Go for boom time: “Inferno”
Sep. 19th, 2009 12:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akinoameOn an oil field out in the desert some miles away from Bellwood, a herd of some kind of cross among a rhino, a hippo, and a badgermole has escaped from beneath the earth. The team goes to check it out under Grandpa Max’s orders, and after causing a stampede, they manage to get the herd under control. Via badge, Max explains that the badgermole-rhinopotomus creatures are pyroxovites, an Earth-native species believed to be extinct. But this last herd of them should have been underground, meaning something’s driven them out of their native habitat. That means it’s up to the Alien Force to investigate.
After a difficult journey underground, the team finds a storehouse of explosives, and a boom-happy alien named Mole Di Warp. He reveals that the pyroxovite herd is his, and some “varmint” has scared them off by drawing magma up from beneath the crust. When he takes them to meet the varmint, the team recognizes him easily: Vulkanis, who is really annoyed to see them again. Having made a fortune off the taedenite he mined off Kevin, Vulkanis spent all his earnings on buying the Earth—he obtained a permit to change the atmosphere to one that suits him—a much hotter climate that no living species on Earth could survive (barring, perhaps, the craziest of extremophile bacteria, but over 800 degrees on a cool day is still pushing it). And the method to doing that is fiendishly supervillain: detonating a bomb in the Earth’s core. For the fate of the planet, the Alien Force and Mole Di Warp must fight Vulkanis, his minions, and his robotic drill and excavator.
But though Spidermonkey’s defeated him, Vulkanis doesn’t plan on playing nice. He speeds up the countdown to the bomb-drop to thirty seconds and evacuates by using an ejector button in his suit, escaping through a trapdoor above them leading to the surface. Ben plans on using Humongousaur to catch the bomb, but naturally, the Omnitrix is acting up again and switches him to Jetray. After a humorous moment of Jetray shouting out Humongousaur’s name before realizing that the transformation didn’t work as planned, he flies down the shaft and sets off the bomb before it can reach the core. And for a bomb that’s supposed to push the earth’s magma to the surface and totally re-form the planet’s climate, the explosion is easy for Jetray to escape and for all of them to survive. But while the others were waiting for Ben to get back, Mole Di Warp decided to ensure that Vulkanis can never come back and use that shaft again—by setting off all the explosives. Frantically, the team drives out of there just in the nick of time, reuniting with the herd above ground. Mole Di Warp says that he’ll figure out how to get them underground again, but first, who wants a barbeque?
The guest-starring alien this episode is Mole Di Warp (hold, please, for the “Lord Moldyshorts” jokes), a boom-happy pyroxovite rancher. They never reveal what species he is, but he avoids the others of his kind as they have no love for each other. And aside from pyroxovite ranching, talking like a prospector, and loving explosions more than Gem and Gemma, there isn’t a whole lot to his personality. There’s little given on him, and little focus on him. He’s pretty much only there as a guide.
As for Ben’s attitude this episode, it’s far more tolerable than in “Vengeance of Vilgax.” Yes, he’s still cocky—for one, he demands Vulkanis what else he’s got to give them when he feels the pick-ax aliens are too weak (as they’d defeated them before), only to wind up having to fight the mining equipment. He also has a couple of hairflip-worthy moments, like knocking on Kevin to see how well the ID mask is hiding his condition (which, admittedly points out that it’s not a hard-light hologram, thus bringing up questions about how well the masks could have worked in “Inside Man” for Tyler, the DNAlien cops, and especially the Highbreed who disguised himself as a foreman). And he’s decidedly reckless, starting off the episode by starting a pyroxovite stampede. He immediately plans on fighting them as Humongousaur, only to be run over by one of the pyroxovites. Apparently, he never saw The Lion King. Still, it shows once again that Ben has a surprisingly hard head. After being stampeded, the worst he suffers is a headache. This is very similar to a moment in “Plumber’s Helpers,” when he was hit in the head by a falling chunk of masonry and only suffered a mild concussion. Ben’s real superpower appears to be an amazing resistance to blunt force trauma.
This episode reveals something that tries to remain in-line with the original canon: everything you hear in myths and fairytales is true, to some extent. At the very least, the mythical creatures are real. Max reveals that real creatures such as pyroxovites inspired the legends, and these are Earth-native species, not aliens. It helps add the small fantasy element back into the sci-fi heavy series, and it probably helps smooth things out for Charmcaster and Hex’s eventual appearance.
In addition to the arachnophobia implied in “Vengeance of Vilgax,” “Inferno” reveals that Gwen has at least a mild case of claustrophobia. This is actually pretty believable, given that in the original, her magic tended to misfire in tightly enclosed spaces. It would make her feel uncomfortable in such places.
As for Kevin, a humorous moment begins to bring up questions of just what he really knows. He lights a flare to see in the dark cavern, reading the letters “TNT” off a box. Gwen panics and blows out the flare. Kevin lights it again, and Ben blows it out, yelling at him that TNT means explosives. This is kind of a basic thing you’d know from watching old cartoons, but it is still a little strange. Add in the fact that he didn’t know if he was using the word “obnoxious” right, you kind of wonder where his education ended or if he even bothered continuing it after he was eleven.
At the very least, we see that he does know how to make his car pretty awesome. Now that the others know he tricked out the old one with alien tech, the new one is getting the same treatment. Ramjets boost the speed, a cloaking field renders it invisible (and thus helps him elude police looking for speeders), and it even has a parachute and rockets to slow a fall.
And finally, we come across another stupid galactic law. Vulkanis manages to file a claim to the planet, allowing him to change the atmosphere to however he sees fit. Never mind the fact that he’d be killing everyone on an unsuspecting Level 2 planet that would have no way of evacuating everyone or finding some way to survive. But at the same time, Ben doesn’t appear to realize that he’s the ruler of the planet due to winning the Conqueror’s Challenge against Vilgax. So if the Galvan really are coming up with all these crazy laws, someone needs to slap some sense into them. They need the hairflip more than Ben at this rate.
“Inferno” was written by Len Uhley. John DiMaggio reprised his role as Vulkanis. Unfortunately, Cartoon Network first aired this episode with the first season credits, so I couldn’t find the credit for Mole Di Warp (nor the correct spelling of his name).
After a difficult journey underground, the team finds a storehouse of explosives, and a boom-happy alien named Mole Di Warp. He reveals that the pyroxovite herd is his, and some “varmint” has scared them off by drawing magma up from beneath the crust. When he takes them to meet the varmint, the team recognizes him easily: Vulkanis, who is really annoyed to see them again. Having made a fortune off the taedenite he mined off Kevin, Vulkanis spent all his earnings on buying the Earth—he obtained a permit to change the atmosphere to one that suits him—a much hotter climate that no living species on Earth could survive (barring, perhaps, the craziest of extremophile bacteria, but over 800 degrees on a cool day is still pushing it). And the method to doing that is fiendishly supervillain: detonating a bomb in the Earth’s core. For the fate of the planet, the Alien Force and Mole Di Warp must fight Vulkanis, his minions, and his robotic drill and excavator.
But though Spidermonkey’s defeated him, Vulkanis doesn’t plan on playing nice. He speeds up the countdown to the bomb-drop to thirty seconds and evacuates by using an ejector button in his suit, escaping through a trapdoor above them leading to the surface. Ben plans on using Humongousaur to catch the bomb, but naturally, the Omnitrix is acting up again and switches him to Jetray. After a humorous moment of Jetray shouting out Humongousaur’s name before realizing that the transformation didn’t work as planned, he flies down the shaft and sets off the bomb before it can reach the core. And for a bomb that’s supposed to push the earth’s magma to the surface and totally re-form the planet’s climate, the explosion is easy for Jetray to escape and for all of them to survive. But while the others were waiting for Ben to get back, Mole Di Warp decided to ensure that Vulkanis can never come back and use that shaft again—by setting off all the explosives. Frantically, the team drives out of there just in the nick of time, reuniting with the herd above ground. Mole Di Warp says that he’ll figure out how to get them underground again, but first, who wants a barbeque?
The guest-starring alien this episode is Mole Di Warp (hold, please, for the “Lord Moldyshorts” jokes), a boom-happy pyroxovite rancher. They never reveal what species he is, but he avoids the others of his kind as they have no love for each other. And aside from pyroxovite ranching, talking like a prospector, and loving explosions more than Gem and Gemma, there isn’t a whole lot to his personality. There’s little given on him, and little focus on him. He’s pretty much only there as a guide.
As for Ben’s attitude this episode, it’s far more tolerable than in “Vengeance of Vilgax.” Yes, he’s still cocky—for one, he demands Vulkanis what else he’s got to give them when he feels the pick-ax aliens are too weak (as they’d defeated them before), only to wind up having to fight the mining equipment. He also has a couple of hairflip-worthy moments, like knocking on Kevin to see how well the ID mask is hiding his condition (which, admittedly points out that it’s not a hard-light hologram, thus bringing up questions about how well the masks could have worked in “Inside Man” for Tyler, the DNAlien cops, and especially the Highbreed who disguised himself as a foreman). And he’s decidedly reckless, starting off the episode by starting a pyroxovite stampede. He immediately plans on fighting them as Humongousaur, only to be run over by one of the pyroxovites. Apparently, he never saw The Lion King. Still, it shows once again that Ben has a surprisingly hard head. After being stampeded, the worst he suffers is a headache. This is very similar to a moment in “Plumber’s Helpers,” when he was hit in the head by a falling chunk of masonry and only suffered a mild concussion. Ben’s real superpower appears to be an amazing resistance to blunt force trauma.
This episode reveals something that tries to remain in-line with the original canon: everything you hear in myths and fairytales is true, to some extent. At the very least, the mythical creatures are real. Max reveals that real creatures such as pyroxovites inspired the legends, and these are Earth-native species, not aliens. It helps add the small fantasy element back into the sci-fi heavy series, and it probably helps smooth things out for Charmcaster and Hex’s eventual appearance.
In addition to the arachnophobia implied in “Vengeance of Vilgax,” “Inferno” reveals that Gwen has at least a mild case of claustrophobia. This is actually pretty believable, given that in the original, her magic tended to misfire in tightly enclosed spaces. It would make her feel uncomfortable in such places.
As for Kevin, a humorous moment begins to bring up questions of just what he really knows. He lights a flare to see in the dark cavern, reading the letters “TNT” off a box. Gwen panics and blows out the flare. Kevin lights it again, and Ben blows it out, yelling at him that TNT means explosives. This is kind of a basic thing you’d know from watching old cartoons, but it is still a little strange. Add in the fact that he didn’t know if he was using the word “obnoxious” right, you kind of wonder where his education ended or if he even bothered continuing it after he was eleven.
At the very least, we see that he does know how to make his car pretty awesome. Now that the others know he tricked out the old one with alien tech, the new one is getting the same treatment. Ramjets boost the speed, a cloaking field renders it invisible (and thus helps him elude police looking for speeders), and it even has a parachute and rockets to slow a fall.
And finally, we come across another stupid galactic law. Vulkanis manages to file a claim to the planet, allowing him to change the atmosphere to however he sees fit. Never mind the fact that he’d be killing everyone on an unsuspecting Level 2 planet that would have no way of evacuating everyone or finding some way to survive. But at the same time, Ben doesn’t appear to realize that he’s the ruler of the planet due to winning the Conqueror’s Challenge against Vilgax. So if the Galvan really are coming up with all these crazy laws, someone needs to slap some sense into them. They need the hairflip more than Ben at this rate.
“Inferno” was written by Len Uhley. John DiMaggio reprised his role as Vulkanis. Unfortunately, Cartoon Network first aired this episode with the first season credits, so I couldn’t find the credit for Mole Di Warp (nor the correct spelling of his name).