Dr. STONE SCIENCE FUTURE

Episode 35

This isn't any old episode of Dr. Stone. This is Dr. Stone… In Spaaaaaace! Senku's finally made it into orbit, and thanks to an unexpectedly sentimental/considerate Dr. Xeno, he's able to witness the same sight as his astronaut father Byakuya did all of those millennia before, in solitude for a brief moment of time. Astronauts talk about that first time they see the globe of the Earth from orbit as the “overview effect,” a cognitive shift inspired by the sheer scale, majesty, and beauty of the planet that recontextualizes their place as a tiny human within the cosmos, and fosters a connection with the rest of humanity as a whole. I'd like to think Senku felt a little of that as he gazed upon the Stone World in all its pristine glory.

Of course space isn't all luminescent blue planets and existential majesty – it's a bloody scary place where even the slightest error can be catastrophic, as Senku and his two ship-mates quickly discover. A single, petrified hair short-circuits an important system that leaves them without radio reception or video feed. Not even Stanley can maneuver together the disparate parts of the Senku 11 ship without live video footage.

It's just as well then that Ryusui comes to the rescue! After all of that talk of heart-rending sacrifice last time, the greedy pilot seizes his excuse to be a hero and fly to space after all, even functioning as a human reaction wheel to steady the docking process of the module he pilots. I'm entirely unconvinced this is completely necessary, but the scene gives us a deranged image of Ryusui spinning around the capsule, grinning like a madman. He's one of my favorite characters in the whole show. Rysui bringing a replacement circuit board does seem a little too convenient, but let's not worry too much about that. His arrival provides just the right kind of vibes for this part of the story.

Ryusui's not the only one delighted to make it to orbit – Kohaku's adorably excited too, mooshing her face against the window in wonder. Not only is she the first Stone World person in space, she's the first woman in history to land on the moon. When they discuss what their first words should be once they set foot on the surface, Taiju of course paraphrases Neil Armstrong's iconic “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” without realizing where it comes from. Senku's not quite as poetic, though his spontaneous “this is exhilarating” is both very appropriate and very Senku. Science, and everything it facilitates, is of course exhilarating, and we owe our modern world and all of its technology to motivated scientists and engineers who felt exhilarated at probing the unknown, and building technology with the subsequent learning.

With this, we've only two more episodes until the end. It's been a wild ride, and I'll be sad to see the series go. Until then, we've still got the mystery of “Why Man,” and the reason why the petrification event even occurred way back in the very first episode. Let's hope the eventual explanation is satisfying. I've no doubt it'll be as delightfully loopy as the rest of the series has been up until now.

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