 |
| Bowie is determined to protect Musica. |
Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross: Daydream.
Original Air Date - Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross: Sept. 9, 1984. Writer: Tadashi Terada. Director: Yoshihito Hata.
Robotech: Daydreamer.
Original Air Date - Robotech: May 21, 1985.
Story Editor: Steve Kramer. Supervising Director: Robert V. Barron.
PLOT - SOUTHERN CROSS
The 15th prepares to return home, but they have a problem: Musica. She's a Zor civilian and, as such, would be immediately subject to interrogation. But she also saved their lives and that, combined with Bowie's feelings for her, leaves them feeling obligated to protect her.
Jeanne and Charles stage a distraction when they land, and they successfully keep Lana from finding Musica. But their behavior draws Lana's suspicions, and it isn't long before she starts investigating in earnest.
Meanwhile, Seifriet's feelings of guilt and anger lead him to reckless action...
PLOT - ROBOTECH:
The 15th prepares to return home, but they have a problem: Musica. She's an enemy civilian and, as such, would be immediately subject to interrogation. But she also saved their lives and that, combined with Bowie's feelings for her, leaves them feeling obligated to protect her.
Dana and Sean stage a distraction when they land, and they successfully keep Nova from finding Musica. But their behavior draws Nova's suspicions, and it isn't long before she starts investigating in earnest.
Meanwhile, Zor's feelings of guilt and anger lead him to reckless action...
 |
| Andrzej confronts Seifriet. |
CHARACTERS:
This is a character-centric episode, so there is unsurprisingly a lot of good character material.
Jeanne is at her most emotional, protecting the two lovers above all else. When Lana confronts her, she could argue for her actions on logical grounds: Claude Leon's overzealous interrogation resulted in the death of the (entirely human) bioroid pilot who was captured before Seifriet. The same happening to Musica is a legitimate worry, particularly now that Claude has unopposed control, and that could cost them a valuable resource. Instead, Jeanne insults Lana as "hard-hearted" and insists that love is more important than the war (try telling that to the families of any of the dead).
But Jeanne's ability to make intuitive leaps is also spotlighted. When Musica sings a Zor legend about flowers of light, Jeanne connects that to the flowers that she, Bowie, and Seifriet saw earlier, a jump that seems poised to lead directly to the events of the final episodes.
Musica feels guilt on two counts: abandoning her sisters, whom we see taken to the prison sector for those whose identicals have gone; and the trouble she's causing for Jeanne and the 15th. Bowie sees only the woman he loves, and he tells Musica that it's important to remember that the war will eventually end.
Seifriet also feels guilt - along with a fair bit of anger. The Zor used him as a weapon against his own people. Now that his memories are restored, he is furious at the Zor, and at Andrzej for saving him when he intended to go out in a blaze of glory. Andrzej responds by decking him and chastising him for wanting to die "a hero" when so many of their comrades have simply died namelessly in the carnage of the war.
Advantage: Southern Cross.
NARRATION:
Both recaps are poor. Southern Cross's recap is merely clunky, however, while Robotech's narrator launching into a dizzyingly complex summary of all the backstory surrounding Zor Prime. How about just sticking to what's directly relevant to the episode? The Robotech episode also seems to think that we need narration over almost every scene transition, I guess because cutting from one location to another is confusing rather than something that occurs in practically every movie or television program ever made.
Advantage: Southern Cross.
 |
| The Zor worry about dwindling energy, while the Robotech Masters fret about the Invid Flower of Life. |
CUTS AND ALTERATION:
The Fake Injury: In Southern Cross, Charles distracts Lana's attention by being carried on a stretcher for a supposedly injured ankle. Robotech makes it even sillier by having Sean's feigned injury be to his big toe. A change for the stupid, as Sean's "big toe" lie couldn't have been better calculated to draw suspicion.
The Masters and the Flower of Life: The Zor leaders in Southern Cross are concerned about their low energy levels, which are giving rise to emotions and individuality in the younger generation. They need the flower on Gloire in order to replenish that energy source. In Robotech, the plant is now "the Invid Flower of Life," which infects the protoculture the Masters need, rendering it useless. This is a significant change in context that will almost certainly lead to further changes in the remaining episodes.
Bowie's Choice of Music: The squad meets in a bar, with Bowie playing the piano to everyone else's applause. When they call for an encore, Bowie obliges. In Southern Cross, he plays a piano version of Musica's song, which stirs up emotional responses from both Musica and Seifriet. In Robotech, he just plays a piano version of Minmei's It's Me, which has no direct link to the responses of the other characters.
Andrzej and Seifriet vs. Angelo and Zor: Seifriet is angry that Andrzej saves him from a hero's death... something that only happened in Southern Cross, which means that their confrontation is heavily rewritten in Robotech. The writers actually do a decent job of this, with Zor angry not at Angelo but at himself for surviving. But it can't help but be weaker than the original, though, and it wouldn't be necessary but for an entirely senseless change made by the previous episode.
Bowie Explains Musica's Feelings to Her: Southern Cross's Bowie responds well to Musica's guilt as he reassures her that she's neither an enemy nor an inconvenience. In Robotech, however, he decides to helpfully explain her own feelings to her. This, um, doesn't come across as the sensitive, romantic gesture that I think it's intended to be.
Musica's Song: Musica sings of the flower, prompting Jeanne/Dana to make the connection between her song and the flowers she saw in the cave. In Southern Cross, Musica is singing what she believes is just a legend with no basis in reality. In Robotech, with the flower now a harbinger of the Invid, she tells Dana that she hopes that isn't the flower she saw in the ruins of the SDF-1, as that flower is "often accompanied by great evil."
Advantage: Southern Cross.
INCIDENTAL MUSIC:
Southern Cross's score is beautifully used throughout, with incidentals very restrained and with Musica's songs used in ways that are emotionally effective while also pushing the story forward. Robotech also applies its music well - but those tracks are extremely well worn by now, which blunts the effectiveness considerably.
Advantage: Southern Cross.
 |
| Lana suspects that Jeanne's squad is hiding something. |
OVERALL ADVANTAGE - SOUTHERN CROSS:
The Southern Cross episode is outstanding, a fine character piece that also does some important work in pushing the plot toward the finale. These virtues are also true of Robotech. However, the Americanized version suffers from changes, particularly to the excellent Andrzej/Seifriet confrontation. The corresponding Angelo/Zor argument is far less effective, which is almost entirely because of a pointless change made to the last episode.
This, combined with Robotech's ongoing problem with bad dialogue, makes the original version a considerably better viewing experience.
OTHER MUSINGS:
Daydream benefits from having the characters behave in ways that make sense for their situation. Every character gets at least something to do. Andrzej and Seifriet are furious at each other: Seifriet for being denied a hero's death that would have released him from his guilt; Andrzej at what he sees as Seifriet's disrespect to the many soldiers who have already died in this war. Bowie wants to protect Musica. Jeanne, carried away by emotion, wants to protect the lovers at least in part because they are lovers. Charles is up for a bit of scheming and mischief. The more analytical Louis sees the overall situation they've gotten themselves into and worries that they're in over their heads.
All of this is well-written. The external conflict, with Lana, is also well-structured, with her suspicions gradually building throughout. The Southern Cross version doesn't put a foot wrong. There are no battle scenes or explosions here - just very good character writing. The result may just be my favorite episode of the series.
The Robotech version is plagued by... well, Robotech dialogue. The odd clunky line doesn't hurt the action-heavy episodes, but that same issue can be lethal to character-based ones.
Dana's lines are particularly bad ("Now, you listen here!"), and she is written more two-dimensionally than Southern Cross's Jeanne is. It's still a good episode - but unlike Southern Cross, I do not consider this Robotech installment to be a great episode.
Overall Rating - Southern Cross: 10/10.
Overall Rating - Robotech: 7/10.
Previous Episode: Crisis/Crisis Point
Next Episode: Nightmare/Final Nightmare
Review Index
To receive new review updates, follow me:
On Twitter:
On Threads:
No comments:
Post a Comment