David Wise

Steve Clark

It's a race to the center of Eternia, as He-Man attempts to stop Skeletor from obtaining the all-powerful Starseed. Can he not only defeat his old foe, but also avoid succumbing to the seductive temptations of the Starseed?

Sorceress (Zoar), Zodac, Teela, Prince Adam (He-Man), Orko, Cringer (Battle Cat)

Skeletor, Beast Man, Mer-Man

crystal monsters (which Mer-Man frantically calls "demons")

sky sleds, drilling machine

The Sorceress is just minding her business on her many-staired throne when Zodac shows up to beam this episode's problem into her skull. She is quite alarmed, because it's a huge threat and neither of them can help directly. This looks like a job for He-Man! Somewhere nearby, Prince Adam and Teela are scouting around on their sky sleds investigating some tremors, but a very in-character prince wants to call it quits early. Captain Teela seemingly has to challenge him to a race to get him to continue, and in Adam's (feigned) desire to win, he accidentally falls off his sky sled onto the ground, just in time for Zoar to come by and tell him He-Man is urgently needed. Sorceress gives Adam the idea to program his sky sled to go back home, thus drawing Teela off his trail, and he transforms and heads for Grayskull, accompanied by his cat and his comic relief (read: Orko).

There, the Sorceress informs him that Skeletor has learned the secret location of the Starseed, a leftover fragment from the Big Bang that lies deep in the center of Eternia (because, it turns out, Eternia is the center of the universe, so anyone who lives there doesn't have to give up their huge egos about their personal importance to the fabric of existence). If Skeletor gets to it first, any wish that he has will be made true by the incredibly powerful artifact. So, not to put too fine a point on it, He-Man, you'd better get your butt in gear. He-Man does as he's told, dragging a very anxious Orko along with him, with a parting warning from the Sorceress that even He-Man will be tempted by the Starseed to do evil. The heroes quickly find the hole where Skeletor's drilling machine entered the earth and run down the tunnel. When they near their quarry, however, Skeletor's hi-tech driller alerts him and he springs a trap, causing a cave-in that traps He-Man both in front and behind. He has to spend precious minutes clearing away the rocks; luckily for him, Skeletor's drill has gotten stuck. His minions Mer-Man and Beast Man (forced to take a break from bickering over who will be Skeletor's number 2 once he takes over the universe) have gotten out in front to try to clear a very heavy crystal (which would damage the drill if they tried to move forward), and are having no luck. When He-Man appears, Skeletor traps Orko in a force bubble and forces He-Man to do his heavy lifting for him.

With the whole group now traveling down the tunnel in company, the drill drills on into a crystalline chamber, where our heroes and villains are attacked by a group of giant crystalline monsters (which particularly freaks out Mer-Man, who stammers that they are "demons"). In the resulting hubbub, Orko is freed from his bubble and decides to go try to find the Starseed before anyone else. He is successful, and very cleverly swaps the real item out for a bouncy ball that he pulls from among the detritus in his head. In the battle, He-Man of course manages to come out on top, but does it by making a deal with Skeletor - Skeletor promises to leave once he's used his force field projector on the monsters. He naturally goes back on the deal instantly, but He-Man is ready and wrecks the drill meant to destroy him. While our hero is polishing off Mer-Man and Beast Man, Skeletor runs off and finds what turns out to be the fake Starseed, and Orko (who, like Tom Bombadil with the One Ring, remains completely unaffected and untempted by the object's power) hands the real one to He-Man.

Now arrives the real moment of crisis: He-Man announces that he is all-powerful. If he wishes, he can remove Skeletor from the equation forever. His mere thought can become reality! His eyebrows start curving wickedly and his eyes widen with greed. "You're becoming evil, He-Man!" remarks an amused Skeletor (though he should be a bit more worried for his continued existence). The Sorceress's floating head steps in to remind He-Man of his duty and virtue, and He-Man realizes that he cannot use the power of the Starseed. Apparently still weak from his temptation, He-Man makes no attempt to pursue a fleeing Skeletor, instead returning to Grayskull to hand over the precious artifact.

There he meets Zodac, who reveals to He-Man (and the Sorceress, who also had no idea) that he, Zodac, intentionally gave up the location of the Starseed to Skeletor as a test of He-Man's ability to resist the temptations of ultimate power. Fortunately for everyone, He-Man passed! His pop quiz safely behind him and his muscular alter ego again discarded, a sheepish Prince Adam shows up back at the palace and has to try to explain what possessed him to ditch Teela out in the rain. Teela berates him, pointing out that something terrible (say, an evil plot of Skeletor) could have happened in their patrol area, and what would the absent Adam have done then?

End with a Joke: Unbeknownst to Teela, her hypothetical story of danger is something that He-Man (and Orko) did in fact handle. Ah, sweet, barely amusing dramatic irony...

• Teela (about her ability to out-race Adam on a sky sled): Well, there's only one way to find out. / Adam: Yeah, well: find this out. (zooms off)
• Adam (a few seconds after the previous quote): Whew! Acting like a fun-loving prince is hard work.
• Orko: I only hope the rest of the universe appreciates what we're doing.
• Skeletor (totally slamming Orko): You couldn't conjure your way out of a gunny sack, you pipsqueak!
• He-Man: No one would dare oppose my will. Whatever I want, I could have.
• Skeletor: You're becoming evil, He-Man, I can sense it!
• He-Man: I could use this to stop you Skeletor... But... if I used this power against you, then I'm no better than you are.
• Zodac: ...From time to time it is necessary to test your virtue. That is why I myself allowed Skeletor to learn of the Starseed's location. ... He-Man has proved himself truly worthy of his powers. Remember that true goodness comes from knowing when NOT to use force.

• He-Man jumps on the back of Battle Cat: Just after transforming
• Skeletor shakes his fists, three-quarter view: As he poo-poos his minions' perfectly legitimate objection to having been trapped in a half mile of rock
• He-Man punches the viewer: To begin digging through rock
• A look through widespread legs: To show He-Man stomping the ground to loosen the rubble
• He-Man in battle stance on Battle Cat
• He-Man picks up and throws a rock: While forced to help Skeletor clear rock
• Beast Man runs at the viewer, bug-height
• Skeletor runs away from the viewer

One full

Brought to you by Zodac
Muttering in his mystical whisper, Zodac reminds us of the lesson he already gave a few minutes ago, during the actual story, about how the greatest strength can sometimes be shown when we resist temptation and hold back from using force. Somewhat unusually, he interacts with what appears to be a clip from earlier in the episode, as the Starseed floats from He-Man's outstretched hand over to Zodac.

Landmark Episode: This story has no plot-based connection that I could come up with to any of the other He-Man stories, but its treatment of He-Man being tempted by evil feels unique and important, and it's a good Zodac story, so I have rated this as a Landmark Episode.

• Let's just take a moment to enjoy the short reappearance of Zodac, who we haven't seen since his first appearance in MU019. He actually stood up for this episode! He doesn't appear in his space recliner. He also manages to really mess with people in this one!
• Sorceress explicitly states that Zodac is "forbidden to interfere" and that she herself "may not venture beyond these castle walls, except in the form of the falcon." This is a cool device that I wish the show's writers had stuck with, but I'm 100% sure we've seen her outside the walls in human form. See for instance MU002's "The Shaping Staff" - she was a person before she got turned into a tree in her own front yard! I suppose she can stretch the rule so that she's in her human form just outside Castle Grayskull, but that feels mushy and unconvincing. (See MU043, which throws this rule completely out the window.)
• This is the first episode of He-Man written by David Wise, a prolific writer of seminal kids' cartoons from the 80s, including, notably, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He gets writing credits on a total of 9 episodes of this series.
• Adam, talking to himself, makes it clear that he is just pretending to be a "fun-loving prince."
• The last time we saw the Sorceress assume the form of Zoar was way back in MU022. It's about time she stretched her wings!
• Even though Adam complains that his sky sled is "due for a check-up," it manages to safely land itself after he falls off, and he also demonstrates its ability to be programmed to fly all the way back to the palace by itself. Seems pretty good to me!
• Another strong entrant in the "I thought it was only a legend!" category. When the Sorceress brings up the Starseed, He-Man says "I thought it was a myth." You'd think he'd know better by now, since the last legend that came true was just in the previous episode, MU035's "The Sleepers Awaken."
• We again see the Sorceress's all-purpose mirror/screen/Time Corridor.
• The Sorceress tells us that Eternia is located at the very center of the universe, and that at the very center of the planet is energy left over from the Big Bang. Neat! This is perhaps meant to be an explanation for all the magic and fantastical things that happen there. (Surely the workings of gravity dictate that whatever sun Eternia orbits is the true center of the universe, not the planet - or am I overthinking again? Yes. Yes I am.)
• He-Man scoffs at Skeletor having Beast Man and Mer-Man clearing crystals from in front of the drill, saying that he imagined Skeletor could have that done by "some of your slaves." So apparently Skeletor has some previously unseen slave labor force? Or maybe He-Man is referring to his little robot soldiers. We will see Skeletor making use of slaves for farming in a flashback during the otherwise very forgettable MU082.
• Things that come out of Orko: a bouquet of flowers and a bouncy ball that he plucks out of his head through the top of his hat, which has hinged itself open.
• When it's time for Zodac to leave, he just touches the icon on his chest armor and flashes away. He must have to be careful not to push that by mistake! Imagine the embarrassment were he to casually gesture to himself during an important meeting of cosmic enforcers... (He also uses this same gesture to turn on his Thought Projector at the beginning of the episode - another device you wouldn't want to turn on by mistake!)
• PSA trivia: Zodac has only appeared in two episodes so far, and he has delivered the PSA in both of them.

• Interesting that the Sorceress is completely ignorant of the danger facing Eternia (is this not her one job?), and needs Zodac to mansplain it to her using his mansplaition device - er, I mean, Thought Projector. Presumably this is because the Starseed is a big secret known only to the cosmic enforcers, but still; you'd think the Sorceress would have at least gotten a little psychic indigestion or something.
• Orko's joke in the beginning, "Maybe I should stick to jogging," is doubly goofy when you consider that he is apparently legless. If he does have legs, they must be horribly atrophied from his constantly floating everywhere, making him an undeniably terrible jogger.
• This episode is a classic example of how you should be careful with your superlatives. In MU011 (as it happens another "only a legend" episode), the Sorceress brazenly claimed that the Sword of the Ancients was in a close running for the most powerful weapon on Eternia (the only better weapon being He-Man's power sword). Did she not know/remember about the Starseed? Given that it can grant the user's any wish, it surely qualifies as the most dangerous and powerful weapon on Eternia.
• You've got to appreciate the little skull knobs with which Skeletor embellished the controls of his drilling machine.
• Skeletor's drilling machine has a better intruder alert system than Snake Mountain! With regard to the drilling machine, it's worth noting that we will see this vehicle used again, appropriated as an invention of Man-at-Arms, in MU067; and in similar guise, in MU113.
• I know I've mentioned it before in this database, but I just have to say how much I enjoy Mer-Man's resting face of slack-jawed incomprehension. There are a couple scenes in this episode where Beast Man is gesturing and emoting in the back of the drilling machine, and you can look to the right and see Mer-Man staring into the distance, mouth slightly agape - he may as well be an aquatic mannequin. It's hilarious.
• When Beast Man and Mer-Man begin to bicker over who gets to be second in command once Skeletor has the Starseed, we see they've come a long way from their easy comaraderie in MU029! Maybe it's the divisive lure of the Starseed already working on them...
• Animation error: In the (two) scenes where Orko claps in happiness over the feats of He-Man, his ears, usually visibly poking through the brim of his hat, are missing.
• Skeletor's betrayal of He-Man would have worked a little better if he hadn't preceded it by crying "Now for you, He-Man!" and then slowly, achingly slowly, approaching him with the crawling drilling machine.
• Orko's switcheroo with the Starseed has to be one of the most useful things he's ever done! Bravo, you little pipsqueak.
• Even when he's tempted by the Starseed and talks about all the cool things he can do with the power, He-Man still just sounds like he's narrating a shaving ad.
• Okay, so I see the argument that using the Starseed to get rid of Skeletor could be bad. But... couldn't you use it a little bit, to imprison him... a little bit? Or even if you don't use it that way, couldn't you do something - anything - to try to stop Skeletor? Instead of doing anything, He-Man just watches Skeletor run away, then turns to Orko and says they'd better be getting to the Sorceress. Yes, well, I guess we need someone to fight in tomorrow's episode, don't we?
• Does anyone else think it was incredibly irresponsible of Zodac to let Skeletor know where the Starseed was? Are we to imagine that he was hovering nearby in his space chair, prepared to step in if Skeletor actually gained his objective, or if He-Man fell to temptation? I have to imagine the Sorceress was quite peeved as well, at not having been let in on Zodac's little prank!
• Objections aside, though, I do think Zodac's having instigated this episode's "Search" is a cool device that makes it more interesting than just "Skeletor found this bad thing, you have to stop him!" It's the series pulling a bit away from the black-and-white, good-vs-evil expectations, just as they did with Granamyr in MU034. "Good guys" like Zodac can do unpredictable things like give aid to the bad guys.
• I do wonder why the somewhat obscure title of "The Search" was chosen for this episode, rather than the more direct "The Starseed." I suppose it's a way of connecting Skeletor and He-Man's search for the Starseed to the book-ended Adam/Teela storyline of their search for the source of the tremors (which, of course, must have been caused by Skeletor's drill).