Larry DiTillio

Lou Zukor

He-Man, Man-at-Arms, Battle Cat, and Orko are sent back in time to prevent Skeletor from planting the seeds of Grayskull's destruction - before Grayskull has even been built!

Prince Adam (He-Man), Cringer (Battle Cat), Man-at-Arms, Orko, Zoar (Sorceress)

Skeletor, Tri-Klops, Fang Man

Snake Clan, Zalaura, Ape Clan, Olo, dragasaurs, plant monster, bug monster

N/A

Skeletor is impatiently drumming his fingers in Snake Mountain when a package finally arrives by portal: it's his new Wheel of Infinity! He plans to use it to blow up Grayskull, but it's such a long-term plan that he has to go back in time to start it - to a time when there was no He-Man or Grayskull!

Man-at-Arms, Adam, Cringer, and Orko, all unaware of the evil plots underway, are having a picnic with some typical Orko hijinks. Zoar interrupts the meal to fetch them; back at Grayskull, the Sorceress displays the back story on her window of time. Skeletor is having a fortress built on the spot where Grayskull will eventually stand in order to protect his Wheel of Infinity, which will slowly ramp up in speed and size until it destroys Grayskull. She sends the heroes back in time to foil the plot. Orko must cast a spell to help translate the ancient language of the first people they meet (who turn out to be members of the Snake Clan), and He-Man must save them from a dragasaur to handily earn their support. The apparent leader of the Snake Clan, Zalaura, explains that their people and the people of the Ape Clan lived in peace until Skeletor (AKA "Ghost Face") came along and poisoned relations between them. The Snake Clan and our heroes then attack Skeletor and the Ape Clan at the fortress; the fight is going well until Skeletor kidnaps Zalaura.

To rescue Zalaura, our heroes must take a raft over to Dragasaur Isle, where Skeletor has conveniently told them she can be found. There they must face the terrors of the jungle: a plant monster and a bug monster. Then Fang Man sets a trio of dragasaurs on them. After all this, Skeletor casts a spell on Zalaura and her cage to trap her forever, and while He-Man is busting the cage, Skeletor gets away. Apparently the "time window" is a very apt name, because it turns out that the heroes have only a small "window" in which to do their business before they are called back to the present. To help them along, Sorceress teleports the heroes back to the fortress for the final confrontation. ("Not again," moans Tri-Klops.)

He-Man breaks into the fortress but is too late to stop Skeletor from starting the Wheel of Infinity. For once, it seems, Skeletor has succeeded; because even He-Man's strength is not enough to stop it turning! In one of his biggest-brain moves, He-Man decides that if he can't stop the wheel, he will just have to make it spin even faster, and set off the explosion too soon. Seeing what's about to happen, Skeletor opens his time portal and gets the heck out. To avoid being caught in the impending explosion, He-Man does what he usually does, and punches his way out of the problem: the Infinity Wheel flies off into the sky, making some lovely fireworks. Skeletor's sizeable fortress then inexplicably vanishes. Back in the present, the Sorceress assures the heroes that their actions led to peace and prosperity between the Snake and Ape Clans, who together laid the foundations for the current world of Eternia. She then proclaims that she's about to go and wreck Skeletor's Time Corridor so he can never pull these shenanigans again (I guess it was a special effect too expensive to show, since we don't get to see it happen).

End with a Joke: Orko, watching Zoar zoom away, says "Now that's what I call real magic!"

• He-Man: . . . and we do have surprise on our side. / Skeletor (who has been watching via his staff): That's what you think, He-Man!
• He-Man: For Eternia and Grayskull!
• He-Man (sizing up an Ape Clan foe): That club would make a fine toothpick.
• Fang Man: My beauties! You'll all pay for - thissss!
• He-Man: Until next time, this is He-Man wishing you good health and good luck.

• Skeletor laughs, head back: At his own cleverness
• Adam laughs, head back: At Orko's picnic goof
• Sorceress spreads/unspreads her wings: Just after transforming from Zoar in Grayskull; and again later, when heading off to take care of Skeletor's time corridor
• Zalaura runs away from the viewer
• He-Man picks up and throws a rock: To bury the dragasaur
• Skeletor shakes his fists, front on from below: While holding his staff, to again celebrate his cleverness
• He-Man jumps on the back of Battle Cat: Before attacking Skeletor's fortress
• A look through widespread legs: He-Man lands in fortress; Zalaura lands to surprise Skeletor
• Skeletor leans in close to the viewer: Explaining the plan to Tri-Klops
• He-Man laughs, head back: Inordinately amused at Orko's "bug" pun
• He-Man punches the viewer: When socking the Infinity Wheel
• He-Man smiles close-up, looking at the viewer: During PSA

One full
Variation: Cringer pops in just at the beginning of the transformation to say "I was afraid this would happen."

Brought to you by He-Man
He-Man, on the back of Battle Cat and in the middle of the jungle, explains to us that it's not actually possible to go back in time, but that we can use the past as a lesson for how to act in the present. "Remember, it's today that counts; so make it the best day possible!"

Use of the Time Corridor (or other time travel methods): MU003 gave us our first look at the Sorceress's Time Corridor, though it seems that in this episode it's a "time window" and it's Skeletor who has the corridor. Go fig. The Sorcerer's version, again called a corridor, will be used again in MU019.
Landmark Episode: Because this is the only appearance of Fang Man, and because it teaches us interesting facts about Eternia's past.

• Once again, as in MU001, Skeletor's plan is to destroy Grayskull rather than conquer it or gain its secrets. Weird!
• The one and only appearance of Fang Man, who was not part of the original waves of Mattel toys. He did eventually have a figure released in 2013. One assumes that he has some control over dragons, given his relations with the dragasaurs in this episode. The later waves of He-Man figures included a bunch of snake people (such as Kobra Khan and King Hiss), and there are snake people in this episode; but Fang Man seems unrelated to any of them.
• Orko, for reasons that are never fully explained, has extra powerful magic in Eternia's past, and can cast a spell to translate the ancient language that people use there, as well as call up a big wind storm.
• Man-at-Arms is chock-full of gadgetry in this episode. He has wrist blasters, a grappling hook with attached rope ladder, his mace (which came with his figure but doesn't show up in the series much), and a bolas.
• More spying from Skeletor using the top of his havoc staff.
• Tri-Klops gets to use his eye powers to aim a catapult stone at He-Man. Then his crosshairs eye gets to watch as the stone is shot right back at him.
• Sorceress's floating head seems to appear to all the heroes in the past, including Zalaura, and is not just a telepathic message to one of them.
• Skeletor portals out of the scene in this episode and as usual we don't see his henchmen escaping. According to some lore I read which is apparently canon, Fang Man never did escape and was forever trapped on Dragasaur Isle, waiting for rescue. That poor fella...
• A rather unusual episode in that it has no scenes in the palace at all and we never see the king, queen, or Teela.
• Of course a very interesting lore episode, since we hear that the Snake and Ape Clans are the forefathers of modern Eternia. Will this be mentioned again in another episode? Probably not.
• I've included a "joke" for the ending of this episode, but it doesn't really have one, just a somewhat flippant remark from Orko.
• A couple of interesting messages from He-Man in this episode; first, what is basically a battle cry before he assaults the fortress (For Eternia and Grayskull!); second, his well wishes at the end of the PSA, which seem more heartfelt than the typical farewell.
• Though we've seen his name before in the writing credits, this is the first episode solely written by the great Larry DiTillio, who will be involved in a record 17 MOTU scripts, and also play a very large role in the creation of She-Ra. Keep your eye out for this guy!

• This episode prompts some follow-up questions right from the start; like, who is the voice that cries "I have it, Skeletor!" and drops off the box through the portal? What was on the other end of that portal? We don't get to find out.
• An early close-up of Cringer shows him with a nose that is the same green color as his surrounding fur - a slight error which occurred in a previous episode (MU006).
• The footage at the end of the episode of Sorceress flying out of Grayskull, causing Orko to have to vanish out the way, is identical to a clip already used in "Teela's Quest" (MU006).
• It's an interesting and cool touch to have the ancient Eternians speak a different language that needs to be magically translated. You'd think most of the time in a kid's show like this in the 80s, there would be no consideration like this, and everyone would just go around speaking English regardless of what planet or time period they were from. The writer of this episode, Larry DiTillio, will again show his interest in other languages in MU034, among others.
• It's also cool that the Snake Clan calls Skeletor "Ghost Face," long before the Scream movies came along to appropriate that name.
• Those of us watching the series carefully will remember that Orko and Battle Cat were already sent to the ancient past in the Sorceress's Time Thingie, so they could get He-Man's sword back (MU003). However they don't seem to have any memory of that, due to the very episodic and vacuum-sealed nature of the show. Anyway, it seems their previous visit may have been to an even more distant past than this one, so there's no chance they'll meet anyone they already know.
• The design of the snake people is cool. The men wear armor that is vaguely reminiscent of the modern-day Eternian guard. Once you can get past Zalaura's distracting, Madonna-like hypnotic boob armor, she gives the slightest hint of the Teela action figure's snake-like head gear. I do wonder whether the animators had that in mind at all. It would be nice to think they were trying to incorporate it into the show somehow, even if Teela's character never wears it.
• While Zalaura is (rather lengthily) explaining the situation to He-Man, the camera switches to his face, and we watch his eyelids slowly lower, as though he has completely lost focus and is no longer paying attention.
• After speaking with Olo (leader of the Ape Clan), Skeletor pauses for a refreshing wicked laugh, and to shake his havoc staff in the air. Even though he is supposed to be in Eternia's ancient past, the background looks suspiciously like the interior of Snake Mountain. This animation will be reused in other episodes.
• The voice acting for the "ape men" or members of the Ape Clan is very obviously just one guy's grunting noises which have been duplicated to sound like multiple guys.
• Continuity error: In the first attack on Skeletor's fortress, Zalaura is carefully approaching Skeletor from behind, and they are clearly on the same level of the castle. She is briefly interrupted by a Snake Clan member, but when she turns back to get Skeletor, she suddenly has to jump down to a lower level of the fortress to reach him. Hmmm....
• The base on Dragasaur Isle functions as a sort of ancient counterpart to Snake Mountain. It has a big rock shaped like the head of a dragasaur, the bad guys live there, and Skeletor has somehow managed to decorate it with a sick black throne bristling with curvy horns, much like his bonier throne in Snake Mountain. We'll see the dragasaur-shaped mountain being utilized as a background and location several more times in the series, notably as the present-day title island in MU074's "Island of Fear."
• One of my favorite parts of watching these old episodes is seeing all the fun and imaginative creature designs the animators come up with. The tentacled plant monster and bug monster (which looks a bit like an elephant beetle with crab claws) are cool. It's odd that the plant monster simply explodes after He-Man has chopped off a couple of its tentacles.
• Fang Man can control dragons - or at least dragasaurs - which seems kind of cool. But when He-Man throws a tree into the mouth of the dragasaur he is riding, Fang Man basically gives up. He puts his hands at the sides of his face a la Kevin McCallister and lets his mount crash into an outcropping of rock. Not a great one-time showing for our villain here!
• Early in the episode, during the first dragasaur attack, Man-at-Arms's wrist blaster doesn't work and He-Man has to pitch in. In the last battle, Duncan does a big double-blast with his wrists and, chuckling, remarks, "I thought my blasters might work again." ... Really? Why? Did you fix them during a commercial break?
• Interesting to note that the Snake Clan and Ape Clan (particularly the Ape Clan) seem rather helpless and do very little to carry the plot along. (Zalaura spends a lot of time sadly crying "Help me!" and Olo and his men seem virtually non-verbal.) It's entirely the heroes and villains from the "present" that force the action.
• One wonders how Skeletor's plan was meant to work absent of He-Man's interference. Was the Infinity Wheel meant to be hidden somewhere, so that no one would know there was a bomb in Grayskull? Because as soon as you accept that the presence of the bomb is known, things get very muddy. Why build Grayskull on the site of a ticking time bomb? Why not just build it somewhere else?
• It's also odd to note that the terrain around the fortress, which ostensibly is the future site of Grayskull, looks absolutely nothing like the terrain around present-day Grayskull. Blatantly missing is the bottomless abyss surrounding the castle. Did they have to hire contractors to dig that out? For another look at the distant past of Grayskull, check out MU073's "Origin of the Sorceress."