Synopsis: Red is feeling adventurous, so she explores the series of tunnels in the T. Matthew Fraggle Room and finds a dragon. Gobo and Matt follow her into the tunnels, and chaos ensues.
Air date: March 10, 1986
This is a zany episode of Fraggle Rock! It’s always fun to revisit an episode that I don’t remember exceptionally well and discover that it’s a very good one. I think the reason “Red’s blue Dragon” works so well is that we, the viewers, always understand what’s going on and the characters almost never do. (You might say they’re in the dark — almost as if they were living in a cave.)
I realize that’s a simplistic thing to say. Withholding information from characters is not a new or revolutionary storytelling concept, but gosh, it’s executed well here.
It begins with Uncle Traveling Matt, who has spent the entire series exploring our world and misunderstanding everything he encounters. His confused perception of his adventures in Outer Space is the reason he tells Red it’s a frightening place, which is why she decides to follow him to the T. Matthew Fraggle Room, a giant cave with magic teleportation tunnels that lead to different places all over the world (and beyond?). All you have to do is approach a tunnel, touch the arch at its entrance, and whoosh, you’re off!
When Red goes through one of those magic tunnels and ends up in a place where a tree that grows golden apples is guarded by the titular Blue Dragon, she’s appropriately freaked out — and she thinks she’s in Outer Space. But she doesn’t know that she’s not in the same world that Uncle Matt has been exploring all this time. But who does know that? Us! You and me!
As the action escalates, Gobo, Matt, Red, and the Blue Dragon all go careening through the magic tunnels between different places. None of them know what the others are experiencing, but we get to watch all the chaos and laugh. At times, the episode resembles a classic theatrical farce with characters running in and out of rooms and slamming doors — only in this case, they’re running in and out of far-flung locations and whooshing through tunnels.
When the Blue Dragon gets zapped to the space under Doc’s front porch, it’s an astonishing moment for us, the longtime Fraggle Rock fans — the boundaries between worlds are collapsing! But the Dragon has no idea where it is, and when Doc sees the Dragon he assumes it’s Fluffinella the cat wearing an elaborate costume for an upcoming masquerade ball. You see what I mean? Nobody except us understands!
And when Matt gets zapped back to Outer Space and finds himself in a bookstore, and he looks for Red between the covers of a book, Matt doesn’t know that this is a very silly thing to do because he’s a dummy. But we know!
This is a very funny episode. It’s assembled so effectively, and the Blue Dragon makes for a great extra wild card. And all built around the simple idea of “The audience knows stuff the characters don’t know.”
But wait… There’s still a lot we don’t know, isn’t there? If the T. Matthew Fraggle Room has a tunnel that leads to Doc’s workshop, does it also have a tunnel that leads to the Gorg’s castle? What if Red had climbed over that hill instead of running away from the Dragon? How big is the Dragon’s world? Are there other Dragons? And are these places alternate dimensions in the same universe, or pocket universes, or microverses, or what? Are the tunnels wormholes?
I know, I know. I should stop there because none of those questions have answers and the Fraggle Rock people were almost certainly never considering them when they made this episode. They just set out to make an entertaining episode of television. And one thing I do know is that they succeeded!
Strongest Moment: The whole sequence where Matt, Red, and the Dragon keep getting sucked into different tunnels leading to different worlds.
MVF (Most Valuable Fraggle): I’ll give it to Red. She goes through some stuff in this one and endures it with the bravery of her literary hero, Princess Gwenalot.
First Appearance Of…: The Blue Dragon. And its last appearance, as far as I know. It’s an appealingly weird puppet!
Most Classic Moment: Residents of Fraggle Rock finding themselves transported to the space under Doc’s porch, which previously happened in “Uncle Matt’s Discovery,” feels like it’s bringing us one step closer to the series’ powerful ending.
Coolest Puppetry Effect: There are a few shots where we see Sprocket’s whole body as he stands on all four legs and demonstrates his potential costumes for the masquerade ball. I like that.
Fraggle Lore: It would have been cool to see the T. Matthew Fraggle Room again. Just imagine the possibilities for more worlds out there! But I suppose this is Fraggle Rock, not Sliders.
One More Thing…: Red’s favorite character Princess Gwenalot is the star of a series of books, including Princess Gwenalot and the Blue Dragon. Apparently princesses are just as popular in Fraggle Rock as they are here in Outer Space. But what are we to make of the fact that Red’s favorite book is about a hero meeting a blue dragon, and then she meets a blue dragon herself? Do the tunnels in the T. Matthew Fraggle Room have some sort of mind-reading property? Okay, okay, I’ll stop.
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by Ryan Roe – [email protected]
