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| The group finds an amnesiac woman in the ruins of a destroyed village. |
Genesis Climber Mospeada: Requiem of the Battlefield.
Original Air Date - Genesis Climber Mospeada: Dec. 4, 1983. Writer: Ryo Yasumura. Director: Mari Kobayashi.
Robotech: Enter Marlene.
Original Air Date - Robotech: June 7, 1985.
Story Editor: Steve Kramer. Supervising Director: Robert V. Barron.
PLOT - MOSPEADA:
Stig and his group arrive at Point K, a staging area that was preselected as a base for the assault on Reflex Point. Stig looks forward to reuniting with thousands of his fellow soldiers, certain that even the Inbit will be no match for a force of this strength.
They arrive to discover that Point K has been turned into a ruin. The soldiers are all dead, their equipment destroyed. Even the local village has been wiped out, for no reason other than being too close to the base.
Stig goes into an immediate depression. Jim and Yellow give him space while checking the area for parts and equipment, while Houquet and Ray investigate the village. In the destroyed settlement, they find one apparent survivor - a mysterious young woman who remembers nothing, not even her name, and whose speech seems to be limited to parroting back what is said to her.
They bring her back to the camp with them, while the unseen Inbit watch their every move...
PLOT - ROBOTECH:
Scott and his group arrive at Point K, an advanced base specifically prepared by Admiral Hunter to house troops and equipment to resist any alien invasion. Scott looks forward to reuniting with thousands of his fellow soldiers, certain that even the Invid will be no match for a force of this strength.
They arrive to discover that Point K has been turned into a ruin. The soldiers are all dead, their equipment destroyed. Even the local village has been wiped out, for no reason other than being too close to the base.
Scott goes into an immediate depression. Lunk and Lancer give him space while checking the area for parts and equipment, while Rand and Rook investigate the village. In the destroyed settlement, they find a mysterious young woman who remembers nothing, not even her name, and whose speech seems to be limited to parroting back what is said to her.
This woman is actually an Invid simulagent, designed to infiltrate the humans' ranks and gather intelligence. Ray and Rook play right into this plan by assuming that she's a survivor from the village. They bring her back to camp, while the unseen Invid watch their every move...
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| The destroyed base throws Stig into an immediate depression. |
CHARACTERS:
Every one of the regulars gets something to do, and they are all used well.
Stig spends most of the running time in a state of shock. It's only when the Inbit attack, and more specifically attack the young woman Ray and Houquet rescued, that he snaps out of it. The woman reminds him of Marlene, his fiancée who was killed by the Inbit, and her peril spurs him to action.
Jim and Yellow, themselves both veterans, are initially understanding about Stig's reaction. They give him space while seeing what they salvage from the devastation - and as it happens, they salvage quite a lot. Jim loses his temper when Stig snaps at Mint, and Yellow has to intercede to keep the two from coming to blows.
Ray and Houquet are paired once again as they investigate the town. Ray, who has mostly taken everything in stride, has a flash of genuine anger when he sees a family photo in an empty house and realizes that innocent civilians were murdered for no reason other than proximity.
Advantage: None.
NARRATION:
Mospeada lets the scene play out wordlessly, showing the Inbit dropping an egg into the ruins of the town below. The visual sequence, combined with the overall context, makes clear enough what's going on. This isn't good enough for Robotech, whose narrator spells out for us that the Invid are planting an agent bred to appear as human. This clarifies something that isn't confusing, once again showing that Robotech doesn't trust its young audience to fill in even the smallest of blanks.
Advantage: Mospeada.
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| The Inbit make a delivery and then observe the results. Robotech spells out everything with narration. |
CUTS AND ALTERATION:
The Nature of Point K: In Mospeada, Point K is the Mars Base 7th Division's staging area, selected to serve as a base to attack Reflex Point. Robotech changes this to fit with the context of the previous arcs. Now Point K was established by Admiral Hunter before he left Earth, its mission to fight off whatever enemy might come - which, given the previous invasions, makes sense, though it does leave me wondering exactly what they were waiting for during the war with the Robotech Masters.
Annie Cheers on Scott: Mospeada's Mint looks forward to reaching the base because there will be single men there. Since this aspect of the character has been de-emphasized in Robotech, Annie just cheers Scott during the approach.
The Invid Regess Talks. A Lot: Mospeada's Inbit hide and observe Ray and Houquet as they find the strange woman and take her back to camp. At one point, an Inbit mech prepares to fire on the humans, only for its leader to stop it. This, and all of the scenes with the Inbit, are conveyed visually. Robotech doesn't do silence, though; so in the American show, the Invid Regess talks over all of these scenes, effectively narrating all of the alien actions.
Stig Mentally Berates Himself: After Stig snaps at Mint, he mentally berates himself, wondering why he can't snap out of his depression. This is one of my favorite character beats of not just this episode, but all of Mospeada to this point... so of course Robotech changes it. Scott still gets an internal monologue, but he wonders why the others are crazy enough to think there's still a chance against the Invid. The replacement line is fine, and it's well delivered by voice actor Greg Snegoff. It just doesn't carry the same emotional weight.
Advantage: Mospeada.
INCIDENTAL MUSIC:
Mospeada has a standout moment early on. During the approach to Point K, as Stig anticipates being part of a larger unit again, an instrumental version of the theme song (Lonely Soldier Boy) plays, musically building up the moment - and increasing the blow when he sees what the Inbit have made of the base.
Robotech's score is well applied, but there's no similar standout moment. The episode also recycles the theme during the climactic action scene - and, as has been true in most of the series' episodes that have used the theme as incidental music, it distracts rather than enhances. Don't get me wrong, the Robotech them is terrific as a theme. However, with only a couple of rare exceptions, it has rarely worked when used as in-episode music.
Advantage: Mospeada.
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| The group, with its newest addition, is attacked by the Inbit. |
OVERALL ADVANTAGE - NONE:
As has been true throughout Mospeada, changes are minor: over-clarification of plot points the Robotech writers worry the after-school audience will miss and some adjustments to backstory to fit the altered context. Robotech's scripts tend to be more polished for the "big" episodes, and that continues to be the case ehre. There's very little of the clunkiness that has sometimes marred the series.
The result is that the two versions are extremely close in quality. I'd quibble that I find it more interesting to watch the Inbit's actions than to have the Regess's voice dubbed over all of them... but for the most part, this is the same viewing experience in either version.
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| The ruins of Point K. |
OTHER MUSINGS:
It took ten shows, but Genesis Climber Mospeada finally delivers a great episode. Requiem of the Battlefield is perfectly paced, offering strong moments for every member of the ensemble. This is Stig's best character episode yet. His shock and bitterness convince. I was particularly struck by his self-recrimination in Mospeada, after he snaps at Mint and wonders why he's unable to just pull himself out of it. Anyone who has ever experienced a period of depression (or even work burnout) should be able to relate to that moment.
This is also a particularly good-looking episode. The artwork is a notch above the series' usual (already pretty decent) standard. I was struck by several images: the series of shots showing the ruins of Point K; the shot of the cracked family photo in the empty house in the village; and the revelation of the mysterious young woman, sitting naked in a dark room, bathed in a single ray of light.
In a series that up to now has offered a bunch of standalone episodes, the use of continuity stands out. Stig remembers first Marlene and then Lt. Commander Jonathan; and though the young woman is currently a figure of mystery, it's evident enough that her presence is connected to the experiment in Lost World Fugue. For the first time since the initial episodes, the series actually feels as if it's building to something.
Overall Rating: 10/10.
Previous Episode: Lost World Fugue/The Genesis Pit
Next Episode: Lullaby of Distant Hope/The Secret Route
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