User Reviews

In what is probably considered one of the best episodes of the series, "Countdown" addresses the need to perform "menial tasks" (in this case, the mission turns out to be anything but menial) and putting aside warlike mentality and sharing trust in order to survive. While on a mission to destroy "space junk" (according to Tee Gar (Brian Tochi, of Revenge of the Nerds fame), who is not particularly amused with Commander Gampu's "rewarding" him with the chance to go on such a rather seemingly mundane mission), debris in space that needs to be removed in order for navigational systems on the Academy planetoid (or anyone else, for that matter, who might be in space in this area) not to be disrupted by its presence, brother and sister, Chris and Laura (Ric Carrott and Pamela Ferdyn), Tee Gar, and Loki (Eric Greene), along with Peepo (of course), encounter quite a discovery…the actual wreckage of a ship with a cryogenic chamber housing a 200 year old Vegan (yes, the alien race was called Vegan!) still alive and ready for resuscitation. When this Vegan warrior, Roarg (character actor George DiCenzo), awakens, he immediately believes the Earth humans who resurrected him are hostile due to the fact that when he "went under" Earthlings and Vegans were still at war, not knowing that their kinds were now at peace. A bomb, meanwhile, attaches to the hull of the Seeker, and without Roarg's help, the cadets will not make it back to the Academy in one piece! Plenty of excitement in a rather suspenseful little story (complete with Chris having to help diffuse the bomb), with some actual meat on the bones (Can Roarg accept that these young people are legit in their claims that the Vegans and Earthlings are no longer at war? Will he instead allow all of them to die in some sense of loyalty to his people in a war he considers to still exist that is in fact over and had been for 200 years?). It all goes by quickly enough, and the characters get to show off their special "gifts" (Chris and Laura levitate cargo boxes with their mind, move a bomb away from the Seeker to be destroyed, Tee Gar uses his superior strength to break through a cryo chamber, Loki "takes a ride" on one of the cargo boxes after vanishing and reappearing on top of it, later falling off) for a moment or two. Roarg seems right out of Flash Gordon with his cape and power to paralyze with a simple touch of his hand, carrying himself as a rather laconic (his quiet and "of few words" approach to the character is a refreshing change: see Sid Haig's villain in "Jason of Star Command" and compare the two approaches, while both look similar in costume and look) alien, eventually subject to reason. This episode provides a convenient device for characters to go out into space without a suit: attached to their arm, it provides them the mobility to perform duties outside (and, in this case, onto) the confines of the Seeker.