01x05 - Learning Curve: Part 1

[bunniefuu]

[theme music playing]

[Watcher] Eons ago, there
lived a race called The Watchers.

Unique in its total dedication
to the gathering of knowledge

from everywhere in the universe.

The Watchers stored what
they learned on their home planet

and renamed it
the Universal Library.

Eventually
this noble culture perished

as even the greatest
of civilizations may.

And now,
only one of its kind remains.

Before the end, The Watchers
created several beacons

to be used as guides
to their planet.

So others could reclaim the
knowledge that was left behind.

Because their creators deemed
only the most dedicated seeker

worthy of being rewarded.

Finding such a beacon
is not easy.

Entire lifetimes have been
wasted in fruitless pursuit.

Are you all right, Mentor?

Ah, Drax, old friend,
how can I not be

with success so close at hand?

[shatter]

[growls]

[Watcher] In spite of all
the adversities, however.

Some special individuals
are able to reap their rewards.

[Mentor] A beacon.
Drax, the legends are true.

Mentor.

This feels like a trap.

Of course, it's a trap.

But that shouldn't keep us
from desiring the bait.

Mentor!

[Geatar] Instruments show Mentor
and Drax returning to their ship, Captain.

What's Mentor carrying?

I don't get a reading.

You would if your instruments
saw the way I do.

Yes! That's the reason I've
been tracking the old coot.

Get it.

At last!

After all these years.

- Mentor, look.
- Nebula.

We've come too far for that
pirate to take the prize now.

I'll get it back.

Drax, no!

Not again!

[Silver Surfer] Strange.

When last I was at this landing its
people reacted bitterly toward me.

Now I'm accepted for who I am.

Can it be that I no longer
bear the stigma

of having served dread Galactus?

Perhaps here I will obtain news
of where I can find...

Shalla-Bal!

Norrin Radd?

Oh, Norrin!

Have I truly found you?

It is really you.

H-how do you come to be here
instead of on lost Zenn-La?

I came searching for you,
Norrin.

I-I could not go on
unless we were together.

[crash] What is it?

[Galactus laughing]

[Silver Surfer] No!

I will fight for this woman,
Galactus!

I will fight though it mean
my own destruction!

[Pip] Hey, hey, hey.
Hey, big-big fella.

Slurper!

You have nothing
to hide from now, Pip.

I wasn't hiding.

I was checking the fertility
of the soil.

If you'd have told me
you were such a bad sleeper

I never would have booked
this trip.

It is that same nightmare,
over and over.

Am I to be haunted by this
until I find Zenn-La?

[Pip] Is there anything
I can do to help?

You can keep your eyes open,
little one.

You mean for something
like that?

Hey, w-where you going?

I have been a part of too much
tragedy, Pip

to turn away from what may be
another's plight.

[Pip] Just my luck. Out on the
town with an interstellar Samaritan.

[rocks shatter]

[Pip screams]

Mentor!

Please, I am not here
to harm you.

The Silver Surfer!

And a Kree sl*ve troll?

sl*ve? S-s-sl*ve?

W-Where? The name's Pip.

I'm showing the surfer around.

I failed, Mentor.

I am sorry.

You couldn't help it, Drax.

Aha! The tired, old scholar
before you is Mentor.

And this eternally young
specimen is Drax.

As you can see,
Drax is an android.

His brain, however, is
organic and subject to lapses.

I apologize for any problem
this has caused.

[Silver Surfer]
No harm done, however,

it is not every day that I encounter
other beings spinning through space.

How did that come to be?

In a word, Silver Surfer...
Nebula.

[Pip laughs]

- You know the lady?
- Hey, I've been around.

[chuckles] You had
something she wanted, right?

Ah, I had an idea...

A world where
I could obtain this.

Tell me, Silver Surfer. Have you ever heard
of a place called the Universal Library?

One of the mixed blessings
bestowed upon me by Galactus

is the ability to detect
powerful energy sources.

Mentor! I have found the
energy trail of the stolen beacon.

Follow me.

After spending centuries

questing for the hidden wisdom
of The Watchers.

Silver Surfer, nothing could
keep me from doing so.

[Silver Surfer]
Although Zenn-La maintained

a heightened awareness
of the human spirit.

Still was there much we did
not know about other matters.

Until this day...

I was ignorant
of the Universal Library

and of the fact that there was
once more than one Watcher.

The remaining Watcher was unable to
tell me where Zenn-La could be found.

But now I feel new hope.

That the ancient library
of his people

will provide a way
to locate my home.

[Maclag] A bunch of lights are
flying us halfway around the universe

so we can go to the library?

Captain, are you sure
about this?

Maclag's got a point there,
Captain.

[Maclag]
Seems like a screwy idea to me.

[groans]

Listen up, you low-life, bottom-of-the-barrel
dregs of pseudo sentient life!

We have been on more missions
together than you can count.

If you could count.

And have I ever let you
gobs down?

Uh, begging your pardon,
Captain,

but I think the boys
are just a tad confused.

They know plunder,
not education.

[Nebula] And plunder is
what they'll get, Geatar.

Knowledge is power

and power is profit.

What do you think the profit
will be when this "bunch of lights"

puts all the knowledge
in the universe

right into our hands?

Hey, I never thought of that.

She's got a point.

Captain, I've always been proud
to be a member of your crew.

[Nebula] Brace yourselves, boys!

Looks like we're about to get
our library cards punched!

[Silver Surfer] How can this be?

The energy I have been following
leads directly to this point in space.

But now I find nothing.

Nor do I. My instruments
show no sign of the beacon.

Have we truly come
to the end of the road?

Were that so,
Nebula still would be here.

Yet she has continued on.

A plasma jump!

In all my time with Galactus I
encountered only one of its ilk.

It served as a doorway

an instantaneous transporter to a
star system millions of light-years away.

But this one is so small.

According to my research

the beacon would be capable
of opening the jump

so a ship can go through.

- Without it...
- Without it, that task must fall to me.

The jump has fastened
onto my Power Cosmic!

Never have I felt
anything like this.

Can it be feeding
on my very being?

[Pip] Drax, hurry! The Surfer's
inside that c*ck thing!

[Silver Surfer] The pain

is too much to bear!

I feel as if I'm being
ripped apart!

Mentor, if I destroy this jump

we may never get
to the Universal Library.

We have taken more than our
share of chances already, old friend.

I'd rather save the Silver
Surfer and fail in our quest

than succeed
at the cost of his life.

You heard the man!
What are you waiting for?

Nothing, little one.
Nothing at all.

[Silver Surfer] I... do
not know how to fight this.

My very essence see-seems
to be slipping away.

Instead of extinguishing
the jump...

Drax's blasts are causing it
to grow.

The doorway is eager to devour
energy from any source.

Like Galactus, it always demands
more.

On Zenn-La

we were taught that peace comes
to those who walk with the wind

not against it.

[grunting]

If this plasma jump wants me
so much

then have me it shall!

This don't mean
we're going steady.

[Silver Surfer] Drax! Mentor!

I do not know how long
the jump will hold its size.

You must hurry through!

[Mentor]
On my way. What about you?

Pip and I will meet you
on the other side.

To me, my board.

[Pip] Hey, hey, Surfer. Is
that your old pal, the Watcher?

Or-or is that him?

[Mentor] I'd say that
rumors of the demise

of the Watcher civilization
were greatly exaggerated.

Except for the fact
that my readings show

that those are images,
not living beings.

What do you think they're for,
road signs?

[Silver Surfer murmuring chants]

S-surfer? Surfer!

Oh... Shalla Bal.

[Pip] Surfer!

[Drax] I fear for the Surfer.

- He doesn't have very good color.
- How ironic.

This should be a moment
of victory, not despair.

The Universal Library
finally is within our grasp.

Yet, it appears that the man
responsible for our being here

has paid the ultimate price.

The internal energy level
of the Silver Surfer is so low

it can't even be measured

and I'm at a loss
as to how to increase it.

You have been
unusually quiet, Pip.

I'm doing something
I never did before.

I'm praying.

[Silver Surfer groaning]

Wha...

The last time I was the object
of such close attention

my world almost came to an end.

I trust that this situation
is not quite so dire.

All right!
Check those highlights!

You want to talk color?
Look at this guy shine!

I see that we have successfully
passed through the plasma jump.

It is time to obtain
the answers we seek.

- [Silver Surfer groans]
- Easy, my friend.

You aren't yet fully recovered.

It isn't much, Silver Surfer

but may I offer you a ride?

Remarkable!

It's as though
the Watchers are welcoming us

after all our travail.

You sure they aren't really
protecting their turf?

I believe we will be safe.

If the rest of his people
were like the surviving Watcher

never would they involve themselves
in the events of the universe.

We have seen no sign of Nebula.
She and her ship must already be...

There!
That must be our destination.

[cacophony of noise and chatter]

W-What is all this?

It is coming from the planet.

There's only one thing
this can be.

The sight and sound of all
The Watchers have ever recorded.

Gentlemen, we have done it!

We found the Universal Library!

[Drax]
But where's the order, Mentor?

The index?

Make it stop! M-make it stop!

Make it go away!

Did I say this was a library?

It's an as*ault!

[screaming]

[Silver Surfer]
Drax, I need your assistance.

We must protect the ship.

Drax!

[Infinity]
Watcher, we know you are there.

Who calls The Watcher?

Do you not know, Eternity

and my sweet sister, Infinity?

How could I not know
the living representations

of Time and Space?

What brings you
to my ancestral home?

A crisis is on the horizon,
Watcher.

One that threatens us all.

My brother believes
that the Silver Surfer

will be able to resolve it.

I, however, have grave doubts.

The Surfer's obsessive search
for Zenn-La

may mean not only his own end

but that of the universe
as well.

[theme music playing]