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I'm trying to recall an episode of a TV show, probably 1980s or 1990s, definitely in colour.

The main plot revolved around two 'one man' spaceships fighting a battle in space. Both ships are damaged and both are hanging nose-to-nose while they wait for their automatic repair systems to fix their ships. After some time, one of the protagonists, a woman, contacts the other, a man, via her ship's radio. They have an involved conversation about why they joined the military and eventually agree that they're not so different after all. They even flirt a bit, from what I can recall.

At the end, the woman's weapons come back online first but in their new spirit of friendship and mutual respect she

kills him. (Ha! Bet you didn't see that coming. Well, neither did he).

I'm reasonably sure it's not "Outer Limits", "Welcome to Paradox" or "Masters of Science Fiction" but it was certainly in the same sort of budget range.

Valorum
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  • @zabeus - I think I know which one you mean, but I'm sure that was a prose story, not a TV show. It's probably what jogged my memory of this one. – Valorum Oct 23 '16 at 20:35
  • @user14111 - I don't think so. When I saw it, I noted the similarity but the twist ending was especially memorable and I fail to see how the OP of that question would have mis-remembered something that startling. – Valorum Oct 23 '16 at 20:42
  • Ah yes, and the inevitable downvote. – Valorum Oct 23 '16 at 22:35

1 Answers1

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There is an episode of Andromeda, Una Salus Victus, though both pilots are women.

Beka Valentine in the Eureka Maru and a Nietzschean woman who can't reproduce.

Beka runs interference, allowing the supply ship to make it to Slipstream, and destroying one of the Nietzschean fighters. She is reluctant to follow directly, because she does not want to lead the Nietzscheans back to the Andromeda. She opens a Slipstream portal to blind their sensors, reverses course, and heads straight back at them. She destroys the second fighter, and disables the third, but the Maru is crippled in the process.

Beka evaluates the damage, and realizes that it will take her four hours work to fix either the weapons or the engines, and she knows that the Nietzschean pilot is also working on repairs, so she chooses to work on the engines. The Nietzschean pilot hails her, and Beka is surprised to find that it is a woman, Parvati Quechua. Quechua offers to let Beka surrender, since she has nothing against her personally. Beka says that she knows Parvati Quechua is also damaged, and offers to accept her surrender. She declines, and it becomes a race to make the necessary repairs.

Parvati Quechua has finished her repairs, and hails Beka Valentine one last time, and asks her if she has any last messages to be conveyed. Beka, desperate, bypasses the life support systems to enable fire control, and destroys Quechua's fighter, but she regrets the necessity.

Andromeda wiki: Una Salus Victus

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