Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Thundarr the Barbarian: "The Brotherhood of Night" (November 15, 1980)

In “The Brotherhood of Night,” Thundarr, Ariel and Ookla ride through the ruins of Washington D.C., and Thundarr notes (amusingly) that “these woods have an evil reputation.”  Some people would say the same thing about the city today.

Thundarr's description proves accurate when he learns of a werewolf cult that is transforming innocent villagers into lycanthropes. The leader of the werewolves also hopes to transform the powerful wizard Infernus into a man-beast, in hopes of making his pack invincible.

When Thundarr is bitten by a werewolf, Ariel and Ookla must discover a way to reverse his transformation…

I must confess that at several episodes in at this point, the imagery of Thundarr the Barbarian is proving far more interesting and creative than the narratives are.  

Although “Brotherhood of the Night” throws werewolves into the mix, the story is very similar to previous ones. In particular animal people battle human villagers for supremacy and Thundarr interferes to fight on behalf of the humans. So far we’ve seen shark-people (“Attack of the Amazon Women”) bat people (“Raiders of the Abyss”) and crocodile people (“Harvest of Doom.”) 

Even the idea here, of Thundarr transformed into an enemy, harks back to “Harvest of Doom,” and Ookla’s enslavement under the influence of death flowers. 

Thus far, Thundarr has shown precious little variation in stories, and the repetitive nature of the stories is becoming a bit dull.

But again, I must accentuate the beautiful post-apocalyptic visuals. In this episode, Thundarr visits the ruins of D.C., and very frame in the half-hour features famous aspects of that town. In short order, we see the Capitol Dome, the White House, and Smithsonian. 

In fact, the episode’s final battle is set at the museum, and once more we get the weird (and slightly unsettling…) notion regarding this post-apocalyptic future.  All of our history is lost, and insignificant…just background material in a barbarous world of magic, mysticism and savagery.

Next week: “Challenge of the Wizards.”