Posted by Tannhaeuser
on 9/15/2008, 11:01 am, in reply to "Re: 25th Anniversary - Episode Rewatch - "Night Of No Tomorrow""
Message modified by user Tannhaeuser 9/24/2008, 10:26 pm
Nice analysis, Neil. My own take on “Night of No Tomorrow” is that it was a good, though far from excellent, episode of the toon. I believe that Random Scribbles is right about “In Search of the Dungeon Master” being the intended first episode, but I suspect this one aired first, not for any story development reasons, but simply because the animation of that episode had not been finished in time for the premiere. On the other hand, ’Eighties toons didn’t really spend a lot of time on character development or back-story, in general—one of the reasons Dungeons & Dragons was so good was that it helped initiate that sort of thing, which had been rare in cartoons before. Remember, folks—the Seventies and early Eighties were the nadir of animation, giving us shows like Yogi’s Space Race and Inch High Private Eye, consisting of little more than relentless laugh-tracked “gags,” and pop culture references by writers who didn’t quite understand them. Huntz Hall as a werewolf? Ugh!
I think the writing for this episode is still very juvenile, at this point, hence the pounding, pounding, pounding of the White Hair/Hare, get it? joke to that relentless extent. Obviously Hollywood still regards teenagers as idiot kids. (I believe that the network, having launched D&D, promptly forgot about it; it was just a kiddie cartoon for geeks, right? I think that’s why later episodes were able to deal with much more adult themes, in my opinion; they were under the radar of network Standards & Practices.)
I remember disliking the animation style early on, but then, I had (and have) a distinct distaste for Japanimation. (An animator I know at Disney has decried the unoriginality of the character designs.) Still, there weren’t a lot of choices for someone into fantasy adventure cartoons then—sure, there was He-Man, which had a better style of animation, but which seemed to be written for retarded two-year-olds, of the “Take THAT, Bone-Face!” variety, which, I learned much later, was the result of Network Interference. (And from their point of view, they were probably right, since He-Man was much more financially successful than D&D ever was. On the other hand, maybe not, since the very similar Blackstar bombed.) The much loved, horribly animated Thundarr the Barbarian was off the air; Galtar and the Golden Lance and Pirates of Dark Water had not premiered yet (and even when they did, were rather pale in comparison). Besides, all of those had a large admixture of sci-fi; Dungeons & Dragons was just about the only pure fantasy there was out there.
It seems to me that Willie Aames, Adam Rich, and even Donny Most have not quite settled into their rôles yet; Katie Leigh and Tonya Gail Smith seem much more assured.
Diana was an excellent character from Day 1. Hank—I dunno, he just seems to be phoning it in, to me. Bobby never did anything but annoy me, and he annoyed me in this episode. Eric gives no sign of becoming the rich character he would develop into; if he had always stayed as he was in this episode, I think he would rapidly have joined Bobby in “Most Disliked Character” status. I am old-fashioned enough not to value “snarkiness” unsupported by any actual wit. Much as I like Katie Leigh, Sheila never made much of an impression on me. (It was actually news to me that Hank and Sheila might be considered “an item.” He always seemed closer to Diana.
I really dislike the use of the name “Merlin” in this episode. This story has nothing to do with the Arthurian legend; why drag in Merlin? Would it have been so hard to say something like, “Magicname, the greatest wizard the Realm has ever known”?
Who was the architect who designed “Merlin’s” Castle? Little clue, guy—you don’t put the mechanism that opens the drawbridge on the outside. It kinda defeats the point. On the other hand, I have to disagree with you, Neil. There is a kind of dungeon that has no steps down into it; it’s called an oubliette, and the idea is that you just chuck your prisoners down into it and forget them.
Hey, the fortune teller told one of the girls that she saw great wealth in her future. Is somebody gonna marry Eric?
At this point, the cartoon seemed like pretty standard fare. Good, but nothing that would indicate the glories of the second season. I think the first episode that really gave a hint of something special would be “Valley of the Unicorns.”