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Season 2, Episode 6

Episode Details

Plot Summary | Ongoing Story and Character Developments
Unanswered Questions | Memorable Lines | Glitches
Trivia, Inside Jokes and References | NotePAD

Plot Summary

Our story begins when Radu wakens from a nightmare. He is convinced that he has received a psychic message from his Spung girlfriend, Elmira, warning him that the Spung are coming to destroy them. The guys think it was just a dream, and hassle Radu about it. But Radu is right: three Spung kill cruisers, led by the evil Warlord Geoff, are on their way.

Goddard returns to the Christa with the final element needed to get off the planet: a power crystal. [Note: Although Suzee talks about installing this crystal, the next shot shows her installing the prism that she retrieved in Truth Hurts. The crystal is not the same thing as the prism. Peter David explains: "Suzee needed something that was going to focus and direct the energy; Goddard was seeking out an actual energy source."] Radu is desperate to get away, still convinced that his dream was a real message from Elmira. He is driving everyone nuts with his eagerness to get off of the planet.

Just as they are completing the Christa's repairs, a UPP ship finds them, to bring them home. Everyone is excited. But Radu is suspicious that it may be a Spung trap.

Everybody goes out to have a last look at the planet. They begin to realize that they will miss the experiences they have been having, and the family feeling they have developed.

Radu is still convinced that his dream is a reality. He and Harlan convince Suzee to enter Radu's mind and learn the truth. She sees that Radu has experienced a true vision, and proves it to the others.

They hurry to get off the planet, but the Christa is tied down by the strangling vines. Commander Goddard is injured while he and Radu are trying to remove the vines.

They manage to get off the planet, but the Spung are waiting for them in space, with frag torpedoes at the ready. Harlan decides to play chicken with the Spung. He runs right between them. The Spung fire at the Christa and end up hitting each other instead. The crew has destroyed all three Spung ships without firing a shot.

In the end, the crew admit that they were feeling a little ambivalent about going home. They've enjoyed their experiences and the family feeling they've developed.

Ongoing Story and Character Developments

  • The planet where the Christa has crashed is known, at least to the Spung, as Kareesh 9 (sp?)
  • The crew of the Christa come from the UPP - United Populated Planets.
  • Suzee does not like to enter her friends' minds, even if they consent, because it is an invasion of privacy and they might get mad at her later.
  • We see a hint of Davenport's feelings for the commander, at the end of the episode, when she places her hand on the end of his stasis chamber.

Memorable Lines

Goddard: What are you coming for?
Davenport: Moral support.
[later]
Davenport: It's too late!!! We're all going to die!!!
Radu: Thanks for the moral support.

Harlan: Thelma, is the commander on the ship?
Thelma: Actually, the ship is on the commander.

Goddard: Leave me! That's an order!
Radu: No way, sir.
Goddard: Never could follow an order…

Harlan: I'm tired of running from the Spung. This time, they're going to know they've been in a fight.
Bova: Oh, yeah, they'll be scraping us off their windshields saying, "some fight, huh?"

Radu: Well, we're not getting rescued, but we're still together. Uh, more like stuck together.

Glitches

  • Politically Incorrect: Rosie asks Goddard what the UPP is. If Rosie was attending the Starcademy, and the Starcademy only creates cadets from people who are members of the UPP, Rosie should already know who the UPP is.
  • CGI (Computer Generated Image) Error: When the Spung kill cruiser explodes, the debris from the explosion scatters in two dimensions (width and height). It should scatter in three dimensions (width, height, and depth).

Trivia, Inside Jokes and References

  • The title of the episode is a Simon and Garfunkel song.
  • The episode is written by Valri Bromfield, the series' story editor.
  • Warlord Geoff is played by Marcel Jeannin, who has played three other characters in the series: the Lumanian in On the Road to Find Out, Amirge the hunter in The Sporting Kind, and the inspector in The Trouble with Doubles.
  • The Stardog confirmation code given by the Spung is 800-325-3535, the reservations phone number for the ITT Sheraton hotel chain. This appears to be intentional, because the Spung pause in the proper places for a phone number.
  • The chair that Suzee sits in when she is testing her repairs has compact discs (CDs) attached to the side, near her head.

Unanswered Questions

  1. How is Radu able to receive a psychic message from Elmira?
  2. How did the Spung find the Christa?

NotePAD
(Notes from co-creator Peter A. David)

  • None available at this time.

Episode Details provided by Tracey Rich.
This page was last updated on July 20, 1997.