Larry DiTillio

Mark Glamack

Let's see, who do we know in the combined He-Man/She-Ra universe with a particular "talent for trouble"? If you said "Orko," you got it in one! Today our favorite trouble-prone Trollan ends up in Etheria for the first time, and will need the help of She-Ra and He-Man to get out of his Horde-ish predicament.

Sorceress, Orko, Madame Razz, Broom, Spirit (Swift Wind), Princess Adora (She-Ra), He-Man

Mantenna, Hordak, Shadow Weaver, Horde Prime (mentioned only), Catra, Leech, Grizzlor

Horde soldiers, Mind Sweeper, frog

batmeks, Mantisaur, rocket (and escape pod), hay transport

It's Spring Cleaning Day, and to help the Sorceress clean the theoretically endless square footage within the mystical Castle Grayskull, she has called upon the only other person she can trust: Orko. Orko is totally psyched to help, because we all remember how much he loves chores and cleaning (right?), so the Sorceress sends him down to the basement with a mop, advising the Trollan to be careful around her corridor of doors. Guess what? He isn't careful. Orko's kicking up of dust causes a living skull decoration on one door to sneeze, flinging the magician through another pair of doors. He pops out the other end in the land of She-Ra: Etheria!

Orko hardly has time to process the surrounding countryside before Etheria's own bumbling magician, Madame Razz, collides into him on her flying Broom. Orko has just provided his name when the reason for Madame's flight, a pursuing Mantenna, shows up on the scene, flanked by Horde soldiers. Mantenna uses his stalked eyes to zap Madame and the newcomer, imprisoning them in shiny cubes of some unbreakable material. Razz urgently advises Broom, who evaded the attack, to fly off and fetch help.

Broom's panicked flight eventually sends him sailing past Princess Adora and her beloved steed, Spirit, who are taking a moment to pause and reflect at the top of a grassy hill. Spotting her sweeping friend flying alone and in distress, Adora concludes that some superpowered help is needed and says her magic words. It's She-Ra and Swift Wind who then intercept Broom in the air, and after getting him to calm down, She-Ra learns the story of Madame and Orko's capture.

She-Ra has never met Orko before, but she's heard of him from her family on Eternia, and knows he's a special friend to her brother. She is all about staging a rescue, but first decides to alert the Sorceress - who is always just a sword-gem call away. Apparently surprised to learn that her clean-up helper has gone missing (you'd think she'd have noticed the silence coming from the basement by now), Sorceress promises to send He-Man to help in the resuce effort, so She-Ra delays her mission just a bit longer to rendezvous with her brother at the usual world-bridging spot.

The united twins hop on Swift Wind's back for a trip to the Fright Zone, which is indeed where Mantenna has taken his two prisoners. Hordak was pleased to get a hold of the rebel Madame Razz, but confused by the unfamiliar Orko. Determined to get to the bottom of this mysterious stranger, the Horde leader tries analyzing Orko, first through the magical means of Shadow Weaver's spells, then through the scientific means of his Mind Sweeper device. Both methods prove entirely unsuccessful, and a furious Hordak destroys his Mind Sweeper, which was so confused by Orko's opaque nature that it went haywire and started repeating "Hordak is a meanie."

Shadow Weaver then has the clever idea to deliver Orko into the clutches of Horde Prime on Horde World. It's a win-win move: if Horde Prime also can't figure out what's up with this crazy Trollan, Hordak and his inferiors won't look foolish; and if Prime does figure Orko out, then Hordak will have provided a useful prisoner. These plans for the disposition of Orko are interrupted by the arrival of He-Man and She-Ra, whose approach is detected via video monitor. Force Captain Catra releases some batmeks to slow the heroes down, but of course that's barely an impediment to the combined forces of our heroes and horse. He-Man slices up the robotic ships, and the twins swing their way into the Fright Zone complex, leaving Swift Wind to cool it outside. They subsequently confront Catra's force squad in the form of Leech and Grizzlor, who also prove to be a less-than-impressive opposing force. He-Man and She-Ra bash their foes insensate, and She-Ra easily traps Catra under a suspiciously illogical chandelier.

Quickly locating Madame Razz, He-Man and She-Ra learn from the old witch that Orko is about to be launched into space for his journey to Horde World. Instructing Madame to find her own way home, the twins accept a teleportation spell from her, which sends them directly to Hordak's spaceport. Waiting for the pair are a squad of Horde troopers, Shadow Weaver, and Hordak himself, now riding atop a praying-mantis-like robotic mount. To make things even worse, Hordak orders the launch of the rocket! The siblings agree to divide their forces, with He-Man rushing to save his trouble-prone friend while She-Ra mops up the bad guys. Fortunately, her enemies prove about as easy to defeat as all the others met today: our heroine peels up a stretch of floor to deflect the Hordesmen's lasers back onto them. She then blows Weaver's evil spell back onto its caster, causing the sorceress to transform into a tiny troll, then slink off in embarrassment. Hordak is dispatched with one swift kick, sending him and his mantis through the wall and down into a mud pit.

Meanwhile, He-Man has his work cut out for him. Thanks to some help up from She-Ra, the blonde oaf is riding on the vehicle's outer hull. It's a desperate race to break inside and break his friend out of his tiny bell jar prison before the rocket breeches Etheria's atmosphere (because, in this episode at least, He-Man can't survive in the vacuum of space). Orko has just about given up hope of ever seeing his friends again when He-Man finally appears, having busted in after punching the rocket into a downward trajectory (which convinced the two Hordesmen pilots to make use of the rocket's escape pod). Another punch breaks Orko free. The Trollan can simply float his way out of the rocket and back to the ground; but what about He-Man? He leaps out of the crashing ship and manages to grab hold of a projecting pole; but he's dangling many feet above the ground, and the pole is about to break! Luckily for him his sister is nearby and sees the hero's plight; she flings a nearby hay transport under He-Man, just in time to break his fall.

With everyone rescued, our friends finally have a moment to breathe, and He-Man has the opportunity to introduce Orko to his sister. A gobsmacked Orko stutters over She-Ra's loveliness, and the grateful heroine thanks him with a tender kiss on the scarf - which sends Orko flying about in a tizzy. Oh, you.

• Sorceress: Magic can be an untidy business. / Orko: Oh, don't I know it!
• Orko (spouting what may be the most egregious lie he has ever uttered): Don't worry about me - I'm always careful.
• She-Ra (of Orko, and giving us this episode's title): He-Man always said he had a talent for trouble.
• Hordak (to Mantenna): But what is this other creature you bring me? / Orko: Who are you calling a creature, Bone Brain? / Hordak: Bone Brain?!
• Shadow Weaver (of Orko): There is something about him that defies even my powers. / Orko (laughing): Man-at-Arms always said no one could figure me out; I guess he was right!
• Orko (his head having been clamped into Hordak's Mind Sweeper): I don't think this hat's the right size - and I don't like the color, either.
• Mind Sweeper: Phase two, scan of thought processes. Conclusion: weird. Very weird.
• She-Ra (to Shadow Weaver, who has been turned into a little troll): I love that new look - it suits you!

• She-Ra mounts Swift Wind and flies off: Just after transforming
• She-Ra spin kicks the viewer: To defeat Hordak and his mantis robot
• He-Man swings sword overhand: Without his sword, He-Man swings his fist overhand to redirect a rocket
• A look through widespread legs: He-Man lands inside the rocket
• He-Man punches the viewer: To release Orko from his bell jar prison
• He-Man smiles close-up, looking at the viewer: As he introduces Orko to She-Ra
• He-Man laughs, head back: Just a slight twitch of the usual laugh loop is used for his episode-ending amusement

One full

3:19 - Orko's first look at Etheria is a panning shot, which ends in a familiar view of the Whispering Woods, where we find Loo-Kee peeking out at us from among some foliage on the lower left side of the screen.
Did I spot him? YES! Though it seems Orko was oblivious.

Ignoring the main body of the episode, which was seemingly devoid of useful lessons, Loo-Kee reminds us of what started this whole thing: Orko's helping the Sorceress with her Spring cleaning. "When you come to think of it, lending a helping hand is another way of saying, 'I'm you're friend!'" In this case, it was also a way of getting banished to another dimension. I guess no good deed goes unpunished, eh, Loo-Kee?

MOTU crossover

• The great Larry DiTillio gives us this script (as difficult as that may be to believe)! Our director, Mark Glamack, is a first-timer, though he'll be credited on several more POP episodes in the first season.
• We know we're getting a MOTU crossover right away today, since we begin in Eternia - something that happened in 67029 and 67013. We go right into Castle Grayskull and find the Sorceress and Orko, both of whom last made an appearance in 67029.
• Orko assists the Sorceress in her cleaning by taking "the basement" of Castle Grayskull, which turns out to be the location of the same collection of doors Skeletor and his gang visited in the stirring conclusion of MU075's "To Save Skeletor." The Trollan's inevitable screw-up sends him sailing through the famous "inner chamber" doors of the castle, a concept first introduced in MU027's "Orko's Favorite Uncle" (though the doors also made an appearance in a similar context in MU075). These double doors with skull decorations on them have been seen in several episodes of MOTU, where they've been ascribed varying levels of importance. They were most significant in the two episodes already named, where they seemed the gateway to the true secrets of the castle; but they also played a role in She-Ra's introductory storyline (67004), where we saw Adam and Adora (and, a few seconds later, Hordak) returning from Etheria to Eternia by way of them. Oddly, the doorway in Grayskull used to travel to Etheria has, until today, always had a different design - most often one with a spider along the top (see 67001, 67029).
• This will mark Orko's second appearance in POP, and his first visit to Etheria. The portal he takes drops him off in what looks to be the same spot where Adam and Cringer first arrived, back in 67001; and the same place Modulok's gatemaker broke through in 67035's "Gateway to Trouble."
• Up until now, Mantenna's eye beams have been billed as stun rays, or distortion rays; things that make you dizzy or knock you out. Today his beams encase Orko and Madame Razz in solid cubes of some reflective material. Huh?
• Orko's first trip to Etheria is also the first time we see Broom flying around without Madame. Weird! (We saw Madame show up without Broom for the ending of 67009's "The Missing Ax;" and Madame ditched Broom for a romantic walk with Swen at the end of 67016.)
• It's a very brief appearance for Adora and Spirit today; after the extended establishing shot introducing the characters, Adora quickly raises her sword, leaving us with She-Ra and Swift Wind for the balance of the story.
• She-Ra speaks to the Sorceress using her sword gem for the first time since 67035 (which by my sequencing was episode 18).
• We've seen in previous episodes that Hordak's throne is capable of rotating on a gear-like base (67017); today, we see that the chair also seems to be an elevator, which rises up out of his stepped dais with much fanfare.
• Hordak transformations: He first whips out his standard arm cannon today, which proves to be loaded with flames. In another, later attempt to threaten Orko, or out of pure rage, he opts for a rotating saw blade at the end of one arm. And there's more to come! (See further below.)
• Orko's inscrutability, even after the use of Weaver's spells and Hordak's science, calls to mind Roboto's inability to pick up anything from his scan of the Trollan in MU113. It's worth noting that the script for that episode was also written by Larry DiTillio, who I've long posited harbors a dislike for our Trollan friend.
• Hordak reveals - with great glee - that he owns a device called a "Mind Sweeper." No, it's not that addictive little logic game from the 90s, "Minesweeper." This is something different. Since the Mind Sweeper proves to have a voice, I've decided to list it as a character. (Like the last Horde technology which I named as a character, the Horde computer of 67042, this one also ends its brief existence when Hordak blasts it to smithereens.)
• We also see once again our Horde dictator drawing a firm line between magic and science, something he did in 67017. It seems a bit odd that he would first try Shadow Weaver's spells to figure out Orko, having so thoroughly denigrated the idea of relying on magic in that previous episode. It's also surprising that Shadow Weaver later mouths off to Hordak about the equal inferiority of Hordak's science compared to her magic, after he so thoroughly tortured her for suggesting something similar in 67017.
• Hordak disparages Orko as an "insect," a term for the Trollan which Skeletor has favored in the past (see MU104).
• Things that come out of Orko: I didn't think I'd be returning to this sub-category again! We saw many things come out of Orko, particularly from the hinged opening in the top of his hat, over the course of the MOTU series. Here we see one of the more standard items coming out of him, a gloved hand on a flexible stalk, on a video screen depiction during Phase Two of the Mind Sweeper's scan.
• Hordak transformations: In a fun new variation, we see Hordak change his arm (his left one this time) into a miniature old-fashioned cannon, with a pair of wooden spoked wheels and a lit fuse, in order to finish off the malfunctioning Mind Sweeper.
• Shadow Weaver name drops Horde Prime and Horde World. Though we've "seen" (sort of) Horde Prime once (67027), he usually just gets mentioned, as is done here. The last time we heard mention of Horde World (presumably the seat of Horde Prime's rule and the nerve center of the Evil Horde) was in an expression from Grizzlor in 67016.
• Swiss army sword: It's a "sword to shield" day for She-Ra, a defensive form of the sword of protection previously used (and for the first time) in 67029. Afterwards, she turns the shield directly into a coiled lasso.
• We learn that She-Ra and her steed have been practicing their flying long enough to develop a series of numbered maneuvers; today they use "Maneuver 19" on the batmeks. We'll see another numbered maneuver in 67040.
• Speaking of Swift Wind, this episode is another to add to the list of occasions on which the horse gets ditched (the last time being 67023). She-Ra and He-Man leap off Swifty so they can swing inside the fortress, and never meet up with him again.
• Catra, who we've already heard called a force captain (67031), here refers to Leech and Grizzlor as her "force squad," clearly implying that she's their superior. We've certainly seen her ordering around Grizzlor and others in previous episodes (for instance 67012).
• She-Ra defeats Catra by throwing her sword boomerang-style to drop something over the force captain's head, a trick we've seen her use before (67019). He-Man has also shown a talent for having his thrown sword come back to him (MU110, MU114, MU122).
• Madame's Magic: In her one chance in today's story to prove herself just as disastrous a magic user as her Eternian counterpart, Madame instead performs a teleportation spell perfectly (after only a brief hesitation), transporting She-Ra and He-Man directly to the Fright Zone's spaceport.
• He-Man again finds it necessary to rescue Orko from a space rocket. He had to do the same thing as part of foiling Skeletor's plans in MU104's "The Secret of Grayskull." Orko will also find himself blasting off in a rocket to trigger the story for the Christmas Special. It's actually too bad that He-Man seems to have forgotten how he got out of the rocket predicament in MU104 (by using his Trollan buddy as a parachute) - using that method again would have made his dismount in this episode a bit cleaner!
• She-Ra shows that she has super breath just like He-Man when she blows Shadow Weaver's beast-making spell back onto the sorceress - with interesting results!
• When Hordak resurfaces from falling into a mud lake outside the Fright Zone buildings, he has a frog on his head which looks like a regular Earth frog, not like the hybrid "fribbian" from 67025's "Small Problems."
• In the realm of confusing portrayals of the Horde soldiers' biological/mechanical nature, we see the pair piloting the rocket are wearing space helmets. Um, aren't they robots? Who are already wearing helmets anyway? Why do they need to have their metal, non-breathing heads sealed off from the vacuum of space?

• It struck me as hilarious - though on consideration it's kind of sad - that the Sorceress has to mop her own gigantic mystical castle. All the secrets of the universe lay within, and there's nothing available for doing your housecleaning? (We do find that she can magically command her mops, a la Mickey in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," but if you need Orko's help to do anything, you're clearly at a disadvantage!)
• Also there's no way that Orko is serious when he tells the Sorceress "I always like Spring cleaning." This is the Trollan who famously and repeatedly avoids cleaning his own room - he did just that in his last appearance (67029)!
• It's fun and curiously appropriate that the first person on Etheria Orko "runs into" (in classic literal fashion) is Madame Razz, who has always been his bumbling Etherian counterpart. Though I've personally had vacillating reactions toward Orko, I was excited at the idea of this character getting a chance to bounce off Razz. Oh, what trouble these two could get into! (Or so I thought...)
• By Madame's own admission, Broom does some very impressive flying in order to dodge the many laser beams of the Horde soldiers trying to shoot him down. It really makes you wonder how he manages to constantly run into trees when he has Madame on his back. Who's doing the driving?
• She-Ra is a crutch! True, it's mighty unusual to see Broom flying around without Razz on his back; but that doesn't necessarily mean there's a She-Ra-level disaster at hand, Adora! Stop and ask a few questions first before raising that sword aloft, young lady!
• You'd think that an episode featuring a hefty dose of characters from both Eternia and Etheria would be able to eat up plenty of screentime, but I was struck early on by some major padding in this episode. The first instance comes when we cut to Princess Adora, relaxing in a clearing with her horse Spirit. We're treated to a several-seconds-long, needlessly slow zoom shot, where nothing in particular happens. Our introduction to Hordak is also pointlessly time-wasting, though hilariously magnificent, with a slow pan up to the top of his dais and a grandiloquent entrance for our dictator via his elevated throne.
• Hordak seems exceptionally bad-tempered today, though it may just be Orko bringing this out in him. He's very easily baited by Orko's insult of "Bone Brain," and seems about ready to saw the magician into little bits when Weaver's spells don't immediately reveal what Orko is. I was reminded of how utterly horrified of the Trollan's company Mr. Beast Man and Mr. Trap Jaw became by the end of MU118's "Orko's Return."
• Catra launches batmeks at He-Man and She-Ra, a rather confusing vehicle design that seems to have appeared under this name (67005) and as a "Horde flyer" (67002). I was calling them "batmex" for a while, probably at the suggestion of my DVD captions, but Wiki Grayskull and other online sources seem to prefer the spelling I'm now using (which has the advantage of a clear and separate singular form: batmek). To add to the confusion, in this episode Catra's line about launching the ships is captioned with the garbled term "batonnets."
• The idea of Orko and Madame getting into mixed-up magical trouble together was a compelling one, but it surprisingly and disappointingly failed to materialize in this DiTillio script. In fact, after running into each other, all the pair manage to do is get immediately captured, then spend the majority of the rest of the episode hanging around in manacles.
• I hope I'm not just approaching this episode in a bad mood, but I also found He-Man and She-Ra's battle with the Horde minions uninspired. Why anyone in the Horde hierarchy thought Leech and Grizzlor could successfully take out the superpowered twins is anyone's guess; and Catra on her own doesn't stand a chance; but you'd at least think our heroes could come up with a more imaginative way of defeating them than the methods they use. Leech and Grizzlor just get thrown into one another, and Catra obediently stands still long enough for She-Ra to trap her under the very obvious chandelier that was hanging above her head.
• One positive note: I love the praying-mantis-type robot mount that Hordak is riding in the final showdown. For the few seconds that it's in operation, it's pretty impressive! Normally this is the spot where I would rail against Mattel for not co-opting this idea as a toy - and originally I did. But in fact there was a toy made from this design - or, at least, its distant cousin. I'm talking about the Mantisaur, produced in 1986's Wave 5. The toy bears little resemblance to the animated version, being red instead of green, with very different facial features - but they're both mantis-based riding vehicles. I was hesitant to use the same name for them, but have finally decided to take Wiki Grayskull's lead and equate the two.
• Also, I love the incidental fact that the control for launching the rocket is a completely uncovered single switch, positioned on the end of one arm rest of the Horde pilot's chair, in a place where it could very easily be flicked by mistake.
• Clinging to the exterior of the rocket that is launching Orko into space, He-Man claims, "If this rocket reaches the outer atmosphere, I-I won't be able to breathe!" Larry, Larry, Larry. Sigh. It's a little late to worry about these things now! We've already seen He-Man visiting space several times (most memorably in MU091, when he moved a moon, but also for the purposes of tossing a nuke into a trash ball at the conclusion of MU119's "Visitors from Earth"), and he's never been concerned about his breathing before. In fact, he hasn't even bothered to bring a sweater for the chilly temperatures in the black void. I rather enjoyed the cavalier way our writers disregarded the laws of physics, or carelessly implied that super heroes can just handle these kinds of things; the fact that DiTillio is trying to walk back on the absurdity now is more disappointing for its inconsistency than it is satisfying in its logic. (I'll experience this same level of frustration thanks to Straczynski's similar treatment of She-Ra and space in 67018.)
• I assure you it's no pleasure to have to be so critical of my favorite childhood animated universe, and of my adult self's favorite writer of said universe; but this one was a stinker. It was a disappointment on several levels, as I've noted in detail above: failing to fulfill the promise of its main premise and doing so with padded-out sequences and clumsily boring fight scenes. On top of all that, Larry DiTillio, who has done the most of any writer at Filmation to define the worlds of Eternia and Etheria and how they work, fails to maintain the consistency of those worlds in his treatment of He-Man. That's not to say that there wasn't some fun stuff in this episode as well! The beginning sequence in which we're to believe that Orko was thrilled at the idea of helping the Sorceress clean her magic castle was so absurd as to be amusing; the sequence with Hordak and the Mind Sweeper was classic Orko material of the best kind; and as I said, I'd love to have me one of those mantis robots. But I have to say I expected more from this one. Let's move on, people!