 |
| Episode 20 |
On the Time Life DVD’s of this series you get to watch a
commentary with David Gerrold. I love
commentaries especially on the shows or movies I really enjoy. This is the first episode written by David
Gerrold that I got to watch in this series so far. I never liked this one much, even as a kid
and after hearing what the writer thought about it now I still don’t. It does have its funny dialogue from time to
time but the entire concept of referencing anything you can think of is
lame. The writer seemed proud to claim
that. I’m for some references but to do
an entire episode on it just takes away from what you could be getting from the
characters in the meantime. From Star
Trek, King Kong, The Three Stooges and gobs more it feels like I’m half
watching a show about what other show we can put into the viewers brain instead
of The Real Ghostbusters. It has lots of
Slimer in it but thankfully it’s not as bad as you might think it would be
because of it. It’s time to go through
this episode.
Egon is up to some mad scientist like work at Ghostbuster
headquarters. He is attempting to create
a machine that will disintegrate ghosts instead of containing them which is
rather neat. Before we get to the
storyline of that let’s point out that an old couple walking on the street
below would rather a dynamite factory be in place of the Ghostbusters
firehouse. Why do you ask? Well an explosion did blast out through the
roof of the firehouse but it didn’t seem too bad. Their reason is they claim to have felt safer
when it was a dynamite factory, apparently in past years. I know it’s supposed to be a joke but it’s
lame and really spearheads what this episode is full of, below standard
material.
In the firehouse Peter is fully geared up, proton pack and
all. Does he normally do that? I’d tend to think not and suggest he be
loafing off someplace else. I could see
Ray doing it though. It’s not a big
concern but it stood out to me. In the
wake of the explosion as Peter is hanging from the ceiling he mentions they
might be able to get a deal working slum clearance. That’s something I never picked up as a kid
and it’s rather funny now. Egon goes on
and on in ridiculous terminology of how he created this new machine. I know I’ve stated before that I like the
“techno-babble” but this is simply too much.
It’s really plain silly and over the top. Ray also has a blue electric field around him
for some reason. Peter manages be funny
enough to get you through this scene but he usually does up to this point in
the series. “Ray I think you’ve been sniffing your capacitors again.” I don’t know if Peter is referring to the
electric field around Ray or the excitement he is portraying but it’s another
great line. He goes on mocking Egon and
Ray when Slimer enviably shows up and mumbles incomprehensible words. “Him I
expect to talk like that, not you two.”
Another joke right on target as he is basically blasting that “techno-babble”
talk that already went too far. The lack
of a serious attitude Peter portrays is what keeps the overall environment of
what’s going on interesting. |
| The Scientific Approach |
Ray has developed a machine to communicate with Slimer which
is stupid. Slimer types what he wants to
say into the machine and a voice speaks it.
Why not read what Slimer typed? I
have an even better idea, teach Slimer to write on paper, give me a break. Peter does rag on it by wondering why they
would want to communicate with the green goo in the first place. It does have some kind of advantage I could
imagine but it’s still nice to see Peter’s dislike of Slimer. Peter slightly threatens to blast Slimer
which causes the spook to bounce off the walls and right into Egon’s new
machine. As Slimer exits the machine the
green goo multiplies into a bunch of small Slimer’s, great. One of the dumbest ideas in this show up
until now occurs. The guys try to catch
all of these Slimer’s with nets, yes nets.
Why? Who knows let’s just push
on. Egon explains Slimer has become
molecular unstable which is why Slimer is multiplying upon hitting
anything. Obviously they have to clean
up this terribly slimy mess which is already spreading faster than diarrhea but
Winston has the best idea. He recommends
going out and rounding all the Slimer’s up with the ecto Slimer nets. Do you see this episode spiraling downward? That leads to talk about Howard the Duck
which anybody born after the 1980’s will never know about and those that do
will possibly turn this particular episode off.
The off base references make this one the episode you skip over on the DVD.
After a series of unsuccessful standing without moving their
feet the guys, along with Janine, decide to go see the mayor. The scene in the mayor’s office is full of
bad dialogue I’d rather spare you from and me from writing. It does conclude with the entire gang sliding
out the door on slime though, they really push that gag beyond the limits. Egon comes up with an idea to reverse the
effect of the multiplying Slimer’s so they all become magnets to each
other. It’s a good enough solution so
they head back to the firehouse to begin.
Once again they slip and slide, yawn, all over the place with their
stupid nets. I did enjoy the part when
Egon crashes into the door with his behind sticking out! He’d have to be knocked out or loopy after
that. One of the little Slimer’s floats
right into the machine by itself, way to go guys, I was sure the nets would
eventually catch one though. It comes
out blue though, a blue Slimer. Why is
it blue though? It’s not explained in
the show but the writer said just to separate from the other Slimer’s so as to
see the change. If one is absorbing all
the little Slimer’s, I’m sick of typing “Slimer”; I think the viewer could tell
because that one get’s larger and larger.
 |
They let Slimer out the window to collect the other ones and
wish him good luck. It’s silly dialogue
again except when Peter tells him not to come back. Eventually the blue Slimer comes back about
fifty times bigger than when it left. It’s
also meaner due to the shock therapy from Egon’s machine Ray claims. Why is it so big though? There must be a scientific explanation for
that too. Egon states it’s because all
the little slimeball’s were feeding on anything they could find so when they
merged it all added up basically. No
footage of any of the Slimer’s eating though, pity. While evil blue Slimer watches Egon says they
need helicopters to fire at Slimer in small bursts to reduce its size. They head to the mayor’s office, again, to
ask for said helicopters. Janine gets
snatched up by evil Slimer straight out of the office window. The mayor whines and complains about the
entire situation like a baby, grow up and face the problem man.
The guys get their helicopters and can fly them,
somehow. I didn’t much like how they
could just fly a helicopter all of a sudden, is this the matrix and they
downloaded that information? There wasn't even a line stating, “Well I’m glad we
took all those flying lessons, I hope it pays off.” That would at least explain it somewhat. The theme music doesn’t even kick in for the
finale, come on their flying four helicopters straight at the empire state building
with mounted proton guns! In the end
they reduce Slimer back down to size and color along with plenty of King Kong
references for the situation, boo.
I don’t like this episode much which is why it took me so
long to get around to finishing this review on it. Aside from the jokes Peter makes in it it’s
not very watchable and I don’t recommend it for anybody new to watching the
show.
Rating: 3 of 10
Links
Next Up: Night Game – Episode 21
Previous: Cry Uncle – Episode 19
No comments:
Post a Comment