No, Who's on Second/Orders for Asimov's Return

No, Who's on Second

Yeah, I dunno who's making up the titles for these ones.

Jeff has the air team form the stratofighter.  We get a slightly extended sequence.  Crick and Cliff then follow suit with the Aquafighter and Turbo Terrain Fighter, again with slightly extended sequences.  This is some sort of training exercise.  Pleased with their improvement (2 seconds faster than the last time), Jeff has them separate and return to the Explorer.

At Drule headquarters, the Captain of the Guard arrives and tells them that Nerok is itchin' for a fight.  Hazar has him imprisoned (because they forgot they imprisoned him last episode).  They do some discussion of Hazar's new plan, and then a ship emerges from the "time warp" and docks.  Rasputin--er, Chancellor Mordox emerges.  In the conference room, Hazar and the other generals meet him and Hazar tells him his plan cannot fail.

The Explorer is flying with its escort fleet.  Commodore Steele calls the Explorer and announces that Captain Newley is being reassigned to GGHQ.  That's all he can tell him, it's top secret.  Hawkins congratulates him.  Meanwhile, Cliff is walking around reading a letter he, um, has already wriiten and is getting ready to . . . send?  And then Ginger warns him that he's about to walk into a wall.  He puts the envelope into some sort of mail chute.  Then he's paged along with Jeff and Crick to meet in Newley's quarters.  In Newley's office, Hawkins announced that Newley is to be transferred.  The team leaders all express their thanks for being able to work with him.  Newley also announces that the three of them will be co-captains, assisting Hawkins on the bridge. 

At Drule headquarters, Chancellor Mordox wants to hear Hazar's plan about foolong the Alliance with a false peace treaty.  He reveals that their home planet is soon to be destroyed, and the Drules will roam the universe like gypsies.  Oh, yeah, and he wants Nerok to be released so that they can use his plan over Hazar's.  He then hands him a book that describes the current condition of the homeworld and asks him why he's so gloomy.  As the Chancellor's shuttle takes off, Hazar watches, daydreaming about real peace with the Alliance.  Hazar and Mongo talk about making the Alliance believe they want peace.

In the Explorer lounge, the teams and other crewmembers sing for Newley.  GAG.  He tells them that he's confident that the work they've started together will be finished by the best crew in the universe.  Ginger and Cliff present him with a starmap.  Jeff announces that his shuttle has arrived.  The shuttle launches and docks with the ship detailed to return to Earth.  Everyone salutes.  Newley has flashbacks, um, of Hawkins punching Shannon and Murdock sexually assaulting Cinda.  Then Hawkins announces that they're all back on normal duty.  Jeff has forgotten that he's first due to assist Hawkins.  Hawkins scolds him for being late, and then tells him to take the seat next to him.  Jeff has a mild freakout over it. 

Mongo narrates a video of Voltron defeating the Invid robeast from the worm planet, and footage of him fighting the other Invid robeast on the planet with bat ruins.  Nerok tells him to shut the film down, and tells them that they're acting all weak, trying to lull them into false sense of security.  Nerok wants them to attack, attack, attack!  Mongo leaves..  Nerok mocks him.  Zabar gives Nerok a little bit of his own medicine.

Mongo arrives in Hazar's office, and is troubled that Nerok wants nothing but war.  Hazar shows him that the homeworld may explode in the next solar cycle.

The Explorer and its ships are approaching a planet and detect a Drule fleet, and a message the Hazar wants peace.  Jeff starts to scramble the teams, but Hawkins countermands him.  Hilarity ensues.

The XO of the Drule captain approaches him and tells him that the Explorer is ahead.  He is clearly a different (younger) captain, but he addresses him as Chancellor Mordox.  There's a whole lot of dumb dialogue about Nerok and Mordox plotting for a battle.  Nerok launches from the base, and Hazar is angered.  Nerok mocks him and hangs up. 

The Explorer bridge crew is tense as the Drule fleet gets closer.  Hawkins tells Jeff to relax.  Then Sparks picks up an internal signal--the Drule fleets are arguing amongst themselves.  Hawkins decides to just leave.

We get a replay of the lounge scene and dumb dialogue as filler.

Orders for Asimov's Return

The Rugger teams are practicing.  Each team forms its subunit, with Aki watching the stopwatch.  Once they finish training, they return to the Rugger Guard.

After the title card, we get a slow zoom in to a nebula--one that contains the Galveston frontline base.  Inside the base, the captain of the guard reports to Teles that Lafitte demands to see him--Lafitte who is imprisoned for taking part in Barataria's revolt.  Teles tries to steer the conversation back to future planetary surveys, but is interrupted by a high-speed courier from the homeworld security forces.  The ship docks and an important-looking guy is escorted to the Planning Room.  He introduces himself as Gigolone, a military police captain sent on orders from Supreme commander Al Caponero.

In the Rugger fleet, Asimov is notified by Supreme Commander Dewa that he is relieved of command of the Rugger Guard--to return to GG HQ and be his assistant.  Walter is wandering through the halls of the Rugger Guard, writing a letter to his parents.  He apparently is going to be a, um, member of the Magic Castle in Hollywood when he finishes his GG service.  Patty saves him from walking into a wall, and he mails his letter just before he is called to Asimov's office.  Asimov and Ise tell the three team leaders that Asimov is being recalled to Earth.  Ise has been promoted to captain of the entire expedition, and the three team leaders will serve on the bridge in three teams.  Oh, and there's be a farewell party.

At the Galveston frontine base, Teles is trying to make his case for a joint survey force to Gigolone, who does not like it.  Not at all.  Too much of a security risk.  Oh, and the homeworld knows all about the insurrection, and Caponero wants the conspirators to be released and reinstated to their positions.  He also threatens Teles' father, and hands him a mighty tome detailing the situation on the homeworld.  Teles turns to a window to watch the security officer leave.  Drake is upset and demands to know who leaked about the uprising.  Teles orders him to release Lafitte and put him in charge of planetary exploration--that will keep the eyes of the homeworld away from them, while Teles has Drake continue to pursue peaceful relations with Earth.

On the Rugger Guard, Asimov, Ise, and Hagi are honored by the teams and other crew members singing the show's theme song.  Asimov bids them all farewell, and Walter and Patty present him with a copy of the starmap they have thus far compiled.  Then the three command officers leave and Asimov takes a shuttle to the ship that will return him to Earth.  We get some flashbacks of the Rugger teams' penchant for sexual harassment as well as a gun salute to the departing captain.  The Rugger Guard and the Hagi Fleet deploy and Aki realizes he's going to be late to the bridge.  Ise scolds him when he gets there, and then gives him the XO's station. 

We get a hard cut to footage of Dairugger defeating an Invid-style battle machine--it turns out to be footage Lafitte is showing the assembled captains, but the sudden shift is pretty effective.  Lafitte is offended by Dairugger's fighting style.  And the battle machine's piloting skills are lacking.  Gramont seems to be on Teles' side when it comes to joint surveys, but Lafitte is adamant that they defeat the Earth forces.  Drake gets up and tells him that he should be training the pilots to survey planets, not to fight.  Lafitte looks to the others for support, but Gramont still supports Teles.

Drake enters Teles' office, and they discuss his policy toward Earth.  Teles points to the report from Captain Gigolone.  The crisis on the homeword has worsened by 20 percent.

The Rugger fleet is heading towards the next star system when they make rader contact with a small fleet.  Aki freaks out and orders the Rugger teams to their ships, but Ise countermands the order and confuses everyone.  Hilarity ensues. 

In the approaching Galveston fleet, Captain Marius hjust realizes that the Earth fleet is also approach their target planet.  Marius accepts that Teles says thet should trust the Earth forces, and apprises HQ.  Aki and Ise offer a joint survey opportunity.  Teles and Drake agree to it, but Lafitte scrambles his fleet and mocks Teles, offering to escort Marius' five ships.  Just in case. 

On the Rugger Guard bridge, Aki gets tense waiting for a response.  The Galveston fleet then comes back with acceptance for the joint survey.  However, Lafitte is en route and up to no good.