The Invisible Robeast
Haggar has summoned Zarkon and Lotor to look at a falcon. Zarkon loathes birds. But he gets all kinds interested when she makes the falcon invisible. Zarkon immediately wants to implant it in a robeast. Lotor suggests robeast number 50--he keeps in shape and never questions orders. Y'know, this is one of those times when the dialogue seems more like a parody of Voltron than an actual Voltron episode.
Ol' Number 50 lands on Arus in a space coffin. He had a good flight with no turbulence. Seriously. This is the dialogue. And I really like the image of the space coffin sitting on the beach with footsteps leading into the woods . . . It's sort of spooky, but hokey, too.
The princess, Pidge, Lance, and the royal arch bitch are riding back from collecting fruit in a carriage. Allura mentions mice "Pip" and "Squeak." But they've been followed . . . The sky gets dark, the horses freak out, and #50 flips the carriage over. Pidge managed to get a signal to castle control, but they lose the signal before he sends any messages.
Apparently satisfied with dunking the carriage in the water, the robeast leaves. And . . . Nanny. Ugh. The four make it to the shore. Hey, what happened to the carriage driver? As they're getting out of the river, something suddenly grabs Allura and starts to run off with her. Pidge opens fire and momentarily reveals the robeast, which drops the princess and takes off. They all decide to start running back to the castle.
They shelter under a cliff. Pudge can't send any more messages. The robeast goes visible so we can see him throw a boulder down the cliff at them. Black lion manages to stop the boulder. Lance and Pidge are picked up by Hunk and explain the invisible robeast. Allura and Nanny get in black lion. The two lions watch for the robeast, but find nothing. As they fly back to the castle, Lotor emerges from the woods in the batplane. He supersizes robeast #50. Great. A four-armed invisible health nut. Who's also a giant. The robeast begins to systematically stomp on an Arusian village. (Too bad their cottages aren't thatch-roofed).
The team watches the village get crushed by the invisible menace. Keith decides Allura is to stay in the castle, since it singled her out right from the beginning. The lions launch to find the robeast smashing the town. Fortunately, all the people have escaped to the hillside caves.
Keith tries to smoke the robeast out with a new, back-mounted missile weapon. Lance hits it with his shoulder cannon, but the 'beast returns fire. They lead it into the desert, and realize they can aim at its rough location by tracking the shadow. The robeast takes off running, then plunges into the lake as clouds cover the sun. The lions are caught by the thing at the lakeside. It becomes visibile so it can gloat. And knock the lions together. They break free, and #50 walks away. They fire a barrage of missiles at it. Direct hits make it go visible, but it's run away.
Lotor meets up with the robeast as it approaches the castle. He commands it to get the princess. The robeast crushes one of the red turrets. The castle artillery is unable to track it. Fortunately, the lions arrive. Lotor orders the 'beast to lure them into the lake. They open hydro-vents for underwater pursuit. They find the robeast doing . . . something to the vacant blue lion. It goes invisible again and starts kicking the lions around. Allura launches blue lion (and we get a neat shot of the shuttle tube leading to blue lion). Lotor gloats at the appearence of the princess. She forces the robeast to release the other lions, but is captured as robeast #50 surfaces.
Lotor taunts Allura over the radio as the team gives chase. They try some different visual settings, and find him on the static probe--though the screen says "Clairvoyance." Which is awesome. They lock on and shoot #50 in the face. It drops blue lion, but black and yellow catch her before she crashes. Then, they form Voltron.
They hit the robeast with Stingray missiles, and then tracking coils (? The laser magnum as its called in Golion). Then the lion torches envelope him in flame, and they form the blazing sword. Aaand the robeast is no longer invisible. Or intact. Voltron poses as the robeast explodes. Lotor flies back to Doom, shaking his fist the whole way.
Then we get some stock footage of the team standing on the balcony as a crowd cheers. Huh.
Defeat the Invisible Enemy
There's a lot less dialogue in the sequence with Honerva and the magical disappearing falcon. And it's an Occult Science Invisibilty Barrier
Fala's carriage passes some kids just before Bullbar attacks (they passed the kids in Voltron, too, but I just didn't mention it). So, really, what does happen to the driver? He falls off of the carriage, and then . . . disappears. It's not even implied that Bullbar squishes him or anything. They just . . . forget. I do like how Suzuishi and Kurogane just ignore Hys while she's thrashing around screaming. Good for them.
Suzuishi fires on the beastman, and thanks to Kurogane's advice to aim beneath her, hits Bullbar and not Fala. Suzuishi actually tosses the radio aside when he explains that it's waterlogged and useless.
As the beastman rampages through the town, there's a lot more footage of screaming villagers. And villagers being crushed by boulders and perishing in flames.
The back-mounted weapon black lion uses is the black boomerang. And they lead the beastman away specifically to avoid civilian casualties. Hmph. Underground shelters my ass.
When Bullbar attacks the castle, there's actually some dialogue from men manning the artillery, frustrated that they can't see the thing. And then they get squished.
Apparently, red lion doesn't function at even half-power under water.
Sensors they try when Bullbar's running off with the princess: Infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray, laser sensors (those are the ones labeled "clairvoyance" and water evaporation and mass calculations. It's the water evaporation and mass calculations that save the day.
They form Golion to the lovely tones of the Black Lion theme.
They spend a lot more time just punching the beastman than they did in Voltron. That acconts for some of the cut time. There's just not that much going on after the beastman explodes. Sincline flies off, and the episode ends with a reminder that the bad guys won't give up so easily.
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