Star Fleet in Look-In : Part 5
Welcome back to February of 1983! Down Under by Men at Work is the number one song on the UK charts, the East Coast of the United States is bracing for a freak blizzard that will make landfall on the 9th, and in the pages of Look-In Shiro Hagen is in big trouble. Will PPA discard him like a used paper towellette? Will Barry Hercules freak out someone taller than he is? And what will Commander Makara do? Let’s find out!
Original Publication Date: 05 Feb 1983
Look-In Volume 13 - Issue 6
Who knew that waltzing onto an alien spacecraft and taking off with no tests could lead to things like losing control?
Dr. Benn’s indifference to Shiro’s plight is almost as out of place as his insistence on studying the Imperial tech. When an alien fighter was captured in “Our Mortal Enemy is Captain Carter” he hardly gave it a second look. However, I doubt whether Mike Noble and Angus Allan had seen that episode at this point– or ever.
Hercules and Lee seem to advocate leaving Shiro behind to find his own way. This could be faith in his abilities or…
…just callousness! PPA referring to Shiro as “expendable” is the most incongruous bit of dialogue yet.
Lamia is once again Shiro’s biggest advocate and Hercules returns to flying his true colours.
For some reason, this alarms Kirara.1 Believe it– they all want to live.
Dr. Benn seems to lack his authoritative voice. It’s as if he is voting instead of being in charge. And since when is he scared of the enemy?
Makara, absent for a couple issues, is back with a vengeance. At least she is true to form– you can practically hear Denise Bryer shouting “UTTER DESTRUCTION!”
Why is there a thought bubble? Who is thinking here?
I think, given her suspicious nature, Makara would have destroyed this asteroid first thing if she had the means.
Apparently Dr. Benn’s “say” was taken to heart as X Bomber is already on it’s way when the blast occurred. But what of Shiro?
I love the use of em dashes. It really conveys the idea that Shiro is wrestling with the controls here. You’ve– probably noticed– I use them– myself– often!
After watching Captain Carter tortured and brainwashed by the Alliance, it is quite terrifying to imagine Mr. “Hagan” in the enemy’s clutches!
The action is ramping up, but the characterization feels so off that it’s throwing me through a loop. PPA may squabble with the boys or question their biological inefficiences, but the idea of his leaving any of them behind to die is unimaginable. Hopefully, next week balance will be restored when we find out…
What’s in store for Shiro?
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Or Kilala as he’s called in the original strip. In Japanese, the R and L sounds are phoenetically similar so it makes sense that there would consonantal confusion. Although the 2009 colourisations don’t bother to match the TV series colours, they do correct all of these anglicized spelling differences.
I use dots…not dashes…maybe my punctuation is a little bit dodgy 😂😂 - Darn!!
What a great summary! I'm already looking forward to the others.