There's the advertising that supported the first broadcast of Star Wars 3 1/2. Of course, "Pippi Longstocking" is not an ad, unless she was selling sausage. ABC had something in the 80's that they ended every Saturday Morning broadcast with, called the "Weekend Special." It was the same thing as "CBS Storybreak" on the other channel: little cheap movies based on books. They were rarely new movies--just the same ones made years before that they recycled endlessly.
And THERE'S O.G. READMORE AGAIN....I swear he's following me around.
Back to the action!
The whole village is shocked, and stumped on what to do
next.....until the droid points out, "This pod is still
functional. Me and my new friends have figured out how to operate
it, and we can blast off and get the Sunstar back!"
"You can't possibly tell me you know how to pilot such an
alien device!" the Ewok King protests.
"Sure!" says Latara casually. "It's easy; you just
plunk your behind down here, and---"
"LATARA, DON'T!!!"
The pod immediately blasts off all over again. Kneesaa wails that they have to go back and explain more of what's going on, but PT-30 takes a look at the radar and says they have no time for that! "If Dr. Ragar gets any farther ahead of us, we may never catch him! We have to continue on!" So they do....
The result is more ship hijinks, as they encounter anti-gravity for the first time. As the pod approaches the Star Destroyer, an outpost soldier demands that whoever is entering their airspace explain their intention. You might expect another "TK-421" incident, but the robot knows exactly how to talk them down: "The Ewoks kidnapped me when they escaped in this pod! I managed to fend them off and come back! You can check it out--I'm registered with this ship!" The pod is granted clearance to land......
But the plan kind of backfires.
The commander is disgusted that an Empire Droid would actually
let itself get captured by creatures as weak as Ewoks are, and he
gives orders for PT-30 to be recycled in a grinding machine.
"Oh no, they're going to hurt PT!" Kneesaa says. Wrong,
they're going to KILL PT, but if anyone says
"kill," millions of American parents will blow up.
Never mind that Latara has screamed "we're gonna DIE!!"
at least five times in this episode already.
The Ewoks have to wear embarrassing droid outfits in order to sneak around the Star Destroyer incognito. They split up two by two so they can find PT and the Sunstar at the same time.
Dr. Ragar got what he came for, though he hasn't shown it to anyone yet. "The Sunstar's power is magnificent! Once I show it to the Emperor, he will surely promote me....no, WAIT!" He suddenly has a thought. "WHY should I give it to the Emperor.....when I can easily use its power to become Emperor MYSELF!!" Teebo and Latara are the ones to find him, but they're no match for him. He seals them in a rocket and announces his new plan:
"Using the Sunstar, I shall build the most powerful weapon the universe has ever known. Then when the Emperor comes, I will blast his ship into bits....but first, I'll test the weapon out on YOU!!"
Wicket and Kneesaa find PT, but first they have to fight the giant robot that's stuck him on that conveyor belt. The giant robot isn't shown because I wanted to include the shot of C-3P0 on the opposite conveyor that only appears for a fraction of a second. Anyway, they beat him by kicking him into the recycler, and then they rescue PT-30. But NOW they'll have to save Latara and Teebo...
Dr. Ragar has already fired Teebo and Latara into space, and prepares to fire. Once Wicket arrives, however, and gets wind of what he's trying to do, he's screaming furious. He leaps over Ragar's laser blasts and dives straight for his head.
The resulting horrifically graphic struggle (okay, maybe not that graphic) makes Ragar accidentally hit the lever and fire the death beam too early. It barely misses Teebo and Latara, but it actually DOES hit the Emperor.....
....but just the bottom of the wing. He's not assassinated, and still coming...and now, probably angry about this. The other soldiers of the Empire just go nuts: "SOMEONE FROM THIS SHIP FIRED ON THE EMPEROR!!! Find out who it was, IMMEDIATELY!!"
Kneesaa grabs the Sunstar from where it was powering the ray, and fires at Ragar's gun, which explodes at his feet. Not everything's resolved yet--the others are still floating in space. PT-30 and the others steal another pod....
....and rescue them, then fly home. Ragar is caught red-handed. By the way, since Ragar kept the Sunstar to himself, the Empire still doesn't believe it exists, and the original trilogy still goes on Sunstarless. Unless it's going to be forcibly inserted into the next Specialer than Special Edition.
"Dr. Ragar, you are charged
with high treason," Spock says.
"What do you plan to do to me?" Ragar scowls.
"Oh, I'm not doing anything...." Spock says with an
evil smirk. "The Emperor wants to see you HIMSELF."
"W-What? N-No! NOOO!!" They don't show the Emperor, but
in this case that's a good thing. The bad drawings in this
cartoon wouldn't do him justice, and any kid who'd seen the
trilogy knew what Ragar was in for. Though "Ewoks"
couldn't say it outright, Dr. Ragar wasn't coming back out.
The four Ewoks receive a hero's welcome back, and so does PT-30, who also gets a two-cheek simultaneous kiss from Kneesaa and Latara. "EEEEE-CHIWAWAAAA!!!" he screams out. The droid takes the pod back into space, and that ended the Ewoks series.
And that's the fourth prequel to the Star Wars series. At least this was better than Episode I.....