Episode 60: They Were Eleven

Podcast

Apr 28

In this episode of Shoujo Sundae, Giana and Chika review the 1986 film They Were Eleven. Tada is one of the very few individuals who have made it to the final test before being granted entry into the Cosmos Academy. Only ten people were supposed to be present for the final test, which takes place over fifty-three days on a spaceship, but there were eleven! Listen as Giana and Chika talk through their speculations on who was the mysterious extra crew member, the unexpected conversation about gender on different planets, the magnificent Knu, the forced romance between Tada and Frol, and so much more.

Grab your spoons, and let’s dig in!

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS OF THEY WERE ELEVEN

Written by Chika Supreme

Edited by Giana Luna

The 1986 sci-fi mystery film They Were Eleven opens with text describing the current state of the universe. After the discovery of warp navigation, inhabitants of Terra, previously known as Earth, expanded into space over several centuries. This led to numerous planet nations emerging, and with that came both peaceful and violent engagements between Terrans and inhabitants of other galaxies and systems. After many trials of war and peace, various planet nations signed the Interstellar Alliance Treaty to ensure long-lasting peace.

The Cosmo Academy, established one hundred and twenty years from the opening sequence, signaled a new era of alliance and scientific intelligence. This institution, which contains the finest space science facilities, exists to educate leaders of the future of the various planet nations. Anyone who graduates from the Cosmo Academy is promised an elite position in their society.

Every three years, the Cosmo Academy holds entrance exams. The passing rate is an incredibly low 0.1%. During one of these examination periods, we meet Tadatos Lane from Terra, nicknamed Tada for short. He is one of the seven hundred individuals who made it to the final exam. He dons a space suit and readies himself for further instruction from the academy.

Passing examinees are then divided into groups of ten to take the final test as collectives. Although Tada is nervous, he reminisces about his village elder, who encouraged him to pass the test and become the space cadet he's always wanted to be, given his intellect and strong intuitive power.

Tada’s group for the final exam then free-fly through space to a nearby spaceship, whereupon the test will take place. However, upon boarding, the examinees quickly realize that there are, in fact, eleven individuals on board instead of ten. Disturbed by the new addition, one by one, they each remove their helmet to reveal their face to the group. Before a confrontation or proper introduction can occur, multiple explosions suddenly boom around the ship. Gravity shifts, and the eleven applicants rush directly to the cockpit to stop further explosions. Although they are suspicious of each other, they work together to trace the explosives and shut them down.

Their final test to enter Cosmo Academy officially starts, and they learn that they have to stay on the spaceship for fifty-three days and work together as a crew. Applicants are not permitted to contact anyone during the testing period. If a problem occurs that they absolutely cannot solve, there is an emergency scramble button they can utilize to alert a rescue team from the Academy to come assist them. However, pressing the scramble button will result in the immediate failure of the final exam. In addition to this, if one person on the crew fails the test, it counts as a failure for the entire group.

With no choice but to work together, the applicants decide to introduce themselves to one another. Tada is open about his intuitive power and claims that he can help identify the extra crew member because he will be able to intuit whoever lies. One by one, the crew members introduce themselves:

King Mayan Baceska of Aristoscale of the Sava Group

Doricas Soldam, the Fourth

Amazon Carnais of Shushu, Terra (Earth)

Chako Kacka of Ques, Terra (Earth)

Dorf Tasta aka Rednose of Peroma, Terra (Earth)

Toto Ni of Mis of the Sava Group

Frolbericheri Frol of Vene (planet not part of the Interstellar Treaty Alliance)

Vidmenir Knume aka Knu of Vidknu (planet not part of the Interstellar Treaty Alliance)

Ganigas Gagtos aka Ganga of Toledolega of Sava Group

Glenn Groff of Ashwhite of the Seguru Group

Tadatos Lane aka Tada of Siberies, Terra (Earth)

King Mayan becomes suspicious of Tada since he was unable to identify the eleventh crew member during introductions. Authority seems to be thrust upon Mayan due to his kingship on his home planet. After introductions, the applicants break up into two search groups to investigate the spaceship.

Tada’s group discovers a replica statue of The Guardian Lady of Space. The original piece was sculpted by a Terran artist called Rommo a long time ago. From this information, the team deduces that the spaceship is Terran. After hearing the name of the ship, Esperanza, Tada is jolted by the familiarity of the name to him, which causes Mayan to glare at him disdainfully. Tada is quickly able to identify how to operate the ship’s elevator despite it being his first time in Esperanza, deepening Mayan’s suspicions.

Down in the engine room of the ship, the group comes across overgrown conductor vines. Ganga identifies the vines as being from his planet group, Seguru. The search group splits off more, and we follow Tada, Amazon, and Frol to the ship's storage area as they search for anything of use. Tada finds three boxes of shock guns, which, if leveled at maximum, could be lethal. This discovery leads the group to have a vote, and, with Tada being the tiebreaker, they decide not to use the shock guns, and they store them away.

Tada hesitates to ask if Frol if they are a woman. When confronted by Frol, Tada chickens out by wondering why his intuitive power didn't work initially. Meanwhile, Mayan and Doricas discuss their suspicions of Tada over tea. In their opinion, Tada seems too familiar with the ship for them to let their guard down.

Tada, Frol, and Amazon become roommates. While Amazon plays a guitar, Frol contemplates whether the last people on the Esperanza have all died and if the eleventh person on the ship could be a ghost. Days pass, and we learn that the Esperanza was used for long-range transit. It could house upwards of six hundred families. It has three years of provisions onboard, a library, and vegetable gardens.

The examinees are currently orbiting a black planet, and the length of time of the orbit is fifty-three days, which is in line with the time they all must spend on the ship for their final test. The crew members with engineering skills begin to diligently work on the Esperanza to improve its satellite quality, identify where all the bombs are on the ship, and activate more computers onboard. As the crew works on repairs, someone telepathically tells Tada to turn on Circuit E, and, believing someone in the vicinity told him this, Tada obeys. Ganga is electrocuted unconscious because of this, sending everyone into a frenzy. Mayan slaps Tada, believing he electrocuted Ganga on purpose. Ganga is moved to the ship's operating room, and Tada offers to perform surgery on him due to his background in medicine from his village elder. Frol and Glenn (nicknamed Thickhead by the crew) assist in the surgery. Tada extracts wiring from Ganga's intestine and saves his life as a result.

Despite the positive outcome, Mayan is still furious at Tada and demands further investigation. He begs the questions: How did Tada know where the cockpit, engine room, and residential areas were? How did he know what switches to press to make things work or even where the stretcher they used to carry Ganga to the operating room was? Mayan holds a vote to see if Tada should be locked up over these suspicions, but Ganga breaks the tie in Tada's favor by vouching for Tada, having had to push himself to rush in and cast a vote rather than rest after his surgery.

As Tada rewraps Ganga's wound from surgery, Ganga discusses the experimental Toledolega Green Chlorella algae injections he received to combat the endemic on his planet that kills people by the time they are thirty years old. If Ganga's injections are successful, then more people on his planet will be able to receive them, but they would be limited. Hearing the word “limited” resurfaces a forgotten memory for Tada. He freezes, feeling as though he’s in danger, but he cannot understand why.

Later, Tada realizes that somebody had telepathically instructed him to turn on the circuit that electrocuted Ganga. This means that the eleventh person on the ship has intuitive powers that are even stronger than Tada's.

Twenty-seven days of the fifty-three days of the final exam have now passed. The Esperanza begins to shift away from the black planet it was orbiting, causing strife amongst the group. The examinees begin to feel hot when they realize they are moving closer to a blue sun that had been hidden behind the black planet. Knu notes that this is a bad omen in his country.

More time passes, and the ship steadily gets hotter. After hearing Frol scream about the intense water pressure in their bathroom, Amazon goes to help, only to stumble upon Frol naked in the shower. Amazon is shocked that Frol is a woman and immediately informs the rest of the group. We learn that Frol is not a man or a woman. On Frol’s planet, individuals are genderless until given hormones that will decide what gender they are. On Knu's planet, they refer to people like Frol as "menir," which means angel. On Knu’s planet, individuals are neither man nor woman until they reach puberty. Knu was also once genderless like Frol. Knu became male due to a secretion of hormones after puberty. So, Knu's opinion on gender and how it is treated on his planet differs from Frol's opinion and treatment on their planet.

We then learn that Frol's motivation for passing the Cosmo Academy test is for them to become a man. On Frol’s planet, Vene, men rule, and women serve them. The firstborn child is always made to be male, and any children after them are to become women. There is rampant gender inequality, polygamy, and mistreatment of women on Frol's planet. Frol would strongly prefer to become a man in order to escape oppressive gender roles. Frol’s parents have plans to marry them off to a neighbor who is eighteen years older than them and already has eight wives. Passing this test and becoming a man would allow Frol to escape this fate.

As time goes on, the heat on the Esperanza grows exponentially worse as the ship draws nearer to the blue sun. With nineteen days left on the exam, it becomes clear that the conductor vines around the ship have multiplied. Tada deduces that this is due to their proximity to blue sun. The higher the temperature climbs on the ship, the more likely it is that the vines will release the Dell Red Spotted Fever virus, which will kill the entire crew unless they can create a vaccine for it. Since the ship doesn't have any test mice onboard, there is no way to create the vaccine. At this dire discovery, the examinees panic.

It is at this point that Tada remembers his past. When he was a young child, he was onboard the Esperanza with his parents when the vines ejected the Dell Red Spotted Fever virus. The children and the captain were authorized to get the vaccine, but the other adults were not since supply was limited. Tada watched his mother die from the disease. We learn that the previous captain of the ship was Tada's village elder. Tada tells the crew about his backstory. They are gravely worried at the implications of the growing vines and possible virus. However, they adamantly want to avoid pressing the scramble button and failing the final exam. Despite all of this tension around the virus and the mysterious eleventh crew member, the group hilariously engages in a food fight, which breaks the heavy mood.

Later, the engineers on the team attempt to fix the ship's radiator circuit so that they can have air conditioning. Ganga faints from the heat. Tada accidentally moves a lever on the radiator with his elbow, causing it to explode. Now, outside of Glenn and Ganga, everyone onboard believes that Tada is the eleventh crew member, and that he’s trying to sabotage everyone from passing the test. Mayan then declares that they should kill Tada and harvest his blood for the vaccine to the Dell Red Spotted Fever virus. A wild chase after Tada begins.

The team retrieves the shock guns from the locker room, and they after Tada until he is ultimately shot by Rednose in the elevator shaft. When Tada comes to, he is still in the elevator shaft. He momentarily disarms Frol, but when Frol begs to be killed rather than have people learn they failed to keep Tada in line, Tada gives the shock gun back to Frol. He goes to the operating room to check on Ganga, only to see that Ganga has contracted the Dell Red Spotted Fever virus. The team meets in the operating room and goes back and forth on whether Tada is a traitor. Ganga says he, himself, is the traitor, but no one believes him. In a stroke of genius, Tada realizes that, since Ganga is a cyborg with previous algae treatments, he can become the perfect specimen for the crew to build a vaccine off of without Ganga having to die. Tada then says that they can fix the orbit of the ship if they use all the remaining bombs on the Esperanza and push them out into the atmosphere through the elevator shaft.

Mayan wants to imprison Tada, but no one else agrees because Tada needs to find the bombs on the ship for their plan. Thankfully, the crew is able to complete their plan and steer away from the blue sun. They are also able to create a vaccine for the Dell Red Spotted Fever virus. Everything seems to be going smoothly until Tada learns that the vaccine did not work on Frol, and they have contracted the virus. Frol desperately does not want to press the scramble button, because failing would mean that they have to become a woman. However, Frol is outvoted because no one wants to see them die. Everyone vows to retake the exam in three years for a second chance, and the scramble button is officially pressed.

Tada proposes to Frol, saying they can become his wife after they are rescued. This way, Frol will not have to live out the bleak path laid out before them on Vene. When the rescue unit arrives at the Esperanza, they take Frol separately from the rest of the group to cure them of the virus, and the rest of the examinees board the rescue ship together.

On the ship, the group notices that someone is missing from their lineup. They then discover that Glenn, AKA Thickhead, had been the eleventh crew member the entire time. Glenn is an instructor at Cosmo Academy. The final exam was meant to test the applicants’ cooperation skills and adaptability. The orbit shift and Dell Red Spotted Fever virus were not planned parts of the test, but Glenn praised the group for facing those obstacles. He notes that they lasted forty-five of the fifty-three days. Out of seventy groups taking the final test, their group stayed aboard their ship the longest. And so, the examinees passed the test with flying colors. The team rejoices and apologizes to Tada for suspecting him all this time.

Tada leaves to tell Frol the news that they all passed. He feels uneasy because of his proposal, which now wouldn’t be possible since passing the test meant Frol can fulfill their dream of becoming a man. In a surprising twist, Frol decides to become a woman for Tada, and they decide to go through with the marriage.

At the end of the film, we learn the fate of each applicant:

King Mayan Baceska of Aristoscale of the Sava Group rules his planet and is responsible for resource development. He also married Doricas' sister.

Doricas Soldam the Fourth becomes an administrator on his planet.

Amazon Carnais of Shushu, Terra (Earth) becomes a composer.

Chako Kacka of Ques, Terra (Earth) establishes an interstellar trading company.

Dorf Tasta, aka Rednose of Peroma, Terra (Earth), becomes a judge of the Interstellar Court.

Toto Ni of Mis of the Sava Group publishes a theory on the distribution of plant life across the universe.

Vidmenir Knume, aka Knu of Vidknu (planet not part of the Interstellar Treaty Alliance), publishes a bestselling collection of poetry called The Summer of the Menir.

Ganigas Gagtos, aka Ganga of Toledolega of Sava Group, continues to search for a cure for the endemic on his planet.

Unfortunately, Glenn Groff of Ashwhite of the Seguru Group tragically dies while trying to save one of his students during space training.

Tadatos Lane, aka Tada of Siberies, Terra (Earth), and Frolbericheri Frol of Vene (planet not part of the Interstellar Treaty Alliance) complete pilot training to be space cadets and get married.

Note: If you use our synopsis to discuss They Were Eleven, please be sure to credit the Shoujo Sundae Podcast. Thank you.

TIMESTAMPS

[0:46] Thank yous/Behind the Scenes of our Ryan Colt Levy Interview

[4:18] What’s been on our minds

[15:42] About the film

[19:23] Soft Serve Summary

[20:00] Hard Serve Summary

[37:30] Sprinkles on Top

[48:21] Floats Your Boat

[1:13:29] Banana Split

[1:34:52] Nuts

[1:41:11] Hot Fudge

[1:47:58] Rocky Road

[1:58:22] I Scream, You Scream

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About Shoujo Sundae:

Shoujo Sundae is a podcast safe haven for fans that are in love with shoujo anime and manga. Hosted by Giana Luna and Chika Supreme, Shoujo Sundae aims to review and reflect on shoujo properties that deserve more attention than what they currently receive.

Giana Luna is a podcaster by moonlight and a dueling pianist by daylight.

Chika Supreme is a podcaster by moonlight and a social media manager by daylight.

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