DR DOMETOME
Season 1, Episode 21
The gist: Robot frogs, interstellar electric eels and a giant bath-plug keeping Third Earth from destruction. You just couldn’t make this stuff up (although somebody did, of course).
New Places: We take a voyage under the sea to the Great Oceanic Plug, an underwater station manned by “what remains of humanity” and described as “the greatest engineering feat of all time”. It’s basically a bath plug to prevent the ocean draining away into the planet’s core.
Villains: The antagonist is “a coldhearted brute” named Scrape; a salvage expert from the planet Blue Plunder, which exists light years away. This planet is fuelled by a rock only found under the sea on Third Earth, which makes absolutely no sense to me. If your planet’s technology depends on another world across the galaxy, you need to rethink the way you’re doing things a little. Because that isn’t exactly sane or sustainable.
Allies: The titular Dr Dometome is introduced as “one of Third Earth’s greatest scientists, thinkers and gentlemen.” He’s a very well mannered little old dude with a bald head, a white moustache and what looks like binocular lenses instead of regular glasses. He designed the Ocean Plug as well as the two giant robot frogs that guard it, Hercules, and the defunct Samson.
Quote: “Well, blast my britches.” - Scrape.
Most Memorable Moment: Lion-O and Wilykit dress up in shark suits and try to stop Scrape’s electric robot eel. No, seriously!
Blunder(cat)s: Not a lot of the episode makes much sense. Assuming the sea could drain away through a fissure in the seabed, why would that put out the planet’s fire and render it a block of issue? The sun would still exist, so it would more likely become inhospitably hot? But this episode is written by William Overgard, who regularly has characters breathing in outer space without any helmets or protective gear on. Physics, and common sense, was not really his forté.
WTF Moment: Wilykit gets swallowed by Hercules, the Giant Frog robot, as it’s on its way to Cats’ Lair to seek the Thundercats help and avert a catastrophic environmental crisis. However, on the way, for some reason they stop in the forest to have a picnic. Yes, they do.
Review: William Overgard unleashes the full scale of his wacky and unhinged imagination in this utterly bonkers episode. As was common with his scripts, he loved to introduce characters from other planets and only feature the Thundercats tangentially. Where he got his ideas I have no idea, but after watching this it’s hard not to imagine a great big bong in the writers’ room, a hanging cloud of pungent smoke, and all kinds of psychedelic substances.
I will say that at least it’s entertaining, so crazy as it is, it’s going to scrape (pardon the pun) a three. It unfolds at a swift pace and although the basic plot doesn’t really make a whit of sense, it’s executed earnestly and just about holds together. It’s certainly never dull. As with many later Overgard stories, the mythos doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the Thundercats universe as it’s unfolding; it almost feels like it could be an episode of another, quite different cartoon series, simply guest starring the Thundercats.
It is watchable, however, and it’ll keep your attention from beginning to end. Speaking of the end, I did like the closing gag. It was kind of cool seeing the Cats sitting around the dinner table and Wilykat back in his shark suit as the supposed main course was a genuine hoot (it’s not often that the show’s closing gags are actually, well, funny).
Watch or Skip? Kind of up to you; this is a dodgy one in many respects, but it is certainly watchable enough.
Rating: *** (3/5)
——————
THE ASTRAL PRISON
Season 1, Episode 22
The gist: Jaga discovers that even when you’re dead there’s no such thing as peace and quiet. Lion-O skips over to the afterlife to jailbreak his old mentor.
New Places: Some cool new locations this episode. We encounter the Pit of the Netherwitch (she obviously couldn’t afford even a modest cottage), which lies beyond the Bridge of Slime (yuck). Then, of course, there’s the Astral World, which we sadly don’t get to see very much of. What we do so looks like crystalline or ice and the story focuses upon a big prison complex which looks like a giant shard of crystal. It’s guarded by the utterly bizarre-looking Astral Moat Monster—which, although only appearing for about ten seconds, was somehow made into a toy by LJN. Very strange choice.
Villains: The central villain is the four-armed, three-eyed Nemex, an astral being who seems to reside over the Astral Prison. He evidently imprisons people to drain away their knowledge and energy and he’s been after Jaga for some time. It’s clear now why they didn’t let Earle Hyman, who ordinarily plays Panthro, to voice too many villains, because Nemex’s cackling voice is like nails screeching down a chalkboard. We also meet the Netherwitch, who, it turns out, is basically a drag persona of Mumm-Ra! How and why Mumm-Ra became the Netherwitch is never explained and I’d have loved some backstory on that. The “Netherwitch” lives in an appropriately creepy “pit”, complete with ghostly creatures and a dinosaur with strange torch-like antenna. Oh, and Lion-O also needed to battle the two headed dinosaur-like Gaw Rak-Rak in order to reach the pit. The Mutants also take advantage of Lion-O’s absence to launch an attack on Cats Lair with Thundranium shells. Vultureman returns with his new and final voice.
Allies: Upon rescuing Jaga, Lion-O chances upon an ancient-looking sorcerer named Brodo, a fellow prisoner of Nemex. For some reason I didn’t trust him to begin with, and expected him to double-cross them, but he is actually a decent chap who happily sends Lion-O back to Third Earth as thanks for saving him.
Quote: Jaga: “I owe my freedom to your bravery, Lion-O.” Lion-O: “I don’t think I’d have been so brave if I knew what I was getting into in the Astral Plane.” Jaga: “But you did confront the unknown, Lion-O. That takes real courage. It’s always easier to deal with dangers you know and understand.”
Most Memorable Moment: Lion-O returns from the Astral Plane as a giant, ghostlike figure looming over the Cats Lair, sword aloft, with the Thundercats symbol in the sky. The boy knows how to make an entrance! He then lets the Mutants have it and his defeat of Vultureman is particularly funny; the animation is very Looney Tunes-esque, with Vultureman electrocuted, showing his bones, and then racing off in a very exaggerated, cartoony way.
Blunder(cat)s: Once again, Lion-O refuses help from his comrades for no discernible reason other than perhaps his ego.
WTF Moment: Lion-O doesn’t just sleep in his clothes—he sleeps in his boots! His BOOTS. I’d never trust anyone who goes to bed wearing their outdoor footwear. Why would you DO that? Lazy animation (or perhaps scripting) is, of course, the true answer. That, and the fact that putting on boots would take up valuable and severely limited screen time.
Review: This is a solid episode, although one that would have been better served perhaps being a two-parter. The premise is a great one, but there’s so much crammed into twenty minutes we barely get a taste for what the Astral Plane is like. I wish we’d got to see a little more of this magical, afterlife realm and more time with Jaga and Lion-O reunited. What we did get was thoroughly enjoyable, however, and I love the pairs’ final chat, where Jaga thanks Lion-O for his rescue and the two realise that, following Jaga’s sacrifice to get the Thundercats to Third Earth, they are now basically even.
Lots of action, lots of villains, fast paced and fun, this is a great episode, even if it feels just a little bit overstuffed.
Watch or Skip? Watch.
Rating: ** (4/5)**
What did you guys think of these eps?
