Written by Mark Scott Zicree and J.Michael Straczynski
- Jason, trying to persuade settlors to meet him.
Several war survivors are huddled together discussing the existence of Captain Power. One of them, Fal, argues that they should concentrate on finding food instead an departs with his blind grandfather, Zeelig to find rats. As they leave, the other survivors spot a flare and run towards it’s source to be greeted by Captain Power. He assures them that everything will be fine and fires another flare.
Unknown to the settlors, the flare is actually a signal for Soaron to come and digitise the survivors, and Captain Power is not really Captain Power at all but a phony, an impersonator - albeit a very realistic looking one. As Soaron digitises the survivors, Fal and his grandfather watch in horror as his mother and sisters are taken off. He vows revenge on Power.
Meanwhile, Power and his team are noticing a disturbing pattern of high levels of Dread activity and empty seemingly abandoned settlements. Perturbed, Power decides to investigate further but the Jumpship is intercepted by Soaron who manages to disable it and force them to land. Impatient, Power scouts ahead on the Skybike leaving Pilot to continue her repairs.
At Volcania, we see Dread talking to the phony Captain Power, who turns out to be a handsome young man called Jason. Dread praises Jason and reminiscences of his personal history with Power. Power in the mean time has reached the settlement and encounters Fal, who coshes him over the head, disbelieving Power’s claims that he is here to help. Power comes round to discover himself in chains and accused of being a traitor, in cohorts with Dread. Zeelig, who did not see the phony Jason, remains unconvinced of Power’s guilt so the two retire to decide what punishment to meter out to Power.
Fortunately for Power, the wall he is chained to has been affected by damp and with some exertion, he is able to free his hand and activate his Power Suit. Fal is taken by surprise but Power assures him that he is not a traitor and is equally interested in finding out the real culprit. Power radios back to the team to inform them of his findings and they head out to provide assistance.
The phony Captain Power arrives at the settlement and fires his first flare. To his surprise, the settlers run away instead of coming out. He exhorts them to come out and is instead confronted by the real Captain Power. A coward at heart, Jason falls back and leaves a contingent of troopers to deal with Power.However, he underestimates the extent of Power’s anger - Power swiftly dispatches the troopers and zeros in on Jason, raining on him punches while stripping him of his phony Power Suit.
The settlors come up with a fitting punishment for Jason. Dressing him in their clothes, they tie him up and gag him, and fire the second flare, which brings in Soaron. Before he can protest, Jason is digitised by the impatient Bio-Dread. Power poses as Jason and meets up with Soaron, who declares that one organik is really not satisfactory. Power plays along then surprises Soaron, who is beaten back when the rest of the team join in the fray. Power sends Soaron packing back to Dread with the warning not to ever try the stunt again.
Back at Volcania, Soaron informs Dread of what has happened and Dread realises that it is Jason that Soaron carries. Without an ounce of sentimentality, Dread tells Soaron to give Jason to Overmind, so that he may learn the price of failure.
Comment:
An reasonably enjoyable episode, focused mainly on Captain Power rather than the team. It’s interesting from the point of view that we will rarely see Power behave quite as enraged as he does here and indicates that when Dread does get personal, Power can be provoked into losing his control. In subsequent episodes, his character tends to retain an air of unflappability, even in the face of crisis and the most we see from Jon, is a occasional irritation. I personally think that tends to give him a very wooden, unemotional side and there were plans in the second season to have Power become more enraged and more bitter, showcasing him as more susceptible to emotions.
The scene between Dread and Jason reminds me of scenes from Return of the Jedi where Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader are seen talking together - which again, highlights the close referance to sci-fi by the writers - Dread even resembles Darth Vader sans helmet. Dread briefly exhudes paternalistic pride as Jason describes his success, and Jason, seems to revel in the praise - there is an undertone of a father-son relationship though it isn’t clear if this is intentional. Arguably, Dread sees himself as the father to all his young Dread units but that kind of relationship is at odds with the conceptions of a machinised world where there are no such things as emotion and in a military organisation like the Empire, a more suitable form of relationship would be master-servant. But whatever it is, Dread clearly doesn’t display any paternal feelings when he orders Jason to be ‘fed’ to Overmind for his failure and the message to the Empire is clear - success will be rewarded and failure punished.
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