Brooks Wachtel & Tom Bagen

Bill Nunes

Hordak shoots down a spaceship from Argon so he can steal its valuable power cell. He doesn't realize that in the process he's damaged the cell - creating the potential for a planet-destroying explosion! Can She-Ra earn the trust of the suspicious Argonian pilot and save Etheria?

Princess Adora (She-Ra), Bow, Kowl

Shadow Weaver, Hordak, Catra, Horde Prime (mentioned only)

Horde soldiers (including Robot Leader), Doctor Blankfort, Larg, villagers, horse

Argonian spacecrafts, batmeks, wagon, Butterflyer, rocket flyers, Hordak-faced ship, Horde tanks (including Pitbull, Crusher), Crawler

Thinking of taking a casual space flight past the planet Etheria? Better not; chances are, Hordak will have you shot down! That's just what he decides to do to a passing ship from the planet Argon. You see, the people of Argon have science and technology far in advance of that of Etheria, so it's a sure bet the power cell on that ship will add the perfect level of oomph to Hordak's latest invention: a force dome generator. Finally, Hordak can make a shield around the Fright Zone so impenetrable that even She-Ra won't be able to break through! (Isn't that what he's always wanted?)

To make his dreams come true, the Horde commander passes orders to the leader of his robot soldiers (whose unlikely name is "Robot Leader"), and a fleet of robot fighters is dispatched to disable the Argonian craft. They succeed, and the damaged ship plummets to the planet's surface, with Hordak anxiously tracking its course. It crashes outside the peaceful village of Flax - soon to be invaded by an entire fleet of ship-stealing Horde vehicles! Before they can arrive, however, a local and rebel sympathizer witnesses the crash landing and rushes off to the Whispering Woods to inform today's rebel team.

Yes, it's Adora, Bow, and Kowl, who appear to be enjoying a picnic - or at least a pleasant rest - in a clearing when they're met by the witness, one Doctor Blankfort. Telling the trio it's an emergency, Blankfort leads them to his laboratory/home, where he shows them footage of the crashed ship on his viewscreen. Adora recognizes it as Argonian and decides they really do need to get over to Flax and prevent this potentially very valuable vehicle from being stolen by Hordak. To the Butterflyer!

Arriving by winged pink woman, Adora and Bow find the crash site has been cleared of the vehicle, and travel on to nearby Flax in search of news. They find a pair of cowed and frightened villagers, who have been bullied by the ship's pilot into helping tow and repair his ship. According to the villagers, the Argonian, whose name is Larg, is... large, and very imposing. Adora suggests to Bow that they split up to find the big guy, and at the earliest possible moment takes advantage of her alone time to transform into She-Ra.

It's as She-Ra, therefore, that our heroine comes upon an 8-foot-tall, 300-pound space man who answers to Larg's description. Admitting that he is the owner of that name, Larg remains very suspicious of She-Ra, seemingly of the belief that everyone on Etheria is a willing pawn of the Evil Horde. She-Ra has to show off her muscles a little by catching and tossing a hefty spaceship part before she can get Larg to slow down and convince him that she's no friend to the Horde. Bow then arrives in time to be introduced. The rebels find that Larg is clearly very anxious to repair his ship and be gone ASAP; but why should that be?

A whole host of reasons chooses this moment to arrive. It's Hordak, riding his giant Crawler and accompanied by a fleet of Horde tanks and robot soldiers. (Though we saw the commander and his army traveling to Flax by air, in air ships, he somehow managed to bring all his tanks as well. Impressive!) She-Ra stands in defense of the Argonian and his ship, deflecting the soldiers' sleep rays and smashing up some tanks - and Bow helps a little too. The peeved Hordak calls up a pair of new tanks, named Pitbull and Crusher; the combined laser- and malletpower of the machines drops Larg and Bow into a hole and covers them in the crumbled remains of the building where Larg was repairing his ship. She-Ra whacks Crusher and it crumbles into little pieces like a stale cookie; but before she can work any further mischief, the heroine is finally downed by a barrage of sleep rays.

The Horde is victorious! Hordak fails to take further advantage of the sleeping muscle maiden, but he does get what he came for, departing with the Argonian ship in tow. Climbing out of their little hole, Bow and Larg help revive the woozy She-Ra, and the three take stock of their situation. Larg seems to feel that he has enough time to stop for a leisurely snack of fresh fruit, but while doing so he informs the others that they - indeed, the entire planet - are in urgent and deadly danger. His ship's power cell, if damaged, could produce an explosion big enough to destroy all of Etheria - and according to his little sensotron gadget, the cell is going to do just that any minute! The Argonian regrets that his own misunderstanding of the political situation on the planet - and his desire to avoid creating a panic - kept him from explaining the danger better until now, and caused him to resort to force.

Now that She-Ra and Bow understand the situation, however, their course is clear: they need to hurry on over to the Fright Zone and recover that power cell right away. Accordingly, the three attempt to sneak their way into the Horde fortress by a drainage pipe (the rebels' most common means of entry); but a misstep by Larg reveals their presence to Catra and her squad of Hordesmen, patrolling the outer grounds by order of the cagey Hordak. Catra and the soldiers are rather easily defeated; but the delay gives Hordak and Shadow Weaver the time they need to plug in the power cell and turn on the force dome!

She-Ra and her friends see the shimmery beginnings of the force field as it comes into being, and rush through it. They therefore find themselves stuck on the inside of the dome once it becomes fully activated - a result which, even though it definitely wasn't Hordak's plan to begin with, he still seems to find most satisfactory. Having spied the heroes' approach, Hordak gleefully announces that he has She-Ra dead to rights, and sends more of his robot soldiers against her. He's happily counting his chickens and musing over what regnal name he'll be awarded by a grateful Horde Prime when She-Ra smashes through the wall of his throne room, laughing at his presumption, a pile of ruined robots behind her.

Before the tiny force of rebels can duke it out with the Horde commander, however, everyone realizes what Larg's sensotron has been telling him this whole time: that the force dome generator isn't doing so good. Shadow Weaver has been warning her boss that the power cell looked damaged, and now points out that the whole machine is glowing and shaking. What's worse, the controls have melted, making it impossible to turn off! Finally understanding that a giant explosion is in the offing, Hordak attempts to make like a tree and get out of there; but his transporter beam can't teleport him and Shadow Weaver through the Argon-powered force field, and neither his arm cannon nor the sorceress's magic is strong enough to penetrate the dome.

Better stand back and let She-Ra try. The heroine leaps to the apex of the dome and drills her way through it with her sword and a dizzying twirl. She then lassos the generator - which, just so we all understand, really is going to blow up the planet at any second - pulls it up through the hole, swings it in a circle, and tosses it away. It explodes safely in the atmosphere - whew! I guess the apocalypse is rescheduled. The force dome doesn't immediately vanish, however: instead, it shrinks down until it is surrounding only Hordak - very snugly. Hordak bitterly assures the heroes, who are arguing over whether to help him get out, that his powers are sufficient to break through the dying barrier without their unwanted assistance.

That's that, then! But how will the stranded Larg ever get home, now that he's lost the power source for his ship? Easy: She-Ra will just call him a ride. The Etherians may not have planet-destroying energy technology, but they at least have telephones. In no time, a big Argonian space cruiser has arrived to take Larg away. He thanks Bow and She-Ra for teaching him a lesson about not bossing people around, and they surprise him with a parting gift of two baskets of fresh Etherian food - much better than the lousy "space food" pills he's used to.

• Larg: I'd better be careful: this planet is ruled by the Horde. ... Uh-oh; Horde people! ... I'll have to convince these evil Horde people to help me.
• She-Ra (to Larg): I understand how you feel. But on this planet, we don't order people around - no matter how big we are.
• Hordak: That did it! No more Mr. Robo Nice Guy! Bring in the tanks.
• Hordak (of She-Ra): Impossible! No one's that strong! / She-Ra (cheekily): What's the matter, Hordak? Running out of toys?
• Larg: I guess I should have asked for help, but I was afraid of starting a panic. I feel so bad I can't even eat.
• Hordak (laughing): I've finally trapped She-Ra. This force field is my best idea yet - ha ha ha ha! I'll have some of my robots give her a big "Horde hello."
• Hordak: Soon She-Ra will be my prisoner. Horde Prime will be pleased! Perhaps he'll even give me a new name: Hordak the Invincible! Hordak the Fearless! / She-Ra (laughing as she smashes her way into the room): How about "Hordak the Humble"?
• Larg (of She-Ra's planet-saving move): She did it! What a woman.
• Larg: I'll never try to force people to do what I want again. If I need help, I'll ask for it.
• Larg (setting up the episode-ending joke): Two baskets - for me? What are they? / She-Ra: This one is dinner. / Larg: And this one? / She-Ra (incredibly amused with herself): Oh - that's dessert!

• She-Ra spin kicks the viewer: Taking out a group of Horde soldiers - and their log
• She-Ra spins power cell in a circle: As she works up to tossing it into space

One partial (missing Spirit/Swift Wind sequence)

4:21 - The tiniest bit of Loo-Kee's head is seen poking up from behind a rock, looking away from us at a pair of villagers riding by on their wagon. To give us more of a sporting chance at spotting him, Loo-Kee twitches a bit while on camera, rather than holding still as is his usual wont.
Did I spot him? YES!

Loo-Kee decides that Larg's problem today was that he treated the villagers badly "because they were different than him." While Loo-Kee's "golden rule" message of understanding and compassion for others is a great one, it doesn't seem to entirely apply in the case of Larg, who simply misjudged who he was dealing with. If he'd landed deep in Horde territory, Larg would have been right to assume that anyone he encountered was evil. The problem was really one of location, location, location!

N/A

• Today's writing team of Brooks Wachtel and Tom Bagen are complete newbies to the POP/MOTU universe - and this will be their only script. This is director Bill Nunes's third POP directing credit in a row - and it will be his last.
• For what is almost the first time in the series, one of Hordak's soldiers is given a name: in this case the very generic "Robot Leader." The last time I can remember getting named soldiers, they were much more personalized - back in 67006's "Duel at Devlan," Horde villain Dylamug identified three of his men by the names Orvic, Ursk, and Glendos. Robot Leader, true to his name, sounds much more robotic than the usual Horde soldier, even though we're to believe they are all robots (no matter how anthropomorphic they tend to act).
• Robot Leader is speaking to Hordak through the Horde commander's giant projected screen in the throne room. The angle we get on the room shows a huge expanse of empty space behind the throne that I don't remember being able to see before, and I suspect has been depicted differently in previous episodes.
• We are introduced to a new planet and people in "Argon." According to Hordak, "Their science is much better than ours."
• In a quick return to the excessive superlatives we saw demonstrated in the recent 67087, Shadow Weaver adds that "Argonian power cells are the greatest source of energy in the galaxy." Even better than Energizer AAs?
• It will be a vehicle-heavy day today, so get ready! The first one we see, the one-man Argonian ship, uses a new design, with a sleek and simple body. It's shot down in an exciting (if brief) space dogfight by the typical Horde flyers, AKA batmeks. (To add to the standard vehicle-naming confusion, She-Ra will refer to them as "robot planes.") We've definitely seen the robot flyers in space before, notably in a similar scene which opened 67032's "Friends Are Where You Find Them."
• By the way, Hordak shooting down a passing spaceship is becoming a fairly common occurrence; in addition to the just-mentioned 67032, the Horde commander also opened an episode by having a ship shot down in the recent 67085's "Sweet Bee's Home." In that episode, he had a very large gun mounted right in his throne room for the purpose.
• The crash site of the ship is the village of "Flax," a previously unvisited Etherian town. Wiki Grayskull gives the spelling as "Phlax," but I've chosen to go by my DVD's captions.
• Along with new vehicles and places, today's episode also brings us some new incidental music: a particularly driving, pounding tune that is used a couple of times and serves to add tension to the scenes where its heard.
• In an unusual trend, in this episode we learn many people's names almost as soon as the characters appear - some of them seemingly unnecessarily. Doctor Blankfort, the gray-haired rebel ally who brings news of the downed craft to the rebel camp, is given a very interesting residence/lab along with his name, but he serves only to connect Adora and Bow to the plot and then vanishes. We hardly knew ye, Doc!
• Though Bow's bird buddy Kowl puts in an appearance today - cozily perched on the archer's shoulder - he gets no lines of dialogue, and disappears once Bow and Adora travel to Flax. This unremarkable showing will prove his last in the series. Farewell, you overly critical companion, you!
• The lighter haired of the two Flaxian villagers we first meet recycles the oft-used character design that I associate with MU070's Yarrow.
• Perhaps our least imaginative character name is that of the Argonian, dubbed "Larg." As the villagers who meet him heavily imply without ever actually saying, Larg is... large. His look somewhat reminds me of that given to the reimagined He-Man and his Galactic Guardians in the then-upcoming New Adventures of He-Man reboot (1989).
• A hilarious toy vehicle debut comes today, in the form of the Butterflyer. The toy Butterflyer, released in the first wave of Mattel POP toys, was meant to be a large-scale figure carrier along the same lines as MOTU's Battle Bones; except instead of a dinosaur skeleton, the Butterflyer was a giant winged woman. The animated depiction is surprisingly - and absurdly - accurate to the toy; see commentary.
• The heroes' use of the Butterflyer, by the way, means that we won't be needing Adora or She-Ra's horse today: so no Spirit or Swift Wind.
• Hordak's giant Crawler tank is getting a lot of use recently! We saw him rolling it out against He-Man and She-Ra in 67087, and it joins the varied cavalcade of Horde vehicles seen in today's episode.
• The Horde soldiers' laser wands, which have been assigned a very inconsistent and unpredictable range of effects including stun, freeze, and tractor beams (the latter in 67079's "Romeo and Glimmer"), today are labeled as "sleep rays."
• On the rebel side, Bow's latest armament innovation is the "bolo arrow," which defies the laws of physics by launching a bola that ties up a cluster of Hordesmen and carries them off the screen.
• The vehicle hits keep coming! Among the Horde tank fleet today are the old-fashioned vulture-faced "destructo" model tanks - which, having seen them again here, I now realize haven't appeared on screen for a very long time. It's hard for me to say just how long that has been, due to the terrible naming practices on these tanks. I tried early in the series to pin the "destructo" name on only the vulture-faced vehicles, to differentiate them from the white Hordak-faced "Horde tank" models, but soon found that untenable, since over the course of the show our characters use "destructo tank" to describe at least three distinctly different tank models. Anyway, it's been a while since this particular design has been seen. ("Oh no!" says Hordak when She-Ra has punched a bunch of them into a heap; "those are my favorite tanks!")
• Incidentally, you read that last sentence right: She-Ra used her fist to punch something, instead of kicking it. The blonde heroine rarely resorts to He-Man's favorite form of problem-solving, apparently because management decided a lady shouldn't punch people.
• We'll also see the Hordak-faced tank models today. But why stick to just the regular tanks? Why not even more vehicles? Sure! Hordak calls up reinforcements in a pair of new, individually named tank models: Pitbull and Crusher. Like most Horde tanks, they have faces, though these have the evil, slanted eyes of the ubiquitous Horde logo. Pitbull has a pretty standard gun turret on top, but Crusher lives up to its name by sporting a giant hinged mallet. Poor Crusher, when put into action against She-Ra, proves surprisingly delicate.
• Having finally downed She-Ra, Hordak jeers, "Sweet dreams, muscle maiden!" The alliterative insult is one we've now heard used a few times for She-Ra, most recently in 67086.
• We learn that among Larg's highly advanced Argonian technology is the sensotron - a sensor that lets him know how his power cell is doing. Larg also establishes that he's always hungry for Etheria's fruits and vegetables because his usual "space food" comes in the form of unappetizing pills.
• Note that, as usual, Shadow Weaver shows herself to be the Horde minion with the best judgment and common sense. She repeatedly warns Hordak of the danger of using the unstable power cell, but he belittles her and ignores her advice. Just think how embarrassed he would have been if Etheria actually blew up! And dead; embarrassed, and dead.
• Hordak and Shadow Weaver try to escape the Fright Zone and the power cell by using "transport power" to teleport out. It looks like, if it had worked, they'd have been "beamed up" like an Enterprise crew member. This is an odd escape method for both characters, since they each have their own built-in ways to get out of trouble: Hordak can change into a rocket, as he's done many times before, and Shadow Weaver can puff away in a cloud of magical smoke. It makes sense that Hordak wouldn't bother trying to rocket his way out of the dome, but you'd think Weaver would at least try her magic.
• The scene in the throne room once She-Ra arrives is an interesting one, since it tacitly puts our rebels and Horde members on the same side, trying to work together to find a way out of the force dome. He-Man had one or two occasions where he had to join forces with Skeletor (the great MU025's "Evilseed" comes to mind, or MU075's "To Save Skeletor"), but perhaps the only time She-Ra worked with Hordak was during 67039's "Into the Dark Dimension."
• Hordak transformations: He takes until almost the end of the episode to make one of his bodily alterations; when he finally does, it's the standard arm cannon, whose hurled fireball has no effect against the force dome.
• Swiss army sword: She-Ra does her own last-minute transformation today, after drilling her way through the force dome in a sword-spinning move we've seen her use before (for instance in 67036). Once on top of the dome, she uses her own very common "sword to rope" command to change her blade into a coiled rope (with pre-tied lasso loop on the end).
• Just one more vehicle to top off this episode's amazingly hefty list: the larger Argonian space cruiser which arrives to pick up Larg. It looks to be another new vehicle design, though our animators apparently couldn't manage to design any extra Argonians to go along with it.
• Ending credits variation: Yep, still the same Bright Moon background painting we've been seeing since 67067.

• Hordak's plan today is a bit baffling, and oddly defensive in nature. His professed aim is to create a huge force dome over the Fright Zone, which "not even She-Ra could break through." And... then what? You're just going to hunker down in your bomb shelter and wait until She-Ra slips in the shower and breaks her neck? Other force domes the Horde has employed - like the one that surrounded the Whispering Woods in 67013, or the one Hordak used to enclose Unicorn Island in 67036 - have served as imprisoning devices against the Horde's enemies, a purpose which made more sense. In the event, when Hordak ultimately turns on his dome and discovers he's instead trapped She-Ra inside it, with him - the Horde commander is inordinately pleased, for no reason I can fathom. Why do you want to be trapped in a giant Thunderdome with your worst enemy? The last time Hordak was forced to confront the heroine face to face, in 67088, he ran for it!
• Continuity error: Doctor Blankfort is clearly shown as being present in Flax, not long after the ship comes down. We next see him on foot, seemingly having run the distance from that village to the spot in the Whispering Woods where he finds Adora and Bow. So it should be a pretty short trip back to the village, right? But no: rather than take the heroes directly there, the doctor leads them to his weird lab and shows them the ship on his television. The rebel pair have to travel by a (wacky) vehicle to get to Flax in good time. Something isn't adding up here with the travel choices! Indeed, methods of travel will prove a continuing source of weak logic in the story.
• I really enjoyed the little incidental scene introducing us to the pair of Flaxian peasants. The throwaway conversational line that the one bearded villager says, about meeting a girl at a dance ("She was the prettiest thing I've ever seen, I can tell you that - yes sir, yes sirree bob"), is read with a perfect level of casualness, sounding more realistic and grounded than the usual voice acting on the show.
• Yes, Larg is large - but it's somewhat difficult for the viewer to get a good grasp on his true scale in his first few scenes, since the character is never depicted in the same shot with a normal-sized Etherian. I thought the description the villagers gave of him to She-Ra (8 feet tall, 300 pounds) was almost entirely exaggeration, a sort of fish story born of their own meekness, until She-Ra spotted Larg herself and confirmed the accuracy of the dimensions.
• About that Butterflyer! It's hard to say what kind of instructions the animators were getting from Mattel on product placements, but you have to hope the inclusion of the vehicle was a diktat from the toy company to our Filmation artists. That's the only forgivable reason for having our two main rebels ride into town on the back of a pink woman. You get the sense that the animators knew how surreal the whole thing was, since we only ever see the vehicle in distant wide shots or in character close-ups that crop the (hopefully lifeless, non-sentient) pink face off the screen. It's hilarious to witness, and reminds me of the huge kick I got out of watching Duncan grimly pilot the similarly ridiculous Dragon Walker (see MU082, MU084).
• Unlikely travel method number 2: We're to believe, it seems, that Larg's one-man but nevertheless relatively large and heavy spaceship was towed into town using the villagers' tiny wagon - and drawn by nothing but the power of one horse? Hmmm.
• Continuity error - and also Unlikely travel method number 3: The incredible variety of vehicles in play today has the Horde flying to Flax on rocket flyers and in Hordak's Hordak-faced ship, but on arrival menacing the village using various tanks and the giant Crawler. How did they transport all of these land vehicles if they came by air?
• She-Ra is a crutch! It's been ages since I've had call to resort to this sub-category, reserved for times when Adora resorts to her superpowered alter ego too soon or with too little cause. It's a trend much more common with her twin brother, it seems; but today we find Adora lifting her sword as soon as Bow is gone ... just because she's looking for a guy who's kind of tall? Come on, now.
• She-Ra's battle against the Horde forces in Flax ends in oddly anticlimactic fashion: after having successfully defended against sleep rays, multiple tanks, and the pounding Crusher, the heroine is taken out - by the same sleep rays she successfully dodged at the beginning of the fight. Well, that's boring!
• Hordak claims that the people of Argon have technology far beyond that of Etheria and the Horde; yet they build power cells that, with the slightest jostling, can erupt in a planet-killing explosion. Sounds like a design flaw to me! Are we sure these Argonians are as great as they say?
• In a hilarious juxtaposition of scenes, we first establish that Larg is near frantic in his determination to recover his ship and its dangerous power cell as soon as possible - the fate of the very planet is at stake! We then cut to a scene where he's lounging against the side of a wagon, contentedly chewing on an orange. I guess armageddon can wait!
• Could this count as Unlikely travel method number 4? Probably more of an animation error: She-Ra speaks of entering the Fright Zone via "this drainage pipe;" however, the subsequent shot of the terrain in front of the heroes shows no obvious person-sized pipes, only very small ones that might be used in normal house plumbing. I don't think you're going to fit! A few seconds later, as the force dome begins to shimmer into existence, She-Ra orders her friends to "jump for it!" But the following scene shows the three heroes merely running on foot through the barrier.
• Note that we again see Hordak relying on his sorceress Shadow Weaver to handle technology-based tasks, like installing the Argonian power cell in his force dome generator. Why Weaver? I asked this same question when Hordak demanded the put-upon magic user figure out the controls of Sweet Bee's stolen spaceship in 67085.
• Animation error: It looks like one to me, anyway. As Hordak gestures in frustration at the appearance of She-Ra, a layering error places his arm behind the side of a doorway that he should be in front of.
• According to the episode, the lesson Larg needed to learn today was to not try to force people to do what he wants. While I suppose that's a valid enough piece of advice, I'd argue that the first mistake he made was assuming that all the "Horde people" on planet Etheria were evil. That's the main reason why he feels the need to compel the first two villagers he encounters to help him - he assumes they're bad guys. Larg needs to realize that oppressive dictatorships create sheep, not wolves! It's worth noting that the lesson Loo-Kee takes from Larg's behavior is slightly different than that suggested by the main episode, though still not quite what I just discussed (see PSA).
• So I think the fact that we have a pair of newbie writers on our hands resulted in some interesting and unlikely actions from our main characters today, and produced some logistical issues; but it also brought us some fresh ideas, a lot of fun dialogue, and an interesting space- and sci-fi-themed plot. So all in all, not a bad first effort from Wachtel and Bagen! It's too bad it was their only one.