Kenneth and Eugene look at the Space Above and Beyond episode Mutiny where, surprise, it’s not the 58th who are the mutineers (mostly) and we question who draws up their stupid navigation plans.

Episode Synopsis
The Fightin’ 58th are on their way for time on Earth, and we’re introduced to a new squad member who’s on his way back to see his wife. A Chig sniper shoots him, of course, and he dies alone, except for Tank.  

Tank, being a tank isn’t equipped to deal with this emotionally, and like all things dealing with emotions, that troubles him.

The gang is billeted on a deep space freighter, the MacArthur, which happens to be going their way, more or less, after they force the freighter to deviate into a dangerous region of space against the protests of the unpleasant first office, Porter.

Tank is in for some more emotionally unsettling moments to come when he first discovers that the entire engineering crew (6 of them) are all tanks, like himself.  Further, the freighter hauls people in suspended animation and un-decanted tanks on their way to a miserable mining job.

He goes to Colonel McQueen for help processing his emotions about his dead comrade and the treatment of tanks, in general, and the feeling that he’s missing out because he has no family.  Always helpful, the Colonel tells him to man up.  The Corps is mother, the Corps is father, and a bunch of BS like that.  

Thanks, Colonel.

Meanwhile, Lt. Wang is having a long-distance relationship with a woman he’s never met or even exchanged pictures with.  Killer, being a hot woman who’s probably never had the slightest problem getting men to drool all over her, can’t understand the concept of a relationship not based on looks but based on words and feelings. There’s more to this storyline, but I don’t care.

Dinner at Captain Llewellyn’s table takes an uncomfortable turn when Tank, all het up, asks to see the manifest of tanks in storage.  He wants to know if he’s got family aboard.  Potter, whom I mentioned previously, was an unpleasant individual, has some very strong and distinct feelings about the humanity (or lack therefore) of the tanks, and is a jerk about the idea. Luckily, dinner is interrupted by a problem with the nuclear engines, causing them to be taken offline.

On the bridge, Potter gets more opportunity to be a jerk by pointing out that it was a dangerous solar flare that caused their problems, and he “told ya sos” to the Captain.

McQueen deploys his team to help with the ship.  He sends Killer and Wang to the guns in case it was a Chig attack, Snot is assigned to the bridge to work the radar thingy, and Damphousse, who turns out to be a qualified and gifted nuclear engineer, to the engine room to work with the tank engine crew.

McQueen gives Tank the best job of them all – he sends him to help Potter shine flashlights into the cargo holds or something.  This allows Tank to shine a flashlight into the cargo hold with the other tanks, and Potter to complain and tell him to shine his flashlight in the cargo holds with the proper humans.

On the bridge, Snot can’t find anything out of the ordinary on the radar thingy. Still, the Colonel tells him to keep looking and trust his gut instincts over the equipment, which seems to be a strange thing to be telling the guy you’ve assigned to get readings from the techno-gizmo thingies.

Damphousse and the tanks get the nuclear reactor back online.

With the emergency mostly passed, CPO Keats, tank head of the engineering crew, gives Tank the manifest of tanks.  Improbably, he finds that his sister is aboard.  Family at last!

The power goes off again, but the secondary power system also has a fire or something.  The only way they can save the day is for someone to go down there and spin the wheel that turns off the fire or something, but there’s no time to get protective gear.  Tank goes in and saves the day just to spite Potter.

Snot still can’t find anything, so McQueen sends him back to school and asks him to recite what he’s learned about the Chig’s U378 class ship. Snot explains that the U378 is an experimental technology ship that has advanced screw-up-the-enemy technology, such as being able to cause nuclear engines to fail.  D’oh!

(Side note: If the Colonel suspected this all along, might it have been easier to let Snot know in the first place what he might be looking for?)

With the main engines offline and the secondary engines partially damaged, they need to conserve energy to survive.  The only way they can do that is to cut off the power to one of the cargo holds.  

The math is simple.  The human cargo holds each contain 400 people.  The tank cargo hold only contains 168 people.  Time to pull the plug on the tanks.  Captain Llewellyn gives the order to CPO Keats, who refuses it.  His math is simple, too – or perhaps “simple-minded” is more accurate?  Tis better for hundreds, if not thousands, of people to die, including all 168 tanks in storage, than to just let the 168 tanks die.

It is the Chigs, and they’ve launched missiles toward the freighter.  Snot earns his daily paycheck by suggesting launching cargo loaders to draw the missiles off.  This works, which is fortunate since Killer and Wang apparently cannot hit the side of a barn with their laser guns.

You may recall this episode is entitled “Mutiny,” and don’t worry; we’re getting to it.

Keats takes his engine crew to gather weapons and storm the bridge, while Tank and McQueen have a heart-to-heart about family and doing your duty and doing the right thing, etc., etc. It seems McQueen is still willing to sacrifice the 168 tanks, even now that he knows Tank has a sister in there.  He does, however, give Damphousse five more minutes to get the engines working – not knowing that she’s manning the engine room by herself.

On the bridge, oops, the tanks kill Potter and Llewellyn.  McQueen tries to assume command, but they’re not having it if he’s going to turn off the power to the tank cargo hold.  Tank talks them down just as the Chig, thinking the freighter was destroyed, comes looking for their wreckage to confirm the kill.

The tanks are sent back to the engine room to help Damphousse, and, with no power yet from the main engines, McQueen orders Tank to kill power to the cargo hold, which he does, killing them.  This gets them enough power to the bridge that they have a fighting chance and brings the weapons back online.

Manually calculating the coordinates, McQueen orders the gunners to destroy the Chig ship, which they do. They are saved, hurrah!

Later McQueen reminds Tank he did what he had to do and also tosses him a small bone by revealing some of his feelings, then he leaves Tank alone, who goes to see the corpse of his dead sister.