Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: BraveStarr (1987 - 1988): "Brother's Keeper"

In “Brother’s Keeper,” an old man named Charlie is struck by a deadly virus, leaving his wife and Doc Clayton with nothing to do except wait for a delivery of the much-needed antidote.

Meanwhile, BraveStarr has arrested two bandits who happen to be brothers, but he doesn’t have sufficient evidence to hold them. Jamie, Fort Kerium's judge, orders them released at once, and BraveStarr isn’t happy about it.

Unfortunately, the strato-coach carrying the antidote Charlie needs is robbed by the brothers, and now BraveStarr must convince one brother to turn against the other…

“Brother’s Keeper” is another fairly-adult minded segment of this animated sci-fi series from the late 1980s.  In this case, BraveStarr -- the series protagonist -- wants to bend the law because he has a “feeling” about two bandits. He knows they are guilty, but he can't prove it, in other words. 

Judge Jamie tells him he must behave “legally,” whatever his feelings, and BraveStarr’s instincts are correct.  Another crime is committed by the two bandits he wanted to put behind bars in the first place. 

This story-line gets us to a fairly prickly and divisive issue. 

And that is, simply, that people can’t be arrested and held by police based on gut instincts or feelings.  To do so makes for tyranny, and the rule of law collapses. In this case, BraveStarr’s suspicions are right on the money, but even being correct doesn’t make it right to hold the men.  The law hinges on evidence, and BraveStarr has none.

I’m surprised the series tackled this idea, and set its two leads against each other in examining it, but it makes the episode stand-out as something other than the typical Saturday morning run-around, which usually consists of a good guy being captured, and then rescued by his friends.  

I especially like Jamie’s answer to BraveStarr after he tells her "I told you so."  

She tells him “I’d do the same thing again” (meaning release the bandits…) “if you didn’t have reasonable proof.”

Less impressive is the episode’s final “message,” that no one cares about you as much as your family does, so you should always listen to your family’s counsel at the expense of others. 

Sadly, in real life, this isn’t always true. It’s true for some people, of course, but sometimes it is, actually, your family of origin that is working against you, or jealous of you.  It would have been far better for this episode to end with a re-assertion of its simple theme: freedom for everyone requires that we obey the laws, even if, on some terrible occasions, bad guys go free until evidence against them can be gathered.

In terms of visuals, BraveStarr again proves intriguing.  In this case, we get a few brief looks at Fort Kerium’s hospital, and it looks very cool, and highly-detailed. Like many of the backgrounds we see only briefly, it seems eminently worthy of further exploration.

 I also love the ramshackle look of the frontier courthouse.

Next week: “Kerium Fever.”