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--- Gatchaman Episode 88: “Iron Beast Snake 828” (http://www.gatchamania.net/threadid.php?threadid=3271)

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Posted by lborgia88 on 08-08-2010 at 22:01:

Gatchaman Episode 88: “Iron Beast Snake 828”

[Normally, this would have been posted here last Monday, but here it is now, a little late...]



Gatchaman Episode 88: “Iron Beast Snake 828”

BOTP Episode: “Tentacles from Space”





This episode opens with a scene of a man wearing a long black cloak and standing outside in the middle of an open square, mowing down harmless passers-by with a machine gun before pausing to survey his handiwork (or he’s out of ammo).





But next we’re treated to a still image of the same man –still wearing the cloak- as Dr. Nambu’s voice supplies some explanation.





“This man was arrested six months ago,” he says as we also get closer images of this man (face forward and in profile –clearly mug shots), “after using a machine gun to open fire on innocent pedestrians in Hontwarl for no apparent reason. He is currently serving out six life sentences in Rodenberg Prison with no possibility of parole.”

The screen on the wall where Dr. Nambu has been showing these images now closes up, but three shadows shaped just like Ken, Jinpei and Ryu are being cast on the wall, so we know Dr. Nambu’s audience is the Ninjas (not that there was much doubt), and that they’re probably at the Crescent Coral base (though no fish in sight this week).

“Hey, that guy should have been fried in the chair, man,” says Mr. Vengeance.





But Dr. Nambu reminds him that capital punishment was banned worldwide ten years ago.

(Ah, I remember this being mentioned in discussion back when ep. 42 was recapped, as Jinjin prison clearly had an electric chair in spite of this ban.)





Ken wants to know why they’re being told all this if the criminal has already been captured and imprisoned.





Well, it turns out that there are things that Dr. Nambu wants to question him about, though Ryu can’t imagine how he’d know anything useful to the ISO or the Science Ninjas.





“He could know a great deal, but it will take tact –he’s been mute since birth.”

Everyone is taken aback by this. “And how are we supposed to question some mute guy?” asks Jun. (I don’t see what the problem is –just ask him, tactfully, to write his answers down on a piece of paper.)





Dr. Nambu merely says “You’re the Science Ninja Team, aren’t you? I’m sure you’ll figure something out,” and starts walking out of the room.

“Figure it out? Thanks a lot!” huffs Jinpei, but Dr. Nambu pauses and turns to look back at them.

“We do know that he committed that crime intentionally,” says Dr. Nambu, “in order to be put into prison,” (but not Jinjin Prison!)

Ryu (who’s “done time” at Jinjin) thinks it’s crazy that anyone would want to go to prison.

Everyone has been following Dr. Nambu into the next room, where he’s seated himself at a desk. He explains that the man might have no alternative to feel safe except as an inmate in a prison.

“So then you think someone was out to kill him and he’s using prison as a way to escape?” asks Ken.





“These are his few possessions,” replies Dr. Nambu, and he hands an envelope to Ken as everyone gathers around him curiously.





The contents of the envelope turn out to be pictures of a girl, and Ken starts shuffling through them.

“Cute, isn’t she?” remarks Jun.

“I dunno –I think she looks mean!” adds Jinpei











By the final one, this girl is looking very familiar…





“I’ve seen that face before,” mutters Joe.

“It’s that Galactor commander!” cries Ken, looking to Jun as he adds, “She’s still pretty young in this picture but people’s faces don’t really change all that much.”






“This was with the pictures,” says Dr. Nambu, now holding up a ravaged-looking book, “It’s charred and breaking apart but it’s the girl’s school records. It says the girl’s IQ is 280.”

Jun notes in surprise that that’s two or three times a normal person’s IQ, and Dr. Nambu tells Ken to look at the back of the final picture.





“There’s something written here,” cries Ken, “Lord Katse!”

Everyone is shocked at this!





Joe snatches the picture from Ken to get a look at the writing himself. “No way this is old Bat Ears,” he says, “Unless you’re saying the guy in prison was being hunted down because he found out Katse’s secret.”





But Jun, looking doubtful, nevertheless notes that they’ve never seen Katse and the female Galactor commander at the same time. A wide-eyed Jinpei realizes that could mean they’re the same person.

Ken ponders this.





“Katse, a woman?” he says, “No way.”

We see images of Ken’s memories of grappling with Katse…





“I’ve hit him and squeezed his neck with my own hands plenty of times,” comments Ken.





“And even though he was wearing a thick cape, I could tell he was muscular.”

And we see the scene from ep. 71 where he managed to rip off Katse’s mask, revealing the long, blond hair.





“There’s no way I can believe he’s a woman!” concludes Ken.

Ryu says he can’t believe it either. Jinpei wants to know why, so he explains “Because that woman has an IQ three times ours [Are you saying all the Ninjas have below average IQs of 90, Ryu?] Do you really think Berg Katse is that smart?”




Jinpei concedes this point too, adding “He’s a total moron.”

(Well, a high IQ isn’t everything. For all we know, maybe Katse can solve differential equations in his head and master a foreign language in less than a month, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s good at organizing and leading successful missions against the Science Ninjas, or that he’s all that emotionally or psychologically stable.)

Ken now notices that the school records aren’t complete, and are missing for “every other year” and he asks Dr. Nambu if there are more of them.

Dr. Nambu doesn’t explain the missing records, but does say that he’s certain the man in prison was targeted by Galactor because he possessed them and the pictures. Everyone listens.





“Whether Katse is a woman or whether he has some other secret is what we need to find out. If Galactor is after this man, he must be very important. This warrants a full investigation –I must speak with that man!” (Hey dub writer, can he speak “with” someone who’s mute?)

Now, interestingly, we get a view of some very high mountains, possibly in the area of the Himalayas…





Leader X is here, in his usual audience chamber, along with Berg Katse.





“This is a task you cannot afford to fail,” Leader X is telling Katse, “The man who knows your secret is in Rodenberg Prison.”

---

Posted by lborgia88 on 08-08-2010 at 22:03:

“But Great Leader, that man can’t even talk!” declares Katse, “Why should we worry about him?”

Why is everyone assuming that prevents him from communicating? Nothing’s stopping him from writing out Katse’s big secret, or (if he’s illiterate) at least drawing sketches or even doing charades (I’d like to see that, actually)!

“Fool!” declares the shrewder Leader X, “If anyone else discovers your true identity, then mine can be exposed as well, and if that happens, even the minions will betray Galactor. We will have no choice but to destroy the entire organization.”

Yeah, I could see some goons being disturbed to learn their organization’s leadership consists of a space alien and a mutant.

What’s really interesting is that, as Leader X is talking, we’re seeing Katse from what is apparently Leader X’s perspective, and it’s a central image of Katse, with four other mirror images of Katse rotating around it.





Is this how Leader X sees the world all the time? If so, it’s a big hint that, however abnormal Katse might be, Leader X’s true nature is something even more strange and foreign.

Katse bows humbly, saying “Sire.”

“That man could be just the beginning,” continues Leader X, “He learned your secret and rose to Galactor’s highest executive ranks, but in the end he was afraid, got cold feet, and he betrayed us, didn’t he?”

Leader X’s eyes narrow sinisterly.





Katse bows again and repeats “Sire,” sounding apprehensive.

But we cut to Katse, now standing somewhere else and confidently addressing some Blackbirds and a fellow we’ve not seen before.





“All traitors must be eliminated,” declares Katse, “This is one of Galactor’s rules. The five of you will assassinate the man who escaped into prison.”

“Understood, Lord Katse,” says the new guy –clearly the leader of this group, especially as he’s dressed in the style of a “captain of the week.”





“The Iron Beast Snake 828 unit will deploy,” he continues, and we get a partial look at their mecha, parked behind them.





Katse tells him that he’s counting on them, and that “the fate of Galactor hangs in the balance.”

Then we cut to the God Phoenix flying through a blue sky and the narrator tells us “The Science Ninja Team split up and sprang into action. Joe, Ryu and Jinpei stood watch at Rodenberg Prison while Ken and Jun visited St. Louis Academy, where the woman suspected of being Galactor’s female Commander had spent some of her formative school years.”

It’s St. Louis Academy that we see next.





Inside, Ken and Jun (in civvies) are sitting in an empty lecture hall with a professor who is telling them “I remember her very well, the kind of young genius who comes around only once every hundred years.”

“There are records missing from her file every other year,” says Ken.





The professor explains that she alternated schools, and that that’s why they only have some of her records.





“She transferred between schools every other year?” asks Jun, puzzled.

“Her father was a trader, so it seemed it was unavoidable,” explains the professor, “But there was something about her…”

“Something strange?” asks Ken.

The professor goes on to explain that he once met a “Professor Hume” at an academic conference, who taught at the school that the girl transferred to during the alternate years.

While he’s saying this, we’re shown a group of pigeons sitting on the edge of one of the room’s open windows, with another pigeon coming in for a landing.





This professor explains he asked about his genius pupil and was told by Professor Hume that there was a student at his school who transferred in and out every year.

Now we’re seeing the professor from the perspective of the pigeons, up high on the window.

“But this student wasn’t a genius,” continues the professor, “and wasn’t a female, but a male.”

(Only a genius when in female form? That would explain a lot! ;-) Or I suppose the male version could have “played dumb” in order to attract less attention and blend in.)

In a sudden rush, all the pigeons take off, wings flapping, from the windowsill as if startled by something, or as if they’ve heard enough and are off to report their findings. Spy pigeons, perhaps?

“I can only guess it was a different person,” continues the professor.





“But what bothered me was, coinciding with her graduation, there were fires in the record rooms of both schools and her records were burned to ashes.”

“What?” says Ken, disturbed by this bit of news.





We get a brief image of part of a stone building being engulfed in flames, and then Ken and Jun standing alone at a window by a flight of stairs, as the professor’s voice continues to say that he was surprised to hear that Ken and Jun had seen some of her school records and that he wonders why those records survived and who could have rescued them from the fire.

If it was the man who’s now in Rodenberg Prison, then he must have been serving Galactor in its earliest years, if Katse was only just finishing school, but not serving it so loyally if he kept some of the very records he’d been instructed to destroy. Or maybe the fires were set by Katse himself, who kept some of the records in a sudden fit of sentimentality, only to have them stolen from his possession later.

“What do you think about this?” Ken asks Jun.





“I don’t know, she was a girl while she was here, but the other student was a boy.”





Ken concludes that the man in Rodenberg Prison knows if they’re two different people or if “it’s some kind of disguise, so he must have stolen the documents from the burning records room. Now somehow Katse’s found out about it and he’s chasing the guy down.”

We get a brief look now at the man in question, in his nice, safe jail cell.





Ken and Jun begin to walk away from the window where they’ve been standing, but suddenly they whip back around and Ken cries “Listen, what’s that sound?”

Unfortunately, the sound is the whoosh of an incoming missile.





The missile smashes into a wing of the academy and explodes.

“It hit the professor’s room, Ken!” cries Jun. “Galactor did this just to shut him up!” declares Ken angrily. We see the professor’s room and it is indeed destroyed now and in flames.

Ken tells Jun that they have to get going –the next target is bound to be Rodenberg Prison. Note there are pigeons hovering nearby as he says this –I don’t trust the pigeons hanging around this academy!





So now we cut to Rodenberg Prison, which turns out to be on a small island in the middle of a lake.





As we see that the God Phoenix is currently parked underwater, on the lake’s bottom, the narrator explains that Joe, Ryu and Jinpei are standing by at Rodenberg Prison.

Joe appears to be watching the radar screen and hoping for something interesting to happen, but Ryu (more accustomed to “standing by,” to be sure!) is rather more relaxed.





“Are they really going to come?” wonders Ryu, “This feels like a goose chase.”

Jinpei seems to be getting bored, propping his head on one hand while tapping a finger on his console.

But suddenly something interesting does happen –Joe spots something on the radar screen. Ryu asks for its bearing, while Jinpei notes he can’t see anything –possibly because the lake’s water is muddy.

“It doesn’t appear to have much speed,” says Joe, “Let’s try tuning in on it.”

---

Posted by lborgia88 on 08-08-2010 at 22:05:

“Right,” says Ryu, pushing some buttons, then recoiling suddenly in alarm at the odd reverberating sound that he’s now picking up.

“Whoa…” says Jinpei anxiously, as Joe stands up and looks towards the view screen.





On the view screen the murky water is swirling ominously.

“It’s coming,” says Ryu nervously, as Joe tells him “Mellow out, man.”





“What in the heck is it?” frets Jinpei.





Well, “it” begins to emerge from the murk and become visible.





It’s got multiple long necks with reptilian-like heads –sort of like a hydra.

Ryu asks “What do we do, Joe?” and Joe, not looking happy, replies “We can’t move until Ken and Jun get back here. Stand by.”





Meanwhile, at the prison, two guards have noticed a disturbance on the lake’s surface, and they’re more than a little frightened when multiple snake-like heads all emerge from the lake.





Indeed they should be –these are big snakes!





Now we get a look inside the main body of the mecha, where the Iron Beast Snake 828 unit Blackbirds are watching the action on view screens.





“We’ve arrived at Rodenberg Prison,” says one of them.

“Good,” says Captain Snake 828 (for lack of a better name), coming up behind them, “Now, prepare to fire the missiles.”





The snake heads writhe menacingly. On the bridge of the God Phoenix, Ryu notices this and realizes they’re going to attack the prison with missiles.

“Ryu, lift up and get in their way,” instructs Joe. This doesn’t sound like an ideal plan, but Ryu says “Right!” and the God Phoenix rises from the lake’s bottom and takes to the air.

“Captain, it’s the God Phoenix,” announces a Blackbird. Captain Snake 828, who’s watching something through a periscope (probably the prison) looks over and says “What, they’re here?” angrily.

Meanwhile, the God Phoenix is dodging and weaving amidst the various snake heads, apparently distracting them from immediately shooting missiles at the prison.





“Hey, take a look at the God Phoenix,” says Captain Snake 828 now, “The center vertical tail fin is missing.”

And so it is.





In his enthusiasm, he clutches the shoulders of the nearest Blackbirds –and perhaps doesn’t realize his own strength- making them cringe, as he adds “They’re weaker than a normal airplane –shoot them down with missiles!”





The Blackbirds are puzzled (though probably relieved when he lets go of their shoulders) so he explains that Katse told him the God Phoenix is only powerful “when all five mecha are combined.”

Hmm, Ryu and Jinpei called Katse a moron but it seems he can figure out some things.

“Their vertical tail fin is missing,” he continues, “Which means that G-1 isn’t with them. In other words, Gatchaman is absent.” He takes his seat at his periscope again.

The God Phoenix is still flying around between the snake heads, but now Captain Snake 828 orders “Fire!” and a missile shoots from the mouth of one of the snake heads, towards the God Phoenix.

Ryu is able to dodge the missile, which explodes harmlessly in the distance when it strikes the lake.





“Look at them, all they’re doing is running away,” growls the Captain, watching the God Phoenix through his periscope, “Wait… Aim carefully… Fire!”

Two snake heads fire missiles this time.





Once again, Ryu is able to evade the missiles, but not quite as easily.





Now a barrage of multiple missiles, from all the snake heads, targets the God Phoenix in rapid succession and, while they all miss, their strikes are getting even closer to succeeding.





And now we get a fleet of incoming (probably UN) fighter jets. Oh boy –like they’ll be able to do any good!





“Fighter planes are approaching?” says the Captain, looking up from his periscope to his Blackbirds, “Shoot them out of the sky!”

At the very least, this distracts them from attacking the God Phoenix, and the snake heads all now begin moving towards the fighter jets.

The fighter jets start firing at the snake heads and, for a moment, it looks like they might actually be doing some damage.





“That’s it, that’s it… keep it up,” says Joe, watching.





But then the snakes rally and begin to fire missiles of their own at the jets.





And they keep firing, and firing more missiles.





The fighter jets, as ever, are all doomed. Why does the UN even bother?





As jets are obliterated and their debris rains into the lake, the God Phoenix takes to a higher altitude to avoid the fray.


Commercial Break!


Now, with the jets destroyed and the God Phoenix diverted, the snakes approach the prison itself.





One snake head even looms directly outside the window of one cell, much to the terror of the cell’s occupant, who is trembling in fear.





But the God Phoenix is back! And getting in the way once again.





“They’re starting to get on my nerves!” growls Captain Snake 828.

The snake heads submerge, and then burst forth from the water directly beneath the God Phoenix as it’s flying low over the lake, and the God Phoenix’s wings bang into some of their necks. This causes some discomfort for the Ninjas!





But worse yet, the snakes manage to ensnare the God Phoenix in their clutches.





“Can’t you do something about this?” demands Joe, as Ryu tersely replies “If I could, I would already!” To be fair, they can’t fire missiles or go firebird in Ken and Jun’s absence, which Joe knows full well –and knows it isn’t Ryu’s fault.





“What the heck are Big Brother and Sis doing out there?” complains an anxious Swallow. Actually, it’s usually Joe who rants about Ken’s absences that keep him from being able to fire missiles, but Jinpei is saving him the trouble this time.





“Got them,” mutters Captain Snake 828, still watching through his periscope, “Now, cook them nice and slow.”

A snake head looms large in the God Phoenix’s view screen…





“Hit them hard!” yells the Captain, but suddenly the reverse happens –someone hits the snake head, hard!





The explosion causes the Blackbirds, inside the main body of the mecha, to all go tumbling and sprawling.

“What’s up?” demands a bewildered looking Captain, as a Blackbird unhappily informs him “It’s Gatchaman.”

Yay, Ken is back!





As Ken speeds along the lake’s surface, the other Ninjas see him too. “Big Bro!” yells Jinpei happily. “It’s about time!” huffs Joe.

And Ken begins targeting more of the snake heads with his jet’s laser cannon.





With more good results.







The Iron Beast Snake 828 unit is not at all pleased by this new state of affairs, but it’s about to get even worse for them.

Jun is back too!





She targets some of the snake heads with her motorcycle’s missiles, causing them to break off their necks and plummet into the lake.

---

Posted by lborgia88 on 08-08-2010 at 22:09:

Joe can’t stand that Ken and Jun are getting to look way cooler than him.

“Jinpei, we can’t just sit around and sight-see –we’re going to attack too! Are you ready?”

“I was born ready!” cries Jinpei excitedly, brandishing an arm muscle in a spurious show of might.

Jinpei dashes for his vehicle. Joe, before following him, pauses to instruct Ryu “Be sure to cover us, all right?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” says Ryu, resigned to not getting a chance to look cool himself.

The nose cover over Joe’s car retracts, and Jinpei exits one of the God Phoenix’s wing pods in his buggy, and begins dropping bombs on the snake heads.







Joe, looking grimly intense, targets one snake head with intense bullet fire at close range until it explodes right in front of him.









“They’re pretty good –even better than the rumors said,” concedes Captain Snake 828 grudgingly, still watching the action through his periscope, “It’s a shame, if they joined Galactor, they could be high-ranking.”

“There’s no time to be impressed, Sir,” replies a Blackbird, “We need orders.”

“Operation Zero,” declares the Captain. All the Blackbirds gasp.





“As you well know,” he intones sternly, “Ever since the moment we were born into the Galactor family, our hearts have been zero.”

“Understood,” says a Blackbird, somewhat quietly, “I pray for your success.”

The Captain walks over to a lever on the wall, and pulls it. Then he says “Farewell my comrades,” as he gives them the… rather unique Iron Beast Snake 828 unit salute.

It merits a gif, I think.





His comrades promptly return this salute, saying “Farewell, my Captain” in unison.




It turns out the Captain has activated some kind of transport platform upon which he’s standing, which begins to descend below the floor, taking him with it even as he holds his salute, arms raised.

There’s a lot of thick smoke covering the lake at the moment, doubtless from all the explosions the Ninjas have been causing, but Ken realizes that the snake mecha is now nowhere in sight.





He lifts his bracelet and orders everyone to rendezvous at the God Phoenix.

But even as Ken settling into his chair on the bridge (hastily vacated by Joe), numerous snake heads reappear, breaking the surface of the lake.

“There’s more of them!” says Ryu in surprise, “How many of them could there possibly be out there?”




“Hey, check it out,” says Ken grimly. Jinpei gasps, Joe turns around to look at the view screen in surprise, and Jun gasps too.





The entire Iron Beast Snake 828 mecha has revealed itself at last.





Now, the snake necks all retract inside the mecha’s body, bringing all the snake heads in close to it, and the entire thing takes to the air.

“It’s going to try to ram us –evasive action!” yells Ken. Ryu swerves the God Phoenix out of the way quickly.

But the mecha isn’t following them now, it’s going the other way.

“It’s escaping –after it!” yells Ken.

“That’s strange –they’re running away,” says Joe, “Why change tactics?”





“I knew it!” says Ken now, leaping to his feet, “This little chase has only been a diversion! Their real objective was to get the man in prison all along.”

“Reduce speed –get close to them,” orders one of the Blackbirds on board the mecha, “As soon as we’re close enough, pull the self destruct lever.”

I guess we know what “Plan Zero” means, then.

“We’ll be taking the God Phoenix with us,” adds the Blackbird, as a hand reaches for the lever.

On the God Phoenix, Ryu notes that the mecha has reduced its cruising speed, and Ken immediately orders him to do a 180 turn.





Even as Ryu turns the God Phoenix away from the mecha, the self destruct lever is pulled. The mecha explodes around the God Phoenix, even as it zooms away.





But at the prison itself, a wet hand appears on the edge of a terrace wall, and the very wet Captain Snake 828 pulls himself up, pausing to spit out a mouthful of lake water. As he stands, the explosion of the mecha itself brightens the sky behind him.

“Bye, my comrades in zero,” he says gravely, turning and doing the salute one more time.





Jumping down to a lower level, he stumbles and emits a bit of noise as he corrects his balance and begins inching along a wall. But he’s attracted the attention of two guards, who point a flashlight at him and demand “Who goes there?’





The Captain’s face takes on a sinister scowl…


Meanwhile, on the God Phoenix, Ken is saying “That was a close one –if we had turned just a second later, we would have been caught up in the blast.”





Now we see the one of the terraces of Rodenberg Prison, and numerous unconscious or dead guards are lying strewn about –the Captain’s handiwork, no doubt. Several more are lying around a staircase, and more in the wreckage of a once-secure door.





The man in the black cloak, in his cell, his making gasping sounds of fear if not any words –because the Captain is bending the bars of his cell with his bare hands and coming towards him.





The man cowers back against the far wall as the Captain chuckles evilly and strides towards him.

He grabs the man by his face and lifts him up into the air. (And weirdly, there’s an error in the dub track here and Jun can be distinctly heard at this moment saying “Yoyo strike!” even though she’s not here at all in this scene!)





All we see are the man’s feet, about a foot off the ground and twitching, as we hear the Captain laughing and the man emitting choking sounds…

But outside, the God Phoenix is hovering near the prison, and then four Ninjas leap from it to the prison itself as Ken shouts “Come on!”





Inside the cell, the Captain turns his head in angry surprise to see that the Ninjas have appeared just outside the cell.





“I guess I should have expected this from the Science Ninja Team,” he growls.





“Good job escaping from our special tactic, but you’re too late,” he adds, dropping the now limp body of the black-cloaked prisoner on the floor.

“You people have no hearts!” retorts Ken indignantly, “How could you think you’re doing something worthy by sacrificing your comrades?





“Our hearts are zero, we are unselfish,” replies the glowering Captain, “All we know is Galactor’s cause!”

“Why you!” snaps Jinpei, and he hurls his bolas at the Captain…

Who catches them around one thumb, then clenches them in his hand until they crumble to powdery fragments.

“You are throwing toys at me?” he exclaims contemptuously as Jinpei recoils in alarm, seeing his weapon destroyed.

Joe lunges at the Captain, hitting him in the neck with a karate chop-like blow, but the Captain merely swings out an arm at Joe’s chest and shoves him so hard he hits the wall behind him.





So now Ken leaps high in the air and comes down fast, aiming a blow at the Captain –where shoulder meets neck- with one elbow, but he too just gets shoved away.





Jun calls out “Yoyo strike!” from her vantage just outside the cell, aiming for the Captain, but he catches her yoyo with his hands, inches from his face, and then yanks so hard on the cord, he pulls her off her feet. Ken lunges for him again, throwing his boomerang.





“More toys?” says the Captain, catching Ken’s boomerang and crunching it with one hand.

---

Posted by lborgia88 on 08-08-2010 at 22:10:

Joe leaps at the Captain again, but this time the Captain –instead of shoving him away- is able to grasp Joe by the neck with one hand and grab Joe’s gun from its holster with his other hand.

He lets go of Joe, but by then he’s got the gun pressed right up against Joe’s neck.

“Is this a toy too, Science Ninja?” he sneers.





“Joe!” cries Jun –she and Ken are clearly fearing the worst.





“What a laugh,” mocks the Captain, “The Science Ninja Team, that everyone in Galactor is so afraid of, is just a bunch of babies playing with toys!”





He starts to laugh, and Joe actually looks scared.





So does Jinpei.





But Joe knows something the Captain doesn’t, and the other Ninjas haven’t realized. Even as the Captain yells “Die!” and pulls the trigger, Jinpei pulls his hands away from his eyes to see that Joe is just fine.

But the Captain is not –he didn’t know that you have to push the trigger forward, not pull it back, to make Joe’s gun fire ahead. The Captain has just fired the rear-facing cable and embedded its hook attachment in his own neck.





“This… is… impossible,” he gasps, and then rather stupidly he pulls the trigger back a second time, and this shoots the cable out even further from the back of the gun and sends him slamming against the wall behind him.





With a final cry of “Hail, Galactor!” he collapses.

Joe emits a breath of relief –I guess he wasn’t completely sure the Captain would misfire his gun- leans down, and retracts his gun’s cable.

Looking up again, he says “Sorry, pal, did I forget to tell you that my toys tend to be a bit… quirky?”





“If only we hadn’t left Ryu in the God Phoenix,” says Ken, frowning like someone who’s just had a good scare, “With his strength, we would have been able to handle this guy.”

“I don’t know,” growls Joe, walking out of the cell with the others, “This guy had strength and skills that were almost too good for Galactor.”

“Now we’ve lost our trump card, guys,” says Ken unhappily, “We’re still a long way away from finding out Katse’s identity.”





“Even if he couldn’t talk, we still could have found a way to question him,” agrees Jun.

“Wait, there’s someone else!” cries Ken, suddenly remembering something, “Professor Howard mentioned that this person who may be Katse transferred to another school and there was a professor who knew him!”

“It was a Professor Hume,” adds Jun, remembering now too.





“That’s it!” says Ken, moving to dash back to the God Phoenix, “If we ask him, we might be able to find out!”

As all the others run after him, he adds “Hurry! Contact Dr. Nambu!” and Joe replies “Right!”

Next we see, the God Phoenix is zooming off into the sky fast and leaving Rodenberg Prison far behind. On the bridge, Dr. Nambu is on-screen and explaining that “Professor Hume has left the school and is living out his retirement in the countryside of Inderia. He’s very eccentric, so I don’t know if he’ll cooperate.”

Inderia… that was where the Trachodon episode took place –watch out for flea-and-lizard-infested hotels, and policemen who hate “foreign hippies,” guys.

Soon, they’re flying over the town where the professor lives.





But somebody else has gotten there first. A red sports car pulls up in front of a building and a very familiar woman gets out and looks up at an open window above, where blue curtains are fluttering in the breeze.





Yes, she and her male version seem to favour the same shiny pink lipstick.





Her eyes narrow in evil anticipation, and she heads inside the building.




Professor Hume, who somewhat resembles Ghandi, is sitting up in bed, reading.





He hears a knock on his door and calls out “It’s open, come on in.”

“Eh, and who do we have here?” he asks, as his visitor comes inside and shuts the door behind her.

I guess he wouldn’t recognize her, as it’s been years and he would have only seen the male version anyway.

She doesn’t reply –she merely smiles…





Outside, the Ninjas have arrived, and Jinpei is exclaiming “Awesome car!” “It doesn’t seem right in a place like this,” adds Ryu, shrewdly.





“Now we’ll finally uncover Katse’s true identity,” Ken is saying, as Jun adds “If there are any hints that the student Professor Hume knew was disguising himself for some reason-”

“-it could only mean,” cuts in Joe, “that that evil vixen from Galactor is actually Berg Katse.”





The three of them head inside and start walking up the stairs. Ryu is hanging back, and Jinpei pauses to listen as he remarks “Not to be fussy about it, but something seems really wrong here –I just can’t believe that Katse is that smart.”

Well, inside, Ken, Joe and Jun encounter an old man who resembles Ghandi on the stairs.







“Excuse me,” asks Ken, “But do you know which room is Professor Hume’s?”





“Down the hall, on the left,” answers the man, gesturing with his cane, and the three Ninjas move past him.

“Crazy capes you’re wearing, fashion sure is weird these days,” mutters the man as he continues to make his way leisurely down the stairs, and now Jinpei and Ryu encounter him too.

“Where do they get feathers that big?” the man is saying to himself.

“Hah –he’s wearing a towel!” is Jinpei’s assessment of the man’s attire.





But outside Professor Hume’s door, Ken knocks and the door just opens on its own.

“Professor Hume, we’re the Science Ninja –aughh!!” says Ken as he suddenly sees the real Professor Hume –dead.





Somewhere else, the red sports car is speeding across a desert and Berg Katse himself is now driving it.





“As if the Science Ninja Team could ever find out my secret,” he says smugly, “After all, they’re only human…”


Somewhere on the deserted and shabby outskirts of the town –probably where they parked the God Phoenix- the Ninjas are standing around dejectedly.




“They got us again,” Ken is saying bitterly, “The old man we passed by on the stairs was really Katse in disquise.”





“But Big Bro, that old man was almost naked, and he was smaller than Berg Katse usually is,” says Jinpei.

“I guess when you’re good at disguises, you can do stuff like that,” says Ryu, “No matter how you look at him, he was an old man.”

“I think Katse is just messing around with us by disguising himself as so many different men and women,” adds Jun.





(Actually, Katse didn’t have to disguise himself as Professor Hume when he left his apartment and walked down the stairs back to his car -he could have disguised himself as some generic stranger. Perhaps, as a mocking gesture, he wanted the Ninjas to realize that the old man they spoke to on the stairs had really been him.)

“When we think he’s a guy, he turns out to be a girl,” says Ken, “And when we think he’s a girl, he’s a guy.”

“Is he even human?” asks Joe, “It doesn’t matter if he’s a guy or a girl –our target is Berg Katse.”





“He’s an enemy of peace,” continues a glowering Joe, “Who wears a mask that looks like a wild cat. Isn’t that right? Isn’t that good enough for us?”





No one has a reply to this, and they continue to stand as the sun fades from the sky and the wind blows past them.

“Katse’s secret remains in the shadows,” says the narrator, “According to Leader X, if his identity is discovered, it would lead to Galactor’s destruction. Can our heroes unlock this mystery?”





The End.

---

Posted by lborgia88 on 08-08-2010 at 22:11:

Battle of the Planets Episode: “Tentacles from Space”


The standard opening –a view of Center Neptune, with fish swimming past. Zark is voice-overing “Here at Center Neptune, hidden away at the bottom of the sea [there’s no sea bottom in sight, Zark!], we’re the nerve center for all Galaxy defenses and security.”

Now we see Zark himself, along with 1-Rover-1. Zark is standing at his panel of monitors, pushing lots of buttons and generally trying to convey he’s busy doing important work.

“But this is one of the real pleasures of my job,” he continues, “Bringing the Phoenix and G-Force home from outer space after another very successful mission.” [I hope Susan isn’t another one of the “real pleasures.”]

Yes, they’re super heroes but apparently they can’t find their way home without Zark’s help and guidance.

And we get a view of a star-and-galaxy-filled section of outer space, with a little white dot moving quickly from left to right across the screen.

“They’re going into time warp now,” explains Zark, as the dot speeds up some and celestial bodies whiz past even faster, “and travelling at a speed so fast, even my calculators have a hard time keeping track. It must be a thrilling experience, and I hope that one of these days, I can travel into deep space.

1-Rover-1 yaps.

“Yes, of course I’ll take you along, 1-Rover-1,” says Zark, “We’ll go zooming off into the wild black yonder!”

1-Rover-1 is silent.

“That’s what some of the old space freighter captains called it,” adds Zark.

1-Rover-1 yaps again.

Zark is back at his monitors and buttons again, saying “You’re cleared for reentry, Commander, and I hope you’re ready for a little rest and relaxation.”

So, a badly drawn Commander now appears on one of Zark’s screens.

“We’re ready, Zark,” he says, “But I’m afraid we’re not going to get it. Chief Anderson just radioed us to meet him in security the second we get back.” The screen goes blank again.

Ha! Did Anderson get the jump on the supposedly all-knowing, all-seeing Zark?

“It must be an urgent development in the Professor Starke case,” says Zark, determined to show that he does know what’s going on. [It’s spelled “Starke” in G-Force: Animated, so I’m going with that.]

We see images now of a man who presumably is Professor Starke –a well-dressed grey-haired man wearing a black cloak.

“He’s the scientist who discovered the formula for duplicating animal protein from common soil, down to the last amino acid,” explains Zark

Okay, he makes meat out of dirt –my, that sounds tasty.

But now we’re hearing Chief Anderson’s voice, even as we’re still being shown images of Professor Starke.

“You all know him,” Anderson is saying, “Professor Starke of the Galactic Research Center.”

A screen on a wall, where these images were being shown, now shuts down, but we can see three G-Force members’ shadows on the wall –Mark, Keyop and Tiny.

Jason is sitting on a couch. “Is that why you called us in?” he asks, turning his head to look over at Anderson. He doesn’t sound terribly impressed with Anderson’s little slide show.

“A controversial figure, Jason,” replies Anderson, “Maybe a traitor.”

The word “traitor” causes Mark to whip his head around now to stare at Anderson.

“From scientific genius to traitor –that’s a switch. What happened to him, Chief?” asks Mark.

Anderson starts walking out the room, asking them to follow him. He wants to show them something he thinks they’ll agree is “very incriminating.”

“Real spy thriller,” says Keyop.

“We don’t want to be unfair to Professor Starke,” adds Anderson, looking back at them, “But he refuses to even discuss the matter.”

Tiny wonders why G-Force was called in, as security “must have all the crack investigators that it needs.”

“We have, but this is something unique, just for G-Force,” says Anderson, seating himself at a desk in the room they’ve all followed him into, “Especially you, Mark.”

Mark frowns.

“You must be mistaken, Chief. I don’t have any connection with Professor Starke,” he says.

“Maybe this will help jog your memory a bit,” replies Anderson, pulling an envelope from the desk and handing it to Mark.

“Very pretty girls,” comments Mark as he starts shuffling through the envelope’s contents -photos of young, blond girls. The others all gather around him to see too.

It so happens, the girls are getting older in the photos as Mark keeps shuffling.

“See a familiar face among them, Mark?” asks Chief Anderson.

“Maybe this one,” answers Mark, pausing on the last photo, of the oldest looking girl. We get a close up view of her photo, “I think I’ve seen her before.”

Mark glances at Princess, asking “Isn’t she the space rock singer at the Spaceport 5 disco, the one for aliens?” [Is there a juicy story behind this? What makes Anderson think Mark in particular ought to recognize her?]

And what aliens? Heh, everyone on this show looks awfully human…

“Spectra special agent: code name ‘Hannah,’” says Anderson. Keyop had it right –this is like a spy thriller.

[Yes, she’s “Agent Hannah” here –don’t anyone start thinking that she’s Mala, or S-9 or anything like that.]

“She showed up at a stakeout we had working on Professor Starke,” continues Anderson, now holding out a shabby and burnt-looking book.

“The Professor was really dealing with Spectra?” asks Princess.

“That’s his protein formula –what’s left of it,” answers Anderson grimly. I guess he’s referring to the shabby and burnt-looking book.

Mark closes his eyes. “Are you asking us to find her, Chief?” he says.

Yes, he is. He explains that she disappeared after the stakeout, and that they took the Professor into custody, “But he refuses to talk.”

“We don’t want to try a man of Professor Starke’s stature,” he goes on, “But we know he did meet with Agent Hannah. His colleague, Dr. Hobson, says the protein formula he gave her, and which she tried to burn, is a fake.”

The music sounds dramatically. Is meeting with the agent the sole “incriminating” thing they have on the Professor, or is Anderson implying that the Professor might have given the real dirt-to-meat formula to Agent Hannah, despite what his colleague says.

At any rate, now we’re getting a view of some tall, snow-covered mountains. Is this Spectra? Wherever it is, the Luminous One is there.

“You have been made a fool of again, Zoltar,” he’s saying, “By one of your own agents. You must get that protein formula, or see that no one else does!”

“It shall be done, most Luminous One,” says Zoltar, bowing his head, “I am putting Korog in charge.”

“Korog?” asks the Luminous One, “Isn’t he an alien from one of our subjugated planets? Sigma Minor, I believe?”


“Yes,” says Zoltar.

Now, I think the Luminous One is playing with a kaleidoscope or sampling some interesting drug, because he’s apparently seeing one image of Zoltar, while four other images of Zoltar are spinning around it.

“The inhabitants of that planet are most insolent, Zoltar,” remarks the Lumious One [Yeah, funny how touchy “subjugated” people can be…], “But your choice shows intelligence. Not even the mysterious powers of G-Force [L.O.’s eyes narrow in anger as he mentions them] can stand against mighty Korog.”

Zoltar bows again.

But now Zoltar is somewhere else, standing before a bulky fellow in a mostly red uniform and four skinny guys in black uniforms with capes and somewhat bird-like helmets [can’t really call them “Blackbirds” in BOTP] and saying “I shall transmit your wishes to him at once. The Luminous One will be watching over you, Korog –do not fail us!”

So, now we know who Korog, the insolent alien from subjugated Sigma Minor, is.

“You know what I think of the Luminous One,” says Korog, scowling, “And that goes for you too, Zoltar!”

“You have your orders, Korog,” retorts Zoltar, enduring this insolence, “Find Professor Starke. Eliminate him!”

So now we cut to Center Neptune, where the Phoenix is in the process of launching and departing.

Once it’s up in the air and flying along, we hear Zark telling us “Spectra has invaded Earth! My sensors spotted their spaceship as it neared us, and then, it vanished!”

Now we’re seeing what looks like a school of some kind.

“While the Phoenix is searching for the invader, Mark and Princess are going into the Galactic Research Center to talk to Professor Starke’s colleague, Dr. Hobson.

So Mark and Princess are in a large lecture hall, talking to Dr. Hobson.

“I saw the formula Professor Starke was supposed to have given to that blond Spectra agent,” Dr. Hobson is saying.

“You don’t believe it was genuine, Dr. Hobson?” asks Mark.

“No,” he replies, “And I’d stake my professional reputation on it.”

But Princess wants to know why Professor Starke would have a meeting with a Spectran agent, to hand over a fake formula.

“I’ve been asked that by Security,” says Dr. Hobson, “I don’t know. Professor Starke was a very troubled man.”

“Troubled, Doctor?” asks Mark.

Dr. Hobson explains that the childless Professor’s been troubled since his wife –who along with his work, “meant everything to him”- died in a fire “that swept their building” and that he’d since “lost interest in everything.”

Some pigeons are roosting on the edge of an open window, as if listening.

“I do know that he completed his work on his concentrated soil protein. The protein formula was burned in that fire and formula is now only in Professor Starke’s head.”

All the pigeons suddenly fly away.

---

Posted by lborgia88 on 08-08-2010 at 22:12:

“Security is holding Professor Starke in high security isolation because he refuses to talk. I’ve tried to speak with him –he refuses to see me. I can’t blame him; the fire that killed his wife was deliberately set. If Professor Starke dies, the protein formula dies with him.”

Mark and Princess are leaning on the sill of a large window, near a staircase, and looking outside at the many people milling around the Research Center. A lot of people are hanging around outside instead of doing research –maybe it’s lunch time.

“Spectra’s behind this somehow,” says a frowning Mark.

“It’s horrible, isn’t it?” says Princess, “Poor Professor Starke in an isolation cell.”

“We’ve got to get him out of there,” declares Mark.

And now we briefly see the man in question, sitting in his isolation cell and still wearing his black cloak.

Mark and Princess are walking away from the window they’ve been looking out of, but some sound startles them and makes them quickly look back.

“It’s an artillery shell!” says Mark, as we see the incoming shell whiz through the air and smash into part of the Research Center, causing an explosion. Odds are everyone’s okay, as it seemed like most people are outside anyway.

But even as Princess declares the artillery shell “must have come from Spectra,” Mark makes sure that no one worries that it injured anyone by adding “It hit a storage facility.”

As the storage facility burns, and pigeons hover in the air near the window where Mark and Princess have been standing, Mark says “Zoltar is seeking revenge for not getting the formula –his next target will be the Professor!”

And with that, we cut to a castle-like prison on a small island in the middle of (I think) a large lake. Actually, it’s a “high security prison,” Zark voice-overs, and he also tells us that he’s detected a “strange object” in its vicinity. But he’s not referring to the Phoenix, though it is currently in the vicinity of the prison too, parked on the bottom of the lake.

“I hope Mark remembers to bring me a couple of space burgers,” says Tiny, who’s relaxing with his arms behind his head. Keyop is tapping one finger in boredom or impatience. But Jason, who is studying the radar screen, sees a moving dot and says “We’ve got something, Tiny.” Tiny only sees murky water on the view screen, but Jason says the unknown something is north of them and “moving in.”

“Coming closer,” says Keyop, somewhat redundantly.

Just then, Tiny sees it on his monitor and recoils in alarm. “It’s big and… Ooh! Hey!”

Jason stands up to turn around and look at the main view screen. Keyop stares at his own monitor, looking worried.

But now it is emerging from the murk. “Yikes,” says Tiny. “It’s part of… something,” says Jason. “Skip the rest,” says Keyop.

Well, it’s a cluster of reptilian heads on long, wavy necks.

“Whoever said two heads were better than one?” asks a wide-eyed Tiny as all the heads begin to writhe and move. Jason realizes they’re heading towards the high security prison. Soon, the snakey heads are out of the water and writhing menacingly at the edge of the prison.

Inside the snake-tentacled ship, Korog’s crew of black-clad and vaguely bird-like guys are watching the prison on screens.

“That must be where they’re holding Professor Starke,” says Korog, stepping into our view as well. “Easy,” he adds, “We’ll make short work of them.”

“Looks like it’s up to us to stop them,” says Tiny on the bridge of the Phoenix, watching the tentacles. “Take her up, Tiny,” says a concurring Jason.

“Strange aircraft coming up!” says one of Korog’s guys, seeing the Phoenix coming out of the water and taking to the sky. Korog immediately orders an attack on it.

“Attack it, you fools, don’t surround it,” snaps Korog impatiently, as the Phoenix weaves in and around the tentacles. “Next time you disobey my orders, I’ll have every one your heads,” he adds, gripping the shoulders of two of his men, painfully tight.

Yeah, Korog’s not a nice guy. Or maybe he’s just being insolent.

“That’s the G-Force,” his men tell him, as if this explains their reluctance to attack.

“G-Force, B-Force…” sneers Korog, tugging on his beard, “It’s all the same to me –just another enemy to crush.”

And he goes back over to his periscope, saying “I want all units in action! I want that Phoenix destroyed!”

So now, as the Phoenix is still flying around amidst the waving tentacles, one of the heads prepares to fire a missile at the Phoenix.

“Fire!” cries Korog, staring through his periscope, and a missile goes shooting out of the head’s mouth, but the Phoenix veers and the missile misses.

“Missed by a mile! Our marksman must be blind!” rants Korog angrily, “All right, earthlings, see if you can dodge this volley.”

So, more missiles are fired at the Phoenix –lots more- but Tiny is still able to evade them all, though not as easily.

Now some fighter jets coming swooping in past the prison, but Korog sees them coming.

“Attack planes coming in from south,” he tells his men, “Destroy them!”

So, all the tentacles leave off trying to bombard the Phoenix and head towards the jets. The jets get off the first shots, and it looks like they might be doing some damage to the tentacles.

“Brave men in those planes, Tiny,” remarks Jason, watching this from the Phoenix.

“Yeah,” agrees Tiny, “But they’re in a very tough battle.”

And suddenly we cut to Zark, who is pacing anxiously.

“Oh my,” he says, “G-Force is really deep in trouble. That hydra-headed Spectran monster is commanded by Korog, an alien from Sigma Minor, one of Spectra’s slave planets. There are only a few inhabitants of that planet left, but they’re mean and terribly strong. I wish I could be out there with G-Force to get in a few good licks and show that Korog a thing or two.”

If there’s only a few inhabitants of Sigma Minor left, then Spectra sure must use up slaves at a genocidal rate, unless Zark simply means that the Sigma Minoreans are no longer on their own planet, but have been taken to Spectra and put to work there.

But what might be more disturbing is the sight of Zark now brandishing his arms in a martial arts stance, showing us, I guess, how he would “get in a few good licks,” if he were to get the opportunity.

They should let him try. It would be entertaining to see what Korog would do to him.

“Ha! Take that, Korog!” yells Zark, making karate chops at thin air, imagining he’s battling him, “And that! And that!” He demonstrates some kicks too.

It’s really pathetic.

And apparently he kicks his monitors’ console by mistake, because suddenly he tries to push some buttons and sparks come flying from it.

“Oh my,” he says, “I must stop using that imported non-friction oil –it just brings out the tiger in me.” Groan.

“Now I wonder if I’ll still be able to get G-Force on my monitor,” he concludes.

Now we cut back to the high security prison, where the hydra-headed Spectran monster is once again nearing the prison, waving tentacles menacingly.

Um, where did all those fighter jets go?

One of the heads now peers in to a barred prison cell window. Inside the cell is Professor Starke, cowering in fear at the sight of the looming head.

The Phoenix swoops past the head, causing it to jerk back from the window. Korog, seeing this through his periscope, growls “G-Force is back again!”

Suddenly one of the tentacles bursts up from the water just in time for the Phoenix to end up ramming one of its wings into it. “Look out!” cries Tiny, falling sideways into a scowling Jason as the Phoenix shakes and pitches. Lots more heads have sprouted up from the water now, and surrounded and entangled the Phoenix in their clutches.

“Break us loose, Tiny!” orders Jason. “Can’t! It’s got an armlock on us,” retorts Tiny. “Too many arms,” burbles a nervous-looking Keyop.

And Korog, still looking through his periscope, gloats “That’ll hold G-Force.”

And we get a view of the prison again, and then one of the hydra heads approaches the ensnared Phoenix and its face looms large in the view screen –much to Tiny’s alarm.

Meanwhile, one of Korog’s men spots Mark’s jet. “It’s the G-Force commander, coming in!” he alerts Korog.

“I’ll take care of him,” says Korog.

Mark is flying low across the lake. On the Phoenix, they see him too. “It’s Mark!” says Keyop happily. “Real nice timing,” adds Jason.

Mark now proceeds to blast the heads of the tentacles that are holding the Phoenix, with his jet’s laser cannon, freeing the Phoenix from their clutches.

Korog now growls “Another one?” and we see Princess speeding across the lake on her motorcycle.

She targets some more tentacle heads with her motorcycle’s missiles and blasts them to bits, speeding out of the way as their debris falls down into the lake in her wake.

“Well, that does it,” says Jason, “Let’s give Mark and Princess a hand, Keyop.”

Keyop is keen on this idea. “Mind the store, Tiny,” instructs Jason as he and Keyop start heading for their vehicles. Tiny waves his hand resignedly, adding “I get all the fun…”

In his buggy now, Keyop begins dropping bombs onto tentacle heads below, blowing them up in a big explosion.

The cover over Jason’s car has retracted now, and he’s inside his car, firing a barrage of bullets at another tentacle head. Staring grimly, he watches as it too explodes into flames before him.

---

Posted by lborgia88 on 08-08-2010 at 22:13:

“I don’t understand,” complains Korog, watching all this through his periscope, “Five earthlings I could stuff between my fingers, destroying my robot tentacle machines!”

“We told you,” says on of his underlings pointedly, “G-Force has strange and mysterious powers.”

“You’re talking nonsense,” snarls Korog, “They’re out-maneuvering and out-fighting us, that’s all. You Spectra men are tame and cowards!”

Keep in mind, Korog, that Spectrans enslaved your planet –not the other way around.

“We’d better call Spectra for help,” says one of these cowards.

“You do that and I’ll feed both of you to the fish,” retorts Korog walking away from his periscope to stand on a platform, “Get going.” With that, he makes a peculiar salute and is lowered down by the platform, descending into the floor. His salute is returned in kind, with a cry of “Hail, Sigma Minor!”

“All clear to board, Mark,” says Tiny’s voice as Mark speeds over the lake’s surface in his jet. “I read, Tiny. Coming in behind Princess,” replies Mark.

On the bridge of the Phoenix, Mark sits in his seat beside Tiny as Jason moves back to his regular position, and Tiny notices that even more tentacle heads are coming out of the water now.

“More of them, they come on like a swarm of gnats,” he complains.

“Well, here comes one that’s no little, tiny gnat,” says a scowling Mark. Everyone stares in surprise as the complete hydra-headed Spectran monster comes out of the water and reveals itself. It retracts all its tentacles and lifts off into the air.

“Take us in for a closer look, Tiny,” orders Mark. “Special armor plate,” concludes Mark, after the Phoenix has swooped past it.

“I’ll try to get a look inside that thing with telescanner,” says Jason, as the Spectran hydra ship continues to fly along with the Phoenix following.

“Keep trying, Jason,” says Mark, “They’re planning something inside there, and I’d like to know what it is.”

On board the hydra ship, one of the cowardly Spectran men says “Korog has abandoned us! All we can do is set this craft for self destruct and take off in the escape ship!” He goes to pull a lever.

“I’ve got a feeling we’re too close,” mutters Tiny, on the bridge of the Phoenix as the ship looms large on the Phoenix’s viewscreen.

“Right,” concurs Mark, “Full jets.”

Just as the Phoenix begins to fly away at full speed, the hydra ship self-destructs in a massive explosion and sends flames and rubble flying past the Phoenix.

But back at the prison, Korog is climbing over the railing of a terrace, wet and spitting out a mouthful of water. Seeing the explosion of his ship in the background, Korog does his odd salute and says “Fools! I’ll have to do the job myself.”

I guess he’s referring to the job of destroying the Phoenix. He starts sneaking along a wall, but two prison guards hear him and turn, shining flashlights and calling out “Who goes there?” Korog smiles evilly.

Back on the Phoenix, Mark says “Set us down in the prison yard, Tiny. I want to have a talk with Professor Starke.”

But Professor Starke, in his cell, is most alarmed to see Korog now standing just outside, gripping his cell’s bars. So strong is Korog, he bends the bars with his hands and enters the cell as a terrified Professor Starke cowers back from him.

But Mark, Jason, Princess and Keyop have leapt from the Phoenix while it’s landing and now they rush into the prison too. Korog turns his head angrily and sees that they’ve just come in behind him.

“Just three young boys and a wisp of a girl,” he sneers, while holding a rather limp-looking Professor Starke with one hand, “Well, come on, incredible G-Force!” He lets go of the professor, who falls to the floor and just lies there.

“We’ve no quarrel with you,” declares Mark (Oh, really?), “We know you’re an alien from the slave planet of Sigma Minor.”

They keep calling him an alien. Aren’t Rigans and Spectrans etc. just as much aliens? They’re not referred to as such, though. But Korog is –maybe as a way to explain away his incredible strength.

“We are no one’s slaves! We fought among ourselves,” retorts Korog, “We are few now.”

“Fewer,” says Keyop, throwing his bolas. Heh, good line, kid!

Unfortunately, Korog just catches them with one hand, saying “You throw a child’s toy at me, the mighty Korog?” indignantly. And he crushes the bolas to powder.

So, Jason hits Korog, only to get shoved into a wall. So, Mark yells “Hey!” and lunges at Korog too. And Mark also gets shoved and sent flying. He lands outside the cell, where Princess is standing. “I brush you off like flies!” yells Korog.

Princess throws her yoyo at him, but he catches it between his hands and then yanks the cord, pulling her off her feet.

“Let’s go, Princess!” yells Mark, lunging forward and throwing his boomerang. But Korog catches it as well. Princess stays right where she is.

“Toy weapons! Nothing!” shouts Korog, crunching Mark’s boomerang in one hand.

Jason leaps at him once again to hit him. This time Korog grabs him by the neck with one hand and seizes Jason’s gun from his holster with his other hand.

Jason looks horrified as Korog now points the gun directly at Jason’s neck, sneering “You dare to challenge the mighty Korog?” A silly question, really, as it’s quite apparent that he does indeed dare.

But when Korog pulls the trigger, the gun’s cable attachment fires back towards Korog, hitting him in the neck and sending him smashing into the wall behind him.

Jason looks relieved, and he kneels to retract his gun’s cable again and pick it up.

“Funny, they always think nothing can happen when they’re behind the gun,” remarks Jason. What, does this sort of thing happen to you a lot, Jason?

“We’ll need a special cell for him when he wakes up,” says Mark, glowering.

Yes, Korog is only unconscious.

“In the meantime, let’s get Professor Starke out of here,” adds Mark.

Yes, Professor Starke is only unconscious too.

But Jason, for some reason, just walks out of the cell, not making any move to retrieve the Professor.

Ack! Suddenly we’re in G-Force’s ready room, where Princess and Keyop are going at it on guitar and drums respectively. Tiny is eating a space burger, and Jason and Mark are playing ping pong, a very limp-wristed and stick-your-butt-out kind of ping pong.

“It’s sure good to be between jobs again,” remarks Mark, “I wonder how Professor Starke is making out?”

“I hope they go easy on the old Prof,” replies Jason, “Life kind of handed him a bad scene.”

“I’m glad Security exonerated him,” says Princess, pausing in her guitar-playing, “When his wife died in that fire, he sort of went into a tail spin, soured on the world.”

“He did make a deal with that Spectran agent Hannah,” adds Tiny, “But he backed out at the last minute and handed her a worthless formula.”

“That’s why Zoltar sent Korog down to finish him off,” says Mark, “If Zoltar couldn’t get that protein formula, he didn’t want this Earth to benefit from it.”

“Hey, I sure benefitted,” announces Tiny, “These space burgers got that new improved protein concentrate of Professor Starke’s. I could eat ten of them!” He laughs happily, apparently not at all perturbed to know his burger was made out of dirt.

“I guess I just did,” he admits.

But Zark appears on a screen now. “Attention, G-Force,” he says, “I have late news from Security. After Jason’s special gun reversed and knocked Korog out, he was captured and put in jail (I guess that wouldn’t have taken long –he was already in a jail) and Spectran agent Hannah has also been taken into custody. Professor Starke will testify against her.”

I guess that just makes everything neat and tidy.

G-Force is lined up now, listening to Zark.

“I’m very proud of you, Team,” continues Zark, “You did a fine job!”

“You always do a fine job, Zark,” says Princess, “But you never get to relax afterwards like we do. Come on down to the ready room –we’ll play some disco music and I’ll dance the funky fosdic with you.”

NOOO!! Please don’t do that, Princess!

“Oh my, I’d love to do that,” says Zark (and I believe him), “but I don’t think I should leave my post for a minute. Thank you for the invitation, though –I’ll take a rain check.”

Yes, mercifully, the tin can’s aspirations to constant vigilance has spared us a dreadful sight.

For now. Back in his room, Zark is giggling coyly now and saying to 1-Rover-1 “Imagine me dancing with Princess. I just might do it some time!”

“I wonder,” he adds, “how you dance the funky fosdic. Maybe I should practice.”

And Zark begins to dance… It’s very sad.

1-Rover-1 yaps, probably saying “Stop! I can’t bear to watch!”

Heh, I think I’m right. Zark stops and says “You’re right, 1-Rover-1, I’m a terrible dancer. Do you suppose when they put me together, they gave me two left feet?”

Groan.

The End.

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Posted by Springie on 08-08-2010 at 23:53:

OMG! I love the animation, LB! This was an interesting episode just because it reveals so much, and also because the team seems to have found a more dangerous rival than usual...
Great work!

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There is no problem that cannot be solved with time, patience, and a judicious amount of high explosives.

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Posted by amethyst on 09-08-2010 at 00:36:

Thanks LB. This is a fun episode and you've done a great job of reviewing it for us. Doesn't the Condor have some great lines in this one.

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Perspective Alters Reality

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Posted by Transmute Jun on 09-08-2010 at 00:44:

OMG, I think I'm going to die at that BOTP ending!!!! Yuck... why was Princess asking Zark to come and dance? Maybe she hoped that if he saw Mark and Jason playing ping pong, he's try that position too, and break himself permanently?

Great job, LB, and some terrific screenshots, Saturn!

I always thought that the little glimpses we get here into the Galactor philosophy were interesting: this CotW (who is probably the most competent Galactor we've ever come across) and these Blackbirds are truly oyal, and even have a name for this loyalty. What would the organization have been like if people like these had been running it?

Oh, and another vote for the animation! Too funny!

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Posted by Transmute Jun on 09-08-2010 at 00:56:

Okay, this joke actually belongs to Raggletag, but I was unable to find his original cartoon... yet I had to share!

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Posted by UnpublishedWriter on 09-08-2010 at 05:56:

I notice that there aren't any photos of the male form of Katse. (If I didn't know any better, I would think they had intended this to be the episode in which viewers and SNT were given a big hint that Katse was a woman disguised as a man.)

The team might have had a chance against this particular captain if they'd been in a larger, open space. Then they could have attacked from all sides, so that he could not defend himself as well.

Did anyone notice that the female form of Katse now looks younger than her previous incarnations? The ones we've seen until now are consistent with the original idea of Galactor as an organization founded by Katse. Based on hints from the show, that would make Katse in her late 40s to early 50s, and her unmasked form had that appearance. After this episode, FemKatse has a much younger appearance.

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Benefits, not features; benefits, not features

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Posted by gatchamarie on 09-08-2010 at 12:39:

You've done an awesome job in writing the recap of such an important episode, LB, and those are great screenshots, Saturn! That gif is priceless!!

quote:

Originally posted by Transmute Jun I always thought that the little glimpses we get here into the Galactor philosophy were interesting: this CotW (who is probably the most competent Galactor we've ever come across) and these Blackbirds are truly oyal, and even have a name for this loyalty. What would the organization have been like if people like these had been running it?

ITA with the above! This CotW is one that we're not normally used to see, and his team's loyalty is something out of the ordinary! This episode also depicts so well Galactor's cruelness ... it almost gave me the shudders! And, Katse has surely used some of his/her presumed, high IQ, here!!

TJ ... that cartoon is hilarious! Thanks for sharing!

Amethyst ... the Condor does have great lines in this episode! The one I like most is this one ... “Sorry, pal, did I forget to tell you that my toys tend to be a bit… quirky?”

Just one last note! I'll never stop saying how much the drawings improve as the episodes go by ... especially where Ken is concerned!

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To be or not to be a gatchamaniac - that's the dilemma!

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Posted by lborgia88 on 10-08-2010 at 02:46:

Thanks, guys.

I agree that this CotW and his Blackbirds were a cut above the usual Galactor personnel, and it's interesting that while Joe says the Captain is "too good" to be in Galactor, the Captain wishes that the Science Ninjas would come work for Galactor. At least they appreciated each other's skills and abilities!

I like the way this episode comes so close to revealing all of Katse's secret while still leaving his exact nature a mystery, although Leader X certainly hints that Katse is something... not quite right (something Galactor goons would not want as their leader, at any rate), and Katse himself mocks the Ninjas, near the end, as he's driving away in his car by saying "after all, they're only human..."


What also really struck me was how the storyline that the BOTP writers came up with is so completely different from the Gatch storyline. Pretty creative, really, turning the girl in the pictures into "Agent Hannah" and the cloaked man in prison into a professor with a secret chemical formula. With all its ties to the overall Gatch story arc of uncovering Katse's past and true nature, this one would probably have needed a little more thinking on the BOTP writers' part.

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Posted by Transmute Jun on 10-08-2010 at 14:14:

You make a good point, LB, about the ninjas and the CotW respecting each others' abilities. Almost like professionals... lawyers in the courtroom or something... ;P

I hadn't thought about Katse's 'They're only human...' line that way, but you're absolutely right! It *does* put an interesting spin on things. It's amazing how this episode gives so many clues... and then (via the ninjas' discussion) at the end just serves to muddle it up again.

You're right about BOTP as well, but it makes sense, given that they didn't know or understand the overall plotline of the Gatchaman series and got everything piecemeal.

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Posted by UnpublishedWriter on 10-08-2010 at 22:19:

And if they had, they would have been horrified. A sex-changing mutant? On a children's show?

In 1978, adult-oriented TV shows did good if they got sex-change surgery candidates right. (Okay, now I remember an episode of either Medical Center or Marcus Welby which guest starred Robert Reed as a guy who wanted the survery.)

Just goes to show: the Japanese have more faith in their children than we do.

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Benefits, not features; benefits, not features

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