The gang have to take a long train journey to retrieve the Winnie, which inevitably leads to them getting into various scrapes along the way.

Turns out the Winnie wasn’t stolen, per se at the end of last episode, but ‘towed’ by the planetary parking authorities, and the only way to get it on the other side of the planet is to take the Sunshine Express train. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Elida still wants nothing to do with either of her two companions, and slinks off leaving them to find seats of their own on the crowded train.

What this means is that the gang gets split to each have their own adventure. Elida meets an old associate who has a dangerous job offer, Amae gets cosy with a woman who’s definitely into her which then forces certain realisations for our favourite mechanic, and Isaac gets himself into trouble because of course he does – it’s Isaac.

Interspersed with all this is a series of flashbacks of exactly what happened to Elida when she first escaped the attentions of the Republic and Lazaro, and it’s actually quite a well-drawn if slightly predictable tale as she drifts alone in a pod with diminishing supplies and the last warning of her mother to ‘trust nobody’ echoing in her mind even as a kindly-sounding salvage crew try to convince her to switch on her beacon and guide them to her. This is of course designed to illustrate why Elida has such deep-rooted trust issues, and why Isaac’s betrayal hurt her so much, but it also doesn’t leave much room for doubt how things are ultimately going to turn out, either in the flashback or in the present.

What’s most impressive is just how well Adriyan Rae does with the material, especially considering she has to play both herself now as well as her younger teenaged self in flashback. Without a micron of de-aging tech or apparent makeup, Rae makes you believe the younger Elida through sheer force of personality and acting talent – it’s an old-school bit of acting that a show with this sort of budgetary restrictions needs, and it works brilliantly.

There’s also various interludes involving Lazaro as he consolidates his newfound power and announces himself to the galaxy at large as new Supreme Leader. He isn’t getting any nicer (there’s a particularly unpleasant bit involving a hairdresser) and what’s worse – one of the gang’s travelling companions reveals that he isn’t even using the full potential of the magical doodad he’s wearing round his neck. Oh dear indeed.

Per usual, it’s an episode that fair barrels along, with weird and wacky aliens in abundance and some gorgeous visuals. It’s still never going to win any awards for originality in the genre or storytelling in general for that matter, but when it’s this much fun, it’s difficult to care.

Verdict: Colourful, sweet and entirely predictable. A sugar rush of silliness that you can’t help but love. 8/10

Greg D. Smith