M.A.S.K. S1E51

Dragonfire

Large monitor lizards stand in front of three pagodas as a white car arrives.

On a visit to Dr. Munda's plantation within sight of Mount Kinabalu in Borneo, Matt Trakker and Julio Lopez notice green lightning that local legend calls dragon fire. Scott and T-Bob stay behind, where an orangutan named Simbala mistakes T-Bob for her lost baby. Matt and Julio find a village shot to pieces by ball bearings from a V.E.N.O.M. mask and learn that the gang is hunting for the Temple of the Dragon, where the jade dragon head is kept. Poison flowers overcome the two men, T-Bob carries them clear, and M.A.S.K. reaches the temple just as V.E.N.O.M. stirs up its guardians, the monitor lizards.

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A mountain in Borneo flashes green, the villagers say the thunder is the roar of dragons, and the cartoon spends the rest of its running time declining to give them a dragon. Dragonfire borrows the shape of a ghost story and then explains its frights with things that can be examined: the green light is ordinary lightning bouncing off a jade temple, the guardians are monitor lizards, and the only real monsters in the picture are the men who drive up to the temple gate in armoured cars.

What the episode is really about is animals defending what belongs to them. Simbala, the orangutan at Dr. Munda's plantation, was hurt defending her baby from a tiger, which ran off in the attack, and takes T-Bob for the missing child, which is both the funniest idea in the script and the most affecting one. The temple is guarded by monitor lizards that spill out once V.E.N.O.M. gets in. Even the botanist's prize plant is shown to sense danger when we watch it. Every creature on the mountain is protecting something, and that makes V.E.N.O.M.'s motive plain without a word of commentary, since the gang wants the jade dragon head and has no interest in what it disturbs.

The writing is tidy in its first half. The visit to the plantation introduces the legend, the lightning, the cinchona bark used against malaria and the plant with the sense of danger, and the legend and the lightning both pay off later. The ruined village gives Matt and Julio their clue, and it is a good one: houses riddled with tiny holes, and ball bearings that Matt matches to the buckshot mask worn by Floyd Malloy. V.E.N.O.M. is caught by its own ammunition, which is better detective work than the series usually has time for.

The animation is at its strongest in the jungle. The misty trees, the white flowers along the path and the green-lit temple with its tiered roofs give the episode a look quite unlike the desert and city episodes around it, and the carved dragon head, with its glowing yellow eyes and bared fangs, is just the kind of prop a cartoon can build a climax around. The voices have fun too! Asked whether he would love to meet a fire-breathing dragon, T-Bob answers that with his luck he would end up Kentucky Fried T-Bob, and Floyd Malloy reports a dragon inside the temple, huge and even uglier than Bruno.

The standout is the field of flowers. Matt and Julio walk into a patch of white blossoms that smell lovely (the wiki notes that Matt calls them flowers although they are poisonous mushrooms), Matt calls out for Julio, and the next shot shows both men flat on the path. T-Bob, a robot who walks through the same flowers unharmed, hauls them clear with Scott beside him, and the line that follows has them crediting him with saving their lives. It makes use of the little robot's most obvious trait, which the series often forgets.

The weakness is how the villagers are written. Chief Wadula speaks in broken English, telling the heroes that bad men tried to make him reveal the way to the temple and then wrecked the meeting place with explosives, and the local lore arrives as exotic colour rather than as knowledge that anybody in the story respects. The dragon legend would have gone down better coming from a character allowed to explain it in full sentences. It sits uneasily beside a script that otherwise treats the mountain with care.

Among the globe-trotting episodes that fill this stretch of the first season, Dragonfire is a quiet winner, a story where the animals are given dignity and the threats are real, and a reminder that T-Bob can carry a plot when the writers let him.

The M.A.S.K. wiki lists the Knight Books paperback of Dragonfire as the eighth and last of the M.A.S.K. novelisations, adapted by Kenneth Harper and illustrated by Bruce Hogarth.
According to the M.A.S.K. wiki's page for that novelisation, the native tribe is identified as the Dyak and the elderly villager is named Chief Wadula.
The M.A.S.K. wiki describes Simbala as an orangutan who lived near Mount Kinabalu and was injured defending her child against a tiger.
The M.A.S.K. wiki records that Dr. Munda is a botanist who runs a plantation of cinchona trees harvested for their bark, which is used to make quinine.
The M.A.S.K. wiki notes that Miles Mayhem is Stinger's co-pilot in this story and that Brad Turner and Sly Rax are drawn without their sunglasses.
The M.A.S.K. wiki counts this as one of four first-season episodes in which Miles Mayhem's main vehicle, Switchblade, never goes into action; the others it names are Caesar's Sword, Stop Motion and Fog on Boulder Hill.
The M.A.S.K. wiki says the toyline's original colour guides named the Stinger Scorpion, and gives Stinger as a Pontiac GTO that becomes an armoured tank.
The M.A.S.K. wiki lists a continuity slip in the final battle, where Julio Lopez calls out the command for his mask Streamer but fires the cannon on Firefly instead.
The M.A.S.K. wiki gives the closing safety tip as Scott warning T-Bob not to shelter under a tree in a thunderstorm.

Matt Trakker

Brad Turner

Gloria Baker

Julio Lopez

Miles Mayhem

Sly Rax

Bruno Sheppard

Floyd Malloy

Scott Trakker

T-Bob

T-Bob's white head with yellow eyes fills the frame as his claw hand reaches up.

A mustached doctor in a white coat looks ahead beside a boy in white.

Matt Trakker holds a drink on a balcony with Scott Trakker, T-Bob and a mustached doctor.

Matt Trakker and a mustached man hold drinks as a hand points up at the left.

Matt Trakker and a mustached man stand with drinks in front of an arched window.

A doctor speaks to Matt Trakker's group on the balcony with Scott Trakker and T-Bob.

Seen from above, Matt Trakker, Scott Trakker, T-Bob and others talk with the doctor on the balcony stairs.

Scott Trakker leans on the railing beside T-Bob with a finger raised.

Matt Trakker holds a drink and a mustached man frowns beside him.

A house with lit windows and a glass greenhouse stand at night.

A table of potted plants and flasks sits in front of a pale wall.

Matt Trakker and a mustached man look at potted plants with the doctor.

The doctor holds up a potted plant with trailing tendrils toward a man in a teal jacket.

Scott Trakker reaches for a potted plant on a table beside T-Bob.

Scott Trakker peeks around a double door.

Scott Trakker stands in the open doorway with a curious look.

Scott Trakker and T-Bob approach a greenhouse as an ape sits behind bars.

Matt Trakker, Scott Trakker, T-Bob, a mustached man and the doctor stand near the ape's cage.

Matt Trakker gestures with an open hand while the doctor looks at him in front of the greenhouse.

T-Bob runs along with both arms stretched out in front of a lit window.

Matt Trakker stands with the doctor as Scott Trakker waves at the right under palm trees.

Matt Trakker speaks with an open hand toward the doctor at night.

An ape behind bars looks down at a banana as T-Bob rests a hand on its head.

The doctor spreads his arms while Matt Trakker faces him from behind.

Matt Trakker gestures with an open hand toward the doctor, who has his back turned.

An ape behind bars leans close as T-Bob's hand rests on top of his own head.

A red car sits on a dirt clearing in a sunlit palm forest.

Matt Trakker drives with a mustached man in the passenger seat.

A red car drives toward a ruined village of wooden houses where many people stand.

Two men in blue suits walk toward a wooden house as a shirtless villager looks on.

Matt Trakker and a mustached man speak with an elderly villager in a turban.

Matt Trakker and a mustached man look ahead with serious faces.

An elderly villager in a yellow turban covers his ears with both hands.

Matt Trakker and a mustached man walk among ruined wooden houses as a woman and child approach.

Matt Trakker and a mustached man look over splintered planks beside a damaged house.

Matt Trakker frowns with a hard stare.

A dark-clad leg rests beside a stereo with a cassette deck and tuner.

A record spins on a turntable beside a cassette deck and speakers.

A dark-haired man in a white robe makes a gesture with both hands.

A dark-haired man in a white robe punches toward the viewer in a burst of lines.

T-Bob's gloved hand holds a peeled banana.

T-Bob rolls beside a large haystack as an ape watches from its cage.

Scott Trakker sits in a porch chair holding a peeled banana.

T-Bob throws up his arms in alarm while an ape inside a cage holds him.

An ape cradles T-Bob in its lap inside a round cage.

Scott Trakker shouts with an alarmed face in front of a white building.

A large white house with a red tile roof stands beside a greenhouse.

Matt Trakker drives with a stern look, and a mustached man sits beside him.

Matt Trakker speaks while driving as a mustached man looks on.

A mustached man stands beside a red car with gull-wing doors while Matt Trakker sits inside.

Matt Trakker stands beside the red Thunderhawk with raised gull-wing doors in a field of white flowers.

Matt Trakker looks off to the side in his gray harness suit.

Matt Trakker stands with his back to the camera looking at distant mountains.

Matt Trakker holds a white mushroom-like ball in both hands and looks at it.

Matt Trakker leans over a log with pink spotted plants as insects fly around him.

Two figures lie motionless on a dirt path among flowering bushes.

A monkey swings from a tree branch in a misty jungle.

A monkey in a harness-like vest drops through the trees.

Scott Trakker stands on a tree branch with vines in a misty jungle.

An ape carries T-Bob under its arm through the jungle.

T-Bob dangles upside down in the jungle with his arms hanging.

T-Bob lies on his back on the ground with his feet in the air.

T-Bob wears a pair of aviator sunglasses over his eyes.

T-Bob's face with yellow eyes and a red mouth fills the frame with a hose-like arm at left.

A dirt trail runs through green trees and bushes under a blue sky.

T-Bob walks through a field of white flowers beside a figure on the ground.

Matt Trakker lies on his back with his hands behind his head on the dirt.

T-Bob carries two limp figures draped over his arms.

Scott Trakker leans over a fallen figure among white flowers beside T-Bob.

Scott Trakker looks up with a worried face beside T-Bob's arm.

Scott Trakker is draped over T-Bob who carries two limp figures.

A narrow rocky pass opens onto flat ground under a blue sky and distant mountains.

Large tan boulders crumble and fall in a cloud of dust.

A blond man in a red and black suit sits with hands on his knees with a grimace.

Scott Trakker's face with closed eyes and a pained frown.

Matt Trakker, a mustached man, T-Bob and Scott Trakker gather beside the red car, Scott seated.

Scott Trakker looks up toward T-Bob in the foreground.

Matt Trakker and a mustached man stand beside Scott Trakker and T-Bob next to the red car.

A blue aircraft opens its rear ramp as a white car and red vehicle emerge.

A driver in a yellow helmet with tubes grips the steering wheel.

Scott Trakker and T-Bob ride in a car driven by a masked agent in a red helmet.

A white car and red vehicles drive along a dirt road past a fallen log.

Miles Mayhem sits beside Bruno Sheppard in a vehicle, both looking forward.

A temple with tiered roofs stands beyond a driver in a green vehicle seat.

Miles Mayhem scowls beside Bruno Sheppard, who drives.

Miles Mayhem looks sideways at Bruno Sheppard.

A large teal dragon head with glowing yellow eyes bares its fangs.

A spiky blond man in a red and black suit scowls from a car beyond a seat.

The spiky blond man shouts angrily from the vehicle.

A carved teal dragon head stands before a pagoda on a stone courtyard.

Bruno Sheppard grins and points at the dashboard, a chain tattoo on his arm.

A teal dragon head bites down on an orange vehicle's edge.

An orange vehicle drives toward a teal dragon head on a stone courtyard.

A red car, a motorcycle and another bike drive across a desert road.

A driver in a red and blue helmet looks forward beside a seat belt.

A red open-wheel race car numbered 1 speeds along with a small driver inside.

A red car sits at the base of a temple gate and a pagoda.

An orange vehicle with side guns races toward the viewer.

A red car with raised doors flies as a helmeted driver sits inside.

Scott Trakker and T-Bob ride beside a masked driver in a red helmet.

An orange vehicle fires yellow beams while two motorcycles race across a stone wall.

A rider on a dark blue motorcycle ducks past an orange vehicle and yellow beams.

Two monitor lizards crawl in front of a stone temple.

A driver in a red and blue helmet looks sideways beside a seat belt.

A driver in a yellow helmet and green vest steers with both hands.

A teal dragon head and a small car sit on a stone temple platform seen from above.

Seen from above, a red truck, a white car and tiny figures sit on sandy ground.

Scott Trakker and T-Bob stand facing a huge teal dragon head with its mouth open.

A teal dragon head with yellow eyes glares from in front of a temple roof.

Matt Trakker and others stand on the courtyard near the Thunderhawk and other vehicles.

Scott Trakker looks back in alarm as T-Bob's dome sits beside him.

A small figure sits on temple steps before a pagoda beside a dragon head.

A line of agents stands against a stone wall with Scott Trakker and T-Bob at the left.

A driver in a blue and orange uniform grips two control sticks.

Scott Trakker and T-Bob stand in the rain looking ahead.

A lone tree is blasted and splintered in the rain, with smoke rising behind it.

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