By Si Hunt

"Daimar the Demon"

Daimar the Demon escapes from another Dimension, but sods off back there when He-Man teaches him about friendship. No, really!

Adam changes into "He-Man" with Man-At-Arms watching, for once. He-Man also says "by the Power of Grayskull", which is rare as it's usually just Adam that says it. Grayskull glows when under attack from the alien Dimension.

A mixture of Man-At-Arms science and the sorceress' "Book of Magic" prove the presence of the new dimension.

When we encounter Teela she seems to be standing on her own, spinning a baton around for no reason.

Orko's the cause of all this trouble, as he frees Daimar from the other dimension. The Sorceress has a "Book of Magic" which is full of complex looking equations like "Sine" (ooh scary). When she's first seen in Castle Greyskull, she's busy making "a spell of liquid light". Why? Why not just pop down Halford's for some attractive garden lighting for the outside of her castle? It beggars sense.

King Randor and Queen Marlena are back! He eats a bit of chicken like a pig, she looks nice and regal. They fail to do any notable King or Queening, as usual.

Skeletor has a crappy spirograph thing, actually drawing jagged lines to measure the power levels of the new Dimension with a pen. He seems scared when the alien power first manifests itself.

Everyone starts pronouncing Evil Lynn's name as "Evelyn", for some reason. She has designs on Daimar's power and of usurping Skeletor with it (the minx).

Daimar the Demon is, at first, a cute chipmunk thing. Then (for reasons of his own) he creates himself a cocoon thing that looks like a giant roast chicken and goes to sleep. When he wakes up, he's a fearsome monster.

"If I'm right, his army of demons will come through a pan-dimensional rift to conquer Eternia!". Life is never SIMPLE is it?

"Anyone want to buy a used bolo?" quips He-Man. WHAT!?

Interestingly, there is "another Universe" on the edge of the one in which He-Man exists and punches people in, and (wait for it) it's called "The Dark Dimension"! (clearly 'Universe' and 'Dimension' are getting a bit muddled here). "The closeness is what keeps the delicate balance between science and sorcery on Eternia," claims Man-At-Arms, which initially sounds like bollocks but is actually rather interesting when you think about it. Perhaps the Dark Dimension is governed entirely my magic, our Universe is wholly magic-free, and the Eternian one exists in the middle with a bit of both.

To compound the Doctor Who connection, the "city of the Eternals" is also mentioned.

There are some 'unusual' shots in this episode - first, when Man-At-Arms looks at the computer screen, he adopts a very camp stance with his bottom stuck out. Then we get a close up of He-Man's thighs, as if he's naked. Finally, a whacking great shot of the Sorceress' fanny. This must be what He-Man porn is like.

The Book of Magic seems like it's been written for a 3-year old - the cocoon page has a picture of a Cocoon and the word 'Cocoon' beneath it in huge letters. The picture of Daimar similarly has a nice image of him, with "Daimar" printed beneath it in huge kiddy-friendly type.

In the beginning, everyone goes off to dinner suddenly, leaving the Book of Magic open on the right page for Orko to find. Later, Evil Lynn finds it open on the right page too. Just put it in a drawer or something!

Two people separately try and defeat Daimlar by tying him up with rope.

"Well, that Daimar was really quite a fellow wasn't he?"

Yes, he was. Trying to break through to our dimension and over-run it with evil demons. The scamp.

"Orko had no idea just what he was getting into with his mixed up magic spell, but he soon found out that he'd let loose something he couldn't handle. Now we know that in real life there aren't any magic spells or demons, but there are problems. And just like Orko sometimes you'll find you've got one that's too big for you to handle. At times like that remember there are a lot of people out there who really care about you. So talk to them, telling them what's wrong, is the first step toward making things right."

Astonishingly, given that He-Man defeats the Demon by telling him friendship is quite good, the moral is about not bottling up a secret. How about "be wary of new friends - especially if they spin themselves a cocoon and turn into a ten foot hairy Demon"?

Actually not bad, bar He-Man's cheesy resolution. There is less fisting than usual (always good) and some exciting stuff with Grayskull. He-Man promises to be Daimar's friend at the end (shortly before packing him back off to another Universe) but it's hard to see them playing chess or going ski-ing together. The lying cunt.