NEW ADVENTURES - 1990

Save Our City

Save Our City title card
E56

Official Synopsis

The red-haired woman cracks her whip as Mara leaps through the air in front of a gold building.

On the Mite world of Sorton, Ambassador Mara tells President Pell that the transmission his people intercepted came from Crita, one of Flogg's most important lieutenants, and that her visit to the Gleanons ends any hope of peace. In the Gleanon capital, Crita offers General Nifel a plan to lure the Mites into Velpine City and take them captive. A volcano disaster is staged, Nifel begs for rescue, and the Mite Space Force flies in. It is ambushed and defeated, Mara and Vice President Etor are captured, and Mara is taken to the Norzon Mines of Brom. Pell turns to He-Man, the prisoners plan to escape, and the Mites make Mara their queen.

Morals by closing safety lesson, paraphrased from the episode audio

Adam yelps that the water is hot, and the closing lesson is to always test the temperature before putting your hands into running water or stepping into a bathtub, so that you never get scalded.

heman.org Episode Review

What does a leader owe a plea for help that she has reason to doubt? "Save Our City" hands Mara that question in its first scene and spends the half hour showing that the honest answer costs something. President Pell wants to avoid angering the Gleanons, who have not attacked the Mites, because the hopes for peace are fragile; Mara, newly appointed as ambassador, answers that the transmission he intercepted came from Crita, one of Flogg's most important lieutenants, and that if she is visiting the Gleanons then any hope of peace is already gone.

The writing then does something clever with information, because it takes us into the Gleanon capital before the Mites hear a word of the scheme. Crita tells General Nifel that the Mites will walk into Velpine City and let themselves be taken captive, and Nifel is hard to win over; he warns that if her plan does not please him it will be her final breath. By the time the volcano erupts and Nifel is begging the Mites to save his people from being buried, we know the machinery of the lie; what we cannot know is whether Mara will walk into it anyway.

Put in plain words, the episode is about duty as the weak point a clever enemy can aim at. Someone in the room says aloud that the plea may not be truthful, another voice asks whether the Mites can afford not to answer a call for help, and Mara, who is told she need not go because she is an ambassador, replies that it is her duty to help the people of this planet. Etor takes one squadron, Mara's is told to circle in a holding pattern outside the city while the cargo ships go in,, and the ambush is the price of a decent instinct.

The middle of the story belongs to the Mites rather than to the hero. Pell reports that almost all of the Space Force was captured and that Mara and Etor are prisoners, and he tells He-Man that he is their last hope, and the scene moves to the Norzon Mines of Brom, where Mara says that Nifel questioned her about the defences of Sorton and she told him nothing. "No one has ever escaped from the Norzon mines," says one voice; "Until now," says another. He-Man's remark that Galactic Guardians are at their best when the odds are against them suits a hero who has just been named a last hope.

Crita is the best thing in the episode as a villain, since she is allowed to be a warrior as well as a schemer: she leads a squadron against Sorton herself, and when she sneers that a weakling from Primus is a match for a mutant warrior, Mara answers that she is more than a match. The confrontation gives the ambassador her moment.

The weakness is that the trap is laid out so fully that the Mites' choice carries no suspense for us. Having watched Crita and Nifel agree the scheme, we wait through a volcano disaster we know to be false; a 22-minute slot that must fit a trap, a capture, a prison and a counterattack is the likely reason for choosing clarity over surprise, but the first half would have hit harder with a little doubt left for us too.

The close recovers a good deal. The people of Sorton make Mara their queen, He-Man observes that she has found a new home, and she answers that she will never forget the home and the friends she left behind: a lovely line and a fitting answer to a story about an ambassador who treats the lives of her new neighbours as her duty.

Verdict: a solid Mara showcase, a little overstuffed, that earns its ending by letting the ambassador make the hard call in the first act and live with it.

Notes of Interest

  1. Behind the scenes: According to the He-Man wiki, He-Man is seen using the shield that came packaged with his action figure during the battle at the Norzon Mines of Brom.
  2. Voice cast: Garry Chalk voices He-Man, President Pell and Sergeant Krone here, and Venus Terzo voices both Mara and Crita, per the He-Man wiki cast list.
  3. Voice cast: The He-Man wiki lists Michael Donovan as an uncredited voice for General Nifel and Doc Harris as the uncredited narrator.
  4. Continuity: The He-Man wiki's gallery for this episode points out Mara's new outfit and hairstyle.
  5. Behind the scenes: In the closing moral, Queen Mara washes up and reminds Adam to test the water temperature before washing his hands, as the He-Man wiki describes it.
  6. Toys: A figure of Mara in her Queen of the Mites armor was planned alongside Gleanon and Myte figures and reached prototype stage but was never released, according to the He-Man wiki.

Cast Appearances

Full roster →
He-Man
Good

He-Man
Prince Adam
Good

Prince Adam

Episode screenshots

President Pel speaks with both hands raised.
President Pel speaks with both hands raised.
A woman with a long braid rides in a blue open-top vehicle along a grey roadway.
A woman with a long braid rides in a blue open-top vehicle along a grey roadway.
A wide crater holds a dark pool with a small red-lit object at its center.
A wide crater holds a dark pool with a small red-lit object at its center.
A gold and purple spacecraft sits on a landing pad, seen from directly above.
A gold and purple spacecraft sits on a landing pad, seen from directly above.
Two grey-faced mutants in horned helmets scowl, one shouting with his mouth open.
Two grey-faced mutants in horned helmets scowl, one shouting with his mouth open.
An empty grey landing platform stretches toward distant brown hills under a cloudy sky.
An empty grey landing platform stretches toward distant brown hills under a cloudy sky.
A brown ship sits on a landing pad between two stacks of grey soldiers.
A brown ship sits on a landing pad between two stacks of grey soldiers.
A heap of fallen armored mutants lies in the dirt as two more stand behind them.
A heap of fallen armored mutants lies in the dirt as two more stand behind them.
A red-haired woman in a red dress holds a staff with a glowing pink tip.
A red-haired woman in a red dress holds a staff with a glowing pink tip.
The red-haired woman walks away from the camera toward a brown tank with two mutants beside it.
The red-haired woman holds a club in one hand and snaps a whip with the other.
The red-haired woman glances sideways with a sly smile.
A grey-faced mutant in a horned helmet leers with his eyes cut sideways.
The grey-faced mutant aims a red and gold blaster straight ahead.
A small figure in white stands before a huge wall screen showing a blond man.
A blond man in a grey tunic, seen from behind, speaks to a woman on a wall screen.
A glowing rainbow-colored silhouette raises a sword overhead against a black background.
A grey-faced mutant in a blue cap and armor grips a club and scowls.
The red-haired woman swings a spiked mace over a toppled yellow robot while a mutant watches.
Tall stacks of grey mutant soldiers stand across a flat desert.
The red-haired woman stands on a rock ledge beside a crouching mutant in a horned helmet.
A woman in an orange helmet fades in over a scowling mutant.
The red-haired woman stands with arms at her sides before rows of grey mutant soldiers.
A tiny figure walks across a large curved command room beneath a glass window.
Mara in a blue uniform holds out a hand to President Pel, who holds a card.
Mara walks toward a blank monitor as a gloved hand reaches for the console.
Mara stands beside President Pel, who sits at a console and frowns.
A mutant in a horned helmet grimaces in a washed-out orange glare.
The red-haired woman and a mutant stand in a red glow of fire and smoke.
The red-haired woman squints, with smoke and flying rocks behind her.
A horned mutant roars with his mouth open in a red glow.
Mara stands on a dim platform near President Pel.
The red-haired woman faces a short mutant beside a camera on a tripod and a spotlight at night.
A grey mutant in a horned helmet stares ahead as the red-haired woman's head fills the foreground.
A tall lit tower rises at night above a city of small pyramids.
President Pel spreads his arms wide on a dark blue floor.
A man in a blue helmet and tinted goggles speaks inside a cockpit bubble.
Several spacecraft streak through a dark sky trailing light.
Mara sits strapped into a flight seat and looks to the side.
The red-haired woman stands behind a mutant on a ridge as smoke swirls and another mutant looks on.
A scowling mutant crouches behind a purple panel in drifting smoke.
The red-haired woman stands behind a mutant on a dark rocky ledge.
A volcano throws sparks and smoke as orange ships fly past.
A mass of dark purple smoke fills the frame, flecked with tiny specks.
A mutant pilots a grey fighter seen head-on while other jets fly behind.
Orange and white spacecraft fly in formation through the dark sky.
The red-haired woman looks sideways with her mouth open, lit in red.
A pale gridded panel drifts against dark rock with red lights in the distance.
A grey mutant in a horned helmet grins from a cockpit.
Mara at fighter controls glances sideways, startled.
An orange plume of smoke curls across a dark sky.
Mara in the cockpit speaks, a harness across her chest.
The red-haired woman smirks as she speaks into a handheld microphone.
A grey mutant grins and shakes his fist from a cockpit above a green radar screen.
The red-haired woman glares straight ahead.
Many jets circle above a purple ship sitting on dark ground.
A broken green and purple machine arm fills the foreground as smoke rises from a distant wreck.
A grey mutant bares his teeth, his face filling the frame.
Mara bows her head as the red-haired woman and two mutants face her.
A grey mutant in a horned helmet snarls with his mouth open.
President Pel stares wide-eyed through a vehicle window.
He-Man grips the controls of a flying vehicle.
He-Man grips the controls of a flying vehicle.
He-Man appears on a wall monitor beside a small tree as a figure in orange watches.
He-Man appears on a wall monitor beside a small tree as a figure in orange watches.
A purple gun turret sits embedded in a brown rock wall.
A mutant guard with a blaster stands by mine carts as green robots work in a dark tunnel.
Mara leans forward, wide-eyed, among green robot workers in a mine.
Mara, seen from behind, stands with a pickaxe in a mine tunnel.
Mara wipes her face and leans on a pickaxe while two armed mutants stand beside her.
A goggled mutant guard in a blue cap smirks as a bare arm holding a tool crosses over.
The goggled guard crouches and swings a tool while Mara stands over him.
The goggled guard grins widely, leaning toward the camera.
A tiny figure stands on a stepped platform in a large empty hall.
A lattice trident tower rises from a dish-shaped base on a rock under a cloudy sky.
The red-haired woman stands with hands on hips as a mutant peers out of a tank hatch.
A large grey spacecraft with a horned nose sits on a landing field among smaller ships.
Green robots shovel coal into a mine cart on a track.
A mutant's arm with a drill attachment grips the edge of a loaded mine cart.
A scowling mutant in a blue helmet leans over a mine cart edge holding a gold spiked ball.
A mine entrance with tracks and landing pads is seen from above, a tiny figure below.
Mara pushes forward past mutants beside a green vehicle.
Two green legged hovercraft sit on rocky ground beside a cliff.
Mara looks on beside the goggled guard in a blue cap.
A white spaceship dives toward a rock wall as pink beams streak past.
Mara grips the goggled guard from behind as he cries out.
He-Man grapples a mutant on top of a white ship with a sword in his hand.
An explosion blows apart a lattice tower and its base amid flying rubble.
He-Man holds a sword beside Mara and the goggled guard in front of a white ship.
Grey jets sit among rising smoke on a gold-roofed platform seen from above.
A single small figure walks across a wide platform ringed by mutant soldiers and jets.
The red-haired woman gestures with a green glove beside a horned mutant and green armored soldiers.
A white jet flies above a scattered group of small brown craft.
Mara glances sideways from a cockpit with one hand raised.
Two winged craft fly through a blue sky.
The nose of a purple and white craft fills the frame against blue sky.
A grey mutant holding a short staff faces a crowd of green armored soldiers.
A grey mutant in spiked armor clenches a fist and holds a gun against blue sky.
The red-haired woman scowls, holding a whip in one hand and a black device in the other.
A pale sky stretches over a purple platform edge with a dark object entering at top right.
A mutant in a blue helmet floats in blue water and points a weapon, with jungle behind him.
The red-haired woman hangs from a rope against a curved gold wall.
A small ship flies through blue sky with a cluster of dark craft behind it.
A flock of tiny craft crosses above green fields and hills.
He-Man stands at right as Mara, seen from behind, faces a small orange-armored man holding a gold crown.
A crowd of green armored soldiers claps and cheers.
Mara wears a tall gold crown with a red emblem and speaks with a smile.
Adam looks sideways with a slight smile, a headband across his forehead.
Adam looks sideways with a slight smile, a headband across his forehead.

DISCUSSION

Join the conversation.

Comments below are mirrored on the heman.org forum. Sign in once, post anywhere.