Episode 50 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on May 30, 1990 and titled Unexpected Problem in Funimation's uncut 2005 dub (A Collision Course in the Ocean/Saban version), is largely a space adventure invented by the anime. While Gohan and Krillin bring Dende to safety and learn that Goku is on his way, the Saiyan's ship is struck by an asteroid and set on a collision course with a star. Getting out of it takes a Kamehameha used as a rocket.
Summary
Vegeta savors his win over Dodoria and recalls what he said about Earthlings on Namek. He senses two small power levels and goes to look. Gohan, Krillin and Dende suppress their energy and hide among the rocks as the Saiyan prince closes in. They are saved by a huge fish leaping out of the water: Vegeta decides that is what he sensed and flies off to find a Dragon Ball to keep from Frieza.
The trio reaches Bulma's cave. There, Gohan and Krillin learn that Goku has recovered and is flying to Namek, training along the way, and they jump for joy. Dende cannot quite understand all that excitement over one person.
Out in space, Goku's ship is hit by an asteroid. The hull is breached and the course thrown off: the ship is now headed straight for a blazing star. Following Dr. Brief's instructions over the video link, Goku puts on a spacesuit and goes outside to patch the hole. The repair works, but his boots get glued to the hull and he cannot get back in to correct the course in time. With no other options, he powers up and fires an enormous Kamehameha that pushes the ship away from the star. Impressed by what training at twenty times gravity has done for him, he decides to raise the load again.
On Namek, Vegeta finally finds a village Frieza's men have not reached. He lands among the houses and demands the elder hand over the Dragon Ball. The elder, Tsuno, refuses. Vegeta fires, but one of the villagers throws himself in the way and takes the blast, dying in front of the others. Far away, Gohan and the rest feel the prince's energy and realize what is happening.
Our take
In the manga, Goku's trip to Namek takes a few panels of training. The anime needs to fill weeks, so it invents this mishap in space, and for once it does not feel out of place: it is short, the danger is concrete, and above all it shows Goku's progress in a way we can see. A Kamehameha strong enough to shove a whole ship says more than any scouter reading.
On Namek, the story pulls no punches. Vegeta has no intention of becoming a hero just because he is fighting Frieza: to him the Namekians are an obstacle between himself and immortality, exactly as they are to the tyrant. The villager who sacrifices himself for his elder is a small gesture that makes the massacre more bitter, and it sets up what we will see in the next episode.
The contrast between the two halves is worth noticing: on one side a hero who uses his strength to save his own life, on the other a warrior who uses it to take everyone else's.
Trivia
- Written by Hiroshi Toda and directed by Mitsuo Hashimoto. It adapts chapter 258 and the first five pages of 259, with a 22.5% ratings share, one of the highest of this stretch.
- The ship's damage and the star are anime additions; the only Goku moment from the manga is a shot of him training with weights.
- In the Japanese version and Funimation's uncut dub, Goku fires two regular Kamehameha waves; the original Ocean dub turned them into Kaio-ken x10 and x20 blasts.
- The fish that saves the trio is called a fish by Vegeta, but Krillin calls it a whale.
Did you know? The name tag on Goku's spacesuit reads "Gokuh", one of the alternate spellings of his name used in Japanese Dragon Ball merchandise at the time.