TV Review – “Robotech: The Master Saga”

Here’s my long-overdue review of the second
generation of Robotech. It would have been here
sooner, if the first twelve episodes hadn’t been
so incredibly slow and uninvolving.

Cast

The cast list is huge. Read it at the IMDB page
here.

Original Airdate

Robotech: The Masters Saga first aired in 1985.

The Masters Saga

The Masters Saga is comprised of episodes 37-60
of Robotech. This was
originally a series whose title translates to
Southern Cross.

Synopsis

The Robotech Masters arrive on Earth to pick up
where the Zentraedi
left off. They want the Protoculture Matrix that
was aboard the
SDF-1, and if they have to destroy humanity to
get it, that’s what
they’ll do.

High Point

The episode Crisis Point. It really
brought things together
and redeemed the incredibly slow early episodes.

Low Point

Once again, it’s the narrator. He was still
usually extraneous, and
still has a knack for stating the incredibly
obvious.

The Review

For originality, this portion does better
than
Macross, although not by much. It’s
still composed of tons
of things we’ve seen before, but at least these
recycled ideas aren’t
used as often. The idea of the spores
communicating between worlds is
something I’ve only seen in the horrid Verhoeven
version of
Starship Troopers, and it came first in
Robotech. 3
out of 6.

The effects were pretty shoddy. The
animation is poor, often
involving transparent people, especially when
they’re standing in from
of a window. I give it 2 out of 6.

The story was slow starting, but things
really picked up in
the second half of the run. The story started
moving when Zor came to
the forefront. I give the first twelve episodes
2, and the last
twelve 4, for an average of 3 out of 6.

The voice acting was decent. I know
that the voice actors
were constrained to the existing visuals, and
they did a decent job,
but let’s face it; the only reason those
constraints existed was that
the producers didn’t have the capital (or,
perhaps, the desire) to
actually develop a whole new show, so they bought
three others and
cobbled them together. 3 out of 6.

For my emotional response, well, the
whole thing was kind of
bland. The first twelve episodes inspired a lot
of boredom, but I’m
sure that’s not what the producers were going
for. My responses to
the last twelve episodes were mostly lukewarm. I
give it 2 out of 6.

The production was shoddy all around.
The editing was poor,
the sound and score irritating and high, and the
dialogue was
occasionally muffled by the ambient noise and
music. I give it 3 out
of 6.

Overall, the episodes are really only
worth watching for the
nostalgia value. I give them 3 out of 6.

In total, Robotech: The Masters Saga
received 19 out of 42.