Thundarr the Barbarian

Thundar and team find themselves caught between warring wizards.

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Episode Synopsis

Thundarr, Ookla, and Ariel come upon a village being attacked by robots in the service of the wizard, Skullis, a gigantic head supported by servants on a palanquin. The robots blast the various houses and buildings in the village, destroying them and routing the villagers into the center of the village. Skullus uses magic to hypnotize the villagers into submitting to a life of servitude as zombies.

Thundarr and crew ride in to save them, attacking the robots and destroying a number of them. Skullus turns the people on them, and as they fight, the robots begin to disappear. They are not actual machines, but creatures of magic summoned forth by Skullus. The wizard calls in a massive airship and is beamed aboard with the zombified villagers. The airship blasts the surrounding landscape, setting it ablaze and trapping the heroes before flying away. The crew ride their horses up a catwalk and over buildings to get past the fire.

Skullus flees into the Desert of Demons, and of course, the heroes follow! They head into a ruined city, and Ariel explains that the strange buildings used to be called skyscrapers and they are in the ancient city of St. Louis. They are watched by little desert people with bandanas covering their mouths. The little people commune with Skullus, who tells them to kill the barbarian. They chatter and run to do his bidding.

As they ride past, one of the desert people throws a spring-looking thing attached to a rope at Ariel. She is caught in it and captured. The desert people drag her into an elevator shaft. Ookla and Thundarr follow to rescue her. The desert people take her to a section of pipes where there is another prisoner, Jiel. A slab of concrete descends towards their heads.

On a floor above them, Thundarr and Ookla find a toy store. Thundarr warns him that there may be cunning desert people about, and Ookla finds one and traps him in a high chair. They interrogate the little desert person and find Ariel’s location, arriving just in time to save the day.

Suddenly, the desert people turn on the water pipes to flood the basement and drown the heroes. When it comes to inventive villains for Thundarr to fight, the desert people are actually much more intelligent and resourceful than most.

Thundarr and crew climb up the elevator cables. Thundarr has Jiel cling to his back as he climbs since she was having difficulty. She escaped from the wizard and the desert people tracked her down. She tells them that the desert people are in league with Skullus. A group of desert people start climbing up after them, and Thundarr cuts the lines, leaving them to drown in the rising waters below.

The group rides across the range, and Jiel tells them that Skullus is fighting a battle with another wizard, Octagon. They find Skullus’s lair which has landed in the desert. He also has a “land machine” which he plans on using to fight Octagon. Skullus sends his magical robots out against Thundarr and crew. The robots outnumber then and push them over the edge of the ship’s railing. Luckily, Ariel conjures a sphere around them and they float to the ground. Jiel attacks the robots, and Ariel creates a bridge for her to run down with the horses and escape.

Skullus drives the land machine towards the Octagon stronghold and is attacked. Thundarr realizes that the only way to save the hypnotized people is to take out Octagon before he can take out Skullus’s zombie army. So they rush in to attack, and gain entry to the stronghold. Octagon is impressed and attacks them.

He summons a fish man. It is impervious to the Sun Sword and Ariel’s sorcery, but Thundarr knocks it into the power transformer and it is destroyed, also taking out the power in the stronghold. Octagon tries to escape, but Thundarr chases him. They realize that there are tunnels under the stronghold that will come up conveniently under Skullus’s ground machine. They head to the tunnels.

They get inside of the ground machine and Skullus sends robot troops after them. However, Thundarr gets into the control room and reflects Skullus’s attacks back at him with the Sun Sword. This causes Skullus to explode, and the team have to jump to safety.

The people return to normal with Skullus’s magic dissipated. Thundarr asks if Skullus is destroyed,  but Ariel says she is not sure since he was a powerful wizard.

The people return to normal with Skullus’s magic dissipated. Thundarr asks if Skullus is destroyed,  but Ariel says she is not sure since he was a powerful wizard.