Episode 21, "Protect the Dragon Balls! The Namekian Offensive"
*****SPOILERS*****
Synopsis: Recovered from his injuries thanks to a senzu bean, Goku goes to the Capsule Corporation, where Dr. Briefs has prepared a spaceship to take him to Namek. He takes off for space. While in flight, Goku uses a feature of the ship which allows him to train under several times Earth's gravity. On Namek, Gohan and Kuririn spy on Freeza and his henchmen as they menace a village for its Dragon Ball. The village elder, Mori, is uncooperative, so Freeza threatens the children. Some high-powered Namekians come to rescue the village, and Dodoria takes the task of taking care of them. Mori destroys all of Freeza's henchmen's scouters so they can't find the other villages, which enrages Dodoria. 
Comments:
The first huge chunk of this episode revolves around Goku at Capsule Corporation and in the spaceship Dr. Briefs prepared for him. I do find Bulma's parents to be funny characters, but they could have cut this down even further if what they're trying to do is get to the point faster. I think they did cut out part of Goku's reaction to taking off into space, because I could have sworn he wondered why it was nighttime in space, or something of the sort, in the original episode of DBZ, which is a perfect example of his lack of education.
I'm not sure how the ship can possible stay structually sound if Goku is training under so many times gravity. Wouldn't the ship collapse under it's own weight, or implode, or something? I really don't know enough about physics, but it just seems a little weird. But, this is the world of Dragon Ball, so it's best not to think too hard on it. Especially since Goku already went to space once and placed that rabbit guy and his thugs on the moon (and they're probably dead, since Roshi blew up the moon some months later). Yeah, best to just dismiss that altogether.
The next part of the episode has Gohan and Kuririn witnessing the brutality of Freeza and his henchmen, many of whom seem to be part of various races, ranging from very human-like, to dogs-loking guys. Vegeta spends all his time overhearing this on his scouter, at least until the village elder destroys the other scouters. And there are definitely some redrawn parts in this portion, which are easily noticable, but don't clash too much with the old animation.
There's just a lot of observing in this episode, not much else to talk about. Freeza and his men are especially cruel in the next episode.
Overall Score:
3 out of 5
(Screencaps now fixed.)
