NEW ADVENTURES - 1990

The Dream Zone

The Dream Zone title card
E43

Official Synopsis

Skeletor stands over He-Man, who lies face down in the snow beside his sword.

Flogg shows Skeletor the Dream Explorer, a machine that lets the mind enter the dimension of dreams while the body stays behind, and a Mutant explains that the Inner Council's minds maintain Primus's shield. Skeletor enters the dream dimension with two reluctant Mutants to attack the Council there, and the shield begins to fail. Back on Primus, a test of Alcon's Particle Trans-Alconitor goes wrong, and it is used to send He-Man's mind after Skeletor. He is nearly beaten until a voice reminds him that in a world of dreams his only enemy is fear. He takes control of the dream, and the shield is restored. A closing lesson warns against smoking.

Morals by closing safety lesson, paraphrased from the episode audio

Two characters talk through the risks of smoking, including reduced lung capacity and heart disease, and the closing lesson is two words: do not smoke. One of them adds that heroes do not smoke.

heman.org Episode Review

What happens when the thing you imagine becomes real the instant you imagine it? "The Dream Zone" gives both sides of the war a place where that is true, and then makes the contest about whose mind is stronger. It opens with Skeletor sneering at the Dream Explorer and asking if it is another of Flogg's technical inventions; Flogg explains that it lets the mind enter the dimension of dreams while the body remains behind, and a Mutant adds that its users can control not only their own dreams but those of anyone they meet there. The Inner Council's minds, he says, are what maintain the shield.

The comic business that follows is the best of the first act. Flogg announces that he is not going himself, Skeletor says he will go and take two Mutants along, and the Mutants produce excuses: one has a dental appointment, another remembers that today is his mother's birthday. Skeletor insists that he gives the orders around here and sends them to the slabs, recites a line about sleep and dreams that the He-Man wiki traces to Hamlet, and announces the place with submitted for your approval, which the wiki traces to Rod Serling's Twilight Zone.

Put in a plain sentence, the episode is about mastering your own mind: the dream dimension rewards whoever stops being afraid in it. Skeletor tells his Mutants that whatever they think about becomes real, and the Mutants take to the place at once; when He-Man arrives and remarks that the place could use a little color, he adds, rather sensibly, that he had better remember to be careful what he says. Skeletor then has him pinned, gloating that this is his dream and that it always took his dream to see He-Man destroyed. The counsel that turns the fight comes from a voice we take to be the Sorceress: remember, this is the world of dreams, and your only enemy is fear.

The middle of the half hour belongs to Primus, and the writing there is looser. Alcon is asked to be the human subject for the Particle Trans-Alconitor, which can send a person to any coordinates, and when the test needs correcting someone admits that perhaps a few bugs have to be got out, or a few monsters. It is funny, but it pauses a story whose shield is losing power, and the shift from gag to alarm comes in a single line when somebody senses that the Council is under attack in the dream dimension. A picture brought back from the test turns out to come from the dream dimension, and Alcon realizes that is where he was.

The dream scenes move briskly. The transmitter is modified so that only He-Man's mind will enter the dream, medical monitors let the others watch his body respond, and once he is inside the shield goes down and the Mutant attack begins. The Sorceress senses his distress but cannot find him in the dream dimension, so she offers her guidance, and it is a neat division of labor, with the hero doing the fighting and the people who believe in him supplying the way through.

The weakness is how quickly everything resets. The shield is described as almost gone, then as history, then the Mutants are attacking, and a few lines after He-Man takes control of the dream the shield is restored and Primus is safe once again. A longer stretch of the real-world defence would have given the dream victory more to repair, but the fleet barely registers, presumably because the dream dimension was the point.

Verdict: an imaginative, quotable entry that sits comfortably in the upper half of the run. It ends with the heroes learning that each of them controls their own dreams, a better idea than the public service message it hands over to afterwards.

Notes of Interest

  1. Homage: The He-Man wiki says Skeletor's line about sleeping and dreaming quotes Shakespeare's Hamlet, act 3, scene 1.
  2. Homage: The He-Man wiki says Skeletor enters the Dream Dimension with the words submitted for your approval, the famous opening words used by Rod Serling on The Twilight Zone.
  3. Edit history: The He-Man wiki's errors list says Alcon is seen asleep next to the Particle Trans-Alconitor, then standing with the other scientists in the next shot, then asleep again.
  4. Fan observation: The He-Man wiki notes that the Dark Horse character guide's entry on the Dream Explorer, published 23 May 2017, is illustrated with a picture of the Particle Trans-Alconitor by mistake.
  5. Voice cast: Garry Chalk voices both He-Man and Alcon, and Alvin Sanders voices both Flogg and Tuskador, per the He-Man wiki cast list.
  6. Voice cast: Venus Terzo voices both Mara and the Sorceress in this episode, according to the He-Man wiki cast list.

Cast Appearances

Full roster →
He-Man
Good

He-Man
Skeletor
Evil

Skeletor
Flogg
Evil

Flogg
The Sorceress of Castle Grayskull
Good

The Sorceress of Castle Grayskull

Episode screenshots

Two bearded scientists in white coats sit at a console, one wearing dark glasses.
Two bearded scientists in white coats sit at a console, one wearing dark glasses.
Skeletor and Flogg stand with a white-coated scientist beside a gold console.
Skeletor and Flogg stand with a white-coated scientist beside a gold console.
Three tall crystals stand in a blue chamber.
Three tall crystals stand in a blue chamber.
A white-coated scientist seen from behind speaks with Flogg beside him.
A white-coated scientist seen from behind speaks with Flogg beside him.
Flogg leans toward the scientist while Skeletor listens.
Flogg leans toward the scientist while Skeletor listens.
Skeletor grins and puts a hand on Flogg's shoulder as Flogg faces away.
Skeletor grins and puts a hand on Flogg's shoulder as Flogg faces away.
Skeletor scowls with his fist at his chin.
Two mutants fold their arms, one in a silver helmet and green suit, one in gold armor.
Two mutants fold their arms, one in a silver helmet and green suit, one in gold armor.
Flogg bends over a gold slab as two mutants stand beside him.
Four mutants stand at a purple console while bodies lie on a slab above them.
Four mutants stand at a purple console while bodies lie on a slab above them.
A white-sleeved hand pulls a lever on a control panel.
A white-sleeved hand pulls a lever on a control panel.
An orange swirl of light bursts open with small figures spinning inside.
An orange swirl of light bursts open with small figures spinning inside.
A blue striped creature with antennae reaches out across a grey landscape.
Green slime hangs in thick drips down the frame.
A gold-armored mutant covered in green slime frowns as a pink triangle floats beside him.
Skeletor holds his skull-topped staff beside two mutants in a bright meadow.
Two mutants walk down a path toward a rocky spire under a pink sky.
A red-hatted man, a dark-haired woman and a bald man gather around a white marble bust.
A grey bust full of holes stands in a glass chamber.
A red-hatted elderly man smiles with his eyes closed.
Five people stand around a small pile of rubble in a blue lab.
A red-hatted man stands behind a console as a woman in white and a bald man look on.
A red-hatted man stands inside a glass tube on a platform as others watch.
A dark-haired woman in white looks up with a worried expression.
A grey block full of holes stands in a glass chamber.
Two blue striped creatures with antennae stare wide-eyed.
He-Man spreads his arms in a lab toward a blue striped creature.
He-Man spreads his arms in a lab toward a blue striped creature.
A red-hatted man crawls on all fours across the floor in alarm.
A red-hatted man looks sheepishly aside with a tuft of yellow hair at the frame edge.
A circle of robed figures sends blue beams up to a planet above a purple valley.
Three robed elders send blue light beams from their heads across a white plain.
Robed figures kneel in a circle under beams of white light on rocky white ground.
A bald elderly man with grey eyebrows glances aside with a faint smile.
Master Sebrian holds a staff with one hand at his forehead beside a console.
Mutants in suits fitted with tubes stand before a round window with a crescent.
Seen from above, He-Man and several scientists stand together in a lab.
Seen from above, He-Man and several scientists stand together in a lab.
He-Man stands among a bald elder, a red-hatted man and other scientists.
He-Man holds a clenched fist at his chest and looks ahead.
The back of a yellow-haired scientist's head fills the frame between a red-hatted man and a bald man.
He-Man faces the viewer with a woman in white and an elderly man with a staff behind him.
Pale blue sliding doors stand in a corridor.
He-Man stands with two companions in a hangar beside fighter ships.
A ghosted image of He-Man's face lies over a transmitter disc with wires on his chest.
Four scientists stand at a control console, seen from behind.
A red-hatted man smiles at a yellow-haired scientist seen from behind at a control panel.
A red-hatted man looks startled in a ghosted overlay with a wave on a monitor.
He-Man looks aside with a smile under a cloudy sky.
He-Man runs across a barren plain under a purple sky.
A planet inside a transparent shield bubble floats beside a blurred grey object.
Two white and blue ships fly through a starfield.
A small ship trails a swirl of white smoke through space.
A planet inside a shield bubble glows pink above fanning white beams.
Two robed elders with closed eyes stand under blue beams before a snowy rock wall.
He-Man glances back with a determined look.
A raised gloved hand holds a skull-topped staff against a purple sky.
A tiny figure lies on top of a heap of white rubble on a white plain.
A yellow-haired scientist, a red-hatted man and two other elders look down at a console.
Skeletor clenches a fist and laughs.
Skeletor glares with his mouth open and head tilted.
Skeletor grins toward the viewer.
He-Man stands on a rocky mound with his sword lowered under a purple sky.
A figure in red and pink seen from behind faces Master Sebrian and a woman in white.
A pink explosion and a streak of light cross a starfield.
A white and blue ship flies toward a glowing red and blue sphere inside a green mass.
A mutant in red armor slumps in a blue chair as a yellow spotted mutant stands beside him.
Skeletor grins with his mouth open.
Pink and white speed lines streak across the frame.
Skeletor raises one hand and his staff as he laughs.
He-Man looks aside as a garland of pink flowers wraps across his chest.
Skeletor grins widely against a purple sky.
Skeletor kneels on the back of He-Man, who lies face down in the snow.
Skeletor stands with his back turned over He-Man lying in the snow beneath a pink cloud.
Skeletor reaches out with his staff as He-Man flies across the snowy plain.
A blue planet hangs in space beside curled blue claws of a creature.
A small ship flies toward a blue planet.
A green creature with blue claws and glowing orange pods fills the frame.
A planet and a dark spiky object are visible through a window.
White waveforms spike across two black monitors.
Ghosted figures stand behind a glass wall in a blue lab.
Master Sebrian stands holding his staff against a red and black background.
He-Man squints beneath a glowing crown of white light.
White lightning crackles over He-Man's profile.
A gloved hand raises a staff above Skeletor's closed eyes.
He-Man sits on the snow holding the Power Sword and looks worried.
Pink clouds streak across an empty purple sky.
Skeletor holds his skull staff across his chest as He-Man's shoulder lies in the foreground.
He-Man grimaces and looks back over his shoulder.
He-Man screws his eyes shut with his brow furrowed.
Skeletor clutches his chest with one hand while holding his staff.
He-Man raises the glowing Power Sword overhead with both hands.
A bright ball of white light bursts above a beam against a purple sky.
Skeletor snarls with a clenched fist and his skull staff raised.
Two mutants run across a snowy plain with their arms raised.
Two mutants run inside large white rings.
He-Man stands on the snow with his sword pointed down.
Skeletor floats wrapped in rings of blue light.
Two mutants run inside white loop-shaped tubes across the snow.
A planet floats beside a blurred orange and blue creature seen up close.
A curved purple doorway with stairs and round windows opens into a dark ship.
Flogg stands in a curved doorway holding a long hooked pole.
Skeletor sits in a chair clutching his chest with both hands.
He-Man stands in a glass tube as elders and scientists watch from behind.
He-Man stands among elders as a ghosted image of him fades behind.
Two blue striped creatures walk through a lab.
Two blue striped creatures approach a group gathered in the lab.
Two blue striped creatures hug a red-hatted man.
He-Man stands at a console with scientists around him.
Scientists hold papers around He-Man, who stands at a console seen from behind.

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