even the only dialogue between the two warring factions is between women (although it does not quite pass the infamous Bechdel test8).
Lest you think this is a strictly feminist episode, there is also the matter of Hercules’ doubt. It’s almost religious in nature (one could argue that there’s a “believe women” message to be drawn here too) with Hercules cast as a doubting Thomas in the face of a miraculous transformation of a messianic figure. In C.S. Lewis’ famous allegory about Christianity, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, the powerful (and divine) lion Aslan is “not a tame lion” and that is often a neglected aspect of any kind of storytelling involving superpowers. Lamia isn’t tame either, her power is not of the Earth and it is changing her in mysterious and scary ways. It is great to see a bit of the more terrifying and uncontrollable aspect of that power.
In addition to that literary criticism stuff, this episode still has plenty of great action sequneces with lots of new and fresh angles on the vehicles we’ve seen many times plus a few new vehicles to boot. It’s a great episode and the story only gets better from here!
A better translation of the Japanese title (XボンバーM星に死す!) might be X-Bomber Dies on Planet M
With the way things are going, why doesn’t the Emperor barrage X Bomber 24 hours a day? Makara has been hanging close by her adversary and although she tends not to win any battles, she definitely has superior numbers. A creeping barrage would definitely wear them down.
Spoiler alert: The dead civilization bit does not play into the plot of this episode. It’s just some throwaway world building that sounds nice.
The air we breathe is not pure oxygen. If it was, we would be feeling really high all the time. The mistake of filling a spacecraft with pure oxygen was deemed a major contributing factor to the tragic fire aboard Apollo 1. That disaster claimed the lives of three astronauts, including Virgil Tracy’s namesake, Virgil Grissom. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170125-the-fire-may-have-saved-the-apollo-programme https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/why-does-breathing-pure-oxygen-kill-you
https://news.usni.org/2019/08/09/navy-reverting-ddgs-back-to-physical-throttles-after-fleet-rejects-touchscreen-controls
https://catacombs.space1999.net/main/epguide/t11tls.html#Errors
Back in the day, I created a Star Fleet audio drama, adapting Andy Thomas’ Star Fleet Genesis fan fiction. https://www.sfxb.co.uk/genesis/stftgenesis6.html
Bechdel invented this test as a joke and allegedly didn’t intend for it to be taken quite so seriously as a real test. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/02/alison-bechdel-test-dykes-to-watch-out-for-cartoonist-interview