Star Blazers, Episode #13

The 1970s animated series Star Blazers has really hit its storytelling stride, at least if my perception  of the last few episodes is correct.  

This week's installment concerns the capture of a Gamilon pilot -- "the first ever captured" -- and the anger and hostility that the alien provokes in Derek Wildstar.

The blue-skinned Gamilon captive "looks harmless," but Wildstar nurses a grudge against him, and his race. 

We see why in an emotional,sustained flashback.  In this sequence, we see Derek as a boy, and meet his brother Alex, a pilot.  Life seems pretty good for the Wildstars, but then, out of nowhere, the planet bombs rain down. 

We see these weapons of mass destruction decimate London and other great cities, and watch as Derek's family is forced to evacuate to a survival center, and then, finally, petition to move to an underground metropolis.  Lastly, we watch as Derek's loving parents die in a Gamilon strike, leaving the young Wildstar completely alone. He has no home, and no family left...

The scene with the death of Derek's parents is pretty strong stuff.  One moment, his parents are standing under the tree where Derek's father proposed marriage to his mother. The next moment, we see that very tree destroyed, with ruins all about.  The Wildstar family tree is literally and metaphorically destroyed, and it's an emotional wallop.

But -- and this is important -- Derek doesn't kill the Gamilon pilot when he has the chance to do so.  

Instead, he looks at the alien's face and sees, roughly a (blue) mirror of his own. 

Derek realizes that the pilot is not that different from him, in the grand scheme of things.  The Star Force then makes the right choice, and frees the pilot from captivity, especially since his mind has been wiped and he has no knowledge of his people, their actions, or even the missions he has flown.   The so-called "great victory" for the Argo was not capturing the Gamilon, but in showing him their essential decency, their great humanity.

How we treat prisoners of war is a huge controversy today in real life, and Star Blazers re-affirms the idea that we cannot act like savages simply because we have been grievously wronged.  If the values we trumpet are more than mere words, then we have to be better, and more civilized than our enemies.  We must take the high road, even though the high road is more difficult.

I love that Star Blazers gets that idea, and reiterates it in such an emotional, direct context. 

Only 305 days left to save Earth!