M.A.S.K. S1E10

Death from the Sky

Synopsis

A tractor beam of yellow rings lifts the red truck amid floating rocks.

V.E.N.O.M. uses a tractor beam to seize an airliner, set it down on a clifftop and demand gold from the Peaceful Nations Alliance. M.A.S.K. is sent to the North Sea region, where Miles Mayhem is trying to take an Army power booster to strengthen the beam; the agents rescue crewmen from the raid but lose the booster. Mayhem then announces he will pull a piece of the Van Aulden Comet down on a major city. Scott helps the computer narrow the beam's location to Norway, and the team goes after the installation, losing Firecracker to the beam in the fight at the installation. Meanwhile, Scott's modified toy cars run out of control at home.

Memorable Quotes

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mask.toys Episode Review

Everyone in this episode is holding something they cannot turn off. At the start, Scott has a floor full of toy race cars running on a can of high-performance fuel that Dusty gave him, and by the end he cannot get them to stop. In between, V.E.N.O.M. has a tractor beam that pulls airliners out of the sky and an Army power booster it wants to bolt on to make the beam strong enough to drag down a comet. Death from the Sky is a story about power that nobody is able to switch off, and the best thing about it is how openly the domestic subplot and the global one share a joke.

It opens well. An airliner loses its controls, air traffic control cannot raise it, and a grey-moustached passenger watches from the cockpit as the plane is steered down onto a clifftop, with Mayhem's remote control and a calm threat that next time the landing will not be so soft. The demand, gold delivered to a bank in Switzerland, is the sort of ransom the show can afford, and the very first scene sets the rules for the beam before anyone has to explain them.

The writing then moves in a sensible order. M.A.S.K. is chosen, the heroes head for the North Sea, the raid on the power booster goes wrong, and Mayhem raises the stakes with the comet. The best bit of problem solving belongs to Scott: asked by Matt to have the computer analyze where a clear shot at the comet could be fired from, he feeds it a list of northern locations, and the computer rules out Iceland, rejects a Swedish site for being too far inland, and settles on Norway with near certainty. It is a small moment of competence for a kid who has been locked out of the missions, and Scott gets to be useful without leaving the house.

The animation is functional and sometimes nice to look at. The tractor beam is drawn as rings of yellow light, which is a good choice because it makes lifting a red truck and a handful of boulders look both gentle and awful. The Firecracker tipping over onto a rocky ledge and then rising in the beam is a strong set of images, and the targeting screens with crosshairs make the final exchange feel like a duel between two sets of instruments. Mayhem's voice has a cold, patient quality here that suits a man holding a comet over a city.

The standout scene is the opening, which establishes the weapon, the villain and the price in a minute, and then gives us the cliffhanger image of a passenger jet perched on a rock. That one image sells the idea more efficiently than any of the later action, and that is part of the difficulty. The comet threat is described far more than it is seen: a monitor shows a streak, a diagram shows orbit lines, and the major city that is supposed to be in danger is never named or shown. The viewer is asked to take the danger on trust, and the animation, which could have given us a skyline, gives us a diagram.

A smaller weakness is travel. The vehicles leave Boulder Hill and are in Norway in the next scene, as the fan wiki points out, and Bruce's Lifter mask burns out in the rescue only to work again later. Neither matters much in a twenty-two minute adventure, but both are the sort of thing a more careful episode would have smoothed over.

The ending returns to the beginning. Hondo has lost Firecracker, Scott has a promising replacement, and one of his supercars goes tearing off before anyone can catch it. It is a very good last gag! It is also the right one, because it admits that the episode has been about machines getting away from their owners, and it leaves the episode a good middle-ranking entry among the early run.

Notes of Interest

  1. The M.A.S.K. wiki lists the closing safety tip as Buddie Hawks and Matt reminding Scott to ride his bike on the right side of the street, and its safety tip page lists bike safety again in the later episode Blackout.
  2. The M.A.S.K. wiki records a continuity error: the vehicles leave Boulder Hill and in the next scene appear to have driven all the way to Norway.
  3. The M.A.S.K. wiki notes that Bruce Sato's Lifter mask is described as burnt out after the rescue, yet it is used again hours later in the final battle to lift Firecracker off a cliff.
  4. The M.A.S.K. wiki lists Dusty Hayes as mentioned by Scott, who says Dusty gave him high-performance race car fuel, but Dusty is not selected for the mission.
  5. The M.A.S.K. wiki notes that the footage of Bruce Sato dropping a stack of boxes in the agent call-up sequence is seen again in The Plant Show.
  6. The M.A.S.K. wiki lists Gloria Baker as Thunderhawk's co-pilot on this mission.
  7. The M.A.S.K. wiki lists Doug Stone as the voice of the President in this episode, alongside Matt Trakker, Hondo MacLean, Dusty Hayes and Bruce Sato.
  8. The M.A.S.K. wiki describes the Peaceful Nations Alliance as an international peacekeeping body that frequently warns Matt Trakker about V.E.N.O.M. activity.

Characters in this episode

Full roster →

Matt Trakker

Bruce Sato

Alex Sector

Hondo MacLean

Gloria Baker

Buddie Hawks

Miles Mayhem

Cliff Dagger

Sly Rax

Vanessa Warfield

Scott Trakker

T-Bob

Episode screenshots

An airline pilot in cap and headset smiles at the controls.
An airline pilot in cap and headset smiles at the controls.
A wireframe map of mountainous terrain fills a radar screen.
A wireframe landscape of peaks shows along the bottom of a dark radar screen.
Four airport controllers in white shirts stand together while one speaks into a microphone.
Two hands grip the control sticks on an aircraft panel.
A heavyset passenger with a grey moustache stares wide-eyed.
Miles Mayhem holds a remote control beside a green-suited V.E.N.O.M. agent against a stormy sky.
An airline pilot looks alarmed in the cockpit window.
A passenger and a pilot stare ahead in alarm in the cockpit.
Two pilots and a passenger look out ahead, their faces tense.
Two pilots and a passenger look out ahead, their faces tense.
The grey-moustached passenger scowls in the cabin.
The passenger stands between two pilots with his hands on their seat backs.
A dial on an instrument panel shows a needle in a red band.
A dark submarine surfaces on rough blue waves.
Scott Trakker and T-Bob sit among tangled toy tracks on the floor.
T-Bob sits next to Scott Trakker, who rests his hands on his knees among the tracks.
Scott Trakker laughs while T-Bob sits at the side of the toy track.
T-Bob looks sideways beside a smiling Scott Trakker.
T-Bob kicks a door open and strides into a hallway.
Scott Trakker and T-Bob watch a newsman on television while Matt Trakker relaxes in an armchair.
Scott Trakker and T-Bob watch a newsman on television while Matt Trakker relaxes in an armchair.
Matt Trakker, with a towel around his neck, smiles and holds a tennis racket.
Matt Trakker gives a thumbs up as Scott Trakker stands beside him.
Scott Trakker leans toward T-Bob in a living room.
Matt Trakker reaches for a button on a control console.
Matt Trakker sits at a desk looking ahead with a stern face.
T-Bob folds his arms across his body.
A green wireframe shows a full figure, two head views and a mask.
A man in a white shirt throws up his hands as boxes tumble around him in a doorway.
A green wireframe shows a bald bearded man's full figure, two head views and a helmet.
A little girl in red dungarees holds a teddy bear in a study with an aquarium.
A little girl in red dungarees holds a teddy bear in a study with an aquarium.
A basketball net hangs under a backboard.
A yellow taxi cab turns along a city street.
V.E.N.O.M. operators work at consoles in a control room with map screens.
Miles Mayhem watches a comet streak across a starfield on a large monitor.
A headquarters building and a missile pad sit on a rocky slope.
Matt Trakker sits strapped into a purple seat, looking to the side.
Matt Trakker rubs his gloved hands together in his seat.
Matt Trakker stares ahead with a determined look.
Several M.A.S.K. agents sit around a circular conference table.
Two helmets hang on racks in a bright room.
Two helmets hang on racks in a bright room.
A spider-like device with many arms hangs overhead.
The spider-like device glows with a blue light.
A blue car sits in a garage bay between supply shelves.
Rhino, a red sports car and a white truck line up on the desert floor.
A white jet airliner sits on top of a rocky cliff.
Matt Trakker looks ahead in his seat, gripping a handle.
Rhino stands on the desert with its chrome grille and stack.
Rows of glowing pink buttons light a control panel.
A scrambled television picture shows a figure in a cap.
A scrambled television picture shows a figure in a cap.
Alex Sector, Bruce Sato, Gloria Baker and another agent look ahead together.
Gloria Baker and Matt Trakker look ahead with concern.
Miles Mayhem works a small control in his gloved hand against the sky.
Miles Mayhem clenches a gloved fist in front of his chest.
A monitor shows Rhino, a red car and a pickup driving through a canyon.
A submarine rests on dark water with a crane arm raised above it.
Matt Trakker drives with Gloria Baker seated behind him.
A truck throws up a wave of purple spray as it crosses a flooded section.
A helmet comes down over Matt Trakker's head.
Rhino drives toward the camera between canyon walls in the distance.
Rhino drives toward the camera between canyon walls in the distance.
Rhino speeds toward the camera with a robotic arm raised above its cab.
A black tank fires guns as shots strike the ground beside it in a canyon.
A masked agent in teal works on a metal plate hung from a rope.
A metal block marked with an X sits on a glowing lab table.
Miles Mayhem appears on a monitor as a helmeted V.E.N.O.M. agent watches from the foreground.
Gloria Baker, masked in gold, rides beside a helmeted Matt Trakker in a vehicle.
A black armoured vehicle with twin cannons races along a cliff road.
A white truck drives along a cliff road as rocks fall from above.
A driver in a red and blue cap with a visor slumps at the wheel.
An agent in an orange helmet and blue vest runs beside a case of equipment on a cliff.
An agent in an orange helmet and blue vest runs beside a case of equipment on a cliff.
An agent in an orange helmet with glowing eyes presses a button at his belt.
A rocky green headland juts out over the sea.
A submarine moves through the waves under a clear sky.
Alex Sector, masked in a blue hood, clenches his fist inside a vehicle.
Gloria Baker, masked in gold, sits belted in her seat.
A hand reaches toward the grille of Rhino as a helmeted agent sits in the cab.
A faint jetliner overlays the front of Rhino in a fading transition.
Matt Trakker, helmeted, drives with a small golden helmet beside him.
A wall of pale ice crystals fills the frame.
Faded images of several masked agents overlap in a transition.
Faded images of several masked agents overlap in a transition.
Matt Trakker looks to the side with a calm expression.
Alex Sector, Matt Trakker, Gloria Baker and two other agents stand at a console in the base.
Orbit lines circle a sun in a diagram showing a comet's path.
Matt Trakker sits in his seat looking down in concentration.
Rhino, a red sports car and a white truck sit side by side on the desert track.
Scott Trakker and T-Bob sit among a tangle of toy tracks.
T-Bob peers out with triple yellow eyes in a double exposure.
Scott Trakker watches Matt Trakker on a monitor with T-Bob beside him.
Scott Trakker sits at a console with T-Bob at his side.
Scott Trakker sits at a console with T-Bob at his side.
A control wall glows with a grid of lit panels.
Scott Trakker sits at the control desk looking ahead.
Matt Trakker smiles with his eyes closed, belted into his seat.
A long grey arm tilts upward against a mountain backdrop.
A large tilting cannon on a pad stands near a hut as V.E.N.O.M. agents walk away.
Miles Mayhem sits behind a console in a control room.
Rhino tilts as it climbs a steep grassy slope.
A wheel and side of Rhino race across the grass.
Matt Trakker, helmeted, grips the wheel as a small golden helmet sits near his shoulder.
Miles Mayhem peers into a large viewer with a joystick in hand.
Miles Mayhem peers into a large viewer with a joystick in hand.
A long metal arm with a claw tilts toward the sky.
Gloved hands hold a round targeting screen with crosshairs.
A driver in a red and blue cap steers a vehicle in the sunshine.
A hulking figure crushes a block of ice in his hands.
A red and orange truck tumbles sideways onto a rocky ledge.
The red truck lies on its side as stones crumble around it.
Miles Mayhem sits in his cockpit with red laser lines crossing in front of him.
A red truck lies on a rock outcrop below a hill where V.E.N.O.M. agents stand watching.
A targeting screen shows the cannon on its pad inside crosshairs.
A round machine part crackles with thin lines of energy.
A round machine part crackles with thin lines of energy.
Gloved hands hold two control sticks around a targeting screen.
A huge yellow and red explosion bursts across the frame.
Miles Mayhem grips the controls with both fists, staring ahead.
A man in a white jacket stands behind the cab of Rhino against a canyon wall.
Scott Trakker smiles on a monitor screen.
Alex Sector stands at the side of Rhino next to a large cannon and a ramp.
Alex Sector rubs his head beside the cannon on Rhino.
A mechanic crouches by an orange truck outside a gas station with pumps at Boulder Hill.
Buddie Hawks smiles and raises a hand in front of the cliff.

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