Star Wars: Droids Review, Episode 6

Back in the original Star Wars, C-3PO expresses his distaste for space travel. As this episode opens, we get a glimpse into why. The ship's pilot is the mysterious "Iron Pants," who immediately reveals herself to be Jessica Meade. You probably remember her as the lady who saved Jann's bacon last week before being tossed aside. Well, she's back. But there's no time for romance, as the ship is attacked by the notorious pirate Kybo Ren. That's right, the primary bad guy from the sequel trilogy stole his name from a cartoon pirate based on a racist stereotype. Kybo is able to do some damage, but he's fended off by IG-88 who is trying to capture good old Mon Julpa.

When the group lands on Julpa's home planet of Tammuz-an, we learn that he must present and place his scepter on some tower at dawn to become king. This seems like an odd way to choose a leader, but is it any worse than letting the people choose their own leader? I would argue that it isn't. Anyway, there's some evil vizier that wants to get a hold of the scepter. I don't know his name, so I'm going to call him Jafar. The group immediately splits up, with Jessica in the hospital, Jann chasing after Jafar's inept buddy, and the droids just wandering away to leave Mon Julpa alone. Mon Julpa is immediately captured by IG-88.

With Julpa captured, Jann and the droids travel through a secret passage with a series of Indiana Jones-style traps. The passage conveniently leads into the pit where Julpa is being fed to some kind of scary creature. Fortunately C-3PO and R2-D2 are there to save the day! While 3PO does his trademark "nothing useful," R2 figures out that the creature is actually not mean, but has giant bugs stuck on its tail. He quickly takes care of that problem and makes a new friend. Now it's time to race to the tower to do that scepter thing.

It's time for a good old Mini-Rig Battle! The Tammuz-an castle was apparently big fans of Kenner's low pricepoint line. They had Sand Skimmers, Imperial Snipers, and, most importantly, Desert Sail Skiffs. The Desert Sail Skiffs are like miniature Sail Barges. In fact, if you bought a Haslab Sail Barge and stood in it, it would be like riding a Desert Sail Skiff! That's worth the money right there. Each character picks a rig and joins the game of hot potato with the scepter. Even C-3PO gets an Imperial Sniper and bumbles his way around. Despite its slapstick tone, this sequence works pretty well. The culmination involves C-3PO and R2 playing their version of "Giant Doctor" and tricking Jafar. Mon Julpa completes his coronation ritual and Jafar is dragged away to prison. Jann, Jessica, and the droids are all given cushy government jobs in the new administration.

After the first 4 episodes the pace of things seems to have picked up considerably. There's just more going on. We still continue the thing where the heroes are getting captured every week, but I guess that's the easiest way to force action. IG-88 was completely wasted in this episode, but I guess they want to keep some cameos going. I'm hoping for a Lobot appearance next week. Again, the storyline here is all cliche, but it works OK. My only real complaint is that Jessica Meade is out of the action for much of the episode. She's way more interesting than Jann.

Best Moment: (5:15) Jessica Meade uses a battering ram in space. Clearly Admiral Raddus stole this technique from her.

Most WTF Moment: (7:42) C-3PO falls for the "your shoe's untied" trick. Come on, man. Have some dignity.

---

comments powered by Disqus