CONTAINS SPOILERS
The second episode of Space Force follows immediately from the first; with General Naird and Doctor Mallory witnessing (via an implausibly powerful telescope) the sabotage of the Epsilon 6 probe they had just launched.
There's an F-bomb from each of them, before they return to mission control to work out what's happened and what can be done about it. It seems the language in this show is the only thing that's definitely strong, because the characters, plot and script are definitely not quite there yet.
This episode focuses on the struggle to reattach the two solar panels to the Epsilon 6 probe - there's problem-solving, brainstorming and so on. The struggle is largely between the inept but in-charge General Naird, and the sensible but obstructive scientists (we meet more of them in this episode). The General wants to use a bomb to blow the solar panels back onto the probe (there's a convenient plot device which states that the panels only need to touch the probe to work). After all, in the Air Force, using a bomb is always the best answer - is that a political comment, or is it funny; neither, or both?
The scientists want to try a more elegant approach, which is, in all honesty, probably more likely to succeed, and they are conveniently sidelined. This episode is about the relationship (or lack of it) between Naird and Mallory, and the pressurised situation of trying to rescue the Epsilon 6 is a good background for it. Both men have skills and knowledge that the other needs, but neither of them will accept that yet.
One character who is not conveniently sidelined is the social media marketing idiot, Tony. I'm sorry, but he brings nothing to the story at all, and if anything, he detracts from it. He is an obstruction to the story and the plot, and a distraction from the better characters (as in, all the other characters). He needs toning down or kicking out. At the end of the last episode, Naird had put him in jail, which worked for me. Sadly however, in this episode, he's back and getting in everybody's way.
The final solution that Naird proposes is to use a monkey from a nearby orbiting spacecraft (convenient, but it works) which was recently launched, and get it to fix the Epsilon 6's solar panels. Cue visual comedy about communicating with a very unhappy monkey through sign language, and finally persuading it to fix the Epsilon 6. The visual comedy reached farcical proportions as the monkey used a power drill/power screwdriver to reattach the solar panels - when the bolts stopped turning, the laws of physics dictate that the drill needs to start turning instead, and the monkey (still holding the drill) starts spinning around at several hundred rpm. Which is funny enough, until the monkey lets go and is launched into space. Hmmm.
The Epsilon 6 is fixed. However, the monkey is now on a collision course with the Sun, and so the brainstorming switches to 'how do we get the monkey back?'. The question is rendered moot by the end of the episode, as the Chinese space vessel (which had sabotaged the Epsilon 6) has completed an orbit, and intercepts the monkey. Coincidence? Farce? Yep.
The episode concludes with the team working out how to escalate this international (interplanetary?) incident... we shall see.
I rate this episode marginally better than the first, but if things don't improve, I'll find myself returning to planet earth and finding something else to watch. 7.5 out of 10.
The second episode of Space Force follows immediately from the first; with General Naird and Doctor Mallory witnessing (via an implausibly powerful telescope) the sabotage of the Epsilon 6 probe they had just launched.
There's an F-bomb from each of them, before they return to mission control to work out what's happened and what can be done about it. It seems the language in this show is the only thing that's definitely strong, because the characters, plot and script are definitely not quite there yet.
This episode focuses on the struggle to reattach the two solar panels to the Epsilon 6 probe - there's problem-solving, brainstorming and so on. The struggle is largely between the inept but in-charge General Naird, and the sensible but obstructive scientists (we meet more of them in this episode). The General wants to use a bomb to blow the solar panels back onto the probe (there's a convenient plot device which states that the panels only need to touch the probe to work). After all, in the Air Force, using a bomb is always the best answer - is that a political comment, or is it funny; neither, or both?
The scientists want to try a more elegant approach, which is, in all honesty, probably more likely to succeed, and they are conveniently sidelined. This episode is about the relationship (or lack of it) between Naird and Mallory, and the pressurised situation of trying to rescue the Epsilon 6 is a good background for it. Both men have skills and knowledge that the other needs, but neither of them will accept that yet.
One character who is not conveniently sidelined is the social media marketing idiot, Tony. I'm sorry, but he brings nothing to the story at all, and if anything, he detracts from it. He is an obstruction to the story and the plot, and a distraction from the better characters (as in, all the other characters). He needs toning down or kicking out. At the end of the last episode, Naird had put him in jail, which worked for me. Sadly however, in this episode, he's back and getting in everybody's way.
The final solution that Naird proposes is to use a monkey from a nearby orbiting spacecraft (convenient, but it works) which was recently launched, and get it to fix the Epsilon 6's solar panels. Cue visual comedy about communicating with a very unhappy monkey through sign language, and finally persuading it to fix the Epsilon 6. The visual comedy reached farcical proportions as the monkey used a power drill/power screwdriver to reattach the solar panels - when the bolts stopped turning, the laws of physics dictate that the drill needs to start turning instead, and the monkey (still holding the drill) starts spinning around at several hundred rpm. Which is funny enough, until the monkey lets go and is launched into space. Hmmm.
The Epsilon 6 is fixed. However, the monkey is now on a collision course with the Sun, and so the brainstorming switches to 'how do we get the monkey back?'. The question is rendered moot by the end of the episode, as the Chinese space vessel (which had sabotaged the Epsilon 6) has completed an orbit, and intercepts the monkey. Coincidence? Farce? Yep.
The episode concludes with the team working out how to escalate this international (interplanetary?) incident... we shall see.
I rate this episode marginally better than the first, but if things don't improve, I'll find myself returning to planet earth and finding something else to watch. 7.5 out of 10.
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