Thundarr The Barbarian in "Treasure of the Moks"

In “Treasure of the Moks,” Thundarr, Ookla and Ariel run afoul of Cordon, a notorious pirate who leads the gang known as “the River Rats.”

The River Rats and their leaders have been plundering every village on the river for weeks, and now a Mok village is imperiled. 

To stop the pirates, Thundarr, Mok and Ariel must attack Cordon’s impressive pirate ship, a modified U.S. Naval aircraft carrier from the 20^th century…

The fifth episode of Thundarr the Barbarian, “Treasure of the Moks,” like its predecessors, is noteworthy primarily for the imaginative visuals it crafts.

In this case, there’s a fantastic sea-going vessel on display.  It’s a pirate ship that is one part wooden pontoons and one part a contemporary aircraft carrier.  The vessel is huge, and the renderings of the pirate ship do a fantastic job of conveying size.  More than that, there is interesting detail on the ship.  Since the deck is flat, there are tents, castle-ramparts and other “future” structures atop it.  It’s like a sea-going village. 

Also, Cordon has armed the aircraft carrier with catapults, instead modern-day turrets.  

At one point in the episode, Cordon takes the ship into the sea near an ancient Naval Base, and the episode features visuals of a vast, Sargasso Sea (another cult-television favorite theme…).  

Seeing vessels as imaginative as Cordon’s ship, I wish we had gotten a line of Thundarr the Barbarian action figures and vehicles back in 1980.  That would have been amazing.

In terms of series continuity, there are two major points to consider about “Treasure of the Moks.”  First, we meet Ookla’s people (including a female), but there is little or no discussion why Ookla began traveling with Thundarr.

Secondly, we learn in this episode that the sun sword is “locked” to Thundarr’s hand-signature.  Cordon steals it at one point, but it is useless…the blade doesn’t extend or ignite.  This raises the question: was the weapon built for Thundarr?  Or does he merely know the secret of what, I assume, is a 20^th century device.