Defenders of the Earth Ep. 03 A Demon in His Pocket

Join host Patrick Cadigan as he discusses "A Demon in His Pocket," episode 3 of Defenders of the Earth. Written by Chuck Lorre (Two and a Half Men & The Big Bang Theory) this story finds Kshin summoning the demon Shogoth to deal with school bullies. Obvious havoc ensues, prompting Ming the Merciless to see a potential ally. The Defenders confront Shogoth and Kshin learns a lesson about trust and responsibility. So strap in, flash forward (and back) again!

Links:
A Demon in His Pocket Resource (page)
A Demon in His Pocket - Flash Gordon Wiki (link) 

Transcript

Patrick Cadigan  00:21

Hey there, we are back. You are listening to Flash Forward, a Defenders of the Earth Retrospective. I'm your host, Patrick Cadigan. Join me as I revisit each episode of the series, breaking down the stories, characters, themes, and maybe digging just a bit into the lore that gave this series its moment in 80s animated television. Whether you're a long time fan who remembers watching its first run, or discovering the show for the first time and wondering how you ever missed it to begin with, this is your chance to flash forward and back into a world of heroes, villains and gloriously 80s retro action adventure. So let's get started. So this time, we're back with the start of Episode Three, a demon in his pocket. Now this episode is written by someone who you probably know, Chuck Lorre. This is the American television producer, writer, director, composer, as of today, he is called the King of sitcoms, having created, co-created and produced several of the most popular sitcoms, including Two and a Half Men The Big Bang Theory and, of course, Young Sheldon. Now in the early 1980s he turned to writing scripts for animated TV shows. His first project was the DIC version of Heathcliff, and he co-wrote the soundtrack to the 1987 television series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Other animated writing credits include episodes of M.A.S.K., Muppet Babies, Fraggle Rock and Benny and Cecil. As he transitioned into the 1990s, he was writing for the Toxic Crusaders. In the 80s, some of his early live-action writing produced Charles in Charge and my two dads. He then began writing for Roseanne Grace Under fire, Sybil and CSI, just to name a few. The air date for this episode was Wednesday, September 10 of 1986 and the characters that we're going to see in this episode are the usual suspects, Flash Gordon, the Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, Lothar, Rick Gordon, Kshin, Jedda Walker, Zuffy (the space alien) and our antagonist, Ming the Merciless. We are introduced to new characters, including Shogoth the demon and Stewie the school bully. There are two other unnamed bullies that accompany Stewie, but of course, we never get their names, 

Patrick Cadigan  03:00

Act One, we open on a school campus with a group of kids playing a spirited game of world football. Kshin exercises his Messi-like prowess and effortlessly navigates through the pitch with cheers from adoring spectators. However, there are a trio of players who clearly favor Ronaldo and are not having any of what Kshin is bringing. One of the three opts to intervene. Kshin makes quick work of him, employing a well placed shoulder push, and continues his trek to the back of the net. Inside the box, Kshin continues to evade the back line and sends a banger into the goal and looks to celebrate with his teammates. Sure of his victory, Kshin approaches his shoulder jockey pal, Stewie and taunts him with a "better luck next time" pep talk. Stewie, clearly frustrated, responds by starting a physical altercation with Kshin while accusing him of cheating. Kshin responds citing the Defenders Code.

Kshin  03:28

"Hey, I'm a Defender, and Defenders don't cheat. Okay, Mr. Defender, let's see you defend yourself. I can't fight you. Defenders don't fight unless it's very important. You won't fight..."

Patrick Cadigan  04:14

A seemingly out of shape coach shows up to assess what's going on, but Stewie responds that Kshin slipped and leaves continuing to mock the defenders code. The coach apparently buys into Stewie s misrepresentation of events and tells Kshin to be more careful. Kshin is visibly frustrated. Meanwhile at Monitor Mandrake Zuffy (the space alien) LJ, Jedda and Kisa watch as Lothar works with Rick Gordon on one of Rick's newest inventions, wrist gauntlets that not only magnify lothar's great physical strength 1000 times, but also displays an aura around him that is visible for all to see. When LJ asks what the gauntlets are for, Rick asks Lothar to throw a punch at a nearby wall without moving towards the wall, Lothar mimics a punch, and a burst of energy flies towards the wall, demolishing it. Everyone is impressed. When Kshin enters the room, Mandrake immediately notices the state Kshin is in and asks what happened. However, Kshin dismisses them. When Zuffy (the space alien) along with Kisa, try to interact with Kshin, he shows clear frustration. The group, however, is amused, but this only further infuriates Kshin, who admonishes them. Kshin asks Mandrake for the keys to his library as he plans to do his homework. Mandrake complies, but strictly warns him to stay away from the sorcery books. Kshin agrees and exits, leaving the others to wonder what is going on with him. On the way to the library, Kshin reassures Zuffy (the space alien) that he only intends to look at a few of the sorcery books which Zuffy (the space alien), clearly thinks is a bad idea. Later, it's a dark and stormy night, and Mandrake and Lothar are concerned, as Kshin never misses a meal, but he did miss tonight. After putting the dinner away, Mandrake attempts to find Kshin in his room. However, Kshin is not there. Kshin is still in the library with Zuffy (the space alien) and decides that while the code forbids physical fighting, it doesn't explicitly mention magic. Kshin finds a spell he believes will turn Stewie and his cohorts into toads, but first wants to try it out on Zuffy (the space alien), who thinks that that's clearly a shitty idea. When Kshin recites the magic spell, however, nothing happens to Zuffy (the space alien). We hear Mandrake calling for Kshin, who becomes afraid that he'll be caught red handed with one of the spell books. Kshin sends Zuffy (the space alien) as a distraction to give him time to put the book away, while Zuffy (the space alien), succeeds in distracting Mandrake, Kshin stumbles upon a scroll and happy with the contents, sticks it in his jacket and unawares. Mandrake then finds Kshin at a desk, claiming that not only is his homework done, but that he's tired. Once again, Mandrake attempts a check in, but Kshin brushes him off. Later on that night, in his room under the covers, Kshin chants the incantation to call upon the demon Shogoth to avenge him against his enemies. The ritual works this time, and Shogoth crosses the endless void into Earth's dimension.

Patrick Cadigan  07:41

Act Two, a visibly surprised Kshin and Zuffy (the space alien) watch as Shogoth introduces himself and refers to Kshin as "master." After a brief display of Shogoths power, Kshin looks forward to some comeuppance for Stewie and his cronies. At Ming's base, Octon detects an unknown power surge and pinpoints it near monitor. Ming the Merciless detects Shogoths power convinced that the Defenders are up to something, Ming orders Octon to send frost people to Central City to investigate. At Monitor, both Flash and the Phantom are reading the same power surge and ask Dynak X to give them a location of the power surge. The AI computer tells them that the power source has moved to the Central City junior high school, and flash realizes that's bad at the on campus gymnasium. Kshin, along with Zuffy (the space alien), is practicing martial arts. In walk Stewie and two of his goons, who proceed to make fun of Kshin. When Kshin responds about the Defenders code, Stewie, unimpressed, pushes Kshin off his balance beam. Jumping up, Kshin tells the three that while he may not be able to fight them, he knows someone that can with that. Kshin whistles and Shogoth appears to the shock and surprise of Stewie and his goons. Kshin tells Shogoth to "let him have it." With a wave of his hand, Shogoth proceeds to levitate the boys off the ground and use the available gym equipment for his hijinks, much to Kshin Delight. After the bullies end up in the basketball hoops, the coach storms in, but Kshin dismisses the events as Stewie and his pals just being clumsy. We shift to a TV performance that Mandrake is giving as he demonstrates to the audience the Art of Illusion. However, during the performance, Mandrake grabs at his temples in obvious pain and falls to the ground. Immediately, recognizing the event as not part of the act, Lothar runs to the aid of his friend. Mandrake, is quick to recover, and tells Lothar about an evil presence. Back at the gym. Kshin attempts to tell Shogoth that he appreciates the demon for what he's done, but now he can leave and go back to wherever he's from. When Shogoth refuses to leave, an undeterred, Kshin pulls out the magic parchment and reads the incantation, again. This time, however, Shogoth simply laughs and tells Kshin he's not his master anymore. Kshin responds by telling shogoth that Mandrake is more powerful. Shogoth, who makes tentacles appear and grabs both Kshin and Zuffy (the space alien). When Kshin tells him to stop, cryptically, Shogoth responds with a possible vision of the future in which an enraged Mandrake kicks Kshin out of Xanadu for not following directions.

Mandrake  10:31

"You were told never to touch my sorcery books. A boy who disobeys is a boy who can't be trusted to become a defender."

Patrick Cadigan  10:41

Shogath then threatens Kshin with this future if he tells Mandrake anything, and teleports away. At the same time, Ming has been observing the events and immediately recognizes the potential shogoth is as a weapon. All the while, as Flash and Phantom are heading to the city center, where they observe a now towering Shogoth threatening a transport vehicle. Phantom jumps from the vehicle to deal with Shogoth, while Flash attempts to intervene with the transport. Flash manages to free the transport, but a pissed off Shogoth shoots down flash's ship.

Patrick Cadigan  11:17

Act Three, as his ship experiences a life threatening nosedive, Flash attempts to save himself by slamming the control center with his fist, which immediately puts the ship back on course, and he lands safely. Shogoth continues his kaiju rampage through Central City. Ming appears to him and convinces him that it's the Defenders and their computer, Dynak X, that are his true enemies. As Shogoth prepares to attack the mountain, Ming lets it slip that he intends to control Shogoth as his ultimate weapon of destruction. As Mandrake and Lothar reach the downtown, Lothar wonders aloud what they can do. Mandrake tells Lothar that it's a sorcerer's battle. As he jumps from the vehicle, Kshin, riding with Zuffy (the space alien) on his bike, says that he needs to warn Mandrake of the danger, all while lamenting about his role in this mystical rampage. Next, we catch up with the three Defenders children, Rick, LJ, and Jedda, riding in Rick's van, apparently oblivious to the carnage happening around them. Suddenly, they're attacked. Kshin happens on the imperiled teens, and once again, attempts to athwart the demon by reading from the parchment. A pissed off Shogoth tosses Rick's vehicle at Kshin. Mandrake intercepts Kshin, while Lothar, superpower gauntlets now in place, catches the vehicle and sets it safely to the ground. With Shogoth on the move to monitor. Mandrake checks in on Kshin, who was visibly upset, and reveals he is the reason for the rampaging demon. Mandrake demands the parchment where the spell came from and before Kshin has a chance to explain moves to rejoin all the Defenders, including Flash and Phantom. Meanwhile, Shogoth begins his attack on Monitor, easily gaining access to the mountain's interior. When he confronts Dynak X, the computer retaliates with a self defense attack that does nothing as Shogoth turns into energy and enters the computer. At that moment, Lothar, Flash, the Phantom and Mandrake show up. Mandrake calls out Shogoth by claiming to be his superior. Shogoth is angered by the boast and challenges Mandrake right back. Mandrake pulls the parchment from his cape and reveals that Shogoth is a demon of the earth. Flash Gordon jumps in to clarify that this means, if he's separated from the earth, he's helpless. Working together, Mandrake levitates Shogoth from the ground. Lothar attacks him with a gauntlet bolt, and the Phantom quickly jumps on his head. Shogoth responds by morphing into his demon energy and attempting to escape through Monitor's structures pursued by the Defenders. Lothar uses his gauntlets to create an energy bubble off the ground which traps Shogoth, weakens him, and he shrinks back down to size, just as Mandrake is about to banish the demon again. Ming s ice robots attack the defenders quickly dispatch the robot army, but not before they escape with shogoth. However, when the Phantom points out their escape, Mandrake is not worried, as he feels that Shogoth has had enough of the earth realm. We transition to Ming's hideout, where he is chastising shogoth for having failed to destroy the Defenders. As Shogoth demands to be returned to his realm, Ming tells him "no," and a battle between the two ensues, with shogoth Opening a rip in the wall and escaping. Back at Monitor Dynak X clarifies that Shogoth has left their plane of existence. Kshin accepts his punishment from Mandrake, who also commends his courage for eventually telling the truth, reaffirming that Kshin is a true Defender and that no one is sending him away. Mandrake is proud of him. The end. 

Patrick Cadigan  15:17

Okay, so I have to start off by saying that I wasn't 100% sure that I was going to like this episode, because from the beginning, I immediately became annoyed with Kshin. There was just something about his portrayal in this particular episode that was really kind of getting on my nerves. However, I must admit that as I was prepping for the read through, I kind of started to put myself back in the place of what it was like to be at that age. And it basically he started to kind of grow on me a little bit, or at least it bothered me less and less, one of the things that I did do, I looked up the term shogoth to see if there was another connection that I was unaware of. And as it turns out, yes, there is. Shogoth is a fictional character that was mentioned in some of HP Lovecrafts, sonnet story, and I apologize if I'm going to butcher this, but the fungi from you goth, which was a series of sonnets written between 1929 and 1930 now, the term shogoth was later mentioned in other works, before being described in detail in a novella at the mountains of madness, one of the things that they touch on in this discussion is the ethics of the defenders code. Now, of course, they never explicitly state what the code is, but it it implies the difficulty of following a passivist pass pacifists code of honor in the face of mundane problems like bullying. Now, of course, that is in juxtaposition of highlighting power without discipline, as Kshin turns to magic in order to what, I guess, sidestep that that code. And so, of course, we, you know, we know what happens. It doesn't work out for him. You know, we all go back to what the right thing to do is. And of course, that is confronting your problems directly. Now, having said that, I was surprised that by the end of the episode that one of mandrake's requests of Kshin was not to go back and apologize to Stewie and his friends, he clearly had learned his lesson in the 80s trope of learning from your mistakes, I was expecting a, you know, a full on mea culpa, with having to confront the bullies and apologize to them, and then, you know, they would go back in and pat him on the back and say, Well, gee, you know, sorry. It was our fault too. Blah, blah, blah, but now we didn't get that. What we did get was some of the parental dynamics in this episode. Mandrakes role as Kshin Guardian is central to this. And the tension isn't just the monster, right this. The tension comes from the breach of trust from the father figure and his child, and the resolution focuses on an element of restorative justice, right punishing the deed while affirming the child's place in the family. So I had to say that, you know what good for Mandrake for doing that? Of course, he kind of needed to do that because they needed to get back to the status quo before the end of the episode. However, you know, again, that is one thing that I feel like is different from this animated series with child characters than a lot of the other animated series with child characters by making the characters the the next generation of characters in this animated series, teenagers, older teenagers. They kind of didn't have to go through some of the same nonsense that other young characters in other animated series have to go through there, these characters are a little bit more, well, I won't even say a little bit more. They're clearly a lot more action oriented. Up until this point, I have actually enjoyed watching. Ming, Rick Gordon and the things that he can do, Jedda and LJ again, probably the one that I'm not super keen on, but again, noticing that, of course, Kshin is the youngest of this group of four. He is probably the character that I have the hardest time not relating to but just kind of understanding his arc, understanding his story, but, but again, by the end of this episode, I was a little bit more into what he was going on. One thing that I did pick up on as I was doing my right through was that we are introduced at one point to Ming's frost people, however, he introduces them, and they show up for about four frames in the entire episode, and then that's it. We We never really see them again. They're essentially a plot device to be able to present Ming to shogoth, and then when that's done, then they disappear. So we'll have to see if they show up again later on. One of the things that they brought up that was clever, not clever. I guess shogoth uses his powers as he is attached to the ground, and that as he is going through the episode, he is getting bigger and bigger, right? So when we're first introduced to him, he's essentially an imp. Then he confronts the bullies, and by the time he's done, he is towering over Kshin. And then, of course, by the time he's doing his kaiju like rampage through the city, he's now full on Godzilla and but then later on, by the time that he gets back to monitor and is what pulled from the ground, he then kind of shrinks back down to his regular size, but again, I did like the way that this story progressed. They definitely kept things moving and with the exception of the event where Flash Gordon banged on his control panel, and then miraculously, his ship automatically fixes itself again. I thought that this episode moved pretty briskly.

Patrick Cadigan  22:30

So some of the trivia as noted from the DVD track of this episode, the book that Kshin examines is Mandrake's forbidden sorcery books, though this is not expressly stated in the episode at all. Mandrake says, Don't touch these books, in one of the early scripts, it was spelled out exactly what they were, but then it didn't come up in this episode. When Mandrake is performing on the talk show, there is a nice animation touch that shows the audience monitors and they are synced up correctly to mandrake's dialog. So I thought that was a nifty little piece of detail. Now, one thing that they mentioned in the trivia piece from the DVD episode that I did not pick up on, and I went back and I even looked. Now, granted, I am not watching the DVD versions of this episode. I am actually going through and watching the episodes that are posted on YouTube. One of these days, I might go back and check and see if there's any significant difference between the two, I don't think that there is. But one thing that the DVD had mentioned was is that as Flash Gordon and the Phantom tracked down Shogoth, one of the close up shots shows that the Phantom has purple eyes, I went and tracked each one of those segments where the two of them were together and they were attempting to hunt down Shogoth. And I did not see that. I was going to look for it. I did pick up on back from episode one Escape from Mongo there were some animation flubs with Mandrake and his disappearing, reappearing mustache. And that was what I was expecting. I was expecting to go in and find one of those and got my screenshot software ready, and I was going to get it, but I never really saw it, so I don't know if there was something different. And one of these days, I might actually go back and track it and see if I can figure out what it is that they were talking about. 

Patrick Cadigan  24:42

But with that being said, we have finished our covering of A Demon in His Pocket. So the next episode actually turns out to be one of my favorites. Up until this point, A House Divided. We're introduced to. To Kitt Walker's brother, who is the central villain in this particular episode. I highly enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to talking with you about that. So until then.