Catch up on Silver Silver
What was this 90’s cartoon from Marvel Entertainment and Saban Entertainment? What is Silver Surfer about? Who stars in Silver Surfer Season 1, Episode 3?
This is a review and recap for “Silver Surfer” – Season 1 Episode 3, ‘The Origin of the Silver Surfer (Part 3).’
Viewer beware – Spoilers below!
Missed our Silver Surfer Episode 2 recap? Head here.
Silver Surfer Season 1, Episode 3: Recap
So after a quick Watcher catch-up on what has happened, we open on the USA getting completely wrecked by Galactus’ planet-eating ship. Silver Surfer, meanwhile, is far more preoccupied with wanting to talk about his memories he wants back. Galactus has had enough of his herald at this point so blasts him from the sky, which seems a little counterproductive to getting more food once he’s finished with Earth, and has a good chuckle.
We then jump to somewhere else in space as we find a small ship or drone scouring a field of debris. We then find out there’s a lot more of them and they’re escorted by some larger ships, which are crewed by the dino-insect people from last episode. We discover that their leader ‘Lord Glenn’ has them looking for the resources they need to build something not described beyond ‘advanced technology’. Also, turns out they may be robots or at least cyborgs. Unable to find what they need where they are they use a portal to leave both that area of space and this episode as this is all they have to contribute to it.
Back on Earth, Silver Surfer wakes up on a beach to find himself in a confrontation with a US Navy ship. Surfer decides they don’t realise what’s happening to their planet so decides to explain to them that the apocalypse has come. The naval officers on board are pretty shocked by the appearance of a silver man and come to an agreement that he’s the most likely culprit for what is happening. Surfer finds himself shocked by how much humans remind him of the people of Zenn-La in his memories, which leads us into a few quick clips from the first episode.
The ship fires upon Silver Surfer, who is unphased by their attack and instead finds himself distracted by how primitive the jet fighters that fly past him are. This acts as the clue he needs to figure out that humans may not actually have the technology they need to escape their doom. We then get another flashback to Norrin Radd and Shalla-Bal in a Zenn-La museum, which is surprisingly a new scene and not just a clip from the first episode. Surfer seems to relate the technology of humanity to the old technology of Zenn-La in the museum.
At this point Surfer is uncertain if the memories are real or if he’s just going mad, despite how determined he was when he confronted Galactus. The jets then fire upon Silver Surfer and one of the pilots starts celebrating their first extraterrestrial kill, prematurely as Surfer is once again pretty much entirely unconcerned with their attack. He then decides to simply start surfing along ahead of them.
We then cut to a couple of rollerblading young women engrossed in really impressive news footage of Silver Surfer. The blonde woman bemoans the fact that a hunky alien has shown up but is killing everyone, while the brunette is more upset that the news coverage has taken priority over her favourite shock jock. They start to rollerblade only for Silver Surfer, who had apparently been flying over them at the time, become overwhelmed by his memories and hit a building before crashing into the pair.
Silver Surfer comments that he seems to have a habit of falling out of the sky on Earth, and the blonde makes a quip suggesting he may have an alcohol problem. One of Galactus’ world-eating tentacles then nearly crushes the trio, except they manage to get out of the way in time. Silver Surfer struggles with more memories and we see more clips with episode 1.
People are frantically trying to escape certain death while Surfer remembers more of his past life. He casually saves a few people from their demise as he recalls Shalla-bal, saying her name over and over. The blonde woman then introduces herself as Frankie Ray, apparently thinking that he was calling her Shalla-Bal (and I find it impressive that she recognised it as a name and not just random sounds). In a bit of a shake-up, we then get clips from episode 1 and also episode 2.
Frankie then gets knocked out by falling debris from a building, and her unnamed friend (referred to simply as ‘girl’ in the Disney+ subtitles and, I assume, credits) blames Silver Surfer for everything happening. Surfer then blasts Frankie with some cosmic eye beams that evidently heal her injuries. He is then spurred on by Frankie to save the entire planet from Galactus.
Surfer confronts his master again, this time ready for death to be the cost. Galactus gives him the silent treatment so Surfer decides to turn the Power Cosmic granted to him by Galactus to destroy his boss’ ship. Down on Earth a tidal wave hits the city, I assume to be Los Angeles but I’m not sure, and Frankie decides that a hot air balloon is the right choice to save some people. Somehow it actually works and they avoid the massive wave. Frankie then decides that she wants to be in the fight and vanishes, leaving a group of people behind who likely don’t know how to actually operate a hot air balloon.
Running out of fuel, Silver Surfer decides to recharge using the sun. Unfortunately for him Galactus manages to capture him in an energy bubble and berates him for his foolish actions. Surfer still manages to recharge from the sun’s energy and attacks again, only for Galactus to laugh at his attempts. The fight between the two then turns into a moral debate about the consequence of action.
It seems as though Silver Surfer is defeated, unable to stop his master. At that moment Frankie appears on Galactus’ ship, and after a moment of freak out decides to run off and see what she can do. Galactus then admits that Silver Surfer is braver and more noble than he is, evidently being moved by Surfer’s arguments. He then agrees to not only let the Earth live, but also let Silver Surfer be free. Though he claims he only does so because he expects that none in the universe will ever forgive Surfer for what he did as Galactus’ herald, and that everywhere he goes he shall be met with hate.
After Silver Surfer has flown off Frankie finds herself before Galactus, and a little unnerved by the experience. Galactus finds her curious and discovers that she has a rare genetic trait that allows her to always find what she seeks, without failure. He then grants her the ‘gift’ of the power of fire and transforms her into his new herald named ‘Nova’.
Silver Surfer tries to return to Zenn-La, only for the entire planet to vanish before his eyes. Galactus sends a projection to reveal that although he may have freed Surfer, he did not say he could return home and so has hidden Zenn-La. The Watcher appears and reveals that Galactus is so powerful that he has moved Zenn-La somewhere that even he cannot see. Silver Surfer vows that he will not stop until he finds his homeworld again.
Silver Surfer Season 1, Episode 3: Review
So we reach the end of our three-parter recounting the origin of the Silver Surfer, and while I don’t think it fully justifies some of the weaker elements before it I do feel it ends things in a rather strong way. Galactus’ attempt to feed upon the Earth feels adequately apocalyptic and terrifying, even if what we see is rather limited geographically. I also really liked that the conflict between Silver Surfer and Galactus ended up being more a philosophical debate about morality than a straight up physical battle, and that Galactus actually relents to Surfer’s argument.
It does still suffer a bit in the same way I felt the last episode did, in that it sets up elements it intends to use but they feel rather pointless within the episode itself. Most notably the scene with the dino-bugs (who I have now learnt, after some searching, are called the Draconians). I do think, or rather hope, that their scene in this episode was intended to be used in a later episode and had to be moved for time, because otherwise it is really just a strange scene that disrupts the pacing to rather vaguely hint at things to come.
The frequent usage of clips from the first episode also grinded on me, as it felt far too much like the show sliding backwards instead of maintaining momentum forwards. I understand the intent behind them, but just wish they’d found a different way to get the same result. We essentially watch the entire first episode again across the second and third episodes, and we don’t learn anything new as a result. Perhaps it was just a technique to stretch the episode to length, but that also leaves me wishing they’d found another way to do it.
Frankie’s introduction is a welcome one, even if it feels just a little too convenient (although she does have that genetic ‘find what I want’ power, so perhaps not). She adds a bit of a breath of fresh air to the show, giving us a personality quite unlike any other we have seen thus far since most have been more stoic or pure egotistical. Though since I doubt we see her again for at least a few episodes I hope that we get other characters with diverse personalities to help carry the story alongside Silver Surfer (who isn’t personally that interesting to me in terms of persona, but I recognise how he is an interesting hero).
I am glad that the origin story is finally behind us, as I felt it did seem to meander a little bit at times. I am very curious to see where the show takes a free Silver Surfer (I have read little of him in the comics, so this is all largely new to me) and what else from Marvel’s cosmic side they introduce to us.
Who are the Silver Surfer Voice Actors?
The voice actors who appear in this episode of Silver Surfer include:
- Paul Essiembre as Norrin Radd /Silver Surfer
- James Blendick as Galactus
- Colin Fox as Uatu/The Watcher
- Camilla Scott as Shalla-Bal
- Aron Tager as The Master of Zenn-La
- Tara Rosling as Frankie Ray/Nova
- Marc Strange as Lord Glenn
What did you think of this Episode?
Did you enjoy this episode? What did you think of the origin of the Silver Surfer?
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Check out our Recap and Review of Silver Surfer Season 1, Episode 4>>
