Top 10 Favorite Episodes of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

Because I’m so timely here is my celebration of the 30th anniversary of He-man and the Masters of the Universe..about four years to late. Oops.

 

When I was a kid in the 80’s I adored He-Man. I watched it religiously every day. I went to see the “Secret of the Sword” movie which introduced She-Ra. I had as many of the action figures, vehicles, and playsets that I could. I even went to at least one “live” show they had a local mall. I simply adored this show. I know today it gets made fun from the corny opening intro to the lame PSA’s at the end, the lack of violence due to the rules at the time (Just once I wanted to see He-Man PUNCH Skeletor), the fact that it existed to sell toys, and of course the idiotic innuendo that some insist on forcing on to this character. This show gets a bad rep, but man was it awesome!

It was part of my childhood and I loved it. However one thing I have noticed is that thirty-three years later, I don’t remember a lot of it. 130 episodes and only a handful stand out. Oh sure there are bits and pieces I may recall. For instance, I talked before how I remember Dree Elle’s song from “Dree Elle’s Return” but I had no clue for years what episode that was in or that Dree Elle was singing. Because the song was an earworm but the episode was meh. I guess it’s fair to say that a lot of episodes weren’t high art. Skeletor did something, and He-Man eventually stopped it. So I guess that it makes sense that many of the episode wouldn’t stand out. Some of the goofy stuff was really silly too. For years I forgot Cringer and/or Battlecat talked. Why did they talk??

But that doesn’t mean some of the episodes didn’t rise above the rest and stand out as either well told stories or really exciting fun. Here are ten episodes I never forgot, not all are probably the best episodes though many are. And of course this is all opinion, feel free to disagree.





#10.”Diamond Ray of Disappearance” (Season 1)

Kind of cheating a little here but I figured the best way to start this was with the pilot. And it’s a damn good pilot! It introduces the characters, has high stakes, and gives us some great action. In fact we see more of Skeletor’s evil minions than just Beast Man and Trap Jaw, which was rare. Skeletor had discovered the titular diamond ray which makes people disappear just by looking at it. Skeletor almost gets into Greyskull before He-Man can get the diamond and crush it. And kudos, it isn’t easy! He-Man isn’t often given limits it’s nice to see when he is.

Top 10 Favorite Star Trek:TOS CGI Enhancements

This is an article is long overdue, but one of the reasons I never tackled it is because I wasn’t sure how to. Yeah I could do a whole rundown of these but you can find those anywhere.

Anyway, let me start at the beginning. About ten years ago Star Trek was returned to syndication with a cool change-all of the dated effects were enhanced with modern computer effects. No changes were made to the story, dialogue, or action. It was the same show, it’s just the effects looked much cooler. There was worry when this was announced, that it would harm the original product. But truth is, these effects are fantastic, so much that I find it almost impossible to go back and watch the original versions in some cases. Just check out the differences in “Where no Man” when the Enterprise enters the barrier. The 60’s effects were awful even for then, with the CGI it’s a beautiful sequence now!


To be fair, some of them were more unnecessary than others to be honest. There are times I miss the old shots of the Enterprise. The effects in “Tholian Web” were so damn cool even for the time that all the enhancements did was clean them up a bit. There just wasn’t many changes needed. The scene in “Mirror Mirror” where the Enterprise switches places is fine but my heart prefers the original. And someone decided the chronometer on the Enterprise needed to be different. I guess it’s better but ? And they couldn’t fix everything, for example in “Miri” since they talked about the fact hey had found a duplicate Earth they had to keep it in even though it makes no sense. And the Gorn still looks kind of silly, even with the blinking.

But most changes worked, cleaning up all kinds of shots. We got amazing shots of the Enterprise rather than the same footage over and over. Ships were made cooler, like the Botany Bay in “Space Seed” which retains the original design but is so much better. Some were given unique designs rather than just using the same stock footage over and over like how the star base shuttle in “Menagerie” has its own design. And other vessels appeared fully realized which we simply never saw. In “Is There in Truth No Beauty” the Enterprise rendezvous with a vessel in the end. In the original we see the Enterprise just arriving at a stock planet here we see a unique vessel and it’s a nice design. The same thing happens in the beginning of “Charlie X”, when Kirk says they are arriving alongside a cargo vessel WE SEE THE ENTERPRISE ARRIVE ALONGSIDE THE CARGO VESSEL!! Seems like such a simple thing, doesn’t it? Heck in “Trouble with Tribbles” rather than am obvious model of the Enterprise hanging outside a window we see the Enterprise literally pass by. Subtle, but beautiful! And yes we actually see the Klingon vessel this time (and kudos to the CGI artists for not copying the effects from the DS9 episode).

Matte paintings were enhanced to give us much better establishing shots for these planets, like in “A Taste of Armageddon” where not only does the city look cooler but we can even see people and a working monorail in the distance. In “Man Trap” the planet looks cooler and not so “set” like. The mining cave in “Devil in the Dark” is much more elaborate. Also Rather than seeing the ship orbit the same planet week dafter week, every planet could look unique (and in some cases accurate to the episode). And the action scenes were improved and we could get original shots. Like in “The Deadly Years” which has much cooler shots of the Romulans swarming the Enterprise rather than just watching the stock footage from “Balance of Terror”. Very often the enemy vessels were unseen or just a blur on the screen, now they could be realized. “Errand of Mercy” for instance which not only enhanced the battle scenes but added some shots of the attacking Klingon vessels which we NEVER saw. We even got a glimpse of the Gorn ship in “Arena”!

Rather than just list all of these, which would take forever and can be found elsewhere, here are my ten favorites. Changes so cool they actually enhance the episode! I don’t usually feel the need to point this out, but suffice to say these pictures are taken from the internet and not my own.



10.The Enterprise Incident

Ok I mentioned how the battle scenes could enhanced it wasn’t just stock footage. Here they even fixed a problem. The Romulans having Klingon design was lame, obviously this was to save money (this was season 3), but it was also a line of dialogue so they had to keep it. But nothing stopped them from also adding a few Romulan Bird of Prey which is what should have been there! Even better? The Klingon vessels have the Romulan bird of prey design on them to make it clear these are not Klingon ships. Very nice.

So What Did I Think of “Inside Out”??

Yes I’m stealing this idea from Tamara Chambers, but hey a good idea is a good idea. I wasn’t planning on making this a series but figured I’d give it a try. So anyway…

The other day I talked about movies I have on my must see list. I figured it was time to watch them, and what the heck share my thoughts very briefly. Tonight I broke down and watched “Inside Out”. It seems like a film right my alley and I can’t believe I haven’t seen it. I watched it tonight and……….



It’s one of the best damn things I’ve ever seen in my life. I’m seriously sorry I waited so long to see this and I promise I will see it again. I think I was five minutes in and I was already hooked. As has been pointed out by others the concept isn’t the most original. We’ve all seen the “what controls out head” story before in one form or another. But what this film did with it is pure gold. The funny thing is how little this movie really has going for it. No villain. The characters are (by design) pretty one dimensional, and the story is pretty simple. So how does it work? There is sooooo much heart in this movie that it’s irresistible. I admit I didn’t know where the plot was going, and for a second the idea of Joy being separated from the main group annoyed me. Until I realized what that meant and man did it get interesting. There are so many complex ideas in this movie I’m pretty sure I missed some of them. The movie basically deconstructs depression and does it beautifully. The stuff about memories you lose and everything…great! And the dream stuff was fantastic. The best parts are the characters, Amy Poelher as Joy was fantastic but I loved Phyllis Smith as Joy man was she pitch perfect. And hey, Lewis Black as anger? That’s so perfect it doesn’t seem real somehow.


So any gripes? There were some moments that felt like padding like the stuff with the imagination that I could have done without. Yeah it was creative I guess but it felt like the creators saying “hey, look at all this cool stuff we can do!” And I kind of wish we had spent a little more time with Riley happy it would have made her depression even more poignant. And I would have liked a little more of her happy again, but the fact she was more mature was brilliant. But these are two very small things really, the movie is very very good hitting all the right notes just when it was supposed to. I laughed out loud and I even….well, hate to admit but that ending hit me.  I got it, believe me. I could go on and on but will stop before I begin repeating what everyone else has said.



So comment and let me know if you liked the movie (did anyone not like it?) and if you liked this maybe I’ll do more as I try to expand my horizons as far as movies go. Trust me there are plenty of movies I never saw out there!

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Underrated Trek:Displaced (VOY)

Welcome back to Underrated Trek, where I take a special look at Star Trek episodes that I love…which may not be the most popular or even liked by most. Voyager is one of those shows which I will admit is far from perfect. But every once in awhile it manages an episode I just can’t help but love. I already talked about one in “Scientific Method”. Here is another. The premise isn’t that crazy but it’s raised by some bad ass moments. But does that technically mean it’s a good episode?

 

Let’s discuss this episode which is so memorable I had to look it up when I saw the title on my list to remember which one it was…

Classic Disney Movies on My “Must See” List

We all have those movies we never saw, and always wanted to. No matter how much we love movies, there’s always some we miss. Heck Tamara Chambers does a whole web series on the great movies she never saw. Even Disney movies fit that criteria, as hard as it may be to believe. There are Disney movies you’d swear the whole world must have seen at least once. I haven’t, yet.

Here are some examples :




Old Yeller

Would you believe I never watched this? A few years ago Doug Walker commented he never saw it because everyone ruined the ending. And…yeah I get that. There’s no impulse to see a movie where the ending is so memorable that it’s damn iconic. I mean, everyone has parodied it! But that’s also not fair since it probably is a good movie. It can’t be popular years later just because of the sad as hall ending. It’s a nice family movie about an awesome dog. And the dog is a normal dog, he doesn’t talk or anything. How rare is that?








Flight of the Navigator

Somehow I missed this one, even though when it came out I was close to the right age it should have been an easy one to catch. Was it advertised poorly? Anyway, after I found out what it was about it actually sounds pretty darn cool. In fact it sounds like it’s 100% up my ally! To be fair is one that probably will not be as cool if I see it today since it’s clearly a kids movie. As an adult I may be more nitpicky. Despite that, it’s a movie I would love to finally see sometime. It involves space ships, time travel, and deals with family dynamics. What’s not to love??

Top 10 Nostalgia Critic Crossover Reviewers

So since I teased it last time, let’s discuss crossover’s. There are actually quite a few of them, some involving a guest reviewer on NC and others where NC would appear on someone else’s show. Crossover’s can be hit or miss, especially the one’s where Doug Walker did not do the primary writing. It feels like it was written by someone else. Course there were a slew of them before the NC “retired” and most of those weren’t very good.



I decided to approach this a different way, and list the best reviewers he has done crossover’s with. This was to cover a wider area and leave less off. A few rules, These are actual crossover’s not just cameo’s from other reviewers. And no anniversary movies count here, just straight up crossover’s.


#10.CR

CR was one of those reviewers that flew under my radar, and I had never heard of this until Nostalgia Critic referenced it in another video. So I watched the “Baby Doll” review and it was really good. It felt very natural and it was well done. Best pic I could find.

Five Coolest (one time) Star Trek Characters Ever!

Four years ago I talked about one time characters, you know those characters that pop in one episode never to be seen again. In that article I discussed the dumbest, characters so lame they get made fun of by fans. You would think that a second article on the coolest would be obvious. Well it is, it just took me four years to finally discuss it. Lord have I been doing this that long?

It takes a lot for a guest star to stand out. Take Khan, a one time villain who everyone remembers. But I give credit to the movie for that. Another example I already discussed was in the episode “The Lights of Zetar”, and the cool Mira Romaine. Here are five guest stars who appeared one time but managed to steal the show, and in my opinion were so badass they deserved to be seen more than once!

Couple rules. No gimmicks (like a character is “possessed” and is really someone else), they have to have appeared ONCE so some obvious choices like Q, Harry Mudd, and Cyrano Jones aren’t here. And the character had to have a role in the story and not just be a glorified cameo.



Dr.Helen Noel (TOS)

I haven’t talked much about “Dagger of the Mind” because the episode is mostly a bore. Yeah it gave us the first Vulcan mind meld, but that’s about all. The saving grace is the character Helen Noel, played by Marianna Hill. Yes she was a stand in for Janice Rand who had been written out by then, but damn this character rocked. She was beautiful but strong and smart. She steals her scenes and even has some pretty decent action. Looking at the fan art online I can’t be alone on this one. It’s to bad we didn’t see more of her. A bad-ass female in classic Trek is not the easiest to come by.

Happy 10th Anniversary Nostalgia Critic!

So this week marked the tenth anniversary of Nostalgia Critic. I wanted to do a tribute, but what have I not covered? I already talked about my favorite episodes (twice), my least favorite episodes, my favorite jokes, a general tribute regarding my being a loyal fan for several years, and gone over how I became that loyal fan. But I wanted to do something…..then I came up with an idea which I think made sense.



I went through the ten “season” lists of episodes and tried to pick the best episode. Not my favorite necessarily, the one episode which I thought stood out above the rest as a solid episode which can be watched again and again. Thankfully the list is different than my top 10 favorite episodes, with one notable exception. So here at the Top 10 Nostalgia Critic episodes in order of season, in my opinion anyway. Two rules, they gave to be official episodes not specials, and no crossovers. Though that’s not a bad idea for another article….

#10.Batman & Robin
The first season was for obvious reasons not the strongest. Doug Walker has said many times this started as a hobby, and it kind of shows. The production values are weak and the reviews are kind of short. There were also little repetitive gags that would go away thankfully. But this episode is the best. Though it was a tough call between The Wizard and the Tom & Jerry reviews. Batman & Robin was the first review that started to feel like a true NC review, and of course it gave us a meme that continues to endure to this day.

Top 10 Nuttiest Board Games Based on TV Shows

Back in the old days of cave drawings when I was young, we didn’t just play video games but board games. You know, with a game board?  Ok Ok I am being very snarky. Everyone has played a board game in their life, whether it be Monopoly or Scrabble or Trivial Pursuit (my families game of choice).



But remember a few weeks ago I talked about cereals which were so bizarre that they didn’t even make sense? Usually these were based on something popular at the time. Well board games can be like that too. The list of movies and TV show based board games is staggering, and some make no sense at all! The Addams Family? Archie Bunker?? Saved By The Bell???? Beverly Hills, 90210 had a Twister knockoff which was lame. The worst may be the Murder, She Wrote game which is as blatant a Clue rip off as you’ll ever see! But while a board game based on a movie at least has a plot to base the game around, TV shows take a little more imagination. As a result most of these kinds of games are…..lame.

Here are ten board games that really existed…even though they make no sense whatsoever. I don’t mean the rules don’t make sense, I mean the fact that the game exists at all makes no sense! One rule, I am not counting when a popular show or movie is forced onto an already existing game like all the novelty Monopoly’s out there.




#10.Knight Rider

Not the worst idea, I guess. I’m very sure I had this as a kid. My question is about the box, what was up with the picture of David Hasselhoff? Could they not quite the rights to his image? Anyway the rules involve driving KITT around and avoiding trouble. Yeah, think I see why I don’t remember this one.