Dr. Miguelito Loveless makes his fifth of ten appearances in ‘The Night of the Green Terror.” This time around, he is playing Robin Hood. However, he is not robbing from the rich to give to the poor. He is actually taught a lesson in conservative economic principles. Fancy that.Jim and Artie are traveling through the forest on their way to an Indian reservation which has been suffering from a longtime famine. They have seen nothing but dead foliage and no animals for three days. Suddenly, they are accosted by Robin Hood’s Merry Men and taken to see Loveless.
Loveless is behind both the famine and a plot to turn the Indians into his personal army by posing as a great spirit in invincible armor who is supplying them food seemingly out of nowhere. The Indians have became literally enslaved by beig on Loveless’ dole to the point they resent the United States’ help with developing new farming techniques. Why work when you can et welfare, right?
Loveless promises to use his latest ivetion--incendiary bombs carried by helium balloons--to destroy American cities for the Indians to loot, with his Armored Spirit alter ego as their leader, of course. Jim challenges his authority, which prompts the Indians to demand a duel between Jim and the Armored Spirit.. Loveless cheats by usig a exploding mace, but Jim does not fall for it and up on the mad midget.
He wins the Indians’ respect, so they start farmig again utilizing the techniques they have learned. Moral of the story: give a man a fish, he will eat for a day and vote Democrat. Teach a man to fish, he will eat for a lifetime and vote Republican--unless he is from California or Massachusetts, in which case the guilt of his success will prompt him to vote Democrat again. Or something like that.
“The Night of the Green Terror” is not one of the better Loveless episodes, but it is enjoyable. Jim an Artie spend more time iteracting with the newly hostile Indians than their archenemy, so he does not getas much screen time to induge in his usual amusing quirks. The episode sufers from their absence. But my philosophy is subdued Loveless is better than no Lovelessat all, so I like it regardless.
Ratig: *** (out of 5)
