Opening Miniseries -- 1989
Summary: The Joes are helping a poor village in the Himalayas get electricity. Leonard “Scoop” Michaels, a photojournalist/cameraman for United News, is reporting on what the Joes are doing and deliberately skewing it in the most negative light possible. Apparently he’s going for the big “Folks Opposed to Small Children Reading” demographic…
One of the Joes (I think it’s Low Light) calls Michaels “Scoop” and is told that “only my friends call me ‘Scoop’” by the big meanie Michaels.
Meanwhile, Cobra prepares to conquer the civilized world…again. Gotta love their enthusiasm! Not to mention the series wouldn’t go very far if Cobra just decided to kick back and stay home for once. “Screw this, Oprah’s on…”
Serpentor takes a brief moment out of plotting the takeover of the world to gloat at Cobra Commander, now a big old snake (cobra, natch). He taunts his former adversary even though the chances of the snake actually giving a rat’s ass are nil. And, he gives the snake a rat to eat. Then he beats up Gnawgahyde for calling him “Serpy” and “bloke.”
After this, we get an inkling for what the Plan to End All Plans is this time around: Cobra is going to attack a monastery conveniently located near the village the Joes were assisting. The monks at this monastery happen to have a secret weapon at their disposal: the Dragonfire energy. They are able to use sonic vibrations to release this Dragonfire energy against their enemies. Cobra wants this energy in order to wreak havoc and take over the world!
It’s also around here that Destro decides to drop the Baroness for Zarana (who’s now sporting a white streak in her hair, making her look like a pink skunk). The Baroness is understandably pissed at Destro for throwing her over for a younger and skankier woman, but she hides it well, leaving with Gnawgahyde in order to prepare their forces for the attack. She also hints to Gnawgahyde that things would be different if they were to bring Cobra Commander back. Gnawahyde agrees.
At the monastery, the monks see Cobra coming but make no move to unleash the Dragonfire since it’s too soon in the episode to do that. Instead, they send a runner to let the Joes know they’re under attack. “Sarge’s Marauders” head off with Scoop in tow.
Sarge’s Marauders, in this case, are Barbeque, Low Light, Rock and Roll and Sarge himself. A few other Joes show up later, but between the fact that new characters were being introduced at this time and old characters were being given new outfits/color schemes/etc, I was having a hard time identifying them. Not to mention I was taking notes while watching.
Cobra attacks the Joes when they show up, and Sarge ends up trapped under the burning wreckage of a house. Scoop rushes in to get footage for the evening news and to pull Sarge out of the wreckage. In the process, Scoop’s footage is what get wrecked. Sarge is so grateful that he recruits Scoop on the spot (and conveniently has a “GI Joe uniform” that suits Scoop’s particular modus operandi to a tee). Scoop gets all mushy about this and tells the guys that they can call him Scoop now, ‘cause they’re all friendly-like.
The monks, it is revealed, will only release their Dragonfire energy if the statues at their central monastery are threatened. Cobra, naturally, moves in for the attack and the monks begin to chant while the head monk pulls a couple levers that sets the mechanisms that release the Dragonfire energy into motion. Luckily for the monks and Cobra, the mechanisms have apparently been well-maintained over the centuries so we get to see a lot of blue, mystical swirly animation rather than hear the equivalent of “Oh crap…” in Tibetan.
It’s at this point that we learn that the monk who had questioned the head monk earlier about “Hey, why don’t we just smite our enemies with the Dragonfire?” is really a Crimson Guardsman. We’re also told that the Crimson Guardsmen are Destro’s troopers, so apparently things have changed within Cobra’s command structure since Cobra Commander was once a man.
Cobra gets the monks to release the energy, then retreats so that the second part of their insidious plan can go into action. GI Joe meets with the head monk, who shows them a map revealing other locations where Dragonfire energy can be found and mentioning that if anyone were to harness the energy in all four locations, they would be able to rule the world. Thus, the rest of the episodes are set up. This is a lot like Pyramid of Darkness, in that each of the next four episodes is going to revolve around trying to keep Cobra from getting to some place first. More on that later.
Scoop takes footage of the map and then asks if it’s okay if he goes to take shots of the rest of the monestary. Sarge tells him to go ahead but not to get in anyone’s way. AS he walks off, Sarge asks the other Joes what they thin of the new guy. Rock and Roll say that he thinks Scoop is okay while Low Light says there’s something about him that he doesn’t trust.
Chalk one up for ol’ Low Light since the next sequence is the one that reveals that not only is one of the monks really a Crimson Guardsman, but so is Scoop! The two of them meet to exchange information. The monk has gotten a recording of the chant on CD, while Scoop has the aforementioned map. Scoop uses his camera to transmit a message to Serpentor, telling him that the secret entrance to the monestary is now open and that the Dragonfire will be Cobra’s. Whoot!
Serpentor is, naturally, very happy about all this. Scoop takes a moment to reveal to us why he hates GI Joe so much: apparently the Joes were the ones who destroyed his family home and (presumably) killed his family though this is never mentioned.
After Scoop’s transmission ends, we learn the truth: Cobra really destroyed the home though, according to Destro, it was an accident. There’s a bit of a hint from Serpentor that perhaps it was more of an “accident” than an accident but…
Now that the way is open to them, Cobra invades the monestary again and takes it, leaving the Joes and the monks no option but to retreat. It wasn’t quite clear why they were doing this, except that it was in the script.
While the Joes and the monks wait outside, Cobra brings in computer synthisizers and other equipment. The CG monk gives Serpentor the disk with the chants and the map. Cobra uses the computer equipment to interpret the mystical symbols that would make it possible for them to use the Dragonfire as a powerful, offensive weapon. Serpentor again taunts Cobra Commander, only to find out from Zarana that he (CC) has vanished. Serpentor assumes the snake is just off eating bugs or some such, when in reality he’s been rescued by Gnawgahyde and the Baroness.
Outside, the head monk and Slaughter debate attacking the monestary again. Sarge wants to stop Cobra, while the Head Monk doesn’t want his monestary destroyed. He mentions that it would be impossible for Cobra to make the Dragonfire into a weapon.
Guess what happens next? Cobra does the impossible and releases the Dragonfire energy, driving the Joes and the monks back.
“Men, we’ve gout our work cut out for us,’ Sarge says as the episode ends and we get a tight closeup on Scoop.
End Day One
Commentary: Operation: Dragonfire is probably the strongest collection of episodes in the DiC series. Granted, the writing isn’t up to the standards of the (better) Sunbow episodes, but the series does do a good job of setting itself up. It’s internally consistent and in some ways does things that the original series never thought of. Basically, the first episode is the set up for the rest of the episodes. New characters are introduced, specifically Scoop on the Joe side and Gnawgahyde on the Cobra side. We’ll get a few more as time goes on.