Ryu’s looking around now, asking where his fishing rod is, and clearly not remembering any of his “crazy” time. Maybe Ken would have reprimanded Joe here, but instead he’s focused on the fact that Ryu now seems to have come back to his senses. Ken quickly asks Ryu what he remembers. “Just try to remember something, anything, please!” says Joe now, with a hand on Ryu’s shoulder.

Well I guess Ryu probably can’t remember that you just insulted him and then decked him, Joe -which is likely a good thing, I suppose. But Ryu’s face brightens now and he says “I saw this strange looking aurora in the sky and then… well, I can’t remember anything after that.” Ken and Joe decide that the aurora must be what’s emitting the electrical waves that have been creating global interference, and that this means that the aurora must also have something to do with Galactor’s new insanity-inducing weapon.

Now Ryu is puzzled. “But how on Earth did you guys get me back to normal?” he asks.

Ken has a sudden flash of inspiration and says “Hell yeah, we’re going to fry that monkey right off his back!” I guess this means no reprimand for Joe, as his punch is what cured Ryu and might, indirectly, cure Dr. Nambu too.

Now we’re back at Dr. Nambu’s bedside, and his doctor is there along with all the Science Ninjas.







Ken is telling the doctor that they have to send a strong electric current through Dr. Nambu’s brain –“fighting poison with poison” says Joe- but the doctor is having nothing to do with this plan. Jun tries to persuade the doctor too, but he says that “Dr. Nambu’s brain is currently being controlled by the electrical waves being emitted. His brain waves are cycling vigorously, so who knows what could happen if we gave him electroshock therapy.” Ken demands to know what they should do instead, and the doctor suggests they destroy whatever is creating the electric emissions.

Ken’s okay with that plan too, and tells everyone they’re going to head out in the God Phoenix to look for the aurora that Ryu saw. Next, they’re all in birdstyle and running down the corridor to the God Phoenix’s launching bay. “If it’s what will save the Doctor, we’ll find Galactor no matter what,” says Ken, while running.







“Hell yeah,” replies Joe, “I can’t wait to blast them away with bird missiles!”






Jun isn’t so impressed with all this bravado though. “Listen, you two really need to take it easy,” she says, frowning slightly while running, “We aren’t going to be able to defeat Galactor with just bird missiles this time around, so look, I think I have a good idea. Just leave it all up to me, you dig?”

Go Jun!





They all leap up on top of the God Phoenix, but Jun doesn’t accompany the others on the dome to descend to the bridge. Rather she goes and jumps down the opening where the bird missiles are fired from, and attaches one of her little round explosive devices to a missile.





She reports to Ken that “Everything’s all set,” before heading to the bridge herself and we get the stock footage of the God Phoenix leaving the Crescent Coral Base and breaking the sea’s surface to fly into the air.

Because this is television and there’s only so much time in an episode, we immediately have Jun informing Ken that she’s located the aurora on the radar. So they head for it, and soon they get their first sight of it. Thundersaurus is faintly visible within, but I think we’re to assume the Science Ninjas can’t really see it.





On board it, Katse is berating his Captain because Dr. Nambu is still alive, and “The Science Ninja Team picked up our frequency while trying to save him!” The Captain is all apologies, and explains they couldn’t finish off Dr. Nambu because “he’s hidden in a secret base somewhere.” “I see,” says Katse, and he orders them to keep emitting the electrical waves.

Meanwhile, on the God Phoenix, they can tell that there’s something inside the aurora, using it as camouflage. “Damn it, show yourselves you filthy maggots!” says Joe. He is in true Condor form in this episode, alright. He heads straight for the red button and launches a bird missile.





“Ah damn! What the hell, it didn’t even scratch it!” he says, glaring and with his hand in a fist. Jun then notes that the aurora is acting as an electrical barrier and that the missiles can’t get through it.

Over on Thundersaurus, Katse laughs to see that the God Phoenix is out there. “They’ve got their bird missiles aimed at us,” points out the Captain, but Katse is unconcerned. “Their puny missiles can’t do any harm to the mighty Thundersaurus.”

Back on the God Phoenix, Joe isn’t listening to Jun. He angrily fires three more bird missiles (none of which do any damage) before snarling “You bastards,” and going for the button again. This time, Ken grabs his wrist. “Cool it, Joe! No matter how many we shoot, it won’t work. We’ve got to save our last shot.” Joe isn’t happy at all, but he complies.





“Thundersaurus can’t be fazed by their scrawny bird missiles,” gloats Katse, “Now it’s our turn. Prepare to attack!” he tells the Captain.

On the God Phoenix, they see that Thundersaurus is up to something and Ken quickly tells Ryu “Full stop!” What’s happening is that Thundersaurus is uncloaking from the aurora camouflage and now they can all see it clearly.





“Oh man, it looks like a lamprey eel monster!” cries Ryu. (I’ve seen many lamprey eels in Nova Scotia rivers and, no, it doesn’t look like one at all to me!)

“So you’ve finally decided to show yourselves, you Galactor freaks!” says Ken, as Joe suddenly notices that Thundersaurus’s eyes are emitting the energy beams of animal insanity. The light fills the bridge and everyone reacts with pain and discomfort.

“This is what happened when I lost it,” says Ryu, clutching his head, “It was this light that did it!”

Ken is telling Ryu to get the God Phoenix away from the beams and Ryu tries, but then gasps “I can’t control the ship because of the strong magnetic field!”

Joe’s really angry now and he wants to fire a bird missile again, but Ken argues that the beams will just block the missile, and that they have to get closer to Thundersaurus and shoot it from behind.

Now Jinpei is succumbing to the beams. As Jun anxiously tells him to “get a hold of yourself,” she tells Ken to hurry up on firing that bird missile.





Joe’s ready. He tells Ryu to charge towards Thundersaurus, “Like we’re going to ram it,” and Ryu about to do just that but suddenly Jinpei, now clearly crazed, leaps at Joe and grabs onto him. Joe actually looks frightened, but then, Jinpei looks pretty damned creepy! (Not sure what animal he is, though.)





“Jinpei, what the hell are you doing?” he says, and then Ken looks over and realizes that Jinpei’s gone crazy. But Ken’s struggling too to resist the beams power. Meanwhile, Jinpei is still clinging to Joe, kicking him frantically with his legs and snarling gibberish, and Joe is exhibiting remarkable restraint here and just taking it, but it’s not helping him fire a bird missile…





“Joe, I’m afraid we don’t have a choice!” says Ken, still straining to not succumb, “Go ahead and sock it to him!”

So, Joe punches Jinpei in the head and sends him flying.






Jinpei’s head then hits the wall, and he slumps to the floor, unconscious.





Well, Joe, at least you had permission this time. The God Phoenix, still within the beams, flies quickly towards Thundersaurus and at the last minute, Ryu is able to duck under its head, out of the beams, and slip past Thundersaurus. Out of the beams, Joe fires a missile at one of its eyes (Ken’s instructions) and this time it hits and pierces Thundersauraus, and the goons (and the Captain) in its control room are most distressed to see it and begin to flee. But, the missile doesn’t explode –it just stays lodged in Thundersaurus’s eye.

But, it does seem to be affecting the intensity of the beam coming from that eye.

Back on the God Phoenix, Ken mutters “Damn it, it still didn’t work,” and Joe wants to know what Ken thinks they should do.

“Come on, Ken,” says Jun now, “Don’t lose faith. We can get out of this.”

“But we’ve already fired all of our bird missiles,” says Ken wearily, “We’re defenseless!”

Jun says they need to get away from Thundersaurus, then, but Ryu says he’s tried everything and that hasn’t worked. Finally, Jun points out that there’s still one thing left to try, and then Ken remembers the Firebird technique.

“Exactly,” says Jun, “The Firebird may be our only chance of getting out of this mess alive.”





Joe concurs, and heads for his seat. Ken and Jun head for theirs, but first Ken puts the still unconscious Jinpei in his chair, telling him to “Hang in there, you can do it.”





So, they go Firebird, but now Thundersaurus’s beams are trained on them again. Katse isn’t impressed with their technique, and he orders the Captain to quadruple the electric frequency. The Captain points to the missile protruding through one of Thundersaurus’s eyes and says it’s interfering.





Katse orders him to increase the voltage and blow “that dud missile” away. The Captain then turns to a goon who’s only about six feet away and says “You there, increase the voltage!” You know, with Katse standing right there, I’m not sure why there needs to be a Captain on this mecha –Katse could just bypass him and give orders directly to the goons.

The goon starts upping the voltage, and now we see the missile that’s stuck in the eye from the exterior of Thundersaurus. It’s the missile that Jun attached one of her little round explosive charges to back before they left the Crescent Coral Base.








Meanwhile the God Phoenix is still in Firebird mode, and still getting hit with the beams from Thundersaurus.

“You’ll be put out of your misery soon,” laughs Katse, and he tells the Captain to give them a taste of Thundersaurus’s missiles. So the Captain then turns to the goons, who would have heard everything that Katse just said anyway, and says “Prepare to launch the missiles!” I guess they really believe in following the chain of command strictly in Galactor.

So now a missile bay opens up in Thundersaurus to reveal a missile launcher.






On board the God Phoenix everyone’s straining from being in Firebird mode, but Jun’s explosive device is still attached to the bird missile that’s stuck in Thundersaurus’s eye.





“I bid you farewell, Gatchaman,” says Katse, “Fire.”





The Captain goes to fire the missile, but Jun’s explosive charge seems to be activating. The entire Thundersaurus suddenly electrically overloads.





Then it explodes. As the God Phoenix comes out of Firebird, the wrecked Thundersaurus is plummeting to the ground far below, trailing black smoke. However, its tail detaches and flies way –Katse always has an escape ship.





“Ahhh! I never get a fricking break!” he yells, as the rest of Thundersaurus crashes to the ground, still burning.

On board the God Phoenix, everyone (except Jinpei) is beginning to wake up to see this.






“I can’t believe we made it,” says Ken.





Beside him, Jun says “I guess the bird missile must have finally exploded. You see, I tweaked it so that the fuse would be ignited if the voltage was brought up to a certain level. Pretty sharp, huh?” Here, she gestures to her head.





“You sure know your explosives, Jun,” says Ryu, but we don’t get to hear what, if anything, Ken says about her demolition expertise.

Joe goes over to the still inert Jinpei and starts shaking him. “Hey small fry, wake up, I didn’t hit you that hard!”






Jinpei revives and stands up. “What happened? Why was I asleep?” Here, Joe smirks and says “I guess that electrical wave was too strong for a baby so you passed out.” Jinpei doesn’t like this at all! (Maybe he’d prefer to hear that Joe had to clobber him.) “What are you talking about? I’m not a baby, you lame-o!” he cries, waving a fist near Joe’s face. Joe laughs. Any laughter from Joe is kind of rare, and here it’s friendly laughter, not “I want you to die” laughter.





He puts a hand on Jinpei’s head and says “Sure, whatever you say, kid,” but Jinpei turns his back on Joe in an attempt to muster dignity and goes “Hmmph!”





It’s a cute scene. It’s interesting how it’s so often Jinpei that brings out Joe’s kinder side, and Ryu that he’s so often mean to. I wonder if Jinpei somehow reminds him of himself when he was younger.

Jun also finds this whole Joe/Jinpei exchange amusing, and laughs too.





Ken, however, is relaxed and ready to head back to the Crescent Base. “By the time we get back, Dr. Nambu should be back to his old self again.”





With that, they fly off towards the sun, passing over the still-burning wreckage of Thundersaurus on the ground below.





This is another episode that didn’t get used in Battle of the Planets –likely due to Joe hitting nearly everyone, or to the somewhat disturbing nature of Galactor’s plot, with Ryu, Dr. Nambu and Jinpei going insane.


The End.