Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Thundarr the Barbarian: Fortress of Fear"

Last Saturday morning, I posted my review of the final episode of Thundarr the Barbarian (1980 – 1982), but somehow I managed to miss the episode “Fortress of Fear,” and am circling back to include it now.

In “Fortress of Fear,” Thundarr, Ookla and Ariel ride through an inhospitable canyon and find a human on the verge of death.  He warns them about an evil wizard, Argot.  Before Thundarr and his friends can learn more, Argot attacks with a high-tech aircraft and an army of flying robot-men.

Thundarr and his friends are captured. Ookla and the Barbarian are promptly put to work in a factory, on an assembly line creating more robots. Meanwhile, Ariel is to become the bride of Argot, a wizard with a “thousand eyes.”

Thundarr escapes his shackles and frees all the human slaves of Argot’s citadel.  They flee for the Forbidden Jungle, a place where magic cannot function.  Argot sends a giant Cyclops after the refugees, and then travels to the Forbidden Jungle himself, formerly the site of La Brea Tar Pits.

In addition to its use of a great location -- the aforementioned Tar Pits -- “Fortress of Fear” impresses because it includes some interesting clues about Thundarr’s past, and even states his mission outright. 

Furthermore, the episode treads into some adult imagery, as Ariel is captured and deposited on Argot’s wedding bed, apparently for a conjugal visit.

In terms of Thundarr himself, the barbarian is perhaps the least-well-developed regular character on the series. We don’t really know what drives him or why.

By contrast, we have learned of Ariel’s past (and her knowledge of the pre-holocaust world), and we have met other Moks like Ookla.

In “Fortress of Fear,” this status quo changes a bit. Thundarr makes cryptic mention of having escaped “a citadel” like Argot’s before, an allusion perhaps, to his past as a slave.  Later, Thundarr notes that no one enslaves Thundarr and implores the humans to “follow me to freedom.”

Finally, Thundarr tells his friends that his battle will continue until all men “are free” of the tyranny of wizards.  That’s as close to a mission statement as we ever get during the series and it helps to explain why Thundarr lives as he does. 

Without going into too much detail on the second point, “Fortress of Fear” also promises a very unhappy fate for Ariel. She is taken to Argot’s bed chamber and made to wait there.  She doesn’t just wait standing-up either…she is deposited on a king-sized bed.  There’s absolutely no doubt about what is happening here, and so this qualifies as a legitimately “adult” or “mature” moment on a Saturday morning kid’s show.  With Argot bellowing “You will be my bride,” “Fortress of fear” qualifies as rather kinky.

As is the case with many episodes of Thundarr, “Fortress of Fear” is impressive from a visual standpoint. In particular, the opening shots are quite memorable. We look up from the floor of a canyon at the cracked-moon, two high, jagged canyon walls bracketing it.  Not long after this view, we get another shot of the craggy landscape, and the two sides blanketing the chasm look a little like the teeth of a crocodile or other “monster.”  These scenes are nicely rendered and express well the danger of Thundarr’s world.

The final battle in “Fortress of Fear” is also the kind of set-piece I always look forward to on Thundarr.  It is one  in which the post-holocaust landscape plays a crucial role in the fisticuffs.  Here, the skeletons of the animals trapped in La Brea’s Tar Pit are evident in the close combat between Thundarr and Argot.

Although I watched this episode out of continuity/order, it’s actually a perfect one to end the series on (and far preferable to “Prophecy of Peril,” which is all about establishing new characters as a kind of back-door pilot).  Here, we come to understand Thundarr’s past, his present and his goal for the future.  He has never put his slavery fully behind him, and now lives to avenge that wrong, and prevent humans like him from enduring the same suffering.

Next Saturday: I’ll take a quick look at Big John, Little John (1976), a Saturday morning live-action comedy about the fountain of youth.