Voltron: The Third Dimension starts (a few years?) after the end of Season Two of the original series. Apparently in the course of that short time period, Lotor was imprisoned and Zarkon joined the forces of good and became a very high-up member of Galaxy Garrison. Also, command of Galaxy Garrison has for some reason been given control to a robot named Amalgamus, who incidentally looks like Rob the Robot (don't you think?). Anyway, the story still has all the basic elements of Voltron. After being separated for a while, the Voltron Force reunites again to fight Lotor, who has managed to escape -- surprise! Under the critical scrutiny of Amalgamus and Zarkon, the Voltron Force once again take up their fight against evil.
The entire new series has been enhanced by CGI technology, giving it a more modern feel with lots of room for new special effects. My only problem is that they made Keith look totally different from the original. Wasn't he supposed to have black hair, not brown? Another concern I have is the uniforms they are wearing. They are really nice, but I have a feeling that's ALL they'll be wearing throughout the entire season. No jumpsuits, no bathing suits (DRAT!). Ah well, all things considered, V3D looks very good, with lots of potential, and I eagerly anticipate watching this new season unfold.
EPISODES (note: this list is incomplete) The synopsis & criticisms come out as I view the TV episodes. Please note that, like many other synopsis', these ones contain spoilers, as well as my own personal comments -- please don't be offended by anything I say. But if you have a comment of your own, please Email me.
Escape From Bastille - 12
The first five minutes or so of this episode is a sort of prologue that tells us what happens before the V3D world begins. Essentially, Voltron had a showdown with Lotor, and in the end defeated him. Lotor ended up injured and sent to a high-security prison, where he's been for the past five years. Since then, the team had split up (except Hunk and Pidge, who stayed together) to do their own thing. Hunk and Pidge are now mechanics with their own shop, Lance is a stunt pilot, Allura is on Arus being Princess, and Keith, as far as I could tell, was still acting as a Garrison officer, though in what capacity it wasn't made clear. Also, there are two new members of the Garrison. One is the robot Amalgamus, which has pretty much taken over as leader, although why they would put a robot in charge is beyond me. Zarkon is the other, and is credited to being responsible for a lot of the peace that has enveloped the galaxies over the past few years. Whatever.
So, after the prologue we start off with reports coming in of pirates wreaking havoc in a nearby system. Amalgamus is not fully convinced it is pirates, and Keith wants to go take a lok with one of the Lions. Amalga,us refuses, but does allow him to go with an unarmed space ship. So Keith goes, with Lance stowing away with him. When they arrive at the scene, they are just in time to see a Doom ship attacking a cargo ship to steal the contents (OK, I forget). Obviously they can't do anything since they don't have weapons, so Keith sends their ship in a hyper-jump, or something, to the planet Arus. When they get there, they are about to crash land. At the Castle, Coran and Allura see the ship, and Coran is prepared to blast it out of the sky, but ALlura stops him, sensing her friends. So Keith and Lance arrive OK at the Castle, and shortly after they begin to suspect that somehow Lotor escaped his prison and is the one responsible for the acts of piracy.
So Keith gives Hunk and Pidge a call, and the two mechanics agree to check it out. They go to the prison and discover Lotor did in fact escape. Amalgamus is upset (boo hoo). But he still refuses to unleash Voltron since he doesn't want his precious "Peace" ruined. Lance is extremely upset at this, and sneaks away with the Red Lion to face Lotor by himself. That's where this episode leaves off.
Comments: Vaguely interesting. I liked the fact that it ended in a sort of cliff-hangar. I absolutely hated the idea of a robot running Galaxy Garrison and telling everyone what to do. I anticipate the day Amalgamus will be scrapped. Although I hate the idea of Zarkon being a good guy, I have to admit it's a nice plot twist to have him on the side of good, even if he's only faking it.
Red Lion Breaks Loose!
Again, at the beginning, we see Lance steal away in the Red Lion. From there is takes his "Kitty" in search of the space pirates, landing at an INFO terminal on some desert planet. But while he's feeding his Lion info (sort of like we feed our cars gas) Quequag and his girlfriend (I could never get her name) appear with a few Doom ships and attack, completely obliterating the planet. It looks like Lance and Red might be done for, but luckily Red Lion is the Lion of fire, so they're OK. They destroy two of the three ships, and attack the command ship. After placing a homing beacon on the Doom ship, Lance pretends to be scared off, and Quequag & girlfriend make their escape back to Lotor. Lance follows them, and eventually discovers Lotor is behind all the pirating - as if he didn't know already. Lance then decides to take on the whole Doom fleet by himself, and does a pretty good job until Lotor unleashes his new super-weapons. Poor Red Lion is then trapped.
Fortunately for Lance, Allura and the others decided long ago to go after their headstrong friend after Keith and Allura, while down in the Royal Archives, see the Red Lion statue'head blinking, signaling trouble. So the four other Lions home in on Red and manage to free him. Then all five attack, but Lotor's weapons prove too much for the Lions to handle, so Keith makes the call to form Voltron. They do, but even that doesn't seem to be enough, as Voltron is soon caught in some sort of energy cage. Then, with some inspiring words from Allura, the Voltron Force concentrates their will, uaing the "spirits" of their Lions (something oike that) to break free from the cage. OK, I'm guessing that after that, Voltron defeats Lotor. I wouldn't know, because my VCR decided to suddenly stop taping the show at that point. If anybody knows exactly what happened after that (all 60 some seconds) please Email Me.
Comments: Good continuation. I liked the little scene where Lance gave his Red Lion some info-fuel. It did seem a bit funny (as in strange) at the end where Voltron, transformed for the first time in five years, was overpowered so easily and quickly. It seemed a bit unrealistic for this to happen, and then for them to bounce back so suddenly after just "thinking" about it (OK, I know I'm a bit harsh). All in all, it was an OK episode. I would have liked to see the end, though!
Building the Forces of Doom
Voltron is in a fight with Lotor, and manage to send him packing. Then Amalgamus calls, reins them in and asks Keith to come join Zarkon in offering peace to Lotor, who has agreed to a meeting. Keith is reluctant, but adheres to his duty. Lance is rebellious, as usual, and on their way back to Arus he gives Allura, Hunk and Pidge the slip. He then goes to watch the meeting between Zarkon, Keith and Lotor. The meeting is televised. The meeting is short, and it is obvious Lotor has no intentions of peace. He basically snubs Keith, after Keith prematurely aimed his blaster at him (after Lotor pulled out some sort of digital recorder, which Keith thought might be a weapon). Afterwards, Lotor leaves and Lance follows him. We learn that Lotor plans to bring back Hagar from the Dream Dimension, and Lance follows him in. But After Lotor and Hagar meet, Lance gives himself away and Hagar sends him into a nightmare involving his childhood when his vilage was destroyed.
On Arus, Keith returns and they realize Lance has probably gotten himself into trouble. Alfor appears, gives them some cryptic advice, and them a stone in the wall moves, revealing the Lion's Paw that Allura uses to locate Lance. They then go after him. Allura uses the paw to open the doorway to the Dream Dimension. Once in, they find Lance and snap him out of his dream. They then follow Lotor and Hagar out, where Hagar reveals the hidden Planet Doom, which she has been hiding all these years. She and Lotor escape tp Planet Doom, sending a Robeast after the Force. The Robeast actually consists of about five eel-like creatures. Keith wastes no time, and they form Voltron. They manage to destroy the eels fairly easily, but are too late to stop Lotor from escaping.
Comments: I liked how they involved the "media" and video cameras in the scene with the meeting. I think it made it a little more realistic. I also enjoyed learning a little about Lance's past, even if only a little.
Lost Souls
Ahhh! Still haven't seen it.
A Rift in the Force
Basically the V-Force keep Lotor's forces from destroying a mining colony (funny, there's no people there) and instead of being praised they are punished for causing damage to the place by Zarkon and Amalgamus. Their punishment is to go back and clean up their mess. So they do, under the supervision of this big rude robot. But the V-Force encounter some Space Lice (yuck!) mutated by radiation. The big dumb robot is destroyed in their escape of the mines. But then the real drama starts. Lance and Hunk want to hightail it outta there while Keith and Pidge want to take care of the Space Lice first. There is a fight, hence "Rift in the Force". Allura meanwhile throws her hands up at them and goes off to be alone with her Lion Paw. While the boys run off to sulk, Allura's Lion Paw shows her that Lotor is about to attack Arus - they must get back quickly!
Meanwhile Keith and Pidge have been using the engines of their ruined ship to freeze the Space Lice while Lance and Hunk have found another ship, sans engine, that could get them off this rock. They plan on taking Keith & Pidge's engines, but Keith has something to say about that. He and Lance fight, and Lance manages to knock Keith to the ground (oh so realistic) so Keith pulls a gun on him and basically tells him to sit down and be quiet. Then Allura comes and gives them a stern talking-to and convinces them to return to Arus. So they do, taking the frozen Space Lice with them. When they arrive, Lotor shoots them down and they crash-land on Arus, coincidentally right in front of their Lions! So they climb into their Lions and save the day. At the end, the V-Force are congratulated for saving Arus, and Lance and Keith shake hands and make up.
Comments: First of all, who gives anybody the right to boss Allura around? I mean, isn't she a Princess and the supreme leader of planet Arus? And don't the Lions belong to her? Since when do Zarkon and Amalgamus get to say whether they can use them or not. And I can't see Coran or Nanny letting the Princess be forced into cleaning up a ruined mine as punishment. On another thread, I thought the characters' movements were way off. I mean, they were sticking their butts our half the time, almost like they had to pee or something. And what about Keith and Lance's fight? It looked like a girl fight! (No offense to my gender) Come on, they can do better than that! I won't even comment on the scuffle between Coran and Hagar. Otherwise, I liked it.
Shades of Gray
A cute little episode about friendship. At the beginning, Pidge and Hunk are working in the garage and Hunk makes a mistake, so Pidge teases him by calling him big and dumb (something classic Pidge would never do). Hunk's feelings are hurt, so he escapes to take Yellow Lion for a spin. Then Lotor and Hagar find him and capture him. They turn him evil, and even manage to cloak his Lion. A while later, the Force gets word of an attack on a space station. They go to check it out, and must face an invisible foe. But then they manage to uncover him, only to discover the gray Lion. At first they don't realize it's Hunk, but when they do they must stop attacking. Pidge tries to reason with Hunk, but the big guy won't listen. He lures Pidge into the station in order to take him out. Again Pidge tries to get through to him, but a bitter Hunk brings up Pidge's teasings and tauntings. He aims at Pidge.
The V-Force come along, and Hunk is ordered by Lotor to retreat. Hunk does, leaving behind a powerful explosive. The Force evacuates in time to escape the blast. Pidge thinks Hunk purposefully gave them time to escape, and that the good Hunk is trying to break free. He formulates a plan to get him back. This time Pidge catches Hunk's attention and lures him away to try to talk some sense into him for the last time. Meanwhile Allura and Lance fight a Robeast. And where is Keith? He's secretly keeping an eye on Pidge and Hunk's progress (how cute!). Pidge manages to get through to Hunk, who breaks Hagar's hold over him. Gray Lion turns back to Yellow, and the three of them rejoin the others to defeat the Robeast.
Comments: Not bad. The one thing I really didn't like was how mean Pidge was to Hunk in the beginning. As I stated before, the old Pidge would never be so cruel. Still, I like to see an episode where the lesser seen characters get a shot in the spotlight.
Bride of the Monster
While tiny little Judge Armistice is performing a wedding ceremony, Lotor and Hagar kidnap him in order for him to perform a similar ceremony on Doom. Lotor plans to make Allura his wife - still. Though the Judge refuses, believing only two people who love each other should be joined, he really has no choice. Before they continue with the plan, however, Lotor rues over his mishappen form. Hagar then cheers him up by making him appear handsome again, though only to Allura's eyes. Lotor is pleased, thinking she must want him now that he's handsome again. So they lure the VF out of Arus. Allura conveniently picks up a strange reading on her sensors, so she goes to investigate while the others go off to look for Lotor. She arrives at Castle Doom and lands. Upon seeing the Judge, she runs to rescue him, only to be caught in a trap by Lotor, who forces her into marrying him or else he'll kill the Judge, who is supposed to be signing a very important peace treaty that evening.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Force has noticed Allura's absense, and go searching for her. They manage to locate her tracking beacon in the middle of the wedding ceremony. Lotor has already said his "I do". Just when it's Allura's turn, her heroes come to rescue her. She grabs the Judge and they escape. Lotor sends Robeats after them, which Voltron quickly pulverizes. They want to go after Lotor and hagar on Doom, but Amalgamus calls them back. It's too late anyway - Lotor escapes when Doom disappears. So the Judge gets to his precious peace treaty signing, Allura remains single, and all is well. Except of course for Lotor, who curses his ugly form.
Comments: I thought the Judge was very cute. I noticed that when Lotor was in his "attractive" form, he looked a lot like Keith. Hmm...coincidence? Very, very interesting. I also have to say that the tracking beacon on Blue Lion was pretty pathetic. Wouldn't those light beams be lost as soon as they reached space? Besides the fact that it was very basic (Geez, OUR tracking beacons are more high-tech).
