Star Blazers Episode 45 script

Now that we’re getting into the big space battle portion of the series, the cuts are getting more numerous as you can see by the list at the top of this page. Time lost from the overall length of the show could always be made up by lengthening the opening narration, since footage could be cobbled together as needed.

Giving the opening narration its own page like this is a rare artifact, probably related to all the cuts that were made. It’s likely that this narration was written after the rest of the script was completed and timed out for length.

The indicator “TB Wildstar” at the bottom of this page stands for Truck Back or Track Back, indicating the camera is pulling back or zooming out. The opposite of this is TI or TU for Truck In or Truck Up. The scriptwriter probably went to these lengths to make it easier for the recording crew to identify scenes on their monitor.

The term “START NO SYNC” on Wildstar’s last line indicates that the character’s mouth is not on screen at the start of the line, so it’s not necessary to match lip movement. In other places, the terms “OC” (Off-camera) and “VO” (Voice Over) indicate that a character is Off-Camera during part or all of their line. The purpose is the same, to cue the voice actor.

It’s amusing to see “jug of wine” as the descriptor for what Dr. Sane calls “Captain Avatar’s spring water.” Apparently nobody was fooled by that on either side of the screen.

Just before the “commercial messages” line, we see the term “F.U.” Ordinarly, this would stand for “Fade Up,” and the proper indicator here would be “F.O.” for fade out. Maybe the typist was in a bad mood?

The line at 196 was modified during the recording for Nox to say “MORE ammo.”

The indicator “BADLY FOGGED” refers to a scene that was looked like it had a fog layer over it (due to original camera settings). The scene was kept in anyway.

The reference at line 252 is a puzzler: “He becomes ?! from the air surrounding him.” It’s probably meant to describe his confused reaction to the attitude in the room.

Obviously, the word “glagship” at 267 is a typo. But it is kinda fun. The reference to “An officer fr. in from foreground” just indicates that an officer steps in from off-screen. The “fr.” is probably short for “frame.”

The note to “CUT 10 SECONDS TIME” is due to (A) an on-screen caption and (B) a lot of specific references to fleet movements and Saturn’s moons.

In the 30-second drinking scene that was cut, Nox is swigging “spring water” with Dr. Sane and admits that the captain is a pretty good guy after all. Dr. Sane laughs with delight. It was a shame to lose it.

Return to index

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *