Same explanation for this out-of-order episode as for "Calm a Chameleon!" We will be returning to normal next time.
Honker witnesses a meteor crash, but no one is willing to listen to him until he tells Gosalyn. It turns out that, big surprise, it's aliens. They're these three alien, um, hats, that hop on people's heads to control them, sort of like the handlingers in Perdido Street Station. Their names are Flarg, Barada, and Nikto. Um, shouldn't that first one be "Klaatu?" Well, we learn at the end of the episode that that's the name of the leader of the hat people. But I don't know why they wouldn't use the name for the guy who's part of the trio.
I won't say these guys are particularly compelling villains, but this is still a cool episode because the day is saved entirely by Gosalyn and then a little by Honker at the end. Drake spends the whole episode first playing videogames and then possessed by a hat; during the latter segment, he's wearing the Darkwing costume for unclear reasons, but he never does any Darkwing things, which is a first for the show. And it builds up some pretty good Body-Snatchers type tension as Gosalyn tries desperately to avoid being assimilated.
Stray Observations
"I thought your hat was an alien!" "No--it was made right here in town!"
-Also, Honker is able to stand up to Tank, which is nice. And his family's reactions when the hat controlling him goes on TV to announce their imminent takeover of the world is relatively priceless: "And he's usually so shy! To think our little Honker could soon be ruling the planet! Looks like you might have to give him the bigger bedroom, dear!"
-Oh, an' also, we see the return (or perhaps first appearance? I'm all mixed up) of "Whiffle Boy," the videogame from Quackerjack's debut. Whoo?
Of course, it really should have been HAATU, Barada, Nikto. (And maybe at some point in story development, it was?)
ReplyDeleteRight you are--that's why you rake in the big bucks.
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