The battle with the aliens continues in this episode. A starship of the Alliance has to make an emergency landing on a distant planet due to an accident. The people on board, including the leader Skye Marshall and pilot Lola Beck, are stranded and unable to leave. Johnny Rico is assigned to lead a team of soldiers to the planet for a rescue mission. In "Starship Troopers: Marauder," Casper Van Dien, who plays Johnny, returns to the team. This time, he is a general and will take on a new mission to eliminate even more ferocious bugs. This film, with a budget of 20 million, was written and directed by Edward Neumeier, who also wrote the first two episodes. It was his directorial debut. The first "Starship Troopers" movie was very popular. The second one had a complete cast change and was released directly to video. In the third one, Casper Van Dien returns, but "Starship Troopers" remains a direct-to-video release.