Recap / The Magic School Bus S 2 E 11 Out Of This World

The Magic School Bus Out of This World

Original airdate: November 18th, 1995

Subject: Space Rocks

Focus Student(s): Dorothy Ann

"Teacher's ledger, field trip #24. Welcome, crew of the Magic Space Bus. We are about to go where few even dared dream to go!"

While the class has been studying planetary orbits, DA has been charting an asteroid over a week. She runs to school in a hurry when she realizes that the asteroid is going to hit their school! The class goes into outer space to do three things to the asteroid, in Wanda's words: "Find it, follow it, and finish it off."

Producers Segment

The male producer answers the questions about the episode. He even gets a call from a NASA employee who was trying to get back to Ms. Frizzle's class after their attempt to contact the agency in the main episode.

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Tropes

• 2-D Space: Locations in space are tracked on a two-dimensional grid.
• Badass in Distress: Ms. Frizzle and Carlos when their pod gets trapped on the asteroid and they can't pull away.
• The Big Board: Used to plot out the coordinates in outer space.
• Bond One-Liner: Wanda does this to a comet after the second one the class destroys.
  Wanda: Sorry, no comet!
• Captain's Log: Ms. Frizzle's "Teacher's Ledger."
• Cassandra Truth: At first the class doesn't believe DA when she tells them the asteroid will hit their school. When they can't reach NASA, she sarcastically mentions they can wait for "The big kaboom, and then you'll have your proof!" Fortunately, Ms. Frizzle decides to take the class into space to verify DA's findings.
• Catapult Nightmare: DA has one about the asteroid she's charting hitting the school and killing Ms. Frizzle. What's worse is that according to her calculations, the school will be hit.
• Colony Drop: Predating Armageddon (1998) and Deep Impact by three years, no less. This being a kids' show, the threat is downplayed, with the asteroid treated as only being a danger to the school itself.
• Composite Character: With regards to the Star Trek parody, Liz combines characteristics of Mr. Spock (visual appearance), Scotty (being told, "beam us down, Lizzie"), and Mr. Sulu (running the helm).
• Fakeout Opening: At first it seems DA is part of a space adventure, flying around in a ship and talking to a superior. Then it turns out to be a nightmare she's having, about a real asteroid that will hit the school.
• Foreshadowing: In DA's Catapult Nightmare, Ms. Frizzle was at the school when the asteroid hits it. During the episode, Ms. Frizzle and Carlos get stuck on the asteroid and require a rescue.
• Gravity Sucks: Played for Drama when the moon pulls the bus to its orbit, when Carlos and Ms. Frizzle's escape pod gets stuck to the asteroid, and when the bus becomes as large as the moon to redirect the asteroid from the Earth to the sun.
• Hurl It into the Sun: How the class destroys the asteroid.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Carlos and Ms. Frizzle escape their trapped pod and head to the bus when their plan has failed and the bus has the asteroid in its orbit.
• Late for School: Dorothy Ann winds up being late for school due to having gotten up at 4:00 a.m. to look at the asteroid through her telescope.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In her "Teacher's Ledger," Ms. Frizzle says this is, "field trip #24." This is indeed the twenty-fourth episode of the show.
• Logical Weakness:
  • Discussed about orbits; a celestial body with a larger mass, like the moon, can draw in smaller ones to create an orbit.
  • Comets are made of ice; thus, with enough heat, they can be melted.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": The class has a few moments:
  • When they get trapped around the moon.
  • When the heat ray fails to melt the asteroid.
  • When Ms. Frizzle and Carlos get trapped on the asteroid when their plan fails.
  • NASA also has one off-screen, given their lines are busy.
• No-Sell: The heat ray that worked on the comet doesn't work on the asteroid because it's made of metal and rock, not ice and rock.
• Not Now, Kiddo: Carlos and Wanda tell DA this when giving the orders to melt down the comet before she can figure out if it's the object they need to destroy.
• Oh, Crap!: Keesha, when Carlos and Ms. Frizzle end up trapped on the asteroid.
  Keesha: Oh, bad! Oh, bad! Oh, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad!
• Pluto Is Expendable: The class had to start their solar system play without Dorothy Ann as Pluto.
• Red Herring: The comet that the class finds. DA at first isn't sure if it's the right object, but after the bus destroys it, she becomes definitely sure.
• Shout-Out:
  • Carlos jokingly makes a barking sound when telling Dorothy Ann she was supposed to be Pluto.
  • Even though the episode is mostly an Homage to Star Trek, Ms. Frizzle has the hairstyle of Princess Leia.
• Stating the Simple Solution: At first to get proof that the asteroid is coming, the class tries to call NASA. NASA unfortunately is on hold, probably because they can see the asteroid coming.
• Time for Plan B: After they fail to melt the asteroid, Carlos and Ms. Frizzle attempt to pull it away from the projected course towards Earth. When that fails, DA comes up with the idea to make the bus large enough to draw the asteroid into its orbit, and then release it into the sun after Carlos and Ms. Frizzle are safe. Arnold lampshades that he hopes her plan is better than Carlos's.
• Wham Shot: The asteroid not melting under the heat ray.
• Where No Parody Has Gone Before: It starts with the bus turning into the Enterprise and goes from there.^note Even more so six years down the road, as the transformed bus vaguely resembles the NX-01 Enterprise. Ms. Frizzle does a Captain's Log when they get to space, the bus goes to warp in the classic fashion to catch up with the asteroid, and Liz sprouts pointed ears and a hairdo like Spock.

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