Panda Power

"Panda Power"
M.A.S.K. episode
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 27
Production code 127
Original air date November 5, 1985

Panda Power is the 27th episode of the animated television series M.A.S.K. from the first series.

Synopsis

VENOM steals all the pandas in China, and transports them to Easter Island. MASK will not use lasers, for fear of hurting the Pandas, but instead lures the Pandas away with Panda Candy, then chases Venom away.

Plot

Matt Tracker, along with Scott and T-Bob, heads to China to visit a Panda reserve, partially funded by Matt. During the night, Scott and T-Bob are disturbed by odd goings-on outside. They head out to investigate, finding Matt and his friend Andre already there, and only a single panda cub outside. In the morning, Matt heads out in Thunderhawk to search, finding that all of the pandas are missing from the reserve. Matt's investigations reveal that it is not just this reserve that has been hit, but that almost all of the pandas in China are gone.

Meanwhile, on Easter Island, Miles Mayhem and Venom watch over their stolen pandas, plotting their final victory.

Back in China, Scott adds an incubator to T-Bob's body, allowing T-Bob to nurse the baby panda cub before heading out to the dedication of a new panda statue. At the dedication, the statue suddenly comes under attack from Vanessa Warfield in Manta. Matt realizes that it was VENOM who stole the bears and orders the MASK computer to select MASK personnel to assist. The Computer selects Alex Sector, Bruce Sato and Hondo MacLean, MASK further investigating the missing pandas. Alex explains that pandas have a limited food source, and the team deduces that Venom must have taken the pandas to Easter Island.

The MASK team flies out to Easter Island, but is unable to attack VENOM for fear of harming the pandas. Instead, Matt loads a huge crate onto Thunderhawk, and he and Bruce flying over Easter Island, while Alex and Hondo drive after them in Rhino and Firecracker.

Venom orders Matt's friend Andre to construct a statue of Miles Mayhem in the center of the island, and the others argue over whose statue will be next. Thunderhawk flies by, dropping the crate and releasing a large amount of Panda Candy, drawing the pandas away from VENOM. With the pandas out of harm's way, Rhino and Firecracker move in to help the battle against Venom. They are able to chase VENOM away, and Scott and T-Bob reunite the baby panda with his parents, who instantly latch on to T-Bob while MASK stand and laugh.

Moral

Scott and T-Bob build a treehouse, and Scott moans at T-Bob for running with sticks because it is dangerous. T-Bob does so anyway and winds up falling out of the treehouse, complaining and wishing he had done as Scott had said.

Characters

Vehicles

Novelisation

A novelisation of Panda Power was published in 1986 by Knight Books, an imprint of Hodder & Stoughton, as Book 5 in their series of MASK books. It was written by Kenneth Harper and illustrated by Bruce Hogarth. The novelisation contained a lot of extra dialogue, reassigned other lines, emphasised that the sculpture was the result of American-Chinese co-operation and added extra scenes of Andre meeting Mayhem and VENOM and being given his assignment, which occurs off screen in the episode. A few details were altered, such as Jackhammer crashing into the statue of Mayhem and destroying it (in the episode it is a different statue) and Rhino wrecking Manta by hitting the ground and causing shockwaves instead of ramming it directly. The "moral" tag scene was omitted, along with a few minor details, notably the physical comedy of Mayhem kicking Rax. The ISBN was 0-340-40327-6.

External links