Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Episode 1.33: Spaceman Sonic

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Episode 1.33: Spaceman Sonic

Original Air Date: November 9th, 1993

Aside from goofy superhero parodies, the writers of "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" often threw some aliens into the mix. Just saying a weird character was from space or another dimension was an easy way to introduce whatever odd one-off the writers had thought up that week. So it seems inevitable that the show would launch Sonic himself into space eventually. As much as I would like to invoke the "Jason X" rule - if a genre series runs long enough, it'll eventually end up in space - it doesn't really apply here. Sega had space levels as soon as the second game, and featured them with some frequency afterwards, so the cartoon was just following that lead. And thus, the prophecy is fulfilled with "Spaceman Sonic."

Robotnik has discovered a rare and powerful mineral in an asteroid field near Mobius. He has designed a rocket to travel to this area and gather the material, with Scratch and Grounder being the pilots. Sonic and Tails sneak aboard, in hopes of stopping the scheme. But that doesn't matter, as Grounder's idiocy soon has the entire group stranded in space. Sonic thinks up a way to steer the ship towards a near-by, abandoned space station, where they at least won't run out of oxygen. However, our hedgehog hero and his two-tailed Fox friend soon discover why the space station was abandoned: It's home to a grouchy and hungry alien lifeform. 

I appreciate "Spaceman Sonic" because it's the closest the show has come to a horror-themed episode. Being pursued by an angry, homicidal alien on an abandoned space station definitely sounds like the premise of an eighties horror movie. The set-up recalls "Alien," "It! The Terror from Beyond Space," "Saturn 3," and a dozen other movies. The alien is a one-eyed blob creature with a bad cold, resembling a giant amoeba monster from "The Angry Red Planet." (Not to mention the Space Mutants from "The Simpsons.") Slimy, as Sonic names him in the Sonic Sez segment, can also ooze through air vents, a direct shout-out to the Blob. The episode is also set on a "Caligari"-esque set, briefly features a skeleton, and has direct homages to the "Lost in Space" robot and the Martian Commander from "Invaders from Mars." If this had aired a few days earlier in 1993, it would've been a decent Halloween special. 

That's all well and good. The show's stretchy cartoon body-horror is even put to good use with Slimy, who bends his slime body into all sorts of fleshy shapes. Unfortunately, "Spaceman Sonic's" spooky space atmosphere is ruined by the show's usual shrill comedy. Scratch and Grounder's antics are even more unbearable than usual. Grounder accidentally breaking the ship controls minutes after getting airborne is not endearing. There's a joke about ball bearings and lots of insufferable banter between these two. It definitely feels like the writers padded out the script a little with repetitive, ostensibly comedic dialogue between the show's two main morons. (This is not the only evidence that this script might've been a rush job. The ending basically happens off-screen, Sonic befriending Slimy and using him to get home.)

Even then, I can't help but feel a little sorry for Scratch and Grounder in this episode. After Robotnik learns that the robots are on the abandoned space station, he duplicitously has Grounder destroy the only means of escape. All Robotnik cares about is that his greatest enemy is stranded on an abandoned space station. If he's successfully stranded his two most loyal robots as well is of no importance to him. Scratch and Grounder are understandably horrified by this. (Even if they are quasi-immortal robots.) Again, I must emphasize how cruel Robotnik is. He's built two undying machines, programmed them to love him, but only sees them as a means to an end. He cares not if they rot forever in space. What an asshole! This is the kind of shit that leads to robot uprisings, man. 

As "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" goes on, I am slowly getting an idea of what Mobius is like as a society. Here in "Spaceman Sonic," we learn that the Mobian government was once so advanced, and so rich, that it could afford to build and launch a massive space station. Sonic adds that the project was abandoned after "Robotnik stole all their money." Which further explains Robotnik's occasional depiction as a bank robber but also paints a pretty grim picture of the Mobian government. They had no reprisal against Robotnik for stealing their entire budget? He's so incompetent that a sixteen-year-old and his child sidekick regularly make a buffoon of him! Are there no armies in this world? No defense budgets? Was Mobius a utopia with no concept of violence before Robotnik? The glimpses of its past we got in the "Quest for the Chaos Emeralds" arc, which included some sort of World War, certainly didn't suggest that. While being ruled by childish despot Robotnik would be terrible, I'm beginning to think Mobius wasn't much better off before he arrived.

Anyway, I just realized I've barely talked about Sonic and Tails in this review. They spend most of the episode running away from the monster. Sonic using some magnet shoes and his speed to roll the aimless rocket towards the space station is mildly clever. (And, considering the physics of space, more accurate than the writers probably realized.) It's also notable that Sonic does the disguise gag even in outer space, further suggesting this is an innate superpower of his. Despite having lots of potential, I didn't really care for this episode too much. It should've focused more on the hungry space monster and less on the shrieky dialogue. But that's this show for ya. [5/10]