Star Wars: Skeleton Crew: Season 1: Episode 5: You Have a Lot to Learn About Pirates
What is it ? : On At-Attin, the parents of the kids are working together to try to find a way of contacting the Republic to help their missing children, not aware that the Republic fell a long time ago.
The kids reawaken SM-33 worried about him attacking them again, but Fern uses her status as Captain to order him to reveal the location of At-Attin. But he doesn't know it, but he knows his former captain stored it in his fortress, and he knows where that is, so they head there to break into the fortress.
When they arrive they discover the world is Lanupa, and Jod finds this hilarious as it's now a pleasure planet. They are intercepted, and Jod talks the fighters into allowing them to land, and then uses the kids Old Republic Credits to bribe their way in to a luxury hotel.
Jod is recognised by a bounty hunter, who informs the Pirates who have put out a bounty for him, but he is also recognised by security, but they all escape into the caves beneath the hotel.
After going through various traps, they reach the treasure chamber. Jod warns them not to touch anything as the treasure will be trapped, but to look for anything out of place, and Neel spots a fresh piece of meat on a table covered with rotting food. When he reaches for it, the floor collapses into a tunnel, before resetting.
They find the data and SM-33 accesses it, projecting a flickering unrecognisable hologram of the former captain, which reveals the true value of At-Attin as a treasure planet is that it has a mint for Republic Credits, so can manufacture money.
Jod wants this, so challenges under the pirate code Fern for the Captains job, holding a knife at her throat, asking her to submit, she needs to say the words to transfer command of SM-33 to him. She refuses, and Wim grabs a lightsaber from the treasure challenging Jod with it, but when he ignites it the wrong end lights up and he drops the sword.
Fern submits to Jod, and he orders SM-33 to take them prisoner for mutiny, but they trigger the floor trap by the table and drop out of sight. Jod pulls the lightsaber to him using the force . . . .
High Points : Jods obvious betrayal was fairly obvious, but I did like that they gave him a prize so big that almost nobody could resist it, the ability to make money itself by having an Old Republic mint. And the reason why At-Attin's existence was hidden becomes apparent as well, that it is so valuable that you need to deny criminals and your enemy any knowledge of it's location.
It's also quite funny that during the time that SM-33 has been deactivated, the treasure world of the Pirate that commanded him has become a pleasure world covered with high class hotels.
Low Points : While it was amusing seeing Wim trying to be a hero, and grabbing the lightsaber to challenge Jod, it was annoying to see him clumsily drop it, rather than just having Jod yank it from his hands with the force. The episode had to make Wim look like a fool, rather than just being a kid and less capable of violence than an adult. You could even have had SM-33 disarm him because he was interfering with a legitimate challenge for the captains position.
So what do you really think ? : Another solid episode, not going where I thought it was going to go, as last episode I thought we were going to have them visiting all the treasure worlds to try to find one where the co-ordinates of At-Attin still existed. But instead we've got the former captain of the Onyx Cinder having stored them in a treasure vault. Never before has a show which feels like the Goonies, felt so much like the Goonies.
Final Words : So, it makes me wonder how the show will go now. The kids can't fly a ship, so unless they can con Jod to transfer control back to them, he can convince them that he's the best option, the kids have no way off this planet.
Will they join up with the Pirates, or be captured by them to follow Jod to At-Attin. Will the New Republic come to their rescue and help take them home? But neither of those options have the co-ordinates to At-Attin, unless of course the parents back on At-Attin manage to contact the New Republic, and share their location, re-opening contact between the two.
Score : 9/10
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