Namek's Destruction

is the twenty-third episode of the Frieza Saga and the ninety-seventh overall episode in the uncut Dragon Ball Z series. This episode first aired in Japan on July 3, 1991. Its original American airdate was October 20, 1999.
==Summary==
On a distant, Frieza-owned planet, several workers in the watchtower detect the two huge powers on Namek, and to their horror, notice that one of them is bigger than Frieza's. One soldier expresses his delight at the news, since Frieza destroyed his entire race, although he is killed on the orders of Gonma, ironically the same race as the traitor. However, Goku's power proves to be too high, and the computers explode, killing everyone inside.
Meanwhile, on Namek, Gohan finally reaches Goku's ship and lays Piccolo there. As he examines Piccolo's wound, a computer screen turns on and Chi-Chi and Master Roshi appear on the other side, from the ship on Earth. Gohan relays the news that Frieza killed Krillin and Goku is fighting Frieza, and leaves to find Bulma.
Frieza reminisces about getting hit by the Spirit Bomb and is enraged even further. When Frieza realizes that he cannot defeat Super Saiyan Goku, he resorts to drastic measures and fires his Destroy The Planet! straight into Namek's core and the planet disappears behind a blinding light. As this is going on, Dr. Brief, Chi-Chi, and Master Roshi witness the calamitous events via the onboard screen of the Capsule Corp ship. Bulma expresses horror at how she's going to die soon and Gohan, while struggling against the explosive waves, attempts to tell his dad that he's coming to help.
King Kai detects this on his planet, and fears that Namek has been destroyed. However, from Earth, he is contacted by Kami, who tells him that Mr. Popo is currently searching for the Earth's Dragon Balls so that they may restore Yamcha and Tien Shinhan. Then, King Kai realizes that Piccolo must still be alive if Kami is on Earth. He searches again and sees that Namek is actually still there.
Frieza irritably admits that he held back too much power. As Goku mocks Frieza for his attempted suicide, Frieza counters by telling him it's not suicide and that even if Namek explodes and they both survive, Goku will die and he will not, as he can breathe in the vacuum of space. Furthermore, he tells Goku that Namek's core has been destroyed and the planet will explode in five minutes. Goku brushes it off, confident that he can beat Frieza within the time limit. Frieza declares his intention to reach his maximum power and win the fight, and the two charge towards each other to resume their fight.
==Major Events==
*Frieza destroys Namek's core, causing a countdown to the planet's destruction.
==Battles==
*Goku (Super Saiyan) vs. Frieza (Final Form-50%)
==Appearances==
===Characters===
*Goku
*Gohan
*Piccolo
*Bulma
*Frieza
*Master Roshi
*Chi-Chi
*Dr. Brief
*Scratch
*Malaka	
*Gonma 
*King Kai
*Tien Shinhan
*Yamcha
*Chiaotzu
*Kami
*Burter (corpse)
*Recoome (corpse)
*Guldo (corpse)
*Dende (corpse)
===Locations===
*Space
**Namek
**Planet Frieza 79
**Earth
***The Lookout
***West City
****Capsule Corporation
*Other World
**King Kai's Planet
===Objects===
*Battle Armor
*Frieza's Spaceship
*Capsule Corporation Spaceship
*Capsule Corporation Spaceship 3
===Transformations===
*Super Saiyan
==Differences from the manga==
*The sequence involving Frieza's soldiers on Planet Frieza 79 is exclusive to the anime.
*In the anime, when Gohan returns to the Capsule Corporation Spaceship with Piccolo he is contacted by Chi-Chi, Master Roshi and Dr. Brief on Earth. This did not happen in the manga as Chi-Chi was still back at Goku's House.
*King Kai snapping at Kami to be quiet as he tries to detect if Namek is still around is only in the anime; Kami was never responded to until the following installment in the manga when he informs the former that Mr. Popo has successfully collected all the Dragon Balls.
*There is a moment in the manga where King Kai reacts with dismay upon hearing Namek will be destroyed in five minutes. This was not included in the anime.
==Trivia==
*In the scene where Goku is charging his Kamehameha, his eyebrows turn black, then gold, then black again.
*This is the first episode to use Kikuchi's music from Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug.
*Burter's corpse is shown to lack his ridge-crest when Gohan flies past it.
*In the televised American dub, Guldo's head is drawn on his body, whereas he is headless in the uncensored version.
*In the original Funimation dub, the title card had a (?) question mark.
*In the remastered dub, the Doctor of Planet Frieza #79 is redubbed by Chris Cason in place of the original dub's Dale Kelly. The Control Tower Soldier also has changed, going from Sean Schemmel to Anthony Bowling (instead of either Cason or Jeff Johnson who voiced his appearances in the Namek Saga). Commander Gonma is redubbed with Cui's actor Bill Townsley; he was voiced by Mark Britten originally. The soldier of Cui's race who was executed for treason is still voiced by Mike McFarland, however.
*Christopher Sabat took over as Kami from Chris Forbis starting with this episode and has voiced the character ever since. He redubbed Kami here for the remastered dub, but not in any other episodes besides "Piccolo's Return" and "The Fusion", where Forbis initially played him.
*The spire where Guru's home is located is depicted crumbling when Frieza destroys Namek's core, but in "Gohan Returns", the spire is still intact when Guru is restored to life.
*In the original Japanese broadcast, the first 15 seconds of the next episode preview were devoted to next week's show, and the other 15 seconds were devoted to a movie ticket lottery drawing for Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge (Released in theaters on July 20, 1991). This preview was not included in the Dragon Box. Instead, the preview used was the rerun version for the next normal episode, "A Final Attack".
==Gallery==
==Site Navigation==
es:Episodio 97 (Dragon Ball Z)
ca:Episodi 97 (BDZ)
pt-br:Uma grande faísca atravessa Namekusei
fr:Dragon Ball Z épisode 097
pl:Dragon Ball Z 097 Czy planeta Namek się rozpada!? Diabelski grom przeszywa ziemię
Category:Episodes
Category:Dragon Ball Z episodes
Category:Frieza Saga
Category:Uncut Dragon Ball Z episodes