16 Lamia Kidnapped

"Lamia is to dominate the universe using her great power in the year 3000"

Episode 16: Lamia Kidnapped
UK Video: Space Quest for F-01
US Video: Volume 6: Lost in Space
DVD: Star Fleet - The Complete Series - Disc 3

Termoid soldiers board X-Bomber but are resisted by the recovering Hercules & Shiro. PPA uses a built in laser to drive the Termoids out of sickbay. Lamia is captured trying to escape and Kirara is injured as the Termoids use a grenade to cover their escape with their prisoner. Lamia is taken to the battlecruiser where Commander Makara has her imprisoned. The Battlecruiser lays mines which drift towards the planet as it retreats. Captain Halley calls X-Bomber and comes to meet them on Malphane. He explains that Lamia is F-01 and is a princess from the planet Esper. At her birth it was foretold that she would possess a tremendous power in the year 3000. The Imperial Alliance then attacked Esper to try to seize F-01 and the elders of the planet fled. Hearing of the research institute on Mars they sent Lamia there to be cared for by humans. Doctor Benn introduces Shiro to Halley as the son of the man who found Lamia. Halley can't join them in fighting the Alliance as he cannot expose his protectors in the Collinian Star Cluster to the Alliance. Halley explains that he and Lamia are to become one so he can guide her. He explains how the pendant has awoken some of Lamia's powers and communicates with her discovering she is in the Aurelian rainbow coloured star cluster, but the Alliance attach her to the Laser Memory Dissimilator to contain her powers. X-Bomber tries to trace her location as the Skull leaves for safety. X-Bomber launches from Malphane but find themselves obstructed by the mine field which further damages the ship. They attempt to detonate the mines using Laser Torpedoes but the damage proved to much for the ship causing it to crash onto Malphane again....

Good episode: a gun battle in X-Bomber to open with, some answers in the middle, a fab space sequence with the minefield at the end and another wonderful crash sequence. The answers we get from Halley fill in a lot of the gaps in Lamia's past and there's a particularly interesting reaction from Halley when he's told Shiro is the son of the man that found Lamia: "So you're the one...." As well as knowing everything about Lamia, Halley would seem to know something about Shiro too.....

Captain Orion is a lecherous so and so in this episode when confronted with Lamia "what a pretty little thing, how old are you child?" Ugh.... Lamia is attached to the Laser Memory Dissimilator to limit her powers, last seen being used to interrogate Captain Carter in episode 2.

We get to see X-Bomber's yellow space suits again, hanging in the airlock as the Termoid soldiers come aboard. The weapon used to destroy some of the mines needs some comment: it's described as Laser Torpedoes, and looks a lot like the Imperial Alliance Laser Torpedo effect. However where as previously (episode 8) X-Bomber's Laser Torpedoes were four converging blasts from the wing tips here it's a pair of blasts from the top of the neck, previously the location of the blue beam cannons seen in episode 4.

This episode was the first one on US Video Volume 6: Lost in Space and oh look Lamia's been kidnapped! That's the clincher to the arguement I've been highlighting for the last few episodes: the covers and titles for volume 6 (which seem to show a scene from episode 14, on volume 5) and Volume 5: Kidnapped have been accidentally swapped in pre production!. A brief excerpt from this episode, the meeting between X-Bomber's crew and Captain Halley was used on the UK compilation video tape Space Quest for F-01 and the full episode is on Star Fleet - The Complete Series - Disc 3 where a brief snippet of the program's ad cap can be heard at 8:44 into the episode. Sadly the Ad Caps don't appear in full elsewhere on the DVD. I'll be returning to what else is missing from the DVDs at a later stage....

15 X-Bomber Dies on Planet Malphane!

"We must take the girl Lamia away from X-Bomber somehow"

Episode 15: X-Bomber Dies on Planet Malphane!
UK Video: -
US Video: Volume 5: Kidnapped
DVD: Star Fleet - The Complete Series - Disc 3

Lamia is contacted by Halley telepathically over the vast distance of space. Her response is detected by X-Bomber's crew and she insists that they should make for a planet which Halley is on. The Imperial Alliance believe they have tracked the Skull to the Collusion Cluster and decide to intercept X-Bomber on it's way. Lee notices the differences in Lamia but Hercules dismisses it as her being distressed by her encounter with the Skull. Shiro believes the beam fired at Lamia has triggered her powers and Doctor Benn agrees. Lamia detects the Alliance warship approaching but Hercules dismisses her concerns and storms out. After he leaves the Battlecruiser is detected by X-Bomber's instruments but Hercules refuses to return to the bridge. The ship is shaken by the Alliance's assault and the Oxygen system severely damaged causing the crew to collapse. PPA activates the auxiliary system but finds that's damaged too and attempts to repair it. Lamia & Kirara come to the bridge and find the unconscious crew. Captain Halley contacts her and tells her to set a course for the planet Malphane. Lamia manages to land X-Bomber by herself but Commander Makara demands her surrender as the Imperial Alliance battlecruiser traps them. PPA refuses to let her surrender and gets her to help treat the crew. When Lamia does not surrender Makara has fighters attack X-Bomber. Lamia and Kirara operate the turret lasers and repel the fighters. Makara recalls the remaining fighters and has the carriers land ground vehicles crewed by Termoids who start cutting their way through X-Bomber's hull....

Lamia's sudden telepathic powers emerge from nowhere but Shiro's assumption that they've been triggered by the energy blast fired at the Lamia's pendant the previous episode would seem correct. Hercules is especially sceptical here, but there's little to explain quite why especially as he has seen the lengths the Alliance have gone to to seize Lamia in previous episodes.

Weapons: turret lasers for the 7th time, but it's the first time we see them used by someone other than Shiro & Hercules as Lamia & Kirara use them. This isn't the last time we'll see Kirara's gunnery skills either.

I have to ask how is Lamia breathing OK in such a thin atmosphere in X-Bomber? Is this another change as a result of the exposure to the ray Halley fired at her.

Barry Hercules is voiced by actor Constantine Gregory. He's not got many roles you'll have seen him in, the most prominent being as the Computer Store Manager in James Bond: Goldeneye. He was also in CI5: The New Professionals, Space Race & Spooks. I'm not 100% sure but I believe he also provides Kirara's grunting noises for Star Fleet.

This episode's Japanese title is X-Bomber Dies on Planet M! None of the episode appears on the UK Compilation tapes but it is on the US Video Volume 5: Kidnapped which we've got to the end of without seeing a kidnapping.....

14 Lamia, Girl Of Destiny

"If one of you wears the special token have that person transferred to our ship"

Episode 14: Lamia, Girl Of Destiny
UK Video: Space Quest for F-01
US Video: Volume 5: Kidnapped
DVD: Star Fleet - The Complete Series - Disc 3

X-Bomber searches for the Skull, but Shiro is showing remorse for killing Captain Carter. The Imperial Alliance find the Skull but don't attack, waiting for X-Bomber. The Skull contacts X-Bomber asking if one of them wears the special token that they should be transferred to the Skull. Doctor Benn, suspecting another trap, refuses. Lamia shows Shiro how her pendant resists a laser and persuades him to take her to the Skull using a space chopper. X-Bomber follows at a distance, with Hercules angry that Shiro has risked Lamia's life. The Alliance sights the space shuttle and prepares to launch a mission to capture Lamia. Lamia wonders if the Skull was the ship that took her to Mars as they find the ship hanging there in space as the Cruiser launches three drone craft carriers. Shiro & Lamia go the the Skull where they are greeted by it's commander Captain Halley who fires a weapon at Lamia's pendant. The pendant absorbs the energy into her body. She dons a spacesuit to transfer to the Skull but Imperial Fighters attack and she is knocked into space. Shiro pursues her while Halley opens fire on the fighters. Orion orders the Skull destroyed. Shiro rescues Lamia from fighter that has seized her but more pursue them and they are only saved when Lee arrives in Leg track and destroys the fighters. Lamia & Shiro return to X-Bomber and Shiro & Lamia are taken to sickbay. X-Bomber transfers power to it's shields and uses the main laser blast to destroy the fighters, and then attacks the carriers with only Captain Orion's escaping. Lee return to X-Bomber as Hercules punches Shiro for risking Lamia's life. In Sickbay Lamia dreams of Halley and hears him telling her not to die, before waking to see Shiro who is bundled out of sickbay by Kirara.

Finally after nine episode pursuing it (OK 7 really) X-Bomber catches up with the Skull. Twice since the initial contact the Skull has fled from X-Bomber and they're rather cautious here too as is X-Bomber having been tricked by a fake Skull once already. But thanks to Lamia's determination contact between the is finally made and we get to meet Captain Halley, who's voice we first heard way back in episode 5. I'm pretty certain that Garrick Hagon, who played Captain Carter, is voicing him here which makes sense as Carter's episodes were in the first half of the series and all of Halley's, bar the initial message in 5, are in the second. However in Japan the two roles are voiced by different actors.

The opening scene in this episode bothers me, it doesn't really fit and feels like it belongs in previous episode closing events there. Hercules is playing his guitar at the start.... it hasn't come from nowhere, he was seen bringing it with him when the pilots arrived at Moonbase in episode 1.

There's some decent character work in this episode: Hercules, who has shown an interest in Lamia all along, is angry at Shiro for endangering her. But when a pilot needs to rescue them it's Lee that Doctor Benn sends instead. This then gives us the only appearance of a lone Dai-X fighter, Leg track in an episode by itself. Yes Shiro flies Braincon solo against Captain Carter in episode 12, but you saw the other two fighters earlier in the episode.

We see some new kit in this episode, the space chopper that Shiro flies Lamia to the Skull on. Effectively it's a space motorbike with an enclosed side car! And it looks very silly.... at least until the pod on the side gets blown off later in the episode! We also get to see Lamia in a spacesuit for the first time, a red and grey affair with a similar helmet to Shiro's original spacesuit helmet.

X-Bomber weapons: 6th use of the turret lasers, and 4th use of the Laser Blast (previously seen in episodes 2, 5 & 7)

There's a lot of the original music from episode 5 reused here: obviously the Skull's theme but also the "searching" music, originally used when the pilots hut for Captain Carter, as Shiro & Lamia try to find the Skull.

Since there's a solo role for Lee in this episode it's probably a good point to look at Mark Rolston who voices him. This is his first credited television role but if you're a science fiction/genre fan the chances are you'll have seen him in something. Probably his most recognisable role is his first in 1986 where he played Private Drake in Aliens. He then has a lengthy career in television and films in the US appearing in Star Trek: The Next Generation (Lt. Walter Pierce in Eye of the Beholder), Babylon 5 (Karl Mueller in The Quality of Mercy), Star Trek: Enterprise (Captain Magh in The Augments / Kuroda Lor-ehn in Canamar) and 24 (Bruce Foxton in Day 3). IMDB has an amusing coincidence in consecutive entries on his CV: In Cold Case he played Ari Gordon while in CSI: Miami he was FBI Agent Glen Cole Gordon Cole was of course Dale Cooper's boss in Twin Peaks.

This is the first episode of the series I didn't see on it's initial broadcast: the series had switched to Sunday mornings and for the next six weeks I had to rely on friends at school to tell me what had happened. Likewise I would have missed this episode on it's repeat transmission but for one thing: it was broadcast in the first week of the 1984 school summer holidays when there was no Sunday school at church. So this week and for the next five weeks I caught episodes I had missed on their initial transmission and was a very happy boy.

The episode features, nearly in full, on the UK compilation tape Space Quest for F-01 and as the middle episode on the US Video Volume 5: Kidnapped. As of yet nobody has really been kidnapped in that video tape but the image of Lamia plunging through space as she falls from the Skull does rather look like the cover to US Volume 6: Lost in Space..... No, I'm not done with this one yet!

13 Battle To The Death: X Bomber Vs. the Imperial Alliance

"I didn't expect to be eating soup on New Year's Day at the far end of the Universe"

Episode 13: Battle To The Death: X Bomber Vs. the Imperial Alliance
UK Video:
US Video: Volume 5: Kidnapped
DVD: Star Fleet - The Complete Series - Disc 3

Shiro, Hercules & Lee spend New Years Day together eating soup together and reflecting on their time together & Captain Carter.

Ladies and Gentleman: My least favourite episode of Star Fleet. By some distance. And for a variety of reasons:

Firstly it's another clip show, just 3 episodes after the last one. AGGGGGH! And what's worse is that it reuses some of the same footage. How short a memory do they think we have? The previous clip show, episode 9, at least gave us The Imperial Master and his home planet in the original footage, here it's just the three pilots sitting around and you only see them briefly....

Then there's the opening narration which indicates this episode is taking place on New Year's Day..... OK. The problem here is the opening narration for episode 1 makes it clear that the year then is 2999 and later episodes make it crystal clear that events of the closing episode is centred round the dawning of the year 3000. So how have we got another New Year's day in between?

My gripe about different dialogue from the actual episodes repeats itself here as per episode 9. Here a far worse error is made. The footage used is:

Captain Carter training Shiro from episode 5
The Imperial Alliance invasion, X-Bomber launch & shooting down from episode 1
Lamia driving out to X-Bomber from episode 2
X-Bomber crashing from episode 1
More driving & the laser blast from episode 2
X-Bomber take off & X-Impulse from episode 3
X-Bomber rendezvousing with the transport cruisers & arriving at Pluto from episode 4
The pilots search for Captain Carter, Lamia going to the Skull, being rescued by the pilots, The Skull being attacked by the Alliance & defended by X-Bomber using the Laser blasts from episode 5
X-Bomber at Jupiter & Dai-X destroying the base from episode 4
X-Bomber sucked into the black hole from the end of episode 6
X-Bomber attacked in the black hole and defending itself with laser blasts & the X-Impulse from episode 7
The Sea of Trees & Captain Carter from episode 10
Laser torpedoes setting off the volcano from episode 8
X-Bomber breaking free from the trees in episode 10
X-Bomber attacking with laser torpedoes from episode 8
Shiro shooting Captain Carter in episode 12

We're jumping around all over the place with the events of episode 4 taking place after episode 5 and episodes 8 & 10 merged together into one. I suppose you could put it down to the pilot's memory having jumbled things up but....

I think perhaps this episode lacks a bit of focus in it's flashbacks too: it's a sprawling mess taking in brief snippets of most of the first 12 episodes. Episode 6 is represented by a shot that might as well been ripped out the recap in 7 and episode 9 is completely missing but seeing as that's a clip show set on the Imperial Master's planet and the pilots weren't present perhaps that's understandable. Episode 11 is missing as well: the only reason for it's absence I can think of was it was so recent and has the Dai-X smashing things so is rather similar to episode 4 and Episode 12 only has the shooting scene.

Here's what I'd have done instead, focusing on Captain Carter:

Opened with the training sequence from episode 5
The Alliance attacking Pluto in episode 1 and Carter seemingly killed
Pilots searching for Carter on Pluto in 5
"but what we didn't know was Captain Carter was a prisoner of the Imperial Alliance"
Interrogation scene from episode 2
Lamia flying out to the Skull, being rescued, Skull being attacked and fleeing from 5
"while searching for the Skull we received a transmission that lured us to the Sea of trees where we met the Alliance's new Commander"
Sea of Trees from 10
"The New Commander seemed familiar...."
War Planet conversation with Carter & Dai-X battle from 11
"We realised it was our old tutor Captain Carter"
Deserter, duel, crash & shooting from 12 Finish with reflection

In fact the end of it is part of what's wrong with the episode, it sort of ends abruptly without any cut back to Shiro, Hercules & Lee to reflect on events.

Shiro provides most of the narration for this episode and he's played by actor Jay Benedict who I definitely have seen in other productions and I'll wager you have too. Sadly two of his most high profile appearances ended up on the cutting room floor: Firstly he appeared as Deak in the Tosche Station scenes in Star Wars which also featured Garrick Hagon (Captain Carter in Star Fleet) as Biggs. He's also the first of two Star Fleet actors to appear in Aliens and although his role as Newt's Dad, and the first Face Hugger victim on the colony was cut from the theatrical edition it was reinstated for the special edition. He was later Alan Kalanak in the 2001 Jonathan Creek Christmas special Satan's Chimney (alongside recently deceased Doctor Who actress Mary Tamm) has had a recurring role in Foyle's War and recently appeared in The Dark Knight Rises.

No I think the real reason I look back on this episode with such disdain is that it was the last regular episode of Star Fleet I saw from the first run on the television. From it's start till this episode it had run on Saturday mornings and I'd seen every one. With episode 14 it moved to Sunday mornings which meant I, as part of a church going non video owning family, would not get to see it. And what's worse the trailer for episode 14 made it look fab! The Skull is back and we get to meet it's Captain? wow, finally some answers and I wouldn't get to see them :-(. For the next episode of Star Fleet that I actually saw in the first run see episode 20.

This is another episode whose title I've modified from the Japanese name which was Battle To The Death: X Bomber Vs. the Gelma Army. It's the first Japanese episode to use the new credits sequences, on which the UK end titles were modelled. The opening sequence can be seen on YouTube and runs from 1:11 to 2:22. The closing sequence is the same visuals as the opening and to the same music as the original closing theme heard from 2:22 on the video.

Obviously there's no reason to include it on the UK compilation tapes but it's the opening episode on the US Video Volume 5: Kidnapped....... And now I see that cover & title for the first time in AGES I'm wondering if the US video distributor may have made a slight mistake with the covers for volumes 5 & 6. For why see the next episode & episode 16.

12 Our Mortal Enemy Is Captain Carter

"You are now our enemy, an enemy that must die!"

Episode 12: Our Mortal Enemy Is Captain Carter
UK Video:
US Video: Volume 4: The Search for the Skull
DVD: Star Fleet - The Complete Series - Disc 2

Lamia sits with Kirara on X-Bomber's bridge wondering where they came from. Shiro, Hercules & Lee are now convinced that it was Captain Carter who was commanding the Alliance forces recently. Alliance fighter aproach X-Bomber pursuing one of their own, a Termoid deserter. The pilots rescue him in the Dai-X fighters and bring him aboard X-Bomber. The Alliance identify the soldier as crewman 0171 from the carrier. Captain Orion blames Captain Carter but Carter tells him he is emulating the wooden horse of Troy by having someone working from the inside. He is taken to the sickbay for treatment but awakens and captures Lamia taking her to the engine room as a hostage and planting charges to destroy the ship. The pilots begin to cut their way in. As the Termoid prepares to detonate the bombs he is jumped by Kirara giving the pilots enough time to gain access. The Termoid is scanned in sickbay and a bomb is found embedded in him so he is ejected from the ship in a capsule before it explodes. The pilots become convinced Captain Carter briefed the Termoid and Shiro challenges Captain Cartern to a dual. Shiro flies Brain Com to attack Captain Carter flying an Imperial Alliance astrofighter. Shiro finds himself unable to fire on his former tutor, but overcomes his reservations and shoots Captain Carter's Fighter down onto an asteroid. Shiro lands Brain Com and ventures out onto the surface in a spacesuit where he finds the injured Carter lying on the rocks. The Alliance lobster control devices falls off him and Captain Carter regains control of himself. Seeing his bionic arm he smashes it infrustration at what the Alliance have done to him and made him do. He commands Shiro to kill him for what he has done and when Shuiro refuses he counts to 3 forcing Shiro to open fire on him, killing him. With his dying words he congratulates Shiro on his good shooting.

A game of two halves: we open with the Imperial Deserter coming aboard X-Bomber and holding Lamia hostage. We finally get to see a Termoid up close but as this plot ppoint is over in half an episode it doesn't get any time to develop. Maybe having the traitor on board for a few episodes skulking in the background before revealing itself may have given this thread a bit more substance. The second half of the episode is taken up with the Shiro/Carter dual. Carter's been around as an enemy officer for 3 episodes but he was hardly in the second one and just a brief appearance during the first part of this one. All over in three episodes.... I wonder if it might have been worth extending the storyline for longer, six episodes say, giving the mystery of who the Alliance's new captain is more time to play out. And so the saga of Captain Carter comes to an end as pre-empted twice previously in the series in episodes 5 & 11 with flashbacks and dream sequences of the two shooting at each other.

Hardware: after looking at the same Imperial Alliance fighter designs for eleven episodes we get to see not one but two variants in this episode: The Deserter is flying a fighter with an extra set of tubes on the outside of it's laser guns while Carter's fighter has a different canopy and a longer nose. We never see what happened to the Deserter's fighter: it could well be on X-Bomber still. Carter's menawhile gets wrecked on the Asteroid.... Carter seems to be breathing the Asteroid's armosphere ok after the crash but Shiro puts his spacesuit on: have the Alliance augmented his body in other ways other than the arm which he destorys here? On the other hand there is some confusaion later in the series as to who can breate what when. Shiro's spacesuit is a little different to when we last saw it: he's wearing a plain silver helmet which is now missing the red coloured flashes it had when we last saw it in episode 5.

I am wondering if there's a little Star Trek referrence in the deserter's given identity number 0171, a numerical anagram of 1701, The Enterprise's registry number....

On it's Japanese broadcast this was the last episode to use the original X-Bomber opening credits, which you can see here at the start of video and the original closing credits, which can be seen from 2:22.

I saw this episode on it's first transmission and I'm pretty sure I remember seeing the LWT repeat in 1984 the Sunday after I got back from my camping trip in Wales (see episode 9 for the camping trip's other impact) when I was too shattered to go to church that day. It's Japanese name is Our Mortal Enemy Is Captain Custer, using Carter's Japanese name. None of this episode appears on a UK video tape but it appears on US video Volume 4: The Search for the Skull.

This is the last episode of Star Fleet to include new music, in particular the death theme over Captain Carter's final moments. The incidental music, as well as the opening and closing titles was provided by keyboard player Paul Bliss, who has played with numeroud bands over the years including The Moody Blues. For many years fans wanted a Star Fleet music album and finally in 2009 a CD was released which is available at www.starfleetsoundtrack.com. You can hear Paul Bliss interviewed on Star Fleet - The Complete Series DVD Disc 3

At this point we are halfway through the UK run of Star Fleet.

11 Farewell, Eternal Battlefield!

"At night they return and begin again: they fight endlessly"

Episode 11: Farewell, Eternal Battlefield!
UK Video: The Thalian Space Wars
US Video: Volume 4: The Search for the Skull
DVD: Star Fleet - The Complete Series - Disc 2

Shiro dreams of Captain Carter, a nightmare which ends with Carter shooting him, and is late for his duty shift. As an ailing John Lee retires to bed, Shiro tells Dr Benn that he thought the new Alliance commander was his old instructor Captain Carter and finds that Hercules agrees with him. X-bomber receives distress call from a nearby planet and sends Dai-X to investigate. They find a ruined city on the planet surrounded by the remains of a battlefield with destroyed and half buried tanks and fighters. They trace the distress call and find a young woman imprisoned in a cellar in a spider's web with an iron mask over her face. The pilots free her, killing the spider guarding her. She tells them she is called princess Keeli and they take her to the ruins of the palace. She tells them the war on her planet has not ended. Many years ago the Imperial Alliance attacked the planet without warning. Commander Makara had her imprisoned in an underground chamber and had the planet cursed to be an eternal battlefield by night. The tanks and fighters are sleeping at the moment and will awake soon and start fighting again. An Imperial Alliance carrier arrives and they are spoken to by the new Alliance Commander who refuses to identify himself. He demands Lamia handed over and the search for the sailing ship The Skull terminated. He sends fighters to attack the tanks and fighters on the ground bringing them back to life. While princess Keeli shelters in the dungeon the carrier leaves. The pilots return to Dai-X defending themselves against the reactivated tanks and fighters. When the individual fighters are overwhelmed with Mainbody damaged they form the Dai-x robot and destroy the tanks & fighters, bringing peace to the planet. Keeli returns to the surface and thanks them, disappearing and leaving just a rose behind. The pilots return to X-Bomber in the Dai-X wondering if Princess Keeli was ever really there.

Hurrah! Finally a second Dai-X robot episode! We're at episode 11, nearly half way through the series and, barring the flashbacks in the clip show, we've not seen the Dai-X robot for SEVEN episodes, since episode 4. And it'll be another 7 (ish) before it's back again. After that however it's almost a constant presence.

We get to see the pilot's bunk room for the first time in this episode..... and an interesting question is raised: what is Shiro doing sleeping in his helmet? We're then treated to an attempt to show a puppet with a cold as John Lee blows little bubbles from his nose while in bed! Gross.

This is the first episode so far not to feature Captain Orion, and Commander Makara is only in it very briefly in flashback. In fact the Imperial Alliance presence in the present is minimal, just a brief visit from Captain Carter, commanding a carrier for the first time and accompanied by the most prominent use of his theme to indicate his presence. And you could argue that his presence is unnecessary as Princess Keeli seems pretty sure that the tanks and fighters would come to life again anyway at night so wouldn't have needed the Imperial Alliance to wake them up.

It's nice to see some new hardware in the show: the last new vehicle we saw was the Skull in episode five. Here we get the Weevil like tanks with glowing eyes and the Pterodactyl fighters. Keeli describes her planet as peaceful so I'd always assumed that his was specialist Imperial Alliance equipment used to assault the planet..... now I'm not so sure.

Last time we saw the Dai-X robot it assembled in the air before landing to fight but this time we see it fighting in the air too. It uses just the missiles and the Super Cannon again but this time the bolts from the super cannon are pink. There is a last in this episode too: It's the final time we see Leg Track's tank mode.

Then there's Princess Keeli herself. Is she real? Is she a ghost? We just don't know, she seems real enough until the very end of the episode when she turns into a rose. There's been a vague background plot for a while of both Shiro & Hercules harbouring affections for Lamia so it's Lee's turn here to fall for the beautiful girl. I'm reasonably sure, just like Lamia, that Keeli is voiced by Liza Ross who in real life is the wife of Garrick Hagon, who plays Captain Carter and others in Star Fleet. I've got two of her film appearances on DVD: Tomorrow Never Dies (where she plays Mary Golson) and Batman (where she's Mom opposite Garrick Hagan's Dad). She's not had many television roles, At Home with the Braithwaites as Dr. Ornstein being the most recurring one as an onscreen actress, but has performed opposite her husband as a voice artist in many radio and dubbing productions including several Dirk Maggrs productions in the 1990s.

Footage from this episode was used in the promotional video for Brian May's Star Fleet Project a cover of the song used as the end titles. Over the years the existence of this has led to many people believing that Brian May composed the song and indeed the music for Star Fleet. He didn't, as we'll see next episode. I saw the video for this song once on an ITV Saturday morning show (Saturday Starship?) and then forgot about it until I found a copy on record years later..... which has long since gone, leant to a friend who kindly never returned it! The video can be found on Star Fleet - The Complete Series DVD Disc 3 but is horribly framed instead of appearing in full screen.

As well as appearing on the US video Volume 4: The Search for the Skull, this episode is the latest episode of Star Fleet to be included on the UK Compilation The Thalian Space Wars. The episode is mostly complete just cutting all footage featuring Captain Carter although a small amount of his dialogue broadcast over loud speaker from the carrier remains. However it isn't the last episode on the tape as the order is a little odd. The episodes on the tape are (in order of appearance):

1 Scramble, X-Bomber (until just before X-Bomber is shot down)
5 The Mysterious Ship Skull! (from the point the Black Hole is detected)
6 X-Bomber Goes Forth!
7 Mortal Combat In The Gravity Graveyard!
8 An Attack Beyond Tears!
11 Farewell, Eternal Battlefield!
4 The Transport Fleet Annihilated!

Footage from episodes 2 The Gelma Fleet's Surprise Attack! & 3 Find F-01! feature on the other UK compilation Space Quest for F-01 while episode 4 features again with episode 5 The Mysterious Ship Skull! on the The Thorn/EMI Video.

10 The Drifting Galaxy

"Put me in command and I guarantee the destruction of X-Bomber"

Episode 10: The Drifting Galaxy
UK Video:
US Video: Volume 4: The Search for the Skull
DVD: Star Fleet - The Complete Series - Disc 2

As X-Bomber travels through space Shiro wonders where the Skull is now. On the Alliance Battlecruiser Commander Makara berates Captain Orion again when a new officer arrives on the bridge: the brainwashed & cybernetically enhanced Captain Carter. He takes over the operational command of the Battlecruiser to Captain Orion's disgust as being sidelined. On X-Bomber Lee discovers he is no longer able to contact Star Fleet command because they are now too far away, but they do pick up a signal from The Skull summoning them to the planet Zeenith, a green forested world where the find the Skull floating on a sea of trees. The Skull instructs X-Bomber to land but when they do the Skull doesn't respond and vine tendrils reach up from the forest, attaching themselves to X-Bomber. The Skull summons Lamia but Doctor Ben is suspicious. The new Imperial Alliance Commander, his face obscured, appears on the monitor screen and berates X-Bomber. X-Bomber tries to launch but is trapped by the vines. The Skull fades in front of them and the Imperial Cruiser emerges from behind a waterfall. The new Commander demands Lamia is handed over to them and she agrees, but Doctor Ben stops Lamia from leaving in the airlock. The Imperial Cruiser attacks X-Bomber, but Doctor Benn realises that the attack is freeing them. X-Bomber tries to launch again but still is tangled in the vines. On the Alliance Battlecruiser Captain Carter orders the Delta Laser used, the Imperial Alliance's ultimate weapon, but before it can be fired the Imperial Battlecruiser is assaulted by the real Skull, diverting the Cruiser's attention. X-Bomber finally escapes as does the Skull which is unsuccessfully pursued by the Imperial Cruiser. Commander Makara is impressed with Captain Carter's tactics but the sidelined Captain Orion isn't. On X-Bomber Shiro wonders where Commander Makara was during the attack and is reminded of something by the new commander's voice...

This episode is the first of three where X-Bomber is pitted against Captain Carter, the former tutor of Shiro, Hercules & Lee. Captured by the Imperial Alliance in episode 1 and interrogated in episode 2 we've not seen him since, except in flashbacks in episodes 5 & 9. He's now brainwashed by the ultra solar rays and turned into a Cyborg with his left arm replaced by an Imperial Alliance claw, similar to Captain Orion's, and a Lobster like device covering the right side of his head and his right eye. Oddly his left eye is still covered by half of his sunglasses..... Cool maybe, but not exactly practical. All the Alliance officers seen so far appear to have cyborg parts and an eye device: Makara has a cyborg left arm & hand with a face, which speaks in a male voice, over her left eye while Orion has a cyborg right arm & hand, a cyborg left arm & claw and a Caterpillar like eye piece which goes back over his helmet. Captain Carter's theme music, last heard in episode 1 as the pilots decide to fly X-Bomber in his memory, returns as well being heard as X-Bomber struggles to escape from the sea of trees.

The Sea of Trees is some lovely model work again in the series as is the shot as the Imperial Cruiser emerges from under the Waterfall. But imagine how big that waterfall must be to conceal a ship that size! There are some amusing shots of X-Bomber shedding the last of the vines as it takes flight at the end of the episode.

The only weapons X-Bomber uses this episode are it's turret lasers (6th occurrence) but we're nearly treated to the Imperial Alliance's ultimate weapon: the Delta Laser that emerges from the launch bay of the Alliance Cruiser.

Yes, PPA's voice is still wrong here. And yes, there's those Yellow spacesuits again in the airlock that nobody's worn yet. Since we've last seen them it's become apparent yellow might be X-Bomber's colour: it's also used on Lee's headset (those at Star Fleet command are white) and PPA.... Actually PPA is Moonbase personnel which used yellow inn the design of the main building.... is the yellow equipment inherited from X-Bomber's home base?

I haven't passed any comment on the episode titles yet but "The Drifting Galaxy" ? What relevance has that to the episode? Surely something like "Trapped in the Sea of Trees" would be better. And again the title of the US Video "The Search for the Skull": there's not a lot of Skull searching going on here. In fact US Volume 4 contains all 3 of the Captain Carter episodes on one tape (what I wouldn't have given for that in the UK) so maybe something like "Attack of the Traitor Captain" would have been better? Sadly this episode appears on none of the UK compilation tapes.