Five space explorers are captured by and escape from the evil King Zarkon's forces.
- Based on Beast King Golion episode: Escape from Slave Castle
Plot Summary
Five earthborn space explorers approach Planet Arus, only to find it under attack by King Zarkon's forces. The crew wants to help, but they are too late. As they survey the ruin, they are picked up by one of Zarkon's mop-up ships.
Arus. Not Earth.
Back at Galaxy Garrison, a group of officials review the events and discuss a rescue mission. They note that Zarkon's forces deny any knowledge of an attack on Arus. Marshall Graham recounts that the legendary Voltron originated on Arus... "Voltron could save them."
On Yurak's slave transport ship, an underling announces that the space explorers will soon be aboard. Yurak is pleased.
In Castle Doom, Zarkon celebrates the conquest of Arus and boasts that the capture of the space explorers means he no longer needs to fear the Galaxy Alliance (his reasoning for this is not exactly spelled out). Haggar warns that Arus' Castle of Lions holds the secret of Voltron, and that Zarkon must beware should it be discovered. Zarkon dismisses this concern, secure in his faith in the strength of his robot gladiators.
Ruffled collars are all the rage on Planet Doom.
Soon Zarkon joins the well-dressed Drule crowd in the arena, where a blue robeast is pitted against nearly nearly 20 slaves armed with swords. The crowd cheers as the robeast easily defeats all of them. He announces that the space explorers are next!
The space explorers wait in their cell, dreading their turn in the arena. They are running out of time! Suddenly, Pidge suggests that if Hunk can bend the bars on the window, perhaps they'll have a way out. With Lance and Sven on lookout, Pidge leaps to the window and drops a rope for Hunk, who climbs and bends the bars wide. The team scrambles up and out.
Lance and Sven catch a ride.
Part way down, they are attacked by the alien vultures; the team grabs the birds and hangs on for a faster ride down. Landing more or less safely in a pile of bones, the team races for the arena building, which doubles as a hangar for the slave transport ships.
Shoulder-check!
The team sneaks in via a utility tunnel. While they walk the corridors, an alarm sounds, and security doors start to close. The team narrowly makes it through a closing door into a room where they must immediately dodge a deluge of thrown swords. A melee ensues; the team defeats a squad of Doom soldiers, but more are coming. The team runs into a slave ship and takes flight.
Back in the royal throne room, Yurak notifies King Zarkon of the escape. Zarkon is angry, and commands Yurak not to return until he has recaptured them. Yurak launches his ship.
A firefight erupts in space between the commandeered slave ship and Yurak's assault vessel. The team returns fire, but the ship is badly outgunned and takes heavy damage.
Magic lion tractor beam.
The damaged slave ship falls toward Arus. Keith observes that some force is guiding the ship down smoothly, and Sven notes that the force appears to be emanating from a lion statue located in front of a mysterious castle. The team wonders if that is the Castle of Lions, where the secret of Voltron is hidden.
Keith quickly recounts the legend of how the formidable heroic robot Voltron was finally defeated: Zarkon's witch Haggar, disguised as a beautiful goddess, placed a curse on Voltron. She couldn't destroy him completely, but broke him apart into five robot lions.
Keith proposes that maybe the team can find the lions and reactivate Voltron...
Featured Characters
Voltron Lion Force
Galaxy Garrison
- Marshall Graham
- Commander Steele
Drules
Quotes
"The streets are empty. Looks like all the people of Arus made it to their underground shelters."
—Sure they did, Keith. Sure they did.
"Beware... The Castle of Lions holds the secret of Voltron. Just hope no one discovers it."
—Haggar provides some very subtle forshadowing
"We'll never make it! This is it! Fini! Finale! We've had it!"
—Lance displays unwavering confidence
"Nobody can keep us in a dingy hole like this! We're space explorers... and we need space!"
—Keith
Notable Edits from the Original Beast King Golion Episode
Keith. Not anyone else.
- The opening sequence uses Dairugger footage of Jeff and Rocky in their Dairugger uniforms to portray Keith and Hunk.
- The footage of Arus' destruction is repurposed; in Beast King Golion, it was scenes of Earth's World War III.
- Golion's goddess of the universe is portrayed as Haggar in disguise.
- Nearly every scene with slaves was edited to remove scenes of whipping, torture, and outright slaughter, especially in the arena battle scene.
Notes and Goofs
- Hunk and Keith are in Dairugger uniform and in separate cockpits in the opening scene, but shortly thereafter are somehow in street clothes (as are the rest of the team) and together in one chamber
- Of course, this does beg the question. Why were they wearing street clothes during a military scouting mission?
- Space Marshal Graham describes Voltron and the Castle of Lions as legends. At this point in time, would not both Voltron and the castle be more than legends? At the very least, there should be photographic records, if not audio and video footage of both.
- The Doom slave ship took the space explorers to Arus. Presumably, it was pre-programmed, and Keith and company could not reset the navigation coordinates to set a course to the nearest secure Alliance base, let alone Galaxy Garrison.
- Why was Haggar worried that someone would discover the Castle of Lions? The castle was not exactly a hidden secret base (although the existence of the tunnels connecting the castle underground to the lions' lairs may not have been so public). Any road map of the region around Arus's capital would give away the location of the castle.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Episode guide included with Voltron Collection 1: Blue Lion