Collision Course

The scientists propose a reverse gravity generator, and Skeletor and Flogg steal the plans and the disk. Skeletor has his tech mutants build a version a thousand times more powerful, and Sebrian soon senses that something is wrong in the trisolar system: a planet has vanished, and Primus could be next. The scientists' counter-generator fails, so He-Man and his friends set off for Denebria with a tracker and a replacement disk. After a tangle over the controls that swings gravity from five times normal to none, they swap the disk and Primus returns to its orbit. Meanwhile young Caz, who dreams of fighting Mutants, learns that herding sheep matters too, and the closing lesson warns about old trunks.

Do not play or hide in an old trunk or refrigerator, because you could get trapped; stay safe by playing it safe.

Who gets to be a hero when the problem is as large as a planet and the person asked to help is a shepherd? "Collision Course" answers in two registers at once, a cosmic one in which Skeletor's reverse gravity generator threatens to push Primus out of its solar system, and a small one in which Caz is told that herding sheep matters as much as fighting Mutants. The two stories share a half hour, and the better idea belongs to the small one.

The big plot is brisk. The scientists announce a reverse gravity generator that creates a temporary negative force field, someone asks the obvious question about what the Mutants would do with the gap, and a voice of approval tells the team to start building at once. Skeletor and Flogg decide they will have to steal the plans, and the workshop scene has a lovely bit of nonsense in it: a transport announcement for flight 1138, a jab that somebody's robot suit did not come with braids, and a cheerful remark that good robot help is so hard to find. Skeletor then orders his tech mutants to build a generator a thousand times more powerful than theirs by that afternoon, which they manage with time to kill.

Where the episode shines is in the character work around the spine. In plain terms, the story is about different people being needed for different jobs, and the speech that carries it is the one given to Caz after his practice swings at the Mutants: herding sheep is not like fighting Mutants, but it is just as important, because some people fight while others look after Primus's few natural resources. Caz wonders why it has to be him, and the answer is a sympathetic one, that the speaker would like something exciting too. It is a modest, humane scene, and its payoff at the close is the best use of the idea: Caz is told that his quick thinking held back a flood, and that a good shepherd needs lightning reflexes.

The villain side supplies the comedy. Once the heroes reach the building, a scramble over the controls swings gravity from five times normal to zero while someone is called an imbecile, and the heroes announce their own game, which they call Zappa Hero, and score a point for He-Man.

The weakness is how quickly the stakes are dispatched. Sebrian discovers that a planet has vanished, and the story moves on quickly to the tracker, the button gags and a power meter that climbs back to one hundred percent, so the loss of a world is a line of dialogue rather than a scene. Most likely this is the tone of the slot, a lighter adventure with a cheerful finish, but it leaves the threat feeling abstract, and the scientists' own generator failing with a polite glitch is a shortcut that hands the rescue to He-Man.

Verdict: a good-natured adventure with a lively villain pair and one properly warm idea about the value of ordinary work. It sits in the middle of the run, and it closes on its spine: the person minding the sheep matters, and so does the one with the tracker.

1. Homage: The He-Man wiki says Master Sebrian sensing a disturbance after the Mutants blow up a planet mirrors Obi-Wan Kenobi sensing a disturbance in Star Wars.
2. Homage: According to the wiki, Transport Flight 1138 refers to the 1971 film THX 1138 by George Lucas, a number that appears in Lucas's later productions.
3. Edit history: The wiki lists an animation error: Master Sebrian is drawn with a moustache in one shot at the window and without it in the next.
4. Voice cast: Venus Terzo is credited only as a computer voice here, and Ted Cole voices both Staghorn and Gleep, per the He-Man wiki cast list.
5. Voice cast: Garry Chalk voices He-Man and Alcon, and Scott McNeil voices BH and Krex, according to the wiki cast list.
6. Behind the scenes: In the closing safety segment Caz locks himself in a trunk while pretending to be He-Man, and the lesson is to play it safe, per the He-Man wiki.