It used to confuse me how a robot could take a bribe. But given the AIs in the setting, it makes more sense, and it makes sense for Doc Hartford to be the one to spot it.
They never explicitly said what the Crown Troopers were one way or another. The closest we get was Zach saying "We THINK they're some kind of robot" in "Lord of the Sands" but the one that went renegade in that episode, the fact they took bribes, didn't act like robots, and that Doc didn't just whip out his gear to make them all do Broadway showtunes is pointing to them NOT being robots, which would be a massive "crap past radar"
There's a lot of these sorts of cartoons from the era where, they knew they HAD to stand out in some way, so they pushed against a boundary or two. Spiral Zone with showing dead bodies by the dozens thanks to the post apoc setting. Bionic Six and how it played with the scifi concepts in every other episodes it used, including one of the more interesting time machine episodes, where there's no TRAVEL per say, but rather summoning for early and later forms. Ooh, and Mega Man. You seriously wouldn't expect a show with its sort of story to actually try hard, but it did. Or the Mighty Max cartoon. Now THAT one was a trip and a half. Fantastic VAs, an overarching big bad who isn't behind EVERYTHING they get up to, so when they face him it matters, and more importantly, they say they can't beat him, and that SHOWS in the episodes they do. He technically wins in the final battle, save for Max himself deciding to flip the board, he'd have becoming God.
I was always disappointed that the show never really embraced a proper story. It's got all the parts for it, they just don't join it all up. :( Then again it was the 80s and this was already better than most.
It's almost like if you respect your audience, even if they're kids, you can get a good story. This is why I reject the idea that kids shows are "allowed" to be rubbish. Kids are naive and still learning about the world (which is why I can't call them ignorant due to the connotation of word) but they aren't necessarily stupid and know when they're being talked down to. This show meets them where they are and brings them up a notch by respecting them and not preaching or talking down to them. That's why its not only enjoyable for kids but adults and kids who grew up with the show and reexamining it as an adult.
I think even in the 80s the do not spindle fold or mutilate reference would have been pretty obscure (it's a reference to a warning put on some punched cards in the 50s and 60s that was also famously used as a protest sign in the 60s). I think warnings mandated/written by lawyers need to be split between things that they add on speculation that someone might just be that foolish and things that they add after someone and in fact several someones were that foolish. Like maybe you don't think anyone would be that reckless, but if a lot of them are, better to try and minimize damage rather than moralize at them after the damage is done...
Maybe they thought the audience would forget that they'd failed, what with all the excitement at the end of the episode... but no. You showed part of the coda, where Doc's playing with the _other_ memory bird, and what is that but a reminder that the trip's objective was a failure?
It used to confuse me how a robot could take a bribe. But given the AIs in the setting, it makes more sense, and it makes sense for Doc Hartford to be the one to spot it.
makes more and more sense as time progresses too, amirite?
They never explicitly said what the Crown Troopers were one way or another. The closest we get was Zach saying "We THINK they're some kind of robot" in "Lord of the Sands" but the one that went renegade in that episode, the fact they took bribes, didn't act like robots, and that Doc didn't just whip out his gear to make them all do Broadway showtunes is pointing to them NOT being robots, which would be a massive "crap past radar"
There's a lot of these sorts of cartoons from the era where, they knew they HAD to stand out in some way, so they pushed against a boundary or two.
Spiral Zone with showing dead bodies by the dozens thanks to the post apoc setting.
Bionic Six and how it played with the scifi concepts in every other episodes it used, including one of the more interesting time machine episodes, where there's no TRAVEL per say, but rather summoning for early and later forms.
Ooh, and Mega Man. You seriously wouldn't expect a show with its sort of story to actually try hard, but it did.
Or the Mighty Max cartoon. Now THAT one was a trip and a half. Fantastic VAs, an overarching big bad who isn't behind EVERYTHING they get up to, so when they face him it matters, and more importantly, they say they can't beat him, and that SHOWS in the episodes they do. He technically wins in the final battle, save for Max himself deciding to flip the board, he'd have becoming God.
Really starting to think I need to check out this show.
I was always disappointed that the show never really embraced a proper story. It's got all the parts for it, they just don't join it all up. :(
Then again it was the 80s and this was already better than most.
It's almost like if you respect your audience, even if they're kids, you can get a good story. This is why I reject the idea that kids shows are "allowed" to be rubbish. Kids are naive and still learning about the world (which is why I can't call them ignorant due to the connotation of word) but they aren't necessarily stupid and know when they're being talked down to. This show meets them where they are and brings them up a notch by respecting them and not preaching or talking down to them. That's why its not only enjoyable for kids but adults and kids who grew up with the show and reexamining it as an adult.
Go go Galaxy Rangers!
I think even in the 80s the do not spindle fold or mutilate reference would have been pretty obscure (it's a reference to a warning put on some punched cards in the 50s and 60s that was also famously used as a protest sign in the 60s).
I think warnings mandated/written by lawyers need to be split between things that they add on speculation that someone might just be that foolish and things that they add after someone and in fact several someones were that foolish. Like maybe you don't think anyone would be that reckless, but if a lot of them are, better to try and minimize damage rather than moralize at them after the damage is done...
It was also used when shipping media like film canisters, vinyl records, and that sort of thing.
Maybe they thought the audience would forget that they'd failed, what with all the excitement at the end of the episode... but no. You showed part of the coda, where Doc's playing with the _other_ memory bird, and what is that but a reminder that the trip's objective was a failure?
I never cared for blackberries... either kind.