Try This World on for Size/Battlefield of the Experimental Planet

Try This World on for Size

We open in space, with a view on the planet they found past the sea of black holes at the end of last episode.  Hawkins says this planet is promsing, but Captain Newley is looking at the wrong planet.

Malvor's flagship is waiting on the surface of a moon.  He vows to prevent the Galaxy Garrison from taking their planet.

Hawkins and Newley continue debating the planet.  Hutch, Marvin and Tagor are hanging out in the lounge.  Lisa is reading a book <3<3<3.  The Land Team is ordered to deploy.

Malvor watches the land team approach the planet.  He launches the primary interceptor force.  The dogfight quickly develops.  Cliff has the Land team regroup to preven them from being cut off from the Explorer.  Newley and Hawkins watch the battle from the bridge, and hope the Drule captain in charge of this attack isn't Malvor--he's the woist!!  They launch the rest of the Voltron Force to back up the Land team.

In the observation corridor, Dr. Page and Debbie are watching the battle, an Page laments the fighting over a dead planet.

The three teams manage to route the Drule fighters with the same battle footage as the first episode.  Sparks tells Hawkins that all the enemy forces are accounted for.  Newley and Hawkins send the Land team back to the planet and the others return to the Explorer.

Malvor's XO tells him what's developing on the planet, but he knows all this.  He decides not to strike unless it looks like the Voltron force is going to stick around.

The Air and Sea teams all rush back to the lounge to eat.  Professor Page reminds them that they're out there to explore, not to fight Hazar.  He calls the planet worthless.  Jeff protests.  They argue.  Jeff gets whiny.

The land team is just now entering the atmosphere.  They get rained and lightninged on, then land on a desert looking planet.  Again, the backgrounds look like a good chuck of the budget went into them.  The land team lands among these amazing backgrounds and drives around for a while.  Marvin says it's just like Death Valley--Hutch chimes in "without the cactus."  Then Cinda and Murdock find vegetation.  Cliff orders them to take a sample back to the Explorer, and they use a nifty robot arm.  They drive around some more, and Murdock detects metal--then he finds a rocket.  Cliff joins him (even though the animation shows him already there).  They send the image back to the Explorer, and Hawkins wonders who else has been studying there--Hazar?

Professor Page is looking at microbes when Jeff enters the lab.  Debbie says something in a terrible Cockney accent.  The plant is a species of bamboo or something.  Basically, someone is terraforming the planet using the plants to replace carbon dioxide with oxygen over the course of several thousand years.  Jeff gets whining again.  Commander Hawkins appears and tells the professor that there's an old rocket in each pocket of plant life.  Page says the terraforming must be intentional.

Hawkins orders the Land team to examine the rockets--are they recent, or is it something that was abandoned long ago?

Malvor watches them poking around the rockets, and decides it's time to drive them off.  His single ship approaches the Explorer.  Sparks warns Hawkins and Newley.

On the planet, a platoon of tanks explodes out of the ground, firing on the land team.  They return fire.  Cliff tell Hawkins that Hazar's forces have appeared.  Newley tells Hawkins to launch the other two teams.  So they launch.

Swarms of Drule fighters swoop down on the Explorer as the Land team holds off the tanks.  As the fighters are destroyed, Malvor's flagship fires on the Explorer.  Newley orders full jets.  Hawkins wants to withdraw.  Professor Page comes up to the bridge and tells them that Hazar is clearly improving the planet, and has a prior claim.  Hawkins choses to withdraw.

Malvor's XO gloats, but Malvor is unsure as the Galaxy Garrison runs from the fight.

Hawkins orders the Voltron force back, but a robeast bursts out of the ground and fires on the land team.  The other two teams arrive, strafe the beast for a bit, then form Voltron.  The robeast shoots at Voltron with lasers on its shoulders, but he kicks it and knocks it over.  As Volts approaches, the robeast grabs him by the face and stands back up.  It starts electrocuting Voltron with one claw.  Jeff orders Rocky to cut through the energy beam (yeah, I dunno either).  They throw the robeast,  Then destroy its shoulder cannon with the wing beam and cut off its electro-claw with the spinning laser blades.  Then they form blazing sword and destroy the robeast entirely.

Hawkins orders Jeff to withdraw just as the Drule flagship descends through the clouds.

Malvor's XO blathers and Malvor explains that they withdrew because they chose to respect the Drule claim to the plan.

Jeff gets annoying some more, and Professor Page tells him they made the right decision.

Battlefield of the Experimental Planet

We see the new planet found at the end of last episode.  The camera passes it to focus on the moon.  Drake's command ship is on the moon's surface.  Roche urges him to attack, but Drake takes a wait and see approach.

Ise and Asimov discuss the planet's similarity to Venus.  Ise reveals that their full mission is to map the Galaxy.

Nagano and his cronies are being all chauvenistic about the planet and Kaga simultaneously.  Then the call goes out for them to deploy.

Drake watches the survey force approach the planet and scrambles the air force that is stationed on the planet.  Walter realizes it's the same aliens as before, and they join battle.  Ise surmizes that the enemy only pretended to retreat; he decides to launch the other teams since they've come so far, they must complete the survey, enemy or no. 

Dr. Search watches the launch and says "It's futile."

The three teams together route the planet's defenders.  Ise recalls the two reinforcing teams and has the land team continue on.  Drake decides to see what happens.

The teams run back to the lounge and order drinks.  Dr. Search, drinking coffee in the corner, reminds them that their main goal is to complete the star map.  Rather than fighting, they should just change course.  Aki is angry at that.  Izumo doesn't like it either.  After Search leaves, they complain about the sciences department guys.

Walter's team is entering the atmosphere.  The upper atmosphere is cold, but it begins raining as the pass through the cloud layer.  They descend to find the temperature at 500 degrees at 1000 meters above the surface.  They begin their survey.  They find plants.  Kirigas takes a sample back to the Rugger Guard and they continue the survey.  Chukker finds a rocket.

Dr. Search is analyzing the plant sample Kirigas brought back when Aki comes barging into the lab.  It's a variety of blue-green algae that also grows on Earth.  Aki wants Search to take back his words about the worthlessness of the planet.  Dr. Search explains how the algae will eventually change the atmosphere into an Earthlike one, but it will take too long.  Search also doesn't think the algae is native.  Ise enters the lab as well.  Ise tells Search that there is a rocket embedded in the ground amidst the algae in every pocket in which it appears.  Someone is clearly attempting to terraform the planet, much as Earth experimented with Venus.

Ise orders Walter to continue his survey and the Rugger Guard moves toward the planet.  Drake sees the move, and decides that, in the end, they're just more hungry rats.  He orders the attack.

Tanks burst out of the ground and chase the land team.  Walter advises Ise that the enemy has already occupied the planet.  After some minor arguing, Ise and Asimov agree to send the remaining Rugger team members to support the Walter team.  The Rugger Guard fends off the first wave of fighters, but the flagship enters range and fires.  Asimov is in favor of a frontal assault.  Search appears on the bridge and explains that the mysterious enemy has a valid claim to the planet.  Ise convinces Asimov to withdraw.

Drake is surprised at their withdrawal.  Roche is pleased, but Drake is suspicious.  They were always more than equals in battle, but now they're pulling back.

On the planet, a battle machine emerges from the ground just as Aki leads the rest of the team to rendezvous with Walter.  They form the big rugby player to some awesome funk-inspired music.

Just as Dairugger knocks the battle machine down, Ise orders him to withdraw.  Aki is distracted by the order as the battle machine gets back up on its feet and gains the upper hand.  Aki realizes they can't withdraw without defeating the battle machine.  The battle plays out the same as in Voltron, and then Ise urges them to retreat as the enemy flagship approaches.  Dairugger flees.  Roche is all for pressing the advantage, but Drake shows he's pretty canny strategist, and surmises that they didn't leave because they were defeated, but because they understood the prior claim to this planet.

Aki wonders at the wisdom of leaving them a base for galactic conquest, but Search assures him that it was the right decision.