This week’s episode under discussion: Space: Above and Beyond, S01E04 “Mutiny” by Stephen Zito. Directed by Stephen Cragg, which originally aired October 15, 1995.

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

The Fightin’ 58th grapples with emotional challenges and moral quandaries aboard the MacArthur. Cooper, a tank, faces the loss of a comrade and confronts the dehumanization of tanks. Lt. Wang navigates a unique long-distance relationship. Tensions heighten during a revealing dinner discussion, leading to a crisis when the ship faces Chig threats. A mutiny unfolds over sacrificing tanks for human lives. Cooper grapples with moral complexities and ultimately complies, leading to a strategic victory. McQueen acknowledges Cooper’s sacrifice, offering a glimpse into his own sentiments, leaving Cooper to reflect on personal losses.

In this second of two parts, Simon and Eugene continue their chat about #TheGiggle and discuss what type of undershirt Tennant’s Doctor wears, will Donna spill coffee on the Vlinx and get fired from UNIT, and did RTD give us all a massive gift when he turned the Doctor’s history into a Toymaker-created puzzle?

Come join the conversation.

In Part One of two episodes on The Giggle, Simon and Eugene consider if David Tennant’s Doctor is now a discarded snakeskin, is RTD actually the Toymaker, and if Steven Moffat can fix all this mess later.

Simon and Eugene ponder the Wild Blue Yonder and wonder what the US Air Force song tells us about nothing on a spaceship, how and when you need to get the supersonic screwdriver out of the way, and Eugene breaks into song.

Don’t think.

The newly-minted 14th Doctor arrives in London just in time for an alien invasion and to meet an old friend.

It’s the first of the three 60th Anniversary Doctor Who specials, The Star Beast.

Episode Synopsis

The newly-regenerated Doctor, suffering no obvious post-regenerative effects, arrives in London, where he almost immediately encounters Donna Noble, followed by her daughter Rose, and a crashing alien spacecraft. The Doctor also meets Donna’s husband, Sean, a taxi driver, and heads off to intercept the spacecraft.

UNIT has descended on a steelworks where the craft has made a controlled landing. The Doctor chooses to keep out of sight of the UNIT troops, but he’s soon spotted by Shirley Bingham, UNIT’s current Scientific Advisor. The Doctor explains his dilemma.  For some reason, he’s got an old face back, and he’s been plunked down right next to Donna Noble, and there’s an alien invasion.  Something is up.  But if Donna ever remembers him, she will die.

He also points out that the ship was damaged by weapons fire, which means there are two alien invaders.

Rose has gone to see the escape pod, which landed near her house, and then, upon return to her shed, has found The Meep, a creature so cute you could sell them by the millions if you had a little shop.  (I love a little shop.) The Meep is afraid, for there are monsters pursuing the.

UNIT has located the escape pod, and the Doctor hitches a lift to see it and realizes it is right near Donna’s house. (At least, I think that’s why he goes straight to Donna’s house.)

At the spaceship, a squad of UNIT soldiers are taken over by the craft and proceed to search for the Meep.

In Rose’s shed, Donna discovers the Meep, and a flap ensues.  Sylvia — Donna’s mother pretends like there’s nothing there because she knows if Donna remembers about her journeys through space and time, she’ll die.  The Doctor arrives and starts to try to deal with the Meep.

The explain that the Wrath Warriors have hunted Meepkind to extinction, and the is the only one left.

The possessed UNIT soldiers arrive at the front door, the Wrath Warriors arrive at the back door, and the shooting begins.  The Doctor gets them out of the house and into Sean’s taxi.  Along the way, the Doctor notices something curious.  They escape, but not before the Wrath Warriors notice them and open fire.

In an empty car park, the Doctor stops and holds court, conveniently summoning two Wrath Warriors out of thin air.  The Doctor, as judge, presents the evidence that he has amassed. The Wrath Warriors are firing non-lethal weapons and are not killing the UNIT soldiers but instead stunning them.  (He fails to mention that they blew two walls out of Donna’s house with explosions that could have easily killed someone.) He also posits that the mind-controlled UNIT soldiers are actually under the Meep’s control and trying to rescue the.

The Wrath Warriors explain the Meep is the last of the kind, a race of beings mutated into cruel, evil killers by their sun when it went mad.  The Meep responds by killing the Wrath Warriors with a concealed weapon, just as the possessed UNIT soldiers arrive.  The Doctor bluffs his way into getting himself and Donna’s family taken prisoner rather than killed outright.

They are taken back to the Meep’s starship, which has been repaired by a team of more possessed workers. The starship uses a Dagger Drive, which will destroy and consume London upon takeoff.

The Doctor and the gang are rescued by Shirley, and while Donna’s family tries to escape, the Doctor heads to disable the ship.

Donna has been increasingly remembering the Doctor in an oblique way and, almost instinctively, follows him onto the starship.  They get sealed in before the Doctor can send her away.

The engine compartment is split in two by the biggest plot contrivance in the history of television, and, with Donna’s consent, the Doctor must perform an undelete on the files in Donna’s head, even knowing that it is a certain death for Donna.  They stop the ship and — bonus — undo all the physical damage to London.

Donna dies in the Doctor’s arms.  But the Meep is still at large and plans to destroy the ship.  This is where Rose comes to save the day, for she, too, has the mind of a Time Lord, passed down by Donna, which has split the meta-crisis between them, which also means Donna isn’t actually dead.  The Doctor then causes the Meep’s escape pod to eject, allowing the Wrath Warriors to apprehend the.

The split meta-crisis only delays the inevitable, and now Donna and Rose are on a countdown to die.  Fear not; they’re women, and they can just let it go, thus ending the meta-crisis. (“Just let it go?” Clearly, Donna has never met Donna.)

Later, Donna goes with the Doctor for one last trip — just to go see Wilf and let him know that everything has been resolved and Donna is safe; however, Donna spills coffee on the new TARDIS console, and they are off on an uncontrolled journey into time and space.

Sometimes events sweep you away a bit faster than you’d like.

If you’re new to these “Patroling Beyond Fusion” segments, welcome. This one is a bit unplanned, and different because it contains a podcast attached.

Things have changed, and hopefully, you won’t notice at all!

Our podcast is hosted on two different services.  A “local*” hosting company that handles the fusionpatron.com frontend WordPress site, and Blubrry, which handles serving the podcasts into the feeds. But, and this is the important bit, they work in tandem with one another on scheduling and content.

We’ve been having an increasing number of issues with the local host of the WordPress site and it all came to a head yesterday (November 30th) and I made the hasty, but also necessary, decision to migrate to a new host.

Things were looking excellent, with a high probably of success, right up to the moment I switched the domain to point away from the old host and towards the new host.  In 25 years of dealing with domains and DNS and whatnot, this was the slowest, weirdest DNS change I’ve ever witnessed.  Oh, sure, they tell you it might take up to 72 hours, but I’ve never seen one take more than 2 hours — and that was really unusual.

This one took about 22 hours (and maybe still counting,) and I’ve bitten my nails down to the quick.  I went to bed last night thinking today would be a very bad day going into the release of this week’s episode about Doctor Who: The Star Beast.

When I woke up it seemed to me mostly working, but will it release a podcast?

I have two choices: I wait until the Star Beast goes live tonight or release a test podcast. Welcome to that test podcast.

But, I thought, why completely waste everyone’s time unless I can convey additional information? For those of you who listen to the podcast and never check out the website, I’ve started a series of weekly(ish) behind-the-scenes blog posts called “Patrolling Beyond Fusion,” where I try to keep you up-to-date on what’s happening and perhaps even give you the opportunity to give feedback before episodes are recorded.

Once I get the hosting settled to my satisfaction, there’ll be more announcements, so for now, keep your eye out right here on the website for more details.

*They were once local to me but have now been bought out by someone else.

David Tennant is back as the Doctor, and Simon and Eugene look at his first outing in this special episode of Fusion Patrol.

Computer-generated Transcript. (Errors may exist)

While the Fightin’ 58th battle over a worthless rock in space, we wonder if the cockroaches were real, is it ironic or operatic that Tank is afraid of tanks, and if this episode is a senseless wreck or a key piece of groundwork for an epic 4th Season episode that never was.

Kenneth and Eugene discuss The Enemy.

*Note: In this episode, the Commodore has been inadvertently promoted to Admiral. The episode synopsis has been edited to reflect Commodore Ross’ correct rank.

Episode Synopsis

Colonel McQueen and Commodore Ross question members of the Fightin’ 58th to determine if Damp Mouse should be court-martialed for failure to follow orders in a combat situation.

Through flashbacks, the story of a fateful mission to the planet called TaTARus unfolds.

TaTArus is an inhospitable failed star of a planet with a lethal atmosphere and burning temperatures in excess of 60º.  The team discusses rumors about the planet – that it is a worthless planet with no strategic value, that 1,000s of lives have been lost fighting over the planet, that there are massive numbers of desertions and deaths by friendly fire – yet for some reason, the brass continues to pursue securing the planet.

Landing on the planet, they soon come under nearby fire, and Marines from outside clamber desperately to get into the shuttle.  The weapons fire isn’t coming from the Chigs; it’s a Marine.  Tank wants to shoot him, but the others decide to try to capture him.  As they exit the vehicle, they find many more Marine bodies killed by the gunman.

The crazed Marine runs out of bullets, and they try to talk him into putting his weapon down.  He cannot be reasoned with, and he says they should be afraid of him as he is of himself.  He steps on a Chig landmine and dies.

As the team returns to the shuttle, a series of flashing lights, penetrating all the way to their skeletons, hits them, giving them radiation burns and headaches.  Damp Mouse is the first to manifest signs of madness, as she freaks out at the sight of her own blood.  As the others try to comfort her, Wang freaks out when he sees a cockroach; he chases and kills it with a knife.  Unfortunately, he also kills the transmitter at the same time.  Now they cannot call the Colonel for help.

Damp Mouse has an idea.  Out amongst the corpses is a portable communications pack.  They could remove a part from it, and she could repair the radio.  It should be her job to go get the part, but she refuses a direct order because she will not put on her blood-stained suit.

The others go out, but all are suffering from various forms of psychoses.  Killer is afraid of the dark, Tank is claustrophobic, and West keeps hearing a woman calling for help.  As the others get the part, West wanders off following the voice.  He comes to a Marine bunker and meets a Sgt. that tells him, in incoherent terms, that the light is their worst nightmares.  He disappears before the others arrive.

Inside the bunker, all the Marines have murdered each other.

West and Wang put the pieces together. The light is a Chig weapon that disrupts the amygdala – the part of the brain to regulates fear.  The fear ultimately causes everyone to turn on one another.

They return to the ship, but along the way, Killer steps on a landmine.  Wang attempts to save her by using a mirror to deflect the lethal beam from the mine when he discovers a cockroach in his helmet and freaks out.  West steps in and saves Killer, but they are zapped again by the light, amplifying their fears.

Inside the shuttle, Damp Mouse accidentally spilled some blood all over the floor, and she cannot move from her current location because she would have to cross the blood on the floor.  She will not let the others into the shuttle, and they have to hot-wire the airlock door.  Now that they have the part, she will not go to the radio. The team’s fears have all gotten them into a Mexican standoff – they will kill the others rather than face their fears.  Ultimately, Killer places the part and calls for help.

McQueen received the distress call and landed 75 meters away, on the other side of the minefield.  Mustering their courage and a Marine Corps song, they make their way across the minefield to the waiting shuttle.  West wanders off again when he hears the woman’s voice, but Killer brings him back.

After hearing the testimony, the Commodore and McQueen decide not to press charges.

The following transcript is machine-generated and not 100% accurate. It has not been manually corrected.

In this episode, we begin our look at the 2013 Japanese TV series Neo Ultra Q, which was intended as a second season of 1966’s Ultra Q. We’ll be looking at them two episodes at a time.

In the first episode, Quo Vadis we are introduced to a world populated with kaiju, not all of them being overtly dangerous. Tensions run high between the anti-kaiju and the kaiju preservation factions as one kaiju inexorably makes its way through a city toward a sacred destination.

Then, in Laundry Day, Mr. Brethren runs a laundry service and the quality of his work is legendary. Mr. Brethren is also a kindly, shy kaiju. What happens when the UN Secretary-General comes and asks for something really big to be cleaned?