"How's This for a Special? Spaaaace" is a two part special consisting of the fifteenth and sixteenth episodes in the fifth season of Teen Titans Go!, and the two-hundred-twenty-fourth and two-hundred-twenty-fifth overall episodes of the series.
After receiving a galactic crime alert, the Titans take off to stop Darkseid's latest scheme, but the excitement of the space adventure might be too much for Robin to handle.
Plot[]
Part 1[]
A deafening alarm goes off in the Titans Tower, but the Titans could care less about the impending emergency. Robin anxiously rushes to his team, telling them that it's not just an ordinary crime alert when there's trouble in Jump City, but a galactic crime alert when there's trouble in the galaxy and there's a threat involving by the Justice League's enemy Darkseid! Just like that, everyone's pumped to go on a space adventure, and with the click of a button, Robin transforms the Tower into a futuristic space shuttle.
The heroes blast off into space, and Robin immediately takes the captain's seat, dressed in a tight-fitting space onesie with well-done combed hair that resembles like Star Trek. His log is interrupted by the Titans, who look like a bunch of rogue space pirates and rebels that resemble like Star Wars. But there won't be any hardcore adventuring on this mission—Robin makes it clear that they'll be having a low-action, thoughtful trip through space. The team instantly loses motivation, but that's just Robin's way. After putting on matching onesies, the Titans are given their positions on board the ship and start singing a pathetic theme song for their captain. So far, the adventure is shaping up to be pretty lame...
Suddenly, Starfire detects a transmission coming from Darkseid; the super villain and Robin trade threats and intimidating faces, and it looks like the action might be kicking up a notch. But to the Titans' dismay, Darkseid is simply moving his planet, Apokolips, into a new solar system, which will block the residents' view of the sky. Robin threatens to bring this zoning violation before the Galactic City Council, and Darkseid's all for it. A government dispute is imminent, much to Robin's delight (but no one else's).
Another signal is picked up, this time from a mysterious probe-looking thing floating around in space. The team wants to blow it to pieces, but Robin wishes to study it instead. After tractor beaming it into the ship, Robin touches the object and is instantly knocked unconscious. While the Titans seek revenge against the probe, Robin is in a completely different place... his consciousness has been transported to a distant planet, where he's married to an alien woman and plays the trombone. Many years pass; Robin has kids with the alien, masters the trombone, and grows super old, but he can't seem to get back to his ship. Eventually, the alien planet's sun explodes, and Robin's mind comes back to his body.
While he's been mentally gone for years, barely any time has passed on the ship, and the Titans (back in their space rogue outfits) are busy smashing the probe. Robin begs them not to, claiming it holds an ancient civilization. When his trombone emerges from the probe, the Titans see that he's become quite skilled with it, so they touch the probe to instantly become expert musicians themselves. Robin furiously interrupts their instrument playing to remind them that they still have a space meeting to attend. To compensate for the dull adventure, Cyborg suggests that they at least take an interesting route.
A shortcut through an asteroid field will do the trick! Huge rocks crash into the ship, causing Robin to turn into a high-pitched, robotic-acting coward. Despite his pleas to double back, the team pushes forward, carelessly running into numerous asteroids. Raven reports the shields are getting lower and lower as the super excited Titans (minus Robin) fly directly towards a MASSIVE asteroid.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Part 2[]
As the ship pushes forward, Cyborg tells a fearfully screaming Robin to settle down. The Titans have it quite under control, blasting their way through the giant asteroid and using a laser machine gun-spin maneuver to cross the asteroid field. Although their shuttle is brutally damaged, Beast Boy is eager to do it again—but Robin's back in command. Getting back into their space onesies, Robin restates their dull Darkseid-oriented mission. To keep the Titans preoccupied while they wait, he's got some space-themed activities for them: meeting evil doubles of themselves, playing with some alien creatures, and chilling with some green space babes. Apart from Cyborg and Beast Boy's interest in the space chicks, no activities really captivate the Titans.
However, when Robin shows off the virtual reality chamber, the team jumps at the opportunity... their eagerness fades, though, when Robin loads up a hologram of 19th century London. He's keen on solving the murder of Lady Hathaway in the persona of Lord Bismarck Wellington. Obviously this won't do for the Titans, so Raven asks the VR machine to load up a fart monster with two butts. After the Two Butted Monster starts chasing the murder suspect, Robin's had enough; he splinters the room's control desk with a holographic axe, ending the simulation. Angered at the Titans' behavior, Robin says they'll just sit around until they arrive at the space meeting. As the Titans sing their captain another effortless song, the shuttle blasts into warp speed...
100 LIGHTYEARS LATER...
Teen Titans Go! going hard with the action.
The Titans finally arrive at the Galactic City Council, the moment Robin has been waiting for. He's ready to take on Darkseid, but the team complains there won't be any actual fighting—just a zoning discussion. Regardless, they enter the floating building, where the council and Darkseid await. Deliberation begins; Robin explains that if Darkseid, a known world-destroyer, moves his planet Apokolips into the council's solar system, then the breathtaking views will be obstructed, causing property values to drop. It's a convincing argument for the council, but Darkseid uses amazing visual aids to show that Apokolips will only obstruct views twice per orbit, compensating residents with gift baskets. The space council is sold when he promises pastries in the baskets, horrifying Robin. And rightfully so, as Darkseid, now legally able to move in, threatens to destroy this galaxy. The super villain teleports away, as do the Titans.
Back aboard the Titans Tower Starship, Robin is bummed that his intellectual approach didn't work. The Titans aren't ready to give up, though, getting back into their space rogue outfits for an epic showdown. All except for Robin, who's just not cut out for action-packed adventures. But the team needs an anxious pussy to make them look good, so Robin, now uplifted, unleashes his frantic robot form! Using Cyborg's eye hologram, the team learns that they need to knock out Apokolips's shields before destroying it. The brave Titans, save for Robin, teleport to the planet.
Numerous Parademons guard Darkseid's base, and by Robin's analysis, their chances of survival are close to zero. Nevertheless, the Titans engage the guards with laser fire, eventually shooting them all down. After breaking into the base, they find the shield generator, only to be halted by Darkseid and his roving Parademons. Luckily, Robin's idea for them to play their probe-learned instruments leads Darkseid to believe that these can't be the Titans, as their skill level would demand a lifetime of practice—something he doesn't know they have! Averting capture, the Titans destroy the shields and teleport back to the ship. And to finish the job, Starfire launches a proton missile into Apokolips, completely exploding it!
The team celebrates the completion of their space adventure, a grand mixture of both contemplative pursuits and raw action. They're finally heading back to Earth, but to Robin's distress, it's a shortcut through the asteroid field...
This is the first non-holiday themed episode to be premiered around Christmas.
The reason why Starfire and Raven prevent Cyborg and Beast Boy from flirting with the green babes is because they both have their own respective “girlfriends” (Jinx for Cyborg and Raven herself for Beast Boy).
Raven didn't fly for the majority of the episode, and instead spent more time walking with her legs.
The episode title itself is being referred by the crew as "a little sarcastic response to Cartoon Network ordering for many special episodes".
The back of the Season 5 Part 1 DVD Lookin For a Fight got inspiration from this episode for its design.
Continuity[]
Raven is seen unhooded for the 86th (Part 1) and 87th (Part 2) time in the series.
In multiple episodes, Starfire has fired laser cannons while making laser blast noises with her mouth, such as in "Teen Titans Save Christmas" and "Ones and Zeroes".
Titans Tower has blasted into space many times. The entire tower transported the Titans to Tamaran when they took a break to see where Starfire grew up. And in "Double Trouble", the entire Tower was launched into space to deal with the rouge duplicates of Beast Boy and Cyborg who had taken over.
The holodeck the Titans used in this episode appears to be similar to the one they used in "Video Game References".
This is the second time Beast Boy has transformed into a Chewbacca, the first time being "Ones and Zeroes".
At one point, Cyborg tells Robin "dude, relax," which is the title of the Season 1 episode "Dude Relax".
References[]
This episode makes numerous references to Star Trek and Star Wars.
At times the Titans are dressed like Starfleet officers. Beast Boy wears a red Starfleet uniform. Robin mentions that this makes Beast Boy "expendable", a reference to what Star Trek fans refer to as "red shirts".
At other times, the Titans are in Star Wars costumes. Cyborg is wearing a vest similar to Han Solo's, Starfire is dressed like Lando Calrissian, Raven is dressed in the camouflage poncho Princess Leia wore on Endor, Robin is dressed like C-3PO, and Beast Boy takes on the form of a Sasquatch, which is meant to resemble Chewbacca.
Robin also remembered that he was disguised as C-3PO when the Stormtroopers tried to shoot him in the consular ship Tantive IV of a diplomatic mission to Alderaan and recover the Death Star plans from Rogue One and A New Hope.
Robin is struck by an energy beam from a probe and lives an entire virtual life on a long dead alien world. During that time, he learns and masters playing the trombone. This is a parody of a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode titled, "The Inner Light". Though in that episode, Picard learns to play the flute, not a trombone. However, the trombone might be a reference to Picard's first officer, William Riker, who plays trombone.
After all the Titans learn a musical instrument from the probe, they play music as a band which sounds similar to the Mos Eisley Cantina music in Epsiode IV: A New Hope.
When Robin recalls being shot at yet never being hit, it's a joke towards Stormtroopers rarely hitting their targets, specifically at the beginning of Episode IV: A New Hope.
Music similar to The Imperial March plays when Robin commands Beast Boy to respect the onesies.
Cyborg is seen dressed in Star Wars Prequel trilogy hater gear after Robin brings up tariffs and trade routes, a common complaint fans have about the Prequel series.
The Titans' evil parallels with mustaches is a reference to the beard of Doohan, a now deceased Canadian actor who used to play the role Scott.
When flying through the asteroid field, the radar on the ship resembles the classic Asteroids arcade game.
The adorable purple round creatures Robin showed to the other Titans are based on the Tribbles, which can multiply themselves asexually.
The beautiful space babes.
The space babes are based on the Orion Slave Girls (also named Orion animal omen). Since this episode is from a kids' show, they're obviously not being portrayed as sexy...
Nonetheless, sexism is indeed quite heavy in these characters, and of course disrespectful to women in general. This can explain why Raven and Starfire are furious with Cyborg and Beast Boy possibly trying to flirt with them.
A weapon similar to the lirpa, a traditional Vulcan staff from Star Trek is briefly held by Robin after he and the other Titans arrived at the Space Council.
It's quite faint, but the Derelict from Alien can be seen in the background.
The title itself might be a reference to the Space Core from the Video Game Portal 2. At the end, the core repeatedly says "Spaaaace."
The two-butted monster is a reference to Coconut Fred from the Kids' WB! animated series Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island.
The Derelict space craft in Alien was in the background when Robin was in a comatose and living in his dream.
Errors[]
Starfire was given the position of communications officer on the ship, but from her control panel, she was able to fire missiles and lasers. Generally, the weaponry and shields would have been under the control of a tactical officer in Star Trek, where Raven was positioned.
When Beast Boy worries about wearing a red shirt and inquires why Robin mentioned that they "hide blood", Robin responds with a foreshadowing, "You'll see...", but nothing comes of this.
Although Darkseid moves Apokolips into a solar system, he says he's going to destroy a whole galaxy, which is a huge step up. Perhaps it was a launching point for greater destruction.
Running Gags[]
Robin getting overwhelmed by excitement and fear while acting like C-3PO.
Robin doing a William Shatner impression when he acts like a starship captain.
Robin demanding that the Titans provide theme music to his thoughtful space adventure.
The Titans yelling "Space Adventure!!!"
The Titans dressing up as space heroes.
Transcript[]
The transcript "How's this for a Special? Spaaaace" can be found here.
Gallery[]
The image gallery for How's This for a Special? Spaaaace may be viewed here.
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