OLD GODS FIGHTING

I Am the City

Original Air date November 23, 1987^[1]

Writer: Richard Mueller

Director: Dale Schott

Main Cast:

• Lorenzo Music as Peter Venkman
• Frank Welker as Raymond Stantz
• Maurice LaMarche as Egon Spengler
• Arsenio Hall as Winston Zeddemore
• Laura Summer as Janine Melnitz
• Frank Welker as Slimer

(Rating 4 of 5)

Summary:  The city is rocked by and earthquake that is followed by the appearance of a red blur.  Peter fears the city will blame them again, and two cops show up.  Peter is relieved when the cops don’t blame them but instead ask for their assistance in with the red blur.  Peter is so relieved that he promises the cops that they will handle it.  Egon is angry at Peter for promising results on something they know nothing about.

Marduk in human form.

                Using a new computerized version of Tobin’s Spirit Guide, they find that Red Blur and earthquake means Marduk, Babylonian God of the City.  It seems the Guide has nothing but good things to say which somewhat eases Winston’s fear of gods but it turns out Marduk has a rival.  A god named Tiamat who is a five headed dragon. 

Tiamat!

                It turns out that Marduk is something of a good guy as he superhero-like rescues the RMS Queen Elizabeth II.  The Ghostbusters track Marduk down and they confront him while the god was in human form.  He seems to be very nice guy and is sorry about the earthquake.   They ask about Tiamat and Marduk says that he hasn’t seen him in quite some time.

                Tiamat proves them wrong by attacking the city.  The Ghostbusters and Marduk team up and battled Tiamat together.  In the battle Tiamat is destroyed and Marduk goes missing.  Egon concludes one cannot exist without the other.  However Marduk had just taken human from again and left the scene.

 My Take:  Well it was kind of nice to meet a god who was not interested in cleaning the Ghostbusters clocks.  This Marduk fellow actually seemed very nice and useful guy to have around.  He did save that ship in a heroic fashion.

                Now for my stray observations:

·         Nice to know that not all the NYPD are dumb like Frump.  I can’t blame Peter for being concerned.

·         Glad to see they have gotten into the late 1980s with their own computerized version of  Tobin’s Spirit Guide, nowadays they would have tablets.

·         Nice to see Ecto-2 but they end up getting it wet again.

·         Don’t they arrive at the decision of "Marduk is gone" a little too quickly?  I don’t mean just because they are wrong and we know it. I mean Egon comes up with that theory very quickly.  I think they should have said something like “time will tell” or anything like that.

A fun episode.

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[1] Listed original air dates for entire syndicated season may not be correct.