And then we see Mark, at his shack at the airfield. He’s sitting at a desk with his feet up, and he’s ignoring the incoming call from Anderson on his wrist communicator.

“Emergency, Mark –come in, Commander!”

Mark continues to sit there, eyes closed.

“I know you’re listening, Mark –come in!”

As Anderson continues to demand an answer, Mark takes off his communicator and tosses it on the desk.

“Earth is depending on you!” are the last of Anderson’s words we hear as Mark walks out of his shack, casting back one defiantly resentful look before he’s gone.

I guess he’s still in the “deep shock” that Tiny referred to, though I’m not sure why Mark would be so angry now at Anderson, who’s clearly doing everything he can to solve the current crisis (more than Mark is doing) –and especially as Mark himself agreed that it was necessary to burn the flowers in part I (though it sure seems that everyone’s more worried about Princess being a prisoner, than being dead from the fire). You’re coming off as rather passive-aggressive here, Mark!

We see Chief Anderson, who has finally given up on getting a response from Mark, and then we cut to a news broadcast on a TV.

“All persons have been evacuated and accounted for,” the news announcer is saying, “but the giant flowers are wreaking havoc on the city. We have thrown in all available defense units-”

We see some scenes now of the flowers rampaging in a city as flames burn around them, and some fighter jets (remotely controlled or robot-piloted I am sure) fly past.

“-in an attempt to stop them, but it looks as though the city is doomed.”

A hand turns the TV off as Mark barks “Shut it off!” and then adds, “I’m going back to my pad.”

We see, via an aerial view, that the TV is at Jill’s. Keyop is behind the counter and Mark walks past Tiny and Jason on his way out of the place.

And there’s puddle and what might be broken glass visible on the floor beside the stool where Mark was sitting. I guess someone must have accidently dropped their drink –surely Mark wouldn’t deliberately smash Jill’s glassware.

Jason glares at the departing Mark. A depressed-looking Tiny says “Commander’s real down himself.”

We cut to Mark walking up to the yard by his shack. Then we cut to an inside view, and the door opens and Mark enters and then slumps back against the doorframe, looking very upset.

And he’s got dark bruises on his face. Where did those come from? I mean, it’s not like Colonel Cronus had been lurking in his backyard, waiting to beat him up.

Mark is pacing now, but suddenly his wrist communicator, still on the desk where he left it, starts flashing.

“Princess!” gasps bruised-looking Mark, “She’s transmitting in secret code!”

He snatches his communicator up from the desk and says “Princess, give me the coordinates of your location!”

But the face of his communicator stops flashing.

Mark stares at it in dismay, but quickly looks very determined. “We’ll find you,” he says.

And we cut to Center Neptune, where Anderson is saying “I think I know why you’re here,” as we see Mark, Jason, Keyop and Tiny all ranged before him.

Jason still looks pissed off, but the others are glum-no-more.

“We want you to clear us for a mission into the city,” says Mark.

“It’s impossible,” answers Chief Anderson, “The city is devastated; the flowers are everywhere. I can’t risk losing you.”

“We’re going,” says Mark with firm insistence.


But Anderson insists that “security is my responsibility,” and his job is to “clear the city and see that no one is hurt.”

So, Mark explains that Princess contacted him and that he thinks she’s somewhere in the city. “We have to find her.”

We get quick views of Jason’s, Keyop’s and Tiny’s faces -all look as determined as Mark (though Keyop’s has a tear streak).

“How do you know it was Princess?”

“She used the G-Force secret code,” explains Mark.

“In that case, get going,” says Anderson, apparently now convinced the mission’s potential gain outweighs the risks, “I’ll clear you with the defense department.”

And we see the Phoenix launch from Center Neptune. On the bridge, everyone’s in birdstyle now, and we another look at everyone’s expressions of grim determination as they set off to find and rescue Princess.

However, Colonel Cronus and the Red Rangers are flying by.

“We’re flying cover for the Phoenix,” says Cronus, “Keep a sharp lookout!”

“Thank heavens, Princess signaled Mark,” voice-overs Zark as the Red Ranger jets swoop past the Phoenix, “I’m doing everything I can to track her –remote probes, phaser scanners. I know she’s in that ruined city somewhere. But where? That is the question. I hope that G-Force and Colonel Cronus’ men can rescue Princess. I wish I could go along and help them. Princess means a lot to me.” We’re also shown the city, and it is certainly devastated looking, with menacing flowers everywhere.

Wind blows through the empty, desolate ruins of the city, past the many flowers that the military somehow failed to burn or blow up.

Inside a ruined building, the four G-Force guys are taking a break or having completely run out of ideas of where to search next. Tiny and Keyop are sitting on the ground immediately beside one very large flower.

“Gives me… the creeps,” says Keyop, looking at it. Then why are you sitting six inches away from it, kid?

“They’re quiet now, those flowers,” remarks Jason, who is also sitting very close to another flower, “Like they’ve been told to lay low for a while, wait for further orders.”

“I’ve got an uneasy feeling,” says Mark, “They’re waiting for us to make a move, keeping tabs on us.”

But now we cut to Center Neptune and Chief Anderson, who’s standing on a balcony overlooking the tank that contains his captive flower (which is at the surface, its “head” out of the water)

“You seem to be watching me,” he says, as he watches the flower, “I wish you could tell me your next move.”

He grasps the balcony railing with one hand, but then jerks it back suddenly in pain.

“A cut,” he says, pulling out a handkerchief to staunch the bleeding. But a drop of his blood falls from the railing and lands directly inside the flower below.

The flower begins to jerk and writhe frantically, splashing water all around.

“Something’s happening to it!” says Anderson, staring.

The flower sinks to the bottom of the tank and then quickly withers up and dies.

“I don’t understand it. It just suddenly up and died,” he says, looking puzzled.

“It started right after I cut my hand…” he says, thinking. Then his face takes on a look of sudden comprehension. “A drop or two of blood dripped down –it must have fallen on the flower… That’s it! Something in the blood destroyed it!”

He laughs, having solved the “how to really kill the flowers” mystery and having one-upped Zark. Perhaps next time, Mark will be saying “Maybe the Chief will come up with something soon.”

And we cut to the secret Spectran base, where a whole bunch of soldiers are standing around on various tiers of a large and multi-level room. And we see that what they’re all standing around staring down at is, in fact, Princess, who’s manacled in a lidless box shaped like a mummy sarcophagus.

“Your friends will join you soon, Princess,” says the captain. I like to know why he expects that –have he and his soldiers been writing “Attention G-Force: Princess is this way” on various city buildings, with little arrows to indicate direction? Or does he know that she can signal them with her bracelet?

But of course, they’re all gathered together here to await G-Force taking the bait that is Princess –they certainly wouldn’t be assembled to watch Princess get skewered by a slowly-descending lid lined with massive spike or anything horrible like that!

“The invasion of Earth will begin now, and this time, G-Force will be unable to stop us!” declares the captain.

Princess opens her eyes, staring up grimly, and then she begins banging her bracelet against one side of the sarcophagus.

Elsewhere, Mark’s wrist communicator lights up. “It’s Princess, signaling,” says Mark.

“Right on the beam, Mark,” says Jason, also picking up the signal, as is Keyop.

“She’s in trouble, we’ll have to move fast! Let’s go!” declares Mark, and everyone salutes and jumps towards the Phoenix’s dome.

It takes off and once on the bridge, Jason rushes over to the radar screen and calls out “Due north, vector C and B –can’t miss it!”

Mark tells Tiny “Full speed ahead!” and off they go, smashing a piece of already-ruined building along the way.

“The signal’s coming from the city’s old water plant,” says Jason, scrutinizing a map on the radar screen. We see some pipes in an embankment, from which water is flowing, and Tiny bashes the Phoenix clean through them-

Aaand, very conveniently, the Phoenix’s nose bursts into the very room in the Spectran’s secret base where Princess is currently serving as G-Force bait while all the soldiers stand around watching.

“Stop them!” cries the Spectran captain, seeing the Phoenix and the four male G-Force members standing on the dome.

“Tiny, go after Princess!” instructs Mark, “We’ll hold them off!”

“Get them!” yells the captain.

“Ha!” yells Mark as he and the others all leap down from the dome.

Jason shoots his cablegun, ensnaring the arm of one gun-wielding soldier and creating a “tightrope” which Keyop then runs up in order to clobber the soldier. Mark grabs and flips another soldier.

Tiny runs up to Princess. There’s an odd looking “lid” hovering just over her sarcophagus now –where on earth did that come from? And, while the angle’s not good, it does look like it might have spikes protruding from its underside.

However, we don’t see it for very long. As Princess happily cries “Tiny!” he grabs the lid as if to heave it off. Suddenly, the lid has vanished and Princess is sitting up. Then, almost instantly, she’s swinging off one of the heavy cables that, for some unknown reason, are descending from the ceiling and she transmutes.

I doubt anyone caught the line about the flowers being harmless on their home planet when the episode aired, but someone on the writing team must have been thinking of the damage that invasive species cause.

The flowers weren't 'harmless' on their homeworld, but they had competitors and possibly predators to keep them under control.

Nor do I think anyone spotted the bruises on Mark's face. Unless we know to look, a lot of Gatch leftovers would have flown past us.

In the Sandy Frank order, this two-parter comes after The Sky is Falling!, and before (respectively) Charioteers of Changu and The Invasion of Space Center. At this late date, it's not impossible that Spectra Intelligence could have discovered the team's civilian identities.

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Benefits, not features; benefits, not features

And Antoff of Tramulus.

Dahmbo was a robot (not built by Spectra).

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Benefits, not features; benefits, not features

I have the "G-Force" version of this two-parter on my tapes, but haven't glanced much at it, or the original Gatch episode. But I have noticed several people who've watched "G-Force" bringing this episode up, regarding how gloomy and mature it was for the time (really was the most "mature" show airing on Cartoon Network back in the mid-1990s). I'm assuming that most of the violence was kept in, yes even the scene Red Impulse roughing up a sulking Ken/Ace (remember that being an eye-opening scene as a kid). The scene with the Galactors being impaled on the spikes and Jun getting smacked by Ken, probably not. Inter-team violence was cracked down on in "G-Force", especially when it came to Aggie getting hit.

Most notably, the two-parter was amongst a very few, if not the only episode which didn't feature Cam Clarke voicing Dirk. It either featured one of the other male VA's or some stand-in who was never credited, but his voice sounds REALLY different, and not for the better.

In "G-Force", the two-parters were never named as such, yet their storylines remained more or less remained intact.