Thundarr
and his friends attempt to rescue an imperiled ship at sea in “The Mystery Zone”
-- think the Bermuda Triangle -- and
run across the evil witch Circe, and her minions.
Circe
has been living under a curse for 500 years. She must remain forever on the
island (in the ruins of London, England…) or turn to stone.
But
now, Circe hopes to switch her consciousness into Ariel’s young body, and
outsmart her captors. She lures Thundarr
and the others into the trap, and makes the soul transfer in secret.
Now
trapped in a hideous, aging body, Ariel must convince Thundarr that she is not
a witch, but his dear friend…
With
Ariel’s beauty, vitality and very soul on the line, “Island of the Body
Snatchers” feels a little more urgent or suspenseful than some episodes of Thundarr
the Barbarian.
Specifically,
Ariel sees her beautiful visage stolen by the witch Circe, while she is left a
hideous old hag.
And
worse, Thundarr doesn’t believe her story of soul transfer. In fact, he laughs
at her.
There’s
a nice paranoid aspect to this tale, as well as a little social commentary
about how Thundarr’s society (and perhaps our society too…) views the old and
the ugly.
Regardless
of the precise details, it is nice to get away from the “save the human village
of the week” routine and into something a bit different.
In
this case,”Island of the Body Snatchers” also seems inspired by several
elements of Greek Myth.
There,
Circe was known as a goddess or witch of magic, the daughter of Helios and
Perse. Like the mythological Circe, the
witch on Thundarr can transform men into animal minions resembling pig
or swine.
Also
like Greek myth, the Circe in “Island of the Body Snatchers” was exiled to an
island and forced to remain there. Specifically,
Circe appeared in Homer’s Odyssey, which also featured an
interlude with sirens, and “Island of the Body Snatchers” also concerns ships
lost at sea, buffeted by rocky, turbulent waters, like that legend.
Once
more, the visuals of a Thundarr the Barbarian episode prove
incredibly appealing and resonant.
In
particular, much of the action here takes place around a ruined Big Ben, and
Circe’s escape route is via a helicopter on an off-shore oil rig. These
connections to our world make the story all the more intriguing and colorful,
and in toto this is one of the best, most rip-roaring exciting episodes of the
series thus far.
Thanks for another good review. I remember this episode from its original airing and have watched it in more recent years (to review the appearance of Circe). I agree about the quality of this episode, which I think holds up well even today.
ReplyDeleteJohn nice review. The Thundarr locations make the series work because it lacks the generic settings of Ark II that were not interesting.
ReplyDeleteSGB
I continue to enjoy your weekly posts about "Thundarr" episodes, though this one was one of my least favorite as a kid, actually.
ReplyDeleteIn part, I remember thinking it was one of the least location-specific episodes. As you referenced in your post, there was some vague allusion to a "Bermuda Triangle-esque" location at the start, wherein their ship was attacked by what looked like the Loch Ness monster (in the open ocean?), then they suddenly arrive (all the way across the Atlantic) in London. And finally, the end comes on an off shore oil rig which, to me as a an American kid, seemed more like something that might've been in the Gulf of Mexico than in the North Sea (with which I was totally unfamiliar as a child).