Well, Zandar, you failed so quickly?
  -- Zartan (after Zandar retreats from Joe headquarters)
Home Episode Summaries Season 1 The Germ - Notes

Credits: written by Roger Slifer

Production Number: 600-26

Original Airdate: October 23, 1985

SUNBOW'S SYNOPSIS
Sophisticated antibiotics have bred a new health hazard - viruses and germs that thrive in the hospital environment. Cobra steals one such germ isolated in a research facility, but they’ve got a tiger by the tail. Exposed to open air, the thing expands into a single-celled organism the size of a city block - and keeps growing. Can it be stopped…before it multiplies?

THE  PERSONNEL
G.I.Joe: Breaker, Col. Sharpe, Scarlett, Shipwreck, Snake Eyes, Ace, Dusty, Airtight, Flint, Roadblock, Cover Girl, Grunt*, Tollbooth, Wild Bill, Spirit, Gung Ho, Rock 'n' Roll*, Quick Kick* Cobra: Crimson Guard (X-99), Destro, Cobra agents, Tomax, Xamot, Tele-Viper
THE  GEAR
G.I.Joe: Skystriker, Slugger, AWE Striker, Armadillo, Bridgelayer, Mauler Cobra: Hydrofoil, Viper glider, Water Moccasin, Trubble Bubble
* indicates the character was silent during the episode

OBSERVATIONS
The wrist watch-sized television screen on the Crimson Guard's arm was also seen in the episode "Money to Burn."

Since Grunt appears at the final battle, the episode occurs before "Worlds Without End - Part One" and due to the giant size and shape of the germ, the show may also be a nod to the science fiction film The Blob.

Also, during the Star Trek (The Original Series) episode "The Immunity Syndrome," a giant space amoeba enters the Milky Way galaxy, destroys the USS Intrepid and Captain Kirk attempts to destroy the menace. Like the enormous amoeba that destroys everything in its path in Star Trek, a gargantuan germ destroys a Cobra lab and migrates through the United States and "eats" everything along the way (submitted by Dino Virgilio Monzon).

USA  NETWORK  EDITS
I
Dialogue:
Cobra agent #1: Here comes one the Crimson Elite.
Cobra agent #2: Elite! Awhhh - we do all the work!
Time: 10 seconds

II

Dialogue:
Crimson Guard: Let go!
Cobra agent: Surrender the vials!
Time: 10 seconds

III

Dialogue:
Crimson Guard: You low rank idiot!
Cobra agent #1: Look!
Time: 23.5 seconds

IV

Dialogue:
Cobra agent #1: The Water Moccasin! It’s out only chance to escape!
Cobra agent #2: The darn thing won’t start. Come on! Come on! Put these on fast! Dive!
Breaker: We’ve got a code ten from Colonel Sharpe!
Time: 18 seconds

V

Dialogue:
Shipwreck: Kinda romantic out here, ain't it?
Cover Girl: (removes Shipwreck's hand off her leg)
Shipwreck: Aw, give me a break.
Cover Girl: With pleasure!
Shipwreck: Your point is well-taken.
Time: 12 seconds
Commentary: With this edit, the viewer is not only robbed of the opportunity to see Shipwreck brushed off in such a vicious and humorous manner but this is the second of Shipwreck's string of rejections from the female Joes that was carved out of the tale. Shipwreck's first violent rejection can be seen in the episode "The Synthoid Conspiracy - Part I."

LESSONS

Doc
Original:
According to Doc, you should not take someone else's medicine. If you feel ill, you should seek help from your parents or ask a neighbor for advice.
USA:
Same as above

SPONSORS

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HIGHLIGHTS
From navigating through a mine field to planting explosives in a nucleus to Airtight defending himself from two Cobra Eels and rushing to return to his ship, the strength of the music score for G.I.Joe was never more apparent than in the episode. As demonstrated in the second clip, the tension of the moment was enhanced thanks to the Vivaldi-esque violin section and slow to quickening beat. These are moments that should always be remembered because they proved that you do not need one snappy line after another coupled with loud explosions to tell a story in the action-adventure genre.

Music Clip: Airtight turns off his radio, steers through the mine field successfully, avoids corrosive enzymes and then discovers the nucleus. [752 kb]

Music Clip: With the explosives attached to canisters of anti-biotics, Airtight swims toward the nucleus with the explosives chained to his waist and sets the charges. [1.68 mb]


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