NEW ADVENTURES - 1990

No Easy Way

No Easy Way title card
E46

Official Synopsis

Master Sebrian is gripped by thorny vines beside burning flames and smoke.

Hydron, Artilla and their crews set out for a new moon formed by a crater on Fytrion, and an asteroid field forces volunteers into astrosubs, where He-Man finds a way through by attacking the rocks from behind. On the moon, vines drain the starships' oxygen, Mutants raid the camp, and Alcon and Gepple find a cave plant that repels Mutants. Master Sebrian awards them the Primus Legion of Merit Medal and declares the shield no longer needed. Then the plants adapt and turn on the Primans too, and a fire extinguisher shows that cold stops them. Snow seeds are released over the planet, and a viewer is warned to wear a safety belt.

Morals by closing safety lesson, paraphrased from the episode audio

The closing lesson uses Flipshot, who complains that his safety belt is strangling him and starts to take it off, and the speaker tells viewers not to be like him: always wear a safety belt, even when everything seems safe and peaceful, whether in a car or an Astrosub.

heman.org Episode Review

Who checks a cure for side effects once the first patients have recovered? "No Easy Way" is built around that question, though it waits a good while before asking it, because the opening stretch is an expedition story that seems to belong to a different episode. Hydron, Artilla and their crews are bound for a new moon, which the characters later identify as a piece broken off Fytrion, a planet the opening narration describes as a place of intense heat, plant life and volcanoes, and before anyone can set foot on it an asteroid field has to be cleared, so volunteers must fly astrosubs in after the laser barrage.

The asteroid sequence is the show on a modest budget: one clear problem, a joke that Gepple and a crewmate have finally found something to agree on, and a piece of advice for He-Man. When one way does not work, a voice tells him, seek the other way; he answers the Sorceress that there is no other way, then orders the ships back toward the starships, waves off an objection with a curt 'don't argue with me', and decides to attack the asteroids from behind, with the way of the magic to lead him through. It is a tidy lesson in lateral thinking, handed to the hero just as he is at his most stubborn.

Put in plain words, the story is about a defense that is trusted before it is tested. On the moon, something blocks the starships' airlock doors and the vines drain their oxygen, then the vines wither, which someone calls a very short life cycle; later, in a cave beside an underground lake, he and Gepple find a different plant that repels Mutants. Back on Primus the discovery is rewarded in public: Master Sebrian announces that planting it around the planet means the shield will no longer be needed and the greatest minds on Primus are freed from maintaining it and awards the two finders the Primus Legion of Merit Medal. A voice jokes that the Galactic Guardians may soon be out of a job.

The plants are now on every part of Primus, and when someone reports that something has gone wrong, the cause is the very quality that was prized: they have adapted to their new surroundings and treat the Primans the way they treated the Mutants, giving off a chemical that keeps people from getting close. He-Man's sword cannot stop them, and he sets out to save Master Sebrian from the branches. The cure arrives sideways: the freezing chemicals in a fire extinguisher begin to destroy the plants, someone works out that plants used to the heat of Fytrion cannot stand cold, and the troopers are told to release snow seeds across the planet. A voice is quick to insist that the snow was his own idea.

The weakness is the villain side, and the likely reason is the half hour slot: with an expedition, a discovery, a ceremony and an invasion of plants to fit in, Skeletor and Flogg get only a couple of short scenes. Skeletor asks Flogg whether he was right that the Primans would come to investigate the moon, holds him back from attacking at once, and says it is better and more fun to pick them off when the ships separate; later a mutant raiding party is reported, and little more is made of it. A threat that thin cannot compete with the plants for the role of antagonist.

Verdict: a sturdy adventure with a fable at its centre, a science-over-swordplay story that is good company, with a middle that sags where the villains fill space. It closes on its spine: a defense is only finished once somebody has asked what it will do to its friends.

Notes of Interest

  1. Behind the scenes: Throughout this story the Primans count time in Earth units such as weeks and months, not their own Telk and Dollop, according to the He-Man wiki.
  2. Continuity: The He-Man wiki records that Clawber appears only in the closing safety moral, and lists it as his final Jetlag Productions appearance.
  3. Continuity: Slush Head and Optikk are listed on the He-Man wiki as non-speaking cameos among the Mutants.
  4. Behind the scenes: In the closing moral, Flipshot loosens his tight safety belt in an Astrosub and refastens it after a near collision with Clawber, per the He-Man wiki.
  5. Voice cast: Garry Chalk voices He-Man, Alcon and Artilla here, and Alvin Sanders voices both Flogg and Tuskador, according to the He-Man wiki cast list.
  6. Voice cast: The wiki cast list credits Venus Terzo as the Sorceress and Anthony Holland as Master Sebrian.

Cast Appearances

Full roster →
He-Man
Good

He-Man
Prince Adam
Good

Prince Adam
Skeletor
Evil

Skeletor
Flogg
Evil

Flogg

Episode screenshots

A small man in a red cape rests a hand on a bespectacled man with tall blond hair.
A small man in a red cape rests a hand on a bespectacled man with tall blond hair.
Adam faces a white-bearded old man holding a staff in a dim metal hangar.
Adam faces a white-bearded old man holding a staff in a dim metal hangar.
A raised fist grips the Power Sword against a dark metal wall.
A raised fist grips the Power Sword against a dark metal wall.
He-Man stands with one arm raised high beside the old man holding a staff.
He-Man stands with one arm raised high beside the old man holding a staff.
He-Man and the white-bearded old man look off to one side, smiling, with a gnarled staff between them.
A slanted metal ramp runs along a hangar wall, with tiny figures at the top.
A slanted metal ramp runs along a hangar wall, with tiny figures at the top.
Two helmeted crew members flank a brown armored figure seen from behind.
Two helmeted crew members flank a brown armored figure seen from behind.
A red-haired figure in a gold helmet stands with his back to the viewer.
A red-haired figure in a gold helmet stands with his back to the viewer.
A pale armored figure with a blue eye patch looks to one side.
A pale armored figure with a blue eye patch looks to one side.
A white spaceship sits with red and blue booster pods along its hull.
A white spaceship sits with red and blue booster pods along its hull.
The underside of a white spacecraft hangs against a pale sky.
Two pilots sit side by side at a cockpit console with a white table in front.
A bespectacled man with tall blond hair sits at a console while the red-caped man looks on.
A viewscreen with white streaks shows the faint face of a dark-haired man.
The red-caped man speaks to the seated bespectacled man while a red-haired pilot sits in a far cockpit.
He-Man stands between two dark-haired crew members behind an armored figure with a blue eye patch.
A red-haired pilot watches a screen showing He-Man and two crew members.
A white spaceship with red booster tips flies through space toward a small distant craft.
Laser beams blast asteroids into dust clouds.
The red-caped man looks worried as the bespectacled man spreads one hand beside him.
Rounded white hull panels of a spaceship fill the frame.
A figure in a gold hooded suit clenches a fist in the cockpit.
A radar screen shows a cluster of red dots inside a circle.
A pilot in a gold helmet with a blue visor sits in a cockpit seat.
A wide blue eye under a blond brow fills the frame.
A pilot in a blue visor helmet speaks from the cockpit seat.
He-Man speaks with a worried look from his belted cockpit seat.
A small spacecraft glows inside a swirl of blue energy in space.
A small ship trailing blue energy flies among drifting asteroids.
He-Man looks ahead from his cockpit seat.
The red-caped man raises a fist beside a console as the bespectacled man sits next to him.
A bright white beam tears through a mass of asteroids.
A cratered reddish moon hangs in space with a tiny ship below it.
The red-caped man grins down at the bespectacled man seated at the console.
The red-caped man pats the hair of the seated bespectacled man, who looks upset.
The bespectacled man laughs with his eyes shut, strapped into his seat.
Two small ships fly over a cratered moon.
Five crew members in blue sit in a row inside a hangar.
A white starship and a smaller craft trail orange flames through space.
A red-haired man smiles in a seat, seen through a translucent yellow overlay.
A white spaceship lands on a grassy plain while a second craft hovers in the distance.
The red-caped man reads red alien text on a computer screen.
Four troopers in gold helmets hold large blaster rifles.
A brown-haired man, a red-haired man, the red-caped man and the bespectacled man look out from a cockpit.
A screen shows a spaceship wrapped in vines while three worried faces look on.
A starship sits wrapped in thorny green vines on a dry plain.
The red-caped man clutches his face among thorny vines as two companions cover their ears.
The red-caped man grimaces with his hands at his chin amid thorny vines.
The bespectacled man cups his chin and cries out with his mouth open.
A man in red trousers crouches in a doorway ringed by thorny vines, hands at his helmet.
He-Man, seen from behind with the Power Sword on his back, pushes open a ship hatch.
A dark-skinned man in a grey helmet looks out from a monitor between white seats.
He-Man talks with crew members in spacesuit helmets beneath a canopy of thorny vines.
A glowing triangle of light flashes across the thorny vines.
He-Man holds the Power Sword upright and smiles.
He-Man raises the Power Sword over his head.
He-Man holds the sword and speaks, standing among thick thorny stalks.
Withered brown vines curl over a ship while tiny figures run in the distance.
The red-caped man and the bespectacled man in white space helmets lean over a ship hull.
A purple cavern chamber holds a large clawed machine and small figures.
Skeletor and Flogg stand together in a dim chamber, both looking to one side.
Skeletor and Flogg stand together in a dim chamber, both looking to one side.
Skeletor grins in his grey helmet.
Skeletor grins in his grey helmet.
A ramp extends from a white starship with vehicles parked beside it.
A red-haired man in teal armor and the red-capped man smile at each other beside rocky mountains.
He-Man and a group of crew stand on a rocky slope beside a pile of equipment.
The red-caped man and the bespectacled man ride a hovering dark platform through the sky.
The bespectacled man and the red-caped man look up as two ships fly behind them.
A small hovering vehicle sits on a distant ridge under a blue sky.
Two ships cross the sky, seen from inside a dark cave mouth.
The red-caped man gestures with an open hand inside a cave.
A waterfall drops into a pool in a cavern lined with purple plants.
The bespectacled man strokes his chin among brown leaves while He-Man and others stand behind him.
Skeletor and Flogg stand together in a cave, Skeletor gripping a staff.
The bespectacled man clenches both fists with a startled look.
A grey cloud of gas drifts toward the bespectacled man with a pale masked figure inside it.
Orange rock walls and purple plants fill a cave with a large dark shape at the left.
Plants spray white mist around silhouetted armored figures.
Flogg reels in his silver helmet amid streaks of mist, mouth open.
Flogg reels in his silver helmet amid streaks of mist, mouth open.
He-Man and the red-caped man stand against a cave wall beside curling plants.
He-Man holds a golden plant while the red-caped man leans in to look at it.
A domed building with a flat disc roof stands above a white city.
An old man, the red-caped man and the bespectacled man stand before a gold pod among crystal formations.
He-Man joins the old man, the red-caped man and the bespectacled man before the gold pod.
A row of tall glass crystal pods lines a blue hall.
Master Sebrian holds a yellow ribbed object while He-Man stands behind him and the red-caped man faces away.
A bearded figure stands inside a glass crystal tube.
The red-caped man looks off to the side with a wary expression.
An old man sits in a high-backed chair across a wide hall from a small seated group.
An old man sits in a high-backed chair beside a stand and tall plants.
A trooper in blue fires a gun at thorny vines in a hall.
A pilot in a blue visor holds a device before a screen showing a vine-choked tower.
He-Man, an old man and a pale armored man with an eye patch stand close together.
Thorny vines creep across a floor and a tall window.
Master Sebrian grimaces with vines wrapped around him.
He-Man slices at a thorny vine with his sword while an eye-patched armored man is coiled in vines.
He-Man crouches on steps before a round hall entrance tangled in vines.
He-Man stands beside an eye-patched armored man holding a red tool, with vines behind them.
Thorny vines wrap the fin of a spaceship while smoke rises.
Master Sebrian sits wrapped in thick vines on open ground, one hand at his ear.
The red-caped man and the bespectacled man work at a console while an old man appears on screen.
The bespectacled man grins with both fists raised.
A pilot in a blue visor helmet looks to the side with one fist clenched.
White mist fills the frame with a white ship barely visible below.
Snow falls on a tangle of vines covering buildings.
The red-caped man leaps with arms raised near the bespectacled man on snowy ground.
The red-caped man looks down and points.
The red-caped man and the bespectacled man stand on snowy ground with snow on their hats.
Master Sebrian smiles from a cockpit window.
He-Man stands with his hands on his hips beside Master Sebrian, who holds a staff.
Two white starships fly side by side through a blue sky.

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