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. 

HONEY I SHRUNK THE GHOSTBUSTERS

Short Stuff

Original Air date October 22, 1988

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

(Rating 5 of 5)

Summary: The Ghostbusters are finishing a routine job.  On the ride home Ray was sitting in the back of Ecto-1 disappointed.  Ray lives by excitement and he is not getting any.  He is tired mundane ghosts and wants to take on a better challenge.  He misses opponents like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and Sandman.

The Ghostmaster General

                As Ray was wallowing in boredom in the Netherworld the Ghostmaster General is outraged at continuous loss of ghosts to the Containment Unit of the Ghostbusters.  He sends three agents to capture the Ghostbusters and bring them to him alive. 

The three hit ghosts!

                The ghost hitman Arborak, spider creature type ghost with webbing and choppers, attacks the Ghostbusters at the firehouse.  Ray and Egon are taking down quickly but Peter and Winston get to their equipment and set the trap catching Arborak.

Nurgot shrinks them down!

                The next day, while out on the job, the Ecto-1 is attacked by Ulyoth.  He sends energy blasts their way and the Ghostbusters return fire.  Ulyoth is powerful enough so the proton beams didn’t affect him too much.  The Ghostbusters retreated into a building and placed a trap that Ulyoth fell right into.

                At this point the Ghostbusters now realized they were being targeted, a fact that made Ray so happy.  As they are setting up a new security system the third hit ghost arrives. Nurgot, an insect like ghost who assumes human form on Earth, with him he had a floating glass ball.  He mind controls Janine to get her to let him in the firehouse.  He then battles the Ghostbusters and shrinks them down to finger-size men.  Nurgot then takes them into the glass ball and proceeds to leave.  As he is about to go back to the Netherworld Slimer knocks the ball out his hand.  The Ghostbusters free themselves from the ball as Slimer flies them away.  

small Ghostbusters

                Egon has Slimer bring them away from the firehouse and has him go back to tell Janine to look at the Big Red Book of Spells to find one that would undo Nurgot’s magic.  In the meantime they would to their best to avoid Nurgot and distract him from going back to the firehouse.

                As Janine tries her best witch imitation the Ghostbusters run like mice through the city.  They walk across a power-line, almost get eaten by a bird, get bottled in seltzer water, end up hanging out with a kid, and finally back to the firehouse where Janine is not having much luck.  She does manage to split Slimer in three and when she gets him back together he grows big.  Egon finds the right spell and they are returned to their normal size and take down Nurgot.  Slimer is also restored to his previous self.

Restored!

                After winning the Ghostbusters are watching TV when their program is interrupted by the Ghostmaster General and his threats.  Ray has never been happier.

My Take:  This was great episode.  Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, staring Ghostbusters’ alumni Rick Moranis is one my favorite movies.  The Ghostbusters did a nice version of it here and did first airing one year before the movie came out.

                The Ghostmaster General is cool villain.  My one question is this: has the Ghostmaster General always been leading the dead or did he come to power as result of the Ghostbusters?  The Netherworld getting sick of losing its citizens turns to leader to combat them is the story I would prefer.  Since ghosts are intelligent it would make sense that they would want to get rid of the Ghostbusters, we saw Wat try this early in the series.  But the Ghostmaster General presents a more organized effort to wipe out the completion. 

                Now for my stray observations:

·         I love Ray throughout the episode.  Being bored out of his mind in the beginning and brought back to life (not literally) with the prospects of new challenges.

·         Why didn’t they just blast the bird with their proton packs? 

·         When stuck in the bottle you have two choices you can start swimming or you can start drowning.

·         I love Winston calling out that they should be dead and Egon’s explanation of it being do to their size.  I also consider that a knock on the Slimer sub-series.

·         I didn’t like the Book of Spells, the Ghostbusters should solve stuff with science not magic, Egon should already have a size machine to deal with this.

A great episode with a great new villain.