Original Air Date: October 10, 2008
Production No: 109 (Season 1; Episode 9)
Written by Steve Melching
Directed by Brian Kalin O'Connell
Story Editor: Henry Gilroy
Key Characters: General Grievous, Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, Jedi Master Plo Koon
Key Locales: Balmorra Run
Cast:
Matt Lanter as Anakin Skywalker
Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka Tano
Tom Kane as Admiral Yularen / Narrator
James Arnold Taylor as Obi-Wan Kenobi / Plo Koon
Dee Bradley Baker as the clone troopers
Matthew Wood as General Grievous / battle droids
Corey Burton as Count Dooku
Gwendoline Yeo as Nala Se
Episode Brief: With the help of his Padawan Ahsoka and Jedi Master Plo Koon, Anakin utilizes new long-range Y-wing bombers to lead a bold strike on General Grievous' warship, the Malevolence, and its destructive weapon.
Notable: Introduction of the Y-wing bombers.
Full Synopsis
"Easy is the path to wisdom for those not blinded by themselves"
Newsreel:
A deadly weapon, unleashed! The
Separatist battleship, Malevolence
advances unopposed through Republic
space, tearing apart any ship that
stands in its path. After a daring rescue
and narrow escape, Anakin Skwalker
prepares a counterattack on the
enemy and its diabolical droid
commander, General Grievous....
ACT I
Within the hangar bay of the Resolute, Anakin Skywalker and Admiral Yularen brief the assembled clone pilots of Shadow Squadron on their strike mission against the Malevolence. As the bulk of the fleet is engaged elsewhere, this strike mission will operate on its own. The Malevolence's primary weapon is geared against capital ships, so Anakin believes a small squad of bombers could outmaneuver it and target the warship's bridge, knocking out the ship and General Grievous. The clones -- including Matchstick and Broadside -- are eager for a fight. Jedi Master Plo Koon, however, expresses his reservations about Anakin's aggressive attack strategies, an opinion that Ahsoka Tano shares.
In the Ryndellia system, the Malevolence continues its assault, blasting apart another Republic convoy. A lone medical transport flees the carnage, but it is overtaken by the weapon's ion plasma blast. Even its escape pods are targeted for annihilation. General Grievous relishes the destructive power of his weapon, but continues to be frustrated by the incompetence of his battle droid troops. He smacks one to pieces out of anger, and gets a brief chastisement from a holographic Count Dooku, who notes that these droids are pricey and the Republic are never so callous with their soldiers.
That is precisely a weakness the Separatists plot to exploit by targeting the Republic's secret Outer Rim medical station. The Kaliida Shoals Med Station, not far from Naboo, is unprotected and treating over 60,000 wounded clones. Once destroyed, the Jedi in the Outer Rim theater will have no place to send their wounded troops.
Back in the Resolute's hangar, Shadow Squadron's Y-wing bombers undergo preparation, and Anakin assigns Ahsoka as his tailgunner. Admiral Yularen reports in with news of the Ryndellia attack. Anakin theorizes that Grievous will likely target the Kaliida Shoals station. Stellar densities in that area of space limit the Malevolence's hyperspace capabilities, giving Shadow Squadron the opportunity to intercept it via a shortcut. Plo Koon decides to join Anakin's squadron flying fighter escort.
At the Kaliida Shoals station, Kaminoan administrator Nala Se receives a warning from Admiral Yularen. It is impossible to evacuate all the wounded from the station. Obi-Wan Kenobi also chimes in via holocom. He has contacted the Naboo, who are sending ships to assist in the evacuation, and he plans to arrive as well aboard the Negotiator.
The Y-wings depart from the Resolute's central hangar deck, tailed by master Plo's Delta-7B fighter. They check in, and then blast off into hyperspace. The nimble fighters will take Anakin's shortcut to Kaliida Shoals, while Obi-Wan's warship will take the longer route.
ACT II
The Malevolence travels through hyperspace at a velocity well past lightspeed, but it's not fast enough for the impatient General Grievous. The navicomputer has had to calculate a complex course sidestepping the Kaliida nebula. The Y-wings, however, can negotiate the dust cloud, so Shadow Squadron emerges from hyperspace to traverse the nebula: a short cut dubbed the Balmorra Run that Anakin Skywalker learned from smugglers in his youth. Entering the cloud completely obscures the fighters' scanners. Ahsoka is increasingly concerned by this dangerous course of action.
At Kaliida Shoals, the evacuation proceeds slowly, with the stabilized patients being moved to medical transports first. The more critically wounded and those in bacta tanks cannot be moved just yet.
The Malevolence is in its last parsec of travel when Count Dooku reports in. He has received intelligence from Lord Sidious: the Republic has launched a small strike force led by Anakin Skywalker to intercept and attack the Malevolence. Grievous fears nothing, for his ship is unstoppable.
In the heart of the nebula, Shadow Squadron suddenly stumbles upon a swarm of giant neebray mantas, deep space leviathans. The annoyed hulks begin to swim around the Y-wing fighters, and Anakin orders evasive maneuvers. Shadow Two (Matchstick) grazes a neebray wing as he flies by, causing damage to his portside thruster stabilizer. Anakin orders bantha formation -- a single-file flight pattern that allows the squadron to thread its way past the beasts. The fighters emerge from the nebula, where the neebrays will not follow.
At this point, half of the Kaliida Shoals facility has been evacuated. Still not enough, to Obi-Wan Kenobi's thinking, as the Negotiator plies through hyperspace. Kenobi hopes Skywalker will intercept Grievous in time, or else 30,000 clones still lie at risk.
ACT III
The Malevolence bursts into realspace and is immediately swarmed by Anakin's squadron. Grievous orders the ship brought about, and vulture droid fighters launched. A group of medical transports flee the Kaliida Shoals station, and Grievous targets them with an ion blast, followed by a turbolaser volley. The battle is joined.
Grievous next targets the jumble of dogfighting fighters, even though his vulture droids are in the mix. Anakin orders his fighters to fly to the edge of the incoming disc of crippling energy. The Y-wings pour on all the speed they can, but Shadow Two's crippled stabilizer slows him down. Matchstick's engine blows, and he spins out of control, plowing into trooper Tag's Y-wing. Both fighters erupt in flames. The rest of the squadron crests the ion wave, though three other fighters, Shadows Six, Seven and Ten, are caught in the blast and immobilized. Anakin is now down to almost half his original squadron, possibly not enough for him to continue his mission.
The remaining Y-wings close in on the Malevolence, and the warship's point defense batteries create a withering curtain of anti-starfigher fire. As another Y-wing is blasted out of the sky, Ahsoka urges Anakin to abandon this course of action: they need a new plan. "Master, you can make it, but everyone else is getting shot down!" she urges. Meanwhile, Grievous charges up the ion cannon to target the medical station. Anakin realizes his Padawan is right: he abandons his bid to destroy the bridge and General Grievous, and instead targets the prime weapon.
The remaining fighters of Shadow Squadron change course, and fly toward the starboard ion cannon. Volley after volley of proton torpedoes launch from the fighters and strike the disc emitter as it builds up its ion charge. A cascade of explosions rock the Malevolence. The ion cannon fires, but the blast loses direction and expands outward, backfiring and crippling both ion emitters and disabling the vessel's hyperdrive. Kaliida Shoals is saved, but the Malevolence lives on, defanged and limping away.
Just then, Obi-Wan Kenobi's taskforce emerges from hyperspace. The Negotiator continues pursuit of the Malevolence while Anakin's Y-wing fighters head to the medical station.
Docked at the medical station hangar, Plo Koon congratulates Anakin on his successful run. Anakin meets with Nala Se, who thanks Skywalker for the lives he saved. Skywalker, though, remains focused on the lives he has lost.
Trivia & Details
- The "Crumb Bomber" -- the Republic gunship with the Kowakian monkey lizard illustration on its side -- was stationed within the Resolute hangar.
- The four-legged power droid is called a plunk droid, and sure enough, that's what it says as it shuffles about.
- The chairs at the briefing are basic office chairs with casters, just like the chairs aboard the original Death Star.
- An as-yet-untold adventure has established that Anakin is wary of Ahsoka's piloting (see episode guide for "Downfall of a Droid" on November 7th for more information).
- Deep space leviathians within a dust cloud have been seen before in the expanded universe, in the novel Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of ThonBoka, with the massive Oswaft living within the ThonBoka nebula.
- After Grievous callously beheads a battle droid gunner, there is a replacement one ready to take its place.
- The script and earlier versions of this episode had the Jedi fortune cookie read: "Easy is the path to wisdom for those not blinded by ego."
- The look of the Clone Wars-era Y-wing bombers stems directly from the design of the original Y-wing and speculation from Episode IV Visual Effects Art Director Joe Johnston that the Rebel Alliance Y-wing was a "chopped" version of an older craft. An earlier idea of a skinned or fully faired Y-wing appeared in the Star Wars: Incredible Cross-Sections book from DK, but that design differs from the final look of the Y-wing bombers seen in this episode, which more effectively bridges the design aesthetic of the prequel and original trilogies.
Memorable Quotes
"Minimal casualties, maximum effectiveness. That's us." -- Broadside, describing Shadow Squadron's motto.
"Boy, this is a lot more fun when they're not shooting back!" -- Battle droid gunner aboard the Malevolence.
"The care these Jedi show for their troops is a weakness." -- General Grievous
"Target those escape pods! I have a reputation to uphold!" -- General Grievous
"Cut the chatter, Ahsoka." -- Anakin Skywalker, Squadron Leader
"Broadside, we make it through this one, drinks are on me." -- Matchstick
"Does anyone care what the Padawan thinks?" -- Ahsoka Tano
"This is old fashioned flying. You have to feel your way through to stay on course." -- Anakin Skywalker
- "That one looks hungry!"
- "Nah, it's just smiling at you." - Ahsoka and Anakin, regarding a neebray
"I have a bad feeling about this." -- Battle droid gunner.
- "That's kind of true, Snips."
- "From a certain point of view." -- Anakin Skywalker and Plo Koon, responding to Ahsoka taking credit for changing the final attack plan.
Related Article Links
- Video Preview A short introduction to the episode.
- Video Commentary Supervising Director Dave Filoni discusses the design origins of the Malevolence.
- Fighters Soar This Week in Clone Wars Preview article, with quotes from the writer and director.
- Stories Behind the Clone Wars Battles Preview interview with writer Steve Melching.
- Matt Lanter: The Chosen One Voice actor Matt Lanter discusses his role as Anakin Skywalker.
- Online Comic: Procedure How did Anakin get his Y-wing bombers in time? Find out in this exclusive web comic.
Key Databank Entries
- Anakin Skywalker
- Ahsoka Tano
- Kaliida Shoals Med Station
- Y-wing bomber
... And more to come.
