1984 is a pretty big an important year. It was the setting for the George Orwell novel that for some reason is getting a lot of play recently (weird), it’s when a certain young man by the name of Yours Frigging Truly was born, and it was also the year when people in America got their first glimpse of a robot made out of smaller robot lions. Yes, I’m talking about the classic series Voltron: Defender of the Universe, which was a re-dubbed, re-edited, and re-written version of the Japanese anime, Beast King GoLion. Now, 12 handpicked episodes from that original show are coming to Netflix.
With the success of Voltron: Legendary Defender (one of my favorite shows; I’m moderating the WonderCon panel and everything), Netflix has asked the creators to select their favorite episodes of the ’84 series, which is currently not streaming anywhere else. There were 72 episodes of the original Voltron, so 12 aren’t exactly going to give you a complete picture if you’re new to it, but it will give you a good idea of what inspired the creators of Legendary Defender to reawaken the sleeping, robotic giant. Also — be prepared for the orig Pidge to be incredibly irritating.
Each episode will be introduced by members of the cast and crew who’ll talk about their love of the O.G. Voltron. The episodes chosen by specific key creative types are as follows:
Mitch Iverson (Writer)
Episode 1 – “Space Explorers Captured”
Josh Keaton (voice of Shiro)
Episode 2 – “Escape to Another Planet“
Steve Ahn (Director)
Episode 4 – “The Missing Key”
Christine Bian (Design Supervisor)
Episode 6 – “The Right Arm of Voltron”
Kimberly Brooks (voice of Allura)
Episode 7 – The Lion Has New Claws
Joaquim Dos Santos (Executive Producer)
Episode 8 – “The Stolen Lion”
Benjamin Kaltenecker (Line Producer)
Episode 10 – “Secret of the White Lion”
Jeff Adams (Supervising Picture Editor)
Episode 13 – “The Witch Gets A Faceliftâ€
Chris Palmer (Director)
Episode 15 – “Give me Your Princess”
Josh Hamilton (Story Editor)
Episode 28 – “The Treasure of Planet Tyrus”
Lauren Montgomery (Co-Executive Producer)
Episode 30 – “The Sleeping Princess”
Tim Hedrick (Story Editor)
Episode 35 – “Doom Boycotts the Space Olympics”
So you’ll get a pretty good sense of the earlier part of the show as well as some from later in the first season. Season two, fun fact, since they’d run out of GoLion episodes to re-dub, was completely different, with new characters and a “Vehicle Voltron” made from an entirely different anime called Armored Fleet Dairugger XV. While that season has its fans, it’s really the Lion Force that keeps people coming back time and again, and hopefully this look into Legendary Defender‘s roots will reignite love of Defender of the Universe.
Were you an old-school Voltron fan? What were your favorite episodes? Let’s talk about it in the comments below!
Images: Netflix/DreamWorks
Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. You can find his full complement of Voltron season 2 recaps here! Follow him on Twitter!
