And we cut to Zark, who is pacing.

“My mouth is in my heart! I mean my heart is –Oh dear! I haven’t got either one, but I can tell you, my binac is clear up where my radac ought to be –I hope you know what I mean.”

He stops pacing at looks toward us viewers.

“Ever since the plane carrying Mark and Dr. Gorki disappeared beneath the ice, I’ve been a computerized wreck! It’s almost as though they vanished into another world! Or another time.”

“Another world…” says Zark, as we get a close up of him, “Do you suppose Dr. Gorki spirited Mark away to his Future World? But that’s impossible –he hasn’t actually created it yet. It’s all in his head.

He starts pressing buttons on his console.

“Something down in my filament fiber tells me that Mark and Dr. Gorki are in great danger. I must try to get through to them!”

But we’re seeing an image of planet Saturn now.

“Planet Saturn?” says Zark, “Why do I get that when I want to know what’s happening right here on Earth? I’ve got to try to get sound, even without a picture.”

We cut to Koda, putting a sympathetic hand on grieving Mark’s shoulder, saying “I am sorry, Commander.”

Mark sweeps his arm out, dislodging the hand, and growls “Your fault, Doctor.”

Huh? How is it Gorki’s fault that Jason, Princess and Tiny are dead? Or is Mark blaming him for something else?

We get another close up of Dr. Gorki, thinking, but he doesn’t say anything.

The shuttle moves on, leaving the gravestone behind, and it heads into a tunnel.

Coming out of the tunnel, it’s back in Future World, where it flies inside a docking bay and deposits its four passengers.

“Take a good look at one of the survivors, Commander,” says Koda, with his hand once again on Mark’s shoulder.

He glances to his companion who goes and activates a view screen. What’s on the screen is an elderly man sitting in a chair and holding a flower.

“Your onetime Security Chief Anderson,” explains Koda. Mark and Dr. Gorki stand up in surprise. Chief Anderson is occupied with plucking the petals from his flower and tossing them in the air but he isn’t saying anything.

“Anderson survived?” gasps Mark, “But what happened to my companions?”

Um, didn’t you already figure that out, Mark?

Koda’s companion changes the image from Anderson to one of three gravestones. Mark walks away from the screen but Dr. Gorki asks “Who rules Future World?”

“I do,” answers Koda, “Under the direction of Spectra.”

That stops Mark in his tracks and he turns back and glares at Koda.

“We are a conquered people, Doctor Gorki,” continues Koda, “Zoltar’s subjects.”

Zoltar is still alive fifty years later. I wonder what he looks like now. Is he still wearing the shiny pink lipstick?

“So Zoltar won after all,” says Mark, thumping his fists against one of the windows, head bowed.

“We’re alive, Commander,” says Koda, “That’s what counts.”

Mark looks up again, and spins around to retort “You call this being alive?”

“That’s what your companions said, except one,” replies Koda, and Mark moves towards him.

“Except one?” demands Mark, apparently forgetting that he already seems to know that everyone’s gone except Keyop.

“Yes,” says Koda, “Your companions thought that you had deserted them, but when the invasion started, they went bravely to their deaths. All except…”

Koda looks towards the door, which opens to reveal-

“Little Keyop,” says Koda.

Mark moves rapidly towards the newcomer, who we see from behind as he removes his hat.

Now we see his smiling face and it really does look like an older Keyop, but still way too young to be a fifty years older Keyop! He looks like he’s in his late teens or twenties at best. Maybe they have really good anti-wrinkle creams or plastic surgeons in Future World.

“It’s good to see you again, Commander,” says Keyop –and it really sounds like Keyop, if he were older and no longer broot-dooting.

“I don’t believe it,” gasps Mark.

Keyop rushes forward and hugs him. “I thought you were gone, like the others. It’s been such a long time, Commander –a long time.”

“What happened to you, Keyop?” asks Mark, staring at him closely, “You don’t talk the way you used to.”

“I grew up,” explains Keyop, walking over to the wall now, “Relax, Commander. We have a lot to talk about.”

Keyop shoots a beam of light from a ring on his right hand towards a button on the wall, and this causes a table and four chairs to rise up out of the floor and a tray of coffee cups to be dispensed as well.

“Strong setroonian [spelling?] coffee,” explains Keyop, bringing the coffee over to the table.

“You can leave us now,” says Koda to his companion, who is suddenly the odd man out who gets no coffee.

“Keyop was released when he swore allegiance to the new rulers of Earth,” explains Koda.

Mark’s got his head bowed and his eyes closed again, and he’s not drinking his coffee.

“Here’s to our brave new world, Commander,” says Keyop cheerily, raising his cup in a toast, “Even if it is under Spectra rule.”

Mark opens his eyes again to glare at Keyop and rises suddenly to his feet, brandishing a fist. “The Keyop I knew would never drink a toast to Zoltar,” he says, “He’d have died first! Just as Princess, Tiny and Jason did!”

Mark bangs his fist down so hard his own coffee cup shatters.

“You accuse me of being a traitor, Commander?” yells Keyop, also leaping to his feet, “When it was you who deserted G-Force!”

Dr. Gorki is listening intently, and now he says “Mark, please. These accusations and counter-accusations are useless.” He takes a sip of his coffee.

Koda sips his coffee as well, as Dr. Gorki continues “I’m too old to be a rebel and too tired to think of fighting Spectra.”

Koda seems to find this interesting.

“And besides,” continues Dr. Gorki, “What can we do, Koda?”

“You can start by giving us your secret energy formula, Doctor,” replies Koda, putting down his coffee to look beseechingly at Dr. Gorki.

“Perhaps you’re right,” says Dr. Gorki, standing up, “My formula for tapping Earth’s molten core might help to free Future World.”

Now we see the DC-5, hanging from the ceiling in a large hangar-like room.

“My energy formula is inside that old plane, Koda,” he explains as we see a view of the plane’s cockpit –grimy looking and with broken windows, “I will have to activate this equipment first.”

And now everyone’s inside the plane and Dr. Gorki is fiddling with the upright glass coffin that Mark had thought looked like a cryogenics casket.

“Don’t do it, Doctor,” Mark is whispering to him, “I don’t trust them.”

Koda and Keyop don’t seem to hear this.

“Just play along with me, Commander,” whispers Dr. Gorki.

“Will do,” whispers Mark.

Dr. Gorki turns around to Koda and Keyop, holding up a little black device.

“I’ll check it out with my quantum thermometer first,” he says, handing the device to Keyop, “It may have been damaged when the plane cracked up. Turn the activator on after I step inside.”

“Don’t try any tricks, Doctor,” says Keyop, seemingly suspicious of Dr. Gorki’s apparent cooperation.

“Just do as I tell you, young man,” says Dr. Gorki, getting inside the casket and shutting its door.

Mark goes off to the cockpit, pausing to look out through the broken windshield. But then his eyes narrow as he notices the clip that he’d used to repair the plane’s throttle. He pulls it out and studies it, saying “That’s funny. Sealed in ice for fifty years and not a speck of rust.” Indeed, the clip is still very shiny.

Meanwhile, Dr. Gorki is inside the casket and what looks like electricity is crackling all around him. But he’s not making any noise, so I guess it doesn’t hurt even though it looks like it ought to.

Koda and Keyop are watching intently.

We get a quick view of lights on a panel activating (somewhere on the casket maybe?) and Dr. Gorki continues to be awash in electricity for another moment, and then it stops.

“Dr. Gorki?” says Koda as the doctor steps out of the casket, clutching his head.

“You tricked us, didn’t you?” declares Koda, though it’s not clear what his basis for this accusation is.

But everyone’s attention goes to Mark now, whose shadow is on the wall, as we hear him laughing.

“You almost did it, Koda,” says Mark, still laughing as he steps into view.

“What are you talking about, Commader?” replies Koda smoothly.

“The Spectra invasion, Future World –all a put-on to get hold of Dr. Gorki’s energy formula! Even that story about us being entombed in ice for fifty years!”

Now Mark holds up the very shiny metal clip.

“You forgot this!” declares Mark.

“Fast thinking, Commander,” retorts Koda, turned away from Mark now (and there’s a big tear in the shoulder of his uniform –how did that get there? I mean, it’s not like Mark threw his boomerang at him.)

So now Koda, who has sounded just like Zoltar all along, whips away his uniform in a swirl of red and purple to reveal that he is, in fact, Zoltar.

Is anyone surprised?

“You are clever, Commander,” sneers Zoltar, “But I have you in my power! Without your companions, you are helpless!”

[Heh, according to Zark, it’s the other way around.]

And now we see the zombie mob, all sitting listlessly on their benches. But suddenly they all stand up, looking quite alert, and dash off in various directions. Two of the men go around a door and we briefly see their clothes go flying before they reappear dressed as Spectran soldiers –and wielding machine guns.

They –and now a whole bunch of other ex-zombie soldiers- all go running down a corridor, presumably towards the hangar where the DC-5 is.

We cut to Zoltar, inside the plane, and he says “Check it!” to a Spectran soldier standing by the door (where did he come from?)

So, Mark isn’t going to kick Zoltar, punch him repeatedly or stomp on his face while yelling “Die, you cockroach!” and “Keyop” isn’t going to put a gun to Dr. Gorki’s head, or Zoltar to Mark's, and Jason isn’t going to do any eerie whistling.

At any rate, the soldier instructed to check the door opens it, and gets punched by a fist wearing a dark blue glove as Jason’s voice says “Make way for G-Force.”

“Zoltar was a little lamb, his face as black as…” babbles the stunned soldier before he topples over sideways.

And behind him is Jason, Princess, Keyop and Tiny.

“Where did they come from?” snarls Zoltar, as we see Mark standing just behind him and holding up his flashing wrist communicator.

“So much for Future World, Zoltar,” declares Mark.

A bunch of Spectran soldiers are all staring, and then we see Princess leap into the air.

Now Mark and Jason are standing back to back. “Let’s take them, Jason!” says Mark, giving Jason a thump on the shoulder before moving off.

As Jason glances back where Mark was, a Spectran soldier actually manages to punch him. Jason grabs the soldier and bashes him on the head (but only once!) and then picks him up and flings him at the ground.

Elsewhere, the real Keyop is grappling with his fake older self. “Phony Keyop!” declares the real Keyop.

Mark is pursuing Zoltar down a corridor, and he flips off a ceiling beam and launches himself right at Zoltar. Together, they go crashing through one of the DC-5’s windows to fall all the way down to the floor of the hangar.

Zoltar lands flat on his back, serving as a cushion for Mark (who then springs away), but I guess it didn’t hurt that much because he doesn’t cry out in pain.

Mark lands in a crouch but then immediately launches himself at some Spectran soldiers who are standing nearby holding guns, and he kicks one of them in the head.

Jason and the rest of G-Force are now soaring down from the DC-5. In shadows on the wall, we see them kicking some more of the Spectran soldiers. Then Tiny grabs a soldier and hurls him towards a bunch of other soldiers, knocking them all down.

Jason kicks a barrel (whose spigot is open and which begins sloshing some liquid all over the floor) towards a bunch of other Spectran soldiers. Mark grabs a soldier from behind, such that the bullets coming from the soldier’s gun hit the liquid that’s spilled from the barrel.

And the liquid is flammable, and now a wall of flames surges up and towards a whole bunch of other soldiers. But one of them yells “Troops, retreat!” so we can assume they are all going to run away, unscathed, and not die screaming in anguish.

Zoltar is running away too, pursued by Mark and Princess (where has she been all this time?)

Then all of G-Force is chasing Zoltar down a corridor, but they all halt when they see that Zoltar has made it inside an escape ship.

“We’ll meet again, G-Force!” he yells before taking off (and we get a brief glimpse of a timer attached to the launch pad).

Zoltar’s ship punches right through the high domed roof and then is gone.

“Looks like… giant screen,” says Keyop, waving his arms angrily.

“It is,” says Dr. Gorki, “Watch.” He flips a switch and we see the images of the devastated city now being projected onto the walls all around them. Mark stares, recognizing what he’d seen before.

“Clever,” says Mark.

“Clever,” agrees Dr. Gorki, “But I suspected something wrong when I sensed no real motion in that transport Koda took us on, and that story about us being frozen in the ice for fifty years –it was possible, of course, but…”

Meanwhile, the timer on the launch pad is counting down.

“Let’s get out!” yells Mark, noticing it.

We see them all dashing back up the corridor (though Dr. Gorki doesn’t seem to be with them here) and then we see the Phoenix flying out through a tunnel in the dome’s roof.

“There’s an escape hatch somewhere up ahead,” Tiny is telling Mark, on the bridge.

Back at the launch pad, the timer is still counting down.

The Phoenix flies out of an opening in the top of a mountain and is back in the arctic terrain.

Down below, a massive explosion rips through “Future World,” and flames come pouring out of the top of the mountain that the Phoenix had just emerged from.

But the Phoenix is parked on the snowy ground now and everyone is standing outside, watching the flaming mountain.

“Well, there goes your energy formula, Dr. Gorki,” says Mark.

“No,” says Dr. Gorki, holding what looks like some hairs, “The formula is right here.” He puts the “hairs” inside a little device and turns a knob.

“What are they, Doctor?” asks Mark as everyone watches.

“Microfilm,” answers Dr. Gorki, closing the device now and placing it on the ground.

It begins spinning rapidly and starts to burrow down into the ice and snow.

“It is done,” continues Dr. Gorki, “The microfilm will be lost forever deep beneath the Earth.”

Everyone stares.

“I don’t understand, Doctor,” says Mark, “Tapping the Earth’s molten core?”

“I’m afraid mankind is not quite ready for my formula, Commander,” replies Dr. Gorki as the device continues to dig its way deeper down…

“Well, the evil Zoltar almost fooled the Commander of G-Force,” voice-overs Zark as we see the Phoenix flying through the sky and then everyone standing on the bridge, “Doctor Gorki may be right –maybe mankind isn’t quite ready to tap the enormous power at the Earth’s core.

The Phoenix flies off into the sunset.

And we cut to Zark, taking an oil shower and scrubbing his back with a brush as 1-Rover-1 sits nearby holding a towel.

Zark sings wordlessly and rather tunelessly for a moment.

“A nice cold oil shower really eases the tension after a terrible experience like that,” he remarks.

“Thank you, 1-Rover-1,” he says, stopping the shower and reaching out to take the towel, “Zoltar certainly goofed when he built that fake Future World, didn’t he?”

He emerges from the shower with the towel wrapped around him.

“Did you notice, he forgot to include a single robot! A robot wouldn’t forget a thing like that –a robot never forgets anything!”

Well, Zark, you’ve forgotten to tell us that the two pilots of the DC-5 were somehow miraculously found and are both safe and sound.

But Zark has an incoming call.

“Center Neptune Control, 7-Zark-7!” he says.

Naturally, it’s Susan.

“This is Susan, at the early warning station, out on planet Pluto.”

“Oh, hi, Susan!” says Zark cheerily, “Do you have an early warning for me?”

“I’m afraid it’s late. You forgot to turn off your monitor while you took your shower,” says Susan breathily.

“Oh my!” gasps Zark, clutching his towel in an absurd show of modesty.

The End.