Netflix Retrospective: Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 1 episode 1 - The Rise of Voltron

It’s time to look at a series that doesn’t have hour long episodes and isn’t live action. Yes, this is partly an excuse to narrow my workload as it’s become a little overbearing recently, don’t worry, the long ones will be back. This is Voltron: Legendary Defender

Voltron was a series released back in the 90s, it took a Power Rangers-esque style with animation, intercutting a Japanese series with their own animation to cut back on animation costs. There were a few iterations but the most popular featured 5 lions against a villain Named King Zarkon, this is a reboot of that concept and thus far has spanned 6 seasons. Because of the newly introduced year cut-off date for now I’ll be covering up to season 4, with a gap for the summer hiatus and I break in October whilst I try an Halloween theme.

The Rise of Voltron

And where better to start but with  the equivalent of 3 episodes compiled into a feature-length story: The Rise of Voltron

We don’t get the classic opening because of spoilers. We open on Kerberos, one of Pluto’s moons and we meet 3 scientists collecting ice samples. The one that’s important is Shiro, we’ll get back to the others soon enough. Their exploration is interrupted by a Galra ship, they’re ordered by Emperor Zarkon to take them to the main fleet for interrogation and later experimentation. It becomes clear quickly that they have a lot of other prisoners.

One year later on Earth, we’re introduced to 3 of our protagonists. Pilot Lance, the nerd Pidge and Hunk, who spends most of the scene being sick. They’re piloting a craft when it undergoes some engine trouble. They end up crashing but it’s just a simulation. They’re cadets at the Galaxy Garrison but once this story gets going you can pretty much forget about this angle, so forgive me if I begin skipping over details here.

It’s clear they have difficulty working together so Lance comes up with a plan for the 3 of them to sneak out and hit the town. But they discover Pidge sneaking out on her own. She (and I’m just gonna spoil that she’s a she, it’s not exactly subtle and the voice actress is clearly female) built some computer system thing to scan the solar system, and is looking for the crew from Kerberos. She’s been picking up alien chatter, and particularly the world ‘Voltron.’ An incoming enemy ship puts the barracks on lockdown. The ship crash lands, the Garrison send out a squad to secure it and Hunk, Pidge and Lance sneak out after them

Shiro was found at the crash site, he’s shouting a lot about aliens so they have him strapped to a table because cliché. So, to get in the trio need to distract the guards, fortunately we meet protagonist #5, Keith, who just so happens to have been able to set up a series of explosions to distract the guards. Erm, what? How?

Keith is someone Lance and Hunk are aware of, Lance seems to be under the impression he was trying to one-up him all the time. Turns out they weren’t even the same kind of pilot when Keith was there. They rescue Shiro and escape on a weird looking hover vehicle thing to a shack in the middle of nowhere. Shiro’s having memory issues, with pretty big gaps between when he was abducted and now. He also has a robot arm, this might be important later.

Keith came across some future hieroglyphs that forewarned him of the ship crash… ok… also, the Blue Lion is on Earth. Hunk proves his worth, having stolen info from Pidge about Voltron’s Fraunhofer line which he can build a device to track, since the element doesn’t otherwise exist on Earth. Keith, being one step ahead matches the line with a series of cliffs in a desert canyon.

Hunk’s machine is getting a reading out there, and soon they’re lead into a cavern. They find some lion carvings that when Lance touches them, they glow blue and drop deeper into the cavern, into the hideaway of the Blue Lion. The Lion is surrounded by an energy shield, but just by knocking Lance deactivates it. They see a vision of Voltron and the 5 lions that join to form it.  The cockpit opens and Lance is the designated flier

The Blue Lion starts to take them into space, there’s a Galra vessel approaching Earth. It begins firing at them, but the Blue Lion is small and evades their attacks, enough to damage the ship slightly and make their escape. The ship calls Zarkon who tells them to pursue and alert any other vessels to attack. As they reach the edge of the solar system, they head through a blue portal which closes after them, stopping the Galra from chasing them.

They head down to a nearby planet, to a castle. The exit the Blue Lion, who proceeds to open the castle for them. They’re quickly scanned and the palace begins to light up, they follow the light to a mysterious control room, 2 pods are brought up, and one quickly opens. It’s Princess Allura, another mainstay character of the series, along with her faithful sidekick Coran.

They’ve been asleep for 10,000 years. When they were last conscious, King Alfor, Allura’s father stood defeated at Zarkon’s hands and sent the Lions away. Really? 10,000 years. I guess Galra can live however long they please. She remembers Zarkon and triggers a slight memory from Shiro.

We cut to Haggar, Zarkon’s lead witch, who has managed to sense the awakening of an Altean. Commander Sendak is chosen to lead his battle fleet against them. He’s tasked with finding the Princess and recovering the Lions. And time for the characters you might forget about, the mice... they occasionally do things.

They detect a ship, but given Coran’s calculations, it’s a couple of days away, remember this because later they’ll use alien time a lot, so this is oddly inconsistent. Allura is certain that when the Galra arrive, they will have found the remaining lions and formed Voltron. The Lions are connected to Allura’s life force. The Black Lion is in the castle and can only become available when the others are present.

The Lions form a kind of bond with their pilots, so they need people of similar temperament. Because the Black Lion forms Voltron’s head, the Black Lion requires someone with leadership capabilities, hence Shiro will the Black Lion. The Green Pilot is inquisitive, hence Pidge, the yellow lion is caring hence Hunk (???), the Red Lion requires instinctive action, hence Keith, I guess. They can’t find the Red Lion yet.

Of course Allura’s known them for 5 minutes so it’s hard to tell how she could tell, they do kinda explain it later, but a lot longer. Lance and Hunk head in the Blue Lion to find the yellow Lion, Shiro and Pidge head in a pod to an alien jungle, where they’re guided into a boat and get to watch some alien wildlife, it’s kinda like the spirit world in Korra which you might remember was animated by the same studio.

Hank and Lance aren’t having a great time, as the planet with the yellow Lion is under Galra control. They yellow lion is down a mine shaft, unbeknownst to the Galra, Lance drops of Hunk to go get it. Hunk soon finds the yellow Lion. Pidge is talking a lot, trying to offload her worries but Shiro calms her down. Soon they find the Green Lion. Lance is being overwhelmed by the Galra fighters but Hunk saves him, his Lion has heavy armour and takes the shots. With the Lions secured, they head back through the wormhole.

Alura has location of the Red Lion, aboard Sendak’s ship for some reason. Sendak calls Allura, telling them that if they don’t surrender the Lions, he’ll destroy the planet. The big-hearted Hunk is the first to suggest fleeing. Shiro defects to Allura for advice, but she too needs advice, from her father, who’s now a memory hologram. Alfor tells her to stand and fight, since scattering them cost so many lives over the past 10,000 years.

The Paladins are given special armour and Bayards, which are fighting weapons that take distinct forms depending on the wearer. Unfortunately, the Black Bayard is lost. Hunk gets a chain gun, Pidge a grappling hook/knife thing, Keith gets a sword and Lance I can’t even remember. Hunk and Lance acts as decoys, distracting the Galra whilst Shiro, Pidge and Keith infiltrate the ship to find the Red Lion. Shiro remembers being a prisoner here and we finally hear from Pidge that her father and brother were the other astronauts on the Kerberos mission. She and Shiro head to free prisoners and potentially find them whilst Keith looks for the Red Lion.

Hunk mounts an attack on the heavy weapon, but it’s covered by a force-field. Thankfully with some help from the mice, Allura and Coran have activated their own, the particle barrier. It can withstand their fire but not indefinitely. Pidge and Shiro come across a security prism which Pidge reprograms and names Rover. They release the prisoners, one of whom recognises Shiro as ‘the champion.’ Keith approaches the Red Lion but it won’t open its force-field for it. Galra attack and Keith defends his Lion, opening a hatch which he eventually falls through himself and hurtles into space. This is enough to earn respect of Red and he becomes the pilot.

Galra have Pidge and Shiro cornered, but Shiro’s robotic arm glows purple and he’s able to take them out. With some firepower, Hunk is able to damage the cannon but Sendak sends drones to fix it. The 4 lions gather to unlock the 5^th, the Black Lion. Sendak begins bringing his troops into the atmosphere, and soon their heavy weapon is repaired, the particle barrier holds up, but it cannot do so for long, they need Voltron now, but the 5 have no idea how to form.

They begin to fly but are caught in Sendak’s tractor beam, worse still the particle barrier is brought down. Shiro gives a generic personal speech and thankfully this cliché holds enough weight for the stock transition sequence to begin and for them to form Voltron. They rip off the ship’s main cannon before blasting the ship. Sendak evacuates as the ship explodes. We end with a revelation for them at least that the war is far from over.

It’s a good introductory episode, getting all the pieces into place, I just wish the time on Earth had any weight to it, since they spent a fair bit of time there.

Rating 7.5/10