"This...this ritual. What is it?" sputters the Overlord, as he watches a flashback image of Blackstar locked in a passionate embrace with a blonde, who is now a prisoner in the Ice Castle and under a hypnotic spell. The entranced blonde answers, "Something...called...love." Some say it is the most powerful force in the entire universe." Umm, okay." Not that the Overlord gets it, because he immediately replies, "They have never seen the Powerstar at work." And that's basically the thrust of this episode. We get both a sappy love story and the Powerstar, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves here.

Twenty years ago when we first saw this episode, we were horrified. Here was Our Hero, that sword-wielding, asskicker of the half-hour, getting sappy over some blonde bimbo who wasn't Mara. Major gross-out time, or as that softhearted fellow Rif puts it: dizz-gustin Only later, as a mature fan, did we understand what Filmation was trying to accomplish: to explain in part Blackstar's past and give him some emotional tie to Earth. The problem isn't with the premise; it lies in Tom Ruegger's writing. It just isn't up to the challenge.

That having been said, the plot of this winning episode is--get this--Blackstar's ditsy Earth girlfriend follows a photon vapor trail through the black hole to Sagar and immediately manages to locate Our Hero. It's one hell of a vapor trail, too; Katana is basically able to home in on Blackstar because his photon-emitting starship failed its yearly Smog Check.

The black hole is incredibly cheesy. The animators could have at least tried to give us the familiar swirling cloud of stellar matter, anything but the circular black cutout they paste on the background. And if you think the exterior shot is bad, the interior is worse. This isn't the bone-crushing event horizon of a collapsing star--it's a bad funhouse ride with all sorts of wavy colored lines. There isn't even much turbulence, which begs the question: how did Blackstar manage to fuck it up so badly?

On the way down, the glowing trail of her ship is spotted by the Overlord and his Vizir, who just happens to be watching the proceedings from a stalactite-mounted viewscreen in the Ice Castle. Of course, being evil and ever resourceful, the Overlord immediately sees a use for such a ship and gives orders that it be captured.

Notice that Earth Command refers to our ditsy blonde pilot as "Lieutenant Katana" and nothing else. Seems that Tom Ruegger was too lazy to even provide her with a plausible last name. "Smith" or "Jones" would have been good enough for us. If Kat is a lieutenant, what, we wonder, is Blackstar's rank in the organization? And could that goofy-looking commander (left) be Our Hero's superior officer? So many questions, so little time.

The goofy lava locs from "Search for the Starsword" are back, and man, they just don't quit. Blackstar and Katana share one hell of a date as they go from one pitfall after another, with Our Hero trying to keep Katana out of harm's way. Five minutes on the planet and this woman just can't stay out of trouble. First the lava locs grab her, then an eaglelion carries her off. If she was so determined to go through a black hole and into an alternate universe to find Blackstar, why wasn't Katana at least bright enough to bring along some heavy artillery?

Eventually, she ends up in the hands of the Overlord, who shows us yet again why he never gets the girl. Thanks to the Vizir, Katana is subjected to some brutal mind control, in which she tells the Overlord and his Vizir that her ship is a "fusion-drive Timeship, capable of multi-dimensional travel." Don't ask us to explain what all this technobabble means. The Vizir is one slimy little bastard, rummaging around in Kat's head for some of Our Hero's dirty laundry; his efforts produce the hot flashback scene described above, in which you'll ponder the cheesiness of futuristic Earth fashions. One has to wonder at the Vizir's motives for digging up this little nugget; it definitely phazes the Overlord, who asks in genuine confusion what the hell is going on. The trance-bound Katana blathers on about love. Go ahead and hit the mute button. You're not missing anything.

In the midst of all this, Kat reveals her reason for coming to Sagar: to pick up John-boy and take him home. Excellent. Our favorite bad guy is more than willing to go along, provided Katana do him a little favor. She gets the Starsword for him, she and Blackstar can take the ship and go home. And Katana is just dumb enough to take him at his word.

If you're Blackstar, you know you're in some deep shit when you show up to rescue your girlfriend, only to have her pick up the fallen Starsword, tell you in a wacky monotone that she loves you and that she's doing it "for us."

To be fair, Katana does have second thoughts. The Trobbits, caught in a force field nearby (why can't the little buggers ever just stay at home and leave the rescue attempt up to the professionals?), urge her not to hand over the Starsword. She listens, and actually tries to use the weapon against the Overlord. Why is it that everyone thinks they can use these swords? Neptul tries with the Powersword in "Kingdom of Neptul," Nihilis tries to use a radioactive Starsword in "Air Whales of Anchar," and the lava locs actually vaporize each other earlier in this episode.

Once again, it's the slimy Vizir to the rescue, knocking the Starsword from Katana's hand into the Overlord's.

And then....

All hell breaks loose in the Ice Castle as the Overlord blowing things up. This guy is really enjoying his moment with the Powerstar; you can tell by the way he toys with his enemies, paralyzing Mara and Klone in a life-draining red force field and then taking potshots at Blackstar and Katana.

The two manage to run for Katana's ship, where, if you blink you'll miss an amazing moment. In the midst of battle, Our Hero gets a little action (left). How does this guy do it? You've got to feel sorry for Mara, who's sloughed off like a sack of old potatoes; at one point, a tear spills from the corner of her eye. We know from other episodes that Mara has a major crush on the alpha-male Blackstar. Never has it been more obvious, or pathetic.

Compare this situation with the crush Thundaar the Barbarian's Princess Ariel has on the title hero. Naturally, her crush goes unrequited, because Thundaar is a bonehead who doesn't have a clue when it comes to love; he's been a slave most of his life, so his ignorance is understandable. He rebuffs Ariel without realizing what he's doing. On the other hand, it's very obvious that Blackstar has a clear grasp of the birds and the bees, and one has to wonder why a powerful, capable woman like Mara doesn't give him a swift knee to the groin to straighten him out. Perhaps if Katana were a more believable, sympathetic love interest, Blackstar's preference would be understandable. As it is, she only appears in this one episode and is never mentioned again.

Once Katana is safely inside her ship, Blackstar runs back out to cover her escape. He's immediately floored by the Powerstar. For once, though, Kat does something right. Yeah, she might have a whopper of an Excedrin headache (the Vizir isn't exactly a gentle touch), but she recovers long enough to turn on her ship's engines. The blast knocks the Overlord back into the wall, and the Powerstar out of his hand, where it breaks apart into its separate pieces.

Both swords look exactly alike. How does Blackstar know which one to pick up?

Katana is still trying to get him to leave with her, but she can't take off while the Overlord is blasting the hell out of the place. Blackstar covers her escape while she lifts off. Outside, the Trobbits see the departing ship and share a tearful moment (gets out hanky) as they think Blackstar has gone with her. Aw, sniff. Yeah, right. Come on, guys. Like there's any chance this guy is leaving.

Back on the Earthward side of the black hole, Katana tells her superiors that she's found Blackstar, and what's more, she wants the entire space fleet cause she's going back to help this guy. Uh-huh, sure, Kat. Unless her ship has external cameras and footage of the whole shebang, we highly doubt anybody back on Earth is going to believe her crazy story. Not even that dorky superior officer from the beginning.

It's really too bad we never got a sequel to this episode. The writers could have had a blast with an Aliens-type story involving a platoon of tough, leathery U.S. Marines landing on Sagar, cocking their high-powered laser rifles and grunting, "Semper fi this, Overlord."

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