In “The Lord of Time,”
the third episode of Filmaton’s sci-fi/fantasy cartoon Blackstar (1981), a minion
of the Overlord called a Time Lord -- where have I heard that title before? -- attacks
the Trobbits.
In particular, the
villain named Kadray uses his time scepter to revert the magnificent red tree
to an acorn. Because the Trobbits “will
be done for without the tree,” Blackstar attempts to prevent the Lord of
Time from collecting the acorn.
Unfortunately, he fails
on his first attempt, and the Lord of Time plans to drop the acorn into the
fountain of fire: “a source of great evil”
located in the Castle of the Devil Spirits.
“The Lord of Time” is a
fun episode of this series that sees a minion of Overlord with an amazing
power. He can use his time scepter to
send age or de-age any object. He not
only turns the Trobbit tree into a big red acorn, he evolves a Sagarian insect
to turn into a giant, buzzing menace.
The episode is very creative in its use of the specter.
For instance, the Time
Lord discovers that the Fountain of Fire is guarded b peaceful sprites who won’t
do his bidding. Therefore, he reverts
them to a prehistoric form, as savage, cruel warriors who will do his
bidding. Quite a weapon.
The other intriguing
element of this episode is that it attempts to imbue John Blackstar with a bit
more in terms of distinguishing personality.
He wise-cracks a lot in this episode, which is new. “It’s time for a rewind,” he jokes. Or “my
how time flies,” he observes.
While these moments may sound goofy, in fact
they go a bit towards making him a larger-than-life hero. In the previous two episodes I noted that
Blackstar, while a great fighter, doesn’t have much personality or drive. In fact, Mara seems a far more important “rebel”
in “City of the Ancient Ones,” and “Search for the starsword.” Through his bad punning here, Blackstar
begins to take on some color, at least.
Next week: “The Mermaid
of the Serpent Sea.”
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