Gatchaman Episode 93 – Counterattack! The Underground Torpedo Operation

Gatchaman Episode 93 – Counterattack! The Underground Torpedo Operation



We see a stormy sky, covered with dark clouds. But as we pull back, we realize that it is not a storm, but smoke from the destruction of the Crescent Base.

“The Crescent Coral Reef Base, destroyed by Galactor’s surprise attack, has sunk to the bottom of the ocean’s abyss.” the narrator tells us. “It has been the heaviest blow to Dr. Nambu and the Team since the beginning of their long war with Galactor.”

We see Katse’s triumphant image superimposed over the ocean waters.

“I finally did it!” Katse gloats. “I ripped out the heart of Gatchaman, and destroyed the Crescent Coral Base with my own hands! Yes! Oh yes…”



And as we move under the dark waters, we can see that Katse’s sea dragon mecha still lies in wait. Inside, Katse is planning his next move.



Is it just me, or does Katse want to be Captain Kirk?

A CotW walks up to Katse. He’s dressed in what is clearly a fish costume. Maybe his mission is to infiltrate the Daily Fish Parade? For good measure, ADV dubbed him speaking in a blubbery ‘underwater’ kind of voice.

“Berg Katse, we couldn’t find anything of use in the wreckage of the Crescent Base.” Fish Captain blubbers.



“I see.” Katse replies flatly. “Well, I suppose that can’t be helped, especially since the Crescent Base was obliterated.”

“Er… exactly, Sire!” Fish Captain replies nervously. “The fire…”

“I’ll report to Leader X immediately.” Katse says, walking out of the room. “I’ll bet I get an ‘atta boy’ this time!” I am at this line! In the subs, it says ‘I bet I’ll be praised.’ I think I prefer the ADV version on this.

“In the belly of a Galactor baby…” Katse begins singing and dancing. No, I’m not kidding.



“So, you’re saying the virtually invincible Science Ninja Team lie in a watery grave?” X asks, clearly suspicious of this information.



“You overestimate the power of the Science Ninja Team, great Leader!” Katse replies. “They’re only made of flesh and blood. They weren’t invincible after all.”



“Let me see your proof, Katse.” X still isn’t willing to take Katse’s word for it.

“I destroyed the base, what more could you ask for?” Katse gets snippy. “I should be praised, rather than berated with all these suspicions.”



“So, no proof them.” X surmises.



“Come on!” Katse screams. “Would it really hurt you to say, ‘Atta boy, Katse! Thank you!’ and give me a shiny medal or something?”



“I’m not convinced.” X snarls. “You’ve been wrong before.”

“Okay, then.” Katse sighs. “I’ll be sure to bring you proof that the Science Ninja Team is dead and gone. How’s that?”

“You have my leave.” X replies. So Katse does.

“The slightest compliment goes straight to his head!” X chuckles nastily. “Better to keep him angry.”



Now we see the sun setting, outside of Nambu’s villa.



“Meanwhile, Dr. Nambu and the Science Ninja Team, having retreated to cope with the setback of losing the Crescent Base, are lost in thought.” the narrator says.



“What should we do?” Nambu thinks to himself. “Even if I wanted to protect the colossal ISO, I don’t even have a means of communicating at this point.”

So this bothers me for a couple of reasons. First of all, ‘even if he wanted to protect the ISO’? What, suddenly Nambu doesn’t care about the ISO anymore? This seems out of character.

Also, why can’t he communicate? Doesn’t he have a transmitter, or a computer, or heck, even a phone at his villa?

“We have lost all of the data on the Mantle Project as well, along with the manufacturing plant of our Super Bird Missiles.” Nambu thinks sadly. He turns to looks at the depressed Team behind him.

“Joe, how many Super BMs do we have left in our arsenal?” Nambu asks.

Joe’s answer is visual.



No, he’s not giving Dr. Nambu the finger, he’s saying that there’s 1 Super BM left.

“Hmmm…. I see.” Nambu sighs.



“So, Doctor, what do you think should be our next course of action?” Ken asks.



“There’s no question about it!” Joe snarls. “We just have to fight!”



“But with only one Super Bird Missile to fire?” Jun asks. Sheesh, Jun, it’s not like you can’t do anything else… sigh.

“Yeah, we won’t be able to crush Galactor’s iron mechas!” Jinpei adds.



Have these people completely forgotten about Science Ninja Technique: Firebird?

“Ah… game over, man!” Ryu moans.

“As long as I have arms and legs, I’m fighting Galactor to the end!” Joe declares angrily.



“I understand how you feel, Joe.” Ken says. “But we can’t defeat Galactor with just our bodies and will to fight.”



“We have to destroy them, somehow!” Ken pulls at his hair in despair.



“Well, then…” Joe smirks. “So much for all that talk of ‘wisdom and courage being all we need’.” Way to kick a man when he’s down, Joe.

Ken’s response is interrupted by a strange ringing sound. Why… it’s… a phone! Dr. Nambu can communicate with the outside world after all! Who would have thought?

“Yes?” Nambu says, answering the phone. “What? Galactor’s iron beast mecha?” He’s screaming by the time he’s done.

Everyone gasps in shock!









Sure enough, a new fish mecha is heading toward an unsuspecting seaside town. The fish opens its mouth, and missiles come shooting out. It’s not long before the buildings are all turned to rubble.

Katse laughs.



“Give the order to deploy, Doctor!” Ken demands, back at Nambu’s villa.



“That’s right!” Joe agrees.” We still have one Super BM, so let’s drop it on the mecha beast!”



Jun, Jinpei and Ryu stand up happily.

“Let’s go!” Ken calls, as they race out of the room.



“Hold it!” Nambu stops them. “I’m not prepared to give you the order to deploy for battle. You will all stand down.”

“But Doctor!” Ken is aghast.



“Galactor is attacking a city geared toward tourism,” Nambu explains, “which has no strategic value. It’s not our jurisdiction. We’re going to leave it to the UN Forces.”

“Doctor, are you completely out of your mind?” Ken’s not happy about this.



“Even if there’s no strategic value, there are 300,000 people in that city!” Jun says. And I’m impressed she knows this, because so far, I don’t even know which city it is.



“We can’t just let them die!” Jinpei insists.

“I think the Doc’s lost his nerve since we lost the Crescent Coral Base!” Ryu snaps angrily. Okay, IMHO that’s a bit too far, but I get that Ryu is emotional.



“We still have one Super Bird Missile left.” Ken repeats. “Give us the order to deploy!”



“I can’t do that.” Nambu mutters, refusing to meet Ken’s eye.



“Damn it, I’m going!” Joe says. “No matter what you say, I’m out of here!”



He moves to leave, and Jinpei follows.

“I’m right behind you!” he cries.

__________________

A swarm of bats pushes Jinpei out another window!



Nobody else is in a position to do anything about it!

“Jinpei!” Jun cries, as the boy falls…

“Jinpei!” Jun screams again, rushing over to the broken window.



Commercial Break! Solid Gold Ken looks all fired up!

When we return , the others leap down to see what has become of the Swallow.



It seems he has fallen through into another building. Of course, Ryu’s landing isn’t too gentle.



“Jinpei, where are you?” Ken calls.

“Big Bro, I’m here!” Jinpei calls, but visually, there is no sign of him. Suddenly, Jun realizes that he’s down the hole in front of her.



“Ken, he’s down there!” she calls.

“What?” Ken seems surprised.

“Wow, Jinpei, that’s quite a fall!” Jun says, amused. Jinpei’s wings are caught on an old aircraft.

“Hey, Sis.” Jinpei says, somewhat ashamed of his predicament.

“Hold on tight! I’ll come and rescue you!” Ken announces heroically.



“Bird run!” He jumps down, throwing his weapon. It knocks Jinpei off.



Of course, Jinpei slams down to the ground.

“Are you all right, little guy?” Jun asks worriedly.



“Yeah…” Jinpei moans.

“Well what do you know? Some forgotten, underground old hangar.” Joe notes.



“And I don’t see any way out of here, either.” Ken observes.



“Hey, there’s an empty space on there other side of this wall!” Ryu discovers, thumping around. “All right…”



He grabs a gun and starts banging at the wall. Don’t ask me where the gun came from. It’s not his.

“I’ll be done in a second…” he says. He creates a small hole, then peers through.



“Ah! I’ll be damned! There’s tons of torpedoes in there!” he exclaims.



“All right, Joe, take care of it.” Ken orders.

“Right on.” Joe agrees. He pulls out his drill bit attachment for his cablegun and makes short work of the wall.





Ken gasps when he gets inside.



It’s a ton of drill torpedoes!



“I wonder if these are surplus, from the last war.” Ken wonders.

“Don’t they look too new to you?” Jun is doubtful.

“Something fishy’s going on.” Joe agrees, as Ken inspects a torpedo.



“New model underground torpedoes with course correction systems!” Ken announces the results of his investigation.

“Then we get a chance to blow them up before they’re used!” Ryu says gleefully.



“Hold it, let’s think about this.” Joe cautions. “Listen, everyone, get out your mini-locators and hand them over.”

And everyone does. They each have one. Interestingly, these look just like the locator used at the Crescent Base to target Galactor’s missiles, except these have a blue button in the middle instead of a red button.

“Hey, Big Bro, what the heck is Joe trying to do, there?” Jinpei asks.

“I don’t know.” Ken admits. “Guess we just have to leave it to him.” Wow, Ken’s awfully trusting.

“You can’t always get what you want,” Joe quotes the Stones, “but if you try sometimes…”



“Hey, Joe, what’d you just do there?” Jinpei wants to know.



“Well, we don’t want these torpedoes to get lost like you, so I attached ID tags to them, is all.” Joe explains.



“Ryu, go to the airport control tower immediately and have all the people evacuated, got it?” Ken orders, much to Ryu’s surprise.



“Huh? You mean, you want me to go back?” Ryu asks.

“Come on, hurry up! Before anything blows up around here!” Ken urges.

“I thought for sure I’d be able to get in on some real action today.” Ryu moans. “Guess it can’t be helped.”



“We’ll steal the tape just as Dr. Nambu ordered.” Ken says, after Ryu is gone. “As soon as the opportunity presents itself. Got it?”

“Roger!” the others answer.



Meanwhile, Katse is having a good old time.

“Fellow Galactorites!” he announces, his words slurred, likely by the wine he holds in his hand. “Our years of struggle… rewarded! And the day has come for us to start our final operation to conquer the Earth!”



Interestingly, Katse seems to be holding onto some kind of data tape… dun dun dun!

“For this memorable celebration, our Leader has given me the tape, on which is recorded the final plans… everything!”

Oh, look, all of the goons get a glass of wine! How nice of Katse to share!



And some goons are starting their celebration a bit early… but notice the onlookers at the ceiling?



“The tape!” Ken whispers.

“We’ll know everything about Galactor’s Headquarters with that tape!” Jun exclaims.

“It’s explained!” Katse goes on. “On… this tape! What weapons are used… what countries to occupy… I want you to listen carefully!”



“Now, pay attention…” he slurs. But he is interrupted by a shout, leaving the tape hanging out of the player.

“Lord Katse, someone’s broken in!”



“What?” Katse can’t believe it.

“The wall of the torpedo hangar is ripped open!” a goon reports. “What should I do?”

“You idiot!” Katse rants. “What if it was one of our enemies’ secret agents? Find him and shoot him! Till he’s dead!”

“Okay!” A bunch of goons run out of the room. Katse can’t believe this is happening.



“Geez, bunch of boobs!” he complains. “That’s why I always get ripped by our Leader for everything that goes wrong!”



He slams down his wine.



“Sure, sure, Gatchaman’s dead, but it’s hard to go on when I’m surrounded by mental midgets!”



And Katse’s troubles are just beginning. The lights go out suddenly. The goons start mumbling.

“Hey, what happened?”

“Is it just me, or is it a little dark in here?”

“Hey, there’s someone up there!”

Everyone looks up toward the chandelier… but it’s dark!

“Someone turn on the damn lights!” Katse yells. Spotlights come on.

“It must be an enemy agent!” Katse cries. “Shoot them down!” And the goons open fire at the chandelier. The light fixture is destroyed, but there is no sign of anything else.

“Huh, no one’s there?” a goon is confused.

“He got away!” Katse is exasperated. “Hurry up and find him!”

“But Lord Katse, we haven’t even had or toast yet!” objects one goon.

“You idiot! There’s no time for that!” Katse screams. “Go find the intruder immediately!” Of course, everyone runs off, leaving Katse alone in the dark.

“Awwwwww, there may be a lot of them, but they’re all so shoddy.” Katse complains. “We can’t even have a frigging victory party!”



But just as Katse is about to taste his wine again, he hears a whistle…

“Is it my imagination, or am I really hearing Gatchaman’s whistling?” Katse mutters to himself. “No! No… it can’t be…I saw him die with my own eyes! Yes, I did…”



He pours himself another glass of wine, but his hands are shaking.

“Oh, a drink… yeah…” But the whistling starts again.

“No!” Katse drops the bottle. “You’re dead! Do you hear me? You’re dead!”

“Show yourself!” Katse screams, throwing his wine glass onto one of the goon tables.

Something rises from underneath the table, covered in a white tablecloth. Another… Katse is terrified.

__________________

“We’ve now used up the Super Bird Missiles.” Joe says, returning to his seat. “If I could have, I would have fired it right at Katse himself!”



“I know, Joe, but at least we got the tape!” Ken replies. “This ought to be enough to cheer the Doctor up pretty well.”



And so, back at Nambu’s villa, Nambu plays the tape, while the Team watches.



“Thanks to your hard work, we’ll finally find Galactor’s Headquarters!” Nambu declares.

But as the tape plays, it sounds distorted…

“This tape will self-destr…” It begins to smoke, much to everyone’s astonishment.



“We were tricked again!” Ken growls, as the tape is destroyed.



Well, I guess it’s only fair. Remember the episode where Katse was trying to listen to Borombo’s tape and it was erasing as it played?

Their last stronghold, the Crescent Coral Base, was destroyed. Dr. Nambu and the Science Ninja Team now struggle hard to regroup from that blow. But in their eyes, their pledge to destroy Galactor burns as bright as ever!

__________________

“The traps have been laid for G-Force! When will they come, Zoltar?” Pesca asks.

“Soon!”

“Good! There is no way they can approach this planet undetected!”

“Back to your post! I want no mistakes this time!” Zoltar commands.

“Sir!”

“Perhaps I should give G-Force a little more incentive to hurry them on their way.” Zoltar says to himself.

We see torpedoes being loaded into tubes.

“Load Ground Burrowers! Ground Burrowers loaded!” A voice comes over loudspeakers in the Spectra control room. “Awaiting instructions!”

“Execute at will!” Zoltar calls.

“Execute at will!” the voice repeats. So a goon presses a button marked 1.

A ground burrower approaches what looks like a military base. We see destruction of the base, but no people seem to be there.

“Battery One, continue to fire!” Zoltar orders. So the goon presses buttons 2 and 3. More buildings are destroyed.

“I know they’re taking a beating, and I don’t like it any better than you do, but unless I’m allowed to do this my way, I guarantee we’ll lose the entire planet!” Anderson says into the payphone in his office. He hangs up.

“How much longer can I wait?” he wonders. “By now, Zoltar must have relaxed his vigilance! And in all that confusion… it has to be now!” He looks up in shock.

“We can’t wait any longer!”

The metal door opens, revealing a depressed Team.

“All right, you’re headed for Zeebor!” Anderson tells them. “Let’s gather ‘round.” He spreads a map on a nearby table.

“If Zoltar is still waiting for you, and we must assume he is, he has to figure you’ll be landing where the Phoenix always does.” the Chief says, pointing at a spot on the map.

“It’s the only place we can land.” Mark says. What, an entire planet, and there’s only one possible landing site?

“There’s no way we can come in on the planet’s day side without him spotting us.” Jason adds.

“That’s why you’ll be coming in on the night side.” Anderson reveals. “No lights, no signal. Just a small strip with an abandoned tower.” Um… the Phoenix doesn’t need a strip to land. It can land and take off straight up and down, remember?

“You’ll have to do it all by feel, Team.” the Chief concludes. “It won’t be easy. You know how important this is. All I can say is, Godspeed, and good luck!”

“G-Force!”

Insert stock footage of the Team running down to the Phoenix hangar, boarding the ship, and launching the Phoenix from Center Neptune.

And now we get more stock footage, Sandy Frank style. A white dot moves through space. And we can see from their viewscreen that it’s the Phoenix!



“Thank heavens they’re finally down!” Zark says, as we see planes moving on a runway in the dark. “My Triaxial Synthesizers have been in quite a nervous state. I can’t stop worrying about them! Not that they’re safe, by any means, but at least they’re on the ground! Now the real work starts!”

“Doesn’t look like anybody spotted us, Mark!” Tiny says, as the Team stands in the shadows.

“No, we’d have heard from them by now.” Jason agrees.

“The abandoned control tower Anderson told us about!” Mark says, seeing the structure. “We’re going to need a home base. Maybe we can use that!” Um… couldn’t you just use the Phoenix? It’s right here, after all.

Everyone races across the runway to the tower.

“Watch the glass!” Mark says, shattering one of the broken windows.

“Bats!” Keyop exclaims in fear, as a ton of them come flying out. “Mark, Princess! Whoo! Whoo! Oh! Ah! Yeech!” And it degenerates into more nonsensical burbles as Keyop dances around, and eventually gets pushed out of the window by the bats.

“Fly, Keyop!” Princess screams, running to the window.

“I had to cut telecom communications, for security reasons.” Zark says, breaking into the scene rather abruptly. “And now I don’t know what happened to Keyop! But all the G-Force members have super powers. I’m sure he landed safely with his cape wings. I just hope he didn’t fall into a trap of some kind!” Yeah, because we have to be assured right now[ and can’t be left wondering if Keyop lived or died for the length of the commercial break.



And now we get our commercial break.

We return to… you guessed it… Zark pacing!



“I’m sure Keyop is all right.” Zark says. “He’s a sturdy little fellow! I just wish I knew for sure! What really puzzles me is why Spectra would want to invade that Space Colony! There are a number of other planets with a lot more to offer. I’ve just got to see what’s going on up there!”

Well, what’s going on is that the Team is jumping down to follow Keyop. Tiny doesn’t land too gracefully.

“Where is he?” Tiny asks, not missing a beat.

“Keyop, sound off!” Mark orders. “Where are you?”

“Here!” burbles come from a hole at their feet.

“He’s down there!” Princess exclaims in horror.

“Down in cellar!” Keyop cries.

“He’s hung up on something!” Princess gasps. Wow, she’s acting all terrified, like Keyop doesn’t get into this much trouble on a regular basis.

“Hang loose! I’ll cut you down!” Mark says, throwing his boomerang. He falls to the ground.

“Keyop, are you all right?” Princess says, coming to the boy’s aid.

“Hoo… been better.” Keyop replies.

“Hey look around! This place is an underground hangar!” Jason notes.

“Hangar I understand.” Mark replies. “Why underground?”

“This wall sounds hollow.” Tiny says, thumping on it. “Let’s see what’s behind it!” He pulls out a gun and thumps the wall, making a hole. He looks inside.

“Hey, there’s another room in there!” he exclaims.

“Another room?” Princess is surprised.

“Jason, get the drill.” Mark orders.

“Gotcha!”

Sure enough, Jason is able to drill an opening through the wall. Everyone goes into the other room. Mark’s jaw falls open when he sees all of the torpedoes there. They’re Ground Burrowers!

“This must be Spectra’s arsenal!” he deduces.

“It’s a great hiding place.” Princess says.

“Not for long! Let’s put this little hiding place out of business!” Mark suggests.

“Let me do it, Mark! I love fireworks!” Tiny grins.

“Hold it! Let’s not waste this stuff!” Jason says, holding Tiny back. “Maybe we can surprise Zoltar with a little present!”

Everyone pulls out a small device from their belt pouches and hands it to Jason. Jason affixes them to four Ground Burrowers.

“Flying hotfoot… for Zoltar!” Keyop burbles.

“You’re right, Keyop.” Mark says. “Good thinking, Jason.”

“Wait until he finds these babies trying to crawl into his lap!” Jason smirks.

“Like to be there!” Keyop burbles.

“If you were there, shorty, you wouldn’t have time to enjoy it.” Jason points out. “You’d be too busy pulling out splinters!”

“Okay, Tiny, stand by the Phoenix!” Mark orders. “We’re going to check and see what else might be down here.”

“I always miss the fun.” Tiny complains.

“It won’t be any fun for us, if you’re not standing by.” Mark points out.

“It’s not fair!” Tiny whines. “Princess can fly the Phoenix! Even Keyop! And Jason never gets left behind! It’s always me!” But he leaves.

“Now that he got that out of his system, shall we find out where this leads to?” Mark asks smugly. I guess Tiny is prone to these outbursts from time to time?

“Let’s go!” the other three shout.

Meanwhile…

“Men of Spectra, I ask you to join me in a tribute to the genius of the Great Spirit!” Zoltar calls, holding a wine glass in one hand and a data tape in the other.

“I hold in my hand a victory!” Zoltar explains. “His plan for the invasion of the solar system! Our long struggle with the Intergalactic Federation is almost over!” Um… how does conquering one solar system end your troubles with an intergalactic federation? There are many solar systems in one galaxy, much less multiple galaxies…

“Soon there shall be no Federation: only slaves for Spectra!” Zoltar goes on, not realizing that he’s being overheard by G-Force.

“Those plans...” Mark says speculatively.

“Mark, we’ve got to get our hands on that cassette!” Princess states the obvious.

“The fruits of conquest shall be ours, and you will all share in them!” Zoltar tells his men, moving to put the tape into a player on the wall. “The Luminous One demands loyalty!”

“Sir!” Zoltar is interrupted by a goon. “It’s an emergency, Sir! Somebody has broken into the arsenal!”

“Alert security! G-Force must have sneaked in unseen!” Zoltar orders. “Seal all exits! The rest of you, find them!” A bunch of goons run out.

“G-Force again!” Zoltar rants. “They are like smoke! They appear and disappear like ghosts! Why does the Great Spirit allow them to torment me this way? I must remove them, before they drive me to complete distraction!” Zoltar certainly sounds like he’s going crazy.

To add to his distress, the lights go out. Spotlights come on, all pointing at the chandelier on the ceiling.

“Get them!” Zoltar calls. “Whoever they are!” Um, didn’t you already figure out that G-Force had broken in?

“And bring them here to me, immediately!” Zoltar adds. The rest of the goons all run out of the room.

“It can only be G-Force.” Zoltar says. “But this time, they will pay for their arrogance, and pay dearly!”

Zoltar drinks his wine, but is startled by the sound of whistling.

“Who’s there?” Zoltar calls. “No one. There’s no one there! There can’t be anybody there! It is all my imagination! I am working too hard! I am beginning to hear things. No! Stay away! Whoever you are, stop that whistling! No, stay away!” He throws his wine glass at one of the tables below. A figure rises up from under the tablecloth.

“It’s a ghost!” Zoltar cries, terrified. The tablecloth figures (mote than one now) throw off their coverings.

“Have mercy on me! Mercy! I beg you!” Zoltar cries. “I will give you riches, but don’t take me!”

__________________

I think the scriptwriters were trying too hard to lay on the hoplessness. After all, Nambu's villa was the team's original base, and they were getting their weapons from somewhere before the Crescent Base was constructed.

For Nambu and the team to feel lost and hopeless is perfectly natural. They just took a tremendous hit, psychologically, with the destruction of the base. For whatever reason, they made it their sole source for everything. They have to have weapons made somewhere.

The tape: there was no reason for Katse to have a trick tape for the SNT to grab. Perhaps it was specially formulated to only operate in Galactor players. Use any other, and it triggers a chemical reaction that destroys it. Or something like that.

Feel sorry for the BotP folks a bit. They had this episode, and had to do something with it. For whatever reason, they didn't trim off the Purple Dude's happy-dance, so now we have Zoltar acting like a twit.

I'm a bit off right now. Fighting a cold.

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Benefits, not features; benefits, not features

I agree, Marie. We tend to forget how common it was to have 'only one copy' of something, in the days before backups were easily available. Nambu started at the beginning that half the data on the Mantle Project had been lost. Imagine: he's spent most of his adult life working on this, and Galactor has been destroying all of the installations that have been built as part of this project. But the loss of bases, while a blow, is still something that can be overcome, because Dr. Nambu always retained the data to build new ones... until now.

I'm trying to recall, but I believe they do get their hands on a few more Super BMs before the end of the series, so clearly the ISO is able to establish another manufacturing plant.

I actually like Zoltar's happy dance. Ot gives him a bit of personality.

Hope you're feeling better, UW!

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I'm sorry, but no BOTP/Harry Potter crossover fic will be forthcoming from me. I have enough to worry about without all of the Harry Potter fans going wild because of what I've done to *their* characters!

I agree, the tape seems too good to be true... but I honestly don't think Katse was in on it. I suspect he was drunk, but his incredible instinct for self-preservation caused him to sober up fast. And he clearly recognized that even though the Science Ninja Team might be 'gone', there were other forces still out to get him. So it makes sense that he would have continued his habits of holding a capsule in his mouth, and creating secret escapes in his bases... after all, it has been these habits that have kept him alive, and the ninjas haven't been 'gone' for all that long.

I think the explanation of the tape being rigged to self destruct if it was not in a specific Galactor player is far more likely.

As for the ADVism... i can see Joe being a Stones fan. He even has Mick Jagger's hair!

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Another great recap! Thanks TJ! I always did like this episode. Not sure if it is my favorite, but definitely up towards the top.

I had the same thought as Marie while reading -- X has used Katse's hubris before, it would only be natural for him to set him up knowing the team would get the tape before Katse could play it.

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Perspective Alters Reality

I think more whistling in The Daring Mini-Submarine. Maybe Come Back! Boomerang.

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Benefits, not features; benefits, not features