“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.”

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.

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.

“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.

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

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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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!!

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

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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