Assault on the Hive

Sweet Bee says goodbye to She-Ra and sets off to look for a new home, refusing the Rebellion's offer because her people are not fighters. Skeletor sees the giant Hive ship and decides the Bee People would make an army big enough to challenge Horde Prime. He boards with Beast Man and Trap Jaw and takes the ship with sleep gas and stun rays, but Sweet Bee escapes in a scout craft to find She-Ra. After She-Ra and Netossa net Catra, the Horde tax collector, Sweet Bee reaches She-Ra, who calls Prince Adam away from his fishing trip with Cringer. As He-Man, he joins She-Ra on Swift Wind, and Crystal Sun Dancer carries them out into space. Skeletor finds the Bee People have no weapons, so Trap Jaw turns their tools into guns. He-Man drops out to fight dinosorbs, then reaches the Hive, where a giant dinosorb rolls at Skeletor while She-Ra nets Beast Man. Skeletor escapes to Snake Mountain, the Bee People decide freedom is worth fighting for and join the Rebellion, and Loo-Kee closes with a few words on working for what matters.

Loo-Kee: "Hi there. Did you see me today? If not, here's another look. Here I am. In today's story, Sweet Bee and her people were looking for a place to live in peace. But Skeletor made it very difficult for them. As the Bee People discovered, if you really want something, you have to work hard to get it. But if it's important enough, the way freedom and a new home were to the Bee People, it's worth working for. Bye now. See you soon!"

She-Ra: "But remember, sometimes it is necessary to fight to keep your freedom."

Skeletor: "Sleep gas and stun rays only, my evil henchmen. No one must be hurt."

Skeletor: "I don't recall giving you a choice, Bee Man."

He-Man: "Sorry to burst in like this, Skeletor, but I think it's time to take out the garbage."

Cringer: "Boy, what a shame."

Can a peaceful people stay peaceful when somebody turns up with a stun ray? Assault on the Hive asks the question in its opening scene. Sweet Bee is setting off to look for a new home, and She-Ra offers her a place in the Rebellion. Sweet Bee says no: "My people are not fighters. We must look elsewhere." She-Ra's parting line is the thesis of the hour: "But remember, sometimes it is necessary to fight to keep your freedom." Sweet Bee hopes it will never come to that. The next scene is Skeletor looking at her ship.

Skeletor is the best thing in the script, and the reason is his tidiness. He wants the Bee People as an army "large enough to take on Horde Prime himself", because if he can conquer Horde Prime, "the universe shall be mine." So he gives orders that sound almost kind. "Sleep gas and stun rays only, my evil henchmen. No one must be hurt. After all, they're going to be joining my army soon." Beast Man carries the gas and Trap Jaw the ray gun. It is a recruiter's logic, and it makes Skeletor smaller and funnier than a villain who just wants to smash things.

The plan hits a snag that the writing handles well. The Bee People have no weapons at all, only "force beams and other building tools." Skeletor does not give up; he has Trap Jaw convert the tools into guns. A peaceful people's workshop becomes the thing used against them. When a Bee Man refuses, saying "We will never agree to serve you," Skeletor does not bother to argue: "I don't recall giving you a choice, Bee Man."

The scene that earns the hour is He-Man's arrival at the Hive. Earlier he stays behind in deep space to fight a pair of dinosorbs, creatures that curl into balls and seem "practically indestructible", and he needs his Super Sunday Punch just to slow them down. At the Hive he announces, "Looks like I've come just in time to play a little game. It's called catch." Later a giant red dinosorb rolls through the ship and tumbles at Skeletor, and it lands because we have already watched those monsters shrug off everything else. The setup and the payoff are both on screen.

The weakness is the lesson. Drone 7 tells She-Ra and He-Man, "We know now that our freedom is important enough to fight for." But the fighting we see is done by He-Man and She-Ra. The Bee People stumble from gas and sit strapped into grey chairs in a workshop, and the winning is done with a net and a punch. The tag then softens the point again, telling children that if you want something "you have to work hard to get it." That is a different moral from the one the plot has been running. There is also padding: Catra's tax-collector cameo is pleasant, and Cringer's gag about being left behind is brief, but neither has anything to do with the Hive.

The trip into space gets a neat beat of its own. Swift Wind admits "I can't fly that fast in space", and then adds, "But I can take you to someone who can." Crystal Sun Dancer answers his call, and the problem is solved in a few lines without a speech.

It is a crossover hour, with He-Man and Skeletor both visiting She-Ra's show, and it treats the visits with respect. The villain has a clear aim and the heroes get good lines. The Rebellion's offer, refused in the opening scene, is accepted in the last: "We still need a home. And I think that now we are ready to help you defend it." The message is muddled. The pacing is not, and the Skeletor material is better than it needs to be.

1. Continuity: In the opening scene Sweet Bee recalls an earlier visit, when she thought a planet was perfect and found it ruled by the Horde, and says she escaped with help from She-Ra and He-Man.
2. Continuity: She-Ra calls Prince Adam while he fishes with Cringer, and Adam turns into He-Man but leaves Cringer behind: "This is a job in space."
3. Note: Skeletor wants the Bee People as an army "large enough to take on Horde Prime himself"; Horde Prime is only talked about, and the Horde appears in person through Catra as a tax collector.
4. Note: Swift Wind cannot fly fast enough in space, so he calls Crystal Sun Dancer to carry He-Man and She-Ra to the Hive.
5. Production: Written by Bob Forward and directed by Richard Trueblood; first aired 1987-11-28.