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| Bowie is separated from his squad in the maze-like alien ship. |
Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross - Labyrinth Opera House.
Original Air Date - Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross: May 27, 1984. Writer: Tomoko Kawasaki. Director: Tsukasa Sunaga.
Robotech - The Trap
Original Air Date - Robotech: May 2, 1985.
Story Editor: Steve Kramer. Supervising Director: Robert V. Barron.
PLOT - SOUTHERN CROSS
Jeanne's squad has breached the crashed Zor ship. Their mission is to gather intelligence about their enemies, and the plan is for helmet monitors to broadcast everything they see to their superiors. But it doesn't take long for that plan to be disrupted.
The broadcast cuts out almost immediately. Electronic eyes watch the humans as they progress. Doors are opened or closed to separate them into smaller groups and to direct their progress. Gen. Emerson's plan had been for Jeanne and her people to gain information. In reality, the Zor are studying them, like scientists watching rats in a maze.
Then squad members begin vanishing...
PLOT - ROBOTECH:
Dana's squad has breached the crashed alien ship. Their mission is to gather intelligence about the enemy, and the plan is for helmet monitors to broadcast everything they see to their superiors. But it doesn't take long for that plan to be disrupted.
The broadcast cuts out almost immediately. Electronic eyes watch the humans as they progress. Doors are opened or closed to separate them into smaller groups and to direct their progress. Gen. Emerson's plan had been for Dana and her people to gain information. In reality, the Robotech Masters are studying them, like scientists watching rats in a maze.
Then squad members begin vanishing...
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| Jeanne investigates the ship, unaware that she and her squad are being watched. |
CHARACTERS:
Early in the episode, Jeanne orders two men to stand guard at the entrance. At the end, as she and her squad escape, she is horrified to see the bodies of those same men, dead because of her orders. They weren't even bad orders; guarding the entrance is a pretty basic precaution. Nevertheless, the tag makes clear that she feels a strong sense of guilt. Robotech removes the tag, so Dana's reaction is reduced to the close-up of her staring at the bodies.
Advantage: Southern Cross.
NARRATION:
There is one amusingly bad moment in which the Robotech narrator spells out that Dana's squad is being watched over close-ups of the cameras in the walls watching them. We have eyes, Mr. Narrator! Outside of that one instance, the narration stays out of the way of a generally very good episode.
Advantage: Southern Cross
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| Our first sight of the Zor in Southern Cross, but just the latest of several appearances by the Masters in Robotech. |
CUTS AND ALTERATION:
The Zor Leaders Are Revealed; the Robotech Masters Just Return: More a difference of context than content, but still worth commenting on. This is the first Southern Cross episode to show us the Zor leaders, which makes their appearance noteworthy in itself. By contrast, Robotech first showed us the Masters a good fifteen episodes ago, then showed them again in Dana's Story. As a result, their first scene just doesn't have the same impact.
The Robotech Masters Speak. Too Much: Even though this episode shows us Zor of different apparent ranks and classes, the aliens retain a mysterious and otherworldly nature because they are completely silent. The civilians stare at Jeanne and her squad; the guards chase them; the leaders exchange looks and nods as they plot against them. Not a single one ever says a word.
The Robotech episode changes this. As Dana and her squad move deeper into the ship, an observing guard gives a maniacal laugh (TM). Other guards bark at the humans to not move. The Masters all but narrate their every move. It's a very good episode in both versions, but having the aliens speak (worse: having them never shut up) costs Robotech a great deal of the original's atmosphere.
Bowie and the Mystery Woman: When Southern Cross's Bowie encounters a mystery woman playing a space harp, he initially thinks that she's a human captive of the Zor. He even asks her if she's a prisoner. Robotech's Bowie never seems to even consider that she's anything but an alien, babbling about how music is the "universal language" when he isn't outright drooling over the poor girl.
"Intelligence Says They're Clones": Robotech drops this gem when Dana's squad notices that there are three of each individual civilian. Recall the previous episode, which explicitly stated that the entire reason for this mission was that the humans knew NOTHING about the aliens. Emerson was still wondering if they might be Zentraedi! So where did "Intelligence" get this information? Oh, right - the script.
Charles Recognizes the Trap; Sean Does Not: Southern Cross's Charles - who, remember, was sharp enough to have been the squad leader before his behavior got him demoted - realizes that the squad is being herded into a trap. He's calm about it, flatly stating that there's nothing to do except wait for events to play out, but he recognizes what is happening. His Robotech counterpart, Sean, is an imbecile who complains about being bored and who thinks the aliens all fled before they arrived.
The Ending: Robotech ends with the squad successfully escaping from the enemy ship. This works perfectly well. It resolves the plot, and an extra line dubbed over the final freeze frame establishes a plot point for the next episode. Southern Cross keeps going, however, offering an epilogue in which Jeanne and Andrzej reflect on the redshirts who didn't make it while Bowie thinks about the mysterious woman he encountered. I like this ending much better, as it demonstrates that the plot events had an impact on the characters.
Advantage: Southern Cross.
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| A mysterious alien woman plays a space harp. Her music is much better in Southern Cross. |
INCIDENTAL MUSIC:
Southern Cross's score continues the series' style of using rock-inspired soundtracks, but its music still establishes an effective otherwordly atmosphere. Also, Southern Cross's space harp makes a sound that is alien, but that's still definitely music. In Robotech, the space harp creates such an atonal mishmash that I actually laughed when Bowie declared it "beautiful." As for the incidentals, Robotech applies them well - but it's just the same basic tracks, at least one of which is used twice.
Advantage: Southern Cross.
OVERALL ADVANTAGE - SOUTHERN CROSS:
Both versions of this episode are good, but I found every change made for Robotech to be for the worse. Angelo and Sean are much dumber than Andrzej and Charles, and for no particular reason. The silent Zor of Southern Cross are mysterious, while the chatty Robotech Masters feel generic and even boring in the exact same scenes. Finally, while there's nothing wrong with Robotech's ending, Southern Cross epilogue closes out an otherwise plot-heavy installment with an effective character beat.
Oh, and Labyrinth Opera House is a vastly more evocative episode title than The Trap.
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| Zor civilians. In Robotech, Earth Intelligence is already aware of them, despite knowing nothing about the ship last episode. |
OTHER MUSINGS:
In either version and by either title, this is a top-notch episode. The squad seems in control at the very start, only to split into smaller and smaller groups until they're left entirely vulnerable. The story is well paced, with enough action to keep things moving without overwhelming the sense of mystery or the revelations.
My only complaint has to do with the two redshirts who die guarding the entrance. Jeanne feels guilt at their deaths, but the audience feels nothing. When Ensign Kenny beams down with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, you already know what his fate is going to be. This is the same issue. Imagine how much more dramatic these deaths would be if Louis, or Charles, or Andrzej was among them.
This is one of the major ways Southern Cross doesn't live up to Macross. When Macross needed a character's death to deliver an emotional blow, it wasn't shy about killing off regulars. A future episode might prove me wrong; but at this moment, Southern Cross's main characters all seem to be defended by impenetrable Plot Armor.
Still, that's more of an overall observation about this series. As an episode, this is generally excellent and is easily Southern Cross's best installment to date.
Overall Rating - Southern Cross: 9/10.
Overall Rating - Robotech: 8/10.
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