Most of those connections seem weak, although 1 of them did stand out. I won't say which one (because if we're wrong then it would only help blue) but I think I'm convinced that Engagement could be leaning somewhere other than PRINCESS.
The other downside is if we're wrong, blue will almost certainly win. Given that we had a 3 clue however, I doubt we'll get another turn regardless of what we do. We should wait and see what pja thinks, but in the meantime I'll support PRINCESS.
PRINCESS for the Peach connection is still the only one I see. If you wanted to connect (COVER+PARACHUTE) and GLOVE or SLIP you'd say something like Material 3 or Skydiving 3.
But, I don't see how Blue Team *doesn't* point to PRINCESS (unless they're reading this...Blue Team, don't read this), so it feels like we should take a shot at another word.
But, I also don't have another word to pick. And David, from what I remember of him as spymaster, tends not to try to outfox the opponent but just give straight clues that make connections.
SOLDIER and PRINCESS both grey, and a new 3-word clue? Very interesting.
If we'd been given an unlimited clue that obviously pointed to only one word, then based on past discussions, we would have picked it + PLOT/ANTARCTICA.
If we'd been given a 2-word clue, then we would have tried to pick out the two words + ANTARCTICA. (Because we seemed less sure of PLOT.)
But we've been given a 3-word clue, so even before we consider the clue, Dp seems to be suggesting we shouldn't pick ANTARCTICA. (Otherwise, we'd have a narrower 2-word clue instead.)
As for the clue itself:
POUND - No link I can see.
SLIP - Strong link to Spy. "Slip in unnoticed" "Give someone the slip"
No link to Scifi. Moderate link to Engagement. "slip dress"
ANTARCTICA - No obvious link to Spy. No link to Engagement.
Moderate link to Scifi, but unlikely based on reasoning in paragraph above.
PLOT - Strong link to Spy. "hatch plots" Strong link to Scifi. A lock.
PHOENIX - No link I can see.
GLOVE - No obvious link to Spy. Likely to be last red word, for Parasol.
BED - Weak link to Spy: romantic conquests in spy novels/films
No link to Scifi. Strong link to Engagement.
QUEEN - No obvious link to Spy. (The clue could have been a 007 reference.) No link to Scifi.
Unlikely candidate because an easier way to clue DIAMOND/DATE/QUEEN is Jubilee (vs Engagement).
LOG - Weak link to Scifi. "star log" No other link.
MISSILE - Moderate link to Spy: missiles/weapons in spy plots
Moderate link to Scifi: weapons tech
Moderate link to Engagement: in the military sense
A very likely candidate.
So what's going on here?
I think Dp was hoping we'd get as many words as possible with Scifi 6, and pick up the rest with an easy 2-word clue. (Either BED/DATE or SLIP/DATE.) Unfortunately, we ran into trouble early, and we also failed to spot a Scifi word entirely: DIAMOND (a mineral, a gem, used in lasers, etc.) That's what prompted a last minute clue switch to Engagement; DP overlooked the military connotations, which only confused us more. (That's the only explanation for SOLDIER being grey, I think.) So the clues were supposed to be:
Scifi 6: MERCURY, LASER, PLOT, RAY, DIAMOND, MISSILE
_____ 2: DATE + SLIP/BED (later modified to Engagement 3, to include DIAMOND)
I'm making a few assumptions, yes, but that's the only way I can make sense of this board.
So I'm fairly confident about PLOT and MISSILE. It's a tossup between SLIP and BED.
Edit: I think I might have said somewhere earlier in the thread that Spy would have been a better clue for some combination of words. Will have to look it up. Also, won't be able to reply for about 24h from this post.
Plot - this one seems a certainty
Slip - spies might need to give someone the slip
Bed - spies might attempt to get information by sleeping with someone
Queen - a spy might serve Queen and country
Missile - a spy might be trying to steal missile technology
Glove - spies might be likely to wear them?
With no obvious connection to Antarctica, Pound, Phoenix and Log.
Now it's not guaranteed that there weren't meant to be 2 overlapping clues between sci-fi and engagement, but I think it's unlikely. This would mean all our answers have to fit one or the other.
Plot - good for sci-fi
Slip - can't see a link to either
Bed - not bad for engagement
Queen - pretty good for engagement. But I suspect this may be the third parasol word.
Missile - might be a sci-fi word
Glove - not a fan for either. Might be the parasol word.
So it feels like Plot and Missile and either Bed or Queen, with my preference being for Bed.
That would give us a full set of Laser, Ray, Mercury, Diamond, Date, Plot, Missile, Bed / Queen.
Engagement, 3 would have to be Diamond, Date, Bed / Queen.
Sci-fi, 6 would be left as Laser, Ray, Mercury, Plot, Missile, Date.
Looking at spoilers, mm, you may be right that Diamond is the shared word between the first two clues instead of Date (sci-fi is set in the future and/or Trek's Stardate). Difficult to tell, but I like your reasoning.
I think we can dismiss QUEEN, because we would have had more specific clues for Engagement (Julibee) and Spy (a Bond reference).
Which leaves BED and SLIP.
SLIP doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone else, including Red team, for Engagement. Maybe "slip dress" is a UK/European phrase? (Do we know where Dp is from?) So even though SLIP has a stronger link to Spy, I think I lean towards BED, which has a stronger link to Engagement.
(The real question is, could you have come up with a better clue for PLOT/MISSILE/BED?)
Maybe I lean bed...