A Sunny Day in the Void

"When all seems hopeless, a true hero gives hope."

- Jedi Fortune Cookie

"A Sunny Day in the Void" is the eleventh episode of the fifth season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. It is the ninety-ninth episode of the series overall. It was released on December 8, 2012 on Cartoon Network.

Synopsis
Colonel Gascon, R2-D2, QT-KT, and U9-C4 repair the terminated M5-BZ, and just as Beezee is fixed, WAC-47 joins them from the cockpit. Gascon asks Wac why he's not piloting the ship, and Wac tells the crew that the ship is flying right into a field of comets. Gascon quickly gets their ship out of hyperspace, and finds what Wac said to be true. Wac tries to evade the comets, but the ship's engines are taken out. The astromechs go into space to fix it, and are successful despite nearly being thrown off the ship. However, as the ship nears the end of the field, a comet takes out the left wing of the ship, forcing D Squad to crash-land on a planet near them.

After crashing, D Squad exits the ship and find themselves in a void, with nothing except the horizon in sight. Things are only made worse when there is revealed to be no information on Abafar, the planet they are stuck on. Gascon urges everyone to stay at the ship, but Artoo decides to head into the void, taking the encryption module with him. Gascon eventually decides to go with Artoo so he would still get credit for the mission's success. As D Squad travels through the void, a weary Gascon challenges Artoo's navigation, which gets him in an argument with Wac about how his training is supposedly superior to the droids' programming. However, Wac points out that drilling training into someone is basically the same as programming them. Gascon gets very angry, but then sees a ship in the distance. Thinking it is their ship, Gascon races to it, only to find that it is another ship with a skeleton of a person who also crash-landed, but unlike them stayed with his ship.

Gascon goes to the highest point of the wreckage to scope out any settlements or people. He sees nothing at first, but the weary colonel begins to make out a settlement. Ecstatic, Gascon races to the settlement, confusing the droids who see nothing. However, Gascon realizes that the settlement was just a mirage, and begins to break down mentally. Artoo and the other astromechs decide to abandon the loony Gascon, but Wac, not trusting anyone, stays with Gascon. After his lunatic frenzy, Gascon collapses to the ground, where he reflects on how both his training and Wac's programming failed to get them out of this void, and starts to reflect on life and death. Suddenly, the ground rumbles, and a swarm of Void Striders race past the two. Gascon, realizing that they need to follow the birds' instincts, is ecstatic, and he and Wac ride the birds to water. The Void Striders take them to the city of Pons Ora, where Gascon is joyful that the mission is saved, until he finds that Artoo and the other astromechs got there first. Wac shares Gascon's feelings, and because of their experiences in the Void, Gascon decides to promote Wac to Corporal. While Gascon gets a drink of water, Wac starts bossing the astromechs around, who refuse to take him seriously.

Cast
Starring
 * Stephen Stanton as Colonel Meebur Gascon
 * Ben Diskin as WAC-47
 * Tom Kane as Narrator

Crew
Created and Executive Produced by
 * George Lucas

Supervising Director
 * Dave Filoni

Produced by
 * Cary Silver

Directed by
 * Kyle Dunlevy

Written by
 * Brent Friedman

Score by
 * Kevin Kiner

Original Star Wars Themes and Score by
 * John Williams

Characters

 * Meebur Gascon
 * Thongla Jur
 * M5-BZ
 * QT-KT
 * R2-D2
 * Aayla Secura
 * Tera Sinube
 * U9-C4
 * WAC-47
 * Mace Windu

Creatures

 * Unidentified Abafar bird-like creature

Locations

 * Abafar
 * Pons Ora

Events

 * Clone Wars

Behind the scenes
"We do one episode called 'The Void,' which is basically a whole exploration of Mœbius and his artwork style, which is a big influence on Star Wars. So it's really abstract, and we were out on the edge. It was like the white room in THX. It was really experimental stuff."

- Dave Filoni, excerpt from The ForceCast at 1:36:08


 * This episode was first mentioned as "The Void" at Celebration VI by Dave Filoni. Parts of this episode were based on the work of the comic artist Mœbius.
 * In a brief sequence, when Meebur Gascon is walking away from the ruins of the shuttle, U9-C4 is missing, but in the next shot, he is present.