Hazar on the Carpet/The Mission to Recapture Planet K

This midpoint of the series is really where VV/Dairugger distinguishes itself from LV/Golion: rather than the antagonists simply being ruthless and evil and turning on themselves, the story is more complex and layered than that, and even in the WEP translation no one is actually evil.  Greedy, misguided, and callous, but not evil.

Hazar on the Carpet

The space station is abuzz with activity.  Hazar is plotting via voiceover to destroy their support fleet, leaving the Explorer defenseless.  We cut to the Drule HQ, and Hazar orders Mongo to destroy the support fleet.  Of course, this all is catch-up from the previous episode.

Carver, on the flagship of the support fleet, sees a drule fleet coming out of a nebula up ahead.  He deplys the fleet into a defensive posture.  Mongo rallies the troops of his fleet and commences the attack as the Alliance ships from a giant cross shape.  The Alliance ships return fire. 

WEP feel a manic need to have dialogue over every moment of animation, and thus we get a blow-by-blow account of the battle.

The Explorer is in space and under repairs.  Hawkins orders the Voltron Force to deploy in response to the attack on the support fleet.  The teams each for the Stratofighter, the Aquafighter, and the Turbo Terrain Fighter.  Jeff is eager to join the battle, but Hawkins holds them back in reserve as defense for the Explorer.

The battle rages, and Mongo launches the robeast.  Carver seems to have learned a few things from the past several support fleets, and concentrates fire on it.  It takes direct hits, and Mongo's flagship itself is under fire.  This is the first epsiode, by the way, where I noticed WEP's overdubbing of sound effects--for the most part, they just use the original Dairugger SFX tracks.  This must be to make it better for stereo.

Carver and his XO discuss taking out the robeast and the flagship.  Mongo's XO tries to convince him to abandon ship.  Mongo faces his own mortality, even though we know he'll make it to the escape ships and enter exile.  Heh.  The robeast takes another hit and requests permission to fall back.  Mongo denies it, and another shot leaves it helpless in space.  And then, ladies and gentlemen, we have one of the few robeasts that is not destroyed by a blazing sword.  Carver focuses the fleet firepower on Mongo's ship. 

We smash cut to Hazar's office as he shatters a portrait of Mongo and himself.  The guard escorts him out of his office to face his court martial.  As he stalks down the hall, we get some voiceover and apparently WEP decided to make it look like he was deserting rather than, um, flying to the homweorld for his court martial.  On the shuttle that is ferrying him to planet Drule, he has flashbacks of the death--er, defeat and exile of Mongo.

The Voltron Force is patroling while the repair crews work.  Hawkins allows Jeff to expand his search area, then Carver contacts Hawkins to tell them that they've driven off the Drule attack fleet.  Hawkins tells him that the Voltron Force will meet them at the Drule base.

On the planet of the red moon, Nerok has occupied and repaired the Alliance base.  He looks forward to defeating the Voltron Force.  Marshall Keezor contacts him under some sort of an alias (or a WEP forgot his name).

The Voltron force approaches the planet and suspects a trap.  Jeff decides to stay in the subunit formations for more firepower.

Carver's fleet rendezvous with the Explorer, and he decides to meet the VF as soon as possible.

The teams fly over the outpost when AA installations open fire on them.  Nerok orders the attack to begin.  The sea team strafes and destroys the Drule capital ships that are floating in the bay.  Then they submerge and do damage from below.  This is a pretty cool sequence.  The land team fires on them from the ridge overlooking the sea, and the air team strafes them from above.  Then Nerok deploys a wacky-looking javelin-throwing robeast.  It launches a missile that lodges in Chip's craft.  The sea and land teams keep the enemy ships busy while the air team evades more missiles--until one knocks the missile lodged in Chip's ship free.  They split up and evade.  The pilot of the robeast gloats.

Oh, and then Jeff forms Voltron.  (The flyby shot looks awesome against the red moon backdrop).  Voltron forms the blazing sword, drops to the planet, and charges the robeast.  Nerok orders his ships to withdraw.  Just at that moment, Carver's fleet arrives with the Explorer.

The robeast launches missiles and fires beam weapons at ol' Volts, but he dodges them and prepares his final blow--only to be disarmed by rocket ropes!  An empty handed Voltron catches one of the missiles and throws it through the cockpit of the robeast.  Then it explodes.

Carver's fleet drives away the rest of Nerok's fleet just as the ships of another Drule fleet arrives.  Well, that's what the footage shows for a minute.  Then they all seem to leave.

The team are out of their ships and at the seashore, lamenting the shortsightedness of the Drules.

The Mission to Recapture Planet K

Well, the title sure shows a different emphasis over Voltron, doesn't it?

We get a recap of the previous episodes--The Galaxy Garrison sends a three-planet unified fleet to reinforce the Rugger Guard and retake planet K, and Drake moves to head off the allied fleet.

Date and his XO discuss the retreat of the Rugger Guard from the planet, then they come upon the Galveston fleet emerging from a nebula.  Date orders them into the Southern Cross formation (I'm gonna have to research if that particular constellation has any special significance to Japan).

Drake rallies his troops and commences the attack.  Date's fleet returns fire.  The long-distance bombardment is intense and Galveston Destroyers fall out of formation by the handfulls.

The Rugger Guard is under repairs.  Ise orders the repair teams to finish their current tasks and he deploys the Rugger teams.  They form their subunit Ruggers and move into escort positions.  Aki asks to support the support fleet, but Ise orders them to remain in formation.  Patty quotes proverbs at Aki.

The battle between the fleets rages.  Drake orders the battle machine launched.  It takes a toll on the Allied ships, but Date orders them to hold formation and to cover the right wing.  Drake's ships move in to break the formation, but they doggedly hold to it and Drake's flagship suffers damage and he loses several destroyers.  Then Roche observes that they've lost all their ships.  He orders a suicide attack on the Alliance flagship. 

Date's XO is concerned with the battle machine, but Date is confident they can outlast it.  Then they see the flagship.

Roche disputes the wisdom of a suicide tactic, but Drake takes a moment to think of how he is actually buying time for Teles.

Date's XO urges him to evade, but he takes the Galveston captain's challenge.  Even Gell, the battle machine pilot, protests Drake's decision, but then it is destroyed by the Alliance fleet.  This hardens Drake's resolve.  He reassures Roche as the bridge disinitegrates and the bridge crew scream.  Drake raises his arm in salute to Teles, and then all is flames.

Teles drops of portrait of himself with Drake as an adjutant tells him of the loss.  Teles moves out into the corridor and prepares himself to return to the homeworld while lamenting the fact that open war with Earth is now guaranteed.  Luciano is in the planning room when Teles' ship departs.  Teles broods over the endless cycle of conflict.  Then his ship enters the warp.

The Rugger teams are holding in their escort pattern as the repair crews complete their tasks.  Ise says the Rugger Guard will rendezvous with the fleet, while Aki takes the teams to retake the base on planet K.  Date then contacts him and schedules the mission to begin in 2 hours, but Aki has already begun.

On Planet K, the Galveston forces have occupied and fortified the base.  Lafitte's ships await in the harbor, and Lafitte hears news of Drake's defeat.  He's angry, but then gloats.  Luciano calls and tells him that the Church fleet has been deployed to support them and to flank the Earth forces.  Lafitte is confident that he won't need them.

Aki and Keats debate tactics.  Patty suggests they use the moon.  Meanwhile, thhe allied fleet links up with the Rugger Guard, while Ise tells Date that the attack will be timed with the moonrise.

We get an awesome (and subtle) sequence of the three rugger ships coming out of the moonrise.  They fly over the base and come under fire of the AAA batteries.  Lafitte's fleet moves to support the base from the harbor.  The base is under heavy bombardment from the land team, while Aki and Keats take their teams to confront the fleet.  Lafitte tries to keep his fleet under control as the air team pins them down.  The sea team attacks from below.

The Allied Fleet increases speed as they receive the report that the battle has commenced.

All three teams are now focusing on the fleet, and Lafitte launches the battle machine.  The battle machine has a sort of missile-atlatl weapon, and damages Mutu's machine, causing it to discharge energy.  Walter and Keats want to clean up the mechanized fleet and the Galveston flagship.  Just then, another missile knocks the first one free.  The ships separate, and the commander of the battle machine cannot lock on to so many small targets.  He decides to let them form Dairugger so he'll have a single target, and hopes that their energy reserves are reduced. 

Dairugger and the Dairugger sword are formed.  The two mecha charge each other.  Lafitte launches his remaining ships just as the Allied fleet appears.  He orders a withdrawal.  Dairugger battles the battle machine, which holds him off with rocket ropes and missiles.  Dairugger physically catches a missile and throws it through the battle machine's cockpit.  Then it explodes.

Lafitte's fleet is surrounded by the allies when Church arrives to break them free.  Date orders his fleet to refrain from pursuit.  Planetside, Aki celebrates that they've retaken the planet, but Kaga is sad that this victory seems to empty, and the planet so desolate . . .