And suddenly, a goon lands a punch on Joe!



The goon, realizing how incredibly lucky he is, prepares to fire.



Joe doesn’t know what to do.



But Jun smacks the goon with a yo-yo strike.



I like how this scene mirrors the one in episode 105, where Joe saves Jun from a goon.

Jun’s yo-yo continues on and wraps around a set of bars. Ryu helps her pull it down onto the goons nearby.



The fight continues.









Ken ends it by throwing a bunch of minibombs into the last remaining goons.

Cut from BOTP:



A menacing laugh echoes throughout the chamber.

“That’s Leader X’s voice!” Jinpei cries.



“Listen well!” X advises. “This room will be your tomb! Die!” The doors are all suddenly blocked by stone walls.

“Oh no!” Ken cries.



“What do we do?” Jinpei asks. “We’re closed in!”



“Leave it to the strong guy!” Ryu smirks.



“This’ll be totally easy!” he brags, pounding on one of the stone walls.



Of course, he fails utterly in breaking it.

“That’s no good, big guy!” Ken chides. “If they’re going to attack us, they’re going to do it from above.”

Sure enough, sand starts pouring out of holes near the ceiling.

“Look, it’s sand!” Jun says.

“They’re trying to bury us all in sand!” Jinpei cries. “It’s everywhere!”



Interestingly, all of the goon bodies seem to have disappeared. Where did they go?



“Come on, let’s break a hole in the ceiling with the Tornado Fighter!” Ken orders.



Immediately, everyone gets into position.



Jinpei announces the name of the maneuver, and they all get spinning. Joe seems to be having some trouble…



Colored spots flash across blackness in front of his eyes. Eventually, it is too much for him to bear, and he falls out of the Tornado.



Everyone lands on the ground.



“Is something wrong, Joe?” Jun asks, concerned.



Hey, where’s the sand? Did the aborted Tornado Fighter blow it away?

“Sorry, I just screwed that one up.” Joe apologizes.



“What’s wrong with you, Joe?” Ryu asks, but his face (and everyone else’s) is blurring before Joe’s eyes. “You’ve been acting a little strange.”

“Well, even I can mess up once in awhile.” Joe grunts, standing up. “All right, let’s go again.”

“You all right?” Ken asks.

“I’m fine.” Joe says.

“Let’s try it again!” Ken orders.

Everyone gets back in position. Jinpei announces the name of the maneuver again, and off they go.

Joe’s still having a difficult time, but it looks like he’s gritting his teeth and dealing with it.



The Tornado Fighter manages to break through a grating at the ceiling, surprising a goon who was sitting on it! I guess he didn’t hear Jinpei announcing their maneuver. Either time.

Joe can’t hold on any longer, and he falls out of the Tornado Fighter again.



He doesn’t land well.



“You all right, Joe?” Ryu asks, running over, stepping on the goon’s head as he does so.



“Sorry about that.” Joe mutters.

“Joe, you should go back to the God Phoenix and wait.” Ken orders.



“Give me a break, I’m fine!” Joe insists, but as he stands, he stumbles. Ryu has to catch him.



“Easy.” Ryu says.

“It’s nothing!” Joe insists, yet his vision is blurring more than ever.

“I think you’re tired. Now stand by in the God Phoenix. That’s an order, Joe!” says a blurry Ken.

“Whatever, Leader.” Joe grumbles.



Elsewhere…

“What? They escaped unarmed?” X isn’t pleased with this news.

“If it was really so easy to trap them, we would have already won this thing a long time ago, don’t you think?” Katse needles X.



“Do you dare lecture me?” X snarls.

“My apologies, Sire.” Katse backtracks.

“This is our chance!” X rants. “If you have time to complain, then you have time to finish them off!”

Do you like the ‘X frame’ around the chicken-head’s image here?



“Yes, Sire!”

Immediately, Katse contacts his men.



“Imbeciles! What do you think you’re doing?” Katse screams. “The Science Ninja Team has escaped! After them!” A bunch of goons run off.

“Lord Katse sure seems impatient lately.” one goon remarks to another.



“Hmph I’m not surprised at all!” another goon responds.

“Guess he’s frustrated with the whole ‘world conquest’ thing.” the first goon suggests.

“Sure isn’t looking too good, that’s for sure!” the second goon agrees. And a moment later, we see how right he is.



“It’s Gatchaman!” shouts the second goon, reaching for his gun. But Ken throws his boomerang and takes out both goons at once. When it comes back, he twirls it around in an arrogantly showy maneuver before re-holstering it. Guess he learned something from his Dad after all.



“Get up! What’s in that room?” Ken grabs the first goon and questions him.



“Well, it’s… it’s…”

“Spill it!” Ryu whacks the goon on the head.

The goon’s belt buckle opens up, and a key is revealed.



“Wait, you can’t have that!” the goon exclaims, as Ken gingerly removes the key. I guess he’s nervous about touching the goon ‘below the belt’?

“You can’t go in!” the goon makes a final protest.



“Close your pie hole, Fang Face!” Ryu smacks the guy again. I can tell he’s enjoying this new role of ‘tough guy’.

Ken unlocks the door to the next room, and the Science Ninja Team enters.

“What the heck is this place?” Ryu wonders. I’m wondering too, because it’s very dark, and you can’t see much, other than that it has a high ceiling.

__________________

Jun starts falling unconscious.



“There’s still one left in the God Phoenix in front of the base.” Katse tells a goon. “Blow him to Kingdom Come, Finkelmeyer.” How does Katse know that Joe is there? Granted, he doesn’t see him in the drill with the others, but still…



“Oh yeah!” Finklemeyer is ready for this assignment!

Back in the drill…

“Damn it!” Ken cries. “The G-Forces!” Oh, if only he knew the irony of that statement…



“Joe, it’s me! Do you read me?” Ken calls on his bracelet. “Come in, Joe!”

“10-4!” Joe responds.

“We fell into a Galactor trap, and the entire dome we’re in is heading straight down toward hot magma!” Ken explains.



“What was that?” Joe can’t believe it. Or maybe he’s having trouble hearing. He is clearly weak.



“There’s only one way for us to escape!” Ken goes on, then pauses. “What’s wrong, Joe?”

“It’s nothing! What’s your plan?” Joe gasps.

“Okay, listen up!” Ken says. “Set a Super Bird Missile’s timer for 30 seconds. Then fire it under the dome! Hurry up!”

“What?” Joe is stunned.



“What do you mean, what?” Ken rants.

“If I miss, you’ll never come back out alive, Ken!” Joe gasps.

“Then I guess you had better not miss!” Ken snaps.

“I’m not sure I can… what if I can’t do it?” Joe has doubts. “I’m not sure I can do it!”



“What are you talking about? You’re Mister Self-Confidence, Joe!” Ken shouts.



But then he recalls Joe’s problems earlier with the Tornado Fighter.

“Do it, Joe! We’re putting our lives in your hands!”



“Do it!” Ken shouts again. “Do it! There’s no other way!”

“I understand…” Joe says weakly.



Despite his blurry vision, Joe manages to set a timer on the Super Bird Missile for 30 seconds.

Check out that high tech timer!



Meanwhile, the goons are approaching the God Phoenix.

“There it is, hurry!” a goon calls.

“This is our perfect chance to destroy the God Phoenix!” another says.



Now we can see that it is a wave of crab tanks approaching.



Inside, Joe is struggling, but he has made it back to the Bridge.



“Joe, aren’t you ready yet?” Ken nags via bracelet. I guess he can be forgiven for his impatience, under the circumstances and all.

“I know. I’m on it!” Joe replies. “I’m on it!”

But even as Joe’s on it, crab tanks are climbing up the God Phoenix’s landing gear.

Joe pulls on the piloting lever.



And the God Phoenix takes off, leaving a trail of crab tanks in its wake.



Joe struggles, but is in control.

“Ken, I’m standing by! What’s the target?” Joe asks.

“I’ll send out a Birdscramble. Just fire in that direction!” Ken instructs.



Joe gets the signal and starts moving toward it.

“It is about 6,400 kilometers from the Earth’s crust to its core.” the narrator decides that this is a good time to pop in with relevant geological facts. “And every thousand meters you descend, the temperature triples.”

The Team doesn’t look like they are enjoying this monologue.





But notice that Ken and Jun are holding hands!

“It is said that at a depth of 50 kilometers, even metals and rocks melt.” the narrator adds.

“Suffer!” Katse cackles to himself. “Suffer slowly! And die!”

In the God Phoenix, Joe is aligning with his target.

“Here we go…”



But suddenly, the target is blurry!

“Damn it, why is this happening now? I’m useless!” Joe grabs his head and shakes it.



He screams in frustration.



“Joe is going to save us soon!” Ken tells the others in the drill. “Stay alert! Don’t let it get to you! We’ve got to fight it, understand? So stay strong! Fight it!”



“If you understand, then answer…” Ken blacks out and slides down the wall.

Joe is still struggling with his blurry vision.



“Please, please,” Joe begins bargaining with whatever higher power he believes in, “I just need one second… one second of clarity… come on!”

And suddenly… his vision clears.



Joe pounds his fist on the red button, and the Super Bird Missile is fired!

It crashes into the ground right where a line of crab tanks are heading back to the base.



Suddenly, Joe realizes that the God Phoenix is about to crash into the ground too!



But he pulls back on the lever just in time to avoid disaster.

“They’ll be plunging into magma now.” Katse says to himself.



But he suddenly sees something else on his radar screen.

“What’s going on?” he asks.

What’s going on is that the Super Bird Missile stopped the drill.



The drill stops rotating.

“It’s stopped! We’ve got to get out of here!” Ken tells everyone, knowing that they only have 30 seconds. “Hurry up, or we’re all going to die!”



“Lord Katse, emergency!” a goon reports. “A Super Bird Missile was fired toward the underground magma, and it’s directly beneath us!”

“What? That’s going to explode!” Katse takes off running, the goon right behind him. So much for his determination earlier this episode to see this out to the end!



Back in the drill capsule…

“Let’s strike at the ceiling at the same time!” Ken orders.

“Big 10, Ken!”



Everyone throws their weapons (with explosives inside) at the ceiling.



They take cover…



And they’re free!

“Let’s go!” Ken screams. “Ninja Technique…”



“Twin Somersault!” Jun finishes.

Ken leaps up to a perch, then grabs Jun’s hands as he approaches.



He throws her upward, giving her more momentum.



Then she returns the favor.



Ryu is throwing Jinpei.



But while Jinpei shoots up, no one is left to help poor Ryu, who has to hop up on his own.

How many kilometers did they descend into the Earth, again?

However many it was, the Team covers that ground quickly, escaping just before the flames from the Super Bird Missile’s explosion reach them. The goons aren’t so lucky.

Cut from BOTP:



The Team runs outside, and everyone ducks behind a sand dune to shelter themselves from the exploding base.

“Man, that was too close for comfort!” Ryu says.



Just as he relaxes, a piece of the fortress nearly lands on him!

“All right, Joe!” Jinpei shouts.



Sure enough, the God Phoenix is approaching. Joe is doggedly holding onto the piloting lever. Everyone jumps aboard.



“Joe?” Jinpei asks, and suddenly Joe collapses.

__________________

BOTP Episode 70 – Strike at Spectra

Here at Center Neptune, deep beneath the ocean’s surface, Zark guards the galaxies against all threats of invasion from alien invaders.

“But being constantly underwater, as we are, some of us are subject to the adverse effects of dampness.” Zark explains, reaching for his oil can. “Every so often, I have to take a small shot of rust inhibitor, to keep moisture from collecting on my tubular memory rectifiers.” Zark oils his armpit. I guess that’s the location of his ‘tubular memory rectifiers’?



“Ah… one squirt, and I’m good for the whole day!” he gloats. Except that he just gave himself about two dozen squirts. Is he overdosing or just ‘lubing up’ for the next 2 weeks?

A call comes in.

“Center Neptune Control. 7-Zark-7!”

“Zark,” Susan breathes huskily, “Susan here, on Planet Pluto. I have an early warning. I am picking up a flying saucer hovering in the vicinity of Planet Spectra!”



So let me get this straight… even though they’re a planet with space-travel technology, it’s highly unusual to see a flying saucer hovering around the planet? Enough that Susan has to report it to Zark?

Zark doesn’t even bother with the antennae erection today, but simply gets up and freaks out.

“That must be Zoltar!” Zark gasps. “Do you suppose his spies tipped him off that G-Force is on the way to attack Spectra at this very moment?”

“Are they really?” Susan wants the low-down.

“Yes!” Zark exclaims, happy to have the scoop.

“I didn’t know that.” Susan replies.

“Well… it’s very hush-hush.” Zark admits. Too bad you just blabbed about it, Zark!

“I wouldn’t want it to get any farther than Pluto, Susan.” Zark belatedly tries to control his mess.

“Ooh! I won’t let it get outside the solar system!” Susan’s just happy to be in the know. “Depend on it!”

“Good.” Zark replies happily… so he spills more. “We received secret information that Spectra was about to attack us!”

“Oh!” Susan exclaims in shock and awe.

“So, we thought, why do we always wait for Spectra to come down here and make trouble? Let’s go up there and stop them before they get started!” Zark does his best impersonation of a tough guy and fails miserably.

“Brilliant reasoning!” Susan gushes. “It must have been your idea, Zark.”

“Uh, thank you… Susan… I did give it a … little input…” Zark stammers. “Well, I’d better turn on my monitor right now and see if I can pick up Zoltar’s flying saucer!”

“Check you later, Zark.” Susan coyly says goodbye.

Now we see Zark’s monitor, which is displaying the usual white dot moving across the blackness of space. Except today the dot is going left to right, instead of right to left.

“I’m starting to home in on that saucer, and I’m very much afraid it’s…” Zark pauses as we see a shot of the Devilstar. Strangely, it has a backdrop of blue sky, even though a moment ago it was supposedly in space.

“Yes, I’m almost positive it’s… no doubt about it! It’s Zoltar!” Zark exclaims. We see Zoltar pacing in some kind of conference room. There’s a small dish on a nearby table the might be an ashtray, but it’s too blurry to be certain.

“But who can anticipate his fiendish plans?” Zark asks. “I’d better get in touch with G-Force, way off in outer space!”

“Space is terribly big.” Zark lectures. “In fact, there’s no end to it!” And we get to see a shot of… space.



“But with my highly sensitive cosmic scanner, I’ll pick up the Phoenix wherever it is!” Zark says. “There it is!” Indeed, on Zark’s monitor the white dot moving through space shot is now going left to right.

“It’s just left our galaxy: the Milky Way. 7-Zark-7 calling Phoenix! Commander!”



“Phoenix to Center Neptune! I read you, Zark!” comes Mark’s voice. “What’s up down there? Or should I say, what’s down up there?”

“I wanted to let you know I’ve spotted Zoltar’s flying saucer lurking in the sky over Planet Spectra.” Zark replies. “He may know you’re heading there!”

“Big 10, Zark. We’ll stay on our toes. Now going into radio silence. Over and out.” Is that Mark’s way of telling Zark not to bother him with any more unwanted calls?

“Over and out, good buddy!” Zark says. “And, good luck!”

“Well, they’re heading for Crab Nebulae.” Zark slips back into his voiceover narrator role. “And deep in the center of it is Planet Spectra. I’ll be out of contact with them now, for security reasons. I certainly hope everything goes according to plan!”

Boy, we’re sure spending a lot of time flying through space. It makes me wonder how much actual Gatchaman footage is left in this episode!

Now we see the Phoenix flying over clouds.

“We’re approaching sonrad contact with our objective!” Princess reports. I’m not sure what ‘sonrad’ is. A combination of sonar and radar, perhaps? Weird…

“Contact made!” Princess calls.

“Maintain bearing.” Mark orders.

“We hit this one right on the nose!” Jason says.

“Right.” Princess agrees.

“Now, if we can hit Zoltar on the nose.” Mark grins nastily as he thinks to himself.

But Zoltar is receiving a warning at that very moment, as he speaks with the Great Spirit.

“Zoltar, the enemy approaches!” the Luminous One says. “Are you prepared?”

“Yes, Spirit!” Zoltar replies, although the expression on his face seems to indicate that he’s been completely taken by surprise.

“You must not fail! Do you understand?” the Luminous One says, before fading out.

“Yes, Great Spirit!” Zoltar bows, but then he cringes, He turns, and we can see a number of goons below him, apparently waiting for orders.

“Take your places and prepare to attack!” Zoltar orders.

“Sir!” The goons salute and run off.

The Phoenix approaches a strange fortress coming out of a desert.

“That innocent-looking castle is Spectra’s primary base!” Mark tells Tiny. “Be careful.”

“Don’t worry.” Tiny replies.

Of course, guns emerge from the fortress and begin shooting at the Phoenix, but Tiny avoids the shots. However one flash of light comes across the screen and Jason falls to the floor.

“Oh, my head!” he exclaims, although it doesn’t look like he hit his head.

“They were ready for us!” Jason says, getting up and moving back to the front of the Bridge. “Well, I’m ready!” He puts his finger over the red button.

“Ah!” he exclaims. His vision is blurry!

“My head! What’s happening to my vision?” he thinks. He pauses, the Phoenix still under fire.

“Come on, Jase!” Mark urges.

“You waiting for permission?” Tiny needles.

“I’m the gunner and you’re the driver, so just keep your eye on the road and drive!” Jason retorts. But he’s still having trouble seeing the target.

“Jason!” Princess says, coming up and touching his shoulder. He elbows her back, but doesn’t say anything.

“Unh… oh…” he groans. Then he closes his eyes and presses the button. At first it looks like the missile is going to miss, but then it hits the very top of the castle. We have no indication that anyone inside was hurt.

Now the Phoenix lands and the Team is on the ground. The guns have apparently stopped firing.

“This was a nice place until Jason punched it full of holes!” Tiny says.

“Turned it… into… Swiss cheese!” Keyop burbles. Strangely, all of the ‘holes’ in the castle looks rectangular… like windows. Not missile damage.

“Good shooting.” Princess says, but her face looks worried.

“If they only knew.” Jason thinks.

“We’ve crunched the building, but their troops are still playing possum inside.” Mark says.

“Don’t worry, we’ll smoke them out.” Tiny says.

“We’re flies going into the spider’s web.” Mark disagrees. Everyone runs inside, except Jason. He bows his head, then slowly follows.

Inside, everyone walks through a cavernous area.

“Eerie!” Princess says.

“Dank.” Mark adds. They come to a prison area.

“Does this… mean… no trespassing?” Keyop burbles. Mark looks around, then holds Tiny back.

“Wait.” the Commander orders. We see a shadow lurking around a corner and hear a faint echo of Zoltar’s laugh.

“Broot… Zoltar!”

“My congratulations, G-Force!” Zoltar says over some kind of communications system they can’t see. “You are now standing in your own prison!” Sure enough, stone walls come down and close off the doorways.

Commercial break!

When we return, we see the stone walls coming down again, and everyone on the Team looking shocked.

“Trapped… broot… like rats!”

“Speak for yourself! No problem!” Tiny boasts, making muscle-man poses as he approaches a door. He starts pounding on it, but is unable to damage it. He slides to the floor.

“Zoltar has us boxed in.” Mark says. “Now what else does he have up his sleeve?” To answer that question, sand begins pouring out of holes at the ceiling.

“Water!” Princess says.

“All around… but not a drop… to drink!” Keyop burbles. Um… it sure looks like sand to me, but if they say it’s water… well, I guess it’s yellow, grainy water.

“Well it looks like it’s Whirlwind Pyramid time.” Mark says. Everyone gets together.

“Okay, spin it!” Keyop cries, and off they go.

“Aaaaah!” Jason screams. Colored dots dance across the blackness in front of his eyes. He falls, and everyone else does too. We don’t see Jason land, but when the others do, he’s lying on the ground.

“You all right?” Princess asks.

“I’m fine. I just slipped.” Jason says, but his vision is blurring again.

“Maybe you got ahold of a bad Spaceburger.” Tiny suggests.

“I suppose the rest of you are perfect.” Jason snaps, getting up. “What’s the holdup? Let’s move it!”

“Go!” Mark orders, and everyone gets into position again.

“Ready… root… on top!” Keyop calls, and the spinning begins again.

__________________

Everyone in the drill seems to be having a hard time.

“Farewell, my friends!” Zoltar cackles form his control room. “And good riddance to you!”

“Do it, Jason!” Jason says to himself. He prepares to fire the red button… but his vision is blurry again!

“My comrades… they’re all going to fall to their death because I failed them!” Jason shakes his head.

“Don’t lose your courage!” Mark is telling the rest of the Team. “We’ll have the last laugh yet! Jason will activate the missile. We can count on him. I know!” But then Mark collapses.

On the Phoenix, Jason’s vision is still blurry.

“I’ve got to make an effort, but only a miracle can help me!” Jason says. He shakes his head, and then the miracle happens. His vision clears!

He fires the missile, which plows through some more robot tanks before going into the ground. Jason suddenly realizes that the Phoenix is about to crash into the ground too, and pulls up on the piloting lever.

“Your end is near!” Zoltar gloats, but then he sees something new on his radar screen. “What’s that?”

The Super Sniper Missile stops the Whirlwind Torpedo but going underneath it. The spinning stops.

“Let’s move it!” Mark tells the others. “That Super Sniper’s gonna blow any second!”

“Zoltar!” a goon comes running up to the Spectran Leader. “They scored a lucky hit and blocked the ground torpedo! It will explode!”

“We’d better clear out of here now!” Zoltar calls, running away.

“Are you all ready?” Mark asks inside the drill.

“G-Force!”

Everyone prepares explosives and then throws them at the ceiling. A hole blasts open. When the smoke clears, they jump out.

“Now fly!” Mark orders. And they do. They leap and fly out of the long hole, escaping just before the explosion from the missile hits them. They run outside and jump behind a sand dune for cover.

“Made it in the nick of time!” Tiny says. But just as he starts to relax, he nearly gets hit by some debris.

“Lifeboat!” Keyop squeals, as the Phoenix arrives on the scene. The others jump aboard.

“Hi!” Keyop says, as Jason collapses over the piloting lever.

We get a quick shot of Zoltar’s Devilstar flying away, presumably with all of his men aboard as well.

“Listen, for a novice, you’re not a bad pilot.” Tiny is telling Jason. “But I do have one piece of advice. Always drive with two hands.” But Mark isn’t listening. He’s noticing a broken gauge on the wall control panel. I wonder how it got broken?

“That’s a good tip. I’ll try to keep it in mind for the future.” Jason says. Tiny laughs, but Jason walks away, and doesn’t look so happy.

“Jason has come through a big crisis, but he won’t talk about it for awhile.” Zark voices over. “Mark won’t either, but he understands what Jason went through. The main thing is that G-Force remained intact, and Zoltar is once more defeated!”

This is all that’s said about Jason’s problem. There’s no reassurance from Zark that Jason is ‘just fine’. We’re supposed to assume that the ‘miracle’ that caused Jason’s vision to clear was a permanent solution to the problem, I guess.

And now we’re back at Center Neptune.



“I’m certainly relieved to know that G-Force is on the way home to Neptune Center.” Zark says. I’m not sure why it’s ‘Neptune Center’ and not ‘Center Neptune’ today.

“There are times when they’re far away on dangerous missions across the galaxies that I wish I were human and could join them.” Zark goes on. ‘Then there are other times when I wish they were like me: machines-made, unbreakable, and guaranteed forever!” Hmm… I’d like to test that ‘unbreakable’ claim on you, Zark. Do you mind?

Susan calls.

“Center Neptune Control. 7-Zark-7!”

“Hi, Zark, this is Susan on Planet Pluto.” Susan says. Zark doesn’t have an antennae erection, but he sounds glad to hear from her.

“Ah!” he sighs happily. “Hi, Susan! I’m glad you called. I want to thank you for sending out that alert on Zoltar’s flying saucer. Everything worked out fine.”

“I’m glad.” Susan replies.



“I’d be lost without you, Susan.” Zark says.

“And I’d be lost without you, Zark.” Susan flirts back.

“Ah…huh… well, I’d certainly be lost without you!” Zark giggles.

“Ah… and I’d absolutely be lost without you.” Susan says coyly.

“For a couple of highly intelligent robots, we get lost awfully easily, don’t we?” Zark notes. He giggles annoyingly as the episode fades out.

__________________

That's a good point, Marie! I hadn't thought about Leader X being able to hear what went on at the base. Although... X wasn't actually *there*, so how could he have heard? Then again, X was the one who warned Katse that the God Phoenix was approaching to begin with. Perhaps X can sense their 'presence'? That would then explain how he knew 'one of them' was on the God Phoenix, yet didn't necessarily understand that Joe might be ill.

Since Beta Base is in a mountainous region, perhaps we could also assume that it is near enough to the Himalayas that X's powers extend to this distance?

What I don't understand is how the Team can just walk into a room without checking the security of the exits... TWICE IN ONE EPISODE! I can sort of forgive them the first time, but the second time they MUST have suspected that it might be a trap! Honestly, I can't believe that they all got trapped in that drill! There's just no excuse... Sigh.

Notice, Mark thought it might be a trap... but he still went in, didn't he????

I never thought about Ken's concern for Joe mirroring Joe's concerns at the end of Gatch F, but you're right. It is an interesting comparison. For me, I enjoy the smaller comparison here of how Jun saves Joe from being shot in combat, while in episode 105, it is Joe who saves Jun from being shot.

__________________

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

I often wondered why they made this episode into BotP when they had no intention (at that time) of using the other ones with Joe's demise.

It sure has left us with lots of plot bunnies!

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I'm writing a book. I've got the page numbers so far...

I suspect when they got this episode, the BOTP staff had no idea it was part of an ongoing plot thread. They saw it as self-contained, and wrote their version this way.

Now the next episode I write up (episode 101) is even more confusing with regards to the BOTP treatment...)

__________________

I agree with you there Becky.

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Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.