Defenders of the Earth Ep. 10 The Hall of Wisdom

Join host Patrick Cadigan as he discusses episode ten of Defenders of the Earth, “The Hall of Wisdom." The Defenders battle Ming's forces to protect the universe's greatest store of knowledge before it disappears for 2,000 years. Rick and Jedda are imprisoned as permanent "living examples of earth people," triggering a standoff until Ming blasts his way in with ice robots and seize a weapon of immense power. Through the power of goodness, Ming is defeated and Flash tells the team that tyrants like Ming must be dealt with before the Hall's wisdom can benefit everyone.

Links:
The Hall of Wisdom Resource (page)
Star Trek TOS: Errand of Mercy (link)
Star Trek TAS: Beyond the Farthest Star (link)
Star Trek TNG: Gambit Pt 1 (link) & Pt. 2 (link)

Transcript

Patrick Cadigan  0:20  
Hey there! We are back. You are 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, character 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. So let's get started. We are here to cover the episode Defenders of the Earth, episode number 10, the Hall of Wisdom. I have this episode air date as being Friday, september 19 of 1986 This particular episode was written by two people. We have Gar Haywood and Larry Parr. Now, starting with Haywood, he only has two writing credits for the Defenders, so we'll get to experience his writing one more time. But beyond that, he has no other animated television credits to his name. He does have a few other writing credits for live-action television throughout the '90s, and it looks like one in the early 2000s. Now, the second writer, Larry Parr, on the other hand, he has extensive credits for Defenders of the Earth, so we'll be hearing from him again (at least 56 times). His other writing credits in the 80s include Plastic Man, Spider-Man, The Gary Coleman Show (which I didn't even know was a thing) and The Smurfs. As we transition into the 90s, he is responsible for some episodes of Beetlejuice, GI Joe Extreme and the X-Men. One of the other interesting tidbits about Mr. Parr that I found, he also was one of the credited writers, along with Stan Lee and John Ramita Sr. for "Pride of the X Men," the failed pilot for an X-Men series that pre-dates the 1994 series. So I remember that was one of those that was "rediscovered," and they released it on VHS. And I had picked it up and watched. I actually liked it. I thought it was pretty good. It was weird to me that no one thought that that was a really good idea. And hey, maybe we should turn this into a television show. Eventually they did, but yeah, it really shouldn't have taken him that long. But as far as the characters in this episode, we're going to see all the usual suspects. We hear Octon, but we don't actually see him, and we hear Dynak X mentioned, but she also never pops up, so this episode is not really doesn't have to do anything with computers. Without further ado, let's get started.

Patrick Cadigan  3:32  
Act one. We open to the Hall of Wisdom with Flash explaining that it's the biggest storehouse of knowledge in the universe. Rick informs us that the hall will be visible for the next 24 hours, but then will not be accessible for 2,000 years. Flash informs the defenders that they have to guard the hall for the next 24 hours in order to keep Ming from acquiring the quasar weapon. Just then, the team detect a fleet of Ming's robo-ships on their way towards the hull, but they're ready for the fight. An impressive dogfight ensues with lots of fancy flying and showing off. However, Ming's ships just keep coming, and eventually Rick's ship is destroyed. LJ, Lothar, and Mandrake fill the void and continue to take out Ming's forces. The defenders manage to identify the main cargo ship, and Jedda swoops in to destroy it. The cargo ship is more than prepared and takes out Kshin's fighter, followed by Jedda's, no doubt Flash is up for the challenge. However, right before he's about to engage, his lasers malfunction. The only way to stop Ming's attack is to sacrifice his own fighter. So Flash maneuvers directly into the hull of the cargo ship. The. Threat has been neutralized. We then learn that it wasn't the actual defenders in the fighters against Ming's forces, but puppet ships. Flash warns everyone that the next time it's going to be them out there for real. 

Octon  5:16  
The defenders believe they have beaten our entire fleet. With your new molecular disruptor beam, we will surprise and destroy them, sire. 

Ming the Merciless  5:26  
Soon the defenders of the Earth will be history and I alone will have the secret of the Quasar weapon. And all of the knowledge from the Hall of Wisdom.

Patrick Cadigan  5:38  
From Ice Station Earth, we see Ming's throne room take off and head for the fleet in outer space. Meanwhile, the Defenders jump on board rocket cycles and head for the Hall of Wisdom with Ming monitoring their progress. At the entrance to the hall, Flash cannot get the doors to open and looks for ideas from the group. LJ and Rick suggest they figure out if Dynak X has managed to break the code. From a nearby space station, Lothar and Mandrake tell the team that the AI computer is still working on it. Just then, Kshin, along with Zuffy the space alien, point out that there is a host of asteroids that are moving in the opposite direction to all the others, Lothar senses a trap and positions the space station to fend off any invaders. From the asteroid field, Ming tells the convoy that their ruse has been discovered and to begin their attack. From the Hall of Wisdom, the defenders jump on their rocket cycles and begin to engage with Ming's forces. Meanwhile, Lothar is taking on the enemy ships from the space station. At the hull, Jedda and Kisa's rocket cycle has stalled, and Rick moves in to help, but is fired upon by an oncoming robo ship and is thrown from his rocket cycle. Jedda attempts to help him, but quickly realizes he's dead. 

Patrick Cadigan  7:04  
Act two. Jedda cannot believe that she will never see her friend again as she continues to hold on to him, but the attack around her still continues, even as the others surround her for support. Just as all hope appears to be lost for our gallant heroes, a force field surrounds them, protecting them from oncoming laser blasts. The doors of the hall open, and the heroes are brought in. From his throne room, Ming is frustrated that the Hall of Wisdom has opened the doors for the defenders, and tells Octon that he will enter the hall himself. Outside the hall, Mandrake, Lothar, and Kshin, along with Sucky the Space Alien, are in a rocket ship trying to avoid laser fire. When a blast hits them, Lothar warns the passengers that they're losing power. Mandrake, however, has a solution, and he concentrates his telepathic powers to repair the damage done to the ship. With power back, Lothar re-engages the enemy and destroys all attacking ships. Back inside the Hall of Wisdom, everyone is wondering what's happening. There's a voice in the distance, and all are introduced to Jarbon, the caretaker of the Hall of Wisdom. Jarbon is disturbed when he notices Rick. When Jedda asks him if he can help, he responds cryptically, but asks that everyone follow him. Next, the team has gathered in a room with Rick lying on a large table. Flash asks Jarbon again if he can bring Rick back to life. Jarbon responds, "No, but it might be possible for the life extender to repair the damage to Rick's body and get it working again. Jedda asks if there's anything that they can do to help, but Jarbon just tells them all to back up as a bright energy beam encircles the table. At first, the contraption doesn't appear to work, but Jarbon strikes it, causing a fusion of energy that knocks everyone back against the wall. Rick's body is consumed in light energy, and before long, he awakens, obviously very confused. Flash is grateful to Jarbon for his son's life and asks him if there is anything he can do to repay him, but Jarbon dismisses the gesture. As the group begin to travel through the hall, Jarbon tells his listeners that he is not the one who needs to be repaid and that Rick and Jedda will stay in the hall for eternity as living examples of Earth people. Instantly, the two are separated from the group and put into a cage. Jarbon says that will be payment enough. From out in space, Lothar and Mandrake are continuing to try to get into the Hall of Wisdom themselves, using the sword ship's laser booster. They expend all the ship's energy trying to get through, but to no avail. Just then, the two notice a squadron of Ming ships approaching the Hall. 

Garax  10:10  
Excellency, the Defenders ship appears to be helpless. What are you're orders?

Ming the Merciless  10:17  
Prepare to activate my new molecular disruptor beam, Garrax.  After it atomizes the Defender's ship, I will use it to open the doors to the Hall of Wisdom. 

Garax  10:29  
As you command, excellency. 

Patrick Cadigan  10:32  
From inside the hall, Flash and Phantom try to reason with Jarbon, explaining why the kids can't remain. Jarbon is confused as he works to assure the parents that the kids will be well cared for. However, when Jarbon realizes that they will not agree to his proposition, he encases the group in a force field. LJ is the first to escape by leaping out of the makeshift prison. Then The Phantom calls on his powers of 10 tigers and forces the barriers back into the floor, Jarbon is dismayed and unleashes the Keepers, a duo of giant monsters, and warns the defenders that once they're out, the Keepers cannot be stopped. 

Patrick Cadigan  11:14  
Act three: the defenders brace themselves as the Keepers barrel down on them. Kisa becomes defensive and jumps at them, knocking them back and to the ground. Using her telekinesis, Jedda communicates with the keepers and explains that they are not in danger and that the defenders are their friends. The keepers appear confused, but eventually stand down and walk away. LJ compliments Jedda on the use of her powers and notes he's glad that it appears to work on aliens. Flash turns to Jarbon and again pleads for the release of the children. Once again, Jarbon says he is but a caretaker and he doesn't have the power to release them. Not convinced, The Phantom takes out his laser gun and begins to shoot at one of the cage's bars, followed quickly by Flash. After several seconds, however, their laser beams die out. Jarbon explains that the Hall of Wisdom is happy with the specimen it's collected, and it will now be time for all others to leave. Another force field appears around the group, and they begin to levitate away. At this point, Flash implores Jarbon by telling him that Ming will stop at nothing to obtain the quasar weapon. The Phantom posits that Ming will use the weapon to subjugate the universe. This does nothing to change Jarbon's position. From out in space, Ming's star cruiser is approaching the defender's crippled ship and orders for it to be destroyed. Firing the molecular disruptor, the ship is taken out with one shot. Ming is pleased with the results and orders Garrax to focus on the doors to the Hall of Wisdom. From a nearby asteroid, Kshin, along with Zuffy (the space alien), Mandrake and Lothar are glad they managed to escape the ship before it was destroyed. Mandrake wonders aloud what may come next, given the molecular disruptor ray is fully functional. The star cruiser then focuses its next disrupter attack on the hull, with the entrance doors becoming compromised. From inside the hall, Jarbon is baffled about the series of events. Ice robots immediately appear and begin to enter. The defenders are lowered to the ground, and with pleading from The Phantom, the force field disappears. LJ comments about their lack of weapons with which to fight, but again, weapons appear instantaneously for everyone, including Kisa. Fully loaded, the defenders engage in a firefight with the ice robots, but still need to fall back to regroup. Ming enters the hall behind the attacking force and commands that they destroy anything that stands in their way in order to get to the quasar weapon. Regrouping at the children's exhibit, Rick pleads with Jarbon to release them, but Jarbon once again says it's not up to him. The ice robots continue their attack, and LJ wishes aloud that Lothar and Mandrake were with them, on cue. Lothar and Mandrake, along with Kshin and Zuffy (the space alien), swing in for the assist. Lothar manages to ensnare Ming with one of his ropes. However, the dictator quickly escapes and fires back with his laser gun. Mandrake steps in to shield them with a force field (with sound effects they borrowed from both GI Joe and Star Wars).

Ming the Merciless  14:48  
You will pay for this; now. Your tricks can't defeat my mechanical seekers, magician.

Mandrake  15:04  
Watch it.

Lothar  15:05  
Look out...

Patrick Cadigan  15:07  
Ming unleashes two of his seekers, and they begin their attack, easily circumventing the force field. The group is quickly surrounded by ice robots, and Ming refocuses his attention on the obtaining of the quasar weapon, all of a sudden the defenders' weapons cease to function, and Ming comments that he'll miss their rivalry. Flash warns about being cocky as they're not yet beaten. Ming, however, is not worried as Garrax brings him the Quasar weapon. The Phantom leaps forward to push Garax back and grab the quasar weapon himself. He's immediately surrounded by ice robots and manages to toss the weapon to Rick, who comments about feeling its power. Ming demands the return of the weapon, but Rick, of course, refuses. Ming is amused to see that Rick likes having power, but Jedda works to distract him by telling Rick to not become like Ming. Once again, Ming demands the return of the Quasar weapon. This time, telling Rick that they can rule the universe together. Rick, however, rejects the invitation and tosses the weapon away from everyone, and when it hits the ground, it becomes engulfed in light. Jarbon steps in to say that there is hope for the future of their species, and that the hall is pleased. Simultaneously, the prison cage disappears, and when Ming attempts to retrieve the quasar, it disappears. Ming is pissed and pontificates about how he's supposed to be the ruler of the universe. Jarbon dismisses him and tells him that the Hall of Wisdom will not allow its knowledge to be used for evil, only for good. Next, we see the Hall transport everyone from its location, including Ming. Back on the space station, Flash tells his son how proud he is. Rick's attention, though, is on the knowledge within the Hall. Flash tells him that they'll need to rid the universe of people like Ming first, and then the Hall's wisdom can benefit everyone; in 2000 years. The end. 

Patrick Cadigan  17:27  
I really enjoyed this episode. This is one of those episodes that was definitely giving off some Star Trek vibes. It in a in a couple of different ways. In one way, it was it reminded me of the Star Trek animated series episode "Beyond the Farthest Star." The Enterprise out there in the universe finds this wildly old alien spaceship that's been moving throughout the universe for hundreds of 1000s of years, and so with the Hall of Wisdom, they never really quite get into what it is, what's inside this Hall. I mean, of course, it's kind of beside the point. They don't really need to. It would have been nice to get a little, you know, a little bit of that. You do see some of the quote unquote monsters, or we would refer to them as aliens inside. It was an intriguing idea, and I really, I really liked it. 

Patrick Cadigan  18:32  
One of the central themes for this show, for this particular episode, was that technology versus character. I definitely feel like this is one of those reoccurring themes: the idea of this advanced technology, this quasar weapon, that we really don't know what it can do or what it's capable of. We know that everyone is convinced that should Ming get a hold of it, that catastrophic calamity will ensue, and therefore he's not allowed to have it. But in the way that the Hall of Wisdom acts as this sentient moral arbiter, that it's only going to grant that power to someone who. who passed that character test. Essentially, this Star Trek reference that I'm thinking of, the Star Trek Next Generation two parter Gambit, where Picard is looking for this ancient Vulcan weapon, but by the end of the episode, the reason that the weapon was no longer necessary was because the Vulcans themselves themselves had achieved enlightenment. So therefore, the weapon wasn't necessary. So again, this is this is one of those things. That I was thinking about as I was watching this episode. The other focal point again goes back to the relationship between the kids. This one was very focused on Flash and Rick, but The Phantom and Jedda were there most definitely as well. You start off at the beginning of the episode essentially with Flash's grief over Rick's death, but then by the end of the episode, this subsequent pride in Rick's refusal to be corrupted by Ming.

Patrick Cadigan  20:36  
I also really liked how the writers, and specifically, they gave Rick this moment where he stopped to appreciate or think more about what the Hall of Wisdom represented. To me, that was where that came from. That that question of like, yeah, what was in there? What would that be about? And I just really appreciated that they took the time to to do that, and with this father son motif, this again, this generational passing of the hero's mantle, so to speak. So I really like that. One other theme was, or I shouldn't even say theme. I'm going to give you the Star Trek reference later on, but the caretaker's neutrality. So Jarbon represents that classic sci-fi trope of the quote-unquote neutral observer lacks human empathy initially, views humans or at least the you know the antagonist and the protagonist as specimens rather than people, and working to essentially underscore this cold objective nature of pure knowledge over wisdom. And this was a hint, as far as I was concerned, at the Organians from the from the TOS episode "Errand of Mercy." I just again, this was one of those. As I'm watching this whole episode, like I just kept thinking of all these Star Trek themes that were kind of rolling through. 

Patrick Cadigan  22:22  
Once again, we hit on Ming's fatal flaw. His failure isn't due to lack firepower. He is able to successfully breach this quote-unquote unbreakable hull, but his inability to understand the moral requirements for wielding very great power that he seeks, and of course, in 1980s animation parlance, that will always, always lead to his defeat. 

Patrick Cadigan  22:57  
There was one animation goof that I picked up on as I was watching the episode, when Rick attempts to jump in and help Jedda when her rocket cycle stalls, and as he moves in right next to her and he's hit with the blaster fire, he is thrown from the vehicle. However, the color scheme for the suit that they used it was hinting at that it was either going to be LJ or Lothar because for both of those characters, their their spacesuits were decked out in green and tan, and you had Flash and Rick where it was red, and I think if it was either red and tan or red and brown, I think it kind of depends on how you see that color, and then with The Phantom, it was going to be a purple black. So again, clearly the character gets thrown. It isn't Rick. It's going to be either LJ or Lothar. 

Patrick Cadigan  23:58  
Now for the DVD trivia for this episode, I think I figured it out when it comes to the DVD trivia. It definitely it occurs to me that there had to be several groups of people who just watched certain episodes and then sat down and like wrote out their stuff, except that they didn't collaborate at all. And the reason that I threw that out there, the first note that they have for this episode is: we are surprised to learn that Ming's base of operations on Ice Station Earth can take to the skies, when in fact this is something that has happened before. So as soon as I read that, I was like, "Wait a second, what's going on here?" So again, I had commented about this before, where some of this trivia is like, "Where are they getting this from? Like, this isn't either. I didn't see it, or it doesn't make sense." Again, different people, and I don't think that anybody bothered to collaborate. The last one was that Rick in this episode is obviously killed, so he is struck by the laser blast. He's thrown. He's dead, even though they never actually say it. He's simply referred to as being gone, and then there's probably like maybe five minutes where he doesn't do anything until they move him to the table, but but he's very clearly dead. That is going to end things for my review of episode 10, the Hall of Wisdom. When next we come back, we're gonna. Or when next I come back, I will cover the first of a two-part story. We'll be talking about the Mind Warriors. Until then.