Great Stone Space Faces
The Explorer and her fleet move through space. Hawkins contacts Galaxy Garrison and informs them that he will inform them. Of their progress. Crick is on the bridge with him, and says planet Neb is up ahead. In the lounge, Jeff is displeased; Neb is right in the Drule's territory. Crick buries himself in the part as he orders the teams to deploy. The teams launch and combine into their subunits.
In the Drule HQ, an officer tells Hazar that the Explorer has enter Neb's orbit. Hazar asks where Nerok is, and is told that he is in pursuit. Angry, Hazar goes to his office. His father, Viceroy Mozak calls him and expresses concern. Hazar tells him about the lack of usable planets. Mozak tells him that an errant sun is turning the homeworld into a desert. Errant, transient sun? What?! There's a cool shot of Hazar's statues seemingly mocking him. The art and direction here are all really good. Hazar's facial expressions are amazingly illustrative.
Surveying the planet, Jeff sees that the surface seems to be sinking into the sea. Then we get some dumb dialogue before Lisa in the aquafighter spots ruins of an advanced city--all submerged. The land team is exploring and comes upon stone statue faces looking out to sea. The teams all gather around the stone faces and Jeff compares them to Easter Island. We get an awesome shot of the fleet coming in for a landing over the statues.
On the bridge, GG sends word that a Drule empire attack fleet is entering the area. Hawkins then has a flashback of planet Orus, that blew up without any warning. And we see the PLANET FROM THE EARLIEST EPISODES THAT BLEW UP WITH PLENTY OF FUCKING WARNING!!!
Nerok is looking over his robeast, apparently rescued from the last episode, as it's being repaired. The usual WEP stupid dialogue about "Nyahhh--We'll get those nasty Earthling this time--Nyahhhh!" and he stalks out of the repair bay.
Professor Page is analyzing the data. Hawkins sends them out to do more exploring. And tells him to watch out for earthquakes. And the Drules. He hops out of his ship and passes the word on to the rest of the team. I guess they're sticking around to, um, rescue any potential Nebbians? WTF, WEP?!
Nerok is talking to Gorvan from the last episode, who has a totally differne episode. And I'm pretty sure that's not what they're REALLY saying. Then Nerok's XO suggests "monsters of Neb." Y'know, like Robeasts.
Tents have been pitched by the shore, and Lisa is out on her own admiring the red moon, when Jeff approaches. And she says she couldn't sleep wondering what happened to the people. Jeff proves that he completely misunderstands archaeology. Then Lisa awkward leaves. But we get an awesome transition of a sunrise near a cliff with crashing waves with the ships suddenly flying by.
Nerok tries to barge in on Hazar, but a guard stops him, so Nerok has him pass on the message that they can't use Neb, and he's just going to destroy the Voltron force.
The Voltron force is exploring the planet. The land team sees more stone heads, and the sea team comes on the wreckage of a spaceport. Crick calls the rest of them in. Some of the spaceport is still unsubmerged. The rest of the teams gather, and they check out the spaceport wreckage. They speculate about the Nebbians, and how this means they may have manage a mass exodus. As they're searching among the ruins, Lisa finds a painting of the red moon. She shows it to Crick. Then an earthquake starts and a nearby tower begins to fall. Crick starts running for the ships, but Lisa pauses to recover the painting. A robeast emerges and chases the two of them.
Jeff and Cliff launch and provide cover for Crick and Lisa while the sea team goes in to pick them up. We get our first view of the robeast pilots (and the dialogue makes it clear for the censors that the pilots are robots) and the robeast knocks Lisa and Crick off their feet with an energy beam. The air and land teams knock the robeast off its feet, allowing the aquafighter to pick up the errant team members. Somehow Lisa and Crick get to their proper cockpits, and the teams unite to form Voltron. The Robeast captain yells "NOOOO!"
Voltron decks the robeast, and then gets hit by--YES!!! Rockect ropes are back. We get the usual formula. Voltron knocked down. Robeast grabs and starts roasting him with microwaves. They break loose with secondary weapons (Solar combat spears, here) and then form the blazing sword and the robeast pilots have a very bad day.
The sun is now setting, and the moonrise is reflected in the water. We then cut to an old lounge scene where Jeff goes to talk to Hawkins and gets mistaken for the cook and Jeff tries to convince him to try to save the planet. Then we cut to Cinda, Lisa, and Ginger watching the moon rise. They speculate on the fate of the inhabitants. And we get a commercial for Voltron.
Red Moon Rising
The combined fleets are moving through space searching for planet J. Ise and Keats on the bridge are watching for signs of the planet. In the lounge, Aki has no appetite while Kai stuffs himself. Finally, the bridge crew find the planet, and Keats volunteers to start the survey. The crew watch the planet approach, then get Keats' order to scramble. They launch and form their subunits.
At the Galveston frontline base, Teles watches the Earth survey force approach the planet, and orders that Lafitte is not to interfere. Then he orders that his father be contacted. Teles enters his office and closes his eyes, resting while the call is put through. His father, the Home Secretary, calls him and tells him that he's aware of what's going on. The most important thing is to find a new planet, and he shows Teles the waste that is the surface of the homeworld. He shows him images of starving citizens.
Teles has a minor meltdown, and his father warns him that certain voices have been raises suggesting that they simply take Earth. Both Teles and his father know that it would result in a terrible war with no guarantee for success. Tormenting himself, he goes to the observation windows.
The Rugger teams are surveying the planet. The western continent seems sunken. The sea team comes across the ruins of an advanced city. The land team finds massive stone heads arranged to look out into the sea. The teams assemble and speculate about the statues and the fate of the planet's inhabitants. Then the fleet splashes down. They receive orders from Earth to build a frontline base on this planet as quickly as possible. The bridge crew debate the idea briefly, and Ise thinks back to the destruction of Achilles. Ise decides to perform research before deciding to remain on the planet.
Lafitte's fleet is hiding behind the red moon. He is looking over the repairs of his battle machine. His XO tells him that Teles has warned him off from engaging the Earth fleet. Lafitte dismisses the warning and tells the XO to contact Marius' fleet and have them meet.
Dr. Search presents his findings to Ise. The Western continent is sinking, but there is potential that there are inhabitants living more inland. Ise decides to continue research while they build a base. Everyone is concerned about Galveston.
Lafitte is yelling at Marius, who is keeping to the survey schedule. Lafitte's XO suggest they attack the survey force.
Aki and Haruka have a moment. Aki tells her that they may encounter intelligent life the next day. Then we get that awesome transition with the cliff, the splashing waves, the rising sun, and the ships.
Lafitte tries to get into Teles' office to demand they attack the Earth survey force, but he is kept out. Teles scowls.
The team continues searching, and the land team finds more giant heads in the jungle. Kirigas speculates that they have a shamanic religion. The sea team finds the ruins of space ships, just outside a massive, ancient spaceport. The air team gets no response to hails, and then Keats summons him to the spaceport location. The teams assemble at the ruins.
Keats and Kaga find a painting of the red moon. Then a battle machine erupts out of the ruins.
So, this is the battle machine that they damaged during the whirlwind last episode, and the one we saw being repaired in Lafitte's flagship earlier. How'd it get underground on this planet?! Oh well.
Also--do the ships actually have little access tubes that let you enter any ship and get to the cockput of any other ship in their combined forms? Huh.
The battle machine's days are number as they form Dairugger and punch it. And then, ROCKET ROPES! Walter tells Aki to use the Dairugger Lance and stab it in the eye. That actually penetrates the cockpit of the battle machine and disables it. allowing them to form the sword and finish it.
The cockpits of the battle machines are pretty big; in fact, they look more like the bridges of the Galveston capital ships.
Kirigas, Patty, and Kaga are on the flight deck, looking at the red moon and speculating on the fate of the people who once lived here.
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