Saturday, December 20, 2014

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: BraveStarr: "The Wrong Hands"


In “The Wrong Hands,” a race of alien warriors -- the feline Krang -- land on New Texas and attempt to purchase Kerium for a scientific experiment.

In truth, however, these military aliens are testing a deadly disintegrator weapon, and want to conquer the galaxy, starting with BraveStarr’s town…





“The Wrong Hands” is a bit of a departure for BraveStarr since it involves a new alien race, and a would-be invasion of New Texas.  

The alien Krang, in this case, seem like a modification of the Larry Niven's Kzinti as seen in Filmation’s Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-1974).  The episode provides some nice designs for their technology, including their battle carrier.


In terms of artistic structure, “The Wrong Hands” very carefully compares the Krang physician -- who has developed a deadly weapon -- with New Texas’s doctor, who is sworn to protect the town’s people.  This is a nice way of pointing out how people in the same group might possess very different priorities.





The message of the episode is, finally, that power can attractive evil, or cause selfish behavior. BraveStarr relates this message to himself, during the course of the episode, and remembers a story when he was young, and used a miner’s tool as a weapon.

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