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akinoameFollowing their defeat in “Be-Knighted” and the revelation of an entire planet of alien dragons, the Forever Knights are determined to get to the dragons before they get to Earth. Under the direction of Dr. Joseph Chadwick, they plan to copy a starship that is well beyond their ability to fly. But they hope that with the aid of a small alien creature with the ability to mimic any technology it comes across that they will be able to succeed.
In Bellwood, Julie is preparing for a shopping trip with Gwenokay, the ‘ship ends here; I mean it this time when Ship appears at her front door. Julie asks him to show her a couple of “tricks,” and he transforms into several pieces of technology, ranging from a two-slice toaster to a nuclear submarine before Julie has to meet Gwen for their trip. Kevin is driving them and dreading every minute of it, especially since Ben got out of it with the excuse of homework. But en route to the mall, the car is attacked by the Forever Knights, led by Sir Morton, who are after the little stowaway Ship. The team calls Ben (who was actually enjoying a B-movie during all this time), but he fails to arrive before Ship is taken. While the Forever Knights torture Ship in their attempts to gain control over him, Julie and Ben argue about the alien puppy. Since the end of “Pier Pressure,” Ship has taken a liking to Julie and has been visiting her, showing off his “tricks.” She’s been taking care of him and considers him her pet, and she’s angry that Ben doesn’t see things her way. Wisely, Gwen and Kevin decide to stay out of it when it becomes clear that Ben is completely whipped.
Julie realizes that the Forever Knights are holed up at Lancelot Lakes Estates, and the four go to investigate. After a fight where Julie proves to be disturbingly good with a mace, the team locates the underground lab, and Chadwick decides to show off the brainwashed Ship, now transformed into an exact replica of the starship and red with evil. Apparently, in this series, red is the antithesis to green, with red (Albedo, Evil Ship) being evil and green (Ben) being good; purple seems to have served the same purpose as red in the original. Between Ship and Sir Morton’s Knights, the team basically looks screwed. Chadwick really gets into the whole evil overlord thing and orders Ship to fire, forcing the team to scramble for cover, with Ben trying to get Julie to safety and Gwen getting injured protecting Kevin. Ben transforms into Swampfire to fight back, and an upset Kevin insists to Ben, “Shoot him, shoot him!” Julie stops him, however, and walks straight into Ship’s line of fire, reminding him that he’s a good boy and that he doesn’t have to do this. Ship transforms back and happily bounds into her arms, while Julie explains to a shocked Ben that he’s not the only one who likes that B-movie she knows he was watching earlier. But they still have the problem of the Forever Knights, and Ship decides to put his new abilities to good use, aiming all weapons at the Knights. Chadwick decides that the best thing to do would be to bravely run awayI swear, this is practically their motto now, but Sir Morton insists on dying with honor. Ship fires with reckless abandon, giving the team cover as they climb inside to escape before a stray attack from Swampfire threatens to blow up the entire mansion. At this point, Brave Sir Morton decides it’s finally time to run away, but the Knights leave Chadwick behind. With the mansion collapsing and exploding around him, Chadwick’s only hope for escape is Ship, but Ben isn’t exactly feeling forgiving today, and he closes the hatch on him.
…Isn’t this the same guy who insists on saving the Highbreed comes the end of the season?
Ship flies them back, and Ben has to admit he was wrong about the little guy. He asks Julie for permission to occasionally borrow Ship, but Julie insists on Ben helping with taking care of him and playing with him. Deciding it’s a fair compromise, Ben agrees and offers to play with Ship right there…but maybe Ship isn’t entirely forgiving either, given he transforms into a giant ball and bounces right on top of Ben.
I haven’t exactly been subtle in my defense of Julie all series. She shows she has great potential as a character, particularly in this episode, and it’s frustrating to see this potential gone unexplored because she’s such a minor character otherwise. While I was impressed in “Pier Pressure” how she handled Ben’s secret, I was more impressed this time around with how she stood up to Ben—something that really wasn’t revisited much in the similar circumstances of “Don’t Fear the Repo” in season three. She called him out on his bullshit and how quickly he was writing off Ship as a pain in the ass without actually giving him a chance, simply because Ship had given him a hard time once. I’d argue that this was kind of hard on Ben, but given the entirety of season three—from ego trip in “Vengeance of Vilgax” to breakdown and rebirth in “The Final Battle”—this was actually fairly lenient and in retrospect, establishes the character flaws that get exaggerated and explored later.
Julie also proves to be capable of holding her own in a fight, which comes in handy for “War of the Worlds” later in the season. Despite having no powers, she’s still willing to stand by Ben and the others, trying to fight on equal ground and not hide behind Ship. Ship’s aid comes off as being more fighting alongside her rather than for her, as is the case with Pokémon and about half the seasons of Digimon. Now that I’m reviewing from the end of the series, I’ve got to admit that I’m disappointed that we didn’t see more of this. Yeah, she was a controversial character, but she did have the potential to be more. She was Ben’s confidant in the “normal world,” and she was able to help in the “alien world” too. She opened the door for a non-powered fighter on the team, which is occasionally filled by Ben but might be filled by Elena from the movie later in Ultimate Alien. I do hope that no matter what happens in Ultimate Alien, Ben does maintain at least a friendship with Julie, as she was the first person outside his small circle that he confided in.
The other major player in this episode is Ship. It’s hard to explain just what he is—he’s described by his creator Baz-El in “Don’t Fear the Repo” that he’s a symbiote, but that seems oddly impersonal. Ship is his own being, which Dwayne McDuffie has described as “something new.” In his first appearance, “Pier Pressure,” he is able to possess electronics (much like Upgrade, a member of the source alien species), but he adds to his arsenal the ability to perfectly mimic and improve upon any machine he’s seen already. Behaving like an energetic and curious puppy, he hardly seems like the kind of creature that can turn into a battleship and blast you to kingdom come. He’s not at all bothered by the fact that Ben isn’t all that interested in him at first (okay, judging by the ending, maybe he’s a little bothered), as he’s happy enough with Julie’s love and care. She’s the only one who can reach him in the haze of mind control, and he’s determined to protect her no matter what.
And on a sidenote, major props to Vyvan Pham, voice actor for Ship. While it’s true that Kevin Michael Richardson voiced the mind-controlled Ship, once the little guy was back to normal, Vyvan Pham provided the booming Big Ship voice, and she continues to do so throughout the series. Pretty impressive, considering she’s better known for the cute, non-threatening characters. Just like her characters, she proves just what she’s really capable of too.
Something that’s really unnerving is how ruthless Ben is toward Chadwick at the end. Although evil, the mad scientist is clearly looking at Ben with a plea for help; and Ben just closes the hatch on him, with a hard look on his face. It’s very odd, given how often throughout the series (“War of the Worlds,” “Primus,” and “The Final Battle” come to mind) that he’s devoted to trying to save the villain no matter how evil they are (the genocidal Highbreed, his archenemy Vilgax, and the less personal but still dangerous Kraab). No matter what happens to Chadwick—whether he escaped or not—it’s quite unnerving to see that cold look on Ben’s face as he refuses to save him, making the decision that he’s going to let fate sort it out.
As with “Pier Pressure,” “Pet Project” was written by Len Uhley. Vyvan Pham reprised her roles of Julie and Ship. Kevin Michael Richardson played Sir Morton and Evil Ship, and Tim Curry played Chadwick.
In Bellwood, Julie is preparing for a shopping trip with Gwen
Julie realizes that the Forever Knights are holed up at Lancelot Lakes Estates, and the four go to investigate. After a fight where Julie proves to be disturbingly good with a mace, the team locates the underground lab, and Chadwick decides to show off the brainwashed Ship, now transformed into an exact replica of the starship and red with evil. Apparently, in this series, red is the antithesis to green, with red (Albedo, Evil Ship) being evil and green (Ben) being good; purple seems to have served the same purpose as red in the original. Between Ship and Sir Morton’s Knights, the team basically looks screwed. Chadwick really gets into the whole evil overlord thing and orders Ship to fire, forcing the team to scramble for cover, with Ben trying to get Julie to safety and Gwen getting injured protecting Kevin. Ben transforms into Swampfire to fight back, and an upset Kevin insists to Ben, “Shoot him, shoot him!” Julie stops him, however, and walks straight into Ship’s line of fire, reminding him that he’s a good boy and that he doesn’t have to do this. Ship transforms back and happily bounds into her arms, while Julie explains to a shocked Ben that he’s not the only one who likes that B-movie she knows he was watching earlier. But they still have the problem of the Forever Knights, and Ship decides to put his new abilities to good use, aiming all weapons at the Knights. Chadwick decides that the best thing to do would be to bravely run away
…Isn’t this the same guy who insists on saving the Highbreed comes the end of the season?
Ship flies them back, and Ben has to admit he was wrong about the little guy. He asks Julie for permission to occasionally borrow Ship, but Julie insists on Ben helping with taking care of him and playing with him. Deciding it’s a fair compromise, Ben agrees and offers to play with Ship right there…but maybe Ship isn’t entirely forgiving either, given he transforms into a giant ball and bounces right on top of Ben.
I haven’t exactly been subtle in my defense of Julie all series. She shows she has great potential as a character, particularly in this episode, and it’s frustrating to see this potential gone unexplored because she’s such a minor character otherwise. While I was impressed in “Pier Pressure” how she handled Ben’s secret, I was more impressed this time around with how she stood up to Ben—something that really wasn’t revisited much in the similar circumstances of “Don’t Fear the Repo” in season three. She called him out on his bullshit and how quickly he was writing off Ship as a pain in the ass without actually giving him a chance, simply because Ship had given him a hard time once. I’d argue that this was kind of hard on Ben, but given the entirety of season three—from ego trip in “Vengeance of Vilgax” to breakdown and rebirth in “The Final Battle”—this was actually fairly lenient and in retrospect, establishes the character flaws that get exaggerated and explored later.
Julie also proves to be capable of holding her own in a fight, which comes in handy for “War of the Worlds” later in the season. Despite having no powers, she’s still willing to stand by Ben and the others, trying to fight on equal ground and not hide behind Ship. Ship’s aid comes off as being more fighting alongside her rather than for her, as is the case with Pokémon and about half the seasons of Digimon. Now that I’m reviewing from the end of the series, I’ve got to admit that I’m disappointed that we didn’t see more of this. Yeah, she was a controversial character, but she did have the potential to be more. She was Ben’s confidant in the “normal world,” and she was able to help in the “alien world” too. She opened the door for a non-powered fighter on the team, which is occasionally filled by Ben but might be filled by Elena from the movie later in Ultimate Alien. I do hope that no matter what happens in Ultimate Alien, Ben does maintain at least a friendship with Julie, as she was the first person outside his small circle that he confided in.
The other major player in this episode is Ship. It’s hard to explain just what he is—he’s described by his creator Baz-El in “Don’t Fear the Repo” that he’s a symbiote, but that seems oddly impersonal. Ship is his own being, which Dwayne McDuffie has described as “something new.” In his first appearance, “Pier Pressure,” he is able to possess electronics (much like Upgrade, a member of the source alien species), but he adds to his arsenal the ability to perfectly mimic and improve upon any machine he’s seen already. Behaving like an energetic and curious puppy, he hardly seems like the kind of creature that can turn into a battleship and blast you to kingdom come. He’s not at all bothered by the fact that Ben isn’t all that interested in him at first (okay, judging by the ending, maybe he’s a little bothered), as he’s happy enough with Julie’s love and care. She’s the only one who can reach him in the haze of mind control, and he’s determined to protect her no matter what.
And on a sidenote, major props to Vyvan Pham, voice actor for Ship. While it’s true that Kevin Michael Richardson voiced the mind-controlled Ship, once the little guy was back to normal, Vyvan Pham provided the booming Big Ship voice, and she continues to do so throughout the series. Pretty impressive, considering she’s better known for the cute, non-threatening characters. Just like her characters, she proves just what she’s really capable of too.
Something that’s really unnerving is how ruthless Ben is toward Chadwick at the end. Although evil, the mad scientist is clearly looking at Ben with a plea for help; and Ben just closes the hatch on him, with a hard look on his face. It’s very odd, given how often throughout the series (“War of the Worlds,” “Primus,” and “The Final Battle” come to mind) that he’s devoted to trying to save the villain no matter how evil they are (the genocidal Highbreed, his archenemy Vilgax, and the less personal but still dangerous Kraab). No matter what happens to Chadwick—whether he escaped or not—it’s quite unnerving to see that cold look on Ben’s face as he refuses to save him, making the decision that he’s going to let fate sort it out.
As with “Pier Pressure,” “Pet Project” was written by Len Uhley. Vyvan Pham reprised her roles of Julie and Ship. Kevin Michael Richardson played Sir Morton and Evil Ship, and Tim Curry played Chadwick.