Galaxy Adrift - Part Two

X Bomber gets tangled up; Captain Orion is in a twist

Despite efforts to escape, X Bomber is thoroughly ensnared by the Sea of Trees on the planet Zenith. Shiro curses their fate as the mysterious black-clad figure on the view screen disappears without so much as claiming a victory for the Imperial Alliance or anyone else.

In the X Bomber universe, whenever a screen goes blank it is replaced by some kind of abstract imagery. In this case, a swirly blue screensaver.

As Dr. Benn demands that the villain identify himself, the Skull slowly fades away. It was all a mirage, ladies and gents.

Poof! It was never really there.

Everyone aboard X Bomber reaches the conclusion that this is the work of the Imperial Alliance– a sound conclusion given Makara’s history of utilizing similar tactics.

In case you miss what Hercules said, Lee restates it for the record.

Meanwhile, having identified the honey in the trap, our heroes are no wiser for getting out of it. Shiro continues to attempt to reach escape velocity until Hercules points out that their new nemesis was telling the truth about the ship’s engines causing the vines to constrict. The more they struggle, the tighter the grip becomes.

Benn pulls the plug and the ship settles back down into canopy.

As Lee expresses his disdain for the “dumb games” their new adversary is playing, PPA cheerfully reports an approaching alien vessel.

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Makara’s ship appears from beneath a dry ice ‘waterfall’– an impressive and creative use of simple techniques to make something that looks quite unique!

Shiro is not at all surprised. Hercules is ready for a fight but Shiro quashes this notion with the admonishment that they only have half power. Where did the other half of their power go? X Bomber’s battery life sounds about as reliable as an old flip phone.

Dr. Benn wants Hercules to wait while he attempts to reason with the Alliance. That should go well.

Always write your name on your stuff so everyone knows that it’s yours. Especially stuff you always wear such as helmets.

Benn asks for the secret of the F-01. It doesn’t work, but it was a nice thought and it does succeed in re-establishing contact with Carter. No one seems to recognize him through his hastily assembled bath towel disguise.

“You’ll understand it’s power soon enough,” Carter says, “now stop stalling and hand Lamia over!” Benn is understandably perplexed. Does this mean he thinks Lamia is F-01? Lamia blinks. Carter points out that Lamia was drawn to the Skull. Although this proves nothing, it’s enough for them to want her for unknown and nefarious purposes.

Lamia, for her part, is all too happy to oblige. “Please don’t stop me,” she asks, before confessing that she just wants to know the truth about F-01 and herself– even if it means giving up to the bad guys. Shiro forbids her and she responds by leaving the bridge.

Carter ignores these happenings and states he will attack if Lamia does not step outside.

As he hangs up, Lamia returns to the long corridor we saw her race down during her last desperate attempt to sacrifice herself. She arrives back at ye olde air lock and blinks sadly in the manner the puppeteers most often use to express her emotions. She doesn’t want to die, but out of a twisted sense of duty, she feels she must sacrifice herself. It’s a nice bit of performance carried over without words.

Her resolve strengthening, she reaches for the controls to the airlock.

The garbled letters and numbers make no sense here. The airlock control appears to be the steering wheel from a toy car.

A hand reaches in to stop her!

This time it isn’t Shiro, it’s Dr. Benn. Although Lamia’s continual acts of martyrdom get a bit tiresome, this scene manages to feel quite sweet, mostly thanks to the vocal performances from Peter Marinker and Liza Ross as well as the lovely music selected from Paul Bliss’ score. The tone is almost father and daughter.

Benn declares that they must not be intimidated by barbarism, and that Lamia is as precious to the crew of X Bomber as life itself. “We’ll find some way out.” But what?

Carter casually tells the Earth people to prepare for death, since his unspecified time limit has expired. “Fire lasers!”

So, once again, X Bomber is under direct fire from Makara’s Battlecruiser, only this time it is protected by a heavy blanket of vegetation. Vegan shields!

Plant based defense systems.

Hercules tries to return fire from the turret laser but “these creepers are cramping my style!”

These oversize vines, in scale with the puppets, are a lovely touch and a very effective piece of production design. I’ve commented on this before, but I especially love the tiny targeting screens on these guns.

Dr. Benn returns to the bridge and Shiro reports the enemy has opened fire.

From the sixth quadrant, no less!

Benn orders his crew to prepare for takeoff. Lee reminds him that they are trapped by the vines but Benn points out what you, intelligent reader, have no doubt already thought about. “By attacking us they’re setting us free!”

Shiro is slow on the uptake, but PPA spells it out for him. Yes, the Imperial Alliance are actually releasing X Bomber with their barrage of fire. Sigh. So much for the new battle plan.

Lamia and Kirara watch as Carter undoes his own strategy.

Lamia is also a bit slow to pick up on what’s happening. She tells Kirara that if X Bomber is destroyed, they will die together. Don’t worry, X Bomber can withstand a lot more firepower than the local equivalent of celery stalks.

Shiro and Benn take off and the mighty engines strain against the remaining vines. “Struggle all you want,” Carter growls, “you’re not going anywhere except to your grave.”

Tired of talking to himself while he makes futile threats, Carter calls up X Bomber once again in order to ask them to cooperate, hand over Lamia, and wait for the Alliance to return her. Unharmed, he promises. Lee seems to be taken in by Carter’s claims, but the Doc and the audience maintain a healthy skepticism.

“You don’t think you can trust what they say, do you?”

Meanwhile, Hercules continues to attempt to lay down some return fire. “These vines are tying me up in knots!”

Meet Hercules. He hates vines.

If you look in the center of this picture, where the neck begins to angle upwards, it appears some bean-shaped brackets have been added to the model to hold the vines in place.

This is getting pretty frustrating. Not only is this a tactical repeat of what Orion tried on Alarea with the mon-mons, Carter is wasting a perfectly good trap by blowing it to pieces. What does he hope to accomplish?

Sensing that he’s getting nowhere, Carter decides to add a new ingredient to this recipe. “Standby with the Delta Laser!” He intends to blow them all to pieces and kiss the F-01 goodbye.

No, not the Delta Laser!

Reactions on the bridge are mixed. The termoids eagerly reply that the weapon is ready. Orion is very startled at the mention of this secret, ultimate weapon. According to him, its use will destroy the entire planet. He insists that he never had to resort to such extreme measures, casting further aspersions on his new rival’s ability to attack judicially.

Makara, for her part, is so pleased that her brainwashing has given Carter full knowledge of Imperial weaponry that she is overlooking the fact that he is destroying the only viable candidate for the role of F-01– something that was very much against the Imperial Master’s wishes.

Where was this planet killing weapon when they needed to go up against the X Impulse?

The target is X Bomber– but just as Carter is about to give the order to fire, the bridge shudders and shakes. Has Hercules managed to get in a lucky shot?

Nope, it’s the real Skull, back to save X Bomber’s bacon once again! The termoids take cover as blue bolts pelt down on them. Makara orders the Skull destroyed while X Bomber is trapped. Sound military strategy that!

X Bomber sees what’s going on. Dr. Benn orders Shiro to seize the moment as Lamia discovers her prayers have been answered.

Shiro isn’t quite sure how to break free, but Benn wants to transfer all power from the shields. Odd, because it seems that shield we saw in episode nine’s flashback would be helpful in busting out, but apparently the engines are more better. This despite the fact that the vines constrict tighter the more their prey resists. The story logic is in shambles, but who cares? The action is ramping up.

With a suitably gross splatter of green plant blood, X Bomber thrusts forward with maximum power and manages, against all odds, to break free.

“We did it, sir! We’re free of the trees!” Shiro celebrates as the last of the vines fall off the spaceship.

Lamia, for her part, remembers to thank the ones truly responsible for their narrow escape– the Skull.

Convenient how they just happened to be in the neighborhood. Is this the result of Lamia’s ESP?

As a termoid reports that the Skull’s attack didn’t do any real damage, Carter fumes that Dr. Benn won’t escape next time.

The Skull and X Bomber are apparently making good their exit in separate directions. Makara orders her subordinates to destroy the Skull.

Off they go, Delta Laser and all.

As they leave, Shiro and Benn change course to go to the aid of the Skull.

Back in space, Makara and company are closing in on their quarry but it is too fast for them. Carter orders the termoids¹ to let it go. After all, he’ll just come up with a new battle plan, right?

Orion, for one, isn’t convinced. He’s not about to let this failure slide past unnoticed. Giving no chance for Carter to explain his failure, Orion turns to Makara and insists that they stop following “this worthless fool.”

But Makara throws her support behind Carter. She congratulates him on a job well done, while dismissing Orion who turns away dejectedly muttering. “It’s not fair!”

Indeed, it isn’t. Carter has just stolen what was essentially Orion’s battle plan from episode eight, only instead of mon-mons, he used tree vines to trap X Bomber. Once he caught it, he didn’t seem to know what to do with it. From a plot view, this isn’t very satisfying.

From a dramatic point of view, this is offers viewers of all ages something to enjoy– a nice relationship triangle. Makara, as the matriarch of this evil dysfunctional family, has two little boys competing for her affections. Alternatively, it could be interpreted as a love triangle since Orion seems to hold some secret affection for Makara. Or maybe it’s just standard military jockeying for power? However you slice it, it’s nice to have some genuine interpersonal drama among the villains.

The Skull’s ability to outrun the enemy also means they can outrun X Bomber. Dr. Benn suspects the ol’ main shield has been hit and orders up full damage reports from PPA.

Shiro muses on who their new adversary could be and why Makara was absent. “That new commander’s voice reminded me of…” Before he can finish the thought, Benn orders him to stay focused and fly the ship.

Nothing has been resolved and the mystery has only deepened. Coming as close as it does to episode eight, this is a bit of an unsatisfying episode. The grand setup of an ingenious new villain is undercut by the weakness of his plan of attack, which is too similar to Orion’s latest to give any credence to the notion of Carter’s superiority. The reveal of the Delta Laser feels too convenient, given how handy such a weapon would have been in earlier instances. Why didn’t they use it on Jupiter? Much like X Bomber’s green energy shields, it will fade forgotten into the background.

On the positive side, the tree planet is a lovely setting. The brainwashed Captain Carter is well portrayed by Garrick Hagon and visually striking. His character will have one of the most dramatic and exciting arcs in the whole narrative and his relationship to Makara and Orion is scintillating viewing.

Perhaps if the next episode had preceded this one, the story would have flowed better? After all, next week we’re in for an all time fan favorite!

1. By name, marking one of the first on screen uses of the term “termoid.”