Episode 06 – Orko the Great

In which Duncan makes his biggest error yet.

Okay, so, last time, during the fight with the skeleton beasts, Duncan was saved from a nasty wallop by a flying bot belonging to the Eternian soldiers. As we open this week, it turns out that Duncan has brought the bot back to Grayskull to repair it, and he does so by inserting an SD card that he happens to find lying around. For whatever reason, and I can’t really be bothered to explore why, this seems to have the effect of imprinting the bot with a personality we all instantly recognise with a sinking sense of dread: Orko.

Orko: “Do you think I might be marginally less irritating if I put on a silly red cloak and hat?”

Elsewhere in the castle, the others are indulging in a lengthy training exercise/excuse to show off their powers, punctuated by the occasional comment from the hologram Sorceress to explain the background to the power of Grayskull. It’s a familiar story to those of us accustomed to MOTU lore: it was first wielded by King Grayskull many years ago, but because the power is so great, there haven’t been any champions worthy of having it for a long time. Or something like that. I don’t really care: I just want to see Skeletor and He-Man have a barney.

The gang are interrupted with a summons to the library, where the Orko-bot has gone nuts and has set fire to all the books. Over the course of a pretty interminable conversation, it’s revealed that the bot now thinks it is Orko, the self-described greatest wizard in all Eternia, and it takes off in a huff hoping to find somewhere it’ll be appreciated. Yeah, good luck with that.

Prince Adam: “So … now he’s gone, why can’t we just say ‘good riddance’?”

With Orko out in the world causing damage by setting fire to a forest, the team conclude that they’d better go and retrieve him. I have a better idea: they should incinerate him, and do Duncan too. But, as ever, our heroes are nicer people than me. Determining that the original Orko served at the court of King Grayskull, they deduce that the Orko-bot will now head for the city of Eternos in order to introduce itself to the king.

So with our heroes heading to Eternos, we now learn that Kronis is there too; he’s in disguise as General Doss and is looking for that corbonite that Skeletor was seeking last week. With the royal guard distracted by the Orko-bot’s nonsense – which involves the creation of a massive monster called Colossor, which is a lovely Easter Egg for the infinitesimally small number of people who enjoyed the original episode Colossor Awakes – Kronis manages to nick the corbonite and get away scott-free. As the episode ends, Duncan recovers the Orko-bot (to the unexpected soundtrack of a jazzy French number), while Adam attaches a note to a statue informing Randor that Keldor is alive.

Orko: “Me and Colossor back in one episode? You’re being spoiled.”

In today’s adventure…

Today we learn the value of reading the instruction manual before you start playing with potentially dangerous machinery. Duncan doesn’t do this before activating Orko – largely because he’s an infuriating wanker – but if he had, the whole sorry saga could have been avoided and we wouldn’t have to contend with the continuing misery of Orko being in this series.

Character checklist

Very few surprises here: it’s the usual line-up of Adam, He-Man, Cringer, Teela, Krass, Duncan, Orko, the hologram Sorceress, Skeletor, Kronis and Evil-Lyn, with special guest stars King Randor and two Eternian guards called Tuvar and Badra, who I suspect have an unfortunate future ahead of them.

Tuvar: “No, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.”

Insults

Perhaps I simply didn’t hear them over the sound of me screaming invective at Duncan and Orko, but I didn’t notice any insults today.

Does it have the Power?

This one is the first serious miss for me in this series: Duncan continues to be irritating as fuck, the Orko plotline is nothing more than serviceable and is often downright tedious, and the attempts at humour are way off – Tuvar and Badra’s double-act isn’t great, Orko’s malfunctioning spells are no funnier than they were back in Filmation, and Krass’ little Masters of the Universe song is unbelievably annoying. In general, the world of He-Man should probably stay away from songs (Exhibit A: Dree Elle’s Return).

Orko: “Don’t mention Dree Elle.”

On the plus side, Cringer manages to be pretty funny, getting in several great lines this week, and there’s a reasonably touching scene in which Adam finds a statue of himself and Keldor in Eternos, making him realise that perhaps King Randor does feel sorry that Adam was lost. I’m not quite sure where he got the idea that Randor wasn’t sorry about this, but hey ho.

Other than that, though, there’s not a lot to like about this one. Assuming Orko has now joined the team, it’s an important episode that explains where he came from, but if you can live without that knowledge, I would say this is a good one to skip.

Episode 05 – We Have the Power

In which Teela isn’t sure about her upgrade.

Adam, Teela, Krass, Duncan and Cringer remain in Castle Grayskull, where Teela is trying to learn more about their new roles as Masters of the Universe, Krass is sulking because she just wants to go home to the tiger village, and Adam is simply trying to find the castle’s bathroom. None of them have any particular success, though Teela does manage to temporarily activate a hologram of the Sorceress, and Adam seems to drop the bathroom subject relatively soon, so I suppose we can assume he found one.

Meanwhile, over at Snake Mountain, Evil-Lyn pointedly asks Skeletor whether he’s ever going to progress on his plans to conquer Eternia, and also suggests that he could maybe see his way to sharing the power of Havoc with her and Kronis in the same way Adam shared the power of Grayskull. Skeletor responds that he can’t do that (surprise, surprise) but he might be able to if he were able to get his bony mitts on a supply of corbonite to upgrade the Havoc Staff. Kronis pipes up that King Randor has a corbonite stash, and so plans are set in motion to nick it.

Evil-Lyn: “Why, Skeletor, how marvellously broody you look.”

Speaking of King Randor, he’s still trying to recover the power sword that Teela stole in The Sword of Grayskull, and he’s sent his army out to try to find it. Pretty soon, they suffer a mysterious attack – courtesy, no doubt, of Skeletor – and their SOS is received in Grayskull. Adam decides that the gang should use their new powers to help out, and despite some resistance from the others, away they go.

On arrival at the source of the SOS, the team all transform into their Master-y selves, except Teela, who’s clearly not sure about the whole setup and prefers to remain in her usual guise. Probably doesn’t hurt that even without her bonus abilities, she’s still relatively powerful, as opposed to nonentities like Duncan. Naturally, things go pear-shaped pretty quickly when several of Randor’s soldiers try to arrest He-Man and Teela, but they’re soon interrupted by the appearance of some glowing green skeleton beast things.

He-Man: “Something over there definitely needs punching.”

The skeleton beasts prove pretty formidable, and before long the team realise that they need Teela to power up and use the magic of the Sorceress. She takes a little persuading, but of course she does in the end and easily defeats the creatures, after which she’s rewarded with a little vision of the former Sorceress who explains that the power of Grayskull now rightfully belongs to Teela, and that she’s free to use it, so she can stop worrying about whatever she’s worrying about.

With Randor’s soldiers saved from the skeleton beasts, the gang head back to Grayskull, leaving the soldiers to comment that they’ll have another shot at arresting Teela and He-Man some other time. The episode ends with a little vignette in which it’s revealed that General Doss has been captured by Skeletor. You’ll forgive me if I don’t give a doss. God, I’m funny.

In today’s adventure…

The lesson today, I suppose, is that if you’ve been granted some superpowers, you shouldn’t be afraid to use them because you think they’ll lock you into some sort of destiny. Not, I admit, a terribly applicable life lesson but it’s definitely what Teela learns this time.

Teela: “So are you my mother, or does that only apply in other versions of this increasingly convoluted franchise?”

Character checklist

This one features Adam, He-Man, Cringer, Teela, Krass, Duncan, King Randor, General Doss, a bundle of Eternian soldiers, Skeletor, Evil-Lyn and Kronis, who’s now equipped with a red metal jaw and is thus well on his way to becoming Trapjaw. The holographic Sorceress, here given the name of Eldress, also puts in a few short showings.

Insults

There’s a reasonable insults bonanza this week, starting with General Doss referring to He-Man as a “brute” and Teela saying that Randor’s army are “thugs”. Krass describes Evil-Lyn as a “word-witch”, and while I don’t know what that is, it’s clearly not complimentary. Meanwhile, Evil-Lyn sums up Skeletor perfectly as a “skeletal despot with delusions of grandeur”, though she waits until he’s submerged in a Havoc pool to say so.

Skeletor: “So Evil-Lyn’s going to slag me off once I’ve got in the bath?”

Otherwise, there’s nothing except King Randor’s rather curious reference to He-Man and Teela as “enemies of the Republic”; now, I’m no political scholar, but I did rather think that a state that’s run by a king couldn’t be a republic. Though of course it is possible that Randor was suggesting He-Man and Teela are enemies of an unspecified republic that’s nothing to do with Eternia, not that that’s likely.

Does it have the Power?

It’s not going to change anyone’s world, but this is a perfectly decent little episode, which fits my favourite type of serialised story perfectly: it’s got its own separate self-contained story, but it also contains a number of elements for what I assume is the series’ overall plot, including Teela’s self-doubt and Randor’s hunt for our heroes. Our lead characters are still fun to spend time with (except Duncan, who’s still a twat), but it’s Skeletor who – as ever – steals the show: he’s gloriously over-the-top in both writing and performance, and his few scenes are probably the highlight of this episode. In summary, we have here a good if not outstanding showing that’s worth watching, but if you’re in a hurry to get through the series, you could probably safely skip it.

Episode 04 – The Champions of Grayskull

In which Skeletor makes his grand entrance. As do others, but it’s Skeletor we care about.

Good God, that’s four episodes in a row now where the title is The Something of Grayskull. There’s only so many options here. If we’re not careful we’ll soon be through all the sensible possibilities like The Honour of Grayskull or The Terror of Grayskull, and have to resort to nonsense like The Biscuits of Grayskull or Operator Can You Give Me The Telephone Number of Grayskull. Actually, you know what, I hope that sort of thing does happen. Being honest though, I suspect it won’t.

ANY-way, let’s pick up where we were last time: Keldor’s being a dick and demanding that He-Man surrender the power of Grayskull to him in exchange for not mutating his friends into Havoc monsters. Nothing comes of this, of course: He-Man simply delays long enough for Teela to free herself, and then it’s time for a big old barney. In the course of the battle, it occurs to He-Man that he could share the power of Grayskull with his mates – and thus it is that Cringer, Krass, Duncan and Teela all power up into Battle-Cat, Ram-Ma’am, Man-at-Arms and, er, Teela. Well, some kind of Teela/Sorceress hybrid, I suppose, but let’s carry on calling her Teela.

He-Man: “As Robbie Williams so presciently said, come and have a go if you think you are hard enough.”

This collection of Eternia’s finest immediately attack Keldor, Evil-Lyn and Kronis for another big bust-up, at the end of which the defeated Keldor willingly leaps into Grayskull’s power source and infects himself with absolutely shedloads of Havoc. As a result, he’s converted into our old mate Skeletor, and blimey o’rhymey it’s good to see him, especially when he retreats with Evil-Lyn and Kronis to Snake Mountain and starts spouting off about his intention to unleash Havoc across the world. Pure and simple Skeletor-esque lunacy. It’s great to have him back.

In today’s adventure…

He-Man ably demonstrates that sharing is a great idea; by distributing the power of Grayskull among his friends, the whole gang of them are able to successfully defeat Keldor and co. I’ve got to say though, it can’t be a great idea sharing such power with Duncan: Man-at-Arms is a big enough tool when he doesn’t have supernatural abilities, and I shudder to think what a twat he’s going to be now he’s charged up with Grayskull magic.

Duncan: “Yeah, but at least I don’t wear a green body stocking.”

Character checklist

A classic line-up is developing here: Adam, He-Man, Cringer, Teela, Krass, Duncan, Keldor, Evil-Lyn and Kronis. There’s also a return for the holographic Sorceress. The only newbie this week is a kind of shadowy version of Panthor, who I suspect will not be reappearing. Technically, I suppose I should list it when we see the powered-up versions of Teela, Krass, Duncan and Cringer, but frankly I’m not sure I can be bothered to type out their names each time it’s necessary, so we’ll probably be overlooking that. On the other hand, we’ll definitely be referring to Keldor as Skeletor from hereon.

Insults

Keldor’s pretty free and easy with the insults in the early moments of this episode, calling Krass a “helmet-girl”, Duncan a “wrench-boy”, and Teela a “street rat”. He also describes Adam as a “spoilt brat” and “arrogant”, also including King Randor with that latter appellation. Krass is the only one who retaliates, though her choice of “skeleton-hand” perhaps needs a little work; Teela does a little better by spitting “witch” at Evil-Lyn. Speaking of Evil-Lyn, though, we inch ever closer to the treasured appearance of the word ‘fool’ with her description of Adam as a “foolish child”.

Evil-Lyn: “Yeah, I can’t adequately explain what I’m doing here.”

Does it have the Power?

I’m not usually that fond of episodes that are little more than a massive battle scene – which is pretty much what this one is – but I’ll certainly make an exception this time: it may be flash-flash-bang-bang for most of its duration, but there’s no denying it’s a lot of fun too. Keldor remains nicely sinister, and his eventual transformation into the seemingly demented Skeletor is delightful, replete with over-the-top line delivery and scenery-chewing galore. The sequence in which all the heroes acquire the power of Grayskull is great too, and it’s a fantastic twist on the mythology for He-Man to share the power – though, frankly, I can do without the lengthy transformation sequences; hopefully we won’t have to sit through that every time they power up.

This episode feels like the final part of a multi-part series pilot: we now have the set-up, the background, and the characters. I’m very interested to see where we go next: will it be more story, or will the series do a few standalone episodes while we get used to the new status quo? Either way, I’m all in: this is a fantastic and fun He-Man series, possibly the first in 30 years or so that kids would be likely to really enjoy. Even if they don’t, though, I will.

Episode 03 – The Heirs of Grayskull

In which Keldor can’t maintain the pretence of being nice for more than five minutes.

While Adam and Keldor have a lovely reunion chat, the rest of the gang repair their ship and exchange their suspicions about Adam’s newly-found uncle; Teela in particular is concerned about the evil-looking green magic that’s emanating from some of Keldor’s gear. Cringer offers the reassuring but possibly deluded opinion that Adam is clever enough to work out if something’s amiss.

Cringer: “Just practicing my evil face. How’m I doing?”

Adam certainly doesn’t seem convinced by Keldor, but that’s largely because Keldor has informed him that he’s the son of King Randor, and this prompts Adam to make a rather pointed comment about how he doesn’t skip round in tights with a silly haircut. Er, 1980s Adam would like a word with you. Anyway, Keldor offers a spiel about how he and Adam are the heirs of Grayskull, born to rule Eternia using the power sword.

Adam’s unguarded response is that the sword’s batteries seem to be worn down, at which Keldor – rightly deducing that Adam cannot currently transform into He-Man – seizes the sword and does a runner. Reuniting with Evil-Lyn and Kronis, he makes a beeline for Grayskull itself, a magnificent fortress that is only revealed when Keldor inserts the power sword into some sort of rocky lock. He then dramatically bellows “Honey, I’m home!” which is a nice demonstration that he’s just as nuts as his many other incarnations.

Keldor: “He-Man always points the sword upwards, but I’m a born contrarian.”

Luckily, our heroes have managed to track Keldor and co. to Grayskull, and concluding that the baddies must have gone inside, they enter themselves – through a glowing blue portal, on the other side of which is a rocky landscape that doesn’t look like it would fit within the castle’s walls. Teela uses her magical powers to retrace the route that the baddies took, on the way picking up a nifty staff that she believes once belonged to the castle’s guardian.

The staff lights the way for our team to follow, bringing them to a room in which holograms of Keldor, Adam and the Sorceress are playing out a scene from several years previously, which reconfirms the not-difficult-to-comprehend notion that Keldor is a bit of a twat, though it fleshes it out with the revelation that some years past, he attempted to seize power by kidnapping Adam. The Sorceress offered Keldor a choice between a sword and a sceptre, and Keldor chose the sceptre and got the flesh burned off his arm as a reward, with the Sorceress only at that point explaining that the sword represents justice and the sceptre represents havoc.

Teela: “Oh Jesus, why are there two Adams here?”

After watching this little scene play out, Adam decides that he’s probably able to transform into He-Man again, and what do you know, he’s right. It’s rather lucky that he is, because Keldor chooses this moment to loom ominously out of the darkness behind him, and the two of them indulge in a punching match. Finally, Keldor gets to the point, explaining that he is infected with Havoc which is slowly transforming him into a pile of bones, and he’d like He-Man to reactivate Grayskull’s power so that he can heal himself and then get back to the serious business of conquering Eternia. As an added incentive, he threatens to turn Teela, Krass, Duncan and Cringer into Havoc-monsters if He-Man doesn’t comply. And that’s our cliffhanger this week, ladies and gentlemen.

In today’s adventure…

There’s a nice little scene in the middle of the episode in which Krass berates herself for not saving the others from a rockslide sooner; the others reassure her that they all screwed up in different ways. The lesson is presumably therefore that if you mess something up, make damned sure your friends have messed up too so that your oversight is part of a collective rather than a personal failing.

Cringer: “Just so we’re clear, I have not screwed anything up.”

Character checklist

No surprises for anyone here, I’m sure: it’s just the classic line-up of Adam, He-Man, Cringer, Teela, Krass, Duncan, Keldor, Evil-Lyn and Kronis. We also get our first look at the Sorceress, who appears in hologram form.

Insults

The episode starts off well, with Duncan referring to Keldor as “Uncle Convenient” and Keldor describing Evil-Lyn and Kronis as “sociopaths”. Things rather tail off after the opening five minutes though, broken only by Keldor’s description of the Sorceress as Grayskull’s “blasted guardian”.

Keldor: “Well, I’m not wrong, am I?”

Does it have the Power?

This episode opens very strongly, and it’s a pity that Keldor’s deception doesn’t last longer than two minutes – the scene in which he is buttering Adam up, pretending to be his friend, is wonderfully sinister, and it’s a shame this fun dynamic is abandoned so soon in favour of Keldor revealing his true colours. It’s a further shame that instead, we get a fairly tedious subplot about Adam’s gang being buried under a rockfall, which occupies the entire first half of the episode and comes across simply as time wasting, even if it does give us a quick insight into Krass’ past – at some point, her parents were killed in a vehicle crash, which she survived because she was wearing her father’s helmet.

Once we reach Grayskull, things pick up again a bit, and I’m pretty sure we now understand the sequence of events that led us to where we were, with the exception of Adam’s amnesia. I’m not 100% sure why Adam wasn’t and then was able to transform into He-Man, but at least now he can, and he has to deal with a good old moral dilemma that he can’t solve just by punching it. Will he save his friends or continue to defy Keldor? Or might he possibly find a way to do both? I’m looking forward to finding out next time.

Episode 02 – The Power of Grayskull

In which Prince Keldor unexpectedly turns out to not be dead.

Picking up from last week’s cliffhanger, He-Man spends a fair bit of time smashing bots to pieces. This continues until Evil-Lyn casts a duplication spell, ensuring that for every bot He-Man destroys, about ten more blink into existence. Sensing danger, He-Man tells Teela to stay behind him, which would be really helpful if the vast majority of the bots weren’t also behind him. I’ve always suspected He-Man was a bit dim, and this does rather add fuel to that particular fire.

He-Man: “Does this face scream ‘University Challenge competitor’ to you?”

Even so, He-Man does manage to defeat all the bots via some magical mumbo-jumbo, but doing so leaves him weak, forcing him to depower back into Prince Adam. Luckily, just as Evil-Lyn and Kronis are about to finish our team off, Duncan – who up to this point has been Kronis’ lackey – switches sides and runs them over with a big flying vehicle. He welcomes Adam, Teela, Krass and Cringer aboard – though Krass is extremely unhappy about Teela’s presence – and they fly off to safety.

But not for long – the ship is damaged after ramming Evil-Lyn and Kronis, so the team find a place to land and make repairs. Instead of actually making repairs, though, they sit around the campfire trying to find out if anyone else can transform using the magic words, efforts which are rather amusing but entirely unsuccessful. Adam suggests that the sword’s battery might be run down anyway, and goes stomping off for a little walk.

Prince Adam: “Can we just jettison Duncan now, before he develops into Man-at-Arms?”

Meanwhile, back in Eternos, King Randor receives a report that the only thing Teela stole was the power sword, which prompts him to give us a little bit of back story: some years ago, the power sword resulted in the deaths of Randor’s son and brother. I mean, I bet it didn’t, but let’s go with it for now. We also get a quick clip of that enigmatic chap from last week, who today is slithering around in the mountains gibbering stuff like “Soon, Randor” to himself. I am feeling very perceptive and reckon this fellow might be a bad’un.

This is confirmed a moment later, when Evil-Lyn and Kronis – searching for our heroes – come across a squadron of royal guards who have been drained of all their life force. The guilty party is, of course, the man from the mountains, whose name is hereby revealed to be Prince Keldor. He seems to have previous with Evil-Lyn and Kronis: ten years ago, the three of them plotted a coup against King Randor, but something went wrong. Evil-Lyn notes that Keldor kidnapped Randor’s son and then vanished.

Evil-Lyn: “Say, Keldor, what red eyes you’ve got.”

Keldor explains that he attempted to take the Power of Castle Grayskull, but was repelled by the castle’s guardian, who gave him some kind of affliction, which has resulted in the flesh coming away from his bones. As it stands, the issue seems to be limited to his left arm, but we’ve all seen the opening credits and can be fairly sure it’ll spread. Keldor thinks so too, but he believes that if he acquires the power sword and uses it in Grayskull, he can cure himself. With this established, he teams up with Evil-Lyn and Kronis to hunt our heroes.

Adam has spent a little bit of time talking to Krass, explaining that as He-Man, he felt a connection to something bigger, something that might give him answers about his past – but that he’s worried pursuing these answers will take him away from Krass and Cringer. Krass reassures him, stating that she’s coming with Adam wherever he goes. This touching conversation is interrupted by the return of the bots, who are about to defeat our heroes when Keldor intervenes, introducing himself as Adam’s uncle and informing him that it’s time to come home.

Teela: “Anyone else getting ‘Evil Overlord of Destruction’ vibes from that guy?”

In today’s adventure…

A rather less obvious moral than last week, I’m afraid; indeed, I struggled to find anything. Maybe we could go with Krass’ message that when your friends are experiencing major life upheavals, you should stick with them. Yeah, that’ll do.

Character checklist

Same as last week, I think: that’s Adam, He-Man, Cringer, Teela, Krass, Duncan, Evil-Lyn, Kronis, Keldor, King Randor, and the welcome return of fan-favourite General Doss.

King Randor: “Don’t even think of trying to upstage me, General Doss. I’m everyone’s favourite character and don’t you forget it.”

Insults

The proportion of insults remains high, with Evil-Lyn leading the field by referring to Adam as a “brat” and a “muscle-bound child”, calling Duncan a “runt” and suggesting that King Randor is a “dullard”. Elsewhere, we find Krass calling Teela a “witch”, Kronis calling Evil-Lyn a “show-off”, and Cringer pleasingly addressing Kronis as a “technological terror”. Finally, at one point, Kronis mutters something at one point that might be “foolish children”, but in all honesty he’s got a bit of an enunciation problem and I didn’t fully catch his comment.

Does it have the Power?

It’s not quite as fun or compelling as last week’s but still a good showing. I enjoyed the introduction of Keldor, who’s an oily presence with an underlying hint of extreme danger: he’s well-written and well-voiced. I also liked Adam, Krass, Teela and especially Cringer, who gets a few very good visual jokes this week. Duncan, unfortunately, seems destined to get on my tits almost as much as the old Man-at-Arms, just in a different way: he’s hyperactive and insecure, which now that I write it suggests that he’s filling the Orko-sized gap in this series. We’ll wait and see, but he’s not made a good first impression. The story this week is still virtually non-existent – like last week, it boils down to everybody looking for the sword – but since we’re still getting to know the characters, that’s kind of okay. Even so, we are getting some build-up of the lore, what with Keldor’s back story being filled out, and the shock revelation that Adam is part of the royal family. I’m definitely still interested to see where we go next, so I suppose the episode has done its job.

Episode 01 – The Sword of Grayskull

In which Teela and Duncan find themselves on the wrong side.

Right, well, here we go on yet another series, the Netflix CGI He-Man reboot that aired roughly contemporaneously with Revelation, but aimed at a rather different audience: children. So let’s see what a 21^st century He-Man series made for kids looks like.

It starts with two baddies, Evil-Lyn and Kronis, attempting to break into the Royal Palace and steal the Sword of Grayskull. So far, so MOTU, but there’s a twist – they’re being assisted by Teela! In this incarnation, Teela is not captain of the guard, but instead an acrobatic young street thief who also has some impressive magical powers. When she lays hands on the sword, she gets a telepathic message – well, maybe not a message, more a random jumble of words, but it’s enough to make her realise that the sword is very powerful.

Teela: “Say, do you reckon this hardware is in any way important?”

Instead of handing the sword over to Evil-Lyn, Teela does a runner, now instructed via telepathy to “bring the sword to the champion”. After this, more than five minutes into the episode, we suddenly cut into the opening credits, which consist of a really odd song that defies musical categorisation. Is it rock? Is it rap? Pop? I don’t know. The credits do, however, include footage of various other characters who we’ve not met yet, including He-Man and Skeletor, and I’ve got to be honest – it all looks pretty cool, and properly whets my appetite for this series.

Anyway, once the credits are over, we finally meet Prince Adam, who’s hanging out in a forest with a young lady called Krass. Adam looks younger, but otherwise not dissimilar to his other selves; Krass doesn’t appear to bear any resemblance to any other characters in the MOTU canon, unless I missed the appearance of a woman wearing a motorcycle helmet and a Union Jack crop top. However, based on her occasional behaviour, I’d say she’s a radical reinterpretation of Ram-Man.

Prince Adam: “So, who are you, anyway?”

Cringer is also present, as indeed are an entire tribe of other green and yellow tigers, and it is quickly explained that Adam and Krass live as part of the tribe, which also includes a number of people. Adam and Krass have no memory of where they originally came from, and although they’d like to find out, they’re happy in their life with the tiger tribe, despite the danger posed by a gentleman known as R’Kazz, who regularly kidnaps the tigers and forces them to fight in an arena. This fate has already befallen Cringer once, and he’s been declawed as a result.

Teela shows up at the tiger tribe village, explaining as an opening gambit that a voice in her head told her to come here. I’d have kept that quiet, personally, but hey ho, you do you, Teela. When falling out of a tree, she saves herself by using magic, and gets herself locked up for her troubles – it seems magic is discouraged among the tiger tribe. Adam, however, feels she’s not much of a threat, and spends some time with her, learning that she thinks he must come from the city of Eternos, probably from a noble family. I have a feeling she might be right, you know. She also reveals that she’s here to deliver a package to a champion, which seems to get things moving in Adam’s mind.

They’re interrupted by the arrival of Evil-Lyn and Kronis, accompanied by their apprentice Duncan and an army of flying bots, demanding that Teela be handed over. You’d think that the tiger tribe would be all too willing to do so, given they’ve locked Teela up anyway, but no, they decide to fight. The bots devastate the village, burning it to the ground, after which Evil-Lyn and Kronis pursue Adam and Teela into the woods. Sorely provoked, Adam somehow gets it into his head to shriek those magic words about the Power of Grayskull – and lo and behold, there’s He-Man. Hurrah!

He-Man: “Hi, I’m He-Man. Sometimes I have more intelligent expressions.”

In today’s adventure…

Not surprisingly, there’s no post-episode moral segment in this series, but it’s not difficult to discern today’s message if you know where to look for it. At one point, Krass addresses the camera directly to proclaim “every problem can be solved by ramming it with my helmet”, which is not only a statement that’s way open to euphemistic misinterpretation if you’re that way inclined, but also a direct contradiction of Ram-Man’s infamous moral delivered in House of Shokoti, Part 1, in which he proclaims that ramming things is dangerous and dumb. So what should we make of this? Have things changed so dramatically over the last 40 years that ramming things is no longer dangerous and dumb, but in fact actively encouraged? Or is Krass merely deluded, in which case why deliver this statement as if it’s a directive for the audience? I’m so confused.

Character checklist

This opening episode involves Prince Adam, He-Man, Cringer, Teela, Krass, Duncan, King Randor, Evil-Lyn, Kronis, some dude called General Doss, two royal guards, and any number of tigers and tiger tribe people. There’s also a last minute appearance for a chap hanging out at an instantly recognisable redesigned Snake Mountain bellowing about how he’d like to obtain the power of Grayskull; this guy doesn’t get a name, but I think we all know who he is.

Mysterious man: “Let’s not spoil the surprise.”

Excuse given for Prince Adam’s disappearance

As with other modern MOTU properties, it seems the secret identity business isn’t going to be a goer in this series. Adam transforms into He-Man in front of goodies and baddies alike, so trying to pretend he didn’t would be futile. Though it would be funny watching a series where Adam transforms into He-Man in full view all the time, but then just blanket denies it.

Insults

The writers of this series seem to have grasped that much of the joy of He-Man is in watching the characters bellow insults at one another. There’s nothing particularly extravagant here, nor does anyone manage the classic “fool”, but there’s certainly enough to be getting on with, starting with Evil-Lyn calling Teela a “halfwit” and a “traitorous whelp”, and addressing Adam as a “thief”. Krass calls Teela a “flashy magic-wielder” and says a couple of bots are “circuit-brains”, and Adam affectionately calls her a “helmet-head”. Finally, Kronis tells Duncan he’s a “coward”.

Evil-Lyn: “Stop wasting time with insults! Let’s go!”

Does it have the Power?

This may sound a bit nuts, but I had such a big smile on my face while watching this. It’s a pretty radical departure from the MOTU I grew up with, but this reimagining of that world really seems to work. There’s only so often we need to go over the same old story, and having Adam as an apparent orphan, taken in by the tiger tribe and presumably gradually learning his destiny, is a pleasingly fresh take on the mythos. Teela and Krass are well-established too, and Cringer’s redesign as a slightly curmudgeonly authority figure is a great switch-up for his character.

Duncan is less compelling thus far, but he doesn’t get a lot of screen time, and frankly, can he ever really be worse than his old self? It’s interesting to see him and Teela start their journey in league with the baddies, even though they’re clearly not evil, so hopefully we’ll get an explanation of how that came to be. Speaking of the baddies, Evil-Lyn is fantastic: dangerous and purring, with great voice acting, but Kronis – who I think is going to become Trapjaw eventually – is fairly dull so far.

Reimagining the characters is all very well, but it’s no good if the plot and the script aren’t up to scratch, but happily they very much are. We get straight into the action from the very first scene, and though the story is little more than ‘hunt the sword’, it’s more than sufficient as it’s just a vehicle to let us get to know the characters, which is achieved extremely efficiently. And best of all, this episode is funny. There’s some great jokes here, both visual and scripted, and it’s plain that although the underlying story may be serious, the series isn’t going to be afraid to have a little bit – or hopefully a lot – of fun along the way.

In short, yes, it’s got the Power. This is a fabulously entertaining opening episode, and I can only hope the rest of the series lives up to this potential. Let’s tune in again next week to find out.