| A Hero For Earth |
| Description: The episode where it all starts! Hoggish Greedly and his sidekick, Rigger, are drilling for oil in a wildlife refuge. The vibrations from the drilling awaken Gaia who, with Planet Vision, observes the damage humans have caused while she was asleep, so she sends out five magic rings across the globe. These rings are received by Kwame in Africa, Wheeler in New York City, Linka in the USSR, Gi in Asia, and Ma-Ti in South America. Upon putting on the rings, the five teenagers are transported to the island, where Gaia gives them a crash course on using their rings and then sends them out to stop Greedly. After a brief chat with Gaia while aboard the Geo-Cruiser, the Planeteers reach the site and almost immediately get attacked by Greedly. The oil he sprays at them jams the controls and the teens nearly crash but are saved by the combined powers of Wheeler, Linka, and then Kwame. While Wheeler and Greedly go at it verbally, Kwame and Linka set up a small boat that then carries the group to the shore. Remembering what Gaia told them while in the air, they combine their powers when they realize Greedly's machine is too much to handle. Captain Planet appears and makes short work of the mechanical monster until Greedly sprays him with toxic waste. Weakened by the pollution, Planet falls to the ground and is about to be crushed by the walker. Linka and Gi run off to get sea water to clean Planet with while the boys roll a boulder to protect him. The girls arrive just in time, and Planet manages to get out of the way just as the foot of the walker crashes to the ground. Renewed by the sunlight on his now clean globe that is situated on his chest, Captain Planet trashes the walker, but Greedly is nowhere to be found, having snuck into a nearby storm drain. Back on the ground Captain Planet talks to the Planeteers briefly before relinquishing his powers to the Planeteers' rings and disappearing. The Planeteers then proceed to clean the animals that had been affected by Greedly's drilling, using their powers to help in such things as heating water and rinsing off the creatures. Bloopers and Nitpickings: - Gaia's sleeping chambers can't be on Hope Island because they're affected by Greedly's damage to the wildlife refuge. However, later in the very same episode it's revealed that Gaia can't leave the island. - In the later episode "Mission To Save Earth part I" Wheeler says it was January 5th when they got to the island. In "The Dead Seas" we find that Linka is from Moskva (Moscow), which, for comparison, has the same latitude as the Hudson Bay in Canada. When Linka is seen playing the keyboards just before she gets her ring, it's quite bright out, which is impossible in Moskva on January 5th. The city barely clears the terminator line (where night and day meet, basically). - Now, I know the birds have to be somewhere in the winter, but to be flying around by Moskva on January 5th they'd become frozen solid in all likelihood. Similarly, Linka isn't wearing nearly enough to protect her from the cold and wind. - Continuing on the Moskva thing, Linka is seen standing on some sort of mountain peak. Only problem is, with the exeption of the Caucasus Mountains in the southwest at Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, and the Ural Mountains on the European-Asian border, Russia is pretty much flat all over in the west. There are certainly no mountains anywhere near Moskva. - Due to his speaking Swahili in later episodes, Kwame is likely from Tanzania or adjoining countries, all of which as in eastern Africa, and when we first see him the sun is just rising. However, due to the tilt of the earth, for it to be as bright in Moscow on January 5th as it is (assume for a minute that's possible somehow, and maybe it's about 10 AM or so in this imaginary scenario), Kwame would be somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. - Linka's voice is a lot deeper in the beginning of the episode then in the end. Gi and Wheeler's accents are also stronger when we first meet them (though these disappear over the course of a few episodes). - "Chyort voz'mi" is actually pronounced with the accent in "voz'mi" being on the "mi." - Kwame manages to close the gash he created in the ground without verbally invoking his ring, hinting at some sort of mental connection to them. - "Boshe moy" should be "Bozhe moy." Geez, Kath only has two phrases to say regularly, and she can't get either of them right. - Wheeler, like Kwame before, invokes his power without words when he burns his hand saying, "This is gonna be hot!" - Wheeler's reflection isn't refracted any in the curved surface of his ring. - If one looks closely enough, one can see that Greedly's fang-like upper teeth move almost like pincers when he talks instead of remaining stationary like regular teeth. - Linka needs the door removed to use her ring, but later in the series this is not needed, as the powers can go through the windshield. - Even though Linka rests on her seat and seemingly ceases to use her ring, her power still continues to keep the Geo-Cruiser aloft. - Somehow the Planeteers instinctively know what order to combine their powers in. - Captain Planet is missing his red boots. - The Planeteers never use their little boat thing ever again in the series. - Interesting that the trash can was strong enough to withstand what is probably a full ton of metal slamming into it. Also interesting that Rigger didn't break his neck falling in like that. - Kwame, despite the muscles we saw earlier, cannot so much as move Cap an inch when he tries to pick him up. - Due to its egg-like shape, the boulder the guys push over would have been nearly impossible for just those three to roll to a standing position in time. - I've never known the wind to clean up any messes, especially oil. - In the Planeteer Alert the lampshade is very crooked. That's just bothering me. Stuff We Find Out: - Gaia has been asleep for a century. - Kwame is from Africa. - Wheeler is from Brooklyn, New York. - Linka is from the Soviet Union. - Gi is from Asia, somewhere near the sea. - Ma-Ti is from a rainforest in South America. - Ma-Ti's ring enables him to read minds and know certain things instinctively. - Planet relinquishes the powers in reverse order. - There was something else, but I totally forget. Trivia: - Tanzania and the surrounding areas are nearly due south of Moskva, being just a bit to the west of the Russian capital. Perhaps the animators were picturing an equinox's terminator when they had it be bright in Moskva and daybreak where Kwame lived. - Linka had to leave her home just two days before Christmas, which is January 7th in Rossiya. Ouch! |