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It sounds like he's the perfect guy for you, Marie! In fact, he seems a little Condor-like!

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Benefits, not features; benefits, not features

We have a local hospital that advertises a "No Wait" ER. They even have a very small wait room and triage area. What they don't tell you is that wait time is measured from check in to room, not doctor. So they can claim their average wait time is four minutes or less because they can get you into a room that quickly. However, it could be up to half an hour or more before you see someone.

A few years ago, my hubby went into anaphalatyc shock for no reason. He was stablized by the fire department and ambulance crew before he even reached the hospital. It took eight hours to get him out of the ER room and into a regular room to ascertain the cause of the anaphalaxis. Four years and half a dozen episodes later, no cause has ever been found. Thankfully they stopped about three years ago.

Funny, I prefer the one I take the kids to, a bit father away, a bit longer to get into the room, but once you're in the room the docs are there and they get you treated promptly.

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Perspective Alters Reality

That's interesting, Candi. I didn't realize that the GoS commercial breaks were placed differently, or might have been longer. BOTP padded the show so much, especially with that one minute 'outro' montage they showed each episode before the credits... I would have thought that there was plenty of time for commercials! Although I give credit to GoS that they weren't under the same restrictions as BOTP in terms of censoring violence.

LOL... CD and I were lucky enough to meet Fred Ladd a couple of years ago at Comic Con, and I remember him talking about all of the restrictions Sandy Frank was under, and how he didn't have that, and how it made his show better than BOTP. *snerk* I tell you, Fred is quite the character!

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quote:

Originally posted by UnpublishedWriter Tell them why Fred Ladd named G3 'Agatha'.

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I posted Episode 2: The Blast at the Bottom of the Sea (Gatch #2 The Evil Ghostly Aircraft Carrier) on Gatchfanfic tonight. I put 'Commerical break' at the THREE appropriate places as of when they aired on Cartoon Network. (Should I post reviews here? I personally don't see a point... Others do better.)

But in, say, "Bracelets Exposed", there's a commercial in the GoS ep between the closeup of the very worried Dr.'s eyes after he hears about the Transformation Reverser ray, and the big shattered dome with the smoke drifting out of it. From reading the synopsis of the Gatch and BotP eps, that was a straight transistion before.

When Cartoon Network was a brand-spankin' new channel, I didn't watch it at first, (it being in the 'pay extra' package at first) so I tuned into Guardians of Space partway through the first run of the series. The first GoS ep I ever saw was part of the 'poisoned seas' ep, and I turned it on just before G-2 blasted that torpedo with the bird missile -and realized that that wasn't such a great idea when MORE poison is dumped by the damaged torpedo. Five minutes after that, I was scramblling for the remote and TV Guide to find out WHAT this cool show was called and when would it be on again. And I've never regreted it. Learning about Gatch and BotP has just been a bonus. Although Eagle Riders was something of a let down. Saban did a lousy job.

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Candi

Hollywood is a land of money and cowardice.

-Henry A. Lee, Cracked.com columnist

If the review is written, just place it under the appropriate Gatchaman episode. Until episode 80, all Gatch and G-Force episode numbers are the same. Then GoS skips 81 and 86, for some reason, and then ends with Gatchaman episode 87.

I think it's neat to have all interpretations of the episode in the same place. I'm hoping that this will be a great resource for fic-writers, if they need to look up an episode to check on something. i know I've already used it that way, many times, and we're not even scheduled to finish posting all of the eps until the end of the year!

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Shock Waves (Gatch: #77 Berg Katse's Success) (BotP: The Duplicate President)
Institute of Science = Gatch ISO
All unknown words/names are spelled as they sound.

Dr. Brighthead is talking about the ‘tiny Republic of Calamar’. The map shows it to be on the Indian Ocean, west of India and across the water from the ‘toe’ of Asia Minor. The camera pulls back and we see it’s a G-Force briefing. (The Free Online Dictionary says that ‘calamar’ is another name for squid. Not going there.)

Brighthead explains that the President of Calamar has requested the help of the Institute of Science (hereafter referred to as IS) in order to stop Galactor’s attacks. This immediately puts this several notches above any ‘G-Force as bodyguards because we’re important’ requests. Calamar apparently has major deposits of precious metals and rare elements –in other words, stuff both the IS and Galactor want.

Aggie talks about how great it is that Calamar is fighting back when other countries have given in.

“President Altan has paid the price for his bravery,” says Brighthead grimly. There have been several murderous attacks on the president in the past few weeks.

Pewee expresses approval about how hard Altan is fighting Galactor. Dirk growls that if other leaders were like Altan, Galactor would be finished. Hootie points out that some of the countries didn’t have any choice; if they hadn’t surrendered, Galactor would have destroyed them. (Even Galactor’s smart enough to figure out that G-Force can’t be everywhere on Earth at once.)

A wall screen displays a picture of an older gentlemen, whom Brighthead identifies as President Altan. He’s walking with a cane, held in his left hand. (Make a note. Besides that he's using it on the wrong side.)

Pewee, quite properly, asks if the president always uses the cane or if he was injured recently. If the team has to move their protection assignment in a hurry, a fresh injury would require different care than an old one or another type of medical problem.

one or another type of medical problem.
Brighthead says the cane is recent, because the president’s left leg was severely injured in the last attack. (His left leg. Make a note, please.) He then goes on about how they can’t let Calamar (and its associated resources, I bet) fall into Galactor’s hands. The team’s assignment is to prevent that.

Ace, looking very serious here, says, “We’ll do everything in our power to provide protection for President Altan and his country, Dr. Brighthead.” Brighthead assures them that he knows that, and wishes them luck.

And the shot of the team here has them looking rather scruffy.

Stock shot of the Phoenix launching, with the under-shallow-water base behind and the phony reef above. (And they never do give it a name beyond ‘underwater base.’

I do like this shot of the Phoenix coming out of the water, with the spray and the rainbow. Not a very realistic-looking rainbow, but a nice-looking rainbow.

Flying through clouds stock shot…

Hootie tells Ace that they’ll be arriving in Calamar in just a few minutes.

“Fine,” replies Ace. “Let’s take a look at the screen, Hootie.” By this I am presuming that they are switching from the what’s-within-20-feet view to the really-really-long-range view.

Anyway, the hopefully-long-range shot of the Calamar airport shows a lot –I mean a LOT- of people, standing around, cheering and waving flags that have the G-Force/Gatch chest emblem on them.

Pewee looks stunned, and Aggie comments on the thousands of people in the welcoming committee. Ace, however, looks grim. He points out the flags that the crowd’s waving. And apparently the range and detail of the Phoenix’s cameras are good enough for him to see the important-looking people waiting inside the top floor of the airport building. And I sure hope that those all-glass walls are bullet proof.

The interesting part is that, with all the important-looking people in the room, with the entire walls being glass on at least two sides, we can’t see anyone that looks like the earlier film of the President. Ace notices this.

“Hey…” Ace thinks a minute. “Our visit was known only to the President himself, and he wanted it kept a secret.” (The president’s evidently given a thought or two to catching Galactor’s men with their pants down.) “Hootie, find another place to land!”

Hootie: “All the trouble they’ve gone through on our account, they’re going to be awfully disappointed!”

Ace: “I don’t like the looks of it, no matter how disappointed they are! We’ll land secretly than check it out.” Someone should tell Galactor that G-1 only falls for obvious traps when his father’s involved.

You might want to sit down for this one.

Dirk: “Ace is right. This welcoming committee is just the kind of trap Galactor would set up!”

G-2 agreed with G-1!?! What!?!

And I agree that Galactor setting a trap where there are lots and lots of civilians around is entirely in character. Isn’t that what they did in the Cuttlefish two-parter?

Hootie gives in and turns the ship.

Aack!!! Cardboard drums!

Nice underwater scene, with coral and rocks, orange fish, striped fish, red fish, blue fish, (one fish, two fish). Wonder where they parked the Phoenix?


Hootie (voice over): The Phoenix is secure. Ready when you are, Ace.” So they’re going to use Pewee’s vehicle to surface? It’s either that or swim…

Ace (also voice over): “Fine, Hootie. All right, everybody, let’s move out.”

Scene switch to overview of city (presumably the capital of Calamar):

Aggie (again with the voice over. What, they had a line quota to fill?): “Calamar’s beautiful!”

Ace (again with the voice over): “Yeah, so beautiful Galactor wants it all to himself!” Look, I agree with the grumpiness –you’re there to stop the bad guys- but you could be nicer to Aggie, and I think we established earlier that Galactor wants the resources, not the scenery?

Now we see a big palace, with a flag and a fountain, that screams ‘important people live here’!

We’ve got a couple of sinister looking flunkies discussing why the Phoenix didn’t land. One is the talk dark official sinister type, and the other is the small hunch-backed servant sinister type. (With yellow eyes, no less. Jaundice? But then the servant should be under the UV lamps, not working.) The servant says he’ll inform the president immediately. The official says if the team doesn’t show up within the hour, he’ll have to tell the president the team’s not coming at all.

Of course, Ace interrupts. “But we’re already here, sir.”

Nice right-to-left panning shot of the team as they pose in the cupola of the room. The camera moves from Dirk to Hootie, past a chandelier partially hiding a stained-glass window (or painting), to Aggie, Pewee (on one knee) and Ace.

One thing I particularly love about the footage; many of the backgrounds, especially the interiors, are really amazing.

Official: “Are your entrances always so dramatic?” Bud, this ain’t nothing. You want ‘dramatic’, be a goon in a base when G-1 starts whistling!

The team drops down to the floor. And no comic relief landings this round.

Ace (not sounding apologetic): “I apologize for our unusual methods, sir, but in a country under attack by Galactor there’s always the possibility of security leaks and hidden dangers.” Kid, you have no idea how big the current Calamar ‘security leak’ is!

The official agrees that Ace is right, says he’d be equally suspicious, and thanks them for coming.

Ace requests to be taken to the president. The official agrees and talks about what a great admirer is of G-Force. Then he orders the creepy yellow-eyed servant to take them to the president.

The next shot shows a big ol’ staircase. Have I mentioned how much I love the backgrounds on this show?

The team’s following the servant. In a line, like kids after recess: Ace, Pewee, Aggie, Dirk, and Hootie.

As they’re passing under a chandelier, it suddenly falls. Aggie calls, “Watch out!” The team jumps out of the way. G-2, 3, and 5 to the left, 1 and 4 to the right. But…

The rail that G-1 and G-4 land on gives way. Ace takes flight, but Pewee falls backward and flat on his back. A bust and pedestal arrangement comes down, and Pewee barely moves in time to keep from getting squashed like one of his bugs when Aggie finds it.

Pewee: “If I hadn’t jumped out of the way I would have been squashed flatter then a pancake!”

Creepy servant: “I’m terribly sorry about that, but this is one of the oldest buildings in Calamar, where, I’m afraid, things like this happen all the time.” And with all the resources (and associated income), nobody’s bothered to fix things? Uh huh…

Ace : “Never mind that. No harm done. Now take us to the president.”

Creepy servant: “Why certainly. Right this way.”

Pewee: “Aggie, I don’t know about you, but this place gives me the creeps.” Is anyone going to listen to the kid?

Aggie: “Sometimes I think you’ll never grow up.” She bops him on the helmet.

Nope.

Pewee: “Why, you! If you weren’t my sister-“

Hootie: “Then you’d probably clobber her like this.” G-5 gives Pewee another rap on the helmet. And I think it’s firmer than the one G-3 gave.

“OOO!” Poor Pewee is left grumbling and rubbing his helmet.

Up the stairs… It sure is taking them a long time to get to the president’s suite!

Dirk’s doing his suspicious glare (I know, but this is a more-than-normally suspicious glare). Hootie looks worried; I can’t imagine why. They’re in a country under attack by a powerful terrorist, they all nearly got squashed by a chandelier, and then their littlest member nearly got flattened by a half-statue. They have nothing at all to worry about.

More to come!

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Candi

Hollywood is a land of money and cowardice.

-Henry A. Lee, Cracked.com columnist

Scene switch to the Purple Doberman on Speed (thank you Lori) aka Galactor on telescreen. (A poor quality screen where you can see the refresh rate.)

PDOS: “What’s that you say? G-Force was captured!?”

Hawk Leader (very arrogantly): “They fought well, but they were no match for the Hawks. They fell right into our trap.” Wipe that smirk off your face, fella…

PDOS: “Well done. You shall receive an appropriate reward.” Thinking: _With G-Force out of the way no one can stop me from plundering the riches of Calamar. I will extract every ounce of her precious stones and rare metals. The president thought he could defy me. Instead he will be left with nothing!_ The thoughts are a voice over (thought over?) to gold and gems being scooped up and lines of trucks leaving a warehouse.

Three things:

Positive rewards from Galactor are not always a good thing.

No comments on world conquest with G-Force out of the way? Maybe he hasn’t gotten there yet.

That last thought-sentence has to be a Zark-line. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the president won’t be collecting his pension. This is also the last mention of the president in the episode.

Back to speech(ifying):

PDOS: “Destroy the G-Force team at once!” Um, that’s what’s going on. I mean, there’s no breathable oxygen in that display case.

HL: “No need for that, sir. The G-Force team is caught like rats in a trap. I’m certain there’s no way for them to escape.” You do know you’re literally betting your life on that, right? One way or another. “The poison gas will do its job and then we’ll be done of them.

PDOS: “They have escaped too many times in the past. I want them destroyed now!!”

HL: “Yes, master.” Why don’t you leave them alone so you can say you did?

So HL and a squad (just a squad) of his Hawks open one of the walls to the glass cell –which was full of poison gas, yet they’re not wearing gas masks. Should have left that shut for another hour or so, guys. And the room is square again.

From their positions, you can tell that Dirk and Ace did their darnedest to stay standing before they passed out. The Hawks start spraying bullets in. After letting the gas clear for a few moments. And we can see the floor’s suddenly empty.

Guess who!

HL’s furious. Well, he did get kicked in the face. (In a clip that becomes a stock shot –even when the background doesn’t match up with the rest of the base.) But he really should have listened to his instincts instead of his boss. (Like Galactor would have known, as long as G-Force was dead.) He demands to know how G-Force survived.

Ace: “I admit it was getting stuffy in there, but you opened the door just in time. You can’t imagine how much we appreciate your cooperation.” Pewee’s hiding behind Ace.

HL: “Destroy them!” Um, didn’t you already use up all the booby traps in this room? Your guys are at a disadvantage as it is.

Ace tosses a bomb and blows a hole in the wall. As my son said, “They make their own exits.” (And why didn’t they do this earlier? Sheesh.) The team flies out and to the ground outside.

There’s a lovely sunset.

The team ‘commandeers’ a jeep. Guess who’s driving.

Pursued by BH and bullets, G-Force hauls tail to get out of there. Dirk smashes right by the guardhouse (and apparently through a guard or three).

The bad guys send a helicopter in pursuit. An ordinary helicopter. This’ll work… not.

Pewee spots the copter.

Aggie: “What are we going to do?”

Dirk: “We’re going to find a place to hide. Get ready to jump out.” Finally, someone other than G-1 gets to use their brain.

Copter-mounted machine guns firing. The road they’re on doesn’t have any good hiding places nearby.

Dirk floors the accelerator. The speed gauge climbs. G-2 has a look of utter concentration on his face.

A Black Hawk tosses a grenade from the copter.

Dirk brings the jeep to a stop (somehow without skidding all over the place) and the team leaps out a second before the grenade gives the jeep a new job as scrap metal. The team manages to hide in what seems to be some kind of park.

Commercial break! I think the announcer on the buffers took astronomy lessons from Zark.

Instead of laying down a search pattern, HL (and when did he get on?) snarls that G-Force’s escape is only temporary. “No one can escape the Brainwasher.”

Brainwasher? That does not sound good.

HL contacts (local) HQ, tells them that G-Force is loose in ‘Section Three’ and orders the ‘brainwashing wave’ started immediately.

Next scene: a cityscape. We see little wiggly lines radiating out over this. This is evidently meant to show this ‘brainwashing wave’ covering the city, or at least the area in question.

We see the team, with the screen still covered by squiggly lines. The team is in some serious pain.
Aggie: “An electronic wave!” (Screwy science. Will not comment…)

The team is still in some serious pain.

Ace says that the helmets should block out enough of it out to keep it from affecting them. Although I think they’re going to have some killer headaches. (Did they bring any Tylenol?) And blocking devices that work all the time? Without being activated? Someone was thinking.

The wave stops.

Pewee asks if anyone brought any aspirin. (I honestly don’t know if aspirin would be a good painkiller in their case. Aspirin’s tendency to discourage clotting would seem to counter any use as a painkiller as far as five young warriors are concerned.)

Aggie asks why ‘they’ (presumably Galactor’s men) would use a wave like that, wondering what it’s for.

Ace hears something.

It is a lot of psychotic-looking citizens. The growling and other animal sounds are a pretty good indication that something’s wrong, even if the rocks and boards aren’t.

The team looks seriously concerned as they’re surrounded.

Aggie realizes that the people have something wrong with them.

Dirk: “Look at their eyes, Ace. They’re like zombies!”

Ace still tries to talk their way out, but is interrupted by a hail of stones and other junk.

Hootie and Pewee also try to talk to the crowd, but get cut off –in Pewee’s case, by a stick in the visor.

One psycho citizen pulls a revolver.

Dirk pulls his gun, but Ace points out that they can’t fight civilians under Galactor’s control. (I hope you have an escape option, or it might come down to ‘fight or survive’!)

The team manages to do a leap-and-fly to a nearby structure and try to escape through and around the buildings, some still under construction. Dirk gets a nice land-and-jump off of a crane’s hook. But they reach a point when they have to hit the street again –to find that more civilians there, ready to hit them.

Aggie –not Dirk- says they might have to fight back, since the civilians under Galactors control will follow them regardless. I’m also hoping that they’ve realized that the whole city’s been zapped.

Ace is sweating and looking severely stressed.

A manhole cover opens, and a little hand grabs Ace’s ankle. A little head follows, and a little boy, maybe four or five, invites them to use his ‘escape route’.
Down the hole they go, Dirk last; he leaves a ‘present’ for the mob, a nice little sparkler that flashes and burns and discourages the brainwaved civilians from following. (According to the original Gatch, he’s welding the cover shut.)

Ace: “I’m afraid we’ve arrived too late. The entire population of Calamar is under Galactor’s control.” The city, obviously yes. How do you know the whole country’s affected, All-Seeing G-1?

Aggie wonders how Galactor took control of so many people.

The little boy, tugging on Ace’s cape says that ‘all of a sudden’ everybody got nasty, even his parents. He asks, “Can’t you make them the way they were before?” This little boy always tugs on my heartstrings. Poor kid.

Dirk: “The question is, if everyone’s under Galactor’s control, why isn’t this boy?” Valid question.

Aggie asks if the little boy comes down ‘here’ –the sewer- a lot to play, and if it’s his secret hideout. The little kid proudly says that he’s ‘the only one who knows ‘bout it.”

Screeching brakes for a minute. What the HECK are this kid’s parents doing all day, that he can get into the sewer system to play and BOTH parents’ not notice that he’s not where they can find him? I have two kids, and I try to make sure I at least know the general area they’re in, whether it’s out in the yard, a friend’s house… But I digress.

Back to the show.

Ace figures out that the radio wave that gave them such a headache is what’s controlling the populace, but that the wave doesn’t penetrate underground. (Something of a problem for certain types of radio waves, as I understand.) And for the wave to cover the whole city, the best place for the control mechanism to be would be somewhere reasonably centrally located and with the right equipment and power. In other words, the city’s biggest radio station.

Ace assures the little boy that his parents will soon be back to normal. The little boy says, “Do you promise?”

Ace: “Well, I never make promises to strangers. What’s your name? “

Little Boy: “I’m Joey. You gotta promise by hooking pinkies with me.”

Ace does so. Joey says the promise is that they will make his parents the way before, and that he’ll be their friend forever. He’s a cute little kid.

Apparently Aggie thinks so. She’s got this look on her face that combines how sweet, isn’t he cute, and isn’t he adorable. I wonder if Ace is watching.

So the team sneak up to the radio center through the sewers, and then into the building (taking out a few guards along the way).

Commercial break!

More to come!

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Candi

Hollywood is a land of money and cowardice.

-Henry A. Lee, Cracked.com columnist