NEW ADVENTURES - 1990

The Power of the Good and the Way of the Magic

The Power of the Good and the Way of the Magic title card
E57

Official Synopsis

He-Man and Skeletor grapple in a purple-walled room, a sword near their feet.

Skeletor lays out a plan to Flogg to take the eight planets that supply Primus one by one and starve it into surrender, and the Mutants prepare their armada. A missile with the universal sign of emergency reaches Primus from the planet Danzig, so He-Man, Flipshot and Mara set out from Leviton Space Base, since the other Galactic Guardians are away at Alpha Base III. Skeletor greets them over Danzig, and they use the Mutant mothership as a shield to reach the city. Skeletor and Staghorn plan an attack through the air tubes while a diversion strikes from above, and He-Man and Skeletor face off as the attack begins. Flipshot closes with a warning about drugs.

Morals by closing safety lesson, paraphrased from the episode audio

Flipshot is shown enjoying himself on a hoverboard, and the closing lesson is that you can have a good time without drugs: He-Man and Flipshot point out that Flipshot could not do this if he were on drugs.

heman.org Episode Review

Is it enough to protect your own home, or does goodness mean answering a stranger's call as well? The title phrase, the power of the good and the way of the magic, sits in the opening narration, and this episode is built to test what it costs to mean it. Primus is the target of a slow plan, yet the Galactic Guardians answer a distress signal from another planet with hardly anyone left to send.

The plan comes first, and it is a pleasure to hear it explained twice. Skeletor walks Flogg through it again because Flogg has lost the thread: Primus gets its supplies from eight surrounding planets, so the Mutants will take those planets first, starting with the one where the spies report the least resistance, and cut Primus off little by little until it surrenders. Flogg gets Primus, Skeletor finally gets He-Man, and Flogg is praised for becoming a regular take-charge kind of guy, which is flattery of the thinnest kind. The quick lunch gag, where somebody agrees that one should always attack on a full stomach, is the sort of comic business the Mutants do well.

Put in plain words, the episode is about answering distress when you are stretched thin. Master Sebrian reads the markings on the missile as the universal sign of an emergency, and when the question comes up of who is left to send, the answer is that you are looking at them, because the other Guardians are escorting scientists to Alpha Base III. Mara, who introduces herself as an ambassador from the Tri-Solar Galaxy, declines to stay home; she is a part of this galaxy too, she says, and she knows a little about the planet.

The standout is the way the heroes get in. Skeletor's pods gather above the city with their firepower on the Guardians' starship, and then the Mutant mothership turns up, which Flipshot takes for bad news and He-Man calls just what they needed. His reasoning is that Flogg will not fire if he thinks he may hit his own ship, so the Guardians slip in beside the mothership and let it escort them down to the planet. It is a small piece of problem solving that rests on the villains' own character, and it is the best idea in the half hour.

Danzig itself is thinly drawn. The people the heroes meet, Kosh among them, thank the Guardians for answering the distress signal and admit that they have no troops because they always felt the dome would protect them; the city seems to exist so that Skeletor can notice the air tubes and plan an attack from below while a diversion strikes from above. He-Man and Skeletor then face off, and Skeletor warns that He-Man has not heard the last from him, to which He-Man replies that he has, for today.

The weakness is that thinness: the rescued planet is a device rather than a place, and the climax moves quickly past details that might have made the people of Danzig matter. A 22-minute slot and a crowded cast of Mutants, Guardians and Primus supporting players is the likely reason, but the cost is that the helped are less memorable than the helpers.

What lingers is the opening idea. A people who live behind a failing barrier choose to send a skeleton crew to help someone else, and the day is carried by cleverness rather than numbers. Answering a stranger's call while stretched thin is what the title promises, and the story pays it out.

Verdict: a brisk, well-plotted adventure that turns the series catchphrase into a plot, kept lively by the mothership shield and the Mutants' bickering.

Notes of Interest

  1. Continuity: The He-Man wiki lists this as the final appearance of Lizorr in the Jetlag series, and its Lizorr page says he never speaks a line across the series.
  2. Continuity: Kosh, the Danzig leader, appears only in this episode, according to the He-Man wiki.
  3. Continuity: Sagitar, Spinwit and Tuskador appear as silent cameos, per the He-Man wiki.
  4. Behind the scenes: In the closing moral, the He-Man wiki records Flipshot enjoying a hoverboard while He-Man and Flipshot tell viewers they can have fun without drugs.
  5. Voice cast: Ted Cole is credited on the He-Man wiki cast list for Slush Head and Staghorn, and Alvin Sanders for Flogg.
  6. Fan observation: The He-Man wiki's summary of the next episode, Queen's Gambit, has He-Man repeating the title phrase about the power of the good and the way of the magic reaching across galaxies.

Cast Appearances

Full roster →
He-Man
Good

He-Man
Skeletor
Evil

Skeletor
Flogg
Evil

Flogg
Slushhead
Evil

Slushhead
Staghorn
Evil

Staghorn

Episode screenshots

Skeletor jabs a finger at Flogg's chest as Flogg stares back.
Skeletor jabs a finger at Flogg's chest as Flogg stares back.
Flogg grins with a glowing light bulb floating above his hood.
Flogg grins with a glowing light bulb floating above his hood.
A blue tiered domed building stands in a meadow under a bright sun.
A blue tiered domed building stands in a meadow under a bright sun.
An old man with long blue-grey hair smiles, a staff behind his shoulder.
An old man with long blue-grey hair smiles, a staff behind his shoulder.
A giant dark green insect-like walker with blue spikes crawls across a brown plain, its mouth glowing.
Purple pods and tiny figures are seen at a tilt in a dark chamber.
A yellow and blue armored figure strides through a dark room, shown from the waist down.
Flogg sits at a control seat as Skeletor stands beside him with one hand raised.
Flogg sits at a control seat as Skeletor stands beside him with one hand raised.
Slush Head stands in a tube-fed suit under a clear helmet, fists at his sides.
Slush Head stands in a tube-fed suit under a clear helmet, fists at his sides.
Slush Head clasps his hands and grimaces inside his clear helmet.
Slush Head clasps his hands and grimaces inside his clear helmet.
Flogg and Skeletor stand at the top of dark steps beside a curving purple hull.
The giant walker's purple underside and blue claws loom over a plain, a gunner on top.
A green armored walker swings a long weapon against a dark purple machine.
A tall stump-shaped rock with a ring-shaped crater on top stands in a desert.
Dark tracked machines with white glider wings fly through the sky as a pink beam fires.
Blue energy beams spray across a green and gold machine as a glider wing passes.
A green tracked walker hangs below white glider wings with a blue-armored pilot on board.
A round blue space station floats above a cloud-swirled planet.
Young men in blue jumpsuits lounge on the floor of a room.
Seen from above, men in blue jumpsuits sit and lie scattered across a grey floor.
A brown-haired man in a blue armored suit stands before a group of masked and armored fighters.
The brown-haired man in blue stands on a metal floor as seated recruits in blue watch him.
An open hangar door shows pale sky over a flat landing field, a white nose cone at left.
The giant green walker crouches on bare ground with its mouth glowing.
Skeletor laughs with a wide grin, his eyes glowing red.
Skeletor laughs with a wide grin, his eyes glowing red.
A pilot in a tube-fed helmet works pink keys as a small rocket shows in a round window.
Skeletor, seen from behind, faces a crowd of armored mutants inside a cockpit.
Skeletor raises a clenched fist and a skull-topped staff inside a glass-domed red alcove.
An empty control room holds a monitor, a console and a table, with trees outside the window.
Adam and the old man with a staff stand side by side looking ahead.
Adam and the old man with a staff stand side by side looking ahead.
Adam leans over a console showing a rocket on its screen while the old man stands at left.
Adam leans over a console showing a rocket on its screen while the old man stands at left.
Adam raises a blue sword high above his head.
A blond man raises the blue sword overhead in a control room as the old man watches.
A blond man raises the blue sword overhead in a control room as the old man watches.
A brown rock face fills the frame.
Four purple domed ships fly through the sky, pink streaks trailing behind them.
Flogg, Skeletor and armored mutants stand on a brown plain, looking off screen.
He-Man sits at the controls of a white craft under a blue sky.
He-Man sits at the controls of a white craft under a blue sky.
He-Man holds a handheld screen showing a smiling brown-haired man in blue.
He-Man grips a controller in the foreground facing a row of recruits in blue.
He-Man stands on a landing platform beside a small pink figure, recruits and the brown-haired man at right.
A white spacecraft rests on a blue landing platform as a small pink figure walks toward it.
Stars scatter across dark blue space.
A hand holds a green-brown scanner showing a blue and teal wavy planet.
A white spacecraft flies through starry space with blue trails.
He-Man and the brown-haired man in blue stand side by side behind a glass console.
A small blue-suited figure stands before huge dark walking machines on a barren plain.
A furry brown creature in pink gear reclines in a cockpit seat, glancing sideways.
A green alien with a pointed hood sits between two tall yellow seats at a cockpit.
A blue-skinned alien in a pointed hood sits at cockpit controls, eyes glancing sideways.
The blue-skinned alien sits between two tall yellow seats facing a cockpit window with light trails outside.
He-Man speaks, looking sideways from a yellow seat.
A pink-armored toad-faced creature grips the controls in front of He-Man and the brown-haired man.
A blue translucent dome rises behind a ridge of brown rock.
Skeletor grins with all his teeth, his face filling the frame.
Flogg points a red-gloved fist forward under a blue sky.
Armored mutants stand beside dark machines before a rock formation, one aiming a long colorful gun.
Skeletor laughs with one hand raised.
The giant green and purple walker fires glowing shots across a brown plain.
A white and blue craft flies against a deep blue sky.
He-Man looks sideways and speaks.
The blue cannon and hull of a white craft fill the lower frame against a blue sky.
A white craft flies through streaks of pink fire.
Slush Head grips his controls inside a cockpit, tubes looping around his helmet.
A round green turret fires pink beams from twin barrels.
The giant walker's face, with glowing pink eyes and blue claws, looms overhead.
Flogg crouches beside a dark walker as pink flashes light the rocks and a group of green mutants.
Flogg grimaces and clenches his fists against a sandy backdrop.
He-Man looks sharply to the side with a blue claw above him.
He-Man stands on top of a white and blue craft beneath the walker's pink underbelly.
He-Man holds a glowing blue sword forward as blue light blasts from it.
A small glass dome sits at the top of a stump-shaped rock on a brown desert.
Pale blue light streaks across a bright sky.
A white craft hangs from a lattice of dark girders inside a blue hangar.
Two tall blue-skinned figures and a third in a purple robe stand in a large metal hall.
He-Man frowns beside the brown-haired man in blue, who rubs his forehead.
A white craft is held in a web of cables inside a large metal room.
Mutants gather beside dark machines under a giant crane claw, one holding a skull-topped staff.
Skeletor laughs with his eyes shut, his face filling the frame.
Skeletor looks down with a faint grin under a blue sky.
Skeletor holds a paper chart beside a spindly blue-grey mutant and Flogg.
Skeletor grins between Flogg and a spindly masked mutant who holds a staff.
Skeletor and Flogg face each other with a skull-topped staff between them.
He-Man speaks with a sideways glance inside a control room.
A blue alien, He-Man and the brown-haired man watch a green wireframe dome on a screen.
He-Man faces the camera before the wireframe dome, flanked by the blue alien and the brown-haired man.
A brown rocky slope rises against a blue sky.
A blue vent with a grille and a broken round hatch lie against dark rock.
A lone figure with a skull-topped staff stands in a broken tunnel mouth.
Flogg stands beside dark tracked machines under a blue sky.
Flogg and Skeletor stand small on a desert floor beside a huge blue pipe opening.
Flogg and Skeletor look ahead from inside the blue pipe.
He-Man talks with the brown-haired man and the blue alien in a control room.
He-Man, the brown-haired man and the blue alien watch a screen showing dark ships streaking across the sky.
Skeletor stares ahead with a faint grin in a dim passage.
He-Man runs across a floor holding the blue sword with a console behind him.
The brown-haired man and the blue alien dodge a pink beam at a doorway.
A dark green tracked machine looms beneath a curved hull.
A tracked machine hangs in a web of cables as an orange arm reaches out.
Skeletor grins with both hands on a bar as He-Man's arm presses in from the left.
A web of cables holds a tangle of green mutants and machines in mid-air.
Skeletor points from atop a green walker as Flogg and other mutants cling to the net below.
A net of cables hangs across the ceiling with a small pile of mutants caught at the bottom.
The blue alien presses a red button on a wall panel.
A net holding a tangle of dark objects flies through streaking light.
Slush Head grins inside his helmet with his arms behind his head, cables looping around him.
A masked figure in blue leaps over desert ground with arms spread.

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