" Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow. When orders come from Earth to jettison the domes that contain the plants, blow each of them up via nuclear explosions and return, Freeman Lowell decides it is his mission to save the plants on his ship, the "Valley Forge . " Each ship carries six domes. When one of his crewmates comes to set a bomb in Lowell's forest, Lowell strangles him with the handle of his shovel. In the struggle Lowell's right leg is injured. He then traps the other two crewmates in one of the domes that is about to be jettisoned, and they are killed when Lowell releases the dome and blows it up. Lowell then overrides the programming of the service drones so they can perform surgery on his leg, and renames them Huey, Dewey and Louie. Back Darren Running Sproles They fly through the rings of Saturn. The three drones are outside the ship; Louie's leg gets stuck and he is ultimately blown away from the ship due to the turbulence of the rings. "

" After almost a year alone in space, the radio again begins chattering - "Valley Forge, this is Berkshire. " Lowell realizes that his crime is soon to be discovered by a rescue spacecraft, and not only will he face imprisonment or worse, the dome will be destroyed after all. Lowell chooses to leave Dewey in charge of the last dome, jettison it to safety, and destroy himself and the "Valley Forge" with the last of the onboard nuclear weapons. The final, ostensibly poignant scene is of the forest greenhouse tended by the sole remaining robot, with a battered watering can. Trivia Trumbull had been involved with creating effects for Saturn for "2001" and these were recycled for "Silent Running". The cult show "Mystery Science Theater 3000" began as a spoof of Silent Running. The interiors were filmed aboard the decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Valley Forge (CV-45). 2005 Back Fantasy Running The original "Battlestar Galactica" series used stock footage of the Space Freighters in several episodes. On that show, they were called "Agro Ships," and were the source of all the food in the Rag-Tag Fleet. "