Backseat Drivers From Beyond The Stars (Screenshots)

The title card... of a truly brilliant episode!

Zim has been shrieking non-stop at the Tallest for three hours. Why did they not just cut the transmission within the first two minutes of that nonsense!?

Red and Purple are so sick of this little pest.

Red snarls: "I was curious to see when you'd shut up on your own..."

"But it's been THREE hours now, Zim!"

"THREE HOURS!" Red looks like he's got a migraine. Seriously, why do they give Zim the time of day?

Purple sneers. "Hey! That is creepy! You're creepy, Zim!"

The Tallest don't like you, Zim. Get out of their antennae!

The Tallest don't want your nasty sandwiches, Zim! They have epic doughnuts!

Why do the Tallest make excuses not to talk to this deranged exiled brat? Why not just put Zim on ignore and refuse to answer his calls?

I like how Red clicks his mantis-like claws together as he patiently tries to get Zim to shut up.

Purple is looking at Red like he's crazy. Well, maybe he is...

Red: "Sorry, Zim! Uh, we're being... attacked! By an enemy vessel!"

Red randomly shoves Purple to the ground... to make his ruse more convincing? Probably to tease his bro as well.

"Ooooooh!"

"Whoooooah!"

Red: "Gotta go! Gotta go!" Poor Purple is probably thinking, "Was shoving me like that really necessary!?"

Cut the stinking transmission, already! Quick!

Red's snarky "HAH!"

"As if anyone would dare go up against the Massive." Don't get too full of yourselves, guys. Anything could happen!

Cute how Purple's antennae spring up in excitement when he notices his favourite snacks.

Purple: "Hey! Someone's makin' doughnuts!" One of the best lines in this episode, no doubt.

Woo hoo! So much manic excitement over doughnuts. This space alien comedy duo is legendary.

Zim apparently in shock and zoning-out for an hour after the Tallest cut the transmission on him. He's got serious issues...

You got to scream at them for three hours, Zim! That's not enough for you? Get over it!

777: “What is it this time, Zim?” Just leave him alone, Zim! Don’t you dare bother this guy, now! Zim is such a pain to everyone!

Poor, sweet little #777. . . No Vortian deserves to be a prisoner!

777 cringing (quite adorably) when Zim requests control schematics for the Massive.

777: “I designed that ship, you know. Here you go.”

I bet 777 wants to get back at the Irken Empire by giving this to the looney Zim. Vortians are super smart.

The way these two constantly gorge themselves, it really is a wonder they're not as rotund as the mighty Frylord Sizz-Lorr! Seriously, they are hysterical with their ravenous snacking!

"Om nom nom! Ha ha ha!" See, this is why the Tallest should have retained their thickness from their initial designs. Their tummies are way too thin!

Meanwhile, the poor little Deck Officers look sad, hungry, and desperate as they watch their leaders gorge themselves.

Red glances back at the little officers...

...then seems to tauntingly dump a ton more doughnuts down his gullet right in their faces!

"Hey, whose ship is that!?"

The Tallest actually drop their doughnuts. This may be a first!

Now's our chance, boys! Get those doughnuts!

The officers literally pounce upon the neglected doughnut bags!

These poor little guys are starving! It's so sad...

At least they got to snag these snacks in time!

Sweet victory! They look so relieved.

The starved deck officers get their rightful share of the plentiful doughnuts, and the Tallest didn't see a thing!

The Tallest, with doughnut crumbs humorously smeared on their faces, look suspicious.

Captain Lard Nar, Leader of the Resisty! A true hero!

“All right! This is it!”

Shloonktapooxis: “Woo! All right!”

Lard Nar confidently prepares to face the Massive.

“My people designed most of that thing...”

“...so I know how powerful it is...“

“WE'RE GONNA DIE!”

“WHOSE IDEA WAS THIS!?”

Lard Nar’s tongue sticks out a little bit as he waits for an answer from his ragtag crew.

Spleenk: “Uh... mine. Sorry about that.”

Lard Nar composes himself and formulates a plan.

“If we can just knock a hole in one of the side storage pods...”

“..we can steal the snacks that fall out to feed the growing resistance.”

The Tallest spot the approaching Vort ship.

Now try to be diplomatic, Purple... Just try. After all, do you even know what they want?

“Call them and tell them we're gonna blow 'em up!”

Lard Nar concentrates on the Irken ship.

The Captain receives the Tallest’s threat.

Lard Nar panics again. “They're hailing us! They're hailing us!”

Wow, his teeth are pretty sharp!

“We can't form a resistance and not have a name!”

A frustrated Lard Nar struggles to think of a name for his Resistance.

Fangs clenched in extreme stress. Mid-blink looks funny, though!

Lard Nar's wacky face in this frame! Priceless!

Shloonktapooxis suggests “The Pirate Monkeys”. No. Not scary enough...

“I got it! I got it!” Spleenk is just full of good ideas...

Meanwhile, back on the Massive, the Tallest wait for a response.

Red's plushie puppet that squeaks when it boxes! Seriously, where can I get one of those!?

The Tallest, looking extremely bored as they wait for a response. Little do they know...

Ominous shadowy figures appear...

Red glares suspiciously. Purple stuffs his face with doughnuts, though it looks like he’s barfing into that bag! Foreshadowing?

This frame! Om nom nom? Purple inhaling doughnuts out of the bag like a living vacuum cleaner. Is he really eating like that? It looks like he could also be barfing, or hyperventilating into a paper bag!

Red: “Identify yourselves!” Look, even his plushie looks suspicious!

“We... are the Resisty!”

Purple is so surprised by this name that he coughs. Did he almost crack up? What was that?

Purple interrupts Lard Nar abruptly. "Woowoowoowoowoo!"

Right, hold everything because their name is really important. Come on, let him speak, guys...

“Did you say the Resisty?”

“Yes, yes. The Resisty! Anyhow... we have come to—”

Purple: “That’s a stupid name.”

The Tallest can’t take this resistance seriously with a name like that. (Thanks a lot, Spleenk...)

That did not go as planned. Poor Lard Nar...

Also, animation error with Lard Nar’s goggles.

Lard Nar screams at Spleenk for his terrible idea.

"See!? I told you it was stupid!”

"WHY do I keep listening to you!?"

Why do you keep listening to Spleenk, Lard Nar? Well, at least this Vortian is kind to his crew.

Poor Lard Nar looks like he's about to cry as he holds his head down in embarrassment.

Purple is NOT amused.

“DESTROY THEM!” screams Red over-aggressively. Come on, is that really necessary? They didn’t even do anything!

Everyone panic! The Resisty just screams... even though they have about 30 seconds to get out of the way!

The Tallest, gluttonous and deranged, laughing while gobbling up doughnuts in zero-gravity. Even though they can be so mean and petty, they are complete goofballs!

Lard Nar and Shoonktapooxis screaming in terror. (Purple, please get your doughnut crumbs out of the camera lens!)

Maniacal laughter and doughnut gobbling. Red and Purple in a nutshell...

You can still see Lard Nar screaming on the screen. Laser about to fire...

Crash! Not so fast, Irkens! Karma! Guess who just hacked your power core?

Laser fires and misses the Resisty! Good!

Total miss! Fail! The Resisty is safe! But the Massive doesn't look so good.

The Massive floats away out of control!

Red gets thrown through the air as the Massive is hacked. Instant karma for his cruelty!

This wacky face resembles one of Zim's expressions.

Red screams as Purple apparently says his line?

"What's happening!?"

"Why have we lost control!?" The Tallest had "lost control" long before this happened!

Red is outraged and flabbergasted while Purple is buried in a mound of doughnuts!

Red's face is all stretchy-looking, and Purple is hoarding thousands of doughnuts somehow.

I love how Purple is still happily chowing down on a mountain of doughnuts during a catastrophe like this!

Meanwhile Red has probably never been more terrified in his life.

This isn't looking good for the Tallest.

"I can't wait to see the Tallest's faces when they get here! They'll be so happy!" Think again, Zim!

Meanwhile the Massive is hurtling out of control through space, smashing into everything in its path.

Purple flying and screaming in terror.

Oh, now he's taking this seriously? Right, because he has been separated from his doughnut hoard.

Purple is slammed against the wall. Ouch! Good thing he’s wearing that armor.

Red gets his face smashed against the wall! That’s gotta hurt!

Crunch... Owwww!

Then Red and Purple collide and fall. They're going to be really sore...

Concerned deck officer watches the mayhem.

“My Tallest! Our weapons are offline! We're defenseless!”

Bad news for the Tallest! Now they’re the ones who are screaming in fear! That’s karma for you.

Ouch, again! Hey, Red and Purple -- look who's winning now? He's right behind you.

Things are finally looking up for the Resisty!

Lard Nar is so happy!

Endearing little Vortian smile.

“You hear that?”

“Their weapons are down!‘

“After them!”

“Get those snacks!” Look at Lard Nar’s intense eyes here -- they are triangular.

The Vort ship firing laser blasts at the Massive.

Captain Lard Nar looking fierce as he gets his much deserved revenge against the Irkens!

Shloonktapooxis mans the laser cannons.

Purple frantically gathers his doughnuts.

Red attempts to find the source of the Massive’s control problem.

“You! Save the doughnuts!”

Purple looks perplexed.

The Massive is thrown violently again. Ooh, that looks painful.

Laser barrage from the Resisty, zapping the defenseless Massive.

Dib reflected in Zim’s eyes.

“Dib!”

“Get outta my computer! You’ll ruin everything!“

Dib yawns as Zim screams at him.

Zim and Dib fight for control of the Massive.

The Tallest are thrown through the air with their doughnuts.

Where did they get all those doughnuts!?

Dib pilots the Massive toward a star. Things just got worse for the Tallest!

The Tallest are in big trouble now!

All Irkens aboard the Massive panicking as they are about to get fried!

Purple: “It ain’t so bad.” Red: “I think so too!” What???

Red and Purple after their near-death experience. Look at those hilarious expressions of terror.

Notice Purple is hugging his doughnut bag for dear life!

Apparently the Massive can withstand over 10,000° Fahrenheit heat. The Tallest can thank the Vortians for that! Ironic...

“Woo! Anyone think that was cool? Please respond!”

"They're getting away! Let's go!"

Purple, what on Irk are you doing!?

Purple is losing it. Panicking and eating at the same time? Not a good idea. You'll get sick. Oh, wait...

Red scowls, annoyed with Purple for his nonsensical babbling and spazzing out.

Now Purple seems to be scaring Red. Is he okay? Probably not.

Seriously, Purple needs help here...

Purple babbles incoherently, spitting his doughnut crumbs all over Red.

Then he apparently almost chokes to death on a doughnut. Red is apathetic, of course.

Red is spattered with Purple’s doughnut crumbs and spittle. Ew...

Zim VS Dib

GIR takes control.

This is a very majestic shot of the Resisty's Vort Starship. If Lard Nar could upgrade it, it would be a force to be reckoned with!

The Resisty watches the Massive fly around insanely.

Even Lard Nar has to admit this is just too strange. (Also, he has a twin!? Animation goof.)

The Resisty is completely baffled by the Massive getting thrown around randomly before their eyes.

Zim fights Dib for control of the Massive, but is distracted yet again.

"Come on, son! Let's go PLAY in the TOILET!" Pretty sure he wasn't programmed to say that!

Zim freaks out as the haywire Robo-Parents try to bust into his control room.

Zim frantically shoves the malfunctioning Robo-Parents as they attempt to break in.

Zim is alerted by his computer about Dib's spy bug.

Closeup of the Resisty’s Vort ship, firing laser blasts.

RESISTY ROCKS!

The Massive, now heavily damaged.

Red still fiddling with the Massive's computer as the poor deck officers are being thrown around and tottering all around him.

Red: "I think I've located the source of the problem!"

Red sneering, his usual snarky grin, as it seems he's found the source of the problem.

Poor little abused deck officer splats onto Red's control table. Is Red shocked, or amused by this?

Red tracks down the source of the problem. It is coming from Earth...

I feel really bad for those little officer minions. They're pretty banged-up. First starvation, now this?

Red snaps out with rage: "OUR POWER CORE! Zim..."

Red is enraged when he finds out that Zim is controlling the Massive’s power core.

"Are we gonna blow him up?" Purple asks while still with a mouthful of doughnuts.

Red shoves his silly brother's face out of the way in annoyance.

Red: "We have to ditch our power core!"

Meanwhile, inside the Resisty’s ship...

“We have a problem, sir. There’s good news, and bad!” Why is he facing away from Lard Nar?

The start of Lard Nar's epic antennae flip!

He's quite the dramatic fellow.

The flexibility of Lard Nar’s Vortian antennae clearly shown here.

“A problem!?!”

“How!?"

"They're sitting ducks! Aside from all the insane flying around...”

Somehow the Tallest manage to teleport their hacked power core into the Resisty's starship.

Seriously!? Oh, come on... How the heck did they manage to do that!? The Massive is damaged! Talk about a ridiculous deus ex machina!

An ominous tremor shakes the Resisty’s ship. Poor Lard Nar rolls off his captain's chair. Shloonktapooxis is unaffected, as he is levitating.

Lard Nar stands up after he rolls off his chair.

Lard Nar’s antennae flex about as he unsteadily stands up.

As Lard Nar attempts to steady himself, his antennae flex completely upright. He looks like a very strange (yet endearing) bunny in this frame.

Lard Nar shakes off, and his flexible segmented antennae gracefully curl back behind his head, back to their neutral position.

“Was that part of the bad news?”

“Yeah, our power core has been teleported out of the ship!”

“And the GOOD news!?!”

"It's been replaced by a new HORRIBLE one!" Thanks for being totally unhelpful, Shloonktapooxis!

Lard Nar twitching and trembling with fear. Poor little guy...

Lard Nar shrieks in a panic. (Those Vortian fangs are impressive!)

But he quickly composes himself, knowing the Resisty can escape certain doom.

“Heh, uh, I mean...”

“...evacuate the ship!”

“Activate the shrinky self-destruct!”

“No alien thieves are going to steal the secrets of this ship!”

Lard Nar leaps backward like a little ninja! Aww...

Lard Nar dramatically proclaims he will return.

Lard Nar's antennae flow gracefully back as he emits his epic war cry!

“Hear me, Irken scum!”

“You have not seen the last...”

Lard Nar's dramatic awesome posing!

“...of the Resisty!”

*Dramatic explosion!*

The Lard Nar and the Resisty escape safely. Good!

The Resisty's evacuated starship enters Earth's atmosphere in the Massive's place.

Dib panics... until it shrinks before his eyes. That would make an awesome action figure had it not Shrinky-Self-Destructed.

Zim throws a temper tantrum, as usual, when his harebrained schemes fail.

Zim's brain-eating monster has escaped! He shrieks louder than anyone in this entire episode full of screamers.

The Tallest standing before their monitor in their heavily damaged ship. The Resisty really tore them up!

The Tallest looking extremely peeved due to Zim almost killing them. Punish him, guys!

Deck Officers trying to fix things aboard the heavily damaged Massive.

Red is so ticked. "Now... Let's give our friend Zim a call!"

Purple is livid. I've never heard him with such a low voice! It's pretty cool to see him acting tougher and edgier, though!

Edgy Purple: "Yeah... I'm gonna make him hurt..." Whoa! Yes, do it, Purple!

Looks like Zim is already hurting pretty badly! Serves him right! The only completely accidental good thing he did here was inadvertently save the Resisty! And when you really think about it, #777 is the true hero here!