M.A.S.K. S1E44

Riddle of the Raven Master

Scott hangs from T-Bob's grip at the face of the big clock beside the hands.

At a ceremony in London where Matt Trakker is honored, a flock of ravens attacks a Yeoman Warder. A feather picked up by Scott and a strand of red hair, run through the M.A.S.K. computer, point to Vanessa Warfield, who has trained the birds for V.E.N.O.M. as a rehearsal for stealing the crown jewels. Sly Rax plants a bomb in Big Ben to keep London busy while Miles Mayhem's ravens do the job. Scott and T-Bob overhear the plan, ignore Matt's order to go back to the hotel, and climb the clock tower to hold the minute hand back, while Matt and Alex Sector chase the thieves and recover the jewels.

A feather in the hand is worth two ravens on the fly.

The Tower of London clips its ravens' wings so the Empire stays safe, and Riddle of the Raven Master opens with a flock whose wings are very much unclipped swooping at a ceremonial guard in front of a palace, tearing his red coat. The guide at the Tower supplies the legend a few scenes later, and the contrast does the detective work for Bruce Sato: the Tower's birds cannot fly, so these ones belong to someone else, and someone has trained them. It is a tidy clue chain built out of objects. Scott picks up a feather after the attack, the computer finds a human hair stuck to it, the hair is red, and the name that comes back is Vanessa Warfield. The response to the feather, that a feather in the hand is worth two ravens on the fly, is the sort of pun the show cannot leave alone!

Under the plot, though, the episode is about a clock. Sly Rax plants a bomb in Big Ben as a diversion, tells Vanessa it will go off in under five minutes, and from that point the countdown hangs over the rest of the story. Scott and T-Bob overhear him, and the one thing they lack, as Scott says, is time. Someone remarks that it is a shame they cannot stop it, Scott takes the remark literally, and the two climb the tower to hold the hand back. The heist becomes the other half of the countdown, and the show keeps its London jokes ticking along with it: T-Bob's Gone with the Wind gag about a star he calls Cluck Gable, an Artful Dodger compliment for Alex, and Mayhem quoting Poe at his birds, according to the fan wiki.

The writing is at its best when it lets those two strands run in parallel without touching. The jewels are the main job and the bomb is the distraction, so Matt, Alex and Thunderhawk are busy with the thieves while the boy and the robot are left to deal with the bomb. Alex gets his turn as well, activating Jackrabbit in the middle of the chase to lift the stolen bag back, work Matt says the Artful Dodger could not have bettered.

The animation sells London with a handful of postcards, a red double-decker bus in front of a tall column, a horse-drawn carriage, a stone gatehouse and a courtyard from above. The ravens are given the most movement, fluttering in a blurred overlay around the guard's hat early on and wheeling over the street later, and Thunderhawk with its doors raised like wings is a fine shape to chase them with.

The standout scene is the clock face. T-Bob does not want to go out onto the ledge, says so, and goes anyway; Scott hangs from his grip beside the big hands as the minute hand creeps toward twelve, and the high-angle shot looking down at the square gives the climb some real vertigo. T-Bob's reluctance gets the laugh, and the drop below gets the nerves.

The weakness is the middle. Scott and T-Bob wander into the Tower's dungeons, pretend to be ghosts for a tour group, and T-Bob gets stuck in cobwebs, and all of it sits between the discovery of the red hair and the reveal of the bomb. The kids then overhear Rax and Vanessa talking through their entire plan in a passageway, and Matt tells them to go back to the hotel, only for them to disobey and save the day. Standing the kids in the right corridor is the series' usual way of involving them in a twenty-two minute story, and the show never pretends otherwise, but here the detour is so long that the ravens nearly drop out of the story.

Still, the closing scene, with the jewels back in the jewel house under improved security that Mayhem's birds will not get past, gives the episode an orderly finish. It is a London postcard of an episode with a clock at its center.

The M.A.S.K. wiki points out that there is no agent call-up for this mission because Bruce and Alex are already in London with Matt from the start of the episode.
According to the M.A.S.K. wiki, Alex Sector is Thunderhawk's co-pilot on this mission.
The M.A.S.K. wiki notes that Miles Mayhem quotes Edgar Allan Poe's poem The Raven, the source of the "nevermore" the ravens are teased with.
The wiki records that the tour guide mentions Sir Walter Raleigh being locked up in the Tower of London.
The wiki identifies two jokes borrowed from elsewhere: T-Bob's reference to Gone with the Wind and its star, whom he calls "Cluck Gable", and Matt's mention of the Artful Dodger from Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist.
The M.A.S.K. wiki lists Brendan McKane in three parts here, as Alex Sector, Miles Mayhem and the Raven Master, and Graeme McKenna as both T-Bob and Sir Chadwick.
The wiki credits the story to Jina Bacarr, who is also credited with The Lost Fleet, three episodes later.
According to the wiki, the Satoism for the episode is that a man's greatest honor comes not from what is written on paper but from his heart, which Bruce says during the ceremony.
The closing safety tip, according to the wiki, has T-Bob burn his hand grabbing a pan that is cooking on a stove.

Matt Trakker

Alex Sector

Bruce Sato

Miles Mayhem

Sly Rax

Vanessa Warfield

Scott Trakker

T-Bob

Matt in evening dress shakes hands with a tall mustached man in front of a stone palace.

Scott, T-Bob and a dark-haired man in a tuxedo stand before a palace.

Scott gasps in a tuxedo beside T-Bob, who fills the lower left.

A palace guard in a red uniform and tall black hat peers sideways, his coat torn.

A dark-haired man in a tuxedo looks at the guard's torn red coat.

The dark-haired man in a tuxedo and the guard stand side by side looking ahead.

A red double-decker bus parks in a square with a tall column behind it.

T-Bob raises one arm in front of a palace wall.

A red horse-drawn carriage and a green van pass in front of a tall stone building.

A stone gatehouse and wall stand beside a courtyard seen from above.

Three men and T-Bob stand at the arched door of a pale stone tower beside a guard.

A raven perches on the shoulder of a guard in a red coat and tall black hat.

Scott talks with a guard while a raven sits on a wooden rail beside them.

A dark-haired man in a tuxedo stands beside a bald man with a red beard.

Scott pulls back in alarm as a raven flies at him, T-Bob beside him.

Scott looks up and speaks with a smile in front of a white stone wall.

A pink shuttered shop and a gray building stand on a quiet street.

Vanessa stands with her arms crossed beside a boarded window.

Ravens flutter around a guard's black hat and red striped coat in a blurry overlay.

Vanessa raises one arm as a raven lands on it in front of a boarded window.

Vanessa stretches her arm out as ravens perch around her.

Vanessa stands with both arms stretched out beside the boarded window.

A raven pecks forward beside Sly in blue sunglasses and a green jacket.

Miles Mayhem points and glares in a room with a slanted ceiling.

A square stone fortress with round turrets stands in a courtyard seen from above.

A smaller fortress tower and a long moat wall sit beside a courtyard seen from above.

T-Bob's wide-eyed face fills the frame, his red lights glowing.

Scott in a green sweater stands behind T-Bob in front of bat symbols on a wall.

Matt stands with Scott, T-Bob and a group of tourists in a palace room.

Scott walks past a fireplace as T-Bob follows him in a stone hall.

T-Bob with red eyes stares ahead with his arms spread.

Scott and T-Bob stand at the foot of a cobwebbed stone arch in a dim dungeon.

A tall pink building with many arched windows stands under a blue sky.

A glowing yellow feather outline appears on a blue-green screen over a grid.

A bald man with a red beard and Matt look at something below the frame.

Bruce raises a hand while looking to the side.

Matt types on a laptop as a bearded man and Bruce watch at a round table.

T-Bob is tangled in spider webs against a stone dungeon wall as Scott leans on the wall.

T-Bob's face with orange eyes sits among strands of cobweb.

T-Bob breaks free of the webs while Scott leans against the dungeon wall.

T-Bob tumbles on the dungeon floor beside a chair as Scott leans on the wall.

Scott pats T-Bob's head as T-Bob stands beside him in the dungeon.

A woman with a hand at her chin and a gray-haired man look worried.

Scott rests a hand on T-Bob's head and looks up toward the left.

T-Bob stands aside as Scott holds a coil of chain in a dungeon.

T-Bob and Scott walk past a suit of armor and a helmet down a cobwebbed dungeon passage.

Scott holds a dark chain with both hands in front of a stone wall.

A golden armor figure's legs stand over a toppled wooden chair.

A figure in a blue helmet with an orange visor grips two levers.

T-Bob hides behind a round golden shield in the dungeon.

Scott kneels beside a fallen golden suit of armor as T-Bob stands in the dungeon.

T-Bob stands with his arms out in a cobwebbed corridor with a knight's armor.

A keypad and a speaker sit on the white top of T-Bob.

Scott touches his forehead while T-Bob stands beside him in the dungeon corridor.

Scott runs into a stone archway with T-Bob rolling beside him.

A large clock face shows the time near eleven with roman numerals.

Sly leans in with a smirk in his blue-tinted sunglasses.

Scott and T-Bob stand at the foot of a staircase inside a clock tower full of gears.

A long staircase rises toward a figure at the top.

T-Bob and Scott climb a staircase seen through a faded double exposure.

Scott looks aside worriedly as T-Bob stands next to him.

Sly stands in a clock tower in his green jacket, looking down.

A wooden staircase with a railing rises through a clock tower room with people descending at the top.

Sly and a red-suited figure come down the stairs as Scott kneels beside T-Bob underneath.

T-Bob's head and a seated Scott's knee fill the frame as T-Bob looks away.

Three men stand beside a parked red car on a stone paved square.

A bald man with a red beard raises a hand beside a tower with battlements.

Matt leans on a window ledge with a worried look.

A clock tower face shows two dials near twelve.

Matt rests his chin on his hand while leaning on a window ledge.

Scott pats T-Bob's head in a clock tower room with orange walls.

A small keypad and a red display sit on T-Bob's white head.

T-Bob stands with an arm out in front of a tower wall.

The back of a lilac car stands in front of a stone doorway.

A figure in a teal suit and red helmet reaches into the open hatch of a lilac car.

A rider on a dark blue motorcycle with a sidecar sits in a white hall.

A broken arched opening in a wall shows black ravens flying through it.

A big clock face shows the hands nearly at twelve.

A masked agent in an orange helmet and gas mask stands beside a red truck.

A masked agent in orange gear walks away from a red truck beside a tall brick building.

Scott squeezes his eyes shut and taps his lip, wearing a green sweater.

Scott leans out of a window with T-Bob above a view of the city.

A square beside a building roof is seen from high above with a clock face below.

The clock's tall minute hand moves toward twelve as T-Bob's metal clamps reach from above.

T-Bob's pincers reach down toward the clock hands near the twelve.

T-Bob floats in the air with long arms and claws stretched down along a tower wall.

Two guards in red coats and top hats stand in a stone chamber.

Sly in a gas mask and chest armor stands in a hall with a window behind him.

Sly in a gas mask holds a huge jeweled gold orb.

A blue and red aircraft hangs above cars and a motorcycle on a street seen from above.

Matt in a red helmet and gas mask drives a red car.

A motorcycle with a sidecar and a distant red car race down a street between brick walls.

A red car with both doors raised like wings flies low above a road.

Scott dangles from the clock hand as the big clock face shows near twelve.

Scott hangs in front of the clock face on the side of a tall tower.

Scott looks up in alarm with one arm stretched upward.

A motorcycle with a sidecar races ahead as a red car flies above and ravens circle.

A pink beam strikes a stone wall from a lilac vehicle's side exhausts.

A lilac car with its trunk lid open sits on a street as ravens perch on it.

Matt grips the steering wheel in his red helmet and gas mask.

Ravens swoop over the street in front of the motorcycle and a red flying car.

Matt in his red helmet drives while a bearded man in a blue helmet looks out beside him.

A pilot in a blue uniform and helmet grips two control sticks in a cockpit with pink supports.

Scott holds a hand to his cheek and calls out beside T-Bob.

Circuit boards and wires fill a view inside a machine.

A gray control box and wires fill a close view inside a machine.

Scott talks beside a fence as a faded image of T-Bob overlaps the right side.

Scott and T-Bob stand beside a red car with raised doors in front of a gothic building.

Matt in his red helmet and mask raises a hand to his chin outside a building.

Matt, Scott, T-Bob and others stand in a museum hall with armor and a cannon.

Scott stands among mounted deer heads beside a large metal object.

Matt smiles and raises a hand between two mounted deer heads.

Scott smiles while T-Bob leans forward with an arm in a flexible tube.

Matt watches Scott and T-Bob in a kitchen with pans hanging on the wall.

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