| Ray Butts | |
|---|---|
| Season 1, Episode 5 | |
| |
| Air date | October 22, 1995 |
| Written by | Glen Morgan and James Wong |
| Directed by | Charles Martin Smith |
| Episode guide | |
| Previous Mutiny |
Next Eyes |
Ray Butts is the fifth episode of Season 1 of Space: Above and Beyond.
The episode aired October 22, 1995 on the Fox Network.
A mysterious colonel arrives unexpectedly on the USS Saratoga. Recruiting the Wild Cards for a classified mission, he changes the mission's objective as soon as they're behind enemy lines.
Summary[]
An unidentified Hammerhead enters the USS Saratoga flight bay without authorization, but with working command codes, and McQueen is sent to welcome the uninvited guest. At first, guards in the flight bay think that the pilot is dead, but LTC Raymond Thomas Butts is very much alive, fighting several Marines at once. He tells McQueen that he is on a secret mission while Shane, Cooper and Nathan examine the cockpit of the Hammerhead. They find out that Butts comes from the Cerberus region in which there is a blackhole.
Butts finds them and belittles Shane and when Nathan and Cooper come to her aid, he taunts Coop for being a tank. Butts puts the whole squadron to a test by using a paint ball game before he takes them on his mission. McQueen warns him that if he screws up this mission he is going to find Butts and kill him.
The Wild Cards are transported to Planet 2063-F, a Chig-occupied world, but they soon find out that Butts lost six Marines under his command there. He explains that his unit was ordered to bomb a Chig C-3 tower on the planet, found that anti-aircraft fire at the site was too heavy, and so he ordered his unit to land and set explosives, "just like we do it in the old corps." On the ground, they encountered heavy resistance and his Marines wanted to wait for reinforcements; deciding they had gotten too scared, Butts left them and destroyed the tower himself. On his way back to his Marines, he found that they had gotten into a firefight with superior Chig forces and arrived just in time to watch them frantically firing their last shots, desperate for survival but ultimately doomed.
They locate the mutilated bodies of the six and bury them with honors - including a eulogy for each from LTC Butts, concluding with an especially poignant one for Robert Grant. Afterwards, the 58th prepare the Hammerheads flown by the dead Marines for flight back to the Saratoga. Butts tells them to say goodbye to each other, for he never had the chance to say it to his friends.
Vanessa tells them au revoir and Shane explains to Nathan that she believes that he will find Kylen. Cooper does not know exactly what to say but he tells them that for the short time they have served together, he has experienced true friendship.
They take off with the Hammerheads but the Chigs attack. Butts baits them into the black hole so that the Wild Cards can escape, but afterward is unable to escape the gravity well himself. Accepting that he's eaten his last pancake, Butts shares a farewell with the Wild Cards and gives a last hurrah before the black hole tears his Hammerhead apart. Back on the Saratoga, the Wild Cards discover that dinner consists of pancakes. Quietly noting the significance, Nathan tosses his pancakes into the trash, to which the rest of the squad follows suit; the disposal system subsequently ejects the food into space and they drift away, 'sending' the pancakes to Butts.
Cast & Characters[]
Main Cast[]
- Morgan Weisser as 1LT Nathan West
- Kristen Cloke as 1LT Shane Vansen
- Rodney Rowland as 1LT Cooper Hawkes
- Joel de la Fuente as 1LT Paul Wang
- Lanei Chapman as 1LT Vanessa Damphousse
- James Morrison as LTC Tyrus Cassius "T.C." McQueen
Recurring Cast[]
Additional Cast[]
- Steve Rankin as LTC Raymond Thomas Butts
- Lar Park-Lincoln as Bowman
- John Voldstad as Sailor
- David Prudhomme as Cochran
Crew[]
Director[]
Writers[]
Executive Producers[]
- Glen Morgan (executive producer)
- James Wong (executive producer)
- Stephen Zito (co-executive producer)
Producers[]
- Tim McHugh (producer)
- D. Howard Grigsby (producer)
- Herb Adelman (co-producer)
- Tom Towler (supervising producer)
- Ken Dennis (associate producer)
Music[]
- Shirley Walker
Trivia[]
- Scenes on Planet 2063-F were filmed at Vasquez Rocks, a Los Angeles County Park famous as a filming location for hundreds of movies and TV shows.
- Johnny Cash songs featured in this episode are "Folsom Prison Blues," "So Doggone Lonesome" and "I Walk the Line."