BW030

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Pokémon the Series: Black & White

BW031 : Ash and Trip's Third Battle! →

A UFO for Elgyem!

BW030   EP687 リグレーと未確認飛行物体！ Ligray and the UFO!

First broadcast Japan May 5, 2011 United States August 27, 2011

English themes Opening Black and White Ending

Japanese themes Opening ベストウイッシュ！ Ending ポケモン言えるかな？ＢＷ

Credits Animation Team Kato Screenplay 米村正二 Shōji Yonemura Storyboard うえだしげる Shigeru Ueda Assistant director うえだしげる Shigeru Ueda Animation director 緒方厚 Atsushi Ogata Additional credits

Screenshots on Filb.de

A UFO for Elgyem! (Japanese: リグレーと未確認飛行物体！ Ligray and the UFO!) is the 30th episode of Pokémon the Series: Black & White, and the 687th episode of the Pokémon animated series. It first aired in Japan on May 5, 2011, and first aired in the United States on August 27, 2011.

Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.

Blurb

Late one night while en route to Nimbasa City, Ash and his pals are awakened by a UFO! The next day they stop at a café to discuss the sighting. Some townspeople there tell a story of a friend who had a vision of outer space. The townspeople had visited Professor Icarus, who lives over the mountain, to ask him about the event. Very little is known about this professor (a UFO specialist), but when the townspeople confronted him in the past, they all experienced severe head pain. Cilan is a huge fan of the professor and his work, so he decides they need to go to the professor’s laboratory themselves to get to the bottom of the mystery. While crossing a bridge on the way, everyone in the group has another vision—a premonition of danger.

When our heroes arrive at the professor’s house and Cilan explains what a big fan he is, the professor warms up to them and invites them in. The professor describes his theory of dark matter and explains that the UFO they saw is a flying saucer he built when everyone suddenly has a vision of the saucer exploding! Rushing to the lab, they meet the mysterious Pokémon called Elgyem, who shares the professor’s house. They also learn how the two met.

It turns out Elgyem is responsible for the visions everyone saw. When a disguised Team Rocket appears and tries to capture Elgyem, a fierce battle ensues! Our heroes emerge victorious, but not before Team Rocket destroys the professor’s saucer.

The professor vows to rebuild the saucer and take Elgyem back into outer space. But it appears Elgyem is happy living there with Professor Icarus. It’s time for our heroes to move on, so they bid a hearty farewell to the professor and Elgyem and again set their sights on Nimbasa City!

Plot

Ash, Iris, and Cilan are all sleeping. All of a sudden, there is a glowing light, which wakes up Iris and Cilan. On the other hand, Ash is still asleep, but soon wakes up and accidentally sneezes on Pikachu. The glowing light is more distinctive than ever and they watch the light fade away, as Cilan says he is also a "Science Connoisseur" and explains all of the methods he comes up with. As such, he thinks it was a UFO, while Iris is surprised and Ash is excited.

The next morning, Ash, Cilan, and Iris are at a local diner. As they talk to a worker there, they realize that they are at Area 28, a place where UFOs are common sightings, which disappoints Ash as he thought they had made a huge discovery. A customer, hearing this conversation, tells them about Professor Icarus, who has been studying UFOs. Cilan gets excited, saying that he has just finished a book Professor Icarus wrote. The customer begins talking about Professor Icarus's research, and how everybody is very interested in it. One day, a mailman, while delivering, got a severe headache and witnessed outer space floating all around him. The worker continues the story from here, saying people were so concerned for this man they asked Professor Icarus, and Icarus insisted they left at once, and while leaving, they experienced the same feeling as the mailman. Ash, Iris, and Cilan insist that they go to Icarus's house, and, soon, they head off.

On the road to Professor Icarus's house, there is a bridge. As Ash and company walk across it, an Elgyem sees them, and, when walking near the halfway point of the bridge, they see a vision of Ash falling through the broken parts of the bridge. The three of them get confused, and wonder if that's the future, while Ash raps on a part of a bridge, which falls off easily. All of them get surprised. Meanwhile, Team Rocket is seen spying on the Elgyem, while Jessie is impressed by Elgyem's powers, and so is James, though he wonders how they're going to catch it with Elgyem using Teleport. Meowth says they'll come up with a device to sense where Elgyem has teleported.

Ash and his friends have gotten across the bridge and are now rapping at Professor Icarus's door, especially Cilan. After a few moments, Icarus finally opens up, while Cilan gets excited, saying how he greatly admires Icarus's work and has just finished the book he has written, and Ash and Iris look slightly sheepish. Icarus, very surprised, invites them in for some snacks, and they allow him to lead them into the house.

The four of them are discussing the odd visions they are experiencing, while even Professor Icarus does not understand. Cilan, still a bit giddy from meeting Icarus, tells everyone the pointers of the book, and Ash, interested, insists that he should read it. Iris teases him since he "can't even get through page one". This upsets Ash, but before Ash and Iris can have their argument, all four of them experience a sudden vision of a lab exploding. Icarus is very fussed and runs, insisting that they don't come with him, though Ash, Iris, and Cilan, worried about what's going to happen to the Professor and the lab, follow anyway.

Icarus is typing wildly, attempting to prevent the building from exploding. Ash, Iris, and Cilan arrive, but Icarus gets annoyed, saying that they should have stayed back there, but Cilan persists that they must help. Icarus gives in and says they could help by pulling a plug out of a large UFO. Ash, Iris, Cilan, and even Pikachu and Axew try to help, but it's no good—the plug simply won't come out. When it looks like all is lost, some Pokémon uses Telekinesis to pull it out, saving the lab and all of them!

Ash and co. look around for the Pokémon, and then they notice an Elgyem, which Ash wrongly states for an alien. Upon finding out it is a Pokémon, Ash scans it with his Pokédex, but the Elgyem gets fearful and hides behind Professor Icarus. Professor Icarus tells Elgyem that it can trust him, and Elgyem comes out reluctantly. Professor Icarus tells them how he met Elgyem.

Suddenly there is a knock on the door, and they wonder who it is, Icarus asking. Apparently, it's Science Workers, who seem to have found out how to manipulate dark matter, something Icarus has been studying for years. So he gets very excited and demands them to show it. The two pull out devices that open, saying it prevents Pokémon powers. They pull out another device, which they do not explain and open it. Bolts of blue electricity wrap around the four of them, and the Science Workers are revealed to be Team Rocket!

Ash gets upset, and Elgyem senses danger and uses Teleport. Apparently the device that senses teleporting activates and it is immediately found out where Elgyem teleported. Another bolt of electricity come out and wraps Elgyem, and once put in the box cannot Teleport. Meowth then comes in a machine, as Jessie and James hop in with Elgyem in tow. Icarus gets very worried as they all attempt to break free. Cilan manages to pull out Dwebble's Poké Ball. Once Dwebble is out, Cilan commands an X-Scissor to break the device, and it works. When they get out, they notice Team Rocket is too far up from the sky, Icarus decides to use the UFO he's been building, and they run inside.

As soon as the UFO is lifted into the air, it lurches a bit, however Icarus is able to manage it. They continue up and get closer, which Team Rocket notices, and Meowth turns the ship upon command. Jessie sends out her Woobat while Ash sends out Tranquill. Both Trainers order a Gust which seems to have even power at first but eventually Tranquill's goes through, knocking out Woobat. James decides to avenge Jessie and sends out Yamask and orders a Shadow Ball, which explodes, causing some of the shadows to hit Tranquill.

Cilan then sends out Pansage, and orders a Bullet Seed to destroy the device around Elgyem, and Elgyem teleports back to Professor Icarus. Ash orders an Electro Ball from Pikachu, who obeys and destroys Team Rocket's airship. Team Rocket then flee on their jetpacks but before they leave, James orders Yamask to use Night Shade on Icarus's UFO. Professor Icarus is grateful, however the UFO goes down because of all of the damage it took from the sky battle. They are about to fall through from the bridge when Elgyem uses Telekinesis to lift it back up!

Back at Icarus's house, they mourn over the broken UFO as they thank Elgyem at the same time. Icarus thinks of how he'll start studying something else, and build another UFO to bring Elgyem back home. However, Elgyem then sends the four of them memories of when it was with Icarus. They all ponder for a while what it means, and Cilan works out that Elgyem wants to stay with Icarus, since it trusts him. The episode ends with Elgyem and Icarus waving goodbye to the group, as Ash and his friends continue to Nimbasa City for his next Gym Badge.

Major events

For a list of all major events in the animated series, please see the history page.

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

• Elgyem

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• Iris
• Cilan
• Jessie
• James
• Professor Icarus
• Townspeople
• Students (flashback)
• Postman (flashback)

Pokémon

Who's That Pokémon?

Who's That Pokémon?: Elgyem

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Axew (Iris's)
• Tranquill (Ash's)
• Pansage (Cilan's)
• Dwebble (Cilan's)
• Woobat (Jessie's)
• Yamask (James's)
• Elgyem (Professor Icarus's; debut)

Trivia

Unaired episode footage

• Professor Oak's Pokémon Live Caster: Krokorok
  • The Live Caster for this episode features a clip from one of the unaired episodes.
• The episode takes place in an area called Area 28, which is famous for UFO sightings. This is a reference to Area 51.

Errors

• In one scene, Pikachu's tail is lacking the brown coloration, being all yellow.
• During the scene where Cilan first meets Professor Icarus, the back of his vest turns all gray. At one point, it turns all black.
• When Cilan's Dwebble was using X-Scissor to destroy Team Rocket's machine, its rock home is colored like Burgh's Dwebble's.
• The lights on the hands of Elgyem change positions throughout the episode.
• At one point, the logo on Team Rocket's airship changes from Pokémon the Series: Black & White logo to the one used in previous series.
• Elgyem's name is misspelled as Elgyum on Cartoon Network's website. It is also misspelled on the TV Guide.

• 

  Pikachu's miscolored tail

• 

  One of Cilan's vest errors (all black back)

• 

  Dwebble's miscoloration

• 

  Elgyem with red on top

• 

  Elgyem with red on top in one hand and green on top in the other

• 

  Team Rocket logo error

In other languages

Language		Title
Mandarin Chinese		小灰怪與不明飛行物體！
Danish		En UFO til Elgyem!
Dutch		Een UFO voor Elgyem!
Finnish		Ufo Elgyemille!
European French		Un OVNI pour Lewsor !
German		Ein UFO für Pygraulon!
Greek		Ένα Άτια για το Elgyem!
Hindi		Elgyem के लिए एक UFO! Elgyem ke liye ek UFO!
Italian		Un UFO per Elgyem!
Korean		리그레와 미확인 비행물체!
Norwegian		En UFO til Elgyem!
Polish		UFO dla Elgyema!
Portuguese	Brazil	Um OVNI Para Elgyem!
	Portugal	Um OVNI Para o Elgyem!
Russian		НЛО для Элгиема!
Serbian		N.L.O. za Eldžijema!
Spanish	Latin America	¡Un OVNI para Elgyem!
	Spain	¡Un OVNI para Elgyem!
Swedish		Ett ufo åt Elgyem!
Thai		ลีเกรย์กับจานบินลึกลับ!

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Pokémon the Series: Black & White

BW031 : Ash and Trip's Third Battle! →

This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation.