Recap / X-Men S3 E3 "The Phoenix Saga, Part 1: Sacrifice"

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• Adaptation Distillation: A very condensed adaptation of X-Men issues 98-100. It leaves out the Sentinels, Stephen Lang and Project Armageddon, and most of the X-Men getting captured. Instead, Erik the Red replaces Stephen, none of the X-Men are captured, and they go to the space lab because Charles has a psychic dream.
• Adaptational Wimp: Doctor Corbeau is significantly less impressive than his comic counterpart.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The space station has already been occupied by Erik the Red, agent of the Shi'ar empire.
• Captured on Purpose: An unfortunate part of the plan to infiltrate the space shuttle launch is serving up Jubilee as the culprit. Apparently, it's fine when they have Storm in reserve to break her out.
• Chekhov's Gun: The reinforced piece of equipment in the back of the shuttle, designed to resist severe amounts of radiation.
• Deus Exit Machina: Rogue, who could almost certainly survive the energy with less chance of death, is away on a mission somewhere.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Lilandra sends a psychic message across space that just happens to hit Xavier in his sleep.
• Fantastic Racism: In his ranting, Erik denounces humanity as a primitive and lesser species not worth his attention.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Jean ends up absorbing Doctor Corbeau's training and taking his place at the cockpit, meaning that she's going to be hit by unfiltered solar radiation while piloting the shuttle to safety.
• Insignificant Little Blue Planet: The Shi'ar Empire is aware of Earth, but Erik's ranting makes it clear that being assigned to spy on the planet is a wholly unimportant job. He desperately wants a better assignment.
• It's What I Do: Cyclops intends to pilot the shuttle back to Earth. When Beast points out that's a suicide mission, Cyclops asserts this is what comes with being team leader and that he's doing it. Jean, however, doesn't give him a choice.
• Lighter and Softer: The comic version of Jean was utterly destroyed by the solar flare energies that require her to make a sacrifice, and by the time Phoenix showed up she was already reduced to a husk. Here, the energy doesn't have any adverse effect on her appearance, as deadly as it is.
• Motive Rant: With Doctor Corbeau restrained, Erik explains to him the plan to destroy Lilandra's ship. When asked who he specifically is, however, Erik rants about being an undercover agent on a "pathetic, backwater, little world" and how he sees this mission as a chance to finally get reassigned to a much better location.
• Mugged for Disguise: The X-Men are forced to KO the actual astronauts for their spacesuits. It's never explained how one of them can fit Beast.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: A stray shot from Cyclops hits some of the space lab's equipment, causing it to start going up.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Xavier can't really tell what these psychic visions mean, and ends up pleading with the X-Men to head up to space.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: The comic depiction of Xavier's recurring nightmares hid that the mysterious alien was a woman until she landed in front of Charles and took off her helmet. Here, it's clear she's a woman from the off.
• Samus Is a Girl: Xavier sees someone in a hulking alien spacesuit begging him for help - with a female voice. It's the first time we hear Lilandra.
• Shout-Out: The first scene is about a galactic battle, with plenty of lasers and explosions, with the rebel leader's ship being captured by the big intimidating flagship.
• This Cannot Be!: After Erik sees the X-Men have taken the place of the shuttle crew, D'Ken has this reaction to Earthlings being aware of his plans.
• Thrown Out the Airlock: Erik the Red tries to do this to the X-Men, but Jean's able to use her powers to override the controls and save them.
• Woken Up at an Ungodly Hour: Xavier summons the team to the war room in the middle of the night. No one is happy about this, especially Wolverine. Gambit is the only one who was awake before this, due to having had a date.