Defenders of the Earth Ep. 07 Cold War

Join host Patrick Cadigan as he discusses episode seven of Defenders of the Earth, “Cold War." Ming captures Flash Gordon and tricks Rick into launching a reckless solo rescue mission to steal his communicator ring and power a device capable of freezing the Earth. After Rick falls into Ming’s trap, the Defenders unite to rescue their friends, stop the weather machine, and teach Rick the value of patience and teamwork. So strap in, flash forward (and back) again!

Links:
Cold War Resource (page)
Defenders of the Earth - The Sun Stealers storybook (link) 

Transcript

Patrick Cadigan  0:10  
You're listening to Flash Forward, A Defenders of the Earth Retrospective. I'm your host, Patrick Cadigan. Join me as I revisit each episode of the series, breaking down the stories, characters, themes, and maybe digging just a bit into the lore that gave this series its moment in 80s animated television. Whether you're a longtime fan who remembers watching its first run or discovering the show for the first time and wondering how you ever missed it to begin with, this is your chance to flash forward and back into a world of heroes, villains, and gloriously 80s retro action adventure. Let's get started. 

Patrick Cadigan  0:46  
Hey there, everybody. We're back this week. We're going to be looking into episode number seven, Cold War. Now, the original air date for this episode was Tuesday, September 16 of 1986. It was written by Antoni Zalewski. Now, Zalewski's writing credits in the 80's, for 80's animation include He-Man, Challenge of the Gobots, Transformers, and Super Friends. This was Zalewski's only writing credit for Defenders of the Earth. As they transitioned into the 90s, Zalewski went on to write for New Adventures of He-Man and GI Joe, just to name a few. The characters that we're going to be seeing in this episode are the usual suspects: Flash Gordon, Phantom, Mandrake, Lothar, Rick Gordon, Jedda, LJ, Kshin, Ming, Octon, we get the Frost People, Garax, Dynak X, and the long-awaited return of Zuffy (the space alien). In this episode, we are intro'd to King Kharta; that is our cast of characters. So let's dive in to this episode. 

Patrick Cadigan  2:08  
Act one, once again, we're at Monitor, and the Defenders' children are being ambushed by Garax and his ice robots. Things are blowing up all around them, and the kids are running for their lives. Kshin and Zuffy (the space alien) have the ice robots bearing down on them. When at the last second, Kisa jumps in to lend a paw by pushing them out of harm's way. Suddenly, there is an explosion at one of the walls, and who shows up, but none other than Ming the Merciless, accompanied by Mongor (product placement). Jedda calls for Rick to reach out to the parents for help. However, Rick counters with a different idea and tosses a nova grenade at the enemies, which serves its purpose, but has the opposite effect of blinding his human counterparts. All of a sudden, the enemies disappear, and Flash Gordon, observing from above, chastises the kids for their lackluster defense. Everyone is down on Rick for the choice he made, and Flash attempts to console his son by reminding him to think before he acts. Rick, however, is not having it, claiming that the situation was no big deal, and that he knows what he's doing. Just then, The Phantom shows up and tells everyone that they have a real problem on their hands. From the view screen, we see a winter storm and falling snow, but then see huts and half-naked villagers. The Phantom explains that this is the tropical island of Kharta, and that their king is an old friend, and he has requested help. Jedda further explains that she's been seeing multiple unexplained weather events from all over the globe. The Phantom tells everyone that he is leaving for Kharta post haste and looks to Rick and Dynak X to find the source of the weather problem. Flash agrees and tells everyone that Ming's hand is at work. As everyone scatters, Jedda decides that she needs to contact Lothar and Mandrake. Meanwhile, at Ice Station Earth, Ming, Octon, and Mongore all watch as Flash takes off in The Phantom Copter (product placement). We learn that Ming does in fact have a plan, and that phase two includes getting a hold of Rick's communicator ring, which in turn will supercharge his weather device and freeze the entire planet all at once. Octon praises Ming's plan as the two continue to plot. Back at Monitor, Rick, along with Kshin and Zuffy (the space alien) are working with Dynak X. She informs them that she's been able to track the source of the weather problem, and that it is in fact coming from Ice Station Earth. She's also concluded that Ming's weather device is powered by a loop and triple feedback circuit. Rick reveals that he invented the circuit himself, and that the only place on Earth that it's used is his communicator ring, while Dynak X clarifies that Ming has created a much less sophisticated version. Kshin jumps in to remind Rick that with that technology, Ming could have access to just about everything. Rick acknowledges this and asks his AI computer companion about the status of his latest invention, power skis. Dynak X tells him that not only are the skis ready, but they'll be the fastest in the world. She also informs the two that the skis have been loaded into all the vehicles, and Rick comments that he wants to make sure that, because he is dealing with Ming, he has all the bases covered. We move to see Flash and The Phantom communing with King Kharta, who is telling them both of the odd calamity that's fallen over their village. Just as soon as the king mentions ice people and machines, the three are interrupted by outside sounds of panicking villagers. The three leave their hut to find ice robots attacking the village from flying robot ships above. Flash decides to make a break for The Phantom Copter, while The Phantom plans to help the villagers with some crazy smooth acrobatics, Flash manages to jump through the copter, grab and shoot down one of the robo ships with his laser gun, while helping the villagers escape. The Phantom avoids a barrage of shots from above, calling on the power of 10 tigers for strength. The Phantom manages to take a hold of one of the village's totems and take out one of the oncoming robo ships. Garax, however, only has eyes on the prize and maneuvers to scoop up Flash with a tractor beam. Garax then attempts to deal with The Phantom, however, Ming chides him into a retreat as they already have the prisoner that they came for, The Phantom, is baffled and wonders aloud why he was allowed to escape back at Ice Station Earth. Ming is celebrating his capture of Flash.

Ming the Merciless  6:53  
You're just in time to witness my takeover of your pathetic planet.

Flash Gordon  6:58  
Yeah, seems to me we've heard that one before. 

Ming the Merciless  7:00  
This time will be different. Flash Gordon and his friends won't be there to stop me. 

Flash Gordon  7:06  
I wouldn't be so sure, Ming.

Ming the Merciless  7:08  
You witnessed the power of my new weather device on that tropical island. As soon as your foolhardy son attempts to rescue you, I will have the last element I need to freeze the whole world for it.

Flash Gordon  7:24  
Not if I can help it.

Patrick Cadigan  7:26  
Encasing Flash in a block of ice, Ming warns that he'll put an end to Flash only after he has conquered the Earth. 

Patrick Cadigan  7:34  
Act two, back at Monitor, Rick and Phantom discuss the plan moving forward. Rick wants to immediately rescue his father, while Phantom's in favor of taking a thorough approach, requiring a bit more time. The Phantom wants to know the source of the weather disturbance, and Rick tells him that they figured out that it does, in fact, start at Ice Station Earth. The Phantom says that he'll look into it further and orders Rick to stay put while he continues his investigation. Rick begins to protest, but The Phantom reminds him of his order and ends the transmission. Dynak X jumps in to say that she's established a visual link into the ice station, and we see a trapped Flash Gordon being transported by ice robots. An infuriated Rick has had enough and determines to disobey orders and rescue his father without help. However, Dynak X warns him that it may be a trap, as it appears Ming wanted them to see the visual. Rick, however, is having none of it, even as Kishin, along with Zuffy (the space alien) reminds him that The Phantom wants him to stay put. Rick ignores Kishin's remarks and asks him to cover for him instead. Kshin, on the other hand, has different ideas and decides that if Rick can disobey, then so can he. Back at Ice Station Earth, Octon questions Ming about the decision to allow Monitor to intercept their visual signal. Ming, however, has never been more certain about the genius of his plan, as he clarifies that The Phantom remains in Carta, and there is even more in store for the remaining defenders to be occupied, thus allowing for Rick to be the lone rescuer. We're then taken to an opera house, where Lothar is articulating his preference for other forms of entertainment to Mandrake. As the two take their seats, we see a half dozen men of frost, now with blonde hair, sunglasses, and suits, enter the auditorium and attempt to take hold of our two heroes. As the two are surrounded, the perennially smooth Mandrake laments the attempt, waves his cape, and before you know it, there is an audience full of mandrakes and Lothars, the men of frost are instantly confused, and the heroes make their escape to the outside. The two quickly realize they need to contact the team and attempt to further their escape, but find themselves cut off by more men of frost in an instant. LJ and Jedda pull. In a compact transport vehicle, and LJ leaps out to engage the frost men. Lothar is proud of his attacking boy and joins the fray. Not to be outdone by the scores of frost men showing up out of nowhere, Jedda puts Kisa on the attack. As the frost men retreat, Mandrake orders everyone back into the transport, so that they can figure out what the hell's going on. Back at Monitor, Dynak X explains Rick's whereabouts, and Jetta is not happy.

Jedda  10:30  
Rick did what? Well, why didn't you stop him, Dynak? Why didn't you...

Dale Arden/Dynak X  10:34  
Excuse me, Jedda, I tried.

LJ  10:36  
Hold it, Jedda. It's not Dynax fault. Rick ran off without waiting for help.

Jedda  10:40  
You're right, LJ. I'm sorry, Dynak. I just hope Rick's all right. How could such a smart guy do such a stupid thing?

Lothar  10:49  
We've got to come up with a plan to rescue Flash.

Jedda  10:52  
Dynak, alert my father. Tell him Rick left for Ice Station Earth on his own.

Dale Arden/Dynak X  10:56  
I took that liberty, Jedda. The Phantom is already on his way to Ice Station Earth. 

Lothar  11:01  
Then we've got no time to lose. Bundle up, as we're headed straight for Ice Station Earth.

Patrick Cadigan  11:08  
Next, we see Rick is landing in what looks like the Claw Copter (product placement). As he moves towards Ice Station Earth, he wonders aloud about the kind of reception he'll receive. Little does he know that Kshin and Zuffy (the space alien) have hitched a ride as they pop out of a compartment just at the rear of the cockpit. Kshin muses about being in trouble when Rick finds out that he's there. Back inside, we hear Octon telling Ming that Rick has arrived. While Ming is pleased that his carefully orchestrated plan is coming together. Octon is again questioning the wisdom of the plan, as the station's defense shields have been lowered, and there are no outer guards. Ming reveals that he has released Mongor to intercept Rick once he's entered the base. On cue, Rick is moving through the base and recognizes the missing guards, but muses that it must be his lucky day. Making his way further into the station, we again see both Kshin and Zuffy, the space alien, excited to be following behind him. Using a sensor, Rick is convinced that he'll be finding his dad sooner rather than later, but Mongor is also on the case. Meanwhile, Phantom on his way to Ice Station Earth in the Phantom Copter, Phantom opts to land in order to avoid any detection from the station's defense systems (not knowing, of course, that it has been deactivated). Once he's on the ground, The Phantom once again calls on the strength of 10 tigers in order to haul ass more efficiently to the station. Inside the station, Rick has managed to find his father, who immediately warns his son of the trap. Rick, of course, tells his father that he won't leave without him. Just then, Kshin and Zuffy (the space alien), burst in, followed closely by Mongor. Mongor makes quick work of Kshin, and Rick is encased in a laser field. Ming hails his plan as a success, he has Flash, Rick, and the Ring. 

Patrick Cadigan  13:05  
Act three. Taking stock in the unfolding situation, Rick acknowledges that he should have waited for Phantom and the team. In the very next sequence, we see The Phantom walk directly in front of patrolling ice robots, who are obviously on their way to the optic repair platform as the ghost who walks slips right by them by way of an open hatch. Phantom is happy to discover a very handy frost men disguise, complete with mask and tuxedo. Next, a fully disguised Phantom makes his way into the prison chamber, where Kshin somehow recognizes him through the disguise. The frostmen-faker tells Garrax that he's there to take the prisoner by order of "His Majesty" Ming the Merciless. Garax is confused, but it doesn't matter because Ming is watching from his monitor screen, and like Kshin sees through the obviously bad disguise. Phantom whips off the camouflage and throws down a concussion bomb, which has the systemic effect of stunning everyone and everything in the room. Mongore lets Kshin and Zuffy (the space alien) go, and appears to have a seizure, and the ice robots, along with Garax, get taken out by his tail. In the ensuing chaos, The Phantom makes his way to the control console, frees Rick and Flash, and the crew make their escape into a corridor. A well-placed laser blast, however, pushes Rick to take a different route from his remaining team members. That larger group end up in a foyer, their escape route blocked by attacking ice robots, and are immediately captured again. However, Ming is ticked that Rick is not with them, and orders Garax to immediately find him and his ring. Outside of Ice Station Earth, the remaining Defenders have used Rick's fancy skis to make their way to the hideout. Jedda urges the team to move in for the rescue. Meanwhile, as Rick is continuing his escape. He becomes easily confused by all the possible corridors around him. He makes his choice, drives straight into a random corridor, and lucky for him, into Lothar, Mandrake, and the rest of the team. Jedda chastises him for his recklessness, and there's a hint that Rick likes women who tell him what to do. As the group make their way through the maze of corridors with Rick's rediscovered homing device, both Mandrake and Lothar give Rick their PSA about acting impulsively without a plan. Suddenly, the group is ambushed by ice robots who took shooting lessons from stormtroopers. They do manage to hit the ceiling with their laser fire, which causes the ceiling to collapse once again, separating Rick from the rest of the group. Making his way through the maze of corridors, Rick is captured by a waiting Mongor from his observation chamber. Ming takes a dig at his robot army, but Octon responds only to say that the remaining defenders have now wandered into the maze of no return.

Ming the Merciless  15:59  
With Rick Gordon in my power, I don't need to worry about the other defenders any longer. Take the boy to the Hall of Inquisition, even his primitive mind has much that could be of value to me, and prepare to supercharge my weather machine within the hour. Earth will be mine.

Patrick Cadigan  16:21  
From the maze, the Defenders wonder aloud why the ice robots have stopped coming after them. At first, they continue through the maze, but Jedda stops them, sensing that their immediate path is dangerous. Just to make sure, Lothar tosses an ice ball ahead, and when nothing appears to happen, tells Jedda that she is obviously mistaken. Suddenly the corridor wall closes, and LJ chimes in to say the area is a series of booby traps. Jedda uses her senses to find a way through the maze, and now Lothar is totally on board. With the walls closing behind them, the defenders come to a cliff across the chasm. A laser cannon takes aim and almost succeeds in taking Jedda out, but LJ is quick on the draw, saving his friend. Running into an opening in the wall, the Defenders find themselves reunited with Flash, Phantom, Kshin, and Zuffy (the space alien). More ice robots show up, but LJ and Lothar make quick work of them destroying the jail console and freeing the prisoners from the Hall of Inquisition. Ming is securing Rick to his Inquisitor apparatus, pontificating his intention of draining all Rick's knowledge, and finally using the ring to supercharge the weather machine to freeze the entire planet. Mandrake has other plans, however, as he casually shows up to take out Ming's ice robots. Ming isn't worried, though, as he makes his way over to the weather machine and stops the action to remind everyone, one more time, about the role the ring has in his plan. A quick thinking Mandrake uses an illusion of multiple rings to distract Ming and The Phantom rushes in to grab them from Ming's hand. Furious, Ming commands Mongor on the attack, but using her mental powers, Jedda manages to force another seizure, and the team is easily able to make their final escape. Back at Monitor, Rick makes a heartfelt apology for his recklessness, having learned that taking matters into his own hands without a plan only makes a bad problem worse. Flash is quick to point out that Rick only did what he thought was right, and Jedda playfully reminds him that she is the boss by ending with a friendly kiss on the cheek. The end. 

Patrick Cadigan  18:38  
So, right off the bat, the animation in this episode is clearly different from the first five episodes. Of course, not including Root of Evil. If I were to articulate this animation style is heavily cartoony, to the point that I was reminded of one of the Defenders of the Earth children story books that I had seen earlier, in terms of its style, even the plot layout and the conclusion, as far as I'm concerned, give off those storybook vibes. I also picked up on the ending credits, they're very different from the majority of the episodes up to this point, stylistically using different fonts, different backgrounds. It's clear that this was a different animation team that worked on this particular episode. I couldn't find any information as to indicate where or who it was that did it, it was pretty obvious going right in. Now, overall, I did like the episode. It moves like any children's 80s animation television. There are obviously plot contrivances, however, I didn't feel like there were as many as there were in the previous episode, we. Of evil, but in general, even though the animation style was a little off, I found myself intrigued, and could get from point A to point B, the end of the episode, and I thought everything went fine for me. One of the things that I picked up on as I was watching it was, is that I felt like this episode gives off definitive Star Wars vibes. The scene that I was thinking about was when the heroes are running through the maze of no return, and they hit the cliff's edge, and just the way that that shot was framed, and then the shooting from the laser cannon across the chasm, and just made me think of the scene in Star Wars when they were running through the Death Star, Luke and Leia hit the chasm, so I felt like that was the first one, and then the other one, and maybe this was just I, because I already had Star Wars on the brain, but I felt like the scene at the very end with the kiss, although the kiss was not on the lips, obviously, because this is children's animated television, but again it put me back into that galaxy far, far away. For me, there were some Star Wars vibes for this episode. 

Patrick Cadigan  21:13  
One of the central themes for this episode, and I felt like that they really beat you over the head with it, more so in this episode than any of the others up until this point was the conflict between Rick's tech genius, but at the same time his lack of tactical patience. His father gets captured, he decides that he's going to act. Doesn't matter what anyone else is going to tell him, he knows what he's doing, he's going to jump in, he's going to take care of everything. Now, from a character perspective, one of the other things that I appreciated was I appreciated what Rick was going through, because there were some beats to the story that you had to hearken back to the very first episode, Escape from Mongo, that there was a very similar situation where his father has been captured, Rick shows up to rescue him, he can't rescue him, he is like, I am not going to go anywhere, this is something that I have to do, because, of course, when it happened the first time, his mother died, so I will argue and say that there was some growth here, because Rick did stick around at the end of the episode. His father is still alive, so I do feel like that, that, that, that shows growth. I felt like that there was a call back there to the first episode. I appreciated seeing it, and it was good. 

Patrick Cadigan  22:45  
I did appreciate also the theme of technological irony, so to speak. The plot hinges on Ming using one of the hero's own inventions against them, this feedback circuit, which could serve as the metaphor for scientific progress being weaponized by tyrants if not properly guarded. Gee, I have no idea if there is an analogy to today that we could probably think of for that. I appreciated that in the, in the story, and again, the by the end, I mean, everything, of course, has to fit into a very nice box. Everything is saved, but it was still something that I appreciated from that the story was trying to bring forward. The other thing that I like, historically speaking, Ming will usually do like the brute force attack, but this was a time where, and he decides that it, there's more of a psychological attack here. He is using Rick's emotional vulnerability regarding his father, and granted his plan, there like so many things have to go right in order for it to work out, but again it relied more on psychological elements than just, hey, go do this, go here, go there, you know, attack, bring me something like no. There, there was some planning going on here, and I appreciated them having Ming do that. 

Patrick Cadigan  24:31  
The relationship between Flash and Rick clearly is at the emotional core of this episode. Flash has struggled to balance his role, both as his commander and the father is evident, especially when he's like giving Rick the direct orders. I did think it was a little funny that, again, the way that they have built the character of Flash Gordon in the show, basically as a kamikaze pilot, that he's lecturing his son about making bold choices. Without thinking, however, for reasons to move the plot forward, I could appreciate it. 

Patrick Cadigan  25:07  
Some of the trivia that the Ink and Paint DVD brought up was bringing out or highlighting the scene where Flash leaps through the skullcopter to retrieve his laser gun. I watched it a couple of times. I kind of get where they're coming from. The Skull Copter is oddly painted as part of the background, and then you have this overlay, or what looks like an overlay of the skull. Yeah, definitely. Again, got some, got some Star Wars action vibes from that little from that sequence, the DVD commentary kind of, or the DVD trivia felt like this was poorly animated throughout, and they once again brought up Jedda as being drawn off model and mentioned something about her hair. I, again, in general, clearly the animation style is very different. It's probably not as good as the others have been up until this point, but I didn't necessarily think that they needed to call Jeda out to me. The two characters who probably suffered the most was The Phantom and Mandrake. There was just there were some proportions that I had noticed in terms of how they were being drawn that just looked a little bit off. I didn't, Jedda was not the one that struck me as I was watching this episode. 

Patrick Cadigan  26:36  
I did pick up on one animation goof when Rick first finds Flash in the prison area. We see that Flash is still obviously encased in this ice block, which is right up to his neck. However, as we transition to the beginning of Act Three, there is a shot of Rick and Flash in the background, Rick is still encased in the laser prison, and but you can see Flash, and there is no ice block. I mean, now granted, he's only visible from his torso up, but again, there is no ice block there to be seen. The other thing that I picked up on was there was an audio anomaly as Ming is talking about Mongor. It's clear, very clear, that there was an audio edit there when he says the dragon's name, as the cadence is just totally off now. As it happens, I have been reworking my review of episode one, escape from Mongo, and it just so happened that I was going through one particular scene, and sure enough, I picked right up on it. It is when, when we first see Mongo in that episode, the way that Ming says the name, it there was clearly some problem with with audio, so they just cut that out, and then they threw it into this, this latest episode. And again, the only reason that I picked up on it is because the cadence is just completely off. I was kind of proud of myself that I picked up on that. There are like little things that I'm picking up on as I'm continuing through this this show. 

Patrick Cadigan  28:22  
And that'll bring an end to our review of episode seven, Cold War. In two weeks' time, I will be digging into The Sleeper Awakes, and I look forward to it. Until then.