Bardock sees his entire race die in a vision he can't stop, then spends the rest of the special trying anyway. That's the whole story. The dub is genuinely terrible and undercuts the weight, but the Japanese version builds something rare in Dragon Ball: a father watching his son's future from the other side of a massacre he cannot prevent. The Solid State Scouter theme carries the tragedy alone when dialogue fails. This is Greek tragedy wearing a power level counter, told in 48 minutes that cost more than they had to spend.

Bardock is a low-ranking Saiyan soldier and the father of Son Goku. After he destroys a planet, the last alien left alive there gives him the power to see into the future. Through these visions he watches his own race being wiped out, and he sets out to do everything he can to stop the massacre that Frieza is about to carry out. The special is a sci-fi action adventure.