M.A.S.K. S1E05

Video VENOM

Synopsis

A line of townspeople walk down a street in a trance.

A man who escapes the Colorado town of Cliffwood warns M.A.S.K. that masked strangers have taken it over. V.E.N.O.M. is hypnotizing the townspeople through television sets so that they will take apart a top secret laser cannon from a military train and rebuild it in an old lumber mill, with Texas oil fields as the target of a ransom demand. The agents' masks protect them from the signal, but they cannot fight the crowd. After finding the sunken train, M.A.S.K. tracks the broadcast to its source and moves to stop the cannon.

Memorable Quotes

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mask.toys Episode Review

A television cartoon that makes television its villain has a peculiar kind of nerve, and Video VENOM, credited to Jeffrey Scott, has plenty of it. A man who has escaped from the town of Cliffwood, Colorado tells Matt that masked strangers tied him up and took the place over; the computer runs a stress analysis, pronounces him truthful, and then recites the town's population, its elevation, its one road and its one railway line as if reading from a travel guide. The mystery is small and well chosen. Nobody can say what V.E.N.O.M. wants with a quiet lumber town until the computer recalls that a top secret laser cannon is due to pass through on a military train at nine in the morning.

The idea the episode is really about is that the medium has become the monster. V.E.N.O.M. turns ordinary television sets into hypnosis machines, and the agents' masks protect them from the effect, which the team works out when it sees a man heading for a television and decides its masks must be protecting it. M.A.S.K. then spends the middle of the episode unable to fight the very people it has come to rescue. The idea is more interesting than the plot built on it, and it gives the episode a villain that is also a piece of furniture in every viewer's living room.

Beyond that the writing keeps its engine simple. A train has vanished, and a maxim about a magician making something vanish only to the eyes leads the team to a lake and a metal detector; the cannon is being reassembled in an old lumber mill; the ransom is that Texas oil companies will pay billions to save their oil fields from being incinerated. A request to borrow Gator and its co-pilot, so that they can go swimming for a train, is a nicely dry bit of banter, and the sunken train is a satisfying thing to find.

The voices lean on the western-flavoured exclamations that run through the dialogue, what in the Sam Hill and why in tarnation, which give the rescue a homely sound against the cold hum of the screens.

The standout is the discovery of the train. Nobody at the next station has seen it, and the team decides it must still be there, only unseen. It is a small piece of deduction, and it gives the middle of the episode a clean shape.

The weak spot is the stakes. The oil-field threat arrives late, in a single line, and the fields remain a sentence in a villain's mouth. When someone asks why V.E.N.O.M. would rebuild a laser cannon in an old lumber mill, the answer is a promise to find out once the villains have been stopped, and the mill never quite justifies the trouble. The hypnotized townspeople, who might have been the episode's most frightening element, mostly serve as an obstacle the team cannot get past without hurting them.

Even so, it holds together better than much of the run. It has a threat with a face, clues that unspool in order, and a villain whose weapon is a screen, which is a decent thing to put in front of an audience that was already watching one!

Notes of Interest

  1. The M.A.S.K. wiki records that Vanessa Warfield pilots Switchblade in this episode, and that Gloria Baker is Gator's co-pilot.
  2. The M.A.S.K. wiki lists the line that a magician makes the rabbit vanish only for the eyes among Bruce Sato's maxims, an echo of the illusion line in the previous episode.
  3. The M.A.S.K. wiki lists a continuity slip in the agent call-up: Brad Turner has blond hair and a blue shirt in one shot and his usual brown hair and a red shirt in the next, and the drummer's colours change with him.
  4. The M.A.S.K. wiki says that Matt takes the underground monorail from his mansion to Boulder Hill on his own, although Gloria Baker was at the mansion too.
  5. The M.A.S.K. wiki lists a recurring colouring error in which Sly Rax's trousers are the olive green of his jacket instead of blue in several shots.
  6. The M.A.S.K. wiki lists a Golden Books coloring book called Video VENOM, and gives the recording date of the episode as September 20, 1985.

Characters in this episode

Full roster →

Matt Trakker

Brad Turner

Bruce Sato

Alex Sector

Dusty Hayes

Buddie Hawks

Hondo MacLean

Gloria Baker

Miles Mayhem

Cliff Dagger

Sly Rax

Vanessa Warfield

Scott Trakker

T-Bob

Episode screenshots

A red-haired man with a mustache grimaces as lightning crackles around him.
A red-haired man with a mustache grimaces as lightning crackles around him.
A man in a torn white coat lies on the control room floor.
Two technicians in white shirts talk in a control room.
Red and white concentric circles spiral across a screen.
A man in a white shirt walks across a wall of television screens showing spirals.
A television in a corner shows a swirl of red and white rings.
Three people in a diner walk in a daze beside a waitress.
Shoppers walk past a store window full of televisions showing spirals.
Townspeople in suits and a woman with a perm lean in with blank faces.
A column of people marches on a road below rooftops.
A column of people marches on a road below rooftops.
A radio tower is swallowed by black swirling shockwaves.
A radio tower explodes in smoke and fire next to a dome building.
A man in a torn white coat sits up at the control console with a headset.
A man in a torn lab coat runs through the control room with a fist raised.
A man in a torn lab coat runs through a wooded area looking scared.
T-Bob stands in a clearing with a red cap, a bite taken from his chest panel.
A man and a small figure stand on a large lawn marked with dots.
Matt Trakker stands before a bay window in a blue suit.
Matt Trakker crouches on the floor of a living room near a black sofa.
Matt Trakker crouches on the floor of a living room near a black sofa.
A brown-haired woman in a green vest smiles slightly.
Matt Trakker sits at a computer console in a blue suit.
Matt Trakker watches a screen showing a distant town.
A wrecked town of tilted wooden buildings sits in a dusty yard.
Matt Trakker studies a monitor that shows a dark machine and a white starburst.
Matt Trakker watches a monitor displaying yellow zigzag waves.
Matt Trakker smiles and folds his arms.
A computer display shows a pink motorcycle, a pink helicopter and a face crossed by white bars.
A computer display shows a man and a masked helmet with a pink vehicle crossed out.
A computer display shows a man and a masked helmet with a pink vehicle crossed out.
A computer display shows a man in a jacket and a pink helmet, crossed by white bars.
A computer display shows a man, two faces and a pink helmet.
A computer display shows a man in a cap, two faces and a pink helmet.
A computer display shows a man in a jumpsuit, two faces and a pink visor mask.
A computer display shows pink outlines of two pickup trucks crossed by white bars.
The rear of a teal car sits inside a white garage.
A group of people stand on a railway track facing a distant station.
A crowd stands before an orange vehicle with a window on a rail line.
A soldier in a green beret shouts with arms spread as if blown back.
A soldier in a green beret shouts with arms spread as if blown back.
A soldier falls over while townspeople walk past.
Townspeople in a daze walk past a fallen soldier.
Two hands grip a wooden handle.
A crowd stands before a huge dark cannon in the desert.
A roadside station sits at the foot of a rocky cliff.
Matt Trakker and Alex Sector talk with a dark-haired man in the command room.
Several people sit at a round table in a circular control room.
Helmets hang from the arms of a golden mechanical rack.
A glass cylinder glows beneath the helmet rack.
A glass cylinder glows beneath the helmet rack.
Matt Trakker lowers a helmet onto his head.
Rhino rolls out of its garage past a red car.
A yellow-masked agent and a masked agent in a gray helmet sit in a cab.
A red-haired woman and a man in purple talk on a gray floor.
A dark helicopter hangs over a pine forest while a black SUV drives below.
A masked pilot with dark goggles and a beard sits at a dashboard.
A dark jet tilts in the sky next to a cliff.
A white concrete viaduct runs along the rock wall of a canyon.
Rhino races along a canyon road in a cloud of dust.
Rocks and smoke burst from a canyon wall.
Rocks and smoke burst from a canyon wall.
Rhino and a red and white pickup stop at the edge of a white ledge above a ravine.
Rhino and a pickup sit on the ledge, Rhino's gun barrel pointing up.
A cone of white sound waves blasts boulders from a cliff.
Rhino and a pickup stand in the canyon as rocks shatter above them.
A small red vehicle flies over green valley and mountains.
A fold of tan cloth fills the frame next to a dark metal edge.
A masked agent with red gloves pulls a lever on a dashboard.
Matt Trakker smiles with a helmet at his side among pine trees.
Rhino and a red pickup roll through the canyon as two agents ride in front.
Rhino and a red pickup roll through the canyon as two agents ride in front.
A long white ledge curves along a canyon wall.
Rhino's grille and headlights seen head-on.
Rhino's cab and stack roll past with its wheel throwing dust.
Matt Trakker pulls on his helmet beside a red car in a forest.
A railway platform runs alongside a white station building.
A masked group gathers at the side of a brick station building.
A hand opens palm up in front of a broad torso in a vest.
Matt Trakker holds both hands to his red and gray helmet.
A masked agent in a yellow helmet stands beside a masked agent in a gray helmet.
A masked agent in a yellow helmet stands beside a masked agent in a gray helmet.
A yellow-masked agent stands close to a gray-helmeted agent.
An orange vehicle skids across a lake as it throws up a ring of spray.
A red jeep drives down a rail track near a station platform as people walk about.
A red jeep and truck move along the rail line while several people sit on the track.
Agents in yellow and green run along a railway platform.
A group of masked agents stands with their backs to us looking out over the countryside.
A yellow-masked agent with a green vest stands beside a man in a blue cap.
Matt Trakker stands between a bearded agent in a visor and a man in a green sweater.
Matt Trakker stands in the middle of two masked agents in a hillside setting.
Matt Trakker stands in the middle of two masked agents in a hillside setting.
Miles Mayhem looks through binoculars next to a masked agent.
A dark rotor craft with a red body hovers above a log yard.
The dark rotor craft carries a passenger as it hovers by a wooden building.
The Thunderhawk with open doors and a yellow flying cycle fly over a forest.
The Thunderhawk and a yellow gyrocopter bike hover over the forest.
Rhino speeds down a road between trees, kicking up dust.
A yellow gyrocopter lands near a lumber yard as two red vehicles drive along the ground.
Townspeople stand in a group near a wooden building with a soldier at the right.
A line of townspeople and soldiers stands in front of a wooden building.
A line of townspeople and soldiers stands in front of a wooden building.
A red and white vehicle with a lightning bolt hovers above a crowd of tiny people.
A red car with wings and rotor blades flies against a gray sky.
A television screen shows streaks of red and white.
A crowd of townspeople watches from behind a red car with lightning bolts.
A black truck is parked in a lumber yard as people run past.
A yellow-masked agent in a seatbelt sits in a red open vehicle.
Wind-blown agents run from a dark vehicle as debris flies at them.
Agents scramble under a black machine with gold claws sweeping toward them.
Miles Mayhem clasps his hands in front of a display counting down at 45.
Miles Mayhem clasps his hands in front of a display counting down at 45.
A yellow-masked agent in a green vest looks to the side against the sky.
A yellow-masked agent stands beside a red vehicle as a purple-masked person sits inside.
Matt Trakker scrambles forward next to a red car.
Matt Trakker stands with a helmeted agent and a man in a green sweater.
Three masked agents stand together against the sky.
A dark blue helicopter tilts in the air.
A dark vehicle crashes through a rocky gorge in a spray.
Matt Trakker holds a clear panel as Scott Trakker and T-Bob stand beside a ladder.
Matt Trakker steps up the ladder carrying a clear panel.

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