Master Sebrian, feeling his age, watches Levitan sink after a radiation storm upsets its anti-gravity system, and the city will be destroyed without a shipment of beryllium ore. The Mutants have hijacked the ship and set its trader, Treylus, adrift, but He-Man finds him and brings him to Primus, where he turns out to be Sebrian's old schoolmate. Treylus sets off for the Mutant base on Denebria to retrieve his cargo ship while the Galactic Guardians stage a diversion, and he tells Sebrian to stay behind with the scientists. Sebrian goes along regardless, and a voice trick on the Mutants' communications saves the escape. Levitan recovers, and a camping trip ends with a fire safety lesson.
He-Man reminds Sagitar, at the end of a camping trip, to make sure the campfire is out before leaving: a fire that looks out may not be, so douse it with water and then cover it with sand, so the forest stays there for everyone to enjoy.
How old is too old to be useful? "The Test of Time" puts the question to Master Sebrian, who opens the story by asking Mara to slow down because he is not as young as he used to be. Mara reminds him that he once said age is all in the mind, and he allows that it is true, except when it is his mind. It is a gentle joke, and it sets up a crisis that ends up depending on the person who has just announced he is past his best.
The crisis itself is clear enough. A radiation storm has upset the anti-gravity system that keeps Levitan aloft, the city is sinking, and without beryllium ore it will be destroyed. The shipment has not arrived, Adam offers to ask He-Man to look into it, and meanwhile the Mutants have already pulled the story out of the trader carrying the ore: threatened, he explains that Levitan is sinking and needs the ore for its anti-gravity field, and for such splendid cooperation he is rewarded with a drift through space without food. The scene is brisk and a little nasty, and it puts a face on the stakes.
In plain words, this is a story about a man who feels old being handed a reason to find out he is not, and Levitan's countdown is the excuse. The trader turns out to be Treylus, who knew Sebrian at school, calls him an old bookworm, and remarks on how young he looks; Treylus puts his own youth down to hard work, hard play and all the adventure he can find. When the plan is made, with Treylus taking an astro-sub into the Mutant base on Denebria while the Galactic Guardians stage a diversion, Sebrian says he will stay and work with the scientists, and Treylus agrees that a man his age should not risk getting hurt. Sebrian says he understands, then resolves to teach Treylus a lesson. Soon afterward a startled voice asks what Sebrian is doing there, and he answers that he is beginning to wonder himself.
The follow-through is good. A diversion slows the Mutants down, a voice admits to being fresh out of diversions, and He-Man arrives to help; someone asks how he knew they needed him and is told that he knows. The Mutant side keeps pace in its own register, with Skeletor and Flogg watching Levitan's trouble as if it were a feature film. Flogg says he would rather be conquering the city, Skeletor promises that Primus will tremble at his feet, and Flogg corrects him: our feet.
The turning point is a communicator. One Mutant tells another to order the fighters to stop the cargo ship, and the other stumbles over the word attention before barking an attack order; Sebrian adjusts a synthesizer and sends out an order to cease firing and return to base, so the Mutant leaders end up arguing over who gave an order neither of them did. Afterward Sebrian puts it down to a synthesizer adjustment that a younger man could have managed, almost as well, and admits that he is not as old as he thought.
The weakness is that the winning trick arrives with no setup. Nothing earlier in the dialogue hints that a voice synthesizer is waiting to be used, and the scientists' own work is reported in a few lines, so the climax comes across as a gadget rather than a payoff. The likely reason is the short running time: there was room for the joke about age, but little room to plant the tool that settles it.
Verdict: a warm, slight character piece that is mostly about Sebrian's self-image. Levitan is saved, but the real news at the end is that Sebrian is not as old as he thought.
- Voice cast: The He-Man wiki says Long John Baldry voiced Treylus, without a credit.
- Continuity: The wiki lists Treylus as making his first and only Jetlag Productions appearance in this episode.
- Continuity: According to the He-Man wiki, Treylus is a former schoolfriend of Master Sebrian who teases him as an old bookworm, and credits his own youthful look to a thirst for adventure.
- Voice cast: Don Brown voices both Hydron and Gepple, and Garry Chalk voices both He-Man and Artilla, per the He-Man wiki cast list.
- Continuity: The wiki lists Alcon and Krex as non-speaking Scientists in the episode, and Crita, Quakke and Staghorn as non-speaking Mutants.
- Behind the scenes: Per the He-Man wiki, the closing moral has He-Man reminding Sagitar to put out their campfire before leaving a camping trip.
- Fan observation: Wikipedia's episode summary names the trader Treybius and the ore berillium, where the He-Man wiki uses Treylus and Beryllium; the two sources also differ on the writer's first name, Richard against Rick.
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