Will (Bill Hedges) and Penny (Penny Hedges/Judy Hedges) are quietly reading while cruising along in space in the Andromeda. Will is reading about the Andromeda Project and the space ships built during that time period. Will’s spaceship was one of the ships made early on in the project. While Penny listens Will reminisces about the time two years ago before acquiring the Andromeda and how that came about.
Will Ziffel was a normal guy living in a small town. He was at the house of his friend, Lenore (Sue Booton), fixing her computer. He finds the problem is a wad of cat hair that overheated the processor. Sitting on a table is a black cat. Lenore says the cat belongs to her roommate, but she is just watching it for her while she is away. While Will is packing up his equipment the cat takes off with his tester and disappears into a mirror. Confused by what he saw Will tries to explain it to Lenore but is rushed out of the house.
While driving back home Will sees the cat disappear through a hole in a fence. He follows hoping to find his tester and have an excuse to go back to Lenore’s. Will goes through a gate in the fence and finds himself in Haney’s aerospace salvage yard. Inside the salvage yard Will finds one of the Andromeda spaceships. The owner of the salvage yard, Haney (Rick Coen Jr.), tells Will that the ship is haunted.
Undaunted Will trades his restored collector car for the spaceship. Haney also throws in a space pod. When the ship is delivered Will shows it to Lenore, who is suitable unimpressed. Again, undaunted Will devotes all his time in finding and ordering the parts necessary from the internet to fix the ship and get it in running order. Will, loaded down with packages, purchases an old VW van from two older hippies (Dave and Bev Armstrong). All the while Will is working, an evil presence is monitoring everything he is doing. Finally Will manages to restore the Andromeda to working condition. Will takes the ship for a test flight, but Will is not alone in the Andromeda.
“What the Cat Dragged In” was released in 2021 and was written and directed by Bill Hedges. It is a home grown science fiction short from the Cosmic Cat series and runs about 42 minutes. It is basically an origins story told in flashback of how Will came to own the Andromeda. This episode is before Will actually meets Penny but she does show up as the instrument by which Will finds the spaceship. Penny is a space cat that can not only travel through space but time as well. She can use mirrors as portals to other times and places. It is her presence that brings Will to the salvage yard and the spaceship.
This is episode 3. At times the Cosmic Cat episodes are released out of order. Due to the pandemic, the availability of the other actors or various other contingents Bill shoots what he can when he can. This sometimes results in some episodes being done before others. Technically there is no specific order to the episodes except for the Easter eggs Bill inserts in each film that reference plot elements of the next episode. The Easter eggs vary from episode to episode and not wanting to spoil anything for fans I will let you find them on your own.
I have to say that Haney’s is the biggest and most well equipped aerospace salvage yard I’ve ever seen. You name it he’s got it and everything is for sale. I also noted the Zero Gravity salt and pepper shakers that were for sale on U-buy. They looked an awful lot like the Tupperware ones my mom had. There was also something that looked like part of a dentist’s x-ray machine for sale as well. I’m sure there are other parts of an Andromeda spaceship that look similar to everyday items.
Kudos goes to Sue Booton as the spirited and dynamic Lenore and to Jamie Horter who plays the incredibly adorable postal clerk. Once again Cosmic Cat proves to be a delightful and enchanting series that sparks long forgotten memories and never fails to entertain.
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