Sphere Today, Gone Tomorrow

Sphere Today, Gone Tomorrow is the 3rd episode. It was originally released and aired on October 18,2006. The previous episode is Going Wrong, Going Long. The next episode is In, Out, Shake It All About.

It introduced the character of the Shape Japer and also included the first instance of a Numberjack changing biologically; in this case Six shrank.

Plot
Three and Four are arguing about whether Three can keep the Boing Ball going. She loses control sending the ball bouncing all across the room until Six enters and catches it.

There is a problem: All the spheres have turned into cubes. This could turn into a big problem so Six goes out to investigate. He finds more problems in the cafe: More spheres have also turned to cubes! Three sends Six brain gain to convert the cubes to spheres. He fixes the orange and the peas but there are reports of more problems either in the pet shop or the sports hall. On Agent 70's advice, Six travels to the sports hall.

With signals coming from the table tennis Six deduces the problem to be the Shape Japer! She turns all the cubes into spheres so Three sends more brain gain to revert it. With the marble run still left to sort out Six defeats the Shape Japer with brain gain for cube into sphere into nothing. Chasing all the spheres in the house and then returns to the sofa. The Numberjacks recap what happened to all the spheres.

Back in the Cosy Room, the Boing Ball is put safely away inside a cube-shaped storage container.

Numberjacks

 * Three
 * Four
 * Five
 * Six

Meanies

 * Shape Japer (First Appearance)

Agents

 * Agent 28
 * Agent 33
 * Agent 70 (First Appearance)
 * Agent 101 (First Appearance)

Others

 * Girl
 * Man
 * Woman
 * Waitress

Crew

 * Writer - Chris Ellis
 * Voices - Alice Baker, Jonathan Beech, Laura Maasland, Oliver Keogh, Rachel Preece
 * Performers - Mark Jefferis, Zahra Browne
 * Consultants - Pete Crawford, Pam Land, Marjorie Gorman
 * Head of Animation - David Raitt
 * Animation - Duncan Raitt, Jon Marsh, Rik Goddard, Dan Cox
 * Production Designer - Marsha Roddy
 * Props Manager - Sadie Mallet
 * 2D Animation - Sweetworld tv
 * Camera - Jeremy Read, Simon Sylvester, Leo Holba
 * Sound - Ray Lyttleton
 * Editor - Chris Bezant
 * Music - Justin Nicholls
 * Sound Post Production - PK Studios
 * Location Manager - Liz Summers
 * Runner - Eleanor Sheppard
 * Production Assistant - Helen Stephens
 * Production Manager - Clare Hepper
 * Executive Producer for CBeebies - K

Numberjacks' Speech
[Alice] The peas turned into cubes, and so did the orange.

[Mary] Well done, nine

Trivia

 * The title is in a pun on 'here today, gone tomorrow',
 * The scene from this episode in which some marbles are turned into cubes is one of the few scenes to be included in the Shape Japer's song.
 * This episode contains Six's legendary line, "You're not playing Boing Ball in here, are you?"
 * This episode features the first appearance of the Shape Japer.
 * In this episode, the Boing Ball is shown to defy the laws of physics and be impossibly bouncy.

Production errors
Numberjacks weblink
 * Six shrinks in this episode. Unlike future episodes this change is not brought through the use of brain gain or the actions of a meanie.
 * On YouTube "Tomorrow" is misspelled "Tommorrow" in the title.
 * Six's countdown is not heard before his launch.