Trouble With Doubles

The Christa is en route to a planet that has a hyperwarpway, a way of traveling vast distances in a very short time. It will cut several years off their journey home, but the Ruzzlians who control it are very prim and proper, and will not permit the Christa to pass through unless she passes inspection.

Meanwhile, a smelly green mist invades the ship and gets into the jump tubes. Rosie and Suzee get sucked into the jump tubes, and their evil twins come out, ready to take over the universe. The real Suzee and Rosie are trapped in the lounge, while the evil twins trick the others into going through the jump tubes to generate more evil twins.

Goddard and Harlan are now in the command post with the evil twins, and the evil twins are arguing and misbehaving. The real crew begins to realize that something in the jump tubes has caused the transformation. Harlan is also replaced with an evil twin. The evil twins are determined to cause the Christa to fail the Ruzzlian inspection.

Commander Goddard realizes that the crew has been replaced with evil twins. He enlists Thelma's aid in stopping them.

The evil twins suck the air out of the lounge to kill the real crew, but the crew escapes. Goddard explains that a doppelganger is responsible for what's happening, an evil creature that makes evil twins. They have to destroy the doppelganger to stop the evil twins.

The crew battle their evil twins. Harlan and Radu realize that they would rather work together than against one another. They set their evil twins to fighting each other.

The crew find the doppelganger and follow it into the engine room. Suzee sucks it into the protomix to use for fuel. The evil twins promptly dissolve.

The crew arrives at the Ruzzlian home world at high speed, not exactly proper decorum for inspection. However, the Ruzzlian official excuses their behavior when Commander Goddard explains that they were battling, and defeated, a doppelganger. They are given permission to use the hyperwarpway, but ultimately cannot use it because the Christa's organic components would be killed by the stress of the hyperwarpway.

• Suzee can put her consciousness into a person through an image on a view screen. As long as there is an image to enter, her particles are transferred along with the image.
• Suzee has the ability to take over other people's minds and make them act like idiots.

Evil Radu: What, don't you trust me?
Evil Harlan: Of course I don't trust you; you're evil! I'm evil. What part of evil don't you get?

Thelma: Look over there!
Evil Harlan: Don't you get it? We're evil! We don't do what we're told.
Thelma: Don't look over there!
[evil twins look]

Goddard: We can't get the door open! Nothing we try works!
Thelma: Open, please.
[door opens]

Harlan: I've been rough on you. You haven't betrayed me.
Radu: Loyalty is an Andromedan's greatest strength.

• Miss Davenport, using Radu's arm to pull herself up from the floor, causes Radu to loose his balance. Either Miss D is much heavier than she looks, or Radu is not as strong as he's supposed to be. (See picture at right.)
• Evil Suzee uses her powers to make evil Harlan and evil Radu act like animals. In the next scene, they are fine and back to fighting each other as if the fight had never stopped.
• Harlan's martial arts skill could allow him to fight Radu to some extent by using Radu's strength against him (see the fight in Who Goes Where), but once Radu gets Harlan into a clinch, Harlan should be a slimy paste on the floor. In the fight scenes, Radu gets Harlan in a clinch several times without ill effect to Harlan. In fact, the two seem evenly matched in hand-to-hand combat. (See picture at right.)

• Marcel Jeannin plays the Ruzzlian official. He has appeared in three other episodes: as the Lumanian in On the Road to Find Out, as Amirge in The Sporting Kind, and as Warlord Geoff in Homeward Bound.
• Walter E. Jones, the actor who plays Harlan, was credited as Stunt Coordinator on this episode.
• There was a line that was filmed for this episode, but it was left on the cutting room floor: Goddard, Suzee and Bova are in the jump tubes. Goddard smells the doppelganger, and says very profoundly, "The smell of evil!" Bova replies, "smells like chicken!"
• The evil twins torture the crew with recordings of Minbari zither practice, a reference to a race on Babylon 5. But the recording sounds more like a sitar, an Indian instrument popularized in America by the Beatles.
• Although this detail was not included in the episode, Miss Davenport supposedly has an identical twin sister, thus battling her evil twin came naturally to her character (information provided by ZaBaGaBe).

1. What is the doppelganger's evil plan?

• None available at this time.