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"In the Midnight Hour" is the sixtieth episode in the Sonic Boom television series. It first aired on 31 December 2016 in the United States.
Synopsis
Sticks discovers a mysterious figure indoctrinating the village in the middle of the night, but the gang thinks it’s just Sticks’ paranoia.[3]
Appearances
Characters:
- Admiral Beaverton
- Badnik
- Bee Bot (multiple)
- Beetle Bot (multiple) (first appearance)
- Crab Bot (multiple)
- Motobug (multiple)
- Beaver Policeman
- Beth the Shrew
- Child Monkey
- Comedy Chimp
- Cubot
- Dreamcaster (first appearance)
- Dr. Eggman
- Fastidious Beaver
- Fennec Male
- Gentleman Wolf
- Lady Goat
- Lady Walrus
- Mayor Fink
- Mike the Ox
- Mrs. Vandersnout
- Old Monkey
- Orbot
- Rabbit Girl
- Reindeer Girl
- Sheep Villager
- Team Sonic
- Warthog Male
- Walrus Camera Man
- Walrus Child
- Walrus Male
- Wild Cat
- Wolf Policeman
- Wolfie
Locations:
Items:
- Amy's Hammer
- Communicator
- Meh Burger
- Super Slumber Satellite (first appearance)
- Wrist controller
Vehicles:
Misc.:
- Comedy Chimp Show
- Jujutsu Realism (first appearance)
Plot
Late at night in the Village Center, a paint-covered Sticks is using martial arts on a canvas to create works of art when she spots a strange figure hovering around the TV station. Panicking, she runs to Sonic's Shack, where she finds the hedgehog asleep and dreaming of sugarplums; after waking him, she leads him back to the TV station, only to find the figure is gone. Sticks is convinced the figure was around here, but an unconvinced Sonic leaves to go back to bed. The next day, Sticks tells her story to the rest of Team Sonic, only for them to state the badger is seeing things. Tails in particular is convinced Sticks is suffering from sleep deprivation; after claiming she never sleeps (thus proving his point), she tells everyone she will prove the figure exists.
That night, Sticks lurks near the TV station when she notices the figure return and broadcast himself over the TV airwaves, introducing himself as the Dreamcaster and soothing the villagers to sleep while claiming it is not a hypnotizing attempt. Sticks tackles him and tells everyone watching that Dreamcaster is attempting to hypnotize them all; they quickly run to the TV station, led by Comedy Chimp, who is not happy Sticks is destroying his studio. Sticks once more attempts to convince them that Dreamcaster is real, but no one is believing it, not even Team Sonic. Feeling upset that not even her friends are convinced, she runs off.
In the daytime, Sticks is in her burrow, taking out her frustrations on the paintings she created when Comedy Chimp barges in with the village policemen, ordering her arrest. Once again, she attempts to convince them about Dreamcaster, to no avail; she runs off and finds her friends there, only for Sonic to handcuff her. Amy claims a night in jail might clear her head, and the policemen take her off, at which point Dreamcaster appears from behind a tree and tells them they have earned their sugarplums, at which point they enter a hypnotized state. Sticks spends the night in jail, feeling depressed to the point of doubting her own opinions on the world. Soon after, however, she notices the villagers hypnotized, the other members of Team Sonic among them; Eggman appears and proclaims victory, having been the creator of Dreamcaster all along. By having him broadcast mind-control waves across the Unnamed Village that grew in strength over time, Eggman gained control over the villagers as they slept, and he soon uses them to build the Super Slumber Satellite, a device allowing him to broadcast Dreamcaster's mind-control waves all across the world, allowing him complete world domination.
Sticks is relieved to learn her fears were vindicated and her viewpoints are still right after all. Soon after, Eggman notices her and is upset that she remains unaffected because she does not own a TV, which again convinces her that her opinions are justified. Meanwhile, the villagers continue to build the Satellite with the assistance of Eggman's Badniks, Beetle Bots included, as Sticks attempts to escape from jail; eventually, she lures a mind-controlled Knuckles to the wall of her cell and gets him to punch it down, but as she escapes, Eggman has Dreamcaster attempt to mind-control her, which she barely resists as she runs off to her burrow, packing objects into her backpack before exiting. Back in the Center, the Satellite is completed and Eggman is going through a lengthy process to activate it when Sticks returns, having packed five tinfoil hats, able to block the mind-control waves indefinitely when worn.
She puts one hat on herself and one other on Sonic, telling him to place two of the other hats on Tails and Knuckles while she puts the remaining hat on Amy. Eventually, Team Sonic is entirely freed from the mind control, allowing Sticks to confront and destroy Dreamcaster with her martial arts painting method, freeing everyone from the mind control for good, while the others deal with the Badniks and destroy the Satellite; defeated once again, Eggman retreats. Sticks asks for an apology from her friends, only for them to state that it was Dreamcaster making them say those things, which convinces her to ask if they really think she is not crazy; still not entirely convinced, they hesitate to answer.
Continuity
Goofs
The Old Monkey's eye error.
- Lady Goat's fur color is much darker in this episode.
- In the scene with the jail where Sticks says that she knew that Dreamcaster was real, her window's metal bars are much thicker and more evenly positioned between each other.
- As the hypnotized Beth backs away from the cargo being dropped by the Beetle Bot, she almost slides across the ground.
- As Sticks flips through the crowd of zombies to reach Amy, the Fennec Male ends up behind her. However, in the following shot where Sticks puts her tin foil hat on Amy, the Fennec Male has ended up behind Amy.
- When villagers are released from the mind control, the Old Monkey's eyes are much smaller than normal.
- In some scenes Sticks' eyes are green instead of blue.
Title in other languages
| Language | Title | Translation |
|---|---|---|
Trivia
- Two days before this episode aired on Boomerang, Bill Freiberger released the title card for this episode on Twitter as a teaser.[4]
- After her talk of the TV being a mind control device, Sticks breaks the fourth wall by telling the viewer that she was not talking to them and tells them to keep watching.
- Dreamcaster is likely named after Sega's last game console, the Dreamcast.
- Dreamcaster's eyes appear to be based on the Dreamcast logos.
- Dreamcaster's color scheme bares a resemblance to the Dreamcast's American marketing of the orange swirl logo and white plastic casing.
- Dreamcaster's metaphor of sugar plums is based on the Christmas poem from Clement C. Moore's A Visit from St. Nicholas (1823). The line "Visions of sugar plums danced in their heads," of children sleeping and dreaming.
- Team Sonic's responses to Dreamcaster's name might be a reference (used both in context and ironically) to the fact that some of the most prominent Sonic games first debuted on the Dreamcast console, such as Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2.
- The dance that Dreamcaster had everyone do and the music playing in that scene is a reference to the song "Thriller" by Michael Jackson.
- Eggman asking Sticks what she is doing on Saturday mornings without a TV is a nod to how the Sonic Boom television series (at the time) aired new episodes at 6:00 PM on Saturdays in the United States.
- When everyone starts building the Super Slumber Satellite, an altered version of "Funkytown" plays.
- Sticks using a tin foil hat to block out Dreamcaster's mind-control is a nod to the real-world belief that such hats can shield against mind-control.
- Wild Cat's epiphany about his life is an allusion to how he is a background character in a TV show.
- Deespite appearing, Cubot has no line in this episode.
References
- ↑ Bill Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (5 December 2016). Retrieved on 5 December 2015. "Bill Freiberger: Episode 208: In the Midnight Hour. Written by Paul Shriver."
- ↑ Sonic Boom: In the Midnight Hour. Zap2it.com. Retrieved on 25 November 2016.
- ↑ Bill Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (5 December 2016). Retrieved on 5 December 2015. "Bill Freiberger: Sticks discovers a mysterious figure indoctrinating the village in the middle of the night, but the gang thinks it’s just Sticks’ paranoia."
- ↑ Bill Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (29 December 2016). Retrieved on 30 December 2016.
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