Production
| Detail |
Value |
| Written by |
Craig Miller and Mark Nelson |
| Air date |
November 17, 1987 |
| Season |
2 |
| Aired episode no. |
060 |
| DVD episode no. |
024 |
| Production no. |
76011 |
| DVD boxset |
Vol. 1, Disc 4 |
Regular voice cast: Lorenzo Music, Frank Welker, Maurice LaMarche, Arsenio Hall
Guest voice cast: Clyde Kusatsu, Iona Morris
The episode was recorded across two sessions: October 22, 1986, and September 28, 1987. Guest actor Clyde Kusatsu had to reschedule his ADR session from August 18, 1987 to September 28.
Writer Craig Miller was a former Lucasfilm Ltd. marketing director and publicist for some of the largest theatrical film releases of the 1980s.
Plot
Space Platform Galileo is on its first full day of a mission to set a new space endurance record. Captain Kirov has just begun recording his captain's log for Friday, June 13, when station alarms are triggered. Lieutenant Sato identifies the cause as an incursion, Irahqua reports interference across all frequencies, and power begins dropping throughout the station. Lieutenant Commander McTavish heads off to check engineering, and Yeoman Whitney reports to Kirov that she saw a ghost. McTavish returns and confirms the sighting. Once frequencies clear, Kirov patches into a satellite and calls the Ghostbusters directly for help.
Back at the Firehouse, Ecto-1 departs and the Ghostbusters are launched aboard a space shuttle. Peter is delighted by the prospect of a government contract; Ray is worried about whether their equipment will function in zero gravity. Aboard Galileo, the Ghostbusters meet the crew and hear descriptions of the entity. Ray cannot locate it in the team's computerized Tobin's Spirit Guide. Egon picks up a reading on the P.K.E. Meter, and McTavish escorts them to engineering, where the entity, later called The Creature, has been tapping into the solar energy converter. Egon notes it has the same basic ectoplasmic makeup as a Class 4 Free Floating Spirit, but with no accompanying psychokinetic energy, technically making it not a conventional ghost. When the team fires on it, the Creature simply feeds on the Proton Streams and grows stronger.
The situation worsens when the Creature taps into the gravity unit. It chases McTavish and the Ghostbusters through the corridor, and grabs Winston. He slips out of his pack, but retrieves a spare and rejoins the team. Winston tries to communicate with the Creature directly; it reaches out to him but finds no usable energy source and moves on. The team concludes it is not evil, just hungry, though still dangerous. A plan is drawn up: McTavish dons a spacesuit and manually disconnects the solar panels from outside the station, cutting off the Creature's food source. The team lures it to the center of the platform with their equipment, then deploys four ghost traps simultaneously to capture it completely.
Captain Kirov is surprised they succeeded. He orders Houston to cut the Ghostbusters' check, then deducts their transportation expenses from it. The Ghostbusters, comparing notes on the crew, realize the platform and its personnel resemble nothing so much as another spacecraft on a famous five-year mission.
Characters
Ghostbusters
This is one of the few Real Ghostbusters episodes in which neither Janine Melnitz nor Slimer appear. According to the production script included in the DVD boxset, Janine was originally written to answer Captain Kirov's distress call.
The five-person crew of Galileo is a collection of Star Trek: The Original Series parodies, each named and designed to evoke a specific crew member of the Enterprise.
Captain Ivan Kirov (voiced by Frank Welker) is the commanding officer of Galileo. His design draws primarily from Pavel Chekov while also sharing traits with James T. Kirk. Kirov opened the episode recording his captain's log when the Creature triggered the station alarms. He called the Ghostbusters in directly, grew increasingly skeptical of the team during the mission, and was visibly shocked when they succeeded. He then ordered Houston to cut the team's check with transportation expenses deducted.
Lieutenant Irahqua (voiced by Iona Morris) is the communications officer and a spoof of Nyota Uhura. She reported interference across all frequencies when the entity first attacked, and later relayed the station's distress call through the satellite link.
Lieutenant Commander McTavish (voiced by Clyde Kusatsu and Maurice LaMarche) is the chief engineer and a spoof of Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, modeled after the first film version of the character. He was among the first crew members to witness the Creature, and escorted the Ghostbusters to engineering. In the final plan to capture the entity, McTavish suited up and manually disconnected the solar panels from the exterior of the station. He also remarks to Egon that he reminds him of an old shipmate with pointy ears, an implicit nod to Mr. Spock.
Lieutenant Dostoyevsky Sato (voiced by Clyde Kusatsu and Maurice LaMarche) is a spoof of Hikaru Sulu. His first name is a tribute to Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Sato was the first to interpret the station's alert as an incursion, was skeptical when Kirov called in private exterminators, but personally invited the Ghostbusters back after the Creature was captured. Fourteen years after this episode aired, a character named "Ensign Hoshi Sato" would appear in Star Trek: Enterprise.
Yeoman Whitney (voiced by Iona Morris) is a spoof of Janice Rand. Her surname comes from actress Grace Lee Whitney, who originated that role. In the Star Trek franchise, "Yeoman" was a Starfleet title for an officer serving as a personal assistant. Whitney was the first crew member to report seeing the ghost, entering the bridge to alert Captain Kirov.
The Creature
The Creature (referred to as "The Thing" at several points in the episode) is the main antagonist, voiced by Arsenio Hall. It is a large, amorphous red mass with long thin tentacles, multiple mouths, and yellow eyes. In the call sheet for the episode, it is listed simply as "Ghost."
Egon's P.K.E. Meter registers the Creature as having the ectoplasmic makeup of a Class 4 Free Floating Spirit, but with no accompanying psychokinetic energy, making it technically not a ghost in the conventional sense. Ray could not locate it in the team's computerized Tobin's Spirit Guide. The Creature is not malevolent: it is essentially a hungry animal, feeding on whatever energy is available, including solar power, the station's gravity systems, and even the Ghostbusters' Proton Streams. It is unaware of the damage its feeding causes. When Winston attempted to communicate with it, the Creature reached out but, finding no energy to draw from him, moved on.
The Ghostbusters ultimately captured it with four ghost traps deployed simultaneously after cutting off its energy supply. Its design was drawn to resemble the alien from the Dark Horse Comics adaptation of John Carpenter's The Thing from Another World. The character has since made non-canon cameo appearances in IDW Publishing's Ghostbusters comics, including Ghostbusters Issue #6 and Issue #11, Ghostbusters: Get Real Issues #1 and #3, and Ghostbusters International #10.
Quotes
Captain: Captain's log; Friday 13th of June...
Peter: No company with a government contract ever knows what it's doing.
Winston: What if the stuff doesn't work?
Peter: If it doesn't work, you just charge more and do it again.
Peter: Don't be ridiculous Winston. These people are astronauts. Space explorers. They've been out exploring strange new worlds. Seeking new life and new civilizations.
Lt. Irahqua: Actually, this is only our second day.
Winston: A ghost hungry for power?
Peter: Maybe it used to be a politician.
Ray: So it must of found a more interesting source of energy. Something it likes better. Something that will make it grow faster.
Peter: Like Wonder Bread?
Ray: I wish I had taken those swimming lessons instead of clarinet.
Trivia
- This is the first and only episode of The Real Ghostbusters set in space. It should not be confused with the later space-themed episode "Spacebusters."
- The space platform is named Galileo, after astronomer Galileo Galilei. In the Star Trek franchise, a shuttlecraft was also named Galileo.
- The crew of Space Platform Galileo is structured as a Star Trek: The Original Series parody. McTavish explicitly tells Egon he reminds him of "an old shipmate with pointy ears," referring to Mr. Spock. This carries extra resonance: the original Ghostbusters movie script described Egon as a "new wave Mr. Spock."
- Ray refers to the Proton Guns as "ion rifles" during the mission.
- Peter invokes a riff on the United States Postal Service's unofficial motto.
- Peter's Wonder Bread joke references a brand of North American white bread.
- A collect call reference is made during the episode.
- Ray's regret about clarinet lessons rather than swimming lessons recurs from elsewhere in the series. The clarinet detail also helps explain, in continuity, why Ray alone was susceptible to the magic music of Malachi in "Play Them Ragtime Boos," alongside his noted openness of mind.
- On page 16 of Ghostbusters International #10, an arcade machine based on this episode appears in the background, showing the Creature and the Experimental Space Platform Galileo on the marquee. The screen depicts the scene of Captain Kirov recording his captain's log at the start of the episode.
Animation Errors
- Despite the episode establishing microgravity conditions aboard the platform, the Ghostbusters are shown kicking their ghost traps across the floor.
- The episode offers no in-story explanation for why the Ghostbusters' Proton Streams were effective against the Creature late in the episode, after it had clearly been absorbing those same beams earlier.
Gallery
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References
Fandom Wiki, "Ain't NASA-Sarily So" (The Real Ghostbusters episode article, including cast, character, equipment, and trivia data)
