35. Letters From Home
Reviewed by Purrsia

Episode Transcript: Here
Main Featured Characters: Chip, Lisa, Jeff, Ginger, Rocky, Cliff, Cric, Commander Hawkins, Captain Newley, Commander Hazar, and a cameo from LV's Pidge
Original U.S. Air Date: 12/21/1984*

Synopsis: Chip has a dream where he's finally on vacation with his brother Pidge (from the Lion Voltron series). They're driving along, with Pidge supposedly in the backseat of the car, when Chip turns to find him not there at all.

Later that afternoon, the Voltron Force is happy to finally get some mail (is it just me, or did Ginger get way too much mail?). As the force reads their mail, we learn that Cric's father is in the hydroponic farm business that he'll inherit - what do you expect from a people who hail from a water world? Cliff's three brothers want to meet that "smashing" Ginger (heheh, I think I know why she gets so much mail lol). Lisa meanwhile gushes over a baby picture of Jeff that was sent with his mail, commenting about how adorable he was.

Amusing dialogue alert:
Jeff: *Were* adorable, I'm STILL adorable!
Rocky: You're so adorable, I'm gonna be sick.

Chip did get a letter from his mother, (and we get confirmation here that Pidge and Chip are twins as his mother's letters asserts, "I wish the two of you were stationed together - twins shouldn't be separated") but Chip is still pretty down.

Meanwhile, the Drules keep a close eye on the Alliance as Captain Newley oversees the construction of a new base on a nearby planet. When enemy spy planes are spotted, Newley sends out the calvary to stop them knowing they must get all the ships lest the Drule leaders glean valuable information about what they're doing.

Though they got all the enemy fighters, Newley calls the Explorer to request the Air Team as backup. However, launching is delayed when Chip fails to show up with his team.

Lisa finds the bespectacled member of the Air Team sitting alone elsewhere in the Explorer. Apparently, Chip was so lost in thought he didn't hear the order to launch. As Chip runs off to be with his team, the letter he got from home falls from his pocket and Lisa picks it up. Hawkins, however, got too impatient waiting for Chip and the Air Team to launch so he cancels the order in favor of sending Cliff's Land Team out instead.

In the launch bay, the Air Team confronts the tardy Chip and Rocky is particularly tough on him by chiding him with taunts like "Do you need glasses for your ears?" and telling him to grow up and be "half the man your brother Pidge is". This causes Chip to break down in tears and Ginger to chastise Rocky for being so mean.

While the Drules launch another attack much to Hazar's dismay, Lisa and Jeff discuss the letter Lisa recovered which she reveals was not sent from his mother but something Chip wrote to himself. When Jeff wonders why he'd do such a thing, Lisa theorizes it's because he didn't get a letter at mail call and that he's really close to his adoptive parents as well as brother, Pidge. Jeff decides that Lisa should try to talk to Chip about it while he speaks to Hawkins about going easy on Chip for being late to launch.

As Lisa tries to get Chip to open up ("I thought Chip was short for chipper"), Hawkins orders both Air and Sea teams to launch and join the Land Team. However, Chip refuses to go as he's too embarrassed to face the others seems how everyone must know he wrote the letter to himself ("How can somebody be so dumb and live?"). There's also a blooper here - Jeff reports to Hawkins that the teams are ready to go but his, given the missing Chip and Lisa - too bad Lisa is on the Sea Team. Anyway, Hawkins orders them to leave without the missing pair.

Meanwhile, the others are scouting a planet's surface when a distress signal is picked up. It turns out to be coming from a crashed Drule scouting ship and the teams decide, Drules or not, they have to help. Of course, it's a Drule trap (Cliff: "Jeff it's a trap. There's nobody inside. It was a decoy, a dummy!" It's not the only one...heh heh).

Once the Drules discover that there are two less VV Force units in the air than should be, they waste no time attacking knowing Voltron can't come to the rescue. They don't even waste time and just send out the Robeast.

Learning of the attack, Lisa begs Chip to come with her but at first he won't budge. At the last minute he comes around, declaring "Just because I've been a wimp doesn't mean I have to stay a wimp." Of course, they show up on the nick of time, Voltron is formed - and you can guess how it goes from there.

In the end, everyone gathers around Chip to tell him how swell he is, with Hutch giving him permission to yell at him whenever he's goofing off (Cliff: "You've raised goofing off to a high art"). Then Hawkins shows up with a lost letter that belongs to Chip and it happens to be from Pidge. Clips from Lion Voltron are shown as Chip reads the letter aloud. Since Dairugger XV was never originally related to Lion Voltron's anime counterpart, GoLion, I have to wonder what the plot of the original Dairugger episode was really about...it certainly would have nothing to do with Pidge!

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