Scramble X Bomber - Part 2
And we’re back from commercial break. Having introduced our heroes, we’re back to the baddies. As Makara’s Battlecruiser descends upon Pluto, it’s a good time to mention Paul Bliss’ Imperial theme. In the traditional mold of tunes like Holst’s Mars and John William’s Imperial March, the bad guy theme from Star Fleet is suitably menacing and full of dread. That dread grows as the series goes on.
Orion is given command of a fleet and ordered to attack Pluto base. An insectile carrier craft emerges from the mouth of the battlecruiser, followed by a whole bunch more. Makara’s ship isn’t just a massive ship in it’s own right. It’s also an entire fleet in a convenient package. Portable enough to transport across a galaxy.
Drilling down even deeper into the matryoshka doll that is the Imperial air force, it turns out these ships carry small fighters. I love the design of these things. It fits very nicely with the overall Imperial aesthetic. With systems this efficient, is it any wonder these guys are making mincemeat out of our solar system’s defences?
Captain Carter is intimidated by the alien’s show of superior firepower. Klaxons sound across Pluto base. Anti-aircraft guns move into place and aim for the skies.
The battle commences as the last hydraulic gun is raised into position. The fighters lay down yellow blasts of energy in all directions, even though their front facing weapons don’t appear to swivel.
The PC flunky pictured above doesn’t give the order to return fire until the first wave is over. Admirably, the men don’t fire till then, but when they do, there is an explosion of red bolts springing out of the rocks and lancing into the skies. There’s lots of smoke and fire as Pluto gets strafed.
Things are not going well for the human race at this stage. Rocks tumble from the ceiling as Captain Carter’s number one reports. Carter, skipping over the rest of the planets in the solar system, concludes that the Earth is the alien’s next target. He boldly declares that they must hold out and fight to the last man.
As the sinister music with it’s pulsing drum beat resumes, the situation turns even more dire. Carter’s staff are dying around him. Perhaps they should have issued hard hats when rocks started falling? Look at that dead puppet. Brutal, Captain Scarlet level violence!
The last man standing, Captain Carter collapses. This is the end of Pluto Alpha Base. And the end of Captain Carter– or so it would appear!
Meanwhile, back on Moon Base, a long dolly shot introduces us to X Bomber. Heroic music plays. A long, chunky spacecraft, sparks still flying from her hull as technicians hurry to put on finishing touches. It’s a great shot, showcasing powerful engines, a piece of what we later find out is the Dai-X machine, and spherical round cabin near the end of the neck. Gorgeous! I could watch this clip on repeat.
As I’m geeking out over the spaceship, Dr. Benn calmly explains this secret spacecraft project was the brainchild of Dr. Hagen (Shiro’s father, lest we forget) and that the purpose of this was “to maintain a peaceful solar system.” Shiro and the boys are overawed by this wicked cool piece of machinery.
Shiro reckons any alien starship would be overawed by X Bomber. This seems like a premature assessment, but Lee hastily agrees with it.
A green screen flashes 1 and PPA knows that it means General Kyle from Earth is calling. It's urgent!
As the Doctor takes the call, Shiro, Hercules, and Lee speculate on what the news is going to be. Shiro thinks the situation has ominous overtones. Wonder why? It’s not like militant aliens are invading.
Kyle wastes no time beating around the bush. Pluto Base has fallen. Shiro overhears and reacts with shock. The first words out of his lips? “Captain Carter.”
Unhearing, General Kyle insists upon launching Earth’s one, last hope. The X Project. Doctor Benn immediately steps into the song and dance that happened before. “Impossible.” There’s not enough time, the project isn’t ready, etc. Kyle argues that they are out of options. Interestingly, he also says they have to know “who and what we’re fighting against.” An interesting tack for him to take, since so far there’s been no on screen effort to establish communication with the aliens. Clearly, Dr. Benn’s warship is not going to fly out for a diplomatic purpose.
As Doctor Benn assures the good General that everything possible is being done, Shiro creeps up and quietly asks about the fate of Carter. Benn bluntly says he is probably dead.
Shiro is crushed. His companions look crestfallen. In a crucial bit of exposition, Shiro explains that Carter was once an instructor at the training school before giving up his comfortable post to serve at the “loneliest spaceport in the solar system.” There’s real emotion in Jay Benedict’s delivery although his attempt to match the lip sync of the Japanese puppet has a bit of the jerky quality that becomes distracting.
“It’s like he was going there to die,” Hercules says, his voice filled with wonder at the cosmic mystery of it all. Lee sniffles and explains to Doctor Benn that Carter was their instructor. Clearly, for Shiro, Carter was more than just that. His wistful, heartbroken tones would indicate Carter was a mentor and a surrogate father figure while Shiro’s own father was off designing space planes and living on Mars.
This is the foundation for one of the series’ most remarkable arcs and an intriguing mystery. Why did Carter go to Pluto? Did he have a premonition there would be an invasion? Did he feel guilty for having a comparatively safe job? Was he jilted by a lover back on Earth and wanted to get as far away as possible? Did he want to be the first man to wear sunglasses on Pluto? At this point, we can only speculate.
Lest we slow the action down with things like inner turmoil and personal musings on the injustices of the universe, we cut back to the baddies. Captain Orion gives the order to set course for Earth, presumably with the mothership close behind.
As we cut to the giant Solar System layout board, we can clearly see from the blinking lights that the aliens are passing Pluto and headed our way. Curiously, we overhear a report that at “star time 00342” the enemy fleet took off from Pluto’s surface and is now on course for Earth. This is odd because there’s been no explanation of what star time is and because we never saw the Imperial forces on the surface of Pluto. They merely overflew the base on screen.
Regardless, a red alert is sounded that rings out across Moon Base. Dr. Benn calls the three cadets out of their mournful meditations. “Get ready! The time has come.”
Shiro, being a bit of a rube, has the gall to wonder what it’s time for. Then, answering his own question, he protests that the X Project isn’t ready. An excuse the Doctor gave just a few minutes before. Plus, the three new guys haven’t had any “simulated flights.” 2
Hercules agrees. X Bomber looks complicated and they’ve had no specialized training. All of these perfectly legitimate excuses give Dr. Benn the opportunity to launch into his most inspiring of speeches. A speech I once quoted during an audition for a children’s theater production of Huckleberry Finn. I did not get the part.
WOW. It’s a passionate performance from the voice of Star Fleet, Peter Marinker. You can tell he believes that the power of the human will is enough to overcome all odds. 3 Never mind that General Kyle could have given him the same chastening rebuke and been just as justified.
Having laid down the gauntlet, Doctor Benn proceeds to march in bouncy puppet fashion across the gangway towards X Bomber. His dignity is further undermined by the addition of the line “excuse me” uttered as he brushes past the three pilots. Although it feels in character for Benn to treat them with respect, this dialogue undermines his self-righteous tirade a bit and was obviously not in the Japanese as the puppet’s mouth doesn’t move when he speaks.
PPA takes this opportunity to buzz in and insult the fighters further, by arguing that they are not fighters at all. He dismisses them with a sneering “BAH!” Then he follows Benn towards the ship. Easy for him to risk his neck, he doesn’t have one!
All of this obviously affects the three pilots, but it’s a look from Lamia that pushes things over the edge for Shiro. With a sting of a sad chord on the synth, those striking blue eyes penetrate deep into his soul.
“Right. We’ll go. For the memory of Captain Carter.”
As Shiro heroically marches after the Doctor and the ‘droid, John Lee objects that Shiro is “kind of free with that ‘we.’” Hercules asks him rhetorically, and a bit chidingly, if he wants to be a hero. “A hero? Oh, sure.” Then they both march towards their destiny as a heroic theme plays. This is it!
The heroic theme segues into a countdown motif. Dr. Benn is sitting alone in the Captain’s chair wondering just how the hell he’s going to fly this thing without a crew, when they boys walk in announcing their intention to join the mission. Not bothering to thank them for volunteering for what he earlier conjectured would be a “suicide mission,” Doctor Benn swivels around and orders them to their posts. Somehow, with no training et cetera, the trio somehow know exactly where those posts are. “The best we have” indeed!
The X Bomber launch sequence is a favourite for me. The music, skillfully rendered, genuinely gives the impression that something big is happening. Garrick Hagon comes on as a kind of air traffic controller character. The gantry and scaffolding is pulled away. Cut to the bad guys closing in! On Earth, Number One wonders if X Bomber is ready for this task. Kyle urges Number Two to Keep Calm and Trust Doctor Benn.
Smoke is absolutely pouring out of X Bomber’s engine region. The bad guys close in as one minute remains on the countdown. Dr. Benn begins to bark orders. Shiro! Check power. Lee! Electrics. Perhaps he’s forgetting they don’t know how to do any of this stuff. Perhaps X Bomber’s systems are actually pretty standard? In any case, open the launch door!
Doctor Benn calls for Quantum Power! The crew begin checking all the systems and we’re treated to a montage of them at their stations acting like they were born there. Lasers, temperature, pressure… everything is good to go. Turn the main engines on! 5… 4… 3… 2… 1!
A switch is thrown and the blocky, lego brick shaped engines begin to glow white hot. There’s no sign of all that pre-launch smoke, but a new jet starts streaming out from under the vessel. Soon, the whole launch bay is filled with smoke. X Bomber rises straight up from it’s cradle as the crew glow with the red lights from their instrument panels. Then, just like that, the ship is away and headed out for the vast blue void of space!
X Bomber has a lovely co-pilot layout to it’s control room. There’s a central column between the two seats which gives a feeling of mutual control. There’s lots of flashy lights, buttons, and knobs. It feels like the perfect layout for a spaceship but there’s no joystick or steering wheel such as you might see in a starfighter.
Our long flowing, tracking shot as seen in the opening titles is shown in it’s full glory here. X Bomber is covered with some circular shapes, does anyone recognize them?
The bad guys don’t know what they’re in for. Captain Orion’s droning ships have detected the oncoming Earth battleship. Orion orders fighters launched to destroy anything that stands in the way of “our imperial dynasty.” Is he suggesting the Emperor’s throne is inheritable? Anyway, the fighters launch using mostly the same footage that we saw earlier in the attack on Pluto base.
Here is Star Fleet X Bomber in all it’s glory! The gorgeous matte painting of Moon Base overflown by the magnificent miniature of X Bomber, with the radiant Earth in the background. No wonder this image is so often featured as defining iconography for the series as a whole. If only it were from a more honorable moment in X Bomber’s record…
As the imperial astrofighters close in, we are treated to another long detailed flyby of the X Bomber model. They were clearly proud of the HUGE model they created.
The music is heroic as X Bomber flies past in splendor, but quickly turns serious as the fighters swoop into attack formation. Boy, I can’t wait for X Bomber to finally give these guys what-for!
PPA helpfully points out the enemy as they begin to open fire. We get our first look into the cockpit of the astrofighter as a termoid announces the attack of a second squadron. X Bomber is immediately hit and it looks bad. But the ship keeps on flying as if the explosion merely scorched the hull. Bro, that model’s on fire!
In the most obvious nod to Star Wars in the entire series, X Bomber’s primary defense against this kind of assault is two swiveling turret lasers that are so similar in design to the Millennium Falcon that it seems like litigation would be in order if not for the fact that both designs are basically inspired by the turret weapons of WWII aircraft.
It doesn’t help that Shiro’s tunic is a dead ringer for Luke Skywalker’s or that the bad guys of both franchises are referred to as Imperials. I believe these similarities are what cause some Westerners to dismiss Star Fleet as just another low rent Star Wars knock off. To be fair, it’s a reasonable guess that several of the English production team felt the same way. This early dismissal lead to folks turning off their TV sets before they got a chance to see what Star Fleet could really do, a narrative that developed slowly as the show goes along, at the rate of one half hour per week.
Anyway, despite the fact that X Bomber is doing better than any of the Earth vessels that came before it against the Imperial Alliance, things are not going well overall. As the “third squadron” attacks, more and more fires are breaking out. Shiro warns Doctor Benn that the fighters are overwhelming them with their numbers. A bit addled, Doctor Benn orders them to keep firing and perform evasive maneuvers, which would seem to be impossible orders to follow since Hercules and Lee are manning the guns leaving only Doctor Benn at the pilot’s station.
Despite taking out several more fighters, X Bomber’s crew is clearly not up to the task at hand. As the smaller vehicles continue to draw their fire, Orion and his fleet of carriers arrive evidently unseen. Orion is surprised to see “a new machine” despite being informed of it’s existence earlier. The Captain (played by Sean Barrett) orders laser torpedos to go for a “direct hit” with the confidence of someone who’s read the script and knows what’s about to happen next.
Under a hail of fire, X Bomber takes a bad hit and begins to nosedive. All the green lights turn red as PPA warns of a developing fault. Possibly, this is not a fault but a catastrophe? Keeping calm, Doctor Benn notes they’re losing speed, which considering where they’re headed might be a good thing.
X Bomber is not far from the surface of the moon and appears to be heading straight for it with a screaming sound of rapid descent that you would only ever hear inside of an atmosphere. With a boom, it comes in for a crash landing!
So soon after it’s maiden takeoff, X Bomber is now scraping at the ground. Our heroes are grating along the lunar surface like a block of red leicester against a shredder.
A collision with a pile of rocks that could be coal or asphalt scraps throws Shiro from his seat and hurls Lee face first into the console! In a clever bit of editing trickery, the filmmakers reuse the shot of X Bomber skidding along the surface before cutting to the ship awkwardly and humiliatingly beaching itself upon a ridge in a rather undignified pose.
Cut to EVERYONE on the bridge looking very dead. Hercules arm dangles uselessly from his side. Lee is slumped forward in what must be a pool of his own blood. Everybody’s is done for and the music echoes this sense of dismay as Imperial fighters overfly the wreckage.
Number One announces that contact has been lost with X Bomber as General Kyle can plainly see what’s happened thanks to an inexplicable video feed from the surface of the moon. How does this work? Where is this camera? Why is it linked directly to Star Fleet HQ? Who cares, because our heroes are dead.
In a moment of uncharacteristic nihilism, General Kyle hangs his head in defeat. The music is lovely in this moment of despair. All that lets the scene down is the jerky movement of Kyle’s head, which drops so alarmingly that it looks as if his neck was just snapped by a hangman’s noose.
This is a dark moment. The narrator returns to remind us that this was the last hope of our planet, that X Bomber has no power, and that there is not much hope for the Earth.
This is the cliffhanger that concludes the episode. 4As cliffhangers go, it’s a convincing one. X Bomber is down and there is seemingly no way for it to launch again. Fighters are swirling overhead. If anything, this conclusion is a bit TOO dark. After all, we haven't even had much of a chance to get introduced to this super cool spaceship, it's crew, and it's mission before it's blasted from the sky. We've hardly had a chance to care about this Earth that is so far in the future, it might as well be another planet.
Nevertheless, we like our heroes and they are similar enough to 20th century beings for us to not wish them certain doom. The bad guys are certainly hate-able, with their sneering disregard for the lives they destroy without provocation. But their motives are shrouded in mystery. What is their real objective mentioned by the Imperial Master?
Questions to be answered in Episode Two!
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This very much prefigures the TNG displays from Star Trek with it’s shapes, colours, and edge roll off from using uneven pre-LED lighting.
Just how would you create a “simulated flight” with the X Bomber? Is there a Wrath of Khan style dummy bridge? Surely you can’t project holograms while it’s in the launch bay to create a training program… can you?
The word “conservatism” doesn’t seem like the right English translation to me. The subtitles on the American Blu-Ray release of the Japanese original read simply “What do they teach in the training schools these days?” I suspect a better word to substitute might be “defensiveness” or “timidity.”
The issue of translation seems very strong in this scene. The dialogue about human will is translated more literally as 'you must have the power to turn eight things into ten or eleven.’ This issue definitely merits a more detailed examination in future posts!
There is a preview of the upcoming episode after this cliffhanger, but I think it is best to skip these for the purposes of this blog. I’ll also do a separate post about the end titles, as I did for the Opening!