Various (director)
Network on Air (studio)
U (certificate)
325min (length)
08 May 2017 (released)
22 May 2017
Teamleader Dr. Tiger Ninestein once again calls upon his Terrahawks colleagues to take up the fierce battle against evil android crone Zelda and her various helpers. In Volume 3 of this much-loved Sci-fi puppet animation series the stakes are set even higher as a whole host of nasty new villains are prepared to fight the Terrahawks to destruction – including a super-intelligent and super-badass android baby called It-Star, as well as the mighty Sporilla, the Cyclops, space buccaneer Captain Goat, and last but not least Cold Finger. Shiver me timbers!
Episode One kicks off in hilarious style when Cy-Star, the yellow-haired and not very bright sister of Zelda, is about to gives birth… but there are complications and extremely nervous halfwit Yung-Star (Zelda’s son) is not only required to bring hot water but a crowbar to help the baby slither out… not via the usual passage but through Cy-Stars robotic belly. Hilarious! The little critter, baptised It-Star, confuses as due to arriving somewhat prematurely his sex cannot be specified and he ends up being a psychotic hermaphrodite who resembles a metallic android looking at the back of his head. His face is more disturbing than the one of serial killer doll Chucky and It-Star is very sweet when ‘it’ talks with his female voice but very dangerous when he plots with his male (and German!) voice. Still a toddler throughout the entire 13 episodes of Volume 3, It-Star soon outsmarts even his ever-scheming gran Zelda!
Over the following episodes, its business as usual as Tiger Ninestein, Captain Mary Falconer, Ltd. Hawkeye, Ltd. Hero and Captain Mary Falconer who, in her spare time, still churns out awful cheesy pop tunes aided by her bumbling music producer Stew who seems to develop a bit of a thing for her… And of course there are the Zeroids, spherical robots who all talk in different accents. Say no more.
Fans will be treated to fantastic adventures in Volume 3, including the capture of the Hawknest station, Zelda sending a gigantic egg to the moon which then hatches into a hideous one-eyed Cyclops, and a doppelgänger- statue of Yung-Star posing in a museum on planet Earth – ready to create havoc though it goes without saying he doesn’t have the intelligence to succeed! Meanwhile, Stew romances Kate in an American diner after a particular successful pop concert when suddenly, a gigantic UFO attacks (the special effects are particularly good here). And we make the acquaintance of Captain Goat – complete with eye patch and parrot earring – the space buccaneer who runs a pirate radio ship and thus hopes to lure the Terrahawks into a trap but when it comes to setting traps then little It-Star always seems one step ahead.
In another brilliant episode, Lord Tempo comes up with the evil plan to create a time warp sphere with the aim to slow down Terrahawk’s ability to ward off any cyber attack quick enough… and almost succeeds! Absolute highlight has to be the Sporilla episodes: when the gigantic Sporilla – a 7-foot metal chewing space gorilla – is captured by two astronauts and brought to Earth with the intend of selling the exotic specimen to a zoo for lots of cash things soon spin out of control. The zookeeper mistreats the Sporilla and Zelda, observing all from her lair, sends strength and power and soon the Sporilla grows in size and leaves the zoo in a state of utter destruction, understandable perhaps seeing how the creature was mistreated so badly. Ninestein and Falconer fly to the rescue but an attempt by Mary Falconer to lure the Sporilla into a trap backfires and the giant monster grabs then entire aircraft with Mary still inside and walks direction hills. In a scenario which can only be described as a homage to King Kong, the beauty of Captain Falconer incidentally kills the beast in an almighty showdown. However, the is no Sporilla corpse to be seen as Zelda always re-claims her own…
Volume 3 is full of surprises and twists and turns, the monsters in particular are great fun to look at – especially villain Cold Finger who turns everything to ice, a little like Batman’s Mr. Freeze. Perhaps too many accents left, right and centre and those who are not exactly fans of Kate Kestrel’s pop tunes (this reviewer isn’t!) will be disappointed to hear that Kate takes to the stage in almost every episode and one wonders whether a special soundtrack deal was going on here, masterminded by Terrahawks producer/creator Gerry Anderson. Still, there’s enough adventures left to thoroughly enjoy the adventures and battles between Earthling and Marsians!