When Jack and Will find a unicorn, they decide to bring it back to the temple for Holly as a “birthday present”, but it soon goes missing, sending Holly looking for it.

Once again, this series utilizes the lost world idea to introduce two creatures of lore into the Land. You probably can guess one by the title, but it’s not the first creature we meet. That distinction goes to Corny the unicorn. It’s abundantly clear that this is a horse wearing a birthday cap, but that’s ok; this was a series that far predated any half-decent CGI.  In fairness, the idea of the unicorn wearing a birthday hat is probably what made Jack think to bring it to Holly as a birthday gift in the first place.  

The idea that legendary things may have been real once but vanished from our world by falling into the Land of the Lost is a brilliant concept and the show writers had solid ideas here. The idea of both the Yeti and the Unicorn showing up is inspired. Far better than that time a Yeti showed up on a submarine in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, that’s for sure! It’s a shame the acting for the Yeti really brings things down, and seeing it with our modern televisions means we’re seeing clearly that this is just a man dressed up in a furry suit.

What is interesting is that Enik knows what the creature is, though he has a different name for it. He says it’s from the “land of snow” which made me wonder if some of the things from our world had their origin in the Land of the Lost.  As in, the things we knew from ancient tales started in the Land and found their way into our world, instead of the other way around.  Anyway, Holly wanders to the “land of snow” in search of her newly acquired unicorn that has gone missing.  This also might imply there are ways out of the Land that can be found; a doorway that works for coming in and out. Then one has to wonder where those doorways lead, since Enik is not from our world (…or is he?). If the doorways all lead to Earth, what are the Sleestak? He confirms my belief that the recent earthquakes must have opened new doors, which I see as an interesting bit of continuity that goes back to the end of last season and the start of this one, and it does lend itself to some good storytelling.

Enik goes on to say that the Yeti is strong enough to be able to break the neck of a brontosaur (presumably learning what the Marshall’s call the large dinosaur. Since he has other words for most things, I’d imagine he speaks to the Marshall’s in words they know.) He feels the reason the Yeti is in the area is that it’s looking for its food: the unicorn. Again, could both things come from The Land, or did they both fall through a similar doorway and thus vanishing from our world?  Perhaps the unicorn was pursued and fell into the Land and the Yeti followed?   

There’s some fun dialogue at the start when Will says he thought unicorns were always white. Jack says he always thought they didn’t exist. When they bring it to Holly, she says she didn’t think they existed thus making Will look a bit silly, which made me laugh. It was a clever bit of writing that proved Holly was more practical than her older brother. On the other hand, Will is portrayed well in that he realizes the Yeti might be a threat and tells Enik, “If we’re not back by dark, you’d better batten down your hatches.” I consider that significant in that Will is telling Enik that he and Jack will try to take care of the threat, but if they fail, Enik should do what he can to save himself. They are the heroes, while Enik is just the Angry Altrusian.  (Billy Joel’s Album The Angry Young Altrusian was also lost to the Land some time ago, sadly.)

Overall this isn’t a bad episode but it suffers visually as a product of its time. The special effects have been consistently lite on the “special” and the birthday-hat wearing unicorn (apt to celebrate Holly’s birthday, but a little too “on point”), the costumed yeti with a yelling actor wearing bad teeth and the very evident Styrofoam ice all detract from an episode that doesn’t have a lot going for it to lose those points. On the other hand, Holly attempting to befriend the Yeti saying they are supposed to be shy creatures was really a big win for the episode because it again shows the heroes trying to make friends with others, even the non-human lifeforms. This show has unfortunately degraded in quality, but it still manages to surprise me with every episode. That’s been the biggest win for this old thing: every week I am excited to see what comes next. ML