the episode Mind Games from Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills really shows how far a villain will go when he cannot win a fair fight. In this story, the main bad guy Emperor Gorganus realizes he cannot defeat the teenagers in open battle, so he tries a completely different angle. He brings in a slippery sorcerer who fakes a total surrender and hands over his magic wand to the team. The young people fall for the trick completely, thinking they scored an easy victory, and they bring that dangerous object right back to the secret chamber of their blob leader Nimbar.

What makes this plot interesting to me is how it focuses on the psychological breakdown of the team. The magical wand is actually a mind control device, and the sorcerer uses it to twist Nimbar’s brain from a distance. Before you know it, the wise leader turns on his own warriors, fires them from their duties, and sends them packing. While this cosmic drama is happening, the young man Swinton is dealing with his own heavy issues at home because his father wants to transfer him to a different academy.

It shows you that even when the universe is at risk, these kids still have to face regular family struggles and find the strength to stand up for themselves.By the time the final act rolls around, the teenagers have to find a way to snap Nimbar out of his trance before the villain launches a massive invasion. The action scenes look incredibly cheap with people jumping around in tight spandex costumes, but the way the friends pull together to rescue their mentor is great to watch.

It does not take a university degree to see that the special effects are just plastic and rubber, but the lesson about staying alert and not letting your guard down is very solid. It is a goofy piece of entertainment that brings back great memories of how creative and genuinely unpredictable children television used to be back in the nineties.