Star Wars: Skeleton Crew: Season 1: Episode 6: Zero Friends Again
What is it ? : After escaping through the trap door, the kids go sliding down a series of tunnels, emerging at the base of the mountain. As they try to work out what is happening, Wim encounters some talking Trash Crabs, which tell him they are friends. He tries to convince the group to go with the crabs, but Fern wants to climb the mountain back to the ship. KB thinks it's a bad idea, so the group ends up splitting in two, with Wim and KB following the crabs, and Neel and Fern climbing the mountain.
Meanwhile, Jod emerges back to the hotel to take the ship, but the pirates are waiting for him and capture him, so he orders SM-33 to defend him, but the droid is shot and shuts down. The pirates load Jod and SM-33 onto their ship as they detect incoming X-Wings, and one of the pirate ships is destroyed, as the other escapes.
As they follow the Crabs, KB begins to slow down, and she stops, telling Wim that her implants are malfunctioning. She instructs him on a way of creating a new fuse to repair them, telling him that she got the implants after an accident, and since then she's been afraid of admitting to Fern that she's just not capable of as much as she used to be.
Wim creates a new fuse and installs it, but KB shuts down completely, before rebooting and now she is completely fine, thanking Wim for saving her life.
Meanwhile climbing the mountain, Neel is falling behind, and explains that his species just aren't built for climbing, so Fern gets a rope and helps him. They reach towards the top, and see craft lifting their ship off the pad and beginning to carry it away, so they leap onto one of the craft as it passes beneath them.
KB and Wim follow the Trash Crabs, only to discover despite what they have been saying, they're not friends, they actually are leading them to a much larger Trash Crab as food.
Meanwhile, Jod has been taken back to the pirate base, and is given time to argue against the death sentence they have put on him, and he promises them all to become rich, that he can stop them being hungry and poor, and grant them the riches to follow their dreams. But the current Pirate Captain, Brutus, tells him that his time is up and drags him over to an airlock.
Fern has taken control of the Salvage Craft, and pilots it to rescue Wim and KB, but as they fly away, the giant Trash Crab hurls something at one of the other craft destroying it, and causing them all to crash.
KB and Fern make up, with KB admitting that she's been scared to let Fern know that she isn't as capable as she was before her accident, and Fern saying she doesn't care because she's her best friend. They then head to the ship to find it in the path of a giant garbage masher, so they leap aboard, but really don't know how to pilot the ship, so Wim charges to the turret to shoot at the garbage masher, but after a few shots declares it to be too indestructible.
Not knowing what else to do, and as the Garbage Masher starts crushing one end of the ship, they remember a button that SM-33 told them never to press, and having no other option they press it, and the Onyx Cinder detaches parts of it's hull flying free of the Garbage Masher, coming out as a much more sleek version of itself. . . .
High Points : There's a few small elements to this episode which I found outstanding, the moment where Wim is repairing KB's cybernetic implant is a really excellent moment between the two. We really haven't seen enough of KB, and I'll be really disappointed if this was her big moment.
I also really liked the little Trash Crabs, which seem to speak, but mainly just seem to be echoing back what is spoken to them, so when Wim asks them if they're friends, they keep repeating the word friends, leading to him trusting them. But in reality, they're far more like carnivorous plants which lure in their prey, leading Wim and KB back to their much larger, and much hungrier Monster Trash Crab.
Low Points : But what this episode really feels like is the one that they always do, where they move the characters around to put them in place for the finale. So not much really happens in this one, the kids get back to the ship, and Jod tells the pirates of the treasure he can lead them to.
Star Wars series always seem to have this episode, and it's a great weakness in their story telling, instead of it naturally flowing from beginning to end, the parts of the story are heavily delineated, and we're now moving onto the end.
Oh, and not a major problem, but I did find it amusing that the big fancy expensive hotel looks out onto a trash dump beneath the mountain. The kind of beautiful view that you pay top money at a hotel for?
So what do you really think ? : As I mention above, this is definitely the standard Star Wars series episode where you're just moving the pieces into the positions you need them in for the finale. And the entirety of the episode could have been compressed into a couple of scenes, so feels fairly pointless.
Final Words : So, the kids have the ship, KB has the co-ordinates, as does Jod. So the kids can get back to At-Attin, and Jod can lead the pirates there, so the kids will return and bring the chaos of the rest of the galaxy to their peaceful home.
The only major remaining mystery and plot point which needs resolved, is where is the original captain of the Onyx Cinder? Are they one of the kids parents? Are they the leader of the world? Or was he just one of the bodies encountered on the ship originally.
Score : 8.5/10
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