IF ALL YOUR ASSISTANTS FAIL YOU SHOULD CATCH THE GHOSTBUSTERS YOURSELF

Revenge of the Ghostmaster

Original Air date December 9, 1989

Writer: Richard Mueller

Director: Charles Grosvenor

Main Cast:

• Dave Coulier as Peter Venkman
• Frank Welker as Raymond Stantz
• Maurice LaMarche as Egon Spengler
• Buster Jones as Winston Zeddemore
• Kath Soucie as Janine Melnitz
• Frank Welker as Slimer
• Rodger Bumpass as Louis Tully

(Rating 5 of 5)

Summary: The Ghostmaster General arrives on Earth and assaults some punks.  Then he turns his attention to the Ghostbusters.  The next morning Slimer wakes up to discover he overslept because his alarm clock isn’t working.  He goes into the bathroom to discover nothing is working either, although it does work when he leaves.  He wakes the Ghostbusters and they discover the same thing.  Egon and Winston check on the Containment Unit and it stops working when they enter the room and starts again when they leave.  Peter discovers that he stops traffic when he is outside and not in a good way.  The only thing that works is the TV where the Ghostmaster General threatens the Ghostbusters with lifetime enslavement and then melts the TV.

The Ghostmaster General standing right where they want him.

                The Ghostbusters retreat from the firehouse and go to a bike shop where they get skates and bikes.  Winston and Peter take off on stakes to distract the Ghostmaster from Egon and Ray.  Egon and Ray go to the library where they discover that the Ghostmaster is a class 11 and too powerful for a trap. However Slimer spied on the Ghostmaster and found out his power is being drained by the methods used to create the energy draining shield around the Ghostbusters.  Their manpower drops in half when Peter and Winston are caught by the Ghostmaster’s magic bubbles (I can’t think of anything else to call them).

Measured out.

                As the Ghostmaster General approached Egon, Egon demanded he stop. Amused, the General complied.  Ray and Slimer then started a roll gulberg device that opened a trap and captured the Ghostmaster General.  With the spell broken the Ghostbusters could use power again, until it was shut off because Peter didn’t pay the bill. 

Clever Ghostbusters

 My Take: Well the Ghostmaster General was a decent villain but after so many failures from his subordinates I can’t blame him for wanting to do the work himself.  Yet in the end he joined his soldiers in the Containment Unit.

                Now for my stray observations:

·         Those magic balls reminded me of the one his final solider, Nurgot, showed up with the last time they encountered the Ghostbusters.  Did the Ghostmaster General give him that ball?  After all GG seems to have a lot of them.

·         The powerless situation was amusing.  I shared Slimer’s concern I don’t like it when my alarm clock doesn’t work either. 

·         I love Peter’s line about since their packs don’t work he wanted to know why they’re they lugging it around.

·         I don’t skate tried it once and sprained my ankle.

·         Not only was the Ghostmaster weakening but he was also going blind, he couldn’t tell if one of his magic balls was green. Can’t you change colors Slimer?

·         We’re lucky the magic balls shut down the dampening field.

·         When the episode started and I was wondering how they were going to bathe, I thought of turning on the water and standing outside the room for a few minutes while the tub filled.  I am glad in the final battle Ghostmaster General they did something similar.    

A good episode but I was disappointed that the series as a whole didn’t’ give the Ghostmaster General more attention.  I thought a ghost leader was an interesting concept.