Saturday, September 06, 2014

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: BraveStarr: "Eyewitness"



In “Eyewitness,”Tex Hex’s goons are poking around Star Peak, and the Shaman’s home, when BraveStarr and Thirty-Thirty arrest them.  But when two alien school children tell Tex Hex they want to be in his gang, the bandit has a new way to get at the Shaman, whose property he covets.

He tells the children to bring the Shaman a surprise gift on their school trip to meet him, but BraveStar is on the case.



Well, to the surprise of absolutely no one, Tex Hex relapses into two-dimensional villainy this episode after a brief bout with three-dimensional behavior in last week’s show, “Eye of the Beholder.”

Here, the ghoulish bandit is back plotting to steal Star Peak out from under the Shaman, in pursuit of the mountain’s mineral wealth. Making him more despicable than ever, he decides to use a couple of children to get what he wants.

These alien kids, it turns out, want to join his gang, not realizing how he plans to manipulate them.  The episode’s message statement, delivered after the matter is resolved, involves what might happen if you focus too much on getting excitement, and not enough on issues of right and wrong.  It’s boiler-plate stuff for Filmation.






In terms of series lore and mythology, “Eyewitness” is not a terribly memorable or interesting episode, though we get acquainted with Fort Kerium’s school, where the students study physics and write their lessons on a “laser” (black) board.  We also get our first look at the high-tech school bus, which is cool.  The school re-appears in an up-coming episode “Big Thirty and Little Wimble.”

Otherwise, this episode of BraveStarr  may be most noteworthy for a throwaway homage. 

At one point, 30-30 -- the cyborg horse sidekick -- expresses a vehement dislike for snake, and notes. “Why does it always have to be snakes?” 

This is a throwback, of course, to Indiana Jones’ (Harrison Ford) identical line of dialogue in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).


Next episode: “Big Thirty and Little Wimble.”

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