After escaping from Neemon, a planet under the rule of King Zarkon, a young slave named Jai crash lands on Planet Arus and asks the Voltron Force for their help to free his people and their homeworld from Zarkon's tyranny. Zarkon arrives on Neemon to celebrate his birthday, but Voltron crashes the party when he shows up to free the planet.


WRITTEN BY: Howard Albrecht & Sol Weinstein
TIMED BY: Bobby Bennett
STORY EDITOR: Stan Oliver
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: October 8, 1984



  • The 'Voice of Doom' was voiced by Neil Ross.


  • Tabor and Tal were voiced by Michael Bell.


  • The Doom guard that yells at the slaves to keep working and double their quotas was voiced by Peter Cullen.


  • The weary slave that tells the Doom Captain he can't go on was voiced by Jack Angel.


  • Jai was originally named Farlo.


  • Prince Tabor was originally named Taba.




When Voltron was dubbed from Golion, the series suffered a number of edits, mostly to remove material that was considered objectionable or inappropriate for Voltron. However, some of the deleted material was intended to be featured in the series only to wind up on the cutting room floor anyway. This section details what deleted material was intended to be featured in "Bad Birthday Party". Also detailed here are lines of dialogue that was scripted (and likely recorded) but not present in the episode.

  • Deleted from the end of the Doom Captain proclaiming he is the one responsible for the progress on Neemon was a close-up shot of Tabor looking somewhat concerned.


  • Deleted from the scene of two Doom soldiers giving the slaves food was a close-up shot of the food as it's being carried by the soldiers, revealing it to be flesh and bones, with one of the soldiers telling the slaves: “Here's your food, dogs! A treat from King Zarkon!”

    Also deleted from the scene was a shot of the slaves rushing towards the food after it's been dumped by the Doom soldiers.


  • Deleted from the end of Jai's telling Tal not to do anything foolish was an extra line from Jai in which he warns Tal: “They'll torture you!”


  • Deleted from Jai's sneaking aboard a Doom ship was a brief sequence where he sneaks past two guards, one of whom is passed out and the other too drunk to notice Jai before he too passes out.

    This sequence was seemingly never intended to be shown in the episode as the script specifies it's to be edited out, though someone on the production crew wanted it left in, as a hand-written note in the script asks producer Steve Sterling: “Steve! Why not keep this segment in?”


  • Deleted from toward the end of Voltron's fight with the Robeasts was a shot of the Green Robeast's right hand being severed by Voltron's Blazing Sword.




Some lines of dialogue were originally scripted differently. This section details the noteworthy differences.

  • A Doom guard's line “The great King Zarkon arrives tomorrow to check on your progress!” was originally scripted as: “The great King Zarkon arrives tomorrow to see how you do!”


  • Jai's line “I've got to get the Voltron Force here to help us!” was originally scripted as: “Somehow -- I gotta get him here to help us!”

    The 'him' that Jai refers to is Voltron.


  • The Doom Captain's line “Be quick about it!” was originally scripted as: “Hurry it up!”


  • Jai's line “I'm on fire!” was originally scripted as: “I'm hit bad!”


  • Jai's line “My people need help, really!” was originally scripted as: “My people need help real bad!”


  • Tabor's line “Magnificent!” was originally scripted as: “A god!”

    Zarkon's follow-up line “Yes, and some day my statue will be worshipped on every planet in the universe!” was originally scripted as: “Yes, and some day my statue will be worshipped on every planet in the heavens!”


  • Tabor's line “Oh, nothing will, I swear it, oh mighty king of kings!” was originally scripted as: “Oh -- nothing will, I swear it -- I promise Uncle...Majesty!”


  • Pidge's line “Sure, Voltron'll get through. There's no stopping us now!” was originally scripted as: “Sure, Voltron'll get through...I keep telling myself!”


  • Hunk's line “Doom ship at forty-five degrees!” was originally scripted as: “Flying saucer at forty-five degrees!”

    Incidentally, 'skull cruiser' was another term that was considered to replace 'flying saucer'.


  • Keith's victory speech at the end of the episode was originally scripted a bit differently: “And whenever any world across the vastness of space is threatened with injustice or cruelty -- good people everywhere can rest assured there is one who will always be ready to help. And -- that one is .. the mightiest of Robots! VOLTRON -- DEFENDER OF THE UNIVERSE!!”

    Incidentally, the first sentence was at one point re-written as: “And whenever any world across the vastness of space is threatened with injustice or cruelty -- good people everywhere can rest assured there is one who will always be ready to help as long as the Voltron Force is together!”

    Evidently the re-written version of that sentence wasn't used.






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