Episode 10: Stalker from the Stars. Thundarr, Ariel and Ookla are traveling a snowy and treacherous mountain range when a flaming object falls from the sky and melts the ice bridge they were crossing, sending Ookla, who was already suffering a cold, tumbling down to a mountain ledge. Thundarr brachiates down some icicles to help Ookla, having to face off with an “ice tiger” that emerges suddenly from a cave. Thundarr inhumanely cuts off the ice tiger’s claws with his sun sword and sends the poor animal tumbling off the mountain, and Ariel pulls them back up to the pass with a lasso made from magic. They seek shelter from the cold, the mystery of what fell from the sky haunting Ariel.
Miraculously surviving the fall, the ice tiger approaches the sky-fallen object — some sort of alien spaceship — and is snared in a cocoon that shoots from it and a giant salamander-like alien burrows away from the ship into the ice (I think). Meanwhile the heroes come upon an abandoned weather station which is manned by an Eskimo girl in a parka named Mina, and when Ookla sneezes so hard that his snot breaks down the station door, the Eskimo girl agrees to take them to her village which is an old amusement park buried in an ice cave. Ookla is served nourishing soup from the kindly village elder, but the hospitality is ruined when the alien creature breaks through the ground and cocoons the elder. Thundarr and Ariel try to free the elder but neither magic nor sun sword have any affect on the alien’s cocoon and it absconds with the elder back into the frozen ground.
Thundarr organizes a search party of torch-wielding villagers to search for the alien, but it only results in the poor villagers being captured at various carnival attractions. The heroes and Mina search the Tunnel of Love attraction and Ariel remarks that it must have been a very romantic place in ancient times, but old softie Thundarr only sees darkness and evil. The alien appears and captures Mina, so the heroes follow its burrowing tracks to the Funhouse attraction. Ookla is attacked by the alien in the room of mirrors but manages to escape via his powerful sneeze, only to rejoin his friends and be attacked again in a room full of monster statues. All seems lost for the heroes as they struggle against the alien’s cocoon and we go to a commercial break.
Ookla breaks Thundarr free of the alien’s cocoon by throwing a mummy statue at it, and Ariel frees herself and Ookla with magic. Thundarr dodges the alien’s eye lasers and Ookla goes to smash it with a Wolfman statue, but he sneezes on the alien which proves more effective in driving it away. Thundarr questions why the alien is stealing live humans, and Ariel uses a Dracula statue to illustrate her belief that the alien is vampiric by nature. They go to warn the villagers but find they are all gone, and Ariel, after admonishing Ookla for sneezing loudly, is ensnared by the alien and lifted up on to a roller coaster. Thundarr and Ookla ride the roller coaster to battle the alien, but it escapes with Ariel into an ice tunnel.
The alien brings Ariel back to its ship and deposits her in a chamber with the cocooned villagers, but Ariel uses her magic to free herself from the cocoon which you think she would have done earlier. The alien chases Ariel around the ship but she finds a portal, managing to escape the ship right as Thundarr and Ookla miraculously arrive via their trusty steeds. The ship starts to fly off and Thundarr jumps on to it to save the villagers, getting inside and battling the weakened alien as Ariel and Ookla watch frustrated from the ground. The ship crashes back down to earth and Thundarr and the alien tumble out, and the alien uses its lasers to somehow animate an old snow plow and make it attack Thundarr. That proves ineffective against Thundarr’s sun sword and the heroes manage to trap the alien in an old phone booth, and Ariel surmises the alien was weakened when it caught Ookla’s cold.
The heroes free the villagers from their cocoons and Ariel uses her magic to send the alien and its ship back in to space which seems a tad irresponsible. Thundarr suggests they get going for more adventures but newly infected Ariel sneezes, feeling in no condition to travel.
Shades of both the Thing and my favorite movie of all time Alien here, which added to the amusement park and classic monster elements make this one for the history books. 5 stars.
Thundarr faces the Ice Tiger!
Ookla enjoys some hot nourishment and the promise of popcorn.
Ookla employs a mummy for an unusual purpose!
Ariel references the Prince of Darkness!