In "This Could Be A Real Adventure" (Skeleton Crew 1.1), Wim, Neel, Fern, and KB unearth a spacecraft buried in the woods on their home planet At Attin. As the kids bicker over what to do with the defunct ship, Wim accidentally brings it back to life, triggering it to rise out of the ground and send the group on a journey into the far reaches of the galaxy. Over the course of their voyage, the kids discover that they are flying in the Onyx Cinder, which once belonged to the legendary pirate Tak Rennod.
Both parts of the name "Onyx Cinder" are significant. "Onyx" is a striped mineral, typically black with white bands – and thus an apt descriptor for a ship whose black hull is painted with white stripes. A "cinder" is a small piece of partly burned coal or wood that is no longer on fire but is still combustible. In other words, it has the potential to be rekindled – evoking the way Wim brings the ship back online after a long period of dormancy.
The Onyx Cinder truly lives up to the second part of its name in "Zero Friends Again" (Skeleton Crew 1.6), when it is almost turned into scrap by a giant trash-smelting machine. To save the ship so they can use it to return home, the four kids must finally stop bickering and learn to work together. Wim, Neel, KB, and Fern each play a role in the process of restarting the Onyx Cinder and saving it from the incinerator. The courageous Fern ultimately triggers the "emergency hull demolition sequencer," which burns off the pirate ship's outer shell and reveals the bright, shiny ship inside.
The Onyx Cinder, it turns out, was a Republic spacecraft from At Attin before it was stolen and turned into a pirate ship by Tak Rennod. Like a phoenix that dies in fire and rises from the ashes, the Onyx Cinder is restored to its original purpose in a fiery transformation. After this metamorphosis – of both their ship and their relationships – the kids can return to At Attin, which is its home as well as theirs.
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Shows: Skeleton Crew
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Concepts: fire / junk / names / pirates / resurrection
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