Thanks again for your clarifications, James! There are so much odds and ends mentioned through the original series, edited ones and the movie to come, not leaving out fandom, that it's easy to get misguided or confused sometimes!

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Hi all!

Got some great screenshots of Jun!

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Banned

BOTP Episode: The Sky is Falling Part 1

We begin, as usual, with the exterior view of Center Neptune and Zark’s voice.

“Down here at Center Neptune, where I keep constant watch throughout the universe for any sign of alien invaders from outer space,” [where else would alien invaders be from?] says Zark, “I’m many fathoms beneath the sea.”

And we cut to a view of Zark taking a shower as 1-Rover-1 waits patiently with a proffered towel.

“Of course I’m always completely warm and dry,” continues Zark, scrubbing his back, “Except when I take a refreshing oil shower,” and he proceeds to sing a “Doo, doo, doo, la, la, la,” sort of showering song.

“There’s nothing like a brisk, invigorating scrub in peanut oil,” he finally says, “I’m just nutty about it!” He chuckles and adds “Who says I wasn’t programmed for humor?”

Groan, I say you weren’t.

He opens the shower stall door and takes the towel that 1-Rover-1 has been holding out all this time, thanking him. After wiping himself down, he wraps the towel around his nether region and it looks like he’s wearing a diaper.

His intercom starts beeping, causing Zark to say “Oh dear, the intercom always starts buzzing when I’m bathing,” but he responds.

Naturally, it’s Susan.

“Zark,” she says, and the silly robot who walks around unclothed 99 % of the time hauls up his towel in a misplaced show of modesty, “This is Susan at the early warning station out on planet Pluto.”

“Hi, Susan!” says Zark, still clutching his towel.

“My interstellar probes,” says Susan, “tell me there is trouble brewing out on planet Riga.”

“That’s bad,” says Zark, forgetting about his towel finally, “For years we’ve known that Spectra has been secretly constructing the most awesome weapon ever built in the history of the Galaxy out there on Riga!”

If you’ve known all this for years, then they couldn’t have been doing it all that secretly.

“Right,” says Susan, “And now my sensors tell me they’re ready to put it into action.”

“Good work, Susan!” enthuses Zark, “Just as soon as I throw something on [his #7 sweater perhaps?], I’ll contact G-Force on monitor.”

And we cut to the Ready Room, where Princess and Keyop are at it on guitar and drums, Tiny is eating space burgers, and Jason and Mark are playing ping pong.

Like any of them would be anything else…

“I sure work up an appetite watching you people,” remarks the sedentary Tiny, reaching for another burger, “I could eat five more space burgers.”

“What do you mean you could?” remarks Jason, “you will! You’re getting to look like a space burger.”

“Yeah?” says Tiny, “Well I’m going on a diet. It’s going to be my next New Year’s resolution.”
“Tiny,” says Princess, pausing in her strumming, “You’ve been making that New Year’s resolution every year since I’ve known you. If you want to lose weight, stop eating heavy space burgers and go to something light.”

“And work out,” adds Keyop, before doing a vigorous drum solo.

I cannot help but think of that Robot Chicken G-Force skit…

http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/66404/detail/

At any rate, Mark kindly attempts to kick-start Tiny’s diet by knocking the burger out of his hand with a ping pong ball.

“Okay,” says Tiny, “I’ll go to something light, but ping pong balls? That’s ridiculous!”

Suddenly Zark appears on the monitor behind Tiny.

“Attention G-Force, I have an emergency alert. This is a big one –planet Spectra may be about to launch its greatest invasion against Earth from planet Riga. For years they’ve been secretly building a monstrous weapon there and we’ve been unable to stop them. Now, it’s ready.”

Everyone is lined up in a row, listening. [Why do they always make Jason shorter than he’s supposed to be?]

“You’re all on stand-by alert,” continues Zark, “Await briefing from Security Chief Anderson. And Commander, I have a personal message for you. We picked up a wounded man on a street in the city. We haven’t been able to learn much about him, but he claims to be one of your old friends from the Space Academy.”

Now we see Tom’s memory of this event, wherein he’s walking through a room lined with sleeping bunks, carrying a rucksack. He stumbles over the feet of a man sitting on a lower bunk, causing the man to drop a photo he’d been looking at. Tom apologizes and stoops to pick up the photo from the floor in front of the man –whose face we do not see, though he’s wearing a white suit. Tom looks at the photo and, sure enough, it’s the one from Mark’s wall.

But the man snatches it out of Tom’s hands, and now we see him. It’s Colonel Cronus, dressed exactly as he was in the “Peaks of Planet Odin” episode –Oh wait, we’re probably not supposed to notice that. ;-)

Tom gives him a “Fine, be that way!” look and goes off towards an empty bunk.

“I couldn’t imagine why he snatched the picture so angrily,” voice-overs Tom as we see him climbing to an upper bunk and lying down, “Then I realized it was the same photograph you used to show me.”

Tom looks over at the man again, who’s still gazing at the photo.

“And I know you never believed your father was really dead.”

We fade back to the present and to Tom still sitting on Mark’s bed.

“Tell me, when did this happen?” asks Mark intensely.

“A week ago.”

“A week ago?” says Mark, putting a hand to his chin, “What were you doing on Riga?”

“What’s the difference?” replies Tom, rubbing his head with one hand and not looking at Mark, “The point is, I was there and I saw your father. Mark, he’s alive!”

Now he looks at Mark, adding “How much more do you need to know?”

Mark, looking more than a little affected by this news, walks away towards the window again.

“My father’s alive,” he repeats in a shaken voice, resting his hands on the sill, “Just as I’ve always believed –I’ve got to see him!”

Tom gives him a sidelong look.

Mark hits a nearby switch, turning on the lights. Eyes clenched shut and head bowed, he cries “I will!”

And we cut to Jill’s Diner. Or is it?

“This is great,” says Princess sourly, “Washing dishes.” She is doing just that, as Keyop moves chairs around.

“Sorry, Princess,” burbles Keyop, “Thought I had enough… to pay the check.”

So Jill makes them work off unpaid meals with dishwashing labor? I thought she was supposed to be Princess’ friend. Or is this some other diner?

Wherever it is, Mark seems to know where to find them. He opens the door and silently gestures to Keyop to join him outside while Princess, who has her back to all this, continues “Well it’s the last time I accept an invitation to go to dinner with you, big spender!”

“What’s up?” whispers Keyop, approaching Mark, but he puts a finger to his lips and Keyop follows him outside, shutting the door behind them.

“Hush hush?” queries Keyop.

“I’m taking off for planet Riga,” says Mark in a confidential tone.

Keyop burbles in alarm, “Alone?”

“Tom saw my father,” says Mark, as we see Tom lounging against a wall in the background, waiting, “And I’m going up to find him.”

“Can he… be trusted?” asks an apprehensive Keyop.

“Easy, Keyop,” says Mark, giving him a bit of a shove in the head, “There’s no reason to talk that way about my friend.” He’s frowning, arms folded in indignation.

“Ought to notify… the Chief,” persists Keyop.

“No way, I’ll be up and back before anyone knows I’m gone,” says Mark, still frowning as he turns away from Keyop to walk towards Tom.

Tom puts a hand on Mark’s shoulder and they walk away together.

Keyop looks worriedly in their wake, but just then his wrist communicator chimes.

“What are you doing out here?” asks Princess, suddenly peering out of the diner’s door, “Security is giving us an urgent call.”

“I heard!” retorts Keyop, scowling. He puts a hand to his face, in anxious thought, saying “Bad timing,” to himself.

Egad, Zark –I think it’s hardly surprising they can put the Phoenix in the air without Mark’s guidance!

But we do get a view, on the bridge, of Mark’s empty chair to emphasize his absence. Somehow, Tiny is coping.

“Mark may be the Commander of G-Force,” Jason is saying, “But we can do without him.” He’s coping too.

Keyop, a thoroughly disgruntled look on his face, says “Rather do it… with him.” Okay, he’s not.

We see Earth from space, receding into the distance behind them.

“Beautiful lift off!” we hear Zark saying, “Set your orbital arc for X190, the constellation Orion and planet Riga.”

“Orbit fixed, Zark,” says Princess’ voice as we see the Phoenix moving through space, “Bye bye to the Milky Way!”

“Convert to automatic,” says Zark, “I’m putting you in time warp.” We see a glowing dot moving through space.

“Automatic set,” says Princess, “Make it disappear, Zark!”

Now all we see are a bunch of erratically moving white streaks on a black background –I guess this represents time warp?

“You’ve entered constellation Orion,” says Zark, overlooking the fact that constellations are based on how stars’ positions are perceived solely from Earth without regard for their distances from Earth and that the stars in Orion are actually nowhere near each other in space, “And are approaching planet Riga. Activate retro-jets.”

“Retro-jets on!” says Princess, as we see the Phoenix passing some sort of vaguely cylindrical space ship –no word on what it is though.

“No word from Mark,” says Zark, “But my scanners indicate that he’s up there on planet Riga somewhere.”

We get a view of the Phoenix entering the planet’s atmosphere.

“Now, going into radio silence,” says Zark [and about time, too], “Good luck, Team.”

But, as the Phoenix is flying along, a wheel-shaped ship appears before them.

[Hey, it looks just like the ship the Spectrans were using on planet Odin, 14 episodes back. I guess that gave them plenty of time to bring it to Riga.]

“Look!” says a wide-eyed Tiny, “That’s got to be Spectra’s newest killer ship!”

[Tiny doesn’t have a good memory for these things, it seems…]

Sharp spikes now protrude from the perimeter of the killer ship and it begins to rotate rapidly in the air.

It and the Phoenix begin flying around each other.

“Buzz saw,” says Keyop, looking nervous.

“Let’s bring it to ‘em!” says Jason, looking impulsive [heh].

“I’m the pilot, and I’ll decide,” says Tiny, looking confident.

“Now we know what we need most,” says Princess, looking like someone who’s unwarrantedly clutching her head in despair and then raising her hands to stare upward imploringly, “Mark. We need our Commander!”

But we cut to Mark and Tom standing in an empty city street in front of a building.

“Is this where you saw my father?” asks Mark. He doesn’t wait for Tom to answer and goes to open the building’s door. He steps inside, not followed by Tom, and suddenly he turns to see that Tom is nowhere in sight and that he himself is standing on a platform that’s descending below ground.

“Hey!” cries Mark as a voice says “Welcome, Earthling.”

Mark turns around to see where the voice is coming from. There a blinding glow of light but when it disperses, he sees a man flanked by about a dozen Spectran soldiers.

“I’m Chief of the Secret Spectra Forces on Riga,” the man explains [lest Mark think he’s the police captain from planet Odin –I mean, he looks just like him.]

“Thanks,” retorts a glowering Mark, “I could have guessed that without your help.”

“I didn’t believe one of our agents could capture the head of G-Force so easily,” says the Chief.

I guess this is one of those episodes where the G-Force secret identities are not-so-secret.

“You mean Tom is a Spectra agent?” demands Mark, appalled.

They sure do –the entire Spectran wheel ship is destroyed in a massive explosion. (I sure hope all the soldiers on board had a chance to get to the escape pods!)

We cut to Zoltar, somewhere, looking at an on-screen Spectran soldier while a man sits at a desk just behind him.

“Our killer ship is destroyed?” Zoltar is saying angrily. “Yes, sir,” says the soldier, “It was struck by a bird missile!”

I think it was struck by four of them –two for sure.

“You underestimated G-Force again!” rants Zoltar.

“G-Force?” says the man at the desk (a man who bears a striking resemblance to Chief Alban of planet Odin), “That means Anderson has turned down our proposal.”

“Now we will carry out the X-3 plan!” declares Zoltar.

We cut to a view of a very large underground hangar, where we can see a very large rocket or missile-like ship.

“Stand by! Ready for launch!” a voice is announcing and we can see that whatever is being readied for launch has the same pointy head that was seen protruding from the “secret” installation that Anderson showed to G-Force (minus Mark) as an on-screen image when he told them about the “doomsday plan” against Earth’s Van Allen belts.

“These are my final instructions,” announces Zoltar’s voice, and then we see him on a view screen addressing a soldier at a console, “Clear the launching area and begin the countdown!”

“Yes, Sir,” says the soldier, and Zoltar’s image cuts out.

“Clear the launching area!” announces the soldier’s voice as we get a last glimpse of the missile/rocket.

We cut to Tom, happily fingering a thick wad of money in his breast pocket. But suddenly a hand grabs his shoulder and his eyes widen in alarm…

But we cut to Mark, who is manacled, hands over his head, to a metal girder. Suddenly Colonel Cronus is there, firing a gun and Mark’s manacles break apart. Then we see that two other Rigan Red Rangers are there too, and manacles are also shot off of Mark’s ankles.

“You’re free, my friend,” says Colonel Cronus, flanked by his two fellow Red Rangers, “Let’s go!”

The other two Rangers dash from the room but Mark asks “Where’s my father, Cronus?”

Cronus pauses and looks back at him. Mark just stands there, awaiting an answer.

“Your old friend played a cruel trick on you, Mark,” says Cronus, “Forget it for now. Because of this delay in rescuing you, Zoltar has been given additional time to complete preparations for the X-3 plan.”

Maybe this is where Mark should be asking “What’s the X-3 plan?” because he wasn’t at Anderson’s briefing, but perhaps the Chief of the Secret Spectra Forces on Riga told him about it.

But Mark says nothing.

“Your father isn’t here,” continues Cronus, “Don’t you think if he were, I’d know? And I’d have to let you know?”

Mark still doesn’t say anything. Cronus dashes from the room too now.

But then he reappears, herding Tom before him. Now we know whose hand that was that grabbed Tom’s shoulder before.

“Here’s the man who betrayed you,” says Cronus, holding Tom’s arms pinned behind his back, “Do what you like with him.” With that, he gives Tom a big shove, sending him sprawling –then he dashes from the room again.

Tom sits up, looking terrified as Mark walks towards him. “Forgive me, I was scared,” he says, trembling with guilt and fear.

“I trusted you because you were my friend,” says Mark, not looking at him, “but you lied to me about my father, and that’s the lowest! And when you pretended to be injured, that was just another cheap trick!”

Tom just stared at him.

“I was suspicious but I made myself believe you,” continues Mark, “For old times, I had faith in you. You betrayed that faith!”

Tom throws himself against the wall, as if terrified, crying “Mark, you’ve got to believe me!” He turns to look at Mark. “I was trapped and I was scared! They threatened to kill me unless I followed their orders.” He huddles himself up now, still trembling. “Mark, please try to understand, I know I did the wrong thing but I had no choice! Go easy! I’ll do anything, please!”

Mark’s looking at him now.

“Know… how he feels,” burbles Keyop sadly.

“I know it was wrong,” says Anderson, “I should have told him long ago but Cronus didn’t want me to.”

Princess stares, a tear running from her eye. “Mark…” she whispers.

Meanwhile, Mark is standing on the shore of some large body of water as waves lap near his feet, staring grimly into the distance where an orange and purple sunset is streaking the sky.

It’s still not clear if he knows anything about the X-3 plan or not. He starts walking down the beach.

And we cut to what I assume is Earth, and an explosion, followed by an orange cloud of radiation fills the sky over a sea filled with ice bergs.

“Bad news,” voice-overs Zark, “My sonic detectors tell me Zoltar’s missile has triggered the descent of the Van Allen radiation belt.”

We see the ice bergs shrinking away.

“Ice bergs are melting in the Arctic Ocean, ships are foundering, tidal waves are churning up the sea.”

As he says this, we see a ship being tossed by high waves.

“I’m very nervous about Mark,” continues Zark as we see Mark’s feet (presumably still on Riga) being lapped by waves at the beach, “Why doesn’t he rejoin the Team? Because –let’s face it- if G-Force isn’t able to stop Zoltar’s mad plan, who will?”

Mark continues to stare at the setting sun…

And we cut to Zark at Center Neptune.

“I know Mark is trying to find his father, but without him, G-Force has no trained leader. Worst of all, Mark is up on planet Riga and doesn’t even know Zoltar had already launched his terrible x-3 plan from there!”

“It looks like it’s going to be one of those steady, round the clock alerts,” continues Zark, now at his monitors, “But I’ll be right here waiting to help.”

Now he breaks the fourth wall, facing forward and saying “And I hope you’ll stick with me and be back for the next episode to cheer G-Force on to victory in this battle against Spectra’s doomsday machine!”

The End.

Well, not really.

To be continued…

I saw the Robot Chicken sketch. Soooo evil.

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Benefits, not features; benefits, not features

quote:

Originally posted by Transmute Jun Zark loves peanut oil... sheesh. Could we make him allergic, and he breaks out in a rash, or cant breathe?

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