1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000 This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work at MJMunoz.com. 2 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:12,500 Welcome to Red Panda Report where I talk about and analyze episodes of the Red Panda, 3 00:00:12,500 --> 00:00:18,000 which is inspired by the Shadow and other serial characters. He's Canada's greatest superhero. 4 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:25,000 And you can find every episode of Red Panda at DakotaRingTheatre.com, your address to adventure. 5 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:33,000 So, this is episode 10 of Red Panda Adventures that I'm going to be talking about. It's called The Ghost Ship. 6 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:36,000 And here's the copy written for it. 7 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:43,000 A cargo ship, hopelessly lost in the fog. From out of the darkness comes an eerie glow, brimming with it... 8 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:48,000 No, sorry. Bringing with it an impossible specter from the past and disaster. 9 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:56,000 Again and again, the terrifying scene is played out until the city can bear the attacks no more. 10 00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:04,000 Our heroes take to the water to bring this menace to an end. But can even the Red Panda solve the mystery of the Ghost Ship? 11 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:10,000 Which I think is great. And again, I believe that's written by Greg Taylor, who's the writer and director of this episode, 12 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:16,000 which was originally published, released whatever, on May 13th, 2006. 13 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:20,000 And here we go. I'm going to go ahead and start talking about this episode. 14 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:30,000 So, there was an interesting thing in the beginning where Red Panda, in his civilian form, or his civilian identity, 15 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:37,000 showed up at a meeting of some of the city's wealthiest men, where, along with Police Chief O'Malley, 16 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:43,000 where they were talking about these Ghost Ship attacks, slash robberies, or whatever. 17 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:54,000 And it puts him on the right path to figuring out that this is some sort of heist that's going on in the guise of a Ghost Ship attack, 18 00:01:54,000 --> 00:02:00,000 or, I don't know, hunting, or whatever. So that's pretty interesting. 19 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:06,000 And we get shortly after... So this episode actually starts with... It starts on a ship. 20 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:18,000 It reminds me of the Shadow episode called Sabotage, which is one of the episodes that I did a review of in the run-up to the official launch of Red Panda Report. 21 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:27,000 I did all these bonus episodes and special episodes where I talked about key... Not key, but like some fun special episodes of the Shadow radio serial, 22 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:33,000 all the way back from the 1930s, that this very much takes the form of, or is inspired by, like I mentioned earlier. 23 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:48,000 And it was really interesting, and this distinguishes itself from that in that it's not specifically Sabotage, or a Sabotage ring, or Spree that is taking place, 24 00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:56,000 and there's no... There's a little bit of a similar vibe, but it's definitely its own episode, and I wouldn't accuse Taylor of stealing or anything like that. 25 00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:59,000 It's just... It's very much inspired by it, which is not a problem. 26 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:10,000 And there are a lot of distinctions that set them apart from each other, so I mean, even if the core idea is the same, well, yeah, it's man versus man, isn't it? 27 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:19,000 It's crime versus criminals versus innocent people who are having their property rights violated. 28 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:27,000 And... Sorry. And it's interesting, because there is this theme that I will get to later, because I want to focus on the beginning of the episode. 29 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:33,000 We start off in the ships with the attacks happening, or the ghost, you know, the hauntings happening, whatever you want to call it, 30 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:39,000 and then we have the meeting of the men, and then it transitions into on a ship. 31 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:45,000 Well, I think... I can't remember if Red Panda and Flying Squirrel were talking or not, or if it went right into them being on a ship, 32 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:48,000 and then they have a discussion afterwards about how they got in there. 33 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:58,000 I think that's what it was, but regardless, there's this neat transition of them going onto the ship, and then Red Panda introduces himself as Mr. Simmons, 34 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:07,000 who's an insurance auditor, insurance agent type person, who's investigating what is going on with these ships and what this haunting thing is, 35 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:16,000 and he gives his name as Simmons, and I thought, ah, is this another instance where we're getting a red herring or a fake name for Simmons, 36 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:24,000 or will we learn someday perhaps maybe the Red Panda's real name, and it'll be Simmons? I don't know, or maybe it will be Simon something, you never know. 37 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:30,000 And that might be something I keep track of, although it might just be something I poke fun at and play around with as time goes on, 38 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:34,000 and we hear different aliases used by that marvelous masked mystery man. 39 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:39,000 So, again, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with that, but I thought that was an interesting detail. 40 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:47,000 Also, I think I'll save talking about the villain group for last, because it isn't a haunting. 41 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:52,000 Not that there couldn't be hauntings in the Red Panda's universe, at least that we know of so far, 42 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:56,000 but he definitely is skeptical of it being a haunting, and he suspects it's some other thing. 43 00:04:56,000 --> 00:05:00,000 So I'm going to talk about the tech and devices that they had. 44 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:07,000 Red Panda mentions, he's carrying a ridiculous amount of gas grenades and gas canisters, 45 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:13,000 so I would assume one gas grenade covers a certain area, and a gas canister would cover several more, 46 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:18,000 three, four times the amount of a grenade, but regardless, we don't get that specific detail. 47 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:25,000 But we know he's carrying, I think, maybe a dozen total gas ordinances or gas rounds on his person, 48 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:31,000 in his coats of his, you know, his billowy trench coat and whatnot, and the flying squirrel makes mention of that, 49 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:34,000 and she says, hey, you know, I don't have all the room that you have, 50 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:37,000 and he says, well, why don't you wear the utility belt that I got you? 51 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:40,000 And this is kind of a cute moment between them. She says, it makes me look hippie. 52 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:47,000 And I don't think he comments on that, but it's kind of a funny moment between the two of them, 53 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:53,000 and it tips off that he has made her a utility belt that she is not yet wearing. 54 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:58,000 I believe she definitely embraces that utility belt at some point later on. 55 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:03,000 I can think of a specific episode, maybe in season two, where she's got to have it, 56 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:08,000 because she has too many weapons and gadgets on her to not have it. 57 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:16,000 So it's kind of cool to hear how her suits evolved or how her equipment has evolved, you know, through the story. 58 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:26,000 Another point of evolution of their tech and suits and gadgets is that they have specially made underwater versions of their costumes, 59 00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:31,000 which apparently Red Panda still has a trench coat with it, so I don't know what makes it underwater. 60 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:38,000 Maybe it's moisture wicking so the water comes off of it really easily or something like that for them to infiltrate or skulk about 61 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:41,000 and not leave a bunch of water behind or who knows what. 62 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:48,000 Maybe it uses the wonderful power of static electricity to repel the water or eliminate the water once they've gotten wet or once they're out of the water. 63 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:53,000 I don't know. Could be an interesting thing to go into, but they have these different suits, so that's kind of cool. 64 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:58,000 And then one more thing I think is the last tech or gadget item. 65 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:04,000 Red Panda has a miniature portable set of navigational equipment, which I don't know if in the 30s they would have had that. 66 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:08,000 That would have been a common thing, but he definitely has it and he brought it with him in the ship. 67 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:14,000 And he speculates that whatever is messing with the navigational equipment on the ship is probably messing with his too 68 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:18,000 because he doesn't see anything wrong with it according to the equipment that he's brought with him. 69 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:27,000 So that's pretty interesting. And let me see. Is there another element to talk about with the lore here? 70 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:35,000 I don't think... I can't think of anything with the lore except for in this episode, as we explore the villains, 71 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:39,000 we get a very vague hint of who they are and what they are. 72 00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:47,000 And I think from a meta perspective, because we know that this is in the 30s before World War II had begun, 73 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:55,000 before, you know, I think the rise of the Nazi party was only a couple years before World War II actually started. 74 00:07:55,000 --> 00:07:58,000 But I could be wrong. It could have been up to a decade. I don't know. 75 00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:06,000 Yeah, I know it's kind of a complicated mess because they're, you know, they're in the National Socialist Party 76 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:13,000 and they, you know, become fascistic, which means that they want to integrate the government into private industry, 77 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:19,000 which, you know, that's what socialists want too. They want... it's just these weird... it's just weird. 78 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:28,000 You can have... you can have socialists and authoritarians who are both interested in... 79 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:32,000 or who can both be fascistic, I guess is the point I'm trying to say. 80 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:39,000 So, you know, there's an authoritarian dimension to either of them and you can either be all about the people 81 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:47,000 or you can all be all about the state, but either way you make everybody bow to the big, you know, 82 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:55,000 single unit leader or oligarchs that keep the system in check to, you know, do the will of the people, so to speak. 83 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:57,000 But anyway, I don't want to get into that right now. 84 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:05,000 But, you know, and Red Panda calls it out specifically saying like, I don't know if you guys are fascists or... 85 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:12,000 I can't remember what it says. Do you see fascists, socialists, or garden-variety net jobs? I think I remember that part. 86 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:17,000 But anyway, he's saying he's not sure what their affiliation is, but they have snazzy uniforms, 87 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:21,000 which everybody loves in the Nazi uniforms, right? As well as their guns and their tanks and stuff. 88 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:28,000 Very well designed, very well crafted stuff used for absolute utter evil and, you know, garbage intention. 89 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:32,000 But anyway, you can still admire the quality of craftsmanship, I say. 90 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:37,000 And anyway, he makes that remark which makes me think these are proto-Nazis, but I'm not sure 91 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:45,000 and I don't think it's ever specifically identified, except there is a character later who is definitely a... 92 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:51,000 not a cutout for, but he's an agent of Hitler and the Nazi party, basically. 93 00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:58,000 And, yeah, just spoilers. Nazis definitely become a big thing in Red Panda, so if you like Nazi punching and whatnot, 94 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:02,000 then, you know, strap in because that's going to satisfy you for sure. 95 00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:07,000 But anyway, there's subtle hints to what these guys are and we don't quite know. 96 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:11,000 Their tactic is quite clever and I won't spoil it for you. You should listen to the episode instead 97 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:15,000 to learn exactly what these guys are doing. But I think it's pretty cool. 98 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:22,000 Of course, you know, in a cool mode of still murder kind of way. But anyway, that's fun. 99 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:26,000 Let me see what else. There wasn't really anything that detracted me from this, 100 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:30,000 except for maybe Kit was a little too obvious. Oh, okay, now I remember a couple other things. 101 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:34,000 Maybe Kit was a little too obvious because she was happy to be locked into a small room, 102 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:37,000 like a broom closet or something with Red Panda for an hour or two. 103 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:45,000 And, I mean, he either doesn't know she's dropping hints or saying little flirtatious things, 104 00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:50,000 or he's ignoring it. I can't quite tell which because we do get him telling her, 105 00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:54,000 Kit, actually behave yourself in this episode and then most episodes. 106 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:59,000 And sometimes it's about something a little cutesy with them and sometimes it's not. 107 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:10,000 It just kind of depends on the circumstance. So anyway, there was, I think I kind of want to wrap up. 108 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:18,000 I talked about the tech and gadgets. I talked about that. So that was kind of a bad moment. 109 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:25,000 A good moment. I don't know. It's almost there was almost a little meta thing 110 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:30,000 where I felt like the show was kind of making fun of itself and its cohorts 111 00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:35,000 because Kit at one point asks Red Panda, you're just making this up as you go along, aren't you? 112 00:11:35,000 --> 00:11:39,000 And he says, exactly. And then they execute their plan, which is pretty funny. 113 00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:44,000 Oh, which reminds me, yes. So they did use the gas grenades and he seemed to have broken one of his rules, 114 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:50,000 which is telling a bad guy what the powers are because he said, hey, we're immune to our own knockout gas. 115 00:11:50,000 --> 00:11:54,000 And he kind of says that mockingly and victoriously as he knows this guy's going out. 116 00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:59,000 But people should know that. And I think this might be the second time that it was brought up. 117 00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:06,000 I believe it was brought up with Dr. Professor Zombie, but it may not have been. 118 00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:10,000 Regardless, that's one of the things they're not supposed to do when they're doing it here. 119 00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:16,000 So I guess some people believe rules are made to be broken or made to be broken, which I think is silly. 120 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:21,000 But, you know, whatever. The other thing was Kit slipped up and called herself Kit 121 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:24,000 because she was known as Sally instead. 122 00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:31,000 And she had to tell whoever it was that discovered that, that it was just a nickname that she couldn't get to go away. 123 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:34,000 So kind of interesting. Anyway, overall, good episode. 124 00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:39,000 Kind of a simple episode, a little bit more like subdued, but also it had a lot of interesting things in it. 125 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:44,000 But definitely not as action packed as like a Professor Zombie episode might be or a Mad Monkey, 126 00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:48,000 just to mention somebody who will come out, come into the show later on. 127 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:54,000 So anyway, that's all I have to say for now. Again, I like this. It was fun. 128 00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:58,000 I would say I'd give it like a, I don't know, like a 6 or 7, 6.5 out of 10. 129 00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:01,000 There's lots of other Red Panda episodes that are a lot better, but it wasn't bad. 130 00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:05,000 So, I mean, you can't always be perfect, but it's all good. 131 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:12,000 And if it in fact does tie in with Nazi stuff later, it's definitely cool that that was being set up from season one, which I believe it was. 132 00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:20,000 So anyway, with that, I'm going to ask or hope that you would be well and tell you that this is MJ signing out. 133 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:29,000 I hope you enjoyed that. Go to MJMunoz.com to leave any questions, comments, or other feedback you might have. 134 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:33,000 There you can find all of my analysis, art, and fiction. 135 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:38,000 I cover books, tokusatsu, comic books, anime, and more. 136 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:42,000 Look around. You're sure to find something else that you'll enjoy as well. 137 00:13:42,000 --> 00:14:09,000 This has been a Story Over Everything production.