M.A.S.K. S1E65

Raiders of the Orient Express

Scott rests his chin on his hands behind a model train, with Matt and others behind him.

Matt, Scott and T-Bob are guests on the Orient Express when it passes through a tunnel under strobe lights and the doors of three compartments disappear, along with a passenger calling herself Countess Forsythe. Her dropped passport photo shows she is V.E.N.O.M.'s Vanessa Warfield in disguise. The three compartments were once King Ludwig's private quarters, and Matt follows the clue to the king's clock-filled castle. V.E.N.O.M. gets there first, M.A.S.K. arrives to stop them, and the treasure in the secret chamber turns out to be a miniature of the Orient Express.

Dagger, you've got more holes in your head than two tons of Swiss cheese.

It ain't a fair fight.

Not many cartoons can claim a plot that starts with a theft of doors, but Raiders of the Orient Express does, and it commits to the bit with a straight face: the train enters a tunnel, strobe lights flash, and afterwards the compartment doors are gone, along with a passenger called the Countess Forsythe. The conductor, who has been entertaining Matt, Scott and T-Bob with stories of spies, kings and criminals, calls the doors irreplaceable, and the episode lets him be.

The thing the story keeps returning to is that every clue in it is a toy. The doors, once found, lead V.E.N.O.M. to a toy hammer; Matt reads the toy as a clue to Mad King Ludwig's treasure; in the castle a clock with two knights fighting, one of them without a weapon, points the way to a secret chamber; and the chamber holds a miniature of the very train the episode began on. V.E.N.O.M. spends its running time on a hunt for a treasure that only means something to the man who loved it, and the episode knows the joke is on them.

As writing, the first half is the stronger. The tunnel sequence is a good small mystery: the strobe lights are triggered by the train's entry, and T-Bob, who wants no part of tunnels and frets about an oncoming train, supplies the comedy in the dark. Matt's reading of the passport photograph on the computer is quick, though it settles the question of who the Countess is as fast as a machine can print it, so the vanished passenger is a puzzle for about as long as it takes to run the scan. Deduction that the audience could share is replaced with a scan.

The animation is at its best in the places where the production can use scale. The published frames show a boxcar breaking off a cliff edge in a burst of rock while vehicles hover above, a long shot of a walled white palace, and a huge clock tower built from dials and gears.

The standout is the castle itself. Miles and his crew work among antique clocks, a mallet in his hands and an orange cuckoo figure in his arms, while outside Vanessa lifts white sacks from a car and M.A.S.K. closes in. It is slow, fussy and a little ridiculous, and it works because the audience stays a step ahead of the villains throughout.

The weakness is the comic business on the train. T-Bob in a waiter's jacket pushing a drinks cart through the dining car, and the exchange with the automated refreshments seller, are padding in an episode that otherwise has a firm shape, and they arrive just as Matt has connected three compartments to a mad king. The boxcar that Scott and T-Bob end up in is a better use of the same pair.

This is also the last episode of the first season, and it ends where it started, on a train. As a finale it is a good one, light, inventive and happy to end on a model train.

The M.A.S.K. wiki's page for this episode opens with Zermatt, Switzerland, which matches the rendezvous the computer announces in the dialogue.
The M.A.S.K. wiki's continuity notes say Bruce Sato pilots Thunderhawk on this mission, with Matt in the passenger seat when he joins.
The M.A.S.K. wiki notes that Jackhammer is torn in half and the motorcycle from Piranha is smashed against a rock in the final battle, and that neither is seen again, so they may never have been recovered or repaired.
The M.A.S.K. wiki records an animation error in which T-Bob's arm moves oddly during the line about being Scott's first robot too.
The M.A.S.K. wiki records a second animation error in which Scott is drawn too small when he and T-Bob drive away from the Transport Jet.

Matt Trakker

Bruce Sato

Brad Turner

Ace Riker

Miles Mayhem

Cliff Dagger

Sly Rax

Vanessa Warfield

Scott Trakker

T-Bob

Scott gestures to a train conductor as Matt and T-Bob stand beside them.

Scott spreads his hands in a train compartment as T-Bob stands at left.

T-Bob looks out wide-eyed as Scott stands behind him in the train compartment.

Matt looks off to the side as the conductor stands at the right edge of the frame.

Matt smiles, his hand resting on Scott's shoulder in a red train compartment.

A blue passenger train runs along a forest and past snow-capped mountains.

A conductor stands in a dining car as Scott, T-Bob and Matt sit at a table.

Dining car passengers shield their eyes as a bright white flash fills the window.

The conductor shades his eyes and walks down the dining car aisle in a glare of white light.

A blue train passes a rail line crossing on a green hillside seen from above.

The conductor gestures with both hands over a dining table beside Matt.

Scott looks up in surprise beside T-Bob in a red train car.

Scott frowns uneasily beside T-Bob in the train car.

A blue and white train car stands on the tracks as a small figure waits.

Matt looks at a blue train car with a round window from behind.

Matt, Scott and T-Bob walk along the railway tracks with a flashlight beam.

T-Bob stands in a yellow glowing bubble beside a small white mouse on the ground.

Matt looks ahead beside Scott in a dim tunnel.

T-Bob lies tangled in white cords among red lamps on the tunnel floor.

Scott kneels to untie T-Bob from the wires on the tunnel floor.

Scott watches as T-Bob sits wrapped in wire with red lamps beside him.

Matt talks with the conductor in front of a snowy mountain.

Matt, Scott, T-Bob and the conductor stand on the railway gravel beside a train car.

Matt types on a briefcase computer as Scott and T-Bob sit on an orange bench.

A finger presses the keys of a briefcase computer showing two white arrows on its screen.

A briefcase computer shows a red-haired woman in a black hat on its small screen.

Matt watches the screen while Scott and T-Bob look on in the train compartment.

A monitor shows outlines of a standing man, two faces and a red helmet.

Brad in sunglasses signs a paper for a crowd of fans.

A woman in glasses and a man in a yellow apron stir a bucket at a long table.

The woman in glasses rests her chin on her hand beside a bucket of paste.

A monitor shows red outlines of two trucks, one unfolded with weapons.

Bruce feeds a white sheet into a machine on a pale blue table beside green pellets.

A green motorcycle rides down a ramp from a large blue aircraft in the desert.

A large blue transport aircraft with many small wheels sits in a desert.

Scott leans on T-Bob in a crowded dining car as diners eat behind them.

Passengers sit at a white-clothed table in a dining car, seen from above.

Scott points ahead as T-Bob stands next to him in the dining car.

Scott leans over T-Bob in the dining car as other passengers sit near the windows.

Scott points a finger at T-Bob beside a window with distant snowy mountains.

The conductor reads from a brown leather book in a train compartment.

Matt watches as the conductor reads a small book beside him.

Matt reads a slim book while the conductor stands in the compartment behind him.

Matt smiles and looks down at a small leather book.

Matt and the conductor stand inside the train compartment seen through a window.

A railway track runs through a meadow in front of snowy mountains.

T-Bob in a waiter's jacket pushes a drinks cart past dining car tables.

A gray-haired man hides his face behind a large open newspaper.

A bearded man wipes his face with a napkin beside T-Bob in a waiter's jacket.

T-Bob in a waiter's uniform and bow tie leans over a seated gray-haired man.

Scott looks at a drinks cart with bottles while a woman stands behind it in a train car.

T-Bob topples onto Scott, who is caught between T-Bob and a tablecloth as passengers look on.

A blue passenger car with people seated at windows travels along the track.

T-Bob stands with his back to us at a train window with snowy mountains outside.

Scott and T-Bob look at a chained door with a red cross sign.

T-Bob floats out of a car door into the mountain air above the tracks.

A dark red boxcar rolls down the track beside a blue passenger car, seen from above.

A man stands in the open doorway at the back of a blue train car near the tracks.

A lone boxcar rolls along a rail line past pine trees in a mountain valley.

The wheels of a train car turn on the rails in close view.

Scott and T-Bob stand at the open rear door of a boxcar rolling toward the viewer.

A boxcar with two figures inside races along the tracks in a cloud of dust.

A distant boxcar speeds along a rail line below the edge of a blue vehicle.

A curving railway runs through a green valley toward a distant cliff and mountains.

A curving track crosses a green meadow ending at a tall rocky ledge.

A boxcar breaks off a cliff edge in an explosion of rock as vehicles hover above.

Scott peers out of a dark boxcar doorway beside T-Bob.

A wooden mountain lodge with a brown roof sits in a green clearing.

Cliff, Sly and Vanessa carry a heavy wooden door across a plank floor beside a stack of logs.

Miles Mayhem looks to the side with a stern expression in front of a rock wall.

Miles Mayhem holds a wooden mallet in front of his chest.

Miles Mayhem stands in a log cabin doorway holding the door open.

A white church tower rises behind pine trees beside a wooden fence.

A blue helicopter sits in a clearing by a lake with a mountain range behind.

T-Bob's legs and a person's trouser legs frame a view of two cars parked beneath mountains.

A walled white palace with blue roofs surrounds a courtyard seen from above.

Sly and Vanessa stand beside antique wall clocks in a yellow room.

Miles Mayhem looks pleased as he stands in a golden room.

A figure in blue stands facing a huge ornate clock tower made of many dials and gears.

Miles, Cliff, Sly and Vanessa stand together in an ornate hall under a purple ceiling.

Vanessa and Sly look ahead side by side under a gilded purple ceiling.

Miles Mayhem faces the viewer with a firm scowl.

Miles holds a mallet with an orange cuckoo clock figure in his arms beside Vanessa, Cliff and Sly.

Miles reaches up to set a large wall clock as Cliff and Sly stand below.

Cliff, Vanessa and Sly stand in the golden hall by tall windows.

Miles and Sly stand beside a big clock in the ornate hall.

Scott kicks a stone as T-Bob rolls on a single wheel in a forest clearing.

Vanessa lifts a purple car hood and pulls out a white sack beside a castle wall.

Vanessa holds a white sack beside the open hood of a purple car.

Vanessa waits in a bright doorway as Miles and Sly stand in the shadows nearby.

A wooden plank sticks out from a brick castle wall beside a white tower.

A figure in an orange helmet and gas mask with chest straps sits in a car.

An orange-finned jet launches in a burst of smoke and flame above a car on a dirt road.

A rider on a dark motorcycle with a blue and orange sidecar speeds uphill on a dirt road.

Two masked figures ride in a purple car with a castle in the background.

A rider on a dark motorcycle with a sidecar rides beside a pine forest.

A motorcycle and sidecar speed down a road as a missile trailing white smoke approaches from behind.

A hovering red and black craft flies over a gap in a castle wall bridged by a plank.

Scott points at the sky, riding on T-Bob in front of mountains and pines.

A broken purple metal arm sticks out from smashed white stone.

A masked agent in an orange helmet rolls past a big green clock face.

A masked agent in an orange helmet leans on a purple clock base amid rubble.

The masked agent in an orange helmet turns toward the viewer in a golden hall.

A masked figure bends beneath a wrecked purple vehicle as sparks and smoke rise.

A masked agent in gray and orange crouches before the broken clock monument.

A masked agent lies slumped in front of a smashed window and balcony.

An agent in an orange helmet steps through shattered glass beside a figure in yellow.

Scott and T-Bob face M.A.S.K. agents in a golden hall.

T-Bob stands in a hall facing a group of M.A.S.K. agents.

A brown-jacketed man and Scott face Matt, whose back is toward us, in a golden hall.

Matt stands with a group of agents, Scott and T-Bob in a stone passage.

Scott and T-Bob walk on a miniature landscape table seen from above.

Matt walks along the center aisle of a model valley with T-Bob nearby.

Scott rides T-Bob toward a striped railway crossing gate on a desert road.

Scott smiles and reaches out to T-Bob in front of a cloudy sky.

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