Story - Mel Gilden & Teleplay - Mel Gilden and Larry DiTillio

Bill Reed

He-Man and Orko stumble across the ruins of a structure in the desert, and a trapped Orko unwittingly activates a Silkon "Time Wheel" in his attempts to find an exit. The Trollan's fumbling resurrects a royal - and very aggressive - hero from Eternia's ancient past!

Orko, Prince Adam (He-Man), King Randor, Queen Marlena, Teela

N/A

Tamusk, dinosaur mount, sandipede, Eternian guards, Silkon statue soldiers

Road Ripper, sky sleds, Dragon Walker

Riding through the desert on their Road Ripper on a "geology field trip," Prince Adam and Orko have to stop and find shelter from a powerful sandstorm. When the rocks they've chosen prove inadequate, Adam transforms to He-Man to punch a cave into the cliff. His first strike reveals a doorway to a manmade structure buried behind the stone. The pair enter and find carvings on the wall which He-Man identifies as those of the ancient Silkons, a culture from thousands of years in Eternia's past. A curious Orko accidentally flits through a revolving secret door and gets himself trapped. He-Man, rushing to help, triggers several booby traps, including a trio of razor-sharp boomerangs and a crumbling column. While he's dodging these things, Orko finds a way to get himself into trouble in the hidden room he's discovered. The Trollan stumbles across a stone machine with a hand crank, and tries to operate it under the assumption that it will open an exit. The crank proves immune to his physical efforts, but a magic spell does the trick (for once), and the handle starts rotating, in turn spinning a giant wheel.

That weren't no door control! Some crazy shimmering lights shoot from the wheel, and a large, formidable man in barbaric clothing and a spiked crown suddenly appears. He demands to know how he came to be there, but all Orko knows is that they're in a Silkon laboratory. "Silkon" is a trigger word for the newcomer, as he names the ancient people his sworn enemy. Calling himself Tamusk, and claiming kingship of Eternia, the stranger grows angrier still when Orko informs him that it's Randor who currently rules Eternia.

Meanwhile, He-Man has finally managed to barge his way into the hidden room. He recognizes the name and figure of the beefy barbarian Orko has conjured. "Tamusk" was the last of Eternia's line of sorcerer kings, and this guy looks just like the statue of Tamusk they have back in the royal palace's Hall of Kings. He-Man tries to reason with the kidnapped royal, but the king has worked himself up into a froth: wielding a giant club, Tamusk strikes the weapon on the ground and summons a blue dinosaur mount. He rides off, proclaiming his intention of deposing the pretender, Randor. To dissuade his new acquaintances from pursuit, Tamusk zaps the ceiling and blocks their exit with a shower of rocks.

He-Man takes a moment to hear Orko's story and decipher the inscriptions on the Silkon device, learning that it is some kind of time machine (or "Time Wheel," if you will). As crazy as it sounds, our hero must conclude that the stranger really is Tamusk, pulled out of his timestream by the device. They have to catch up to the cantankerous king and try to reason with him, so He-Man does his rock punching thing, and a few minutes later the pair are back on their Road Ripper, on the trail of their quarry.

Tamusk spots his pursuers and tries working some magic to shake them off his tail. His first attempt is a giant, scary illusion of himself; but He-Man spots the fake right away and rides through it. Next Tamusk summons a huge sandipede from the ground. This proves more of an obstacle, as He-Man has to stop to drill his way into the ground and bring up a shower of water to aggravate the sandipede into running off (because sandipedes, like all desert creatures and your pet cat, hate getting wet).

The delay of our heroes gives Tamusk time to reach the royal palace at Eternos. He's stunned: the buildings are very different and much more extensive than the structures he remembers. Enraged, he stamps into the throne room, catching Randor and Marlena unawares. The royal couple (who also recognize Tamusk from the Hall of Kings) make an attempt to reason with Tamusk, promising to try and get him back to his time; but Tamusk believes Randor has magically robbed him of his throne and palace. When Randor attempts to summon his royal guard, Tamusk blocks the throne room doorway with conjured rocks. Trying to avoid fisticuffs, the current Eternian king explains that compassion and wisdom are the ruling principles of the kingdom now; but Tamusk just wants a fight. He gets one when He-Man finally arrives, smashing his way through the rocky barricade. Tamusk is forced outside by the (reluctant) onslaught of the hero, who is joined by Teela and the royal guards; out in the open air, he is further bewildered by strafing sky sleds and an imposing Dragon Walker. Disorientated and bemused by the many novelties of this strange place and time, Tamusk flees in a magic whirlwind.

He-Man is still determined to chase down the king and talk this whole thing out with him, and he has an idea where Tamusk will have gone: back to the familiar Silkon lab and the Time Wheel. Orko and our hero hop back into the Road Ripper and retrace their steps. Sure enough, the desperate and depleted Tamusk is there, trying in vain to operate the wheel and undo the Silkon magic, and none too pleased to see his stubborn stalkers again. The king attempts another magical attack, this time bringing the statues in the building to life. He-Man smashes a few, per usual, but then the magic backfires on Tamusk and a nearby statue grabs him instead, plucking the magic club from his hand in the process. Our blonde beefcake is able to rescue the king from his predicament by smashing a wall and flooding the room with sand, stopping the statue in its tracks. He then ropes the creature and spins it like a top, swinging a dizzy Tamusk out of its clutches and eroding it down to nothing with the friction of its spinning stone body against the gritty sand.

A stunned and weary Tamusk, finding that He-Man has saved his life, declares himself the hero's slave. The situation finally gives He-Man a chance to explain to the sorcerer king what's going on and convince him they are not enemies. When he's done so, and offered Tamusk the chance to return to his own time, the king gratefully accepts. Before He-Man puts his thick biceps to work on the Time Wheel's crank, Tamusk promises to consider the heroes' advice about using compassion and consideration in ruling a kingdom. At the last moment, Orko remembers that he's been holding Tamusk's dropped club, and tosses it into the time vortex as the king vanishes. Something about the magic of the club interacting with the timestream causes the whole shebang to go kablooey; the heroes must run out of the ancient building before it crumbles entirely, ensuring there will be no more episodes about the Time Wheel.

Back at the palace, Adam and Orko discuss the day's happenings with Randor and Marlena. They theorize that He-Man's advice may have actually had an impact on Tamusk's subsequent actions, since the history books say that late in life he became a wise and fair king, turning away from conquest and constant battle.

End with a Joke: Contemplating how different kings were during the days of Tamusk, Orko wonders what Randor would have looked like if he lived back then. The Trollan promptly casts a spell that dresses the king in Tamusk-like garb. Finding Adam and Marlena's opinions of his costume demeaning, Randor demands the magician change him back; but Orko's magical attempt to do so puts the king into a jester's costume. Flustered, Orko tries again, and ends up with a floating, Trollan-robed Randor! "Gee, I kinda like that!" remarks Orko, prompting laughter from all.

• Tamusk: First they take me from my palace, and now they chase me in a magic machine!
• Tamusk: So this is the mighty Randor. I am Tamusk, and I have come to reclaim my throne!
• Randor: No, Tamusk. In your day, battle may have been the test of a king. But now it is wisdom, compassion, and reason that rule Eternia.
• Orko: Well, I-I guess I kind of had something to do with it. / Randor (sourly): I should have known.
• Teela: What's going on here - who was that? / Randor: A former king of Eternia, somehow snatched from his own time.
• Tamusk: You...saved my life, He-Man. By my code of honor, I am now your slave.
• Tamusk (to He-Man): What a warrior you would have made in my time. / He-Man: I only fight when I must; and each time, I hope it is the last time.

• He-Man juggles his sword: The unsheathing part of the loop is used as He-Man prepares to knock away some boomerangs
• He-Man from above, runs to mid-screen and pauses, battle-ready: As he searches for Orko
• He-Man rolls along the ground: To avoid the sandipede
• He-Man smiles close-up, looking at the viewer: Ending the PSA

One partial (missing Cringer/Battle Cat sequence)

Brought to you by He-Man
He-Man jerks his audience around big time, tempting us with the adventures we could have with our own Time Wheel, then saying, "Well, we don't have a magic Time Wheel." Oh, well thanks a lot for bringing it up, then! As a crappy consolation prize, He-Man offers us a more prosaic time travel device: books. His examples of great books for cartoon-watching children to read? Huckleberry Finn, The Time Machine, and (get this) Moby Dick.

Historians, archaeologists, and digging up old cities: It's not a "city" per se, but He-Man and Orko do dig up the old Silkon lab.
Use of the Time Corridor (or other time travel methods): This category was previously meant only for appearances of the Time Corridor, but I expanded it solely because of this episode!
Skeletor-less episodes in Season 2

• The episode opening brings us the second appearance of the Road Ripper, last seen in its debut in MU067, when Orko smashed it to bits. Certainly Duncan has had plenty of time to rebuild it. Oddly, just as in its first appearance, the vehicle is not named in the episode.
• He-Man tells Orko that they've stumbled upon an "ancient Silkon laboratory," remnants of a long-dead Eternian civilization. Turns out the Silkons carve their walls with hieroglyphics that look suspiciously Ancient Egyptian.
• We meet Tamusk, whom He-Man identifies as "the last of Eternia's sorcerer kings." He doesn't look much like a sorcerer: with his spiked crown and big club, he gives off a distinct "Conan the Barbarian" vibe. Actually, Tamusk is just a repaint of King Barbo of the Dark Moon, from MU080's "The Shadow of Skeletor." One wonders if Tamusk came before or after the ancient Ape and Snake Clans of MU008's "The Time Corridor." My guess would be after.
• This episode brings us more confusing evidence on the question of just how much of the planet King Randor rules. Here we are meant to infer that Randor is currently ruler of the entire planet of Eternia, a territory Tamusk once claimed for himself. In other episodes (for instance MU086's "A Trip to Morainia") it has seemed that Randor shares governance of the planet with an assortment of kings.
• Tamusk's club has a handy feature (one of many magical tricks, helping to support He-Man's claim that he's a sorcerer): it can summon a blue dinosaur mount! We've seen people riding dinosaur-like critters before (for instance the lizard men in MU040's "House of Shokoti," or the goblin armies of MU081's "The Arena"), though I couldn't find a dino that looked quite like Tamusk's.
• We learn that the palace boasts a "Hall of Kings," presumably lined with statues of past Eternian rulers (including Tamusk). Maybe someday amateur sculptor Adam can make Randor's official statue! Note - we'll actually visit Eternia's Hall of Kings, but not in the MOTU series; it appears in the S1:E13 She-Ra episode, "King Miro's Journey" (67013)!
• After trying to stall his pursuers with a giant illusion of himself, Tamusk summons what Orko calls a "sandipede." It's a good name for the huge centipede-like creature, but we've seen this critter before; in MU022, when Beast Man called it up to grab Man-at-Arms, it was called a "giant crawler." It also made an appearance in the beginning of MU032's "Search for the VHO," as one of numerous dangerous creatures attacking the outpost on Selkie Island.
• Hydraulic engineering: Even in the middle of the desert, He-Man can still use water to solve his problems. "A long time ago, there was an ocean here," is his excuse for being able to drill down to the water table and bring up a shower to cause discomfiture for his sandipede foe.
• It's time for Science Hunks with your lecturer He-Man: "Like most desert creatures," he says of the sandipede, "it wants to be dry."
• Tamusk's ancient palace, it seems, was built on the same site as Randor's current royal residence. The sorcerer king is awed by the buildings he finds at Eternos: "This is not my palace."
• "Mount Eternia stands as always," Tamusk remarks in passing, referencing again the big mountain near the palace that we first heard about when a tremor revealed an ancient temple inside of it, in MU067's "The Energy Beast." It will come up again in MU100.
• We also learn from Tamusk's questioning of Randor that the barbarian had a queen and children. This mentioning of family does rather leave one wondering whether there is an unbroken line of succession leading directly from Tamusk to Randor: are they, in fact, related? Is Tamusk Randor's great-great-great-....grandpappy? (Speaking of Randor's grandpappy, see the next episode, MU098!)
• Tamusk's magic club can turn him into a whirlwind, allowing him to fly off. Nice!
• Continuing in the series trend of assuring the audience that he's not committing murder when he punches things to pulp, He-Man informs Orko that the statues Tamusk has magicked into attacking them "aren't alive . . . they're just stone statues."
• During the ending scene when Orko has thrown Tamusk's "battle club" into the time vortex, the music that plays is actually the same theme eventually used in She-Ra during Princess Adora's transformation sequence. Huh!
• In the preceding MU096, it took most of the episode before we finally saw He-Man. Something similar happened in MU090's "One For All" (you know, the space pirate episode). In contrast, this episode is chock-full of He-Man: Adam transforms at the two-minute mark, and doesn't reappear until the very ending scene.
• This episode's time travel plot suggests that He-Man altered history (or was fated to alter history) by convincing Tamusk that he should fight only when necessary; as Randor states, "History books say that late in life, Tamusk turned away from wars of conquest."
• Some memorable looks for Randor during the episode's ending joke, when Orko in quick succession dresses the Eternian king like Tamusk, then like a jester, and then like a Trollan magician. Note that Randor's Trollan robe is appropriately stamped with a big "R."
• During the PSA, as He-Man describes the wonderful time periods you could visit with your own Time Wheel, he first brings up the stone age and cave people. As an accompanying animation, we see the giant Cambro from MU065's "The Heart of a Giant" (who probably wouldn't appreciate being equated with a caveman - he went to engineering school, for god's sake!). The futuristic buildings that pan by as He-Man discusses traveling to the future are likely the city of Arcadia from MU039's "Trouble in Arcadia."
• This episode's ending credits again feature the flat-painted Jawbridge on the Castle Grayskull background painting. That makes two episodes in a row with the variant credits, since it just happened in MU096.

• You'd think Prince Adam would have some kind of survival training that he could draw on to help himself and Orko ride out the sandstorm. Nope! He just turns right into He-Man. He-Man is a crutch, Adam!
• Note that, in a bit of a reversal of the usual situation, it's He-Man tripping all of the booby traps in the Silkon lab - all Orko does (though it's admittedly a big flub on his part) is fly through a secret door and turn the crank for the Time Wheel, while He-Man is outside dodging razor-sharp boomerangs and collapsing columns.
• One of the carvings on the walls of the lab is very intriguing, as it seems to depict Tamusk bowing in subservience to (presumably) a Silkon ruler. Is this just wishful thinking on the Silkons' part? Propaganda? Or did Tamusk actually get defeated by the Silkons? That would certainly account for his very negative attitude towards them!
• If you're going to build a time machine, why one that plucks other people out of their timestream, rather than one that transports you to that time? And... why make it crank-operated? The Wheel seems to have no other controls than the hand-crank, which implies that it only communicates with one particular time and place. Also, to the ancient Silkons, presumably it wouldn't have been a time machine, as they were Tamusk's contemporaries. So maybe it was just a kidnapping machine!
• He-Man is able to read the ancient inscriptions on the Time Wheel, which frankly seems unlikely. It's Teela and Man-at-Arms who are supposed to be the linguistic experts around here!
• Orko claims that "He-Man's swimming like a fish in water" as the hero digs into the earth; but really, He-Man is whirling like a drill bit. Either they have some fish with very unusual swimming methods in Eternia, or Orko's dialogue is somewhat at odds with the animation.
• When Tamusk challenges the current king of Eternia to a duel, Randor claims that fighting isn't how they settle things anymore in Eternia, instead citing the values of "wisdom, compassion, and reason." Yeah right, bruh; sounds like something a wuss would say. Honestly, though, I think Randor is deluding himself here. He has a big muscular champion who must be very frequently summoned to punch bad guys and throw giant monsters into holes. He-Man ain't particularly known for his wisdom, Randy. Even Randor himself has demonstrated several times his military and combat prowess; recall his helping He-Man to bash some robots in MU029's "Prince Adam No More," or his violent defense of the palace in MU081's "The Arena" (even though at the time he stressed nonviolence, his soldiers were clearly zapping every goblin in sight, and he himself disarmed one with a well-aimed mace throw). It's true that I've appreciated in the past the show's having He-Man and friends attempting nonviolent solutions first; but I think we all know it's mostly for show.
• In an interesting appearance of the Dragon Walker, we see it approach Tamusk from a low angle, leaving the driver of the vehicle out of sight. This is to emphasize and make believable Tamusk's fear that he's seeing a real dragon attacking him.
• As Tamusk strains over the crank handle of the Silkons' Time Wheel, he grunts over and over, using exactly the same sound effect. They couldn't get the voice actor back in the sound booth for just a few extra grunts? Heck, record the Filmation janitor if you can't get the "real" Tamusk! Ha...it is hilarious to listen to, though.
• The incidental music provided during the scene where the stone statues are chasing our heroes is not the usual stuff; it's a sort of jazzy, smooth keyboard riff that's quite nice. Great soundtrack for fighting stone men to!
• He-Man, about to throw one stone statue into another, quips: "Maybe his friend will tell him all about magic stone statues." Um - what the hell are you talking about, He-Man? That "joke" didn't make any sense.
• Tamusk's magic proves impressive and very useful up until the point when the stone statue he's brought to life grabs and disarms him. "I should have known I could not trust a Silkon statue," says Tamusk. Is that really the reason his magic backfired, or just his Silkon-ist paranoia providing excuses for an Orko-level goof?
• He-Man plucks a rope weighted with a rock off a peg on the wall to lasso the Silkon statue. We are to believe, I suppose, that this rope has been hanging there for thousands of years, and somehow did not rot away. Or maybe it was left there by a more contemporary graverobber!
• In another case of Eternian self-delusion, He-Man claims to Tamusk that they "have no slaves here on Eternia." Oh yeah? Then what about all the laborers in your prison mines!? (See MU003, MU010, MU042, and MU047.) I suppose you call them "prisoners with jobs." I have also theorized that Eternia indirectly supports slave labor by trading with their neighbor, Phantos (see MU005).
• Just in case you were wondering whether the heroes could nab Tamusk back from time again for a special birthday party appearance, Orko conveniently causes the Time Wheel to explode, precluding future time travel hijinks. But if the heroes really wanted to go step on a butterfly and become their own grandfathers, they could still always head over to the Sorceress's Time Corridor!
• I thought this episode was a ton of fun. It's not a particularly involved story, but I always like a good time travel plot, and I thought Tamusk's tragic fish-out-of-water experiences in modern Eternia were compelling and thought-provoking. I also love the fact that Tamusk isn't really a "bad guy" by the usual black-and-white MOTU definition, merely at odds with our heroes due to a misunderstanding and a hefty dose of culture shock. I think that in some ways it's a stretch to argue that He-Man's Eternia is all that different from the ancient one - but that's a fun issue to consider anyway, as it forces us to once again face the strange dichotomy of MOTU, with its fancy technology and sword-and-sorcery medievalism. Note that this story was brought to us at least in part by one of my favorite MOTU writers, Larry DiTillio.