(sigh) I really wasn't looking forward to this week's review. When I found out we were getting another episode of Gascon and the droids, I almost tried thinking of an excuse to avoid watching it. Despite not hating last week's episode, I really didn't think we needed more of this story. It was a decent one and done story that didn't need expansion. But we did get more. And I said I'd review the whole season, so here I am.
Our episode begins with the droids on their stolen Separatist shuttle heading for Coruscant with the secret decoder chip. R2 and the other astromechs are fixing up BZ after his body got shocked last episode. And despite having his brain taken out, BZ is more or less operational. I'm kind of confused by him. The weird German alien took out his memory banks for Gascon's command center but he seems rather autonomous. How does that work? Wack is piloting when something bad happens. Their shuttle is entering a comet storm. This is really confusing because their ship is going through hyperspace. Doesn't that mean their ship is going at lightspeed? If so, what's the comet storm going to do? If they're going lightspeed they'll pass through before any of the comets can hit them. Maybe I just don't get how hyperspace works.
But I guess this is a problem because Gascon orders them to drop out of hyperspace. It seems like this would make it easier for them to get hit by comets but whatever. And lo and behold, their ship is hit by a comet knocking out their engines. Wack maneuvers them through the comets but if the engines aren't fixed they'll be smashed to bits. R2 and the other astromechs head outside to fix the engines and the one dramatic moment of the episode happens. QT gets knocked off the ship, only to be caught by Lucky the orange conehead, who is knocked off and caught by R2, who is knocked off and caught by BZ. Needless to say, they fix the engines and save each other. Unfortunately, their stabilizers are hit and they crash on a nearby planet.
More after the break,
They've crashed on the aptly named Planet Void, which is apparently a giant salt flat with permanent day despite not having a sun. What follows is basically every lost in the desert story ever. Gascon loses his mind and goes desert crazy, seeing mirages and almost attempting suicide when they find a long abandoned ship. This also leads to Wack's few funny lines this episode as he jokes about Gascon being better off killing himself. Since we don't have much plot to speak of, I want to talk about Gascon and Wack. Because they're the only ones who can talk, they're the ones we follow. And they are fucking annoying. No, not annoying I take that back. Their interactions aren't grating enough to be annoying. The combination of Wack's pomposity and lame attempts at humor mixed with Gascon's serious mentality slipping into madness isn't entertaining but doesn't raise enough feeling for me to call it annoying. It's just sort of there.
And it's worse when they're abandoned by R2 and the astromechs, who are actually interesting characters or at least fun to watch. There is a running theme throughout about Gascon's military training being the same as the droid's programming. Gascon is a bit of a robot racist so of course he's disdainful about having to work with them, or them insisting they are remotely similar. This actually leads to a nice moment where Wack peps him up the desert after they've been abandoned and Gascon is ready to just give in. Even though Wack was joking about Gascon killing himself not too long ago. Okay, maybe it's not such a nice moment in retrospect.
A flock of what look like alien ostriches run by and Gascon has a flash of inspiration. Programming and training aren't going to help them in the desert, what they need is instinct. He and Wack ride the ostriches to a large pool of water at a small town. Where the Astromechs are already waiting for them. Our episode ends with Gascon and Wack cementing their new respect for one another.
Overall, pretty mediocre. The story wasn't really up to par and the character interactions didn't connect. The one thing I will give this episode is that it has some nice visuals. The comet storm looks really amazing and the giant salt flat void has a great sense of desolation to it. Little things too like BZ slowly falling apart or dust collecting the droids and Gascon. But that's about it for good things. It's not bad, it's just this really has a filler feeling to it. This episode doesn't really do anything new or interesting. This story didn't need to get expanded. It was fine as a one-off. There isn't enough material or potential for this story to carry over more than one episodes. It feels like the show is treading water with this.
All in all, a just sort of there episode. That's the problem with this episode, it's just sort of there. There isn't enough to praise but there isn't enough to hate either. And we're probably going to get more next week.
Sigh. See you next week.
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