EPISODE REVIEW: Ben 10 Alien Force: “Ghost Town” (Season 3, Episode 12)

It’s the penultimate episode of “Alien Force,” the second to last episode of a season that was never supposed to happen anyway, a fact made clear by the rolicking, and not-at-all cohesive nature of the season. There's just no story arc here, you know?

PLAY BY PLAY

Vilgax attacks a police space cruiser, destroying it, and bursting in to a prison space station, where he meets Ghostfreak, one of the original ten Omnitrix aliens from the original show. Vilgax offers to free him in exchange for the secrets of the Omnitrix, and information on how to defeat Ben Tennyson.

On Earth some weeks later, Team Ben is trying to rid the local miniature golf course of a little mole-like alien that seems cute, but turns out to be kind of repulsive. Something crashes from space - it’s Vilgax. They expect him to attack them, but to their surprise, he asks for their help. It seems Ghostfreak has taken over Vilgax’s homeworld (“Vilgaxia“) and turned the entire population in to his minions, all part of his ever-growing hive mind. He intends to take over the universe as his next step. Vilgax leaves aside the part about how he helped the thing escape, but he seems sincere. Kevin says “This only way this could look more like a trap is if it had a sign hanging on it that says ‘free cookies.’” “Maybe,” Ben replies, “But I really like cookies.”

They all head to Vilgaxia in Ship (Julie gets a name check, but is again conspicuously absent), and the planet has, indeed, been taken over. They hide, but then Vilgax hears a child’s cry and busts out to save her. The others follow his lead and take out a squad of Ghostminions, rescuing the girl. One minion briefly possesses Kevin, but then runs away in horror. “Oh, great, even the freaks don’t want me.”

They sneak in to Vilgax’s old palace and the bad guy picks a fight with Ghostfreak, who charges him to possess him, but Ben dives in at the last minute and intercepts him, so Ghostfreak pounds in to him, rather than Vilgax. The Omnitrix announces “New Alien DNA sampled” and we get a transformation sequence of Ben into Ghostfreak. Ben assumes he can shut Ghostfreak down like a normal Omnitrix form, but of course this goes wrong, Ghostfreak becomes dominant, and we end up in WWF Smackdown land. Vilgax decides that now that Ghostfreak is in Ben’s body, it’s too good an opportunity to pass up, and attacks Ben/Freak. Gwen and Kevin try to defend him, but are quickly knocked unconscious.

Eventually, Ben is able to resume control, and shuts down the omnitrix, trapping the freak in the watch, and Vilgax declares their alliance at an end. Team Ben leaves, and Vilgax says (To no one in particular) that this is an auspicious beginning to his larger scheme

The End

OBSERVATIONS

The destruction of the alien cruiser in the beginning was obviously based on the destruction of the Roger Young from the Starship Troopers movie.

The big question here is: were things as they seemed, or was this all staged for Ben’s benefit, in accordance with Vilgax and Ghostfreak’s plan. It could be that this was all set up so that the freak would be re-included in the Omnitrix, to take control of it - and Ben - permanently at a later time, and then the two of them would use Ben’s powers to take over stuff. Or it could be as it seems, with Ghostfreak betraying Vilgax almost immediately. Vilgax deliberately left out information that would incriminate him, but at the same time that same information may have been part of his alliance/plan with the freak.

Has anyone noticed how Alien Force episodes seldom involve more than four characters at a time? Five at the most. It’s Team Ben, plus an enemy, plus occasionally an ally (Grandpa, Julie, whomever). I’m assuming this is to keep down animation costs and speed up production, but it’s getting to feel a bit restraining, y’know?

In the flashbacks to Ghostfreak’s takeover of Vilgaxia, it appeared the population lived underwater, but when the kids get there, it appears they all live on land just like we do.

The creature in the Minigolf course looked a lot like Silky from Teen Titans until its true form was revealed. Sounded like Silky, too.

Ghostfreak appears to have telekinetic powers in this episode, which he never had before.

Kevin’s self-image problems continue. He actually seems depressed that he’s unpossessable for a moment.

Ok, here’s what I don’t get. When Ghostfreak started acting wonky, back when the kids were 10, and it caught them by surprise, and took over things by touch, I can see how it was a serious threat. In this episode, however, they knew what they were getting in to, and they knew the creature is sensitive to light, so why didn’t they just bring some flashlights along at the very least? They seemed totally unprepared when GF has such an amazingly limiting existence. I mean, he can’t even go out during the day.

And that’s that. The next new episode - probably about two weeks from now - will be the end of the Alien Force series, but fear not stout yoeman, for the third Ben 10 series beings in the spring: “Ben 10: Evolutions” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_10:_Evolution