097 Confrontation in Space

[jeffbert]

English: 088 Contest in Space









The captors have assembled the combatants. A robot & human from Earth & War. A fight to the death will soon commence, & the losers' planet will be destroyed.




The human opponent of the Earthlings. She is obviously not a lizard-man. See 60s episode guide















The captors materialize a rocket, which actually flies. Atom either thinks it a trap, or does not want his teammate Ponkotsu Tetsu to flee the fight.












Could they be real? Or is this a trap?













What a hero! He even saves his opponent!




Relieved after the rescue, the teams forget that they are required to kill one another.



The captors come to remind them.










After demolishing the opponent robot, there remains one task:



However, neither Atom nor his teammate are eager to kill her.

[jeffbert]

However, the captors appear once again. Apparently, by their reluctance to kill their opponent, the Earthlings have passed the test.

[jeffbert]

The English-language version rearranges a few scenes in the first few minutes on the planet Moribund, which is the site of the combat. The Japanese-language version has the first scene upon the planet show

1. the four combatants materialize together,
2. then it shows the Saturnian Tamina (English: ‘Alphatar’ flying upon her robot Garibar (English: ‘Omegum’ in the direction of an arrow.
3. Next, Atom and Ponkotsu Tetsu (English: ‘Scrap’ walk into under some vines that grab them.
4. Soon, the man falls into a giant Ant-Lion’s pit.

The English-language version opens the scenes upon the planet with number 3, followed by 4, 1, and 2. I suspect the editors felt that immediate action was needed in order to hold their audience’s interest.

Also, when Atom is caught by a larger robot, he escapes by firing his hienie machine guns and destroying its arms. The actual shot of the guns emerging from his bottom and firing was cut by the English editors. I almost missed this difference, even though it was in the deleted scenes extras.