Evilseed (episode)

Evilseed is the 25th episode of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, written by Barney Cohen and directed by Bob Arkwright.

Synopsis
Man-At-Arms has hay fever and he is sneezing but he is soon interrupted when he receives a message on the intercom that a dam has burst along the Fertile Plain and not only are the crops now in peril but the farmers are in grave danger as well. Man-At-Arms then rushes to prepare to aid the citizens, only to discover that his Hover-car won't start. Ram Man's aid is garnered, and the man lifts the hood in an attempt to ascertain the situation - the cause is quite apparently as it turns out, with Ram Man finding weeds have choked out the engine, rendering the vehicle, at least at this time, wholly inoperable. Man-At-Arms chooses to take an Small Trak instead. He-Man chooses to accompany him upon the mighty Battle Cat.

When he finally arrives, both he and He-Man quickly succeed in plugging the dam and saving the strangely-Dwarfish citizens; however, much to their concern, they soon are told by one of the local farmers that in fact a mysterious man had sold their village seeds, telling them to plant them near their dam, only to have the seeds destroy it by sunrise. Ever the wise individual, He-man immediately suspects Skeletor as the culprit of this act, but before he can even begin his investigation into the matter, the Sorceress appears before him and explains to Eternia's hero that he must return to the palace.

He-Man arrives at the palace only to discover that it has shockingly become rapidly overrun with highly-aggressive weeds. Teela as well as his parents are all in danger and so our first hero asks if they purchased some seeds (to an affirmative response) before any real attempt to rescue Teela. He then leaves the royal couple's rescue to Teela's capable hands, as the palace is collapsing and he seeks to prevent this from occurring. He pulls a reverse-Samson move and keeps the pillars of the palace from doing them all in, at which point the weeds subside. He decides to take Orko with him in a Hover-car, yet is again inundated with the violent flora, which He-Man reveals is capable of sapping his strength, indicating that they are capable of temporarily leeching an entire planet's energy in but a few seconds. He-Man calls out to the Sorceress for aid, and she uses the Space Bridge to teleport them to their planned destination - Castle Grayskull. The Sorceress reveals that she was not powerful enough to save Teela or the others from the vines, and allows our hero to utilize her Window of Spirits to contact his arch-nemesis Skeletor, and confronts him about the sudden nature of the floral life on the planet, only to have the same question thrown back in his face. Skeletor fades away, only to have Evilseed reveal himself. Evilseed states that he has succeeded in taking Man-At-Arms and Teela hostage, revealing his captives to be strung up by a tree under his control.

On the Evil Warriors front, Evil-Lyn is quickly defeated, causing Skeletor to react with a contact attempt to Mer-Man for assistance - assistance to save himself, that is, letting Evil-Lyn get taken without offering her any aid. However as one might expect, Mer-Man is also in trouble. Setting his own differences aside for as short as a time as he possibly can get away with (while making up an excuse for himself to feel more at ease with his own personal agenda), he begrudgingly asks He-Man for help, whom accepts the offer after the Sorceress reveals that her and He-Man's powers might not be enough to stop the strange sapient alien plant being. With this, Skeletor arrives at Castle Grayskull, and they go to obtain an ice ball from the Ice Mountains and smash it above Castle Grayskull where the three of their powers would be at their peak. Eventually, they cause it to snow, defeating Evilseed.

Moral
Teela: "Today was a day for surprises and the biggest one of all was Skeletor and He-Man working together. By joining their powers, He-Man and Skeletor were able to stop Evilseed. Working with others can sometimes be difficult. But if you listen to and respect the ideas of others, even when you don't agree with them, you'll find it easier to get the job done. And who knows, you may even learn something."

Heroic Warriors

 * Prince Adam/He-Man
 * Cringer/[Battle Cat]] (non-speaking role)
 * Man-At-Arms
 * Orko
 * Ram Man
 * Sorceress
 * Teela

Allies

 * King Randor
 * Queen Marlena

Evil Warriors

 * Evil-Lyn
 * Mer-Man
 * Skeletor
 * Trap Jaw

Locations

 * Castle Grayskull
 * Eternos - Royal Palace
 * Dam of the Ancients
 * Fertile Plains
 * Ice Mountains
 * Snake Mountain

Vehicles

 * Attak Trak
 * Small Trak
 * Talon Fighter
 * Wind Raider

Villains

 * Evilseed

Cast

 * John Erwin as He-Man/Prince Adam, Ram Man and Evilseed
 * Alan Oppenheimer as Skeletor, Man-At-Arms, Cringer and Mer-Man
 * Linda Gary as Teela, Evil-Lyn and the Sorceress
 * Lou Scheimer (credited as Erik Gunden) as Orko, Trap Jaw, King Randor, Computer and unnamed Farmers

Behind the Scenes

 * Script was approved June 13, 1983 and final script revision took place November 21, 1983.
 * In the opening scene, Man-At-Arms is suffering from an allergy for no apparent reason. This is because of a removed scene leading up to it in which Orko conjured up a bouquet of flowers that Man-At-Arms was allergic to.
 * Cringer is cowering behind a pillow on a couch when he is about to be transformed into Battle Cat. His head is briefly seen moving because he had a line of dialogue that was removed here, saying 'That's what I was afraid of'.
 * Writer Barney Cohen came up with the idea for Evilseed while writing Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter in which he described a character being killed by having it's head 'split open like an artichoke'.

Continuity

 * The flooding of the crops sequence was previously used in Wizard of Stone Mountain and will be seen again in Game Plan.
 * The toy version of the Attak Trak makes it's only appearance, albeit with it's colors reversed. The script refers to this version as the Small Trak as it was supposed to fit inside the back of the larger, more commonly seen animated model of the Attak Trak.
 * The animated sequence of He-Man creating a whirlwind with his sword would be seen again in The Taking of Grayskull and Temple of the Sun.
 * The animation used during the scene in which Skeletor tells off his bungling Evil Warriors used earlier in Evil-Lyn's Plot.
 * The animated sequence of Skeletor bending over his view screen will be seen again in Things That Go Bump in the Night.
 * The Sorceress laboratory inside one of Grayskull's towers also appears in Colossor Awakes & Valley of Power.
 * Evilseed has tied up several heroes and villains in a tree. Ram Man is positioned in the middle, but the camera whips past him so quickly in two different scenes that he can only be spotted if the footage is watched frame by frame. Near Evilseed's defeat Ram Man can finally be glimpsed, but this time Evilseed is blocking most of him with his head.
 * Evilseed would be re-imagined for the 2002 He-Man and the Masters of the Universe episode 'Orko's Garden. Both versions of the character would eventually be produced as an action figure by Mattycollector. The 2002 version first, in 2015, and one based on the Filmation design in 2016.

Errors

 * Man-At-Arms eyebrows are colored brown when he is inside the Dwarf's home, then turn their usual black color at the end of the scene.
 * When Skeletor finds vines creeping on his bone throne and turns around, he is not wearing the back part of his 'skirt'. It reappears in the next seen, but is gone again in most scenes involving his view-screen.
 * As He-Man helps Skeletor onto the tower of Castle Grayskull, there is a shot of them looking up at the sky with the back of Skeletor's head large in the foreground. His cowl is mistakenly given the color of Orko's hat.
 * During the finale on the tower at Grayskull, Skeletor raises his Havoc Staff with his left hand, then holds it in his right in the next shot. When this footage is re-shown during the moral segment, this mistake has been fixed.
 * After Evilseed is defeated, King Randor steps into frame. The shot changes to a reverse of Randor and the other free captives looking down on Evilseed, but the background image remaining the same.

The He-Man and She-Ra Blog

 * A brief review #025 - "Evilseed"
 * "Evilseed" Layout #1
 * "Evilseed" Layout #2
 * "Evilseed" Layout #3
 * "Evilseed" Layout #4
 * Evilseed arrives!
 * Evilseed Revealed!
 * Evilseed dies!
 * FILMATION FEBRUARY - DAY: 9
 * 30 YEARS - Top 30 GREATEST MOMENTS #21
 * How popular was Evilseed?