Galaxy Adrift - Part One
Star Fleet - Episode Ten
SO! Commander Makara narrowly avoided death at the hands of the Imperial Master by swearing that she had a bulletproof plan to defeat X Bomber and capture the F-01. What was this ingenious plan? We are about to find out!
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Shiro’s been staring out the window, wondering about the mysterious sailing ship, the Skull,1 that rescued them from certain doom only to vanish into thin air without so much as hail or hello. He’s interrupted by Lamia.
Bowing, Lamia asks Shiro what he’s up to. Worryingly, Shiro replies that he’s just been staring off into the void contemplating the emptiness. Too bad there’s no ship’s counselor aboard.
Lamia agrees that the galaxy is pretty vast. Shiro, overawed by this sprawl, reckons that human beings as individuals (and perhaps as a species) count for very little. Lamia sharply contradicts him. According to her, the worth of a human being cannot be measured against the size of space. This clearly highlights Lamia’s philosophical views and is quite heady stuff for Saturday morning breakfast viewing.
Those not intrigued by such cosmic existentialism will be relieved to know that Shiro brings matters quickly back to the plot. Somewhere in the vastness of space– is the Skull. They still do not know its position, which means Dr. Benn’s instinct to head for “beta sector” at the tail end of episode eight has so far come to nothing.
Lamia urges Shiro not to give up but he is getting pretty frustrated. The Skull won’t answer the X Bomber’s hails and the scene ends with the two friends staring off into the blue darkness of space.
Makara urges Orion to locate X Bomber once again. Orion objects that F-01 could be hidden somewhere on Earth. He evidently doubts that Lamia is the F-01, but Makara insists.
We get a 15 second flashback to episode five, where Lamia was first summoned from the safety of X Bomber, parked on Pluto, to “the sailing ship the Skull.” This is a bit much since we just had an entire clip show last week, but it is good to recap for those who don’t remember.
Having pressed rewind, Makara now seems slightly less confident. Adding an “If” to “she is F-01, she’s still on board the X Bomber,” the Commander is quickly supported by Orion. He surmises that the Skull got in touch with X Bomber in order to “get” F-01. He takes it for granted that we know what F-01 is or what it means to “get” it. The mystery deepens.
The time has come for Makara to unveil her grand strategy. It is *drumroll please* to keep the X Bomber and the Skull apart. Genius!
Orion’s confused retort is interrupted by a familiar commanding voice.
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A sting of Imperial evil music blares from the soundtrack as a termoid escorts Captain Carter to the bridge. He’s not the same man who fell at Pluto base… He’s been transformed! One of his hands has been replaced by a lobster claw and a beetle symbiont has been placed over his right eye. The left eye remains covered by what remains of his omnipresent sunglasses. It’s nice to know that if I’m ever captured by the Imperial Alliance that they may torture me, but they’ll respect my choice of eyewear.
“Put me in command and I guarantee the destruction of X Bomber,” Carter says. Can this be Shiro’s beloved mentor?
Orion, who could not have failed to notice that Carter is on Makara’s right hand and entered using the same variety of lift that he himself uses to access the bridge, urges Makara not to trust the interloper.
Makara, meanwhile, is heartily amused by this turncoat behavior. Although she is no doubt aware of the brainwashing process in all its ghastly detail, she playfully pretends to be surprised that Carter would so easily turn his back on his friends. This is Denise Bryer at her best– no one does evil quite like her!
A termoid, with an unusually deep, gravelly voice that I suspect is provided by Constantine Gregory, informs us for certain that Captain Carter has been brainwashed by the “Ultra Solar Rays”2 and has no more loyalty to Earth– only loyalty to the Alliance.
Makara compliments Carter on his service record– “a truly remarkable man,” she says. She hopes his skills will provide her with the victory she needs to regain favor in the Imperial Court.
“By your divine guidance!” Carter replies. You can almost hear the kids at home shouting “NO!” It’s such an evil twist of the knife.
Makara cackles at the sight of the Star Fleet commander in full Imperial servitude. She snarls at Orion that this is how it should be done. Clearly, Makara is playing a deep game.
Orion is Makara’s most valuable asset. Time and time again, he has offered strategies that would have worked if Makara had listened. His cowardice also makes him cautious, which is a useful trait as well. However, he does have his sniveling tendencies. Here, Makara is using Carter to provoke her aide into upping his game. It’s positively Machiavellian.
Furthermore, Carter poses far less risk to Makara politically, since he is brainwashed and presumably under her control. Orion has previously displayed his tendency to use his commanding officer as a scapegoat.
Besides, why not fight Earth tactics with Earth tactics? There’s an additional layer to this cake in that the cadets have a close personal connection to Carter. Makara is no doubt aware of this and is plotting to use their affections against them.
Now in full evil mode, Carter’s voice, supplied by the uber talented Garrick Hagon, drops an octave as he warns: “X Bomber, you won’t get away this time.” All while sinisterly snapping his new claw. Spectacular!
The Bomber in question is still using “trace” technology to try and detect the Skull’s movements. PPA reports no success. Hercules thinks they’re “millitons” away by now, but the Doctor persists in searching.
Lee, eating a snack, offers some sarcastic complaints about wandering around aimless in space. “All those stars around us. Magical it’s not.”3
Hercules says a “sense of panic” is there too, since they are low on food and power. Of course, he’s telling this to Lee who is freely munching away.
“I’ve still got my chocolate cookies!” the ginger says, as if this solves everything. “Mmm, they’re really good.”
Shiro arrives late and is sniped at by PPA.
This triggers Shiro, who launches into a PSA about how human beings are not like robots and they require regular rest and care. PPA smugly replies that this is what makes robots superior. The Doctor asks the bot to act with a little courtesy, only to be rebuffed.
Shiro points out that they haven’t heard from Commander Makara for awhile and Hercules thinks they’ve drifted so far out into the “wilderness of space” that even the enemy has left them to die. I’m sure they would be flattered to know they’ve never left her thoughts.
Dr. Benn is troubled by this talk and asks Lee to phone home. Unfortunately, they are far out of range and all they get is static despite Lee’s impassioned pleas.
Shiro can’t imagine that this is possible. After all, the universe isn’t that big, is it? PPA ignores this remark, but does insist that their communications system should be working on an intergalactic scale. 4
Lee still can’t raise anybody, but he is picking up a signal on the trace. The Skull appears! There’s even a message. “It’s waiting on the planet Zenith. 20,000 millitons, alpha sector.” Nobody is more surprised than the Doctor.
Hercules, despite his occasional suspicions about the Skull, is relieved to be hearing from them and Dr. Benn orders them to change course to the coordinates suggested.
They soon arrive at their destination (what’s 20,000 millitons between friends anyways?) and are impressed to discover that the whole planet is covered with lush green forests.
Lee is ordered to call the Skull again. He connects immediately, but the call is neither visual nor auditory. Just an open hailing frequency.
Lamia and Kirara arrive on the bridge just in time to hear that the Skull is at position X5 on the stellar map.5
As X Bomber comes in for a landing, they spot it.
It’s the Skull, alright… Hercules has confirmed it! And, he adds, it “looks like it’s floating on a sea of trees.”6 Indeed it does!
The X Bomber crew follow the orders they’ve been getting via text and proceed to land in the canopy of the trees. After the last episode, you could be forgiven for being just a little bit suspicious. But it is the Skull, isn’t it?
Dr. Benn is a bit suspicious too. Even though they’ve landed successful, he orders Shiro to leave the engines running. “In case of an emergency, I want to be able to launch immediately.” This is reasonable since all encounters with the Skull so far have coincided with Imperial Alliance encounters. Hercules digs this tactic, man!
Finally, Dr. Benn opens hailing frequencies. He’s got lots of questions for the Skull’s skipper.
Meanwhile, outside the ship, there is unrest in the forest. There is trouble with the trees.
Vines are rising and snaking their way along the X Bomber. The music, straight out of an 80s horror story, tells us this is not the best turn of events for our heroes.
Rather charmingly, the vines seem to be manipulated via wires rather than filmed in reverse. The latter technique would become standard practice for making any attacking vines or snakes in the coming years, but to have the vines puppeteered in this way gives them a bit of personality.
Shiro is uneasy that the Skull hasn’t responded. Hercules smells a rat. Benn keeps on calling. “Why did you enter our solar system? And why did you contact the one you call your compatriot?”
The Skull offers no answers, only silence. By now, it seems evident that all is not as it should be.
Desperation and curiosity seem to override the Doctor’s caution as he demands to know the secret of the F-01. Could Lamia be the F-01, he wonders? Lamia bows her head. Shiro is increasingly agitated and Hercules’ bad vibe detector is blaring.
As Lee confirms the frequency is still open and Lamia offers to do the talking, the X Bomber is becoming more and more entangled. No one has bothered to look out the window yet, they’re all too distracted by the Skull.
When Lamia talks about her pendant, it begins to flash. Neat. But the Skull remains taciturn. She offers to go over to them alone, which really aggravates Shiro. Lee gets another message. “They confirm, she has to go alone.”
Hercules suspects a trap just like Shiro. “Why don’t they show themselves?” Benn muses. He seems to remember at this point that the real thoughts and intentions of the Skull are unknown and that their purposes may not be positive. Adding all these concerns together, he opts to take off.
But as Shiro throws the switches, he is interrupted by an evil laugh. A mysterious face appears on the video screen.
Carter reveals himself, clad in some sort of blackout ninja gear, in order to gloat. “Your power boosters have stirred up the sea of trees. Can you not feel their violence all around you?”
Indeed, X Bomber is in pretty deep now. It looks as if the trees intend to make them all part of the landscape.
Dr. Benn, uncharacteristically slow on the uptake, orders take off anyway. Shiro fires main burners. They gain an impressive bit of height, but they can’t break free. They are trapped!
The Skull is almost never referred to as Skull. Almost always, it is called by this full title.
Ultra Solar Rays?! Does this mean they used rays from the sun to brainwash Carter? The Imperial Battlecruiser hasn’t been shown anywhere near the sun (or any other star) for quite some time. Does this mean the ultra solar ray is some other kind of device? And where have they been keeping him this whole time? How long does it take to complete the brainwashing? His last appearance (other than last week’s flashback) was way back in Episode Two.
I find this to be a pretty fresh take on the setting. In something like Star Wars, Luke Skywalker is overjoyed to be in space after years stuck on a desert planet. Lee is already burned out on the monotony.
Apparently, in the X Bomber universe, human beings have figured out a way to send transmissions faster than light.
Despite my honest efforts to ignore these things, I can’t help but get frustrated at the ridiculous technobabble in these scripts. Why the hell would a star map be used to locate a ship that is within a planet’s atmosphere?
Sea of Trees would have been a great title for this episode, if only the English versions had been titled. Close approximations of the Japanese titles were used for the DVD and for this blog.