M.A.S.K. S1E02

The Star Chariot

Synopsis

A glowing purple spacecraft sits in a huge domed chamber with painted murals.

V.E.N.O.M. threatens an old man for the half of an emerald arrowhead he has handed to his grandson Daniel, who is fishing with Scott Trakker. Daniel lends the arrowhead to Scott, which brings V.E.N.O.M. down on both boys, and M.A.S.K. helps get Daniel out of a fire. Joined to Mayhem's half, the arrowhead points to the Star Chariot, an alien spacecraft buried near Mesa Verde. Scott and T-Bob are hit by a huge rolling pin and feared lost, then turn up alive with a shared dream of an alien world. V.E.N.O.M. is beaten, and the chariot ends up in a safer home.

Memorable Quotes

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mask.toys Episode Review

A heist usually asks whether the thieves will get away with the prize; The Star Chariot asks the odder question of whether the prize wants to be stolen. The setup is old-fashioned and efficient. V.E.N.O.M. already holds one half of an emerald arrowhead, and joined to the other half it will point the way to an alien spacecraft buried in the desert a thousand years ago, so V.E.N.O.M. agents corner the old man who kept the missing piece and threaten him until he admits he has passed it to his grandson Daniel. Daniel and his mother are, at that moment, driving Scott Trakker to a creek for a day of fishing.

The script, credited to Jeffrey Scott, saves its best writing for that trip. T-Bob reels in tin cans, one of the boys jokes about coming from a long line of great chiefs and still not catching a fish, and the two swap gifts, with Daniel lending Scott the arrowhead to wear until the setting sun, a tradition between friends. The episode needs the arrowhead around Scott's neck, and it finds a reason that costs nothing and tells us something about both boys: the gesture that makes a friendship is the same one that puts a target on the borrower.

The idea that organises everything after it is that this is a heist in which the object being stolen declines to be stolen. Miles Mayhem wants the ship's propulsion for a new generation of V.E.N.O.M. vehicles, and the team races him toward Mesa Verde National Park. Then the ship takes over the plot. Scott and T-Bob turn up alive after a scare that looked fatal, and in the closing exchange the chariot is said to have found a safer home and may reveal its secrets when all the Miles Mayhems of the world are gone. The thieves never touch the prize; they only open the door for it to leave.

The voices lean on the show's established comedy: Bruce delivers one of his maxims, about a key mattering less than the lock it opens, and Matt turns it into a deduction that the arrowhead must open something far bigger; Dusty offers a canoe, and is told he has an empty teepee for his trouble. Later Bruce's talk of a bird making a new nest sends T-Bob looking for birds.

The standout is the awakening. After the team has sworn that V.E.N.O.M. will pay for what happened to Scott, he turns up alive, announcing that a huge rolling pin hit him and T-Bob and a UFO carried them to an alien planet where they were fixed up. T-Bob insists he had the same dream, and someone points out that robots do not dream. It is the one moment where the episode lets the strangeness of its own premise show, and it does so with a joke rather than an explanation.

The weak point is how cheaply that scare is undone. The episode asks the team to fear the worst and then walks it all back with a dream that two characters happen to share, so the best scene of the second half costs the first half its teeth. The ship's departure is dispatched in a line of dialogue too, which spares V.E.N.O.M. a defeat on screen and denies us a look at what the chariot was for.

Within the opening run it is the odd one out, an episode that spends its energy on mystery rather than on machinery. It is also the one that makes the arrowhead feel like a real object and the boy who wears it feel like a real friend.

Notes of Interest

  1. The M.A.S.K. wiki records The Star Chariot as the first appearance of Gloria Baker and Vanessa Warfield, and of their vehicles Shark and Manta.
  2. The M.A.S.K. wiki credits Sharon Noble with Gloria, Vanessa, the computer, Daniel and Daniel's mother in this episode.
  3. The M.A.S.K. wiki lists the recording date as September 17, 1985, the day after the date it gives for The Deathstone.
  4. The M.A.S.K. wiki suggests that the remote control Miles Mayhem uses to summon Switchblade may be the same device Cliff Dagger used to steer the fake UFO in The Deathstone.
  5. The M.A.S.K. wiki notes that Gloria is first shown at her day job as a driving instructor, and that the car she sits in changes colour between two shots.
  6. The M.A.S.K. wiki lists three of Bruce Sato's maxims in this episode, including the line that it matters not what a key is made of, so long as it opens the lock.
  7. The M.A.S.K. wiki lists Firecracker as absent from the mission briefing yet visible in scenes where Shark would be expected, and Buddie Hawks as visible in the final confrontation although he was not part of the mission.

Characters in this episode

Full roster →

Matt Trakker

Bruce Sato

Alex Sector

Dusty Hayes

Gloria Baker

Miles Mayhem

Cliff Dagger

Sly Rax

Vanessa Warfield

Scott Trakker

T-Bob

Episode screenshots

An older man in a feathered hat grips the steering wheel of his pickup.
An older man in a feathered hat grips the steering wheel of his pickup.
A pale blue pickup truck sits on the desert road.
The old man leaps out of his pickup truck beside a rock wall.
The old man looks up with a worried expression.
The old man crouches against a rocky slope as two giant boots step past.
The old man squeezes his eyes shut in front of a rock wall.
A masked V.E.N.O.M. agent in a gray helmet grips the old man by the chest.
The old man grimaces as the helmeted agent holds him.
The old man raises a hand toward the masked agent beside him.
The old man stares ahead with his mouth open against the rocks.
The old man stares ahead with his mouth open against the rocks.
The old man's hat tips back as a blue flash crosses the sky.
Matt Trakker reads a small blue book in a library.
The old man lies on a couch while Matt Trakker stands over him.
Matt Trakker speaks with one hand raised in front of bookshelves.
The old man talks from the couch with an uneasy look.
A computer display shows outlines of a man, his head and a red mask.
A computer display traces a man's stern face in cyan lines.
A computer display shows red outlines of a tractor truck and its unfolded form.
A computer display shows red outlines of an open jeep and a smaller vehicle.
A computer display shows red outlines of an open jeep and a smaller vehicle.
A computer display shows outlines of a woman, her head and a red mask.
Cars stop at a busy city intersection seen from above.
T-Bob stands on a rock at the water holding a fishing rod.
T-Bob wobbles on the rock at the water's edge.
Scott Trakker kisses a fish he has caught in a baseball glove.
Scott Trakker holds a fish in both hands beside T-Bob.
Scott Trakker shows his fish to T-Bob and a figure in a brown jacket.
Scott Trakker and T-Bob look up as a hand holds a crystal pendant.
Scott Trakker laughs and talks to a dark-haired kid in a headband.
A small gas station sits against a rocky hillside.
A small gas station sits against a rocky hillside.
Four M.A.S.K. members sit around a meeting table with a dark glass top.
A brown-haired woman in a green top talks beside a dark-haired man in an orange vest.
A man in a red jumpsuit rubs his forehead with a red glove.
The team at the meeting table listens as a man in a red suit holds his head.
Scott Trakker, in a headband, stops at a stream with T-Bob and a girl behind him.
A fish thrashes in a fishing net against the trees.
Scott Trakker and a girl run hand in hand with T-Bob.
A tree trunk splashes into the water beside a rocky shore.
Matt Trakker drives with his seat belt on and a calm smile.
Matt Trakker drives with his seat belt on and a calm smile.
Scott Trakker and a girl in a headband look up at something above.
Matt Trakker grips the wheel in his red and gray mask.
A masked driver in an orange helmet with goggles sits in a cab as yellow lines swirl above.
A red and orange explosion tears apart a purple aircraft.
A purple jet with twin engines hangs tilted among the tree trunks.
A masked agent in a gray helmet fires yellow energy from a mask beam.
A dark blue helicopter with spinning rotors flies over a forest clearing.
A masked driver in a yellow helmet sits behind the wheel.
Matt Trakker grips the wheel in his red and gray mask.
Matt Trakker grips the wheel in his red and gray mask.
An explosion blasts rocks apart on a hillside.
The Thunderhawk sits on a forest road with its gull-wing doors raised.
Matt Trakker in his mask leans out of the red car.
A masked driver appears on a dashboard monitor.
A girl in an orange headband runs down a grassy hill.
A girl on the shore points across the river as a woman kneels at the water.
A boy and a girl in headbands peer over a bush.
A boy and a girl in headbands watch anxiously from behind a bush.
A woman in a brown dress crouches on a rock ledge near tall grass.
A woman in a brown dress recoils as flames spread in the grass.
A woman in a brown dress recoils as flames spread in the grass.
A masked driver in a white and blue helmet grips the wheel.
Flames roar behind an orange jeep and a red car as masked agents stand by.
An orange hydroplane speeds across the river.
Alex Sector and a masked agent walk away from the flames.
An orange hydroplane fires a water cannon across the shore.
A woman hugs a small girl while masked agents stand to the left.
The girl in the orange headband looks up with her mouth open.
T-Bob rides a log in the river with a frog on top.
A man in a blue uniform lifts a crystal near Scott Trakker.
A man in a blue uniform lifts a crystal near Scott Trakker.
Miles Mayhem leans over a map on a log table beside an eyepatch man.
Miles Mayhem holds up a crystal as Cliff Dagger gestures at the map.
Miles Mayhem raises a finger and glances aside.
Miles Mayhem examines a crystal held in both gloved hands.
Miles Mayhem sets the crystal on the map as Cliff Dagger watches.
Matt Trakker scans the distance through binoculars.
Alex Sector rides in a vehicle cab beside a dark-haired man.
Rhino rumbles across the desert toward the camera.
Miles Mayhem sits in a cab with a blue helmet and gold bird emblem.
Miles Mayhem sits in a cab with a blue helmet and gold bird emblem.
Rhino, a black truck and a purple car stop on the road around a fallen man.
A masked agent lies on the ground as two others stand over him.
A white sports car with yellow trim speeds toward the camera.
A masked agent swings glowing yellow rings of energy by the red truck.
A masked driver in a white and blue helmet points a red-gloved finger.
A masked agent and Alex Sector stand beside the red truck.
Alex Sector holds a gray helmet beside a masked agent.
Hands hold a flat oval device with red jewels and a blue winged symbol.
Miles Mayhem stands in a rocky chamber in his blue helmet with a fist raised.
Masked figures walk into a stone passage behind a masked man in a red helmet.
Masked figures walk into a stone passage behind a masked man in a red helmet.
Scott Trakker shouts as Miles Mayhem and other masked figures crowd around him.
A masked man in a red helmet puts an arm around Scott Trakker as T-Bob watches.
Scott Trakker stumbles holding T-Bob in a stone corridor.
A giant white cylinder fills a pink metal hallway.
A giant white cylinder rests against a metal wall.
A round glowing window sits inside a dark control room.
Masked agents crouch and creep along a metal wall.
Rhino drives out of a stone tunnel with its headlights on.
A blue-tinted image shows several armored figures pulling ahead in a dark cabin.
A blue-tinted image shows several armored figures pulling ahead in a dark cabin.
A blinding beam of light blasts into a round opening.
Masked agents duck at a doorway as a yellow-masked one points ahead.
Matt Trakker stands with a fist ready in his red mask and white suit.
A red truck and several small figures stand in a huge hangar filled with aircraft.
Miles Mayhem looks to the side in his blue helmet and braided uniform.
A blue helicopter flies into a stone-walled cavern.
Scott Trakker and T-Bob stand in a lit doorway of the hangar.
A man in a white suit walks into a hall where Scott Trakker and T-Bob wait.
Matt Trakker holds Scott Trakker's shoulders beside T-Bob.
Matt Trakker holds Scott Trakker's shoulders beside T-Bob.
Alex Sector and two other men look on thoughtfully.
Scott Trakker, T-Bob and several adults stand together in a dark cavern.
T-Bob stands in the dark with his arms out.
Matt Trakker, Scott Trakker and T-Bob stand with two other men.
Matt Trakker looks upward with a quiet smile.
Stars glitter above a dark rocky canyon.
Miles Mayhem grips two flight controls in a cockpit.
Scott Trakker talks to a golden dog through a white iron fence.
A dog sits at the fence while Scott Trakker, a man and T-Bob stand beyond it.

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