Hello there!
I’m back with another episode review for Star Wars Resistance. This is the second and final season of the third animated show in canon, focusing on Kazuda Xiono and his friends on the Colossus as they attempt to get away from the First Order and find the Resistance. These will take a very similar format to previously: an overview of the plot (so it goes without saying, there will be spoilers!), my thoughts on the episode and a few Moments in Canon – things I picked up on that linked to other stories or the larger galaxy as a whole. Today, I will be looking at episode 11: “Station to Station”
Plot Summary
Tam and Rucklin are refueling TIE fighters on Pyre’s Star Destroyer when Lieutenant Galek assigns them to a mission: Commander Pyre will be attending a meeting on the refueling station Titan, they will accompany him for a supply run. Approaching the Titan in a 2-seat special forces TIE, Tam is shocked to see the similarity between the Titan and the Colossus.
“It’s like being back home, but completely different.”
As they make their way through the Titan‘s corridors, they bump into a technician, who Tam thinks she recognises as Kaz, but the technician is gone before she can be certain. She chooses not to say anything to Rucklin.
The “technician” was in fact Kaz, who meets back up with Neeku (also disguised as a technician) and CB-23, who has been disguised as a First Order BB-unit. They have infiltrated the Titan to steal a trans-binary deflector, which is required for essential repairs on the Colossus. The port that CB-23 is trying to use is not working, so they make their way to the engineering level.
As they make their way through the engineering level, they run into a pair of stormtroopers escorting General Hux, who have been given wrong directions to the tower briefing room. Mistaking Kaz for a technician, they get Kaz to lead them to the briefing room. Riding up to the correct level in a lift, the group meet Commander Pyre, who accompanies Hux to the briefing room, with the troopers and Kaz in tow. While they walk, Pyre updates Hux on the situation gathering all the refueling stations, specifically the issues with a Resistance cell forming on the Colossus. With the group reaching the briefing room, Kaz makes his way back to Neeku, just in time to convince a pair of stormtroopers questioning Neeku that they are legit. CB-23 has managed to discover that the trans-binary deflector is in the hyperdrive chamber, but will need to be switched offline before it can be removed. The pair go to the engineering control room to manually shut the systems down, before making their way to the hyperdrive chamber.
“Neeku, I think we may have a problem.”
As Tam and Rucklin take their supplies back to the transport, Tam overhears a pair of stormtroopers mention a Nikto technician in engineering. Guessing that this is Neeku, Tam makes an excuse to split up from Rucklin and goes to the engineering level. As Rucklin continues, he sees CB-23 roll past and follows her to the hyperdrive chamber, where he watches her meet up with Kaz and Neeku before entering the chamber. As Kaz prepares to remove the trans-binary deflector, he sends CB-23 to ready their shuttle, but is soon stopped by Rucklin. Kaz tries appealing to Rucklin by explaining that the people on the Colossus will be in danger, but he uses his comlink to contact security and inform them that he has apprehended 2 Resistance agents in engineering. Rucklin leaves the chamber and seals it behind him. The meeting with the officers is interrupted by alarms and security reports.
Kaz and Neeku extract the trans-binary deflector and make their way to the blast doors, where Neeku realises that it will take him a long time to unlock the security code. Tam overhears a group of stormtroopers passing on information that there are Resistance agents impersonating technicians. When they go, she checks the security cameras and finds one showing Kaz and Neeku trying to get through the blast door. Overhearing Neeku talking about the danger the Colossus is in, she remotely unlocks the blast doors, allowing the pair to escape.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this.”
Kaz and Neeku make it to the hangar, though they are being chased by Hux, Pyre (who recognised them) and a group of stormtroopers. With CB-23’s help, they make it across the hangar and into the shuttle, the trio escaping and jumping to hyperspace before a trio of TIEs can stop them.
Tam gets back to Rucklin, who tells her that he apprehended Kaz and Neeku. Unaware that they have escaped, he boasts that he will be promoted for this. In the hangar, Hux berates Pyre for letting the Resistance agents escape and orders him to find and destroy the Colossus. Pyre contacts Tierny on his holoprojector and informs her that Kaz stole parts from the Titan and evaded capture. Tierny asks if DT-533 (Tam) contacted Kaz, Pyre says that she was with DT-798 (Rucklin), who turned them in. Tierny tells him that if they play it right, Tam will help them destroy the Colossus.
Review
This was definitely one of the better episodes of the season, but there was still quite a lot that I think could have been done differently to improve it. If the rest of the season had been more like this, then I doubt I would have had so many negative thoughts, but right now it feels like this should have been the level of an average episode, not one of the better ones.
I think that the creators did a really good job visually this episode of making the Titan look and feel familiar to keep the comparisons to the Colossus but also to make it feel different enough that we can tell we’re in a station controlled by the First Order. This worked really well with a lot of moments in this episode where Tam would reminisce about the Colossus and her time there. It feels like she has fell out of love with the First Order and is homesick, and while she still appears to harbour ill feelings towards people who she thinks lied to her (Kaz and Yeager), she still cares about the other people on board, which is what convinces her to help Kaz in this epsiode. While I appreciate this, I still think that by now she should have faced repercussions, as it appears that in episodes like this one and “Rendezvous Point”, she is able to do far too much against the First Order without anyone having concrete proof, leaving them with just suspicions. Perhaps a later episode will reveal that Tierny has had the proof all along (and this is why she is confident that Tam will lead them to the Colossus), but right now it all feels too easy for Tam.
“The Colossus is a trash heap compared to this place.”
I’ve often commented on how Kaz is too goofy out of a cockpit, but – some goofy sneaking aside – he was miles better in this episode, with some good shooting and also utilising his disguise as a technician (and using highly technical language) to convince stormtroopers to leave them alone or ignore them. As far as Kaz goes, this was a much better episode for him. However, I don’t understand (from an in-universe standpoint) why Neeku was sent with him. Narratively, it made sense as his way of giving too much information allowed for plenty of exposition as to why they are on this mission, while also being used to help Tam decide to free them, but he was an awful spy! Not only does a Nikto clearly stand out (the First Order is built from the ashes of the Empire, which was largely xenophobic), but he was also completely unable to lie to the stormtroopers. I understand the need to have a technical expert as we see that Kaz still isn’t amazingly proficient, but surely Yeager would have made a better spy in this episode.
I must say though, if Neeku is a bad spy, then Rucklin would be even worse as security. In “Rendezvous Point”, he could have shot Venisa Doza in the back but instead revealed himself and allowed her to use Tam as a shield and escape. Now in this episode, he could have again just shot Kaz and Neeku and alerted security that he stopped 2 Resistance agents. Instead he begins a dialogue with the pair and when he seals them in the chamber, he just decides to go for a stroll rather than wait there for security to arrive in case for any reason the pair did manage to get the blast doors open. We know that the heroes will find a way to escape, but surely the villains can be made to have a bit more brain. Pyre also felt really under-utilised in this episode and – barring a few moments – it felt like he could have just been any old trooper. I thought the first season did quite a good job of developing him as one of the big dangerous villains, but this season seems to be undercutting him. I get that it’s a show for children, but that still doesn’t mean we don’t need dangerous villains!
“I want every Resistance cell int he galaxy quashed.”
A few final thoughts on the episode:
- I wish that we had an episode before this explaining how Kaz and Neeku had managed to get hold of the uniforms to disguise themselves as First Order technicians, it would have probably been a much better story than some of the other episodes we have had this season
- While I understand that it will have been done to allow us to easily identify the characters, it felt very odd seeing Tam and Rucklin spend so much time with their helmets off, especially after “Live Fire” made a point of having them wear the helmets constantly when on duty
- It’s nice to see the use of technician disguises as technicians and droids would be so easily ignored by the stormtroopers
Moments in Canon
“There goes your promotion, Commander.”
- The Colossus is just one of a number of refueling stations that the First Order have been taking control of
What did you think about the episode?
Thanks for reading. May the Force be with you…
The Canon Padawan 