Lord Commander

"You have no idea, do you? Mooncake is the key. That being can unlock... Final Space!"

- Lord Commander addressing Mooncake.

The Lord Commander is the main antagonist of the 2018 animated series Final Space. He is the evil overlord of Terra Con Prime Sector 18650, as well as the archenemy of the Galaxy One, Gary Goodspeed in particular.

He was voiced by David Tennant, who also played Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and Kilgrave in Jessica Jones.

Appearance
In the pilot, Lord Commander possesses pale, aquamarine skin, and is dressed in a black robe with a magenta lining. He also has a cybernetic eye in the place of his right eye. He still is depicted as small. His finalized version lacks the black robe and cybernetic eye. He has a slightly darker skin tone, yellow eyes, and wears a more futuristic attire.

Personality
The Lord Commander is a psychopathic and cruel tyrant who takes immense gratification with the suffering of his victims, never hesitating in using his powers to maim, torture, or kill people. His go to solution always seems to mutilate people into submission or killing them outright. As such, he is seen as a very dreaded figure. The Lord Commander lacks any concern for other species his most despicable scene being where he forced his top lieutenants to kill their firstborn as a sign of loyalty. The Lord Commander is also self-absorbed, prideful of his abilities despite him slowly dying because of overly using them. The Lord Commander is extremely unforgiving of his minions, often killing them in brutish ways. One instance of this is when he strangled his attendant to death simply because he had given him a meal that was the wrong size.

The Lord Commander does have somewhat of a comedic side. However, for the most part, the Lord Commander is presented as a bloodthirsty and dangerous monster who is a genuine threat to all of existence.

Biography
Lord Commander is a small extraterrestrial creature renowned as being the most dangerous being in the galaxy. Not much is known about this enigmatic figure, but at some point, Lord Commander was in the possession of a gelatinous alien life form termed Specimen E35-1. Chapter 8 reveals that the Lord Commander was once a member of the Infinity Guard named Jack who had been friends with John Goodspeed. It is also noted that he used to be green in tone. When John went to space to attempt to seal the breach in space-time, the Lord Commander gets caught in the blast from the explosion, which causes his skin to become paler, and he develops telepathy and his "Light" abilities. It's also revealed that Mooncake himself was comprised of particles from Final Space, explaining his status as being the key to it.

Despite its initial appearance, Specimen E35-1 is said to be a bioweapon capable of destroying entire planets. However, through some unknown means, Specimen E35-1 escaped from Lord Commander's grasp, eventually finding its way to an exiled young man named Gary.

Gary names the alien "Mooncake" after a caterpillar his father had given him years ago. Commander will stop at nothing to retrieve the gelatinous life form.

Pilot
Lord Commander is starkly different from his finalized version in the series proper. For instance, rather than being deeply serious, the pilot version of the alien tyrant is more comedic and was seemingly less powerful.

In the series
Lord Commander is introduced when a man is brought into his lair. At first, the man pokes fun at his size, only to then get thoroughly interrogated by Lord Commander. When the man insists that he had no idea where Specimen E35-1 was, Lord Commander proceeds to sadistically torture the man with his telepathic powers, contorting his body in gruesome ways. The man pleads for his life before Commander snaps his neck and allows one of his minions to eat the remains. When he learns of Specimen E35-1's whereabouts, he sends some of his minions to invade Gary's prisoner ship. Gary gets into a run-in with the minions and risks his life by ordering the prisoner ship to speed up, even though it would add onto his sentence. Several of the minions are sucked into space.

Gary is confronted by one of the minions appointed to capture the alien named Avocato. Avocato explains the true purpose behind "Mooncake" but also states that a bounty hunter was hired to retrieve the alien. The first episode ends with Lord Commander trailing them in his ship, declaring that the stage had been set.

In Chapter 2, a bounty hunter named Terk is tracking Gary and Avocato on the Galaxy One. In order to keep Lord Commander from learning this, the two go to Tera Con Prime. It is revealed that Lord Commander is keeping Avocato's son hostage. Whilst searching for Gary, Avocato visits his son in his cell, unaware that it was a trap. Avocato is taken to Lord Commander, who then lectures the cat alien on his failed mission. Avocato gives Lord Commander Gary's name as an attempt to reason with the alien tyrant to no avail. Gary arrives only to be on the receiving end of Lord Commander's telekinetic powers. This leads to Gary getting his arm ripped off. Lord Commander gets some of Gary's blood sprayed into his face, blinding him. This gives the two friends the chance to escape. When the two return to the ship, Avocato gives Gary a robot arm. The two vow to find Avocato's son, as well as avenge the loss of Gary's arm. Chapter Two ends with Avocato's son getting taken to some unknown place with Lord Commander gloating that he was going to a place where his father will never find him.

In Chapter 3, Lord Commander sends a fleet of incinerators to attack the Galaxy One. As a means of escape, Gary orders H.U.E. to take them through a temporal worm at the risk of either going backward or forward a thousand years in time. They arrive approximately 4 days later.

Avocato suggests that they hide Mooncake on a planet known as Yarno as they couldn't evade the Lord Commander forever. Meanwhile, Lord Commander visits the Order of the Twelve, extraterrestrial beings who act as the eyes of the universe. Hulu, one of the "Helpers," deduces that Lord Commander was slowly dying the further he used his powers. Out of annoyance, Lord Commander uses his powers to destroy Hulu's eight eyes out of spite.

Gary, Avocato, and Mooncake arrive to Yarno, where they are met by Stevil who ensnares them into a mental labyrinth. Mooncake escapes from its imprisonment only to find itself fighting against several monsters. After decimating several of the beasts with its destructive beam, Lord Commander arrives to collect it.

Gary and Avocato arrive to the coliseum just in time, and they combat the alien tyrant. Lord Commander reveals that Mooncake was the key to opening the titular "Final Space," which is somehow the answer to keeping him from dying. The three teammates escape the coliseum, causing Lord Commander to suffer from some massive damage due to him overusing his powers. He is last seen getting picked up by his fleet.

Episode 4 opens with Gary and Mooncake leaving the Galaxy One in order to recharge the reactor by gathering energy from a dying star. They arrive to a deserted spacecraft called the Scarlet Lance and begin to gather energy. Mooncake wanders off, discovering a transmission that was left by the crew of the Scarlet Lance. The former captain explains how they had discovered a small lifeform of mysterious origins they dub Specimen E35-1. Unfortunately for the crew, Lord Commander's fleets intersect the transmission, leading to Lord Commander massacring the crew. The episode ends with an unknown helper giving Little Cato a device and chip so that he could send the coordinates to his father.

Gary and the team of the Galaxy One trace the gravitational disturbance to a strange bioluminescent planet where it is revealed that the Infinity Guard had joined forces with the Lord Commander, and that they are firing a laser at the breach as a means of opening Final Space, the result of which could spell destruction for not only the Earth, but to the entire universe as well. Meanwhile, Cato tries to figure out how to send the message to his father; while tampering with the device given to him in the last episode, he unintentionally summons a hologram of a shrouded figure. Even though he didn't initially trust the hologram, he uses it to escape from his prison and successfully sends the message to his father. However, it turns out that the hologram was really the Lord Commander who once again traps Cato, revealing that it was a gambit to lure his father and Galaxy One to him.

Galaxy One intercepts the message that Little Cato left in Chapter 6, learning that he was on a prisoner colony name dZetakron Alpha. Despite Quinn's vehement disapproval, Avocato and Gary arrive to the planet where Avocato reveals that he used to be the Lord Commander's second-in-command. After serving him for years, the Lord Commander decided to test the loyalty of his lieutenants by forcing them to kill their firstborn children. However, Avocato refused to murder his son, and he turns the gun onto the Lord Commander. Angered by his treachery, the Lord Commander uses Little Cato as a bargaining chip, vowing to kill him if Avocato failed him again. Upon arriving to the planet, Avocato realizes that his son had been brainwashed by the Lord Commander and finds himself fighting his son reluctantly. Lord Commander then uses his psychic powers to tap into Gary's mind and learns that Mooncake was on the Galaxy One. Before he could send his fleets, Quinn arrives and KVN uses Mooncake to create a huge laser and blasts it at the Lord Commander. Just as the team was about to leave, the Lord Commander spitefully uses his psychic abilities to implant a bomb onto Little Cato. Avocato discovers the bomb, and tells Gary to take care of his son. He then grabs the bomb and sacrifices himself by running towards another side of the ship.

Little Cato attempts to avenge his father in the next episode at the cost of his, Gary's, and KVN's lives as well by trying to blindly destroy one of the Lord Commander's heavy incinerators despite HUE having analyzed that he wasn't on the incinerator. When Nightfall arrives and attempts to kill Mooncake, she reveals that she was from an alternative future where no matter the timeline she visited, Gary ends up getting killed by the Lord Commander, culminating in Mooncake massacring several planets, unwittingly allowing the Titans to get unleashed onto the universe.

Chapter 9 picks up with Gary and the Galaxy One arriving to Earth in order to retrieve the antimatter bomb located in New York. As the Earth was being absorbed into the breach, the team had limited time to get the antimatter bomb. The bomb is revealed to have been relocated by the Lord Commander himself, and they race against the clock to get the bomb with their limited time. The team meet up with Tribore who explains that when the Lord Commander infiltrated the Infinity Guard, a small rebel group was created. Galaxy One is able to retrieve the bomb, only to receive a transmission from the Lord Commander. He gives Gary and the other the final chance to give him Mooncake or face death. Gary and the team refuse his demands and prepare to engage in a large scale war between them and several of the Lord Commander's heavy incinerators.

In the season finale, the Lord Commander successfully captures Mooncake, and places him in a laser that forces Mooncake into creating a portal powerful enough to release the Titans. When Gary intervenes, Lord Commander abjectly refuses to acknowledge himself as once being named Jack, believing that he was chosen to release the Titans from Final Space so that he could become a god over all dimensions. However, his plan goes awry when one of the Titans manages to suck the Earth into the portal before Quinn successfully detonates the antimatter bomb though at the cost of destroying any chances of her returning. The Lord Commander is last seen enraged that his attempt at godhood failed.

Powers and Abilities
The Lord Commander is able to use telekinesis most likely through the two orbs on his gloves. However, it is noted that every time he uses this power, it is slowly killing him.