Sonic X, Episode 1.08: Satellite Swindle

Sonic X, Episode 1.08: Satellite Swindle

Japanese Title: Emergency Launch! X-Tornado

Japanese Air Date: May 25th, 2003

U.S. Air Date: October 25th, 2003

The eighth episode of "Sonic X" starts right off with the stock footage of Eggman inserting some playing cards into his computer and pulling the slot machine-like lever to choose his robot-of-the-week. This time, it's E-90 Peliculine, who is called "Super Sweeper" in the English dub. The bird-like robot flies into the upper atmosphere and sucks up all the Earth's satellites. This disrupts Chris and his furry friends watching TV, Eggman soon replacing all broadcast with his own show. Sonic and Tails fly after
E-90 but quickly find the Tornado can't handle operating at such high altitudes. Tails and Chuck decide to build a new Tornado, the X-Tornado, to take down this threat.

The last two episodes of "Sonic X" barely featured the titular hedgehog at all. Instead, they focused more on goofball scenarios playing out around Chris Thorndyke. While "Satellite Swindle" is still a pretty silly episode, Sonic at least plays a big role in it. This actually operates as an action cartoon for most of its runtime. Our blue dude with 'tude gets to leap around missiles flying through the sky. He casually leaps right through a government satellite in one scene, which is the kind of shit you do when you're a super-fast bad-ass. There's spin-dashing and robot smashing and big-ass explosions in this half-hour.

One could make the case that Sonic is actually too bad-ass in this episode. As the X-Tornado flies into the upper stratosphere, Sonic leap out of the cockpit and sits on the plane's hull. When ice starts to cover the jet, and creep over Sonic, Tails doesn't seem to think this is a cause for concern. He assures Chris that Sonic can take it, even when his entire body is frozen solid. I guess Sonic is so hot-blooded that he can handle existing in -50 degree temperatures at the edge of space. (Satellites are actually suspended in the exosphere, which is way colder than that.) While this is also true in the video games, where Sonic runs around in space all the time, it does make your suspension of disbelief to strain in a cartoon. 

Either way, Chris still has to hook up the X-Tornado's A/V cable to a Power Ring, to give Sonic the boost he needs to break out of the ice. After that, Sonic is even more unstoppable and quickly wrecks Eggman's plan. When I was reviewing Archie's "Sonic X" comic, I noted that quite a few early issues ended with Power Rings acting as Deus Ex Machinas, giving Sonic an improbable power boost needed to resolve all the story's problems. Now I see that the book was just being faithful to the TV show. As in "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog," the hedgehog's ability to bend physics to his will makes you wonder why Eggman/Robotnik has ever been a threat to him. It really seems like Sonic could just grab a couple of rings and reduce Eggman's base to ashes in a few minutes. 

Even though this is definitely a more action-oriented episode than the last two, "Sonic X" still has to indulge its quirky sense-of-humor. That second scene has Cream watching a "Barney"-like TV show for pre-schoolers, featuring a large purple dancing creature named Next. When the TV goes out, she initially blames Tails — Cream just loves to shout accusations at her friends — but it soon becomes clear something bigger is going on. Instead of our intrepid heroes deciding that have more important things to worry about then television, everyone starts to bemoan the lack of their favorite programs. (Amy likes cooking shows and Mr. Tanaka likes samurai movies, by the way.) The scene then ends with Bokkun entering, yelling exposition, crying, and then exploding on Grandpa Chuck. Seeing "Sonic" characters exist alongside such mundane problems continues to strike me as surreal. 

This does not strike me as an especially important episode of "Sonic X" but it does make one significant contribution to the series' lore. That would be the introduction of the X-Tornado. Even though it's been established that the Tornado 2 has a jet mode, the series still felt the need to introduce a fancier airplane for Tails. The X-Tornado is powered by a Chaos Emerald and is outfitted with extra wings and bigger engines. It also has enough room inside for Chris, which I'm guessing was a primary reasoning behind its design. I can't say I really care for the design though. The X-Tornado looks more like something out of "Robotech" than "Sonic," resembling real world fighter jet than a cartoon bi-plane. This show's mechanical designer definitely prefers realism but still incorporates some of that cutesy "Sonic" energy into Eggman's robots — as seen in E-90's bird-like features — so I don't know why the X-Tornado is so boring looking.

By the way, what was the point of Eggman's scheme here? Was it holding all the world's satellites for ransom? Or was the point of the plan to replace all of Earth's broadcast with his own shows, that strictly exist to glorify him? That seems to be the gist of it but the script never actually specifies. Also, Sonic sure as fuck blows E-90 up at the end of the episode. Does that mean all the satellites were destroyed too? I guess not, as everything goes back to normal at the end. It definitely feels like this episode should've focused more on the entire tele-communications industry being crippled by Eggman's scheme, not just on TV signals being interrupted. It's possible I'm thinking too hard about this...

Aside from Cream's freak out when she can't watch her favorite show anymore, the cutest moment in this episode involves Amy taking up cooking as a hobby. She bakes a pie for Sonic and violently insists she be the one to give it him. Later, she makes him ice cream. I'm hardly a SonAmy shipper but I think Sonic might be a dumb-ass for not pursuing her. She made deserts for you, bro. That's love. Anyway, this is a mildly diverting episode though I think I might honestly prefer "Sonic X" in its goofier moods. [6/10]