BRIEF STORYLINE: Reekon and Mortdredd trek through the jungle in the Dagger assault vehicle. Suddenly a young guy called Belazar confronts them and proclaims his city of Kamir needs urgent help. The leader of Kamir badly need slaves and will not work after all the years of being spoon-fed by robot slaves they had in the age of science. Reekon and Mortdredd tell Belazar that they know where they can get human slaves. They also make sure they swear allegiance to Darkstorm.
The people of Kamir bicker about whether they should receive these human slaves or not. A young woman named Mana has her doubts about doing this but her opinion is over-ruled. Meanwhile, Arzon and Feryl are spying on Mortdredd and Reekon but are quickly spotted. They escape the Darkling Lords in their Capture Chariot vehicle. In a cleverly disguised plot, Darkstorm instructs the people of Kamir to pretend to be refugees and look for shelter in New Valarak. Leoric welcomes them politely, and feeds them. The plot gets underway at night time, when Belazar and Mana steal the Spectral Knights power staffs and apply them to the Darkling Lords' already strong weaponry. The Spectral Knights then get captured and unable to resist as they fear the Darkling Lords will harm the people of New Valarak.
The Spectral Knights are now consigned to slavery, and everyone treats them badly except from Mana. Arzon and Feryl are the only Spectral Knights not captive in the castle, but they too are forced to the dungeon with the rest. Darkstorm, semi-victorious over the Knights, decides to hold a tournament on which Darkling Lord will get which Spectral Knight power staff. Unbeknownst to them, Mana just can't take it any longer, and frees all the Spectral Knights. The good guys surprise the Darkling Lords during their tournament and flee out of New Valarak. Orzon has a change of heart about human slaves and apologises for the drama they have been in. The people of Kamir decide that maybe they really should work on the fields for food, and not be so ignorant.
REVIEW: One of the weaker episodes. The beginning, where Belazar interrupts Reekon and Mortdredd for help, could've been better. It would've had a bigger impact if more of the Darkling Lords were present to react to Belazar's plea. The scene lacks colour. Also, the changing of one shot to the next can seem messy or jerky. Our first action scene, where the main feature is the Capture Chariot and Dagger Assault colliding into each other, is not well done.
The first scene which feature the people of Kamir is not too impressive either, with clunky editing. However, there are some good dialogue here, especially the old man's statement, who protests against his own people to do manual labour, "this is the age of magic, not the age of sweat". The episode does improve, when the Spectral Knights quarrell with each other over the people of Kamir becomng refugees in their castle. In this scene, Leoric makes an unexpected funny line, who claims Feryl and Arzon are "out joy-riding in the Capture Chariot".
Some of the action scenes are the best of the rest, like Belazar knocking out Cyrotek with a bat behind his back. However, when Mana and Belazar steal the power staffs slyly at night, its not well edited.
One of the more amusing scenes is Leoric counselling with his Wisdom Owl and adds one more piece of info that someone is behind him, but it's too late, as Darkstorm has him for the taking. The humour can be weak at times, such as when Belazar changes hs ways and sees Mana with the Spectral Knights. He was about to tell on Darkstorm of their escape from jail, but Mana stops that, and calls out to Darkstorm that "it was nothing". Reekon pipes in with "that's what i could've said" and starts laughing. I don't get it.
There's some nice intellectual dialogue as Mana is releasing Arzon, Leoric and Feryl from the jail, which all basically means, she doesn't feel free if they aren't free either. The dissappointing aspect of the episode is the action is not well edited. However, some of the action near the end defies that statistic. The Darkling Lord's fight for the power staffs is entertaining, especially the Mortdredd vs. Cravex action. The part where an enlightenend Belazar snatches a Spectral Knight's power staff from the Dagger Assault vehicle is nicely done too. The way the episode ends, Orzon and the people of Kamir decided to work for their lot in a significant mindset change, is OK, but nothing memorable. THE PRICE OF FREEDOM GETS A: 2/5 RATING.
