 |
| Episode 10 – Season 1 |
I watched the visual commentary on the DVD for this
one. Joe Straczynski, Joe Medjuck and
Michael Gross were the guys talking about what made this episode unique in the
series with the connections to the movie.
I’m a fan of Joe Straczynski’s writing on the show overall and it was
very interesting to learn that he was NOT a fan of making Slimer a centerpiece
of the show. In fact he opted to not
give him dialogue but rather just random words from time to time. Upon learning this I became more of a fan of
his as I hated watching this show go down the toilet without a plunger when
Slimer took over later in the show. I
recommend watching these commentaries on the DVD’s if you really enjoy the Real
Ghostbusters series. They also mentioned
how the voice actors would have so much fun with their roles and that makes me
appreciate this show more.
This
episode takes the aim that the cartoon series came first and a movie eventually
spawned from it which is a neat concept.
The Ghostbusters head to Hollywood to oversee the shooting of the movie
with a ton of cliché’s thrown in for good measure. They come across a ghost haunting the set and
that forces the guys to take action. It’s
a decent episode but the use of Slimer is completely unnecessary for the most
part and that’s never good. Let’s get to
the nitty-gritty now.
 |
| One of the better shots in the series. |
The
Ghostbusters are chasing a small insignificant blue ghost to begin the episode
when they are supposed to be heading for their charter plane to Hollywood. Winston blasts the ghost but it doesn’t seem
to hit its mark yet it’s assumed they captured it, oh well. The introduction isn’t much as the guys
eventually show up to get onto the plane.
An annoying reporter whines and complains about them which is sort of
lame. Janine gets a second straight
cameo only appearance which stinks as her character is usually great. She sees the green goober follow Ecto-1 but decides to not tell the Ghostbusters about him since they leave her in New
York City. The slow witted man sitting
outside the airport gate making one worded comments was pretty funny as the guys fly away. The theme song was already playing in the
background and that’s all you get of it for this one, bummer.
 |
| I wonder who got it worse? |
They
arrive safely and get to the set to find out who will be playing them. Peter hopes that Robert Redford would be
playing him but they find out its Murray, Aykroyd and Ramis instead. They appear less than impressed with that
cast, ha-ha! As they head off to tour
the rest of the set a trap door containing a ghost is opened and the sense of a
leisurely trip is fading. The guys are
led onto a set that is shooting a scene but you don’t know until they blast a
giant robot called ‘Megazoid’, it’s
worth two million dollars. They thought
it’s a ghost somehow but chose not to consult with a PKE meter, come on
guys! You can’t just blast
everything! The director of the movie
gets pissed off big time and gets into it with Peter. The actual ghost of the episode possesses the
‘Megazoid’ in the meantime, now we’re
getting somewhere. Its apparent Peter
fought with the director and the guys are forced to remove their proton packs
for the time being. I wonder why they
wore them in the first place, those things are heavy right? They keep them in a prop room but Egon keeps
his PKE meter, it’s like his first born son after all.
 |
| It would love the library. |
A
couple of workers brings in four prop proton packs and takes the real packs
back into storage only a second after the Ghostbusters head out a different
doorway. Was this cleverly planned or
mere coincidence? The possessed ‘Megazoid’ finds the Ghostbusters and I’ll
say the demented look on its face is great.
Egon uses his PKE meter to confirm there is a ghost inside it so they
run to get their packs. They don’t seem
to notice how light the packs are now and go to face the ‘Megazoid’. Standing in shock
the screen cuts and they must manage to escape because in the next scene they’re
in a completely new location. Egon rigs
up two PKE meters to detect the particle throwers how ingenious. Winston says, “So if we split up into two teams we increase the odds of finding them
faster!” Egon replies, “Exactly, it will give the survivors a much
better chance.” That’s a nice thing
to say Egon. They go off to look for the
packs while the ‘Megazoid’ roams
freely around demanding ‘QUIET’!
 |
| All for one and one for... never-mind. |
Ray and
Winston wander around various sets while avoiding the ‘Megazoid’ at close range often.
Egon and Peter discover that the ghost is a sleepy type of spirit so
they need to keep quiet so as to not make the ghost more aggressive. They find the packs and Peter says, “If you could do that with lost keys we’d
make a fortune.” One of the better
jokes in the episode and I’d have to say this one didn’t have too many good
ones. The loud mouth director decides to
go back to the set to keep the Ghostbusters from damaging his precious two
million dollar baby. Just what we need,
noise! The Ghostbusters gather together
at last with their proton packs and fire on the ‘Megazoid’, but do no damage to it.
I wonder why it didn’t blow to bits.
They need to force the ghost to come out. Egon decides to use sign language to communicate
with the ghost to come out of the machine.
He wants to convince it that the containment unit is a quiet resting
place for it. What a dastardly thing to
do to a poor old spirit, we all know the containment unit is a ghastly
madhouse!
The director arrives in untimely fashion and the ghost is about to re-enter the machine when the Ghostbusters trap it. In the end the machine crumbles to the floor in pieces and the guys go watch the premier of their movie with actual footage of the real movie, very cool! Janine wasn’t present. I wonder if she was ticked off at being left out of so much involving the movie, since they put her in it after all. “You know he doesn’t look a thing like me.” Peter says after seeing who plays him in the movie.
It’s a fairly decent episode and the saving grace for it is the tie in with the movie. The weak sleeping ghost story is overshadowed enough by it but as you know I love origin so I could see how typical viewers would like this more. I’ll admit it’s still one of the better episodes and watching it again wouldn’t be much of a strain.
Rating: 7.5 of 10
Links
Next Up: Citizen Ghost - Episode 10
Previous: Look Homeward, Ray - Episode 9
Facebook Fan Page!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scotts-Movie-Reviews/259595016829
No comments:
Post a Comment