The Space Adventures of Little Gay Longcat

Part 32: I'm Sorry

Monkey Challenge: Give and Take

Superficially looking at this episode one could be forgiven in thinking it continues the trend of recent episodes to get - if anything - even sillier. This would be entirely down to the visual realisation of the monsters who appear in this episode.

If I say that the least ridiculous of the monsters resembles the most stereotypical Dracula imaginable (save only that he's played by a Japanese actor and not Bela Lugosi) then that tells you something of the level we're dealing with here.

However, beneath the surface appearance I find this is actually one of the deepest and most moving episodes of Monkey for quite some time.

The pilgrims encounter the aforementioned Dracula lookalike, who wants to drink Tripitaka's blood. He's no match for Monkey in a fight and so runs away, escaping with the help of a mysterious stranger who hides him.

But once Monkey and co have given up looking and Dracula's double can come out of hiding, the stranger kills him with a comically giant wooden stake. It turns out that the stranger is a monster hunter, and wanted to kill not-Dracula himself so he could claim a reward.

The next day the pilgrims arrive in a town where they find out a bit more of what's going on: this country is plagued by monsters, and the king offers a bounty of 10 gold pieces for bringing them in dead or alive.

They discover that the stranger they met is a skilled monster hunter, and he is growing rich from the number of monsters he has brought in. But he has alienated the townsfolk, who hate and fear him because he kills for money. Tripitaka also disapproves of this un-Buddhist activity.

So far so typical for a Monkey story, but then the plot really gets underway when Pigsy meets and befriends a blind girl. She tells him that it would cost her 100 gold pieces for an operation to restore her eyesight, and Pigsy - with Sandy's assistance - hits upon the idea of hunting a few monsters to earn her the money.

So Pigsy is now in competition with the monster hunter, and there is a great scene where they both fight a monster, with each trying to ensure that he is the one who kills it so he can claim the money. Pigsy is successful and claims his first 10 gold pieces, which he gives to the girl.

At this point the story takes another twist, when the king offers the monster hunter 50 gold pieces for killing Tripitaka, who he claims is the most evil monster of all, and the hunter is only too happy to take the job.

The two plot threads dovetail very nicely when the hunter goes to kill Tripitaka - when he gets there he overhears Pigsy explaining why he has taken to monster hunting to Tripitaka, and he then gets a glimpse of Tripitaka's humanity when the priest offers to pawn his holy relics (with him since the start of the series but very rarely mentioned since) to pay for the blind girl's operation.

The hunter confesses that he too was hunting the monsters for the gold to pay for the operation, because he is the brother of the blind girl. While not exactly the hardest twist in the world to guess, it is neatly executed and shows the hunter was doing questionable things but had good motives for doing them.

Monkey realises the king that offered him the money to kill Tripitaka must have been a monster in disguise, and this leads on the final confrontation between Monkey and the rest of the absurdly-becostumed monsters-of-the-week.

The story ends with Pigsy leaving the girl behind with her brother to have the operation. He has clearly grown a little this episode, because he has acted from good motives and, unusually for him, is embarrassed by the thought that, when she has her sight, she will see he is not as handsome as he made out.

The Internets are Escaping!

Oh noes! Tacnayn has escaped from the internets!

We need Nyancat to save us!

The Space Adventures of Little Gay Longcat

Part 31: Hello Edward

Monkey Challenge: Keep On Dancing

This has to be Monkey laughing at itself, with the self-taught Buddhists who have guessed at the right way to practice Buddhism, with hilarious - no, really - results when they meet a genuine Buddhist in the form of Tripitaka and his disciples.

My personal highlight is the now-obligatory cloud-flying chase scene, which is subverted by Monkey's cloud effortlessly overtaking the fleeing goblin's cloud because it is pedal-powered.

There's nothing in this episode to take seriously, which makes it great fun if you're in the right frame of mind.

Big Gay Longcat reviews Doctor Who: The Keys of Marinus

The Keys of Marinus is part six of The Keys of Marinus. It starts by showing the end of part five again - Susan 'phones Barbara to tell her that she has been kidnapped. Only Tarrant can save her, except it turns out he's called Tarron and not Tarrant.

They do sound very similar though, which is why I got confused last time.

Barbara, Altos and Sabetha visit Kala to look for clues. Kala is really a baddy in league with Eyesen (who you may remember was the really obvious baddy in Sentence of Death) but she fools them by crying.

As soon as they go away Kala makes an evil face. She is the one who has kidnapped Susan. Unfortunately for her, Kala gave herself away and Barbara realises she is the kidnapper and they catch her before she can kill Susan.

Barbara 'phones Tarron and he arrests Kala, but Kala pretends that Ian is her friend instead of Eyesen so Ian is not saved yet.

The Doctor and Tarron catch Eyesen trying to get the key, which Eyesen hid inside the murder weapon and then Tarron put inside a cupboard, so he is arrested and Ian is freed.

Ian, Barbara and Susan teleport away.

Then the Doctor teleports away too. They leave Tarron behind because he doesn't have a teleport bracelet. Otherwise he could have gone with them and had adventures.

Back at Arbitan's place, Arbitan is dead and Yartek (the Voord leader) has stolen his clothes and captured Altos and Sabetha off-screen. Yartek has all of Sabetha's keys but not the last one because the Doctor still has it. He threatens Sabetha and Altos tells him about the Doctor.

The Doctor and Ian meet a Voord and the Doctor knocks it out with his stick.

Ian and Susan see Yartek, but he is cunningly disguised as Arbitan with his hood up. He impersonates Arbitan so perfectly that he gets the last key from Ian.

Actually his impersonation was rubbish! Ian saw through it straight away and only gave him the fake key. Yartek puts what he thinks is the last key in the machine and it blows up. The Doctor rescues Altos and Sabetha and they all run away.

The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan all go off in the TARDIS after saying goodbye to Altos and Sabetha, who are staying on Marinus to have more adventures with Tarron!

That is how this fabulous and magnificent story ends, with a happy ending. I know the Doctor has more adventures with Barbara, Ian and Susan, but I don't know of any more stories that have Tarron, Altos and Sabetha in them. Maybe I will have to make them up myself?

The Space Adventures of Little Gay Longcat

Part 30: Any Weapons