Swarm

[Serena Lewis]

This episode is one of my faves, definitely. I cannot praise it highly enough. I loved it when I first saw it, and nothing has changed for me since. It’s a Green episode!

Pros

1. Green. YES! Back after a weeks vacation! I know I'm sad, but she's great.
On an incredibly minor note, has anyone else noticed Greens eyes in this episode? Don't know who did them, and they'll probably change back again next episode, but this week, she's got these really nice almost crimson eyes. I'm very jealous...
And another thing about her. Whoever did the sleep scenes showing her...well done, they're so realistic. She twitches and everything. And - good grief - even Green's got muscles like Madonna!
2. First appearance of Silver. Aww, poor girl...she never got much screen time. I think she’s amazing though.
3. The Techie who natters to Green when she's just been relieved of duty...

Green: It feels like I haven't seen my quarters in a week...
Techie: Oh...I've been there...

I bet you have, wink, wink...sorry, shouldn't have said that.
4. Monkey Man. Yes, he's back!
5. Infiltration of the base. The plot was very good...
6. BLUE'S CONCERN. Obviously, I'm gonna make a big deal out of it. But, seriously, if he didn't care about her, why does he insist on looking for her? He can't know that the bugs tapped into her head...and why does the Colonel let him go? Leave the others to perish, but save Green. It's almost like there is something going on between Serena and Adam...hmm...

Cons

1. Dialogue. Some of it...basically anything Destiny said...
2. How the hell did Destiny not feel that bug crawling around in her suit??! She must have bloody thick skin! Surely Scarlet would have noticed a moving lump in Destiny’s suit when they're walking along…
3. Destiny undressing. We don't need that. It's not needed at all really...I mean, I know that we need to know a bugs on board, but couldn't we have heard the shower running, seen the suit on bed and a bug crawled out, instead of watching her undress...??
4. The 'kiss'. That is not a kiss! It's a weird touchy lip thing that doesn't even equal a peck!

Bloopers

1. Rhapsody switches seats. First, she's lying on the sofa on the left hand side of the Lounge, then she's sitting by Melody.
2. Blues eyes go a bit dodgy in the Lounge scene...
3. When Scarlet jumps on the ladder at the end, you can see his feet and legs through it. Hard to explain, but watch and you'll see what I mean.

Little Things

1. Destiny appears to look at Scarlets...backside, shall I say?...as he walks away down the corridor after they 'kiss'. Dirty girl!
2. There is an imprint of Scarlet in the bugs when Destinys plane is getting attacked.
3. Rainbow, when Destiny shoots the water pipe.
4. Greens seems to tap the bit of table in front of the Holoscreen buttons at one point, and I think she's meant to be tapping the buttons...I don't know.

Rating: 10/10

xx

[shadokp]

The Story - A pretty good one with a few minor problems that bothered me. Why no warning shots fired at the plane? Why no detection of the bugs as Destiny enteres the base. They are praising her for the work she did to keep the bugs off the base but that is exactly what she ends up doing. The bugs seem to fly so why not fly to the base. Some good time off talk for the Angels and all the characters are pretty well handled. Destiny's emotionless report that her parachute was destroyed seemed odd.

The Animation - Some great stuff here overall.

Other - How was Green freed from the web - Dr. Gold goes on and on about not removing her from it but suddenly she is free of it. I guess the water assisted with that.

The Ongoing Tally -

Destiny crashes one Falcon Interceptor

On screen Death Count - I am going to say 3 - the elevator tech monkey guy and I saw two pilots in the rogue plane, probably taken over by the Mysterons or they were innocent and unable to contact Skybase and unable to control their plane (like Mercury Falling) and they died anyway when Destiny destroyed their plane.

Not bad overall, watching the bugs on screen was mesmerizing at times. The story was a bit flawed but still a lot of fun.

KP

[gojohnniegogo]

Not a big favourite of mine for a few reasons.

Mysteron presence. What Mysteron presence? Exactly. Just some silly little bugs. They're destroyed by water. - Somebody hasnt figured that out (to protect them from that - when Colonel White says they can be programmed as an army, they'd be pretty useless outside in the rain) a hundred years from now? Bad show in my eyes.

I actually liked the Destiny undressing scene, and Serena in her casual (yet still green clothes) you'd think she might fancy something a little different from green if she's always wearing it. Destiny's crash landing on Skybase. There's nothing like a good, crash-landing! And I also agree with Adam's concern for Serena, a neat little touch. Story-wise not so keen. Character development done well, with both Paul & Destiny and Adam & Serena showing some affection.

[Serena Lewis]

I actually liked the Destiny undressing scene

I'm not trying to be cruel here or anything, but you're a man. I asked around, and almost every man I asked liked the Destiny undressing scene.
As a feminist, I find it disrespectful (Don't worry, I'm not gonna take any action )

Serena in her casual (yet still green clothes) you'd think she might fancy something a little different from green if she's always wearing it.

It's Spectrum sleep 'uniform'. Compulsory, unfortunately for the poor girls who have to wear it. In their own code colour...

xx

[gojohnniegogo]

I actually liked the Destiny undressing scene

I'm not trying to be cruel here or anything, but you're a man. I asked around, and almost every man I asked liked the Destiny undressing scene.
As a feminist, I find it disrespectful (Don't worry, I'm not gonna take any action )

It's not the hormones here I promise! It just makes it feel a bit more real, as simple as that! With particular note to detail on the suit hitting the bed, and the second shoe wobbling as it hit the floor.

[shadokp]

I agree with the undressing - a bit of realism and just a touch of sexiness, something virtually non existant in the series. I wonder if the animators did 'more' that was edited out ....

KP

[Skybase Girl]

er..... am I missing something here ? I admit I could be, since I haven't watched this episode for a while ( A heinous crime, I know ), but Destiny undressing ? As far as I know, all we got was a shot of boots hitting the floor, a uniform being slung on the bed and a couple of rather bandy legs toddling off to the bathroom.

In my book, that's hardly a striptease and if the guys think that's a turn-on, you're easily pleased. Then again, I suppose imagination is everything.

[Serena Lewis]

Well...ok, maybe it wasn't 'undressing', but I still don't think it's needed, even if it was nowhere near explicit. It was just the fact that they 'sexed it up'. The music, the casual throwing of the suit on the bed etc.
Sorry...ignore me...
xx

[Skybase Girl]

Well, OK, I take the point. Still, it was rather nice to have something aimed at the grown-ups for a change, although I imagine the producers didn't think it was going to get it's first airing at 11 am on a Saturday morning in the middle of a TV show aimed at the more intellectually challenged six-year olds.

[Father Unwin]

I was really looking forward to this particular episode. I remember reading an interview with Gerry Anderson in FAB magazine in which he explained just how difficult it was to program the Mysteron bugs. In particular, there was a big breakthrough which meant that individual bugs reacted to one another and could move around in a swarm without invading each other's space on the screen.

Nevertheless, I was a bit disappointed with the bugs and I think that the main reason for this was the green glow that they gave off - it just seemed to be way overdone. Having said that, I thought that the way Lieutenant Green was bound up in the Mysteron bugs' web was well done and really quite frightening.

This week the bugs, themselves, were the main plot accelerator because without them there wouldn't have been a story at all.

1. If the bugs couldn't fly then they wouldn't have attacked Destiny.
2. If they couldn't eat through metal then Destiny could have bailed out and evaded them.
3. If the single bug couldn't breed then Skybase wouldn't have been invaded.
4. If they couldn't tap into Serena's brain and thoughts then they wouldn't have discovered where the reactor was.

Destiny mentioned that a can of bug spray wouldn't help much - but it would if it was water-based

[Intensity Angel]

I thought the scene when the bugs first go for Destiny's interceptor was funny. Doesn't Destiny look so [i] happy. Nope she looks unimpressed as if,

"Do I really care about some stupid insects?"

That changes to fear as the bugs startig wrecking havoc with her fighter craft. And where did the ther Angels go? Surely they'd of been there to help heer? And what if the bugs attacked one of them. How are we supposed to know if they were forced to bail out because of being attacked by bugs? What happened, did they just get lucky and land in the ocean because we don't hear another peep out of them until later on. It's as if their memories have been erased, creepy!!

[Sweeps]

Love this episode, a great way to kick off series 1 after the pilots (well in the order on the DVD's it's the first) Just a quick question:

when Scarlet goes to rescue Destiny by jumping off Skybase, the moment he catches her they do the skydivers hold hands thing and then she sort of latches onto him, well is that a brief mid-air hug or are they just holding onto each other?

[Skybase Girl]

I agree that in slo-mo, it looks very much like a hug, Sweeps, but I imagine that given the velocity at which their bodies collided, romance might not have been uppermost in their minds.

It's more likely they could have been nursing cracked ribs, or worse, so their cheesy freefall dialogue is somewhat misplaced, I think.

[Sweeps]

yeah okay you have a point actually I'm suprised Destiny kept her cool while she was falling, I mean she was falling through the air without a shoot, what if Scarlet didn't catch up? But he did and he saved here

[Intensity Angel]

I agree the dialogue was misplaced and cheesy. It should've been more along of "are you okay?". The state of Destiny's uniform when they land back on Skybase is evident enough.