The Planet Trap/The Snare of the Hell Planet

The Planet Trap

The Explorer and her fleet are passing through an asteroid field with the Voltron subteams escorting.  The bridge officers report to Hawkins that all is quiet.

At the Drule HQ, ships are being deployed and Keezor's adjutant tells him that the fleets are to avoid the GG fleet.  He orders decoy missiles launched.

The Explorer bridge crew detect the missiles and Hawkins sends Air team in.  They catch sight of the missiles and separate to take them out.  Take them down.  Do their, do their stuff.  Jeff reports that the long range missiles are taken care of, and Hawkins pinpoints their launching location and sends the other teams out.  THEN WE SEE THE LAND AND SEA TEAMS IN THE LOUNGE EVEN THOUGH WE SAW THEM ALREADY IN SPACE.  Then we see the air team launch in the stock footage.  Then they form subunits.

The air team comes on more missiles being launched from the planet.

On the other side of the planet, the Drule fleet waits.  The Drule captain gloats with his XO.  The air team is demolishing the Drule base when the Land and Sea Teams arrive.  The teams separate and fan out.  The Drule captain leaves a lone ship on the planet as a sacrifice.  The sea team sees the ship and move in under its guns, destroying it.  The team speculates on the lack of a serious Drule presence.  Cliff grounds the Land Team to investigate.

On the bridge, Page calls Hawkins and tells him that the atmosphere has a low oxygen content.  The teams might be fulled by the greenery and suffer brain damage!

On the planet, Hutch and Cinda are sniffing flowers when they suddenly get brain-damaged.  Or, at least, can't breathe.  They stagger back to the ships.  Hawkins warns Jeff of the atmosphere just as Cliff gasps out that they're back in their ships.  They send them back to the Explorer on autopilot.  Only three ships manage to take off.  The Air team sees that Hutch and Cinda are immobile.  Jeff stays airborne while the others go to check on them.  Hutch and Cinda are unconscious and their autopilots aren't set.  Hawkins puts it all together, and Jeff flashes back to the abandoned base FROM FIVE MINUTES AGO.

The Explorer and the fleet make for the planet.  Cliff, Marvin, and Murdock are taken to oxygen therapy.

The Drule captain gloats and quotes the episode title.  His orders his fleet to move in.  The Explorer is entering orbit when they sight the Drule fleet--and it's the largest they've seen yet!  Drule fighters launch.  Colonel Carver asks Hawkins what his plan is.  He's against recovering the two remaining Voltron crew, but Hawkins is adamant.   The Explorer enters the atmosphere and deploys rescue ships.  Jeff keeps the air team separate and orders the sea team to form the Aquafighter.  Then the fighters arrive just as the rescue ships touch down--and the fighters ignore the Voltron force and attack the recovery ships.

We also get a cool look at the Voltron ships' targeting systems.

The Explorer finds herself caught in the atmosphere as the Drule fleet arrives and opens fire.  Allied ships take damage and the fire is returned.  The recovery ships are almost done.  The air and sea teams do their best to cover.  As the rescue ships lift off, they get gunned down by Drule fighters.  Hawkins agonizes over the situation.

Marvin, Murdock, and Cliff struggle out of bed when Professor Page is called away.

The Drule captain deploys the robeast, which is the purple one that Keezor watched practice a couple of episodes ago.  The active Voltron ships try to hold it off.  Hawkins orders the Explorer to land, and Carver urges him to abandon the rescue.  Then Cliff, Marvin, and Murdock launch.  They fire on Hutch and Cinda in an effort to awaken them.  Jeff and the others try to hold back the robeast.

Cliff urges Hutch and Cinda to awaken and flip the autopilot switch.  After some tense moments, they succeed--just as the robeast raises a claw and knocks Jeff for a loop.  Now they can unite for Voltron.  The bridge crew celebrates the formation of Voltron, and the GG fleet counterattacks.  The Drule captain mocks their efforts, but pauses a little when he sees that they now have Voltron.

The robeast jumps on Voltron, but they do some WWE-style fighting while the fleets battle it out overhead, and the Drule flagship takes direct hits.  The captains orders everyone into escapde vehicles.  Uh-huh.  Then the burning ship lunges toward the Explorer.  Voltron finishes the robeast off with the blazing sword.  Jeff sees the ship on a collision course with the Explorer and destroys it with the spinning laser blades.

After the battle, the air team looks over the fleet, splashed down, and get back into their ships and go exploring.  Then Hawkins gives us a commercial for Voltron.

The Snare of the Hell Planet

The Rugger Guard and her fleet, escort by the Air and Land Ruggers, and moving through an asteroid belt.  Ise wonders where the Glaveston fleet is.  At that moment, the Lafitte fleet departs for the Earth.  Luciano requests the status of Church's fleet.  They are ready to attack the Earth fleet, and Luciano orders the launch of decoy missiles.  (Captain Marius is in the group of captains).

The missiles are detected by theRugger Guard and the air team is sent to intercept them.  They separate, stop the missile volley, and trace them back to a Galveston base on planet L.  Ise launches the Keats team and has them link up with Walter to support Aki.  More missiles come from the planet, and the air tem blasts their way through.  On the other side of the planet, the Galveston fleet waits for the rest of the Earth fleet to enter the planet's atmosphere.

Aki and his team are strafing the base, and Aki is concerned that they've recieved no further resistance.  Captain Church, who's now bald, leaves the scout ship as a decoy for the sea team to destroy.  Which they do, quite handily. 

Aki admires the greenery of the planet, and Walter takes his team down to the surface.  The Rugger Guard approaches the planet, but Search warns Ise of the lack of oxygen on the planet.  He tells him that the Rugger teams need to keep their helmets on.  Of course, Walter's team have their helmets off and almost pass out before they make it back to their mecha.  Aki receives Ise's warning, but is to late to save Walter.  The land team switches to autopilot and they all make it back to the Rugger Guard except for Nagano and Kirgas.  Aki and his team check on them, but they're unconscious and unable to set the autopilots from the outside.  Ise orders the Rugger Guard with some escort ships down to the planet, and Date's fleet remains in orbit.  Walter, Chukker, and Izu are taken to the oxygen room.

Church commences Operation Hell.  He divides his fleets into four sections for the assault.  This is the largest fleet the Rugger crew has seen.  They launch fighters, and Date tries to talk Ise out of recovering Nagano and Kirigas.  The Rugger Guard comes on station above the grounded Ruggers and launches engineering craft to recover them.  Keats forms the Sea Rugger, and then the fighters arrive and target the engineering units.  The battle is joined.

The Rugger Guard can't provide cover for the exposed ships, and then the rest of the Glaveston fleet enters range and they're pinned down.  Church gloats a little as his fleet opens fire.  The air team covers the engineering ships and Keats takes on a large formation that's just arriving.  This new formation breaks through and takes out the engineers.  Ise agonizes over his decision as fires break out on the Rugger Guard.  The Land Team hears the battle reports in sickbay.  Dr. Search is ordered to an emergency ward, and the land team struggles out of bed.

Church orders the mobilization of the battle machine, which was hidden underground.  This is the ble and purple one Luciano watched during practice.  Ise lowers the Rugger Guard to recover the two Rugger mecha, and Date orders him to abandon the mecha until the enemy fleet is held off.  Just then, Walter, Izu and Chukker launch.  They start firing on Nagato and Kirigas.  They actually manage to awaken them enough to activate the autopilots in their machines and join the Dairugger formation.  The bridge crew celebrates.  Ise gets the Rugger Guard back into a position from which is can launch a counterattack.  Church is shocked that they've recovered the mecha and formed Dairugger.

Dairugger wrestles around with the quadrupedal battle machine as the Galaxy Garrison fleet regains ground and Church's ship is in flames.  He orders his XO to ram the Rugger Guard.  Dairugger finishes off the battle machine, and then goes to intercept Church's flaming battering ram (that's a cool shot, right there, with Dairugger looking over the battle machine wreckage and the flaming ship coming into view behind them.

After the battle, the Rugger fleet is in the bay, and the Air Team watches the sunset.  They are determined to finish the war against Galveston.  The ships take off to commence another survey.