RETRO-SCRUTINY SRMTHFG EPISODE 50: Golden Age

Hello and welcome back to Retro-Scrutiny. My name is Kendall and I will be your host and fact master for the evening.

(And I’m Alexia, your other host and dealer of sarcasm and extra comments.)

So, we’re almost done with the series. Fifty episodes and more. Fifty!

(That’s a whole five tens, dontcha’ know?)

Yes it is, Alexia. It feels so weird, knowing so much time has passed since we started this show.

(Yeah, you start this on your own over a year ago, didn’t you?)

I did. It’s scary and exciting and it just sorta reminds me that it’s my last Spring Break as a college student because I’m graduating this year and I’ll have to get a real job that pays and-

(Calm down! You’re scaring the viewers! Let’s get to the episode before you have a breakdown or something. Can you try to segue?)

Yeah… Actually, today’s episode deals with looking back on the past. So let’s join the Monkey Team on a trip back to the Golden Age.

(Very good.)

OVERVIEW

The episode begins with the hyper force  and the Super Robot looking for Valeena and Mandarin. They wonder about the Skeleton King Skull and its danger when Otto picks up a human bio sign from underground. They discover a man in a costume in deep hibernation. He’s wearing a helmet that looks like the hyper force emblem.

(Shouldn’t they have copyrighted that thing or something?)

They take him to the Super Robot. His hibernation was caused by the old fashioned sleep cannon they found with him. Otto reverses the polarity and the ensuing beam awakens him. He opens his helmet to reveal an old man with a long white beard and mustache.

(Dumbledore? Galfore? Judas Traveller?)

Apparently, he didn’t know he was asleep for years as he panics at his old face. He was young a few minutes ago (Not that you’d be able to tell.).

His name is Captain Shuggazoom, defender of the city (Name trademarked.). He recognizes the monkeys and reveals that he knew the Alchemist- they’re best friends.

(Cue the flashback!)

FLASHBACK

Dr. Malicious (Nice name, buddy.) stole one of the Alchemist’s inventions- the Magna Ball Blazer (Oh, I wonder what that does?). They fought over the weapon until the Doctor takes a car and its driver hostage and sets an ultimatum. Captain grabs the car before it hits the ground, makes sure the owner is safe, and throws the car at the Doctor.

(And he totally misses.)

Hush, you. He wins and decides to visit the Alchemist.

(And now we get to see him and the monkeys before their transformation into cyborgs. And they’re all so cute- even bratty little Mandarin.)

The Alchemist is working on the Silver Monkey (Why? Captain Shuggazoom wants a sidekick.) when the hero walks in. There’s a bit of talk before the Alchemist brings up a portal that peers into the soul of evil itself- the Netherworld. The monkeys- minus Mandarin- seem scared of the portal.

Inside the portal are the Dark Ones and their evil grows out of control. The portal allows them to study and monitor them directly. Captain thinks it’s dangerous, but the Alchemist says the grid is utterly impenetrable.

After the Captain leaves, Mandarin decides to gets close to the grid and start jumping around, screwing up the containment grid. A Dark One breaks free and the Alchemist is imbued with Dark One energy.

(Well, that’s one mystery solved.)

Later that night, Captain Shuggazoom (as his alter ego-millionaire playboy industrialist Clayton Carrington.) is off duty (On a date) when the Captain Shuggazoom signal goes off in the sky.

The Dark One is flying around the citdy, destroying stuff when the hero arrives and throws an attack at it. They fight and Captain gets trapped long enough for the Dark One to release more of its kind. He frees himself and hits with another attack. He lures the monster out of the city and gets it stuck at a crack in the earth.

Captain goes to the Alchemist and find worried monkeys and a changed Alchemist. The Captain takes the sleep cannon and promises to return.

The Dark One is still where he left it when he returns and the fight resumes. He fires the sleep cannon, but misses. Using his Sting Ring to collapse a cliffside on the beast, but it breaks out and grabs the Captain, who blasts it with the cannon. They both fall into the crevice.

END FLASHBACK.

Captain Shuggazoom never saw the Alchemist again. He asks how his friend is doing and learns the horrid truth. He blames himself, but can’t dwell on it for long as there is a shaking of the ground. Gibson and Otto discover that the Demon Beast is also waking up. They shut the cannon off, but it is too late.

It flies back to the city. The team and the Captain take the Super Robot and go after it. The Robot fights it while the Captain tries shooting the sleep cannon at it. The Demon Beast knocks them all down before attempting to open another portal. Captain gets up and tries again.

(Déjà vu, anyone?)

The Dark One pops the Captain in its mouth and Captain shoots the cannon off. The monster falls atop of the Lasertron Fury and through the portal, which closes.

Captain Shuggazoom and the Hyper Force say their goodbyes. The captain is headed back to the Alchemist’s laboratory to discover what happened to his friend in his final days. He may not like what he finds, but it is for his own piece of mind. He flies off into the sunset.

And that was the Golden Age, and it was quite the journey. I liked it. What about you, Alexia?

(It was an experience. I’ve got my thoughts on it, but first we have to get through the usual.)

NEW CHARACTER(S):

Captain Shuggazoom/ Clayton Carrington (Bruce Campbell): (It’s very obvious where the influence for the Captain’s backstory and abilities came from- a tie between Batman and Ironman. The character himself, however, is a bit lacking. I know he only appeared, but it would be nice to see him a little more fleshed out.)

As for his abilities, he has what looks like some prototype versions of Chiro’s own costume and the monkey powers, such as Sting Ring and his own Chiro Spear-o. And that the team’s emblem originally belonged to him.

Unfortunately, the episode does some rather corny things with him, mostly as jokes that don’t really work. And because of his character’s obvious influences, it means that we automatically assumed his personality and background instead of learning it through the show.

UNANSWERED QUESTION(S):
1) How did the Alchemist and Captain Shuggazoom first meet?
2) Was the Alchemist always planning to turn the monkeys in cyborgs?
3) Who built the portal to the Netherworld in the first place?
4) How did Captain Shuggazoom first get started?

FINAL OPINIONS:

This episode was a wonderful exposition dump for the monkey team’s backstory. It takes us way back before the team we all know and love were the team, and we see how the city had other protectors. Captain Shuggazoom is a good character for them, being one of the last good ties to their past lives.

(Speaking of the monkeys, it’s cute to see they all had traits that followed them through the transformation- Gibson is smart, Nova and Sparks still argue. Actually, it’s Mandarin that gets the biggest character nod. Apparently, he was always a little jerk, threatening his siblings and getting in trouble. In fact, it’s his fault the Alchemist even changed in the first place. What a jerk!)

The rest of the episode is decent. Again, what they do with the Captain is silly, but it isn’t insulting in any way- it’s just a little stupid. But his last moment on the episode was touching and I can’t deny it worked.

(This episode makes me want to see more backstory for the city as a whole. I want to know how the men met, how the city failed to take care of itself back then, how the feel of everything was. Modern day Shuggazoom is boring outside of the attacks.)

Hey, there’s still two more episodes to go. And on that note, this episode is over and done with. Thank you all again for joining us once again for this little section of the past.

(We hope to see you all in the future. Until then, we’re Kendall and Alexia, wishing you all a good day.)

RETRO-SCRUTINY SRMTHFG EPISODE 49: Secret Society

Hello and welcome back to Retro-Scrutiny. My name is Kendall and this is my co-host, Alexia. Sorry for the long wait, but if anyone’s been following the news, they’d of heard of what’s happening to my university.

(If you haven’t, well- SCSU just might be getting shut down for a number of years. Kendall is graduating this semester, so she’ll be fine. It’s any first semester seniors and below that are in trouble. And all the faculty as well. And the school’s reputation.)

It is because of this that updates have been rather slow. I want to finish this season before I graduate as a short term goal and I can’t do that if I don’t work. So without further ado, this episode is titled Secret Society.

OVERVIEW

The episode begins with Valeena torturing Mandarin for the location of the Skeleton King’s skull. (Seems she’s still sore about the Night of Fear thing…) The mistreated monkey refuses at first, but ends up caving and taking her to the hiding spot… only for it to be missing.

(Dramatic music now: DUN DUN DUN!)

Valeena realizes just who the thieves were- the Skeletal Circle. And this upsets her to the point of falling to her knees and saying that all is lost.

Cut to the heroes- or at least three of them- at the arcade. Nova, Otto and Chiro. As they play, Ma Cinco comes over with a bowl of cookies and everyone happy with the way the day is going.

Even if the sky is filling with red clouds…

Meanwhile, somewhere else, a group of red cloaked individuals have the Skeleton King’s skull and begin absorbing power from it into two of their followers.

Cut back to the heroes, who are just leaving the arcade when Otto gets beaned with a frog from the sky. Soon enough, more of them start pouring down and the city is in a panic as the three start doing something about it. They end up going back to the Robot for some help.

(Also, aren’t frogs from the sky some sort of sign of the apocalypse?)

Speaking of the Robot, there the other team members are, discussing what’s going on. Antauri senses supernatural forces at work. Chiro walks in and instantly comes up with a culprit- Valeena.

(And speaking of her, she and Mandarin are hiding out somewhere so Valeena can give some backstory:

Valeena: I was once one of them. A small group of Shuggazoomians who worshiped the Skeleton King in secret. The leaders of the Skeletal Circle chose me to present to the Skeleton King as his most loyal disciple. He rewarded me by transforming me with his power.

Mandarin gets impatient and demands that she go and get the skull.)

The two leaders, finished with their frogs, end their curse to do something a little deadlier: RATS (And they’re huge by the looks of things. Ew.)!

The team disengage the Super Robot to play Pest Control until they start escaping into the sewers. As they travel, they start hearing moans and weird noises and discover a weird chamber. They free a man chained up to an altar and take him back to the Super Robot for medical attention. According to him, they tried to feed him to the rats.

The man explains to them that he was taken as part of the sacrificial part of a ritual because he heard them chanting and making noise and told them to shut it and that Ma and Pa Shenko are involved somehow. Chiro sets off for the arcade to make sure the old pair are alright. He discovers a secret elevator and finds the underground cult.

(Valeena and Mandarin arrive and there is a small confrontation before the leaders reveal their identities as Ma and Pa Shenko. And they’re apparently Valeena’s parents. DUN DUN DUN! There’s a more violent confrontation as Chiro and Mandarin attempt to steal the skull under their noses.

(They get caught however, and Chiro laments that two people he liked turned out to be monsters. Mandarin taunts him about trusting anyone when irony strikes and the rest of the monkey team arrive. They noticed something going on at the arcade and remembered Chiro was there.)

The Shenkos transform into monsters and blast the team away. Antauri frees his leader and ex-leader as the skull starts shining and shooting energy into the sky. The final curse has been cast.

(And it’s GIANT SPIDERS! Gah, that’s nasty!)

The team attack the Shenkos, but they don’t do much damage and end up with most of them taken out. Nova and Chiro attack and get the skull away from them, only for it to split in two and reveal a completely new skull. The cracked skull means that the Shenkos lose their new power and the curse is lifted (Yay!).

Chiro and Nova attempt to investigate the new crystal skull when Valeena and Mandarin come and knock them out from behind. When they awaken, they two of them are gone. Ma and Pa are prepped to become the newest inmates of the offworld prison.

Chiro is still upset at the betrayal. Antauri gives him some words of advice:

Antauri: Evil does not always advertise, Chiro. Sometimes, it hides behind a smile.

Otto: Or a plate of cookies.

Chiro: If Ma and Pa can be evil, then anyone can.

Antauri: No Chiro, most people are good by nature. But we must be vigilant against those who exploit goodness as a weakness. That is why we’re here.

The episode ends with the twosome of Mandarin and Valeena talking about the skull and their future plans- the resurrection of the Skeleton King.

And that was Secret Society- quite the interesting episode, wasn’t it? We’ll talk about it in a bit. First we need to get the usual stuff out of the way Let’s start with the

UNANSWERED QUESTION(S):

1. How long has the Skeletal Circle been around?
2. Why do Shuggazoomians worship Skeleton King?
3. What are the other items Valeena and Mandarin are looking for?
4. Why did Ma and Pa sacrifice their daughter? Did they choose her specifically?
5. What will happen to the arcade?

NEW CHARACTER(S): (These aren’t really new characters- they’ve appeared as background characters before. But this is the first time they’ve ever had real significance in any episode, so we’ll talk about them.)

MA AND PA CINCO: These are two background characters that appeared from time to time. And I think that worked out well for them. They were familiar faces that we didn’t know much about. So making them villains was a rather good idea.

As villains, they’re unsuspecting and have the hero’s trust. They don’t really reveal their reasons for being the way they are- most villains don’t now that I think about it- but what they’re doing is good enough.

Their actions, however, leave a lot to be desired. Yeah, rats and spiders suck, but if they really wanted something to destroy the city, make a supernatural flu virus of something. And then when they turn into giant monsters, they don’t do much but stand around and laugh at everything.

FINAL OPINIONS:

This episode was decent. It involves the entire team, a few new villains and some old ones. It’s interesting to see that it isn’t just the big bads of the universe against the do-gooder heroes, but the normal citizens as well. There’s nothing wrong with that.

(Something that we will complain about in this episode is the animation. There are times where it gets obviously choppy- I noticed it mostly with Valeena.)

But what got me the most was the pair of Mandarin and Valeena. Those two have every right to hate each other- they see each other as below themselves and an interference to their identical plan of resurrecting their master. Yet in the end, it is very obvious that Mandarin needs her for information and access to the magic he can’t get to.

One last thing we can nitpick about is Chiro and his lesson about people betraying him. That was done with the Sun Riders and it worked so well. They didn’t need to rehash the idea.

But with that, we’ve said everything we wanted to with this episode. I am Kendall, and I would like to say thank you all for joining us once again for another episode of Retro-Scrutiny.

(And I am Alexia, hoping you will all join us again for the next episode. Please wish us luck on getting up sooner than this one. Have a fantastic day.)

RETRO-SCRUTINY EPISODE 48: Demon of the Deep

Hello everybody, and welcome back to Retro-Scrutiny! Yes, it’s been a while since we last saw each other, hasn’t it? In case you forgot us, my name is Kendall-

(A while? It was like, early January!)

-and this is my co host, Alexia. Thanks for the reminder, by the way. I feel a lot less guilty with you yelling at me.

(Don’t talk to me like I’m your momma!)

Then stop acting like her. We need to get this show on the road again.

(Okay, sorry. Well, the last time we all got together around this campfire, we were full of annoyance and rage. This time, we calm down and take a dip into the Demon of the Deep.)

OVERVIEW

The episode begins with the Super Robot chasing some fish men into the waters around Shuggazoom. An attack from one of them takes out their main engines and causes them to start sinking and taking in water. An unidentified object is caught headed towards them and they can’t escape because of the ocean dwellers blocking their escape hatch.

(I’ve heard of being up the creek without a paddle, but this is just ridiculous!)

A fishy submarine arrives and takes care of the fish people and rescues them just before the Robot gets knocked down completely. On the sub, they meet Captain Protesis and are welcomed onto the Revenger. He tells them that the city’s attack is just the beginning… of the end.

(Cue dramatic music sting here!)

Apparantly, something called Kro’Gar’Yoth will be released to destroy the city and they need to go deeper underwater to find a black crystal that can stop it. As the team walks through the ship, Gibson and the Captain start bonding over the technology aboard it before he tells them about the crystal’s defenses and why he needs their help getting to it.

That night, strange noises keep our resident tough girl from sleeping, so she goes exploring until she reaches a door and gets caught by the Captain. The door leads to his private quarters, according to him. Suddenly they are attacked by Shuggazoomian Men of War- giant jellyfish that he never prepared for. Luckily, they have Gibson to come up with a plan to save their skins. This gets him the permission to make enhancements to the ship.

Later, they reach the hostile depths and start the ‘dangerous’ part of their journey. They head out of the submarine and reach the box containing the crystal. A trio of spirits suddenly arrive and warn them away, but are ignored for the purpose of plot. They fight a rather generic sea monster and grab the crystal.

Back on the ship, Gibson tries to take a look at a wound the Captain sustained. It turns out he ‘was cursed many years ago’ and that the ocean water will turn him into ‘one of them’ if it comes in contact with him.

(Isn’t that a sign that he should’ve moved to the city? And one of who, exactly?) 

They examine the crystal and discover coordinates and a warning: Use this key to seal your doom. The Captain blatantly ignores it and they go on their way. They make their way through a system of hydrothermal sulfur vents, though they do have a problem with the magneto hydro ion drive.

(Sparks to the rescue! Well, they reach the crystal city of Kro’Gar’Yoth and uncover his tomb. The team takes a moment to huddle up and discover the creatures- the same ones that attacked the city- are being held behind the private door. Protesis arrives and explains that the creatures are his people, mutated into monsters by the same curse that affects him. They can either help him or let Kro’Gar’Yoth terrorize the city. The team realize that they’re stuck doing what he wants. Dirty cheat…)

 

They go in to insert the crystal, and it is then that Protesis announces his true intentions: releasing the monster on those who cursed his people and took their home- Chiro’s people. The monster starts whooping their butts and to add to the misery, Gibson’s new torpedoes attack them as well. He goes back to disable them and ends up confronting the Captain. Backing him up are the transmutated people of the water. They start tearing up the ship and letting water in. 

Once the ship is down, they group go to rescue the rest of the team and Gibson removes the crystal, sealing the monster and freeing his teammates.

(And now that the action is over, Otto decides to bring up the fact that they’re stuck 40,000 mega fathoms under the sea. The sea people coincidentally find them a way back home as Protesis is dragged under the water.)

  

Cut to the team back on dry land. Otto has fished up the Super Robot while Chiro is thanking the fish people for saving them (Aww, everyone’s friends!). Gibson, however, is in the dumps. So it’s up the his team to end the episode on a high note with this last bit of character interaction,

Nova: Don’t blame yourself. 

Antauri: He tricked us all, Gibson.

Gibson: How could I have been such a fool? Logically, I should have seen it.

Chiro: It’s okay, Gibson. You were listening with your heart, not your head.

Gibson: I just thought… that he was someone like me.

Nova: You stopped him to save the entire planet. He was nothing like you.

 

(And that was Demon of the Deep, a vast improvement over what we got over last time! We are so happy that this episode exist solely for that reason. But before we gush, we need to get some things out of the way.)

NEW CHARACTER(S): 

CAPTAIN PROTISIS: He’s not bad. He’s just an old captain at first, then a backstabber in the later half of the episode. The old captain made for an okay villain of the episode. But he’s not the character we want to talk about, so scroll down for the gushing.

UNANSWERED QUESTION(S):

1. How long ago did the Shuggazoomians kick the former inhabitants out of their city?
2. What lives or has lived under the city?

FINAL OPINIONS:

This episode is much better than the last one! Yet, we can honestly say that it’s only average. Still better than The Hills Have Five, but still only average. The villain is somewhat generic, and the monsters could have been better designed. There’s actually a lot of missed opportunity to learn about the planet, seeing as it’s just a city and some abandoned, monster filled areas.

(The real treat of the episode is Gibson, because this is an unofficial Gibson episode. He’s the one who gets to be excited about something he likes and finds a new friend. He gets to enjoy himself and he gets to be heartbroken at the end of the episode. And he gets to look cute during it, which is an added bonus.

But at the same time, Gibson has a moment of unintentionally appearing as a bit of a jerk. When the captain comments on how it’s nice to meet someone who like tech just as much as he does, Gibson acts like he’s never even heard of Otto’s skills. Otto, his brother and companion and teammate who wants nothing more than to rescue their Super Robot and fix it up. And he does act a bit out of character, ignoring the logic in what’s going on around him. I don’t really blame him for that though, since he was excited and all.)

The rest of the team don’t really do much since it’s Gibson’s episode. They’re there to try to keep him grounded and save the day. And honestly, I wish we’d seen some more destruction from the fish people, because they didn’t seem like that big of a threat. They scared some people, but then they wreck the Super Robot, then they’re shown as prisoners. There’s a weird tone shift with these guys.

And that’s all we have for this episode of Retro-Scrutiny. Thank you all for being so patient with us and we promise we’ll get more to you all as soon as possible. Until then, I’m Kendall and she’s Alexia and we hope you all enjoyed this little adventure with us. Until next time.

(BYE!)

RETRO-SCRUTINY SRMTHFG EPISODE 47: The Hills Have Five

(Sorry we’re late!)

Hello. I am Kendall and she is Alexia and together we make up the two faceless voices of Retro-Scrutiny. We would like to thank everyone who waited patiently for our return.

(We would have been back sooner if there weren’t a mountain of distractions that come with the holidays. Older siblings, their kids, shopping, wrapping gifts, cooking and cleaning, tree decorating- the list just goes on and on and on!)

And if I’m being honest, I’m kinda glad for all the distractions. I think I might have mentioned it last episode, but this episode is just AWFUL and I think you’ll see why in just a few keystrokes.

(Well, I’ve never seen this episode, so who knows? If anything, I’ll have fun watching you get madder and madder.)

Gee thanks. Well, no use wasting time, so let’s get this over with. This is episode forty-seven: The Hills Have Five.

OVERVIEW

The episode begins innocently with the Hyperforce ladies picking up a fast food order when Jinmay detects danger. The two move out of the way in time to avoid getting hit by a small missile.

(Who tossed the missile? Destructive bikers. The girls leap into action and bury one of the thugs under a pile of bricks, but are quickly surrounded and taken down by-)

A FREAKING NET! They are dragged out of town in a net by bikers! Can you see where the problems start? Gah! Well, after the opening theme, the boys arrive to survey the scene and end up facing off against the leftover biker, Squatch. They take it out relatively quickly and take it back for investigation.

(Meanwhile, the bikers arrive at their hideout and start showing off their loot. One of them, named Pigface for obvious reasons, gets ragged on for bringing items for the lot of mutant animals he cares for. Then they turn their attentions to the girls, dragging Nova to Pigface’s pets and taking Jinmay out to mess with her…

…And this scene is so bad in so many ways- it tries to make us feel sympathy for one of the bikers, it tries to make the bikers threatening, it shows the girls get dragged around like their overpowered. And it fails tremendously. In fact, it fails so much that it makes me want to check up on the boys.)

The rest of the team have discovered that Squatch belongs to a group called the Wild Five, a gang of interstellar criminals (With a real original name) who roam from planet to planet, looting and creating mayhem. Squatch won’t talk, so Antauri (Somewhat reluctantly…) decides to mind meld with it. The team discovers nothing they can really use, other than the toaster sized flea hidden in its purple fur.

(Since nothing important is going on at the Robot, I think it is time we checked back in with the other side of the story. Jinmay is made to fight the leader and he decides that she’s spunky and a bit wild but not very cooperative, so they make to change her mind. They bring her out with a new attitude and a look to boot.

 

Oh and Nova plays nanny with Pigface. Next!)

 

Otto manages to plant a tracker on Squatch and they let it free to try to follow it back to their teammates. Unfortunately, the hairball and the flea outsmart them and lead the boys to a trap.

 

The gang take out one of Pigface’s pets and torture it for a bit, including Jinmay, before she rides around with the leader in a gross parody of a romantic scene.

(Does this mean the leader is a pedophile of sorts or something….? EEWWW!)

The Squatch returns, gets into a tiff about being replaced as the token girl (Surprise: Squatch is a girl! And that only makes everything stupider…) and reveals that she led the rest of the monkey team into something called the Squiggly Pit. The two teams meet and Jinmay demands to keep Chiro and they take him back.

 

Nova is watching Pigface and wonders why he’s with the bad guys when the bad guys return so Jinmay can push Chiro around and show off her new heart beam.

 

(The boys escape the Pit and fly away- something they should have done earlier in the episode!- and go to rescue the three missing members as Jinmay is welcomed into the Wild Six, as she provided the feast- mainly the main course, Chiro. Pigface is told to toss one of his mutant animals on the grill, but Nova and his gang’s differing attitudes talk him out of it and in return, he sets the golden warrior free… only to get beat up by Jinmay.)

And then it goes from a cat fight to a Super-Robot-Monkey-Disgusting-Stinky-Biker Fight as the rest of the boys arrive! They take out the main group while Pigface disables Jinmay’s mind control.

(The episode ends with JInmay uses her newly installed heart beam to take out the leader. The team frees Chiro and Jinmay apologizes for trying to get him eaten as Pigface gets to play with his pets and the others get to go to jail.)

I am so glad that part is over. I just want to reiterate that I hate this episode, and you’ll see right after our usual spiel… 

NEW CHARACTER(S):

THE WILD FIVE: There is so little to talk about them that it’s a shame. They make up half the cast and I swear we spend more time with them then our main heroes, not counting the damsels they snatched up. Bagface and Metalmouth -I don’t care about their names!- have no personality outside of background groupies. I think they just might have the exact same personality

Bossman is just badly written. He starts off as just a biker creep, then turns up the creep factor to eleven. He’s a threat and a non-threat at the same time. He leads the gang, but it seems like both his girls can do that themselves. Squatch is the token girl that came before Jinmay and still manages to do more than most of the others on her team do.

Pigface is the one we’re meant to feel sympathetic for, but his personality is lacking. He likes his pets and he hates seeing them get put in harm’s way. It would be enough for a better episode, but this episode isn’t the one.

UNANSWERED QUESTION(S):

1. How did the Wild Five manage to evade police for however long they did?
2. How did they reprogram JInmay?
3. Why was Pigface a part of the group?
4. When did Pigface obtain his mutant animals?
5. Were they really going to eat Chiro?

FINAL THOUGHTS:

(Yeah, I’m jumping on the bandwagon. This episode sucks in a big way! So many problems, so many words to get out. Where do we even start?)

The beginning. First off, I can’t buy that Nova and Jinmay got captured that easily! I know this show makes it seem like knocking the team around is easy, but Nova is fully trained and experienced in fighting much bigger threats. Jinmay took care of herself and an entire city, plus has eyebeams and who knows what else- like, flight! And turning into a giant robot!

(Actually, the entire episode only seems to remember that its main heroes can fly only when necessary, like at the end of the episode. If Nova and JInmay had flown around in the first scene, they would have lasted longer. The Plot would’ve gotten them captured no matter what, but they wouldn’t look so bad doing it. They could have flown when the bikers arrived or while they were netted.

(Scene two: The boys find Squatch. That’s it. The scene is both important and boring.)

Scene three: The audience is shown that the bikers are evil, except Pigface, and the girls do nothing but act helpless when they could fight or FLY AWAY!

(Scene four: The boys investigate and learn nothing of importance to them. That’s it.)

Scene five: Jinmay FINALLY fights, but does so poorly you’d think she wasn’t a battle-trained flying, transforming robot and a fresh-off-the-belt maidbot. Boss gets creepy and decided he and Metalmouth are smart enough to work on living, thinking robots to make them their comrades and underaged arm candy. Nova does nothing because she’s in a cage and doesn’t think to fly out of the roof.

(Scene six: The boys hatch a plan that ends up being stillborn and start walking into a trap. That’s it.)

Scene seven: Squatch returns to fight over her spot as arm candy and not about an underaged robot girl under the influence of mind control being let into their group just as Boss made himself extra creepy. She ‘wins’ the argument by telling about her little adventure. They kidnap Chiro.

Scene eight: Chiro gets thrown around by Jinmay back at the camp. She beats him without really trying because Chiro barely defends himself. Nova laments her uselessness.

(Scene nine: The monkey boys escape. Woo…)

Scene ten: Nova finally gets loose as the group is about to eat Chiro (They’re being evil for the sake of being evil now.) and the two teams finally meet up to fight. The good guys win and Jinmay is ‘set free’.

(Scene eleven: Filler before the end.

Do you see the coffee stains on the schematics? The girls don’t do anything useful unless a the plot wants them to look good, and they have the personality of toast. Most of the boys are just there and the most important guy in the episode is a pervert. It’s like this episode is trying its hardest to not be good and it’s working.)

And that’s just the plot. The rest of the writing is unfunny and the animation doesn’t do anything to impress anyone. But the biggest complaint I have is that this dishonors Nova and Jinmay, two characters that could easily take on whole crowds of enemies.  It disregards both of their abilities just to make everyone useless and unlikeable.

(And bikers? Really?!? If this was season one, I could buy that they fought a stupid biker gang, except that this biker gang seems to be so incredibly dangerous that they’ve gone looting from planet to planet and haven’t been caught until they met some kids and some metal monkeys.)

So, is there anything in this episode that works? Jinmay’s bad girl design is cute. That’s it. So I’m going to tell everyone here to avoid this episode. It doesn’t impact the overall plot of the show and it will save you a headache. You’ll thank us.

(And with that last comment, I would like to bring this episode to a close. Do you all see why we hesitated to do this episode? I don’t even have anything remotely clever to say right now- that’s how tired this episode made me! We would like to thank you all for sticking with us for so long and we promise we’ll have the next episode up much sooner- the next episode is tons better than this one!)

Until we meet again, I’m Kendall and she’s Alexia, signing out.

RETRO-SCRUTINY SRMTHFG EPISODE 46: Night of Fear

Hello and welcome back to Retro-Scrutiny! I am your glorious host, Kendall, and with me is my wonderful co-anchor, Alexia. How’re you doing, Alexia?

(I’m fine, just in a bit of a mood.)

Should we be worried?

(No, I’ll be fine, if not a bit quiet. So, what’s with today’s episode? Anything interesting?)

Today’s episode is an interesting one, if the title means anything. This is Night of Fear.

OVERVIEW

The episode begins with Sparks and Gibson patrolling the city, with Sparks showing off his air skills. His vision starts blurring and it causes him to nearly crash into a building.

The rest of the team is sitting around the Super Robot’s feet talking and notice Sparks’ flying just before the Fist Rocket crashes into the Robot and falls. They pull him out and he explains that the lights just went out in his cockpit. When he asks to be taken out of the dark cockpit, it is revealed that he can no longer see.

They take him to the medical bay, where they discover they can’t find a physical cause for Sparks’ condition. Sparks reveals that he’s always been afraid of losing his sight, since it means he won’t be able to fly again.

Antauri tells Gibson that he needs to do more tests and Gibson starts acting… weird.

Antauri: Is there a problem?

Gibson: Um, no, no. I’ll have to remove his ocular orbs and check his neural pathways for any signs of a pony.

Otto: Did he just say he was looking for a pony?

Gibson: A pony? Now don’t be ridiculous! Why would I want to look for a pony? If I’m looking for a horse, I most definitely want a kangaroo. (Derp face!)

Nova: Uh, Gibson…?

Gibson: Now where were we? Ah yes! (Brings out his drills.) Is it time for the dissection party?

(And now we have two sick monkeys! They wrap up Sparks, but when Antauri goes to check on Gibson, he starts having problems as well. So it’s an epidemic!)

Suddenly the Robot shakes as four giant mechanical monsters appear inside. The team starts to fight, but it is becoming apparent that something is wrong with Antauri and Nova. Especially Nova, who starts to hallucinate and cower at the sight of one of the monsters. Gibson saves her but she bumps into Sparks who starts blindly firing attacks around and scares her into running away.

They defeat the last of the monsters and wonder where Nova went. As they head up to find her, they miss the sudden appearance of a familiar form…

Nova is hiding in her room when Chiro and the gang arrive. She freaks at first, but quickly realizes its just Chiro. Gibson starts drilling into her floor (He’s digging for moon rocks!) and scaring her before Chiro stops him. Antauri states that the seemingly random attacks have a common thread- the affected have had their most terrible fear come true.

Chiro: Nova has lost her nerve. Gibson…

Gibson: I’ve always been scared of appearing irrational or big green globbity boo.

Sparks: And losing my eyesight! That’s the worst thing that can happen to a pilot!

Antauri: My greatest fear is that I would lose control of this robotic body.

As the team makes plans to find the one responsible for doing all of this, said responsible one is watching them on the monitors. It’s Mandarin and Valeena, who’s still stuck in the medallion. Mandarin is using her supernatural powers to get revenge on his team, while she is demanding release so she may resurrect her master.

The team is attacked by the Robot’s inner defenses. Nova drags Sparks with her so they can hide (Why Sparks?). They need to head to the engine room to shut them off.

They make it, but the door is sealed shut. Antauri begins phasing through the door as they’re attacked again. Antauri loses his phasing ability and gets stuck halfway through.

He does eventually make it and save them. Mandarin makes his grand appearance and uses the amulet to bring out Chiro’s greatest fear- being a powerless little boy. As Chiro is crying, the deformed monkey uses the amulet to pull Antauri out of the door and take control of him, fully utilizing the silver monkey’s fear. Otto saves him and Chiro and Gibson make a run for it. Otto follows soon after

(Perhaps they should stay and discuss their differences…?)

Antauri follows them into a vent, but is taken off the trail by the sound of Nova and Sparks. He confronts them and tries to warn them about himself before chasing them through the vents to a dead end. Sparks puts up a shield and talks Nova into stunning him and deactivating his battery pack.

The boys land in what looks like Otto’s space and they continue to run. Chiro comments on Otto’s lack of fear just in time to witness the green monkey’s fear: Giant clams with feet! They end up carrying poor Otto away, leaving the other two to get chased by Mandarin.

Chiro confronts Mandarin just in time for reinforcements to arrive.

(Yay Super Robot! Unfortunately, Chiro is taken hostage and they can’t attack or his head goes flying. But just as he’s about to make the final strike, Chiro grabs the amulet and uses it on Mandarin, sucking him inside of it to meet his worst fear- Valeena!)

And with that, everything is back to normal. And the episode ends with Mandarin trapped and Valeena demanding to know where the Skeleton King’s skull is hidden.

(And that, ladies and gentlemen, was Night of Fear. An interesting twenty minutes if you ask my opinion. But before we get to those, let’s get something out of the way.)

UNANSWERED QUESTION(S):

1. What was Antauri’s original worst fear, if his current fear is losing control of his mechanical body?
2. Why is Otto’s fear clams with feet?
3. Is Valeena Mandarin’s true fear?
4. How did Mandarin and Valeena escape the amulet?

FINAL OPINIONS:

This episode is fun. It’s mostly character development for the entire team- a dip into their inner selves. It has enough action and plenty of humor.

(Speaking of the humor, the star of this episode is Gibson, because he had all the best lines. I like Gibson, but I admit he’s usually the straight man for characters like Otto and Sparks. So when he has a funny moment, it takes it and makes it memorable.)

As we said before, this episode actually had a good amount of character development for the team. For example, the boys enter Nova’s room and we’re treated to what’s inside of it- a punching bag, a tea set, stuffed animals, sharp weapons on the wall, and heart shaped pillows. That’s pretty cool. And to this day, I still don’t understand Otto’s fear.

Unfortunately, the villains are pretty boring. Mandarin just wants revenge and while watching him taunt his ex-team is fun, it still isn’t much. And Valeena is the biggest side character of the episode- she has a total of thirty seconds of dialogue.

(And wonderful viewers, that is the end of this week’s episode of Retro-Scrutiny. Now, don’t worry, we’ll be back in a week’ time with the next episode- hey, Kendall, what’s with the look?)

Next week’s episode is the episode that sparked this shows’ creation… I’m not looking forward to next week…

RETRO-SCRUTINY SRMTHFG EPISODE 45: Evil Ages

Hello fellow viewers! Welcome to Retro-Scrutiny. I’m your host, Kendall.

(Hi everyone! I’m Alexia. First, we’d like to say sorry for having the episode up late. There were finals to be taken and time to be wasted.)

But now we’re officially on break and the first thing we did was start on the finishing touches of this script. But you didn’t come here to hear about us working on the show- you came for the actual show!

(So let’s give them what they’re waiting for! The episode’s name this week: Evil Ages.)

OVERVIEW

The episode begins with the team walking through the exhibits of the Museum of Shuggazoomian HIstory, a place that’s apparently been closed for years.

(Until tonight, of course. The whole city is going to be there for its reopening. But for now, it’s just the team.)

The team arrive one of the newer exhibits- featuring them (It’s so cute!)! As they mess with the exhibit, they don’t notice anything strange…

(But then again, they usually don’t until it’s too late…)

Sparks and Chiro note that with the Skeleton King gone, the Hyperforce is now a part of history. Antauri disagrees just as the Curator arrives. Apparently the museum has been in his family for generations to document the “really interesting” parts of history. For example, he tells them that the room they’re in commemorates a fascinating era of Shuggazoomian history when evil trumphed over good.

(And of course, they tell his that they’re the good guys and they ended up winning. But apparently, their exhibit isn’t finished.)

He leaves them to check on his other displays, having the door disappear behind him.

(And then the exhibit attacks! And honestly, the fight is pretty funny. Chiro and the Super Robot have a slapfight and the rest of the minis just whale on the other monkeys. Except Mini-Sparks- he’s trying to make a move on Nova.)

Nova and Chiro get blasted into the prehistoric exhibit, where they disappear. The same goes for Otto and Gibson, who get sent to the Middle Ages.

(Sparks and Antauri end up in the Wild West. And they start their adventure by getting kicked of a bar. They’ve landed 700 years in the past, back when a notorious outlaw wiped out the entire town. Oh, and nice clothes, boys.)

They attempt to talk to the townsfolk, but no one’s hiding behind doors- the two of them are stuck inside some sort of pocket dimension. Then the Outlaw arrives (Who looks pretty familiar, eh?) and the three have a shoot out-

-just as Otto and Gibson are appearing near a castle and some guards try attacking them. They meet the Baron- another of the Curator’s ancestors- who has them arrested and encapsulated for being ‘witches’.

The Baron puts them through three tests:

Test 1: Cast them into the river, If they don’t drown, they’re witches. The boys use their underwater breathing apparatuses.

Test 2: Drop them from the top of the castle. If they survive, they’re witches. The boys use their jetpacks.

Test 3: The Witch Battering Ram. If they’re witches, they’ll be battered.

The boys end up surviving that (Should’ve cheated and played dead.) and end up in a jail chamber, locked in ancient holding gear. They also reunite with Antauri and Sparks.

(That just leaves Chiro and Nova, who end up confronting dinosaurs and having an unpleasant meeting with an Apeman and his overgrown riding lizard.)

The entire team is reunited just in time for the Curator to stick his head in and tell them he’s closing the pocket dimension. The ceiling starts closing down on them, so Antauri phases them through the top. They end up outside time and space for a moment before landing in the Curator’s innermost lair.

The Curator brings out his ancestors to fight as he plays a pipe organ that opens and closes the pocket dimensions. But when his ancestors get defeated, he jumps into a portal back to Shuggazoom… or does he?

(Nope! That was only a pocket dimension that looked like Shuggazoom. Antauri finds the real one.)

The episode ends with the team back in the museum with some of Antauri’s usual wisdom:

Antauri: History tells us heros are alway needed Chiro. This exhibit is a testament to that.

(Also, the Curator? Now a part of the exhibit.)

And that was Evil Ages. I want to tell you my thoughts on it, but first we need to go through the usual…

UNANSWERED QUESTION(S):

1. Who is the Curator?
2. Why was there so much villainy in his family line?
3. Why was the Museum of Shuggazoomian History closed for so long?

NEW CHARACTER(S):

The Curator: (This is easily the least most interesting villain we’ve had in a while. Nothing of importance to note about this guy. He’s so boring that there isn’t even a credit to his voice actor.)

FINAL OPINIONS:

(There isn’t much we can really say about this episode because it’s really dull. There are aspects of it that could be interesting, but end up not doing much. The pocket dimension thing was cool, but this is the only time we see this happening.)

But to the episode’s credit, it did give us a few smiles- mostly anything having to do with Otto and Gibson. But that’s kinda it. It’s underwhelming. I wish I had more to say.

(Well, hopefully we’ll have plenty more to say next time. Yes, ladies and gentleman, this is the end of Retro-Scrutiny. But fear not, for we shall be back in about a week’s time. Until then, I’m Alexia and she’s Kendall, wishing you a lovely evening.)

RETRO-SCRUTINY SRMTHFG Episode 44: Invasion of the Vreen

Hey everybody! It’s us, Kendall and Alexia here once again with a new episode of Retro-Scrutiny for the Thanksgiving week!

(These week has been pretty busy- between studying and preparing for next week’s finals to cleaning to shopping and cooking. Luckily, we try to work around that messy schedule the only way we can think of- skipping out on sleep!)

We are not kidding- half of our show is done in the middle of the night because we have a few too many distractions during the day. It’s better when we’re at school- the only distractions are the ones we give ourselves- but now we have everyone regularly popping in with something.

But you all didn’t come to hear us complain about our personal lives! You came to listen to tales of colorful simians saving a far away planet from some sort of threat! So, without further ado, let’s jump into the Invasion of the Vreen.

OVERVIEW

The episode begins with a handful of meteors crashing to the ground, with our heroes investigating. They notice that something is moving down in the crater. A moment later, Gibson is tackled by a large larvae of sorts. Chiro shoots it off of him, but more pop out to fight. During the fight, they learn that the larvae are mechanical and were hatched from the meteor-like eggs.

(Nova and Gibson take the next few seconds to point out the obvious: Gibson don’t like bugs. They freak him out. Then they leave, missing the part where the larvae regenerate and split.)

In the Super Robot, Gibson explains that the meteors didn’t come from space at all- they simply appeared in the atmosphere. Antauri wants to go and investigate, but Chiro and Gibson are certain that they squashed the bugs good.

(And of course, the overconfident ones get proven wrong immediately. The bugs have been busy multiplying well into the night.)

The team is woken by the Plot Alarm to discover a fifth meteor. Chiro and Otto go to investigate. They find it and the spot the robots duplicating and changing from larvae to large fighting mechs. The boys fight, but get whooped and their communicators are disabled. They do manage to win, but quickly discover the rest of the swarm headed towards Shuggazoom to steal the people away.

(The Super Robot arrives to save their skins. Nova gets the boys in and slams the door on one of the creatures, slicing it in half. The team later dissect the rather gross looking half-creature’s brain and connect it’s and Antauri’s minds so the silver simian can probe it for answers.)

Antauri: 80 million years in the future, only insects remain. The most advanced race, the Vreen, dominate by building robot bodies to inhabit. They removed their brains and placed them into cybernetic death machines. This enabled them to conquer space, devouring life all throughout the cosmos. But after eons of destruction, the Vreen finally ran out of food, and so they were forced to send their offspring back in time to feed off the organisms of the past.

(And then the team explain what was just explained to us like we just didn’t get it. But don’t worry- Gibson’s already got a plan.)

The Super Robot helps the team into the sewers to begin Gibson’s plan- look for the Vreen ancestor; one single mutant strain of insect that will one day evolve into the entire Vreen species.

They reach the chamber where the ancestor is located, and search while being stalked. They find it, but are ambushed and forced to retreat. Unfortunately, Sparks and Nova are captured.

(The team return to the Super Robot, where Gibson freaks out about being outsmarted by the Vreen. I’m only bringing this up because it’s honestly kinda funny.)

They also manage to locate the Vreen’s enormous hive full of people (And a pair of familiar monkeys.) being stored for food. Gibson has yet another plan (And Otto has another funny line.).

The team arrives just as the hive begins to open, releasing a large silver mech that transforms. The giant mechs fight and in the end, the team launch their chest cannon- the ammo? Antauri in full Ghost Mode. He arrives at the hive while the others continue to fight. They win, but the Vreen inside are already onto their scheme and head back to their base.

The Vreen blast Antauri just as he has a hold of the bug, and suddenly it’s a fight for the jarred insect. Chiro and Otto end up eaten by two of the giant mech monsters, leaving Gibson to do the only thing left- eat like his life depended on it.

(Which it does. And it works. Without their ancestor, the Vreen and their destruction disappear. HOORAY!)

The episode ends with the Hyperforce talking about how everything is normal until they pick up a familiar image on their long-range scanners. Everything seems familiar until the meteors produce a trio of SPACE KITTENS!

(AWWW! They’re  so cute! I wonder if they eat human flesh? Well, the Kittens transform and the Hyperforce prepares to attack as the episode fades to black.)

And that’s the story of the Invasion of the Vreen. How was it? Well, we’ll talk about that soon. But first,…

UNANSWERED QUESTION(S):

1. What led to insects eventually ruling everything?
2. Why does Gibson dislike bugs so much?
3. Where did these cats come from?

FINAL OPINIONS:

This episode was weird. It teeters between being a Gibson focused episode and a one-shot adventure. The plot was is copied and tweaked right from the Planet of the Apes franchise and the character interactions were actually bursting. I think everyone on the team had at least two important or funny lines each.

(We say this is a Gibson episode because it’s him who is so focused on the enemy. He hates insects and the fact that he just can’t squish them is just upsetting to him. He finds them a terror and he gets distressed when they outsmart him and he is so determined to be better than them that it actually makes his seem… odd.

I mean, is it only me who thought that the whole ‘monkeys are smarter than bugs’ thing could have had someone tell him that Chiro was smarter than he was because of the difference in species?)

Also, we skipped over it since we didn’t think much of it, but there seems to be a bump in the Spova road. A few episodes ago, they were practically ready to ‘confess’, and now Nova is acting like Sparks is carrying some sort of virus. It’s only a moment long, but it’s just sort of weird…

Well, that’s all we had to say today! Thank you all for joining us once again on Retro-Scrutiny. It’s been wonderful to have you. Until next time, I’m Kendall, signing out. Happy Thanksgiving!

(And I’m Alexia, saying goodnight. And Happy Thanksgiving!)

(And I’m Alexia, saying goodnight. And Happy Thanksgiving!)

RETRO-SCRUTINY SRMTHFG EPISODE 43: Ghosts of Shuggazoom

Greetings ladies and gentlemen, I’m Kendall and my co-host here is Alexia. Say hi, Alexia!

(Hi Alexia! There, I can cross that joke off my bucket list. We are so glad to see you all again- especially after the last episode.)

It wasn’t that bad. And speaking of last week’s episode, it’s finally time for our team to make it back home, dontcha’ think? Let’s make our way through Ghosts of Shuggazoom, shall we?

(Why of course we shall- it’s in our job description.)

OVERVIEW

The episode begins the team still watching JInmay’s message. Chiro laments that they can’t reach her- her distress call worries them, but her silence is worse. Gibson announces that all of Shuggazoom is strangely quiet. As they land (FINALLY!), Gibson’s scans fail to pick up a single life reading. In fact, there’s no one on Shuggazoom at all.

(Wait, is everyone DEAD? No wonder Jinmay didn’t call back- look how badly she messed up!)

The team fly above streets of empty cars, looking for people (Even though Gibson just said no one is around.) They arrive at Mr. Gakslapper’s to see burnt hover burgers still floating around- everyone seemingly left in a hurry. The place is a ghost town and Otto’s inflections aren’t helping one bit.

A person comes running out of a building, screaming his head off. He barrels straight through the team until Antauri and Chiro slow him down. They ask where everybody is and he points to the newly arrived ghost monsters.

As the team fights them, Sparks learns they can phase (Without turning purple, might I add. That makes it lame.) and they only seem to be hurt by energy attacks. During the fight, the scared guy gets attacked by one of the ghosts and gets a marking on his forehead, which turns his eyes red and black before they fly away with him. The team goes after them, but they ghosts phase through a building.

(And NOW Sparks mentions that that they can phase to his teammates.)

However, the good news is that Gibson’s scanner picks up several more life readings in a warehouse somewhere else in Shuggazoom. As they make their way down, glowing eyes watch them and they are confronted by Jinmay, with her silver skin and glowing eyes.

(And she looks MAD! Maybe they shouldn’t have drilled a hole in her ceiling…)

After recognising the Hyperforce, she enthusiastically hugs Chiro before sadly telling them that she failed. She explains that the Wraiths want people- they grab and mark them, then it’s only a matter of time before their souls slip away and they are transformed. Now, there are only a half dozen people left. And most of them are marked.

One of them transforms and calls others to the hideout. The team grabs the people and heads for the Super Robot, Jinmay keeping the Wraiths back. Unfortunately, more Wraiths phase through the team members and grab the marked people. In the process, Chiro gets marked.

(OH NO!)

They head to the Super Robot’s Sick Bay and put a shield around the Robot. Gibson can’t do anything to help, so Chiro is put in lockup, saying it’s to protect the team from himself. Then he transforms, calling the other Wraiths… and someone else.

(VALEENA! But I thought she was buried alive!?)

She reveals that she’s has returned from the grave (No duh!), and that her ‘allies’ life forces have been turned into dark energy. It feeds her, and makes her strong enough to resurrect her master- Skeleton King!

(And she needs just one more Wraith, who is special and powerful and strong with the Power Primate. Three guesses to who she wants and the first two don’t count.)

The Wraiths try to get through the shield and JInmay is demanded to take Chiro’s place in the Torso Tank. The Wraiths form one large Wraith with six arms, so Jinmay shoots the Moon Buggy into it like a mobile bomb.

However, Valeena gets inside and takes out the monkeys, which lets the Wraith Monster toss the Super Robot.

The Super Robot responds to Jinmay’s pleas to fly itself and destroys the Monster Wraith.

(Hooray for begging! Hooray for the Super Robot!)

The witch makes it to Chiro and tries to absorb him into her medallion. She is stopped by Jinmay punching her in the face and stealing the medallion. They catfight and roll out of the Super Robot, where skull bats attack Jinmay and the Monster Wraith reappears. The medallion ends up flying into Wraith Chiro and Valeena goes after it. Jinmay pleads with Chiro to fight her and he ends up using the Inner Primate to revert back to normal, with the medallion in hand. He sucks Valeena into the necklace and smashes it.

(The Power Primate also restores the rest of the monkey team, but that’s not really important.)

The Monster Wraith reverts into healthy people under a large blanket who all cheer. Chiro and Jinmay share their first legit kiss (AWW!) and the entire city celebrates.

(However, the episode ends with the medallion restoring itself with Valeena still trapped inside of it. A deformed hand picks it up and laughs maniacally.)

And that was Ghosts of Shuggazoom. We’re finally back on old dirt and it feels pretty good. But before we say anything else, let’s get some stuff out of the way.

NEW CHARACTER(S):

(Can we call these new characters if we’ve seen them before? Probably not. I personally need to get through this last season to properly gauge these characters. Kendall?)

I’m with you there. So, no new characters today.

UNANSWERED QUESTION(S):

1. Just how long were the Hyperforce on their mission?
2. How did the people of Shuggazoom take Jinmay as their protector and vice versa?
3. How long did the Wraith takeover take place?
4. When and how did Valeena escape?
5. Where did Valeena get her medallion?
6. Why is Chiro the only Wraith that keeps it’s original voice and has a partial face?

FINAL OPINIONS:

This episode is arguably the best Jinmay episode in the entire series. We see her fighting monsters, saving people the best she can. It’s understandable that she’s in over her head with the Wraith situation- I think the Hyperforce would’ve been stuck the same way.

(I agree, but this episode brings up an important question. See, up above we asked what happened on Shuggazoom during the third season. I have the sneaking suspicion we aren’t going to get any answers and that just KILLS me! Someone, anyone! Answer these questions! Ciro Nieli, Disney, fanfiction writers- SOMEONE! PLEASE!)

As for the rest of the episode… it’s a good story. I still want my above questions answered, though.

And that is it for this episode of Retro-Scrutiny! We’ve finally gotten back to Shuggazoom, but what insane adventures await our team next? We’ll find out next week; until then, I’m Kendall, signing out.

(And I’m Alexia, and I wish you all a good week and a great weekend.)

RETRO-SCRUTINY SRMTHFG EPISODE 42: Incident on Ranger 7

Hello and welcome back to Retro-Scrutiny. In case this is your first time viewing this show, let me introduce myself. My name is Kendall and this here is my cohort and friend, Alexia.

(Hi everybody! It’s good to see you all again.)

So, over the course of three seasons, we’ve met some new faces and seen some old ones as well. Friends, villains, and the such. It’s time we saw another old face as we and the team investigate the Incident on Ranger 7.

OVERVIEW

(The episode begins with the Super Robot headed towards Shuggazoom and right away we notice that the city seems to be on its side. Wow, they really do need the Hyperforce’s help.)

The team leader (Chiro for newcomers) is still worrying over the distress call they received. As the team look through the observation deck’s window, they pass Ranger 7, their moon. Sparks picks up on some sort of targeting- most likely for a weapons system. A beam shoots from the moon into the Super Robot and zaps Chiro, causing him to disappear.

Antauri senses that Chiro is still alive, just missing. Otto confirms that the beam came from the Moon Base Beta Prison Complex. The monkeys realize the only person who could’ve done this is Gyrus Krinkle- a crazed fan who tried taking over the team by hypnotizing the monkeys to destroy Chiro.

Antauri: Krinkle is the kidnapper. We must use utmost caution. He is highly manipulative, mechanically gifted, and extremely dangerous.

Otto: And he’s nuts.

The Robot lands on the base and they head to Krinkle. The head of the place tells them that Gyrus has virtually been rehabilitated. In his room, Gyrus has covered his walls with various paintings, one of which he is working on.

He greets the monkey team, who accuse him. Krinkle points out that he lives in a 6×8 box of a cell. The team decide to investigate the premises and Krinkle get’s cryptic.

(The guy holding the jar did say he was rehabilitated, right?)

Chiro appears on Shuggazoom, but quickly learns that Gyrus Krinkle’s face is plastered onto everything- buildings, people and even the birds! He freaks and ends up running into a costumed Gyrus himself, who welcomes him to Krinklezoom- his world. He wants Chiro to team up with him and protect the city.

(And then they can drink hot cocoa and be the big happy family they only never talked about. Naturally, Chiro declines and Gyrus Hulks out into Superman, attacking the kid with energy attacks. Chiro calls him a lunatic who needs help and gets blasted even worse. Yeah, Chiro, don’t provoke the nutcase who suddenly gained superpowers over the last three seasons while he was in prison. Also, where did those cracks in the ground come from?)

Gyrus flies high above the city with Chiro and offers him one more chance. The boy hero declines and gets dropped towards the pavement, prompting the boy to change his mind- he decides to play along until the rest of his team arrives.

(Speaking of the team…)

Nova, Gibson and Antauri discover a machine hidden in one of the rooms. They call Otto and Sparks- who are making arts and crafts with the other inmates (Hi Cloggy Colon Creature! Hi Sakko!)– to help them figure out what it is.

(Sparks is digging his own grave with that Nova puppet. Meanwhile, in Krinklezoom, Krinkle is giving Chiro his backstory.)

Krinkle: I was raised by a robot mother, Chiro. Did you know that? Sure, she was good at calculating different equations, but her heart was made of polyurethane. I always felt alone and helpless.

Chiro: Is this the long version or the short version?

Krinkle: I grew up wanting to be somebody important, have a family. And then I discovered the Monkey Team.

Chiro: Did you really think capturing me was gonna change anything?

The alarm goes off before and the two of them race off to fight the Formless (That haven’t been seen since their leader was beheaded the first time.). Krinkle steals Chiro’s moveset and uses some of his own to fight while Chiro acts as a background character. He finishes, but Chiro points out the last half dozen enemies left. With a wave of his hand, Gyrus makes them disappear.

(How’d he do THAT?!?)

Gyrus tells the kid that this is his world- he thinks, therefore it happens.

(Oh.)

Back with the monkey team, Otto deduces that the machine is some sort of neuro matter reconfiguration machine- it turns matter into thought waves. Suddenly Gyrus arrives with an army of robots to reveal that that he’s taken over and reprogrammed the entire prison staff and that he was stalling to let his brain recharge. He pulls a cable out of his head and replaces it before the machine zaps the monkeys into his mind.

The team is reunited before Mind!Gyrus appears and gets insulted by Sparks and Nova. In return, he beats them up and causes more cracks before Chiro calms him down. Then they run off to fight Cheesebot.

(Oh, hey! I remember hearing about this guy!)

As the monkeys and Gyrus fight the monster, Antauri and Chiro come up with a plan. Gyrus steals more of Chiro’s moves- this time his Inner Primate to defeat Cheesebot.

(And then Antauri phases his hand through Krinkle’s skull as he is being applauded to mind meld with him to find the way out. All they find are some of Krinkle’s awkward memories- including one from his first appearance. Oh, and more cracks.)

The madman forces the silver monkey out of his skull and attacks his ‘teammates’. Chiro suddenly dives into one of the cracks and hits it as hard as he can with the others following suit, causing Gyrus to explode.

And in the real world, the real Gyrus is being sucked into the brain cord of the machine. As the Hyperforce exits the machine, it explodes, leaving nothing but scraps of metal and the plug end of the brain cord. The brain cord that Gyrus should still be connected to, but isn’t.

The episode ends with a look around Gyrus’ cell walls, landing on a portrait of his happily delusional team fantasy, before the lights go off.

And that was Incident on Ranger 7. How was it compared to other episodes in the season? Well, we’ll talk about that after we ask ourselves some…

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS :

1. How did Gyrus manage to reprogram every single staff member in the prison and create a machine that would send people into his mind?
2. How long was he out of solitary confinement?
3. How did he know just when the Hyperforce was arriving?
4. Where is he now?
5. How did he know about the Inner Primate if he was already jailed by the time it was introduced?
6. What will happen to the facility and its inmates now?

FINAL OPINIONS:

I personally thought this was a rather fun episode. The idea of entering someone’s mind is a decent one until you make it someone who’s obviously bonkers off the wall. All the humor comes from Gyrus, who steals the show. He gets to be as emotionally trigger happy as he can get and it makes him a joy to watch.

(And I wholeheartedly DISAGREE with you! Gyrus managed to creep me out! He is too emotionally unstable for me to find him likable. Note that there’s nothing really wrong with him until you enter him mind. Then we’re thrown for a sharp loop. And why is Krinkle trying to be Chiro?

The monkey team honestly doesn’t do much in this episode. They get captured and manage the best they can. It is interesting to see some of Gyrus’ back story, but not enough keep my positive side up.)

As for the rest of the episode, it’s actually pretty average. I agree that there could have been more focus on the team, but again, the spotlight was stolen from them. So Gyrus can make or break the episode for you, As for us, we have to end this episode of Retro-Scrutiny, so we would like to thank you all for joining us once again. We hope to see you all again real soon. I’m Kendall, signing out.

(And I’m Alexia, wishing you all a good day.)

I AM SO SORRY…

I know, I know. I should have had the next episode of Retro-Scrutiny up by now. Unfortunately, there has been a delay in the form of college classes suddenly becoming much more demanding. And yet, I find myself wasting away all of my free time. So I’m making this promise right now.

I, Kendall Charleswell, creator of Retro-Scrutiny, will have the next episode posted by Friday, November the fourteenth of the year 2014.

Now, let’s just see how that turns out. Wish me luck.