NEW ADVENTURES - 1990

The Ultimate Challenge

The Ultimate Challenge title card
E05

Official Synopsis

He-Man lies stretched out on rocky ground with the Power Sword just beyond his reach.

Flogg is tired of Skeletor's plans, and Skeletor answers with the biggest one yet: he challenges He-Man to a winner-take-all duel on the Cameroon asteroid. He-Man, against Master Sebrian's advice, accepts, because it may be the quickest way to end the war. While the hero is away, Skeletor's trap springs: the Mutants attack Primus, the sensor that locates holes in the shield is knocked out, and Caz takes the Starship Eternia to bring him back. On the asteroid, He-Man is beaten down by Skeletor's rays. Throughout, the Sorceress's advice to see with his heart rather than his eyes is what carries him, and he returns to Primus to turn the tide.

Morals by Closing safety lesson spoken at the end of the episode. Paraphrased from the audio.

The closing scene is a public service message: everyone, even kids, can learn CPR, and viewers are told to contact their local Red Cross about a children's program.

heman.org Episode Review

Skeletor has a single trick in "The Ultimate Challenge," and it is that he knows his enemy better than his allies do. He says so himself, to Flogg, in the line that sets the plot moving: He-Man cannot resist a fair fight. What follows is the series' first real test of that claim, and what it tests is the hero's pride.

The structure is clean. The episode opens on Flogg's frustration, then gives Skeletor a flourish, a challenge broadcast as a giant hologram, and then spends the middle of the story on the debate over whether to answer. Master Sebrian tells He-Man it is a trap. He-Man says he knows, and goes anyway, because any risk is worth taking to end the war. That's the right argument for a hero to make, and the cartoon lets the trap work, which is the interesting part.

The cost of his absence is shown with care. The sensor that finds the holes in the shield goes dark. Hydron and Flipshot take a patrol up, Primus' radar station is knocked out, and the Mutants find no resistance. The short sequence where the scientists realise they are blind, and the pilots go up anyway, has more dread than anything else in the five episodes. It is an earned payoff for the Mutants' earlier plans, because we have watched them fail all week and now they win on the first try.

The duel itself is the weak point. A fight on an asteroid, with a hero outmatched, should be the high point of the run, and instead it is fairly brief. The Sorceress's advice to see with his heart turns the climax into a line of dialogue, and the victory follows. The idea is a good one for a children's show, because it trades the hero's strength for his judgement, but a line is not a scene, and the audience is asked to feel something they have only been told about.

The Primus half is better. Caz insisting that he can fly the Starship Eternia because Hydron let him pilot it back from Denebria is the best use of a child character in the series so far, and Drissi's worry as her brother goes is quietly played. When the Mutants demand surrender, the scene of Sebrian being told to put his hand to the paper is dignified and unfussy.

A word on the ending, because it is the most unusual in the run. The episode closes on a public service message about CPR, delivered in a conversation between two Primus characters about heart attacks, and it connects, loosely, to the hero's insistence that the heart is what carries him through. It is a little jarring, and also oddly sweet.

Verdict: a solid conclusion to the opening arc, with a trap that works and a duel that doesn't. The Primus scenes are the reason to watch it, and the hologram challenge is the best image in it.

Notes of Interest

  1. Edit history: The recaps that open the third and fourth episodes both begin with a shot from this episode's finale, per the He-Man wiki.
  2. Homage: Skeletor challenges He-Man through a giant holographic projection, the same way he communicates at the start of the 1987 Masters of the Universe film, according to the wiki.
  3. Toys: He-Man uses the shield that came with his action figure here, one of the few times it appears. The wiki counts two further uses, in Crack in the World and Balance of Power.
  4. Continuity: The next episode, Sword and Staff, deals with Skeletor being despondent after his run of defeats, per the wiki.
  5. Voice cast: Don Brown voices four roles in this episode, Hydron, Gepple, Kayo and Vizar, according to the wiki's cast list.
  6. Home video: A VHS titled He-Man: The Ultimate Challenge is a feature-length edit of the first five episodes, and the wiki says the same edit was used to premiere the show in some countries.
  7. Home video: The title was reused for a different tape, a 30 minute promotional VHS that edits together A New Beginning, Sword and Staff, The Gift, The Seeds of Resistance and The Battle for Levitan, per the wiki.
  8. Fan observation: The back-cover text of the feature-length VHS places the story in the Triax Solar System, which the wiki links to the UK London Edition magazines and not to the cartoon's own Tri-Solar naming.

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

A grey-haired man in a brown cloak stands beside a glittering gold necklace with a red jewel.
A grey-haired man in a brown cloak stands beside a glittering gold necklace with a red jewel.
Two elders with blue-grey hair talk before a domed building, one holding a branching staff.
Two elders with blue-grey hair talk before a domed building, one holding a branching staff.
A bound figure hangs near a large dark creature with a square-toothed grin in a purple chamber.
A bound figure hangs near a large dark creature with a square-toothed grin in a purple chamber.
Skeletor stands in a purple ship cabin with his arms hanging at his sides.
Skeletor stands in a purple ship cabin with his arms hanging at his sides.
A purple-faced warrior in red armor turns toward a figure with a magenta cape seen from behind.
A purple-faced warrior in red armor turns toward a figure with a magenta cape seen from behind.
A purple-faced figure in a tan hood and red armor glares to one side.
A purple-faced figure in a tan hood and red armor glares to one side.
Skeletor grins wide with a green skull face inside the ship.
Skeletor grins wide with a green skull face inside the ship.
Two young men in a cockpit look ahead, one with brown hair and one with red hair.
Two young men in a cockpit look ahead, one with brown hair and one with red hair.
A blonde woman holds a small blue-grey animal against her cheek outdoors.
Prince Adam speaks with a hopeful look in front of green hills.
Prince Adam speaks with a hopeful look in front of green hills.
Prince Adam smiles at a blonde woman who faces him.
Prince Adam smiles at a blonde woman who faces him.
Skeletor appears at the edge of the frame against a cloudy sky.
Skeletor grins and holds his staff in an open landscape.
Prince Adam and a blonde woman walk together toward distant mountains.
A blonde woman holds a small blue-grey animal and looks worried beside a tree.
A curved stone bridge crosses a flowered meadow near a domed building.
Prince Adam listens to a white-haired elder seated with a staff in a purple hall.
A white-haired elder holding a staff places a hand on Prince Adam's shoulder.
He-Man looks to the side with the Power Sword on his back in a purple hall.
He-Man looks to the side with the Power Sword on his back in a purple hall.
A large spiny creature-like ship drifts in space beside a planet.
A purple-faced figure in tan hooded armor bares his teeth in a grin.
Skeletor sits at the controls of a ship cabin, seen from behind.
He-Man speaks beside a white ship on a grassy field.
He-Man speaks beside a white ship on a grassy field.
He-Man lifts the Power Sword with a determined look beside the ship.
A white ship stands on a grassy field while two people watch from the side.
Workers climb over a large dark machine in a control hall.
A thin man sits at a console of dials and levers in a dark room.
A bald man smiles and raises a thumb beside a bank of control panels.
Red lightning crackles around a ringed cylinder against a dark background.
Two men in a cabin cling to a large ringed cylinder lying on its side.
A man in a tall red hat sits on the floor beside a fallen ringed cylinder.
A man in a red hat and a man in white climb a ladder beside a fallen cylinder.
A man with glasses and a high collar climbs a ladder.
A white-robed woman and a blue-robed elder stand in a tall purple hall with slanted windows.
An elder in a blue robe stands beside a dark-haired woman in white.
Armored legs and boots march across a metal floor.
A pilot sits on the edge of a white fighter craft in a hangar.
A grinning pilot in a horned silver helmet and blue armor sits in a cockpit.
A pilot in a green hood and red face mask looks sideways from a cockpit.
Three white fighter craft fly through clouds.
Skeletor leans over a purple-faced warrior holding a skull-topped staff in a ship cabin.
Skeletor stands with his hands raised in the ship cabin.
A red-armored purple-faced figure stands behind the controls where Skeletor sits.
Skeletor grins widely with his cape bunched at his collar.
Skeletor stares with wide eyes and bared teeth.
A winged woman with arms spread floats inside a large blue eye.
A white spacecraft flies through space with a blue trail behind it.
A red-armored warrior and a yellow-spotted mutant with a hooked arm stand in a hangar.
A dark disc-shaped tower station hangs among clouds.
A tall tower with an antenna dish stands against a cloudy sky with birds.
A purple-faced warrior in red armor grips a control in a cockpit.
A grinning pilot in blue goggles and an olive vest sits in a cockpit.
A cracked stone bridge crosses a flowered meadow near cypress trees.
A white-haired elder holding a staff speaks while seated in a high-backed chair.
A dark-haired woman in a white shawl looks to the side in a purple hall.
A blonde woman in a red dress rests her hands on the shoulders of a dark-haired boy.
A domed building with golden wing-like fins stands at the end of a paved road.
A white-haired elder embraces a dark-haired boy and a blonde woman.
An elder, a blonde woman, a boy and a dark-haired woman stand together in a purple hall.
A white-haired elder holds a blonde woman's shoulders in a library.
A blonde woman is comforted by a white-haired elder in a library.
Skeletor laughs with his mouth wide open, his hand reaching toward the camera.
He-Man looks upward with a confident smile against a starry sky.
A dark-haired woman and a boy in a yellow tunic sit in a ship cockpit.
Skeletor points and laughs in a pink-caped outfit against a starry sky.
Skeletor grins with one eye narrowed and his finger raised.
He-Man looks ahead calmly with stars behind him.
A glowing yellow orb sits inside a red circular device.
A dark-haired woman rests her hands on a boy's shoulders beside a white ship.
He-Man crosses his arms over his chest as a blue glow gathers there among drifting rocks.
Blue beams of light fall around a domed building under a ship hull as crowds gather.
A boy in a yellow tunic and a dark-haired woman walk under a ship hull.
A blonde woman speaks to a boy in a yellow tunic with her hand on his shoulder.
A white-haired elder speaks while armored guards stand behind him on a lawn.
Armored guards with rifles stand around a woman in white, a boy and a blonde woman.
A large crowd stands under a huge golden cannon watched by an armored guard.
Skeletor stands in a crowd beside a white-haired elder and a purple-faced warrior in red armor.
Skeletor bows his head and clutches his staff before a crowd behind a clear barrier.
A golden armored statue holds a sword atop a blue pedestal.
Skeletor laughs wildly in front of a crowd and a tall building.
A golden robot figure stands in a blast of white light and lightning.
A crowd looks up in alarm in front of a domed tower.
He-Man smiles with his hands behind his head against a bright blue glow.
A small figure stands atop a golden robot as rocks and debris stream past.
Rocks fly around a damaged brown craft with a red-haired figure inside.
Skeletor raises his staff and arms as debris falls around him before a crowd.
A group of white craft flies across a pale blue sky.
A white ship with blue accents dives over a gray city as another craft passes above.
A dark tracked vehicle sits on a red desert with a line of figures in front.
A pilot in a green suit hugs a man in blue armor beside an older man.
He-Man smiles with a hand on his chest at sunset.
He-Man faces a group of people holding small animals under an orange sunset sky.
A small group stands on a rocky ridge under an orange sunset sky.
A white-haired elder smiles holding a staff in a library.

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