Episode 12 – Mekaneck’s Lament

In which an unexpected face from Filmation returns.

Hmm. Seems I’ve been spelling Mechaneck wrong all these years. I’m not going to change my ways now though, not with only another 27 episodes to go. Plus episode titles aren’t necessarily authoritative – I’ve seen quite a few bloopers in my time, notably Quest for He-man and Shera Makes a Promise. And also, what if Filmation called him Mechaneck but MYP says Mekaneck? I’m not changing my spelling of Mechaneck just because some young punk wants to make his mark on Eternia.

Anyway, as you could perhaps guess from the title, today really isn’t Mechaneck’s day. Not only does he injure his neck, he gets a bee in his bonnet about having such a useless special ability, and – to add insult to injury – Man-at-Arms invents a new device that will basically render Mechaneck obsolete. I don’t know why Mechaneck is so upset about this latter: it’s not as if Man-at-Arms is actually a competent inventor.

Tri-Klops: “Is this the first time I’ve actually succeeded in something?”

Mechaneck mopes off to a lakeside, where he occupies himself throwing stones into the water and wishing he was a better person. Let’s be honest, he’s right. Can any of us remember getting Mechaneck’s action figure when we were little and being consumed with excitement? No. And that’s because he’s both boring and utterly implausible. How did he ever come into existence without someone ripping his head off and performing really weird experiments on him before sewing his head back on?

This episode has only been going on for about five minutes and I’ve already used up half my usual word count in pointless bitching about Mechaneck. I’d better get on with it. While down at the lake, Mechaneck meets an obviously evil dwarf who promises him all the special powers he would like, if only Mechaneck agrees to retrieve an amulet of sentimental value from the Sands of Fire. Hint: if ever anyone asks you to get them a magic artefact purely for sentimental reasons, they are probably Sauron and the artefact is the One Ring. You should politely decline.

Dwarf: “Don’t worry, I’m not evil.”

Mechaneck doesn’t politely decline. Instead, he runs off merrily to the Sands of Fire, while the dwarf leers stupidly at the camera. Mechaneck manages to retrieve the amulet with a minimum of fuss, but when he brings it back to the dwarf, there is no thank-you and certainly no acquisition of new powers. Instead, the dwarf simply walks off and disappears in a flash.

While Mechaneck has been off retrieving the amulet, the Sorceress has been giving Prince Adam a history lesson about our old friend, the notoriously creepy Count Marzo. Marzo was an evildoer in the time of Adam’s grandfather, King Miro, who eventually defeated Marzo in battle, and imprisoned him in the body of a dwarf. Marzo’s magical abilities were derived from an amulet, which was safely hidden away in the Sands of Fire. I’m sure this must be relevant somehow, but I imagine it’s just a coincidence that Mechaneck has fetched an amulet from the Sands of Fire for a dwarf.

The Sorceress: “No, don’t film me! Film over there!”

Blimey and don’t I feel stupid! Turns out the dwarf Mechaneck met is actually Count Marzo! Can’t believe I didn’t see that coming. Anyway, now Marzo has his powers back and is free to go back to his previous activities as Eternia’s foremost heavily-implied-kiddy-fiddler. His first move is to equip himself with some massive rats and head to the Palace to attack King Randor, and to my distinct surprise, he actually manages to defeat He-Man in a one-on-one fight. The way is thus clear for him to enter the Palace, where he uses a cloud of stun gas to defeat everybody else with the skill of a professional. Skeletor should watch and learn.

The only two who escape Marzo’s devastating assault are Orko and – of course – Mechaneck. Mechaneck decides to try to save the day himself, while Orko goes for the far more sensible option of waking He-Man up and getting him to do it. He-Man deals with the stun gas by spinning his sword round and round really fast to create a whirlwind to blow the gas away, while Mechaneck manages to nick the amulet back from Marzo.

Count Marzo: “This is one of those pictures which really needs context.”

He-Man hurls the amulet into the depths of the sea, and escorts Marzo away to have a word with Operation Yewtree, who want to interview him under caution for his previous nefarious plots involving children (see The Once and Future Duke, The Eternia Flower and Search for a Son if you’re sufficiently demented, but don’t say I didn’t warn you). Mechaneck concludes that he’s not as rubbish as he thought he was, and everyone goes away happy. Except Marzo, obviously.

In today’s adventure…

Yep, I think this one is pretty clear with the old “don’t trust strangers” message, especially not if they ask you to do something for them. It’s also a passable attempt at the equally old “you’re amazing for just being you” story that we’ve heard on more than one occasion.

Character checklist

I can’t promise this is a definitive list, but I definitely spotted Prince Adam, Cringer, He-Man, Battle-Cat, Mechaneck, Orko, Teela, Man-at-Arms, the Sorceress, Ram-Man, Stratos, Man-e-Faces, King Randor, Count Marzo, Skeletor, Beast-Man, Tri-Klops, Evil-Lyn, Trapjaw, Clawful and Whiplash. There’s also some nice flashback footage of King Miro, if that’s the sort of thing you’re into.

Clawful: “I think we’re just background characters this week, tbh.”

Excuse given for Prince Adam’s disappearance

Adam is alone in a barn when he transforms, and no one even knows he’s gone, so there’s no reason for him to offer excuses today.

Insults

Marzo addresses Mechaneck as his “stretch-necked friend”, which isn’t massively insulting, but I’m reporting it because if I didn’t, there’d be nothing to say in this category.

Count Marzo: “I wonder if this shot would have been more dramatic if I’d stood in the centre?”

Egg on your face?

Orko conjures up a bucket of water, which he upends on He-Man’s face. I’m not sure if this is worthy of inclusion in this category, since it was deliberate and not the result of a trick going wrong. I’m erring on the side of caution here and mentioning it though, just to avoid the slim chance of me being lynched by a band of He-Man fans who are mightily upset at me skipping over this occurrence.

Does it have the Power?

It’s not bad, but it has got a faint air of going-through-the-motions to it, feeling fairly uninspired. This is partly because literally no one was clamouring for the reintroduction of Count Marzo, who I always found both dull and disturbingly icky. This incarnation of him has, admittedly, ditched the child-manipulation aspect that made him so creepy, but in doing so it leaves him simply as a generic villain. Mechaneck’s not particularly interesting either, and I couldn’t care less if he remains insecure about his stupid neck for the rest of his miserable life. In conclusion, I’d probably skip this one, but if you accidentally watch it, it’s not the end of the world.

Episode 11 – Turnabout

In which Skeletor seeks for the goodness inside himself.

We open today in a mysterious location high in the mountains – so mysterious, in fact, that it takes a panning shot nearly 90 seconds in length to demonstrate just how mysterious it is. Fittingly for such a mysterious place, Skeletor and his dudes are present, looking for – and finding – the Diamond Ray of Disappearance. We all know what it does, but on the exceedingly slim off chance that you’re that rare breed of He-Man fan who hasn’t seen the Filmation episode of the same name, Skeletor explains that the Diamond will eradicate anything in its path.

Contrary to expectation, however, He-Man and the Masters are already on the scene, and He-Man destroys the Diamond with a minimum of fuss. Not unreasonably, Skeletor is rather put out by this reversal in his fortunes and causes a massive avalanche, escaping in the confusion. In the subsequent debrief, Man-at-Arms announces he has an idea, and trots off to Castle Grayskull.

Skeletor: “I actually feel really miserable about this.”

At Grayskull, the Sorceress is dead pleased with Man-at-Arms’ idea, and gives him a vial of mystical liquid from some magic lake or other. Man-at-Arms takes the liquid back to the Palace, where he somehow fashions it into a stunningly stylish belt. He then reveals that if Skeletor puts on the belt, he will be weakened if he does or thinks of doing something evil. The only flaw in this plan is that Skeletor is hardly a flashy dresser, so he’s unlikely to be tempted by something so bling as this belt.

Man-at-Arms comes up with a very plausible way round this flaw: he attaches the belt to a crossbow and fires it at Skeletor. The belt fastens itself round Skeletor’s waist and defies all his attempts to remove it, subjecting him to blasts of energy whenever he tries to do something evil. I don’t imagine I’m the only one feeling sorry for Skeletor here. Man-at-Arms has set himself up as the thought police. There’s nothing scarier than that.

Skeletor: “What do you think of this little number I picked up in Primark?”

Morality concerns aside, Skeletor’s new belt ensures a few days’ respite for the Masters – that is, until Tri-Klops and Evil-Lyn analyse the belt and use their findings to create a similar device which will punish He-Man whenever he does anything good. Tri-Klops uses a large gun to attach the new device to He-Man, and suddenly the joke seems a lot less funny when the shoe’s on the other foot.

Unfortunately, the joke seems even less funny for me, since it leads to the Sorceress getting on her telepathic telephone and informing He-Man to look for and trust the good inside himself, which is precisely the sort of tripe she spouted on an all-too-regular basis in The New Adventures and which I thought we’d left safely behind us.

He-Man finds the good inside himself and rips the goodness inhibitor off, causing a massive explosion which for some reason also disables Skeletor’s trendy belt. So everything returns to normal, which in this case is Skeletor suspending his followers above a pool of fire and laughing his stupid head off, while Adam mopes around at the Palace being morose.

Clawful: “If we’re here too long I fear I’ll end up at Rick Stein’s.”

In today’s adventure…

Perhaps this one teaches us that no matter how hard you try, you can’t change your inner self. If you’re good, you’re good, and if you’re evil, you’re evil. That’s a fairly bleak message though, so maybe the lesson is in fact that you should choose your belts and accessories with care, in case they start to electrocute you.

Character checklist

Loads of people as always, including but not limited to Prince Adam, He-Man, Man-at-Arms, the Sorceress, Buzz-Off, Orko, Skeletor, Evil-Lyn, Beast-Man, Trapjaw, Whiplash, Clawful, Tri-Klops and Panthor.

Teela: “We’re all pretty shocked Buzz-Off seems to be a main character in this series.”

Excuse given for Prince Adam’s disappearance

After last week’s excuse bonanza, I think it’s reasonable enough that Adam takes the week off this time.

Insults

Skeletor describes the Elders as “fools”, and calls Tri-Klops an “inept tinkerer”. Tri-Klops perhaps doesn’t dare to answer back, so he takes it out on Prince Adam, whom he refers to as a “wimpy prince”.

Does it have the Power?

Apart from the unexpected and unwelcome return to the Sorceress’ gibberish so often witnessed in The New Adventures, this episode is pretty solid. I’m not sure I approve of Man-at-Arms’ tactics, but it must be said that he is at least far more competent this week than usual. Skeletor’s reaction to his belt is pretty entertaining, especially the scene in which he tries to be nice, and all in all the episode ticks by rather well. I wouldn’t call it a favourite, but it’s certainly not a failure.

Episode 10 – Dragon’s Brood

In which neither Orko nor Beast-Man takes due care with dragon eggs.

In Snake Mountain, we are witness to an historic occasion: Beast-Man has had an idea. It’s not a massively elaborate idea, but it’s an idea nonetheless, and that is cause for celebration. His plan is to steal some dragon eggs, hatch the dragons, and raise them himself. Hopefully, this will allow him to control the newborn dragons, and use them to defeat He-Man. I don’t know how long dragons take to mature, but I get the impression that this is going to be something of a long-game plan.

Of course, Beast-Man – being the dimmest of the dim –drops the eggs en route to Snake Mountain, and naturally it’s Orko who finds them. Orko – being the second dimmest of the dim – doesn’t clock that these egg-shaped items might be eggs, and instead takes them back to the Palace to use in his tedious juggling routines. Well, we all know what Orko does in his juggling routines, don’t we? Yes, he drops things. In this case, he drops the eggs and they hatch into four bad-tempered baby dragons, which begin to cause havoc throughout the Palace.

Orko: “Let me see, how can I ruin everything this week?”

Man-at-Arms manages to repel the dragons, but the following day, they return, grown much larger. Turns out that dragons do grow quite quickly and therefore Beast-Man’s plan wasn’t all that long-game after all. The dragons are attracted to shiny objects, so they fly all over the city, attempting to steal metallic things such as a gold medallion, Mechaneck’s neck and finally one of Tri-Klops’ Doom Seekers, which in case you’re unaware, are automated flying spy devices.

With the dragons in hot pursuit, Skeletor redirects the Doom Seeker towards Castle Grayskull, hoping that on arrival the dragons will demolish the castle for him. He-Man and Teela show up in short order and are well on the way to winning, when the mother dragon appears. Ordinarily, this would spell bad news, but luckily it turns out that Teela and the mother dragon are already acquainted: in an early scene this week, Teela rescued the mother dragon when she was trapped in a cave.

Teela: “He-Man, why are you fighting me?”

In gratitude, the mother dragon calls off her attack and takes her four dragon children away, and that is almost that, except for the unexpected coda in which Skeletor shows up, riding a big green dragon and smirking all over his silly face. He-Man is once again on the edge of defeat, when the mother dragon returns and puts Skeletor to flight. We end with Teela coming surprisingly close to figuring out the Prince Adam/He-Man dichotomy, which is only deflected when Ram-Man, of all people, makes an incredibly feeble joke.

In today’s adventure…

The most readily apparent life lesson this week is that you should help animals in distress, but even this is a little muted by Adam and Teela constantly warning each other that wounded animals are dangerous. Perhaps the best thing to do would be to call a vet.

He-Man: “I’m pretty damn dangerous too.”

Character checklist

This week’s extravaganza features Prince Adam, He-Man, Cringer, Battle-Cat, Teela, Man-at-Arms, Orko, Ram-Man, Mechaneck, Stratos, Skeletor, Beast-Man, Evil-Lyn, Trapjaw, Trapjaw, Tri-Klops, some random cat guy, and a fair number of dragons.

Excuse given for Prince Adam’s disappearance

“Something’s wrong with my Sky Sled,” Adam claims, as he deliberately plummets to the ground to evade Teela’s eagle eyes. I’ve got to say it, Adam – that’s a good excuse. I’m dead impressed. And the excuses don’t stop there: when He-Man arrives, he explains to Teela that he “ran into Adam, borrowed his Sky Sled”, which nicely accounts for both He-Man’s presence and Adam’s absence. He-Man is evidently feeling pretty smug about this watertight story, since he takes the time to elaborate that Adam is a “nice kid”, which is perilously close to blowing his own trumpet.

Prince Adam: “I hereby award myself this medal for being so nice.”

Insults

Teela claims that Evil-Lyn bears a “resemblance” to the dragons, but otherwise the insults are once again left to Skeletor, who describes the Masters as “wretched” and Evil-Lyn, Trapjaw, Whiplash and Beast-Man as “cowards” and “worthless fools”.

Egg on your face?

I’m going to have to record here that a dragon egg lands on Ram-Man’s head and does crack open, but obviously it has a baby dragon inside and not a messy concoction of yolk and white.

Ram-Man: “This is not going to be good news, is it.”

Does it have the Power?

It feels very much like a Filmation episode, but it would have been one of those Filmation episodes that was quite annoying because of its sugar-sweetness. Because the MYP version of He-Man is a lot cooler, or at least thinks it is, there’s luckily not a lot of rabbiting about love and friendship and doing unto others as you would have them unto you, but on the other hand there’s not really much here to distinguish it. It’s exciting enough, it’s entertaining enough, but it’s no classic.

Episode 09 – The Ties That Bind

In which Teela develops telepathy, yet still somehow fails to figure it out about Prince Adam and He-Man.

As per usual, Skeletor’s weekly assault on Castle Grayskull ends in his being routed, but this time Teela sustains a serious injury. Man-e-Faces – who for whatever demented reason seems to be a doctor this week – concludes that she needs a large blood transfusion, at which all the various heroes chirp up to offer their blood. Man-at-Arms politely if forcefully declines, and takes Teela into Castle Grayskull to receive a blood donation from the Sorceress.

Teela: “Em, inappropriate touching much, Dad?”

The next scene sees Teela waking up in bed, with Ram-Man, Mechaneck and Man-e-Faces keeping vigil. Teela discovers that she can read their thoughts, and fortunately none of them are thinking anything particularly inappropriate. On the other hand, their thoughts are completely inane. Once Man-at-Arms learns of Teela’s newfound telepathy, he warns Prince Adam to stay away from Teela, in case she reads his mind and learns that he is He-Man. Because that would matter, obviously.

Over at Snake Mountain, Evil-Lyn detects Teela’s telepathy and starts projecting false messages to her, claiming that Skeletor’s forces will soon be mounting an attack by taking a back road through the Sands of Time. Teela takes the bait and gathers Mechaneck, Man-e-Faces and Ram-Man, taking them on a fool’s errand to defend against the alleged attack.

Teela: “Gotta say, probably won’t be putting this pic up on Instagram.”

In the meantime, Man-at-Arms has popped back to Castle Grayskull to have a quiet word with the Sorceress, in the course of which conversation we learn that the Sorceress is Teela’s mother and that Man-at-Arms is only her adoptive father. This would of course have more emotional impact if we hadn’t already learned this before, back in Teela’s Quest, but we can’t blame this series for wanting to clue non-Filmation viewers in on this fairly crucial bit of back story.

Man-at-Arms tries to persuade the Sorceress to tell Teela that she is her mother, but the Sorceress doesn’t have much in the way of cash at the moment, so isn’t inclined to make 16 years’ worth of back payments of pocket money. Frustrated at his failure to shift responsibility for planning Teela’s birthday parties, Man-at-Arms returns to the Palace, where he finds Teela has gone to the Sands of Time. Along with He-Man and Battle-Cat, he gives chase.

Of course, Skeletor is not traversing the Sands of Time, and Teela and her groupies quickly deduce that they’ve been tricked. Unfortunately, they are surrounded by a band of giant sand worms, which keep them occupied while Evil-Lyn leads an assault on Grayskull. He-Man and Man-at-Arms show up just in time to defeat the sand worms, at which point the Sorceress contacts Teela telepathically to request help in defending Grayskull.

Teela: “Oh god, we’ve got to defend Castle Grayskull from a giant see-through head.”

Teela, however, has learned from her previous experience and now isn’t sure whether she can trust the message. Eventually, though, she decides to heed the advice, and all the Masters head full-tilt to Grayskull, where they award Skeletor his second drubbing of the week. Once that’s over, Teela loses her telepathic powers, and Man-at-Arms apologises to the Sorceress, though God knows why.

In today’s adventure…

Today we learn that if you’ve got some relatively innocuous knowledge, you should pointlessly keep it a secret. The Sorceress claims that Teela couldn’t possibly cope with the revelation that she is her mother, but I’m at a total loss to understand why, and so I’m forced to the conclusion that the Sorceress just likes playing ridiculous mind games. This would also explain her unaccountable insistence that the Prince Adam/He-Man business remain a secret.

Character checklist

This one’s got a slightly tighter cast list than usual, consisting of Prince Adam, Cringer, He-Man, Battle-Cat, Teela, Man-at-Arms, the Sorceress, Ram-Man, Man-e-Faces, Mechaneck, Stratos, Skeletor, Evil-Lyn, Beast-Man, Tri-Klops and Trapjaw. Several of these individuals only appear very fleetingly, but since I’m thinking particularly of Stratos here, I don’t imagine anyone’s complaining.

Teela: “Pretty funky rave at Castle Grayskull today, eh?”

Excuse given for Prince Adam’s disappearance

Nothing this time, but since there’s only Man-at-Arms around at the time of the transformation, we’ll let him off on this occasion.

Insults

Evil-Lyn refers to Teela as a “little snipe”, which isn’t particularly noteworthy, but it is all the episode has to offer on this front.

Does it have the Power?

Rather like The Courage of Adam, this episode updates an instalment of the Filmation series, this one looking to the afore-mentioned Teela’s Quest for inspiration. The Ties That Bind is far more successful than The Courage of Adam – partly because Teela’s Quest is an important episode, and thus constitutes a story actually worth retelling – but it’s still hampered by the nonsensical rules that the original put in place. Can anyone satisfactorily explain to me why Teela shouldn’t learn the truth about her mother?

That aside, this episode is another confident instalment, notable for focussing far more on the supporting cast than He-Man, who barely gets a line this week. There’s good character development work for Teela, Man-at-Arms and the Sorceress, and it even finds time to delve slightly into Mechaneck’s personal neuroses by making him the target of a pretty decent joke. I’m also loving this incarnation of Skeletor, who gets defeated at the end of every episode but doesn’t seem to care in the slightest, instead simply leaping on a motorbike and riding off laughing maniacally. Once again, we have here an episode you’ll enjoy.

Episode 08 – Siren’s Song

In which Ram-Man goes rogue.

It’s a typical day on Eternia; Prince Adam and Teela are doing some training with Man-at-Arms, when Skeletor and a contingent of his best idiots make an attack on Castle Grayskull. This leads to one of the most epic and genuinely exciting battles we’ve yet seen on this series, but ultimately our heroes repel the assault, and Skeletor skulks off in defeat.

Evil-Lyn: “Truth be told, Clawful’s so useless the animators can’t even be bothered to colour him in.”

Unfortunately for Skeletor’s team, it’s now time for their end-of-year reviews, and Skeletor’s not in the mood to distribute any bonuses. Instead, he simply berates them for their uselessness, until Evil-Lyn eventually pipes up to suggest a new plan: she will somehow make Ram-Man appear to be a traitor, which will result in the goodies tearing themselves apart.

As luck would have it, Ram-Man is currently out alone, fishing. He is distracted by a beautiful woman warbling a tuneless ditty, and his boat capsizes. He washes up on the shore, where the woman appears again and introduces herself as the Siren Circe. She then helpfully explains to Ram-Man that he is now under her spell, and will be forced to do her bidding whenever she sings. After he follows her instructions, he will remember nothing. As if this weren’t bad enough, Circe then floats off, revealing to we viewers that she is in fact Evil-Lyn in disguise.

Ram-Man: “Is this one of those honey-trap things?”

It doesn’t take long for Skeletor to try to take advantage of this new development. Later that day, Man-at-Arms demonstrates a new weapons system, and Skeletor tells Evil-Lyn to arrange for Ram-Man to steal it. Ram-Man is successful, but the following day, Man-at-Arms quickly concludes that the theft must have been an inside job. This notion is proved when Adam and Teela subsequently observe Ram-Man giving the weapon to Evil-Lyn.

King Randor declares Ram-Man a traitor and locks him up, but – still under Evil-Lyn’s influence – Ram-Man simply rams his way out and does a runner. The vast majority of the goodies give chase, coming face-to-face with Skeletor and his cronies. But now it’s time for the big revelation: Man-at-Arms has known all along that Ram-Man has been under Evil-Lyn’s control, and the whole thing has been a massive bluff! If you though Inception was complicated, just wait till you see this.

He-Man: “Just to belittle Ram-Man, I’ll use only one hand to stop him.”

Given he’s a massive idiot, Man-at-Arms still manages to foul things up at this stage, and so it’s left to He-Man to come along and resolve the issue. Worryingly, even He-Man nearly gets defeated, and is only saved by Ram-Man, who thus redeems himself. There’s a final touching scene at the Palace, in which Ram-Man apologises to everyone for causing such a ruckus.

In today’s adventure…

This episode teaches us that if one of your best friends betrays you, don’t worry. He’s probably under some kind of mind control. The best thing to do is to go along with it for a while and in the meantime create an implausible scientific device that will allow you to break the spell.

Character checklist

Everyone and his mum, as usual, but for those keeping a record, I spotted Prince Adam, He-Man, Cringer, Battle-Cat, Man-at-Arms, Teela, Ram-Man, Mechaneck, Man-e-Faces, Stratos, Buzz-Off, King Randor, Skeletor, Beast-Man, Evil-Lyn, Trapjaw, Tri-Klops, Whiplash, and of course Clawful, whose contribution to the episode can charitably be described as unnecessary.

Buzz-Off: “Look at ME, not at that goofy Stratos imbecile.”

Excuse given for Prince Adam’s disappearance

The first time Adam becomes He-Man, he claims he knows a shortcut, and hurtles off. This would be good enough in itself, but Man-at-Arms then follows it up by telling Teela “don’t worry about Adam – he’ll catch up.” This truly is a golden age of excuses, and naturally something so good can’t last. The second and third transformations come with zero fanfare and no hint of an excuse.

Insults

Teela kicks things off by describing Beast-Man as “rude”, but thereafter it’s over to Skeletor, who tells Evil-Lyn, Beast-Man, Trapjaw, Tri-Klops, Whiplash and Clawful that they are “useless pathetic fools” and describes He-Man, Battle-Cat, Teela, Man-at-Arms, Ram-Man, Mechaneck, Stratos and Buzz-Off as “oafs”. He also reserves “wretch” for He-Man and refers to Adam as “bad royalty”.

Skeletor: “Proper smug about that zinger, if I’m honest.”

The Curse of the Tree Fellers

Ram-Man knocks down six trees during the exciting denouement to this week’s episode. This catapults him into the lead, apart from Evil-Lyn’s non-specific tally of “lots”.

Does it have the Power?

We have another winner here. The opening scene gives us a fight sequence between the heroes and villains, which are usually pretty dull, but this one manages to be exciting and tense. It even works to kick off the plot, rather than just coming across as time-killing, since it leads to Skeletor realising that brute force may not be the best approach and inspires him to try a more subtle angle. The siren storyline is pretty original and once again showcases Evil-Lyn at her devious best, and it’s quite interesting that the writer went for the leftfield choice of Ram-Man to be the traitor, rather than the more obvious Man-at-Arms or Teela, suggesting that the series is really aiming to be an ensemble show. This episode is entertaining, exciting and well-written, and well worth your time.