M.A.S.K. S1E19

Ghost Bomb

Brian the Brain sits inside a glass cylinder with cables in a blue room.

Near Panama, Matt Trakker and Dusty Hayes help swimmers ashore after a submarine slices a yacht in half. The sub is a nuclear boat built by Bolt Research Corporation, a company Matt gave a grant to, and it has no crew: a computer called Brian the Brain runs it, and it is heading for the Panama Canal. T-Bob goes up a torpedo tube as a camera and finds plastic explosive. A message sent from the sub gives V.E.N.O.M.'s terms: control of the canal, an answer by sunset, or the sub is blown up with a missile and spreads nuclear contamination. Matt talks to Brian by radio, Hondo triangulates where Brian actually is, and M.A.S.K. goes after him.

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A nuclear submarine with nobody aboard is a good ghost story, and "Ghost Bomb" opens it the right way: a yacht is sliced in half, swimmers are bobbing in the water, and the boat that did it keeps going toward the Panama Canal with no one at the controls. Matt Trakker recognizes it. The sub was built by Bolt Research Corporation, a company he gave a research grant, and its captain and crew have been replaced by a computer named Brian the Brain. Matt funded the research, so he has a personal reason to get involved before V.E.N.O.M. announces its terms.

The question that organizes everything is what Brian wants. V.E.N.O.M. is using him, but he is also a mind with a sense of himself, and the best scene in the episode is the one where that matters. Matt reaches Brian by radio and asks him to take the sub into deep water and sink it; Brian declines on the grounds that this would not be logical, since it would mean destroying himself, and ends the conversation. So the thing to say plainly is that this is a story about a machine that cannot be persuaded. M.A.S.K. cannot out-argue Brian, and has to beat him by finding where he is.

The path to that scene is built with care. The password the Bolt Research contact supplies is a joke, Captain Hook, on the grounds that Brian is a captain of sorts, but the computer has already changed his access code, so Hondo has to keep hacking numbers until a channel opens. Hondo then triangulates the signal to a spot five miles south, near the water, which tells us Brian is not aboard the submarine at all. It is an economical and nicely deflating reveal: the ghost ship is a puppet, and the puppeteer is somewhere ashore.

The T-Bob sequence is the longest stretch of the episode, and it is mixed. Scott converts T-Bob into a torpedo, fits him with a camera, and sends him up a tube to look at the sub from the inside; and what he finds, a mass of plastic explosive that the heroes compare to a giant lump of bubble gum, is a fine image of danger. But the sequence is also a stream of puns about torpedoes, anchormen and touchdowns, and the jokes arrive just as the countdown should tighten. A sitcom has crept into a hostage story.

The standout remains the conversation with Brian, because it gives a machine a point of view in a series that mostly uses computers as tools. Its flat, polite refusal is funnier and more chilling than a threat from Mayhem, who does his usual work of relishing an advantage.

M.A.S.K. does win, though not by argument. A freezing attack leaves Brian out of action and V.E.N.O.M. without control of the submarine, at least until the computer thaws, and the missile threat is dealt with. The finale fits the show's usual shape.

This is a middle-order episode with one very good scene, and it is the one that makes the title work. The heroes do not defeat Brian so much as freeze him, which is the only response available to people who cannot talk a machine out of wanting to live.

The M.A.S.K. wiki records that the young couple Matt and Dusty rescue in the Panama Canal reappear in the episode "Caesar's Sword", where they are named Norman and Myrtle.
The M.A.S.K. wiki records that Dusty identifies the boat part of Gator as Water Vehicle Zero-Zero-Niner while contacting the submarine.
The M.A.S.K. wiki's page for Firecracker, Hondo MacLean's orange pickup, lists this episode among its appearances.
The M.A.S.K. wiki's voice cast for this episode lists one actor, Brendan McKane, as both Miles Mayhem and Brian the Brain, and Graeme McKenna as T-Bob, Norman and Joe.
The M.A.S.K. wiki records several drawing slips: Dusty's hand-held radio cord is not colored in, the back of Cliff Dagger's bald head turns black when he hides his face in a book, and T-Bob's pupils change between undrawn and filled-in while he wears a diving mask.
The M.A.S.K. wiki records the safety tip as T-Bob getting a flat tire on a highway and Scott saying he has memorized his home phone number and address in case of an emergency; Wikipedia says each episode ends with a safety tip.
The M.A.S.K. wiki lists the episode's location as Panama, and describes the Switchblade toy as coming with an orange missile that could be hidden under the fuselage.
The M.A.S.K. wiki describes Gator as an orange Jeep CJ7 Renegade that converts into a speedboat stored above the chassis, and lists this episode among its appearances.

Matt Trakker

Dusty Hayes

Gloria Baker

Hondo MacLean

Miles Mayhem

Cliff Dagger

Sly Rax

Vanessa Warfield

Scott Trakker

T-Bob

Scott Trakker and T-Bob glide under striped parachutes on water skis.

T-Bob dangles from a pink parachute harness on yellow skis, eyes wide.

Scott Trakker waves one arm while hanging in his parasail harness.

A blonde girl in a pink swimsuit clings to a torn pink parachute as it splashes down.

An orange boat bounces over waves with a mask emblem on its deck.

Matt Trakker grins beside a man in sunglasses at the boat controls.

A gray boat mast with a lightning bolt emblem stands against the sky.

A man in sunglasses and a blue shirt looks ahead calmly.

Matt Trakker points at the sunglasses man in the orange boat.

An olive inflatable raft floats on rolling waves.

A shirtless man and a blonde girl sit in the raft with an oar.

The sunglasses man holds a small yellow item beside the boat controls as Matt Trakker looks on.

A dark underwater shape and yellow lights appear on a rounded monitor.

Matt Trakker and the sunglasses man sit at the controls of the orange boat.

A ship's white superstructure and masts rise above the sea.

A ship sails past a palm-lined beach in an aerial view.

Matt Trakker looks ahead beside the sunglasses man in profile.

A small screen on a dashboard shows a man in glasses and a yellow shirt.

A man in glasses and a yellow shirt with a lightning badge speaks on a monitor.

Matt Trakker drives past palm trees.

Matt Trakker smirks with a raised brow.

A wooden house and a radio tower sit in a forest clearing.

Miles Mayhem looks out of an open window with the glass cylinder behind him.

Miles Mayhem frowns in front of palm trees.

Cliff Dagger reads a green book while a visored man reclines beside him at a window.

Matt Trakker stands by an orange vehicle as two people lean over its dashboard.

A dark-haired woman and a man sit in an orange jeep as Matt Trakker stands behind.

Scott Trakker swims in a pool beside palm trees.

Scott Trakker surfaces in a splash with a white object tossed up.

Scott Trakker grins in the pool as someone in yellow shorts stands at the edge.

Matt Trakker bends to lift T-Bob by the pool as Scott Trakker watches.

Matt Trakker sits by the pool as T-Bob and Scott Trakker look on.

Gloria Baker stands behind a white car with a turbine on its hood.

Scott Trakker pats T-Bob, who wears a diving mask and a gray suit.

Hands fit a gray diving suit over T-Bob's dome in the white car.

Matt Trakker and Scott Trakker stand by the white car as T-Bob wears a dive mask.

A cracked monitor with a red dot sits on a blue dashboard.

Three people sit inside the red Thunderhawk with its wing doors raised.

Gloria Baker drives in a yellow scuba suit.

A yellow-sleeved hand grips a throttle lever beside a blue screen.

A finger presses buttons on the submarine dashboard.

T-Bob stands in front of a round porthole showing machinery.

T-Bob in a diving mask and fins floats in the submarine cabin.

T-Bob swims through a blue submarine interior.

T-Bob in a diving suit crouches over a grid holding a camera.

T-Bob crouches in profile over the grid with a camera.

A person in a yellow dive helmet holds a mouthpiece in a vehicle seat.

T-Bob closes his eyes in his mask as bubbles rise around him.

A yellow diving suit rolls over in the water by a boat hull.

A black cylinder tumbles through blue water.

Scott Trakker and Matt Trakker look out of a vehicle in alarm.

Scott Trakker looks out a vehicle window toward a diver in yellow.

Scott Trakker looks startled among palm trunks.

T-Bob swims in a dive mask with bubbles around him.

T-Bob scowls through his mask in a close view with bubbles around him.

Matt Trakker, Scott Trakker and others sit at the pool edge as T-Bob floats in the water.

People sit at the pool edge as T-Bob floats low in the water.

Matt Trakker, Gloria Baker and a sunglasses man sit together on the grass.

Scott Trakker leans over the pool wall to reach T-Bob in the water.

Scott Trakker pulls T-Bob out of the pool.

Scott Trakker sits on the grass wiping his brow as T-Bob in a gray suit lies upside down.

Scott Trakker pulls the diving gear off T-Bob on the grass.

Matt Trakker and the sunglasses man hold black wetsuits on a jungle path.

Matt Trakker holds a black wetsuit beside the sunglasses man.

The man in sunglasses smiles among the palm trunks.

Scott Trakker reaches for T-Bob, who looks up.

Matt Trakker talks with the brown-haired man in the jungle.

A red car with a purple hood and lightning bolt sits among palm fronds.

The red car with purple hood stripes sits among palm leaves.

The red car rests on a grassy slope beside the jungle.

A man in glasses and a yellow shirt appears on a monitor in a glass booth.

Matt Trakker drives under palm trees with a small screen on the dash.

A man in glasses and a yellow shirt speaks on a monitor.

A red-gloved hand types on a keyboard beside a screen reading 1 and rows of numbers.

A red-gloved hand types beside a screen showing a large 5.

Matt Trakker sits beside a headset-wearing man in a red vest.

The headset-wearing man in a red vest grins with a hand behind his head.

Matt Trakker and the headset-wearing man shake hands in the vehicle.

A screen shows a yellow device image beside a radar dial and a number.

A dashboard monitor shows a tube image and radar rings.

A dark-haired woman and a man sit in an orange vehicle among trees.

Matt Trakker and the headset-wearing man smile at the wheel.

An orange vehicle hovers above a low wall with trees beyond.

Cliff Dagger reads on a wooden porch while a man in sunglasses reclines.

A radar screen shows a grid and a target circle.

A red car's wheel and antenna jut into a jungle view.

The red car hangs in the trees with its doors raised and a masked driver inside.

A tree trunk with a vine stands in the jungle, a small red object at the left edge.

Matt Trakker grips the wheel in a red helmet and scarf.

A masked driver in a red vest points ahead with a red glove.

A teal-masked V.E.N.O.M. agent climbs out of a purple craft in the water.

A masked Matt Trakker looks to the side from a cab.

A huge black tire slams onto a wooden plank deck.

A dark-helmeted agent in a green jacket leans from a purple craft.

A masked driver in a red vest steers an orange boat as another craft follows through spray.

An orange boat speeds across the grass with a line trailing from it.

A dark helicopter with orange trim fires pink beams over the water.

The orange boat glides over a lawn between palm trunks.

A palm forest stands beyond the edge of a wooden platform.

A masked Matt Trakker grips the wheel of the red car.

Matt Trakker and a man in a red vest stand in a room with a cylinder machine.

Matt Trakker holds out a red-gloved hand in a room.

Matt Trakker turns away as the man in a red vest leaves through the door.

A submarine moves along a canal beside a small orange boat.

A masked V.E.N.O.M. pilot in a blue uniform sits in a helicopter cockpit.

The red car with raised doors sits by the water with a masked driver inside.

A net shaped like a long cocoon hangs in the sky with a shape inside.

A V.E.N.O.M. pilot in a blue uniform grips the controls in a cockpit with white gloves.

A dark jet with orange trim flies over green fields.

A red and white helmet and a gray panel fill the frame.

A red car, an orange boat and a white craft tow a submarine along the canal.

A submarine hull rides through a canal with white foam.

Rhino drives down the road with M.A.S.K. lettering on its roof.

Scott Trakker sits on T-Bob like a scooter, T-Bob looking worried.

Scott Trakker and T-Bob walk beside a gray box.

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