#2 SEP 20, 2017 · 8 yr ago
OK, if nobody else is going to say anything, I've just watched these episodes myself.
It's quite a strange show really. The only reason I've ever heard of it is because I saw two episodes when on holiday abroad. I never saw it here in England. I watched the entire series online for the first time about 5yrs ago. And I've only seen about half of it more than once.
The premise is quite dark for an 80s show, and it has been suggested that it would have done better in this day and age than back then. It would also have done better if the production company had made a proper effort. They actually couldn't be bothered for the last nine episodes they made, which is why episodes 57-62 (in production order, not air date order) feature a small amount of new footage with flashbacks filling up about 3/4 of the time, and episodes 63-65 (in either order) consist entirely of old animation with new dialogue.
The biggest problem is that it's hard telling the characters apart when they have their helmets on. OK, so it's a military group, and they have uniforms, but they could have done more to make them distinct from one another. I'm also not a fan of the vehicles - motor-unicycles for the Zone Riders? Come on, that's just silly. The Black Widows' Sledgehammer tanks, and their mighty Bullwhip are a little better, but still leave their drivers very open to attack. Still, if you can stomach all the conceptual problems, there are some good episodes. And the characters are likeable enough for the most part. OK, so "Dirk Courage" is a silly name, like something a 40s-50s movie star would give himself to sound more macho (Rock Hudson being the best example - a name so macho it makes you think if he's over-compensating for something!), but he's a good responsible commanding officer. Tank and Max have some decent odd-couple episodes. Dr Lawrence in particular is rather like Q in the Bond films. And Overlord is actually a very effective villain - he has taken over half the world after all, and there are episodes where he technically wins.
As for the establishing set:
Mission Into Evil
This was the series' pilot, although it was aired 4th. It's a fairly straightforward episode really, a simple mission, with lots of explanatory dialogue. In a way it still feels like there should have been another episode before it. Imagine Thundercats starting with "The Unholy Alliance". Actually, there is a bit of explanation of what happened before, which surfaces in "Oversight", which is why I added it to the list of establishing episodes despite it being one of the flashback shows. Still, it showcases who the characters are, and we learn the basics of what makes them tick. Even if Overlord's motives are not explained. There is an episode in which it is revealed that Overlord is doing this to prevent mankind from destroying itself in wars, and so on that level, you can understand his ideology, even if you don't approve of his methods.
The Last One Picked
Midway through the series, they introduced a couple of new characters on each side. First off, we get two new Zone Riders. In the earlier episodes, Courage was the show's main pilot, but from this point on, that duty devolves almost entirely to Ned, who is basically Crocodile Dundee. You can just picture him saying, "that's not a knife - THAT'S a knife!" - except a couple of moments in this episode where Frank Welker is struggling with the Australian accent and sounds more Liverpudlian than anything else. Which is weird. I can understand someone trying for Aussie and sounding London, but Liverpool? Oh well, it was only this episode. Franklin is less likeable, and I never did warm to him. In a normal cartoon, he'd be Dr Lawrence's assistant, occasionally getting to go out on a mission, but here, him becoming a permanent Zone Rider is a little cliched.
So Shall Ye Reaper
And after the two new Zone Riders, it's time to add to the ranks of the Black Widows! These episodes are a little more interesting. Reaper plotting against Overlord is a nice twist. Normally it would be the second-in-command, which in this case is Bandit, but Bandit is actually one of Overlord's more loyal henchmen (there is an episode where Bandit assumes command, leaving Overlord as the good guys' prisoner, but it was a spur of the moment tactical decision). Indeed, Bandit says to Overlord that new Black Widow Crook is not to be trusted, and Overlord cleverly makes the point of saying that Bandit should watch his own back in that direction as well. After all, before you can take out the no1, you have to get past the no2. As for the heroes' blowing the dam at the end with the bouncing bomb, that was an actual operation in World War II, the famous Dambusters mission. Actually, there's a few other episodes that have more than a passing nod to classic war movies. There's one that is pretty much an exact retelling of "The Guns Of Navarone", and another that reminds me of "Where Eagles Dare".
Bandit And The Smokies
And with Crook established, one more new baddie to even the ranks out (in terms of actual main combatants - obviously we have General McFarland and Dr Lawrence on the side of the heroes as well). After the clever, cunning and crafty Crook was introduced before, now we have Rawmeat, whose strength is quite literally that - brute strength. Actually, in a slight goof, this episode was originally aired after one in which the character Rawmeat was already established (and which is on my list of highlights). But hey, continuity points, you know me . . . this episode too has a fairly straightforward plot, but the pace is decent enough. They possibly didn't make enough of Crook's tampering with the Bullwhip vehicle as they might have done, but I guess the point of this one was to introduce Rawmeat more than anything else.
Oversight
One of the flashback episodes from the end of the series. Most of these flashback episodes were pretty dodgy, just excuses to save money by reusing old sequences, and just hanging enough dialogue around them to introduce them. In one case it's reminiscences at a party, in another they're being interviewed by a reporter, in another Courage is teaching a class of cadets about the Black Widows and so on. But this one is a little different. There's a point to what's going on. In the fight against Overlord, there have been a few things that have got blown up. It makes sense that Courage would have to account for it. Courtroom dramas are good for this sort of thing. There is a famous precedent in Star Trek, the only two-part original episode "The Menagerie" makes use of the originally unaired first pilot "The Cage", which featured an entirely different cast, and worked pretty well. So does this one, in all fairness. Also, this episode is the only one that actually shows us the initial attack by Overlord's forces and the creation of the spiral zone itself. That's why I have included it here in the list of "establishing episodes".
