Captain Newley Returns/The New Allied Fleet to the Rescue

Captain Newley Returns

The Explorer and her remaining support fleet are being led on new exploration by the Air Team in the Stratofighter.  Jeff has a brief flashback to Colonel Carver sacrificing himsel--er, his ship to allow their escape.  Hawkins calls the Air Team back and he tells the team leads about a new peace-keeping fleet.  And their old friend Captain Newley is in charge.

On the Drule homeworld, ruined buildings rust on the parched surface.  The council and the emperor discuss the new robeast.  Durax wants planet Earth, but the emperor wants it for himself.  Throk promises the planet Argus for Durax.  Zeppo orders Throk to contact Mozak.  Um, who ARE all these people?!

The Explorer approaches an Earthlike planet.  Hawkins sends the teams out to do their survey.  They form the subunits to check things out. 

Lozan's fleet is exploring the planet already.  Lozan's XO tells him that the voltron Force is approaching.  His fleet conceals itself in the craterlake inside of a volcano.  Tanks on the gound disappear into caves.

Waves crash against cliffs as the Voltron force arrives.  Jeff sends them out on their usual assignments.  They're all excited because of how like Earth this planet is.  Lozan decides to wait until the Earth fleet is at ease to attack.  The ships splash down in a bay while the Voltron force patrols overhead.  Jeff is confident, but he separates his team to keep guard.  Lozan and his XO discuss the power of the new robeast.  Cliff and some of the crew convince Hawkins to allow them to have some R & R on the planet surface, after some initial resistance.  Crick supports Cliff's idea, and Hawkins relents.

Crewmembers are on the beach, having a cookout, playing duitar, and even spear fishing.  The Voltron force members are all on guard on foot while the Air team patrols orbit.  Crick and Cinda are having premonitions.  They go off by themselves to investigate.  That never ends badly.  Good thing this is sci-fi and not a slasher film.

Drule troop carriers unload troops and locate the GG crews.  Lozan has jammed communications.  Crick and Cinda see the Drule soldiers and start shooting at them.  Lozan launches all ships as a patrol craft returns fire on Crick and Cinda.  Hawkins recalls the crew on the beach.  Crick and Cinda are pinned down.  The crewmembers take boats and helicopters back to the ships as the Air Team returns to the Explorer's airspace.  Cliff tells Hawkins that Crick and Cinda are missing.  The support fleet ships lift off, but Hawkins holds them back for the missing members.  Cliff apologizes, but Hawkins tells him to help Jeff gaurd the ship.

Crick and Cinda are driven to a cliff, and just dive in to reach the Explorer.  The Drule and GG fleets engage each other, and the support fleet is taking heavy losses.  Lozan deploys the robeast--and this one looks totally bad-ass.  Like a later Zeon mobile suit with a meat cleaver instead of a right hand, and lasers out of its left fingers.  It harries the individual Voltron mecha.

A shuttle picks up Crick and Cinda and ferries them back to the Explorer.  The Explorer launches and Crick and Cinda rejoin their teammates.  The robeast is putting out a high volume of fire as the team is reunited and they form Voltron.  Volts opens up the battle by kicking the robeast.  It gets back up and latches on to him with its laser tentacles, and the two crash into the ocean.

Lozan's fleet is finishing off the Explorer's support fleet, leaving only the big ship to fend for itself.  The battle rages on amidst flaming wreckage from both sides.  Lozan has the Explorer in his sights.

Underwater, the robeast is electrocuting Voltron as the sun rises.  Lozan's fleet moves in on the Exlporer, and Hawkins muses about surrender.  Just then, a volley hits Lozan's fleet, destroying his flagship among others.  A new fleet appears, and Newley's in command.  He tells Hawkins that they start tracking the Explorer when their communications were jammed.  Hawkins tells Voltron the tide has turned.  Jeff flips the robeast.  It fires at them, and they escape from the ocean and hit it with the electro thermoblast, solar combat spears, and spinning laser blades.  Finally, its time for the blazing sword.  The robeast is something of a swordsman and puts up a fight before the inevitable.  Cliff again apologizes for just wanting to have fun.  Hawkins is thankful that Newley is on the job, and we get a shot of Newley's flagship, his fleet and the Explorer splash down.

The fleet floats in the ocean, and the Explorer's fleet is on standby.  By standby, I mean stock footage.

The New Allied Fleet to the Rescue

After the ordeal with the Galveston frontline base, the fleet is now back to it's old exploratory schedule.  Aki and the air team fly ahead of the Rugger Guard and the remaining support fleet.  Aki has some flashbacks that serve as an episode recap.  Aki determines that Date's sacrifice will no tbe in vain.  Then he's recalled to Ise office.  Dewa has contacted him to tell him that a new tri-planetary alliance fleet is being sent to support them.  Dick Asimov is in command, and the team is confident.  Ise says the plan is to rendezvous in 20 hours.

On the Galveston homeworld, the surface is parched and desolate.  Emperor Corsair asks what the movements of the Earth force seem to be.  Caponero says they've moved into the area covered by Teles' survey team.  Council member Ventura wants to contact Teles, but he is overrulled.  Corsair charges Caponero with assembling a new attack force.

The Rugger Guard comes upon a minor planet, and Ise deploys the Ruggers in their subunits to survey it.

On the planet, Glaveston land forces are analyzing the soil when the fleet flagship detects the Ruggers.  The captain orders the survey suspended and has the fleet hide in the crater lake of a nearby volcano, while the tanks hide in caverns. 

The Ruggers each take their own environment and we hear some leftover Hawaii 5-O music.  At least, I don't think we've ever heard it before.  The air team flies right over the volcano where Captain Blanc is hiding, but don't detect them.  Aki reports back to Ise, and he decides to land the fleet until Asimov's group arrive.  The Ruggers regroup and designate a landing zone.  The fleet splashes down and begins repairs.  Aki's team is detailed to patrol in orbit, while the Sea and Land teams are recalled.  Blanc sends scouts out to watch the Earth fleet.

Some crew members, with Walter's support, peitition Ise to allow shore leave, especially after the battle at the Galveston frontline base.  Keats joins in, too, in favor of a short break to boost morale.  He relents, and crewmembers are ashore in tents around a campfire.  One has a guitar, one looks at a picture of his wife and child, and one is even spear fishing.  The Sea and Land teams are patrolling on foot with their sidearms.  The air team remains on patrol, with nothing to report.

Water crashes at the foot of a cliff (this is getting to be a very, VERY common image in this show) and Keats and Kirigas have strange feelings about this place . . .

A scout craft carrying Galveston troops stops on the cliff overlooking the Earth fleet, and they describe the fleet composition as one large ship (the Rugger Guard), 7 battleships, 5 destroyers, and 2 supply ships.  It's pretty close in size to Blanc's fleet.  Blanc decides against calling Teles for reinforcement.  The scouts report back that the enemy is resting just as Keats and Kirigas start shooting at them.  Keats reports this back to Ise just as the enemy ships start lifting off.  Keats and Kirigas flee from the Galveston infantry as Blanc's ships clear the volcano.  The crew take boats and helicopters back to the ships as Aki and his team return.  Walter tells Ise that Keats and Kirigas haven't returned.  The rest of the fleet is aloft, but the Rugger Guard will stay behind for the missing pilots while the remainder of the teams cover the Guard.

Keats and Kirigas come to a cliff, and call for pickup just as soldiers come up on them from behind.  They do some cliff-diving.

The beleagered support fleet engages Blanc's vanguard fighters and take losses.  Blanc deploys the Battle Attacker, which is an upgraded battle machine.  This one is bigger, more anthropomorphic, looks like it has a bigger crew, and more heavily armed.  As the battle attacker chases the team, Keats and Kirigas are picked up in the ocean by a shuttle.  The Rugger Guard lifts and Keats and Kirigas launches to rejoin their teams.  Ise takes the Rugger Guard to fight with the fleet and leaves the battle attacker to Dairugger.  Keats and Kirigas return and the battle attacker is faced with the big guy. 

Dairugger kicks the enemy mecha, but gets entangled in its tentacles and the two crash into the sea.  The enemy fleet is whittling the Rugger Guard's escorts down one by one, though not without taking their own losses.  Soon it's just the Rugger Gaurd caught between two elements of Blanc's fleet.

Underwater, the battle atacker is electrocuted Dairugger.  The sun rises as the Rugger Guard is surrounded.  Ise orders a final run at the enemy flagship, when beam weapons from overhead start wiping the field clear of Galveston ships.  It's Asimov and the new alliance fleet.  Asimov calls Ise and says he felt something was urging him to move faster, maybe Date's spirit.  Blanc is perplexed as to how the Earth force got reinforcements so quickly.  Then he dies.

Underwater, Aki is emboldened by the arrival of the new forces, and breaks away from the battle attacker.  The surface, and on land hit the machine with the miracle beam, take off the left hand with spears, removes the tentacles with the spin cutters, then fights it with swords briefly before destroying it.

Walter apologizes for insisting on shore leave, but Ise has the responsibility is his, and they should thank Asimov for arriving just in time.  The Rugger Guard and the allied fleet spashdown.

We've gotten glimpses of the new designs for the Galveston fleet, and now we see the new Alliance ships.  This is sort of a mid-season change-up, now that the big bad for the first half has been destroyed.  They didn't really do this in Golion--unless you consider the passing of Sadak and arrival of Sincline, but that was more like finalizing the main cast rather than a turning point.  Maybe Honerva's development of the mechabeastmen is a closer analogue?