Lava's A Many Splendored Thing

Ratings
1.4 (US)

Raelee Hill................Sikozu 
Melissa Jaffer.............Noranti 
John Adam..................Raa'Keel 
Jack Finsterer.............Gleeg 
Alan Flower................Frool 
Ross Newton................Sloggard 
Teo Gebert.................Weldon 
Christina Ramon............Alien Dancer
Mick Roughan...............Airek

Wassup?

When the gang makes a quick pit stop on a seemingly barren planet, Rygel's penchant for shiny objects gets him stuck -- quite literally -- in another fine mess. While Sikozu and Chiana try to master the Lo'la's controls for a rescue attempt, the rest of the team seems to keep getting deeper into trouble...

Backstory

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The title is a play on the title of Henry King's 1955 film LOVE IS A MANY-SPLENDORED THING, which is itself based on a book, A MANY-SPLENDORED THING, by Han Suyin.

John: "What's that?"
Noranti: "Jilnak. Very good for you."
John: "Give it to Mikey there, he'll eat anything."
Rygel: "Oh. More?"
John: "Hey, what do you know? Mikey likes it."

One of the most fondly remembered TV commercials of all time was for Life Cereal, in which Mikey, a young boy who hated everything, was shown to actually like Life.

John: "Buckwheat, I thought you came down here to drop some friends off at the pool."

A euphemistic expression for using the toilet.

John: "Bad news."
D'Argo: "Trouble."
John: "Somebody's doin' the Pompei thing. Let's go."

Pompeii was an ancient city in Italy, best known for having been buried under ashes from the volcanic eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 63 A.D.

John [over comm to Rygel]: "All right, we'll come get ya."
Raa'Keel [over Rygel's comm]: "Who's this?"
John: "Lou Costello. Who's this?"
Raa'Keel: "My name's...Raa'Keel."

Lou Costello was the shorter, member of the comedy team of [Bud] Abbott & [Lou] Costello, who've been referred to by John in several previous episodes. Probably his second favorite comedy team, after (of course) the Three Stooges.

Another reference to Abbott & Costello is made later in the episode.

John: "Absolutely, that thing you guys did on Calimari, that was beautiful, man. That was Nobel Peace Prize material."

"Calamari" is John's "Crichtonism" for the planet Cavari, which Noranti had earlier babbled about as a site of one of the Tarkans' most notable altruistic efforts. Calamari (from the Italian) is squid prepared as a dish.

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of several awards given out each year, starting in 1901, from a trust fund established by Alfred Nobel, a chemist whose other notable achievement was the invention of dynamite. The annual Nobel Prizes are awarded for the fields of chemistry, physics, medicine, literature, and peace.

Noranti: "Now can we go and talk to the Tarkans?"
John: "There is no 'we', White Girl."

A reference to an old joke:

The Lone Ranger and Tonto are riding along when they spot a cloud of dust on the horizon. Tonto scouts ahead, then comes back to report: "Kimosabe, war party of 500 Apache on horses chase us - will catch us in five minutes. No way to outrun or hide." The Lone Ranger says, "Well, Tonto, old friend, what do we do now?" to which his Faithful Indian Companion replies, "What you mean 'we', White Man?"

John: "Sur-prise, sur-prise, sur-prise!"

A catch-phrase of Gomer Pyle, of THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, played by Jim Nabors. Gomer later joined the Marines and got his own spin-off show, GOMER PYLE, USMC.

John [to Raa'Keel]: "Okay, here's the deal, Tin Man. You can't hurt us, we can't hurt you. You've got our whoopie cushion, we've got Larry and Moe here. What do you say to a simple trade?"

Three references for the price of one.

The "Tin Man" is one of Dorothy's travelling companions in THE WIZARD OF OZ.

A whoopie cushion is a practical joke item: when the unsuspecting victim sits on it, it produces a farting noise. Given Rygel's flatulant habits, the metaphor speaks for itself.

Larry [Fine] and Moe [Howard] are two members of John's favorite comedy team, the Three Stooges (http://www.threestooges.com/).

John [to one of Raa'Keel's henchmen]: "Mr. Redshirt, whatever the Tin Man's paying you, we'll double it."

Yet Another Star Trek Reference. "Redshirt" is a term given by Star Trek fans to those ubiquitous members of the Enterprise's security teams, who always wore red tunics, and always got killed by the Evil Aliens of the Week. Therefore, a "redshirt" is someone with -- to quote Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- "the life expectancy of a Spinal Tap drummer".

John: "Can I get a 'Hell, yeah'?"

A repeat (see the annotations for "Season of Death") of the signature line of professional wrestler "Stone Cold Steve Austin".

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