Well,
things have begun to look up slightly for our captain. In the plus column, he doesn’t seem nearly as
crazy as he did at the conclusion of the first installment. He’s far less paranoid about
mutiny/usurpation/regicide, and he’s no longer contemplating the fertility of
prospective queens. So that’s good. Maybe as their arrival on Mars approaches and
their long, tedious journey draws to an end, he doesn’t need insanity to
entertain himself any more.
All of
which is not to say that everything’s
coming up captain. Like I said, they’re
gearing up to land, and he’s keenly aware of the danger. Landing on the moon is evidently a piece of
cake compared to Mars. The ship, crew,
and equipment, weighing as much as half a blue whale, are barreling towards the
planet’s volcanic surface, and the wrecks of past attempts at Mars make a
floating obstacle course of space detritus littering their path. Their chief maneuverer, their only hope of
salvation, was selected due to her good parallel parking skills.
Once
again, PC is a delight here. True to
form, the captain falls to pieces even as he lectures his crew not to flip out
during descent (the whole world will be listening, after all.) His panic and anxiety are less ridiculous,
since he’s regained a few slivers of sanity, but they’re still just as
funny. I also like his tendency to
obsess over trivialities; as the big moment nears, he gives mission control the
list of possible names for the landing that the crew has come up with, and
urges them to pick their favorite.
Sounds
like we’ll be reaching the planet in tomorrow’s episode (since there are
several more, I’m assuming they land more or less intact.) I’m excited to see how the captain reacts to
Mars itself – will his royal aspirations reassert themselves?
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