Bob Forward

Richard Trueblood

Skeletor decides it's high time he had a race of bee people on his staff, and to acquire them he raids the space-traveling Hive ship of Sweet Bee and her race. This is a job for She-Ra! To rescue her bee friend and put a stop to Skeletor's questionable hiring practices, She-Ra will call on the aid of her twin brother - He-Man - for the last time ever! Also - Mattel desperately attempts to sell a few more of their newest, wackiest toys!

She-Ra, Sweet Bee, Prince Adam (He-Man), Swift Wind, Netossa, Cringer, Crystal Sun Dancer

Hordak, Skeletor, Beast Man, Trap Jaw, Horde Prime (mentioned only), Catra

various bee people (including Drone 7), Horde soldiers, Meteorbs (Comet Cat, Dinosorbs)

the Hive, Skeletor's flying disc, scout ships

In the Crystal Castle atop Sky Dancer Mountain, She-Ra is having a chat. She's not talking to Light Hope (who won't be appearing in this episode); she's talking to Sweet Bee! I guess she gets the best signal from up there. The heroine and the bee lady fondly recount their memories of the last time they saw each other - 67085's "Sweet Bee's Home." That was the time when Sweet Bee was sent out in a scout ship from her colony's home vessel, the Hive, to find a suitable replacement home world for the 10,000 members of her race (theirs having succumbed to a supernova). She thought Etheria might do - until she realized it was ruled by Hordak and the Evil Horde, whose only desire was to enslave Sweet Bee and her kind. The bee people are peaceful and have no desire to get embroiled in planetary conflicts, so - now that they've been saved from the Horde by He-Man, She-Ra, and friends - they're toddling off elsewhere. She-Ra and Sweet Bee wish each other well, and sign off.

Their conversation, however, has been eavesdropped by an unfriendly listener: Skeletor. He and his minions, Beast Man and Trap Jaw, have been spying via Snake Mountain's desktop dome, and it's given our bony friend an idea for a new evil scheme. Clearly these pacifist insectoids will be an easy target for enslavement, and with 10,000 new recruits, Skeletor will have no problem (he thinks) toppling Horde Prime from that overlord's intergalactic throne! Judging that himself and his two dullards will be sufficient numbers for such an enslaving assault, Skeletor opens a portal right away and orders his men through it.

With a combination of sleep gas grenades and stun beams, Trap Jaw and Beast Man do a horribly effective job of disabling the many bee people on the Hive; but Sweet Bee evades the attacks. Finding the communication system knocked out, Sweet Bee flees to the Hive's hangar bay to get help. Skeletor pursues her, but he can't quite manage to shoot down the scout ship into which she jumps. Sweet Bee gets away! Oh, well: what can one bee person do against the lord of destruction's foolproof plans?

She can head straight for Etheria, is what! On that planet, we join She-Ra, already in progress: she's in the act of defeating Catra with the aid of friend Netossa. Once the cat is back in the bag, so to speak, our heroine recovers a huge sack of gold coins - "tax" money forcibly extracted from innocent villagers by the Horde. Before she can redistribute this wealth, She-Ra is distracted by the sight of a spaceship streaking across the sky overhead. Hopping onto Swift Wind to investigate more closely, She-Ra recognizes the vessel as belonging to the bee people. Sure enough, Sweet Bee pops the hatch to yell to her friend that She-Ra's help is once again needed.

They land and Sweet Bee explains the deadly peril at the Hive. She-Ra decides she could probably use a little extra help, and calls up her brother. She doesn't need to go to the Crystal Castle to make this call, because she and her twin share a psychic connection. Even over in Eternia's dimension, where Prince Adam is currently lazing by the moat of Castle Grayskull with his pet tiger, trying to catch fish from the bottomless abyss, the royal heir can hear her telepathic distress signal. When She-Ra tells him that He-Man is needed and explains why, Adam doesn't hesitate: he drops his fishing pole, pulls out his sword, and says his magic words. Cringer, tremblingly poised to receive his own transformation into Battle Cat, remains unzapped: He-Man has decided that a tiger won't be an advantage on a space adventure, so his fearless friend will be sitting this one out. Whew!

He-Man steps out of his portal onto Etherian soil, and the rescue team is ready to roll; but Sweet Bee is a little worried about transportation. The colony ship is a long way off, and her spaceship sits just one. Can He-Man and She-Ra really get all the way there on Swift Wind's back? The horse says no: Swifty knows his limitations, and deep space is not his bag. However, he has a friend who will be just perfect for the job. Having toted the superpowered twins out of Etheria's atmosphere just in front of Sweet Bee and her ship, Swift Wind uses the magic of his unicorn horn to send a message out into the ether, and from a distant star a streaking fireball answers his call. It's Crystal Sun Dancer, a red, golden-winged horse with whom Swifty has somehow become acquainted when She-Ra wasn't paying attention. The interstellar equine traveller quickly agrees to carry his friend's passengers wherever they need to go.

The friends' journey is not without incident: on the way to the Hive, they witness a strange pursuit. Two orb-like creatures with dinosaur-ish heads and necks are chasing down a red cat-headed orb. He-Man can't stand to see two-against-one bullying, no matter what form it takes and in what galaxy it takes place; so without much consideration, he leaps off Crystal Sun Dancer's back, leaving She-Ra and Sweet Bee to continue their journey without him, and floats over to lend a hand. The miscreant Dinosorbs are tough customers, and it takes He-Man's patented Super Sunday Punch to send them packing. Once they're gone, the very grateful feline Meteorb (he never introduces himself, but we know his name is Comet Cat) is happy to agree to carry He-Man back to his friends.

A good thing, too, because - after all - He-Man did come here expressly to help them, and they're having a tough time against Skeletor and his men. The villain had to do some improvising with his new army, because a search of the Hive by Trap Jaw and Beast Man revealed that there were no weapons on board. But Skeletor is nothing if not resourceful: he used his magic to mind-control the bee people into obedient zombies, and he had his minions convert the ship's tools into tractor beams. Thus, when She-Ra and Sweet Bee approach, they're bombarded with laser fire! Sweet Bee's ship gets trapped in a beam, and She-Ra must lasso the craft and tow it free hand over hand. This leaves her vulnerable to Trap Jaw's freeze rays, and the heroine finds herself zapped into a giant ice cube.

This is where He-Man comes in. Arriving on the back of Comet Cat, He-Man grabs his icebound sister and throws her through the Hive's windows. (I wonder if she had anything to say to him about this questionable treatment after the battle was over!) The violent move has the double effect of freeing She-Ra and her horse from the ice and putting her right in the thick of her enemies. Our heroine takes advantage of the situation by turning her sword into a net and nabbing a fleeing Beast Man. Trap Jaw attempts his own escape, turning his customizable arm into a rocket thruster and zooming through the ship's broken window out into space; but Sweet Bee grabs the villain by a pincer attached to the end of her ship. That leaves Skeletor for He-Man to tackle; but he opts to delegate the job to Comet Cat. The blonde hunk waits, humming a tune to himself, while his Meteorb buddy obeys his command to "fetch," bringing the bony would-be dictator back pinched between feline jaws.

Skeletor, in classic style, teleports himself out of there with a promise of future vengeance (which will prove an empty threat, at least under the aegis of Filmation); but he leaves behind his two hapless lackeys. We see Beast Man and Trap Jaw tied up afterwards, with the freed and no-longer-mind-controlled bee people standing about, ready to thank their rescuers. Drone 7 tells He-Man that his people have learned that sometimes even pacifists have to fight; and (rather illogically, to my mind) this traumatic occurrence has apparently convinced the bee people that Etheria really is, after all, the best place to settle. We fade out on the colony ship making a U-turn, headed for "home."

• Sweet Bee: We will not forget you, She-Ra - no matter where in the universe we settle. / She-Ra: And I will not forget you, Sweet Bee. I am sorry your people could not stay. The rebellion could always use more people. / Sweet Bee: No; my people are not fighters. We must look elsewhere.
• She-Ra (to Sweet Bee, in a statement which will surely prove prophetic): But remember: sometimes, it is necessary to fight to keep your freedom.
• Skeletor (again rather prophetically): And after all - what can one little bee scout do to interfere with my evil plans? (cackles)
• She-Ra: When Skeletor's involved, there's not a moment to lose.
• She-Ra: Wow! Is that your friend, Swift Wind? / Swift Wind: Yes; that's Crystal Sun Dancer - your ride out to the stars.
• He-Man: Sorry, Skeletor. / Skeletor: He-Man!? / He-Man: In person. Looks like I've come just in time to play a little game.
• Skeletor (laughing evilly, in what will - ironically enough - prove his last line as part of the Filmation universe): Another time, He-Man and She-Ra - another time!
• Sweet Bee (of Trap Jaw): Well, look what I found: a can opener with a bad temper.
• Drone 7: Our people have learned a valuable lesson today. We know now that our freedom is important enough to fight for. / He-Man: That's right, Drone 7. Peace is important. But sometimes, even peaceful people must defend themselves.

• He-Man punches the viewer: The opening part of the loop is used in the flashback clip recalling He-Man's aid to Sweet Bee; later, the full loop is used to depict He-Man's "Super Sunday Punch" defeating the villainous Meteorbs
• She-Ra spin kicks the viewer: Again, in the flashback clips
• Skeletor laughs, head back: At the prospect of his latest evil plan
• She-Ra mounts Swift Wind and flies off: As she goes to investigate a spaceship
• Skeletor leans in close to the viewer: To speak to his new slave

Zero (!)
She-Ra remains She-Ra for the entirety of the episode. However, we DO get a partial He-Man transformation - without the Cringer/Battle Cat sequence (even though Cringer is sitting right there).

8:19 - Loo-Kee is facing away from us and leaning against a withered branch, revealing a good deal of the back of his body, in an establishing panning shot of Eternia and Castle Grayskull. You heard that right - Eternia! This is the second time our little Kon-Seal has implied a rather nonsensical ability to travel to other dimensions - see also 67013.
Did I spot him? YES!

Loo-Kee takes the plight of the bee people today and turns it into the lesson that something valuable is worth working hard for. So you're saying that the fact that the bee people just wanted to live in peace meant they weren't working hard enough? Feels like a bit of a stretch to me, but OK.

MOTU crossover
Changing hearts and minds: At 10,000 bee people, this must be the highest total of conversions to the Great Rebellion in one episode!
Landmark Episode: For the various new characters, big crossover story, and the fact that this is the last time we'll be seeing a huge number of folks
Main character flashbacks: The flashbacks to the previous episode count - even though I'd rather have this category focus on juicy past lore and scenes from our characters' childhoods.
Adora who?: That's right, two episodes in a row with no Adora! Do you think the rebels are beginning to wonder where their leader went?
You could also argue this episode falls into the "Neither Horde nor hair" category, since the only enemies really playing a part in today's plot are Skeletor and his flunkies; but since Hordak shows up in the opening recap, I decided to give that a pass.

• This will be writer Bob Forward's fifteenth - and final - script for She-Ra. He has proven the second season's most dependable scribe and has given us over a dozen incredibly strong stories for this series, including the only two-part plot (67059 and 67060) and two of what I feel are the funniest episodes (67049 and 67063) - and that's not even mentioning the two landmark MOTU scripts he contributed to, in MU085 and MU110.
• We begin most unusually at the Crystal Castle, a place that I don't believe She-Ra has visited since 67068's "Out of the Cocoon." Apparently She-Ra goes to Light Hope's house to borrow their videophone - in this case, to chat with friend Sweet Bee, whom writer Bob Forward introduced us to in her previous appearance: 67085's "Sweet Bee's Home."
• We find that the situation of Sweet Bee and her people remains unchanged from what it was at 67085's conclusion: they are still drifting through space in their giant Hive ship, in search of a proper home for their evicted race (since their planet blew up, and Etheria was deemed too trashy).
• In that last episode, the only other bee person we got to meet went by Drone 7, a bearded bee who was the only evidence of Sweet Bee's 10,000 fellow folks. Today we'll get to see quite a few new bee-ish faces - in addition to Drone 7, who will put in a return performance. Note that the various character designs have varying antennae - some clearly projecting directly out of the person's forehead, or out of their hair - in contrast to Sweet Bee's, which appear to be attached to a tiara or headband.
• Most unusually, the episode begins with a quick recap of the plot of 67085, complete with some clips from the show, to catch up any kids who somehow managed to miss that episode (shame on them). The animation suggests that Sweet Bee herself is playing back the clips (did she bring a body cam with her to Etheria last time?) on a backup video screen next to the one showing She-Ra's face.
• I'd be calling this a MOTU crossover regardless, since those flashback clips included footage of the hunky He-Man; but as it turns out, we won't have to stretch the definition of the category today, because guess what?! Skeletor is here! (Pause for cheering.) Yes, Old Bonehead is watching Sweet Bee's ship from all the way in Eternia's dimension, through his good old desktop dome in Snake Mountain. Skeletor was last seen on screen as part of a series of visions plucked from She-Ra's mind by Granamyr, in the memorable 67061's "Darksmoke and Fire."
• Also present are some Skeletor flunkies whose appearance in the POP series has been much rarer: Beast Man and Trap Jaw. Beast Man last made a brief appearance in 67055's "Loo-Kee Lends a Hand;" Trap Jaw hasn't been seen since the concluding episode of the introductory SOTS storyline (67005). Indeed, it's been long enough that the Filmation staff seem to have forgotten what Trap Jaw's voice is supposed to sound like - his first line of dialogue sounds nothing like his MOTU voice.
• On the subject of MOTU crossovers, this will be the eighth such episode this season. Percentage-wise, that means almost a third of this season's episodes (29%) have featured Eternian characters - compared to the first season's 25%.
• Skeletor is apparently capable of making a portal that takes him directly on board the bee people's ship. It seemed just about as easy for him to travel to Etheria in his last non-cameo appearance in POP, Episode 58's "Horde Prime Takes a Holiday" (67018); but in previous stories it has been a much more challenging task. In 67056 he needed Shadow Weaver's help to hop a portal there, and in 67035 Modulok's gatemaker invention was a groundbreaking way to travel back and forth between the franchises.
• We find Skeletor continuing to use his magic in some unusual ways today: he conjures himself a cute little flying disc in order to pursue Sweet Bee, then attempts to disable her fleeing ship by firing beams out of his clenched fists. Usually when Skeletor is shooting rays at people, he does it using his "finger guns," his extended forefingers.
• Netossa appears for the fourth time - the character is racking up an impressive set of appearances in these last few episodes. I suspect Filmation was happy to capitalize on the diversity this single brown-skinned rebel added to the series.
• Just as with the previous episode (67090), She-Ra begins this story in her superpowered form and remains that way throughout, meaning there is no Adora to be seen. This is now the fifth episode of the series that has done this. We will get to see Swift Wind today, but since there are no transformations and no Adora, we won't be getting Spirit.
• As noted in the "Where's Loo-Kee?" section, Loo-Kee for the second time in the series visits Eternia for his daily hiding place. (We spotted him creeping in the royal garden at Eternos in 67013.) How do you manage that, Loo-Kee?
• At Castle Grayskull, we find Prince Adam fishing (?!), accompanied by the loyal Cringer. Though Adam appeared as recently as the last Sweet Bee story (67085), we haven't seen that cowardly tiger since 67080, where he was briefly glimpsed in a vision brought to us by Peekablue. Even though Adam will change into He-Man, he'll opt to leave his tiger out of this adventure, meaning we won't get Battle Cat for this last crossover story.
• Cringer reestablishes his love for fish, a longstanding and logically feline trait of the character that we've seen exhibited in this series before (see 67001), and which was first developed as a theme in Larry DiTillio's MOTU scripts (such as MU051).
• She-Ra once again contacts Adam via interdimensional telepathy. She got a hold of him the same way in the recent 67083's "She-Ra Makes a Promise" - though this time we find her speaking through her sword's gem to do it (the last time, she just held onto her forehead).
• We see He-Man stepping out of a portal and into Etheria, arriving conveniently right next to She-Ra and Sweet Bee in the random spot on the planet where they've landed (and not the more usual spot near the Whispering Woods where he was wont to arrive in earlier episodes). It's possible that He-Man hopped this ride via the Sorceress, and that scene was just omitted; but the ease of his transfer mimics the way he departed Etheria to abruptly conclude 67083.
• To add to the potential travel inconsistencies, a few seconds later we hear Swift Wind claiming that he "can't fly that fast in space." See commentary. He does, at least, prove able to fly in space, and She-Ra and He-Man are able to sit on his back while he does it, with no one wearing space helmets - an ability the heroic twins were seen to lack in 67018 and 67033, though we've seen them entering space without trouble in other episodes.
• In fact, it seems pretty much everyone in this episode can survive in the vacuum of space, including our villains and the bee people - as later scenes attest.
• As it happens, Swift Wind's flying handicap is contrived entirely for the purpose of introducing us to a new toy - err, character - in Crystal Sun Dancer. This is a winged horse (for whatever reason, not a unicorn) that lives inside a sun, and whom Swift Wind calls upon telepathically using his horn. The toy version of Crystal Sun Dancer, which the animated version duplicates with impressive faithfulness, was released in the second wave of POP toys in 1986.
• Skeletor eventually does employ the aforementioned "finger gun" in order to mind-control one of the bee people. We have actually seen Skeletor exhibit this ability in the past - he used a mind control spell on Stratos in MU016's "Reign of the Monster."
• More Mattel merchandise rears its long-necked head once our heroes get out into deep space; we meet several examples of the inexplicable MOTU Wave 6 line of Meteorbs. These creatures, in similar vein to Wave 5's Rock People, were egg-shaped meteors that could change into various animals. Yes, you might call them "transformers," a la another very popular 80s toy line against which - in defiance of all logic and sense - Mattel/MOTU wished to directly compete.
• The two models we see are Comet Cat (a good guy) and a pair of Dinosorbs (bad guys), who fly through space with just their heads sticking out - even though the toys also had extendable limbs and tails. We oddly never see any Meteorb legs - perhaps in their culture showing the legs is considered indelicate. We also never hear Comet Cat's name spoken in the episode, though my DVD captions (and Wiki Grayskull) confirm that's him.
• To stop the Dinosorbs, He-Man introduces the idea of his "Super Sunday Punch," what we have to assume is a very special and extra-powerful punch - even though it looks no different than the hundreds of other punches he's thrown. But then again, I'm no punchologist, so maybe there's some subtlety of technique I'm missing.
• As he directs the brainwashed bee people to open fire on their own rescue party, Trap Jaw sports a new arm attachment: a long, large-bore cannon. It proves to be a freeze ray. Just a little later, Trap Jaw dons what looks like exactly the same attachment, except this time it's a rocket - which he uses to attempt an escape.
• Swiss army sword: Even in the vacuum of space, She-Ra can toss a mean lasso - once she's changed her sword into one, that is. A little later, she takes a page out of Netossa's book by changing her blade into a net.
• In this return to the subject of the peaceful bee people, we find the alien race ultimately giving up on their pacifism and choosing to settle on Etheria - something they starkly refused to do in their last appearance. This surprising turn of events mimics the shift in the philosophy of the Rock People over the course of their appearances in the series (67044, 67054), and gives She-Ra and the Great Rebellion an impressive boost in recruits. I hope they have enough supplies to feed 10,000 extra people!
• It's time for a lot of good-byes! This is the final MOTU crossover tale in the series, and therefore the last time we'll be seeing Adam, He-Man, Cringer, and their Eternian villains. Farewell Skeletor, you magnificent bastard! Sniff... As noted above, this is also the last script brought to us by Bob Forward, the most dependable and most prolific writer of this shortened second season.
• Note that though I can't technically tag this as a "Hordak-less" episode, since his character appears in the flashback sequences in the opening, Hordak does not play a part in today's main action. The only Horde character She-Ra fights today is Catra.
• Ending credits variation: The same variation we've been seeing all season, apart from the first episode.

• Skeletor's announced purpose for invading the Hive is the same as Hordak's was in 67085: to enslave its 10,000 inhabitants to use as a workforce or potential army. I feel this plan has the same shortcomings in its second iteration: namely, that conquering 10,000 people, no matter how "peaceful" they claim to be, is quite a tall order for three guys; and if they really are that peaceful, they're going to make a pretty crappy army.
• We also find that Skeletor's conquering ambitions have grown beyond the royal palace of Eternos, leapt past the entire planet of Eternia, and even beyond Hordak and his planet: Bonehead wants to defeat Horde Prime, and thus take over the Horde's entire intergalactic empire. Good luck with that, Bony!
• Continuity error: We watch as Trap Jaw laboriously removes his arm's hook attachment and replaces it with his stubby laser gun; however, in the following scene as he walks through Skeletor's portal, we see the hook is back in place on his arm.
• Sounds to me like Filmation was scraping the bottom of their voice actor barrel today: some of the incidental shrieks and screams from the ambushed bee people are quite horrendous to hear!
• Maybe it was those tortured shrieks that made the creative team decide to give Skeletor several lines about not wanting to "hurt" any of the bee people. Really! They're not in terrible pain, I swear! Actually, as we'll see later in the episode, He-Man also stresses the fact that his most powerful punch didn't actually hurt the creatures he struck with it - suggesting our cartoon makers were under attack from outside groups for the level of violence in their stories, and were keen to at least pay lip service to peace.
• Adam (and He-Man) have ventured into Grayskull's bottomless abyss a couple of times - one of the more memorable being that time he had to get his sword back for the exciting conclusion of MU110's "The Problem with Power" (which was, in fact, co-written by Bob Forward). So you'd think he'd have a pretty good idea that there isn't any water down there - much less fish. Nevertheless, I think the most unlikely part of the prince's idea to fish in Grayskull's moat is that he'd have enough fishing line to try it. How long is bottomless, do you think?
• I guess horses must have poor short-term memories, because when Swift Wind claims that he can't travel very fast in space, he's clearly forgotten that time when he travelled so fast in space that he actually went back in time, in 67073's "The Time Transformer."
• Sure, there's a winged crystal horse that lives in the sun. I'm down with that. But think about how weird it is that Swift Wind somehow became friends with this crystal horse without She-Ra knowing about it. Our heroine has clearly never met Crystal Sun Dancer before and needs to be introduced. Given that Swift Wind doesn't exist until She-Ra zaps Spirit with her sword, you'd think the princess of power would have a pretty good idea what her unicorn partner gets up to!
• He-Man is a great guy, but I have to question his common sense. Seeing a "two against one" situation with the Meteorbs, He-Man unthinkingly leaps off of his only means of space transport, confidently telling She-Ra that he'll "catch up" to her. Um, you weren't going out into space to save cat rocks, bud - there are 10,000 bee slaves pining for freedom right now! He-Man is not the only one to demonstrate this poor level of decision making; his twin sister has also failed the ethical trolly problem on a couple of occasions (67068, 67069).
• Of course, as with all our heroes' decisions, this one proves right on the money: the rescued Comet Cat makes a very useful ally in an Androcles-and-the-lion fashion that we've seen unfold multiple times across MOTU/POP. I particularly enjoyed the humorous scene at the end where He-Man commands his new pet to "fetch" and then waits, casually humming and checking his fingernails, while Skeletor is caught and delivered to him.
• Though this story and the previous Sweet Bee one (67085) were written by the same person, and 67085 focused heavily on the romance angle, we'll see absolutely no hint of romance in today's story - not even a longing glance exchanged between He-Man and the bee lady who had him so smitten the last time they met. I guess they both moved on pretty quick.
• I've tagged this a landmark because of all the unique occurrences and last appearances. I don't think it was Bob Forward's best script, though it was a fun tale: there's something about the message that pacifist races need to go to war that doesn't sit all that well with me. I do always love seeing Skeletor, however. For me, this skull-faced lord of destruction will forever be the greatest villain in this crazy combined sci-fi/fantasy/toy-marketing universe, and I'm sure he's somewhere right now in some aspect of the multiverse, cackling happily at his own magnificence and plotting his next big move. Bless you, Bonehead.