Plot
At lights out, Ray Stantz reads Slimer a story from a pop-up fairy tale book while Egon Spengler and Peter Venkman sleep. Ray gets tired and calls it a night, settling down with his Stay Puft Marshmallow Man plush doll, but Slimer wants to keep going. He takes the book and slips out of the bunkroom, sliding down the fire pole past Winston Zeddemore, who is watching a horror movie in the rec room, and hiding from Janine Melnitz at the front desk. Slimer settles in the basement in front of the Containment Unit to read.
A portal opens at the staircase and a dragon stumbles out, startling Slimer. The creature asks for help against a wizard who is hunting her. The two hide behind the Containment Unit as a pair of armored ogres arrive, sniffing the dragon out. Slimer and the dragon phase through the floor and flee the basement.
Slimer alerts Janine to the ogres, who appear at her desk. She hits the alarm and the Ghostbusters blast the ogres' clubs into kindling, but one ogre grabs Janine as a hostage. Egon calls off the team's fire, and the ogres teleport away with her. The dragon explains that she is the last of her kind and comes from a place called the Realm of Fantasy, the ectoplasmic equivalent of fairy tales, where a wizard named Orlox needs a dragon's heart to finish a potion of invincibility.
The Ghostbusters, Slimer, and the dragon head down into a subway station. The dragon opens a portal into the Realm of Fantasy; the team goes through, but Peter hesitates, and Slimer has to reach back through and pull him in. On the other side, the team spots a Pegasus and a posted notice offering Janine's hand in marriage to whatever knight delivers the last dragon to Orlox. Egon hatches a plan. While several knights bathe in a lake, the Ghostbusters steal their armor. Winston hands Slimer a ghost trap and tells him to open it on their signal.
At Orlox's castle, the wizard has already berated his ogres for failing to capture the dragon on their own. The disguised team presents the dragon to Orlox. He bridges the chasm to the stairwell, playing along, then teleports down with Janine. Slimer accidentally drops the trap too soon, and Orlox attacks with his staff. The Ghostbusters draw their throwers, go to "full netronus with mazer assist," and open fire, but Orlox disarms them and corners them against a wall. Slimer charges, only to be blasted, his tail singed. With Orlox distracted, the team recovers their throwers, and it takes all four streams to barely confine him before Slimer slams the trap pedal.
With Orlox trapped, his cauldron disintegrates, the ogres turn to stone, and the castle is restored to match the bright Realm of Fantasy around it. The Ghostbusters, Slimer, and Janine return through the subway station and bid the dragon goodbye, melting back into a crowd of ordinary New Yorkers. Back at the Firehouse, Ray offers to finish the fairy tale, but Slimer declines, saying he already knows the ending. Ray realizes he means the day's events, and they both go to sleep.
One-off characters and creatures
Orlox is the episode's main antagonist, an evil wizard of the Realm of Fantasy voiced by Frank Welker. His goal is to capture the last dragon and use her heart in a potion that would make him invincible, allowing him to rule the Realm of Fantasy permanently. He commands a pair of ogre knights as enforcers. In combat, Orlox can teleport, raise terrain, fly, and fire energy blasts from his staff. Even all four proton streams working together are barely enough to confine him; it takes Slimer's physical distraction to give the team the opening they need.
The Last Dragon is a young female dragon, the sole survivor of her species, native to the Realm of Fantasy. She enters the real world through a portal seeking protection from Orlox. She can phase through solid objects and open portals between her home dimension and the human world via subway stations.
The Realm of Fantasy functions as the ectoplasmic equivalent of fairy tales: a dimension populated by knights, castles, magical creatures, and wizards that overlaps with the human world at transit nodes. Other creatures sighted there include a Pegasus, a horned lion near Orlox's castle, and the bathing warriors whose armor the Ghostbusters borrow.
Cast and characters
The voice cast features Dave Coulier, Frank Welker, Maurice LaMarche, Buster Jones, Kath Soucie, and Rodger Bumpass. For this episode Bumpass does not reprise Louis Tully, instead providing two incidental voices.2
Equipment
The Ghostbusters bring proton packs and particle throwers, a ghost trap, and arrive via the Ectomobile. The Containment Unit appears in the Firehouse basement as both a hiding spot and a landmark that the portal's arrival is measured against.
Production
Dave Coulier recorded his lines alone on June 12, 1989, and the rest of the episode was recorded on June 28, 1989.2
Animation errors
When Ray yawns in bed at the opening, the blue and white stripes on his pajama top swap places. Later, as the Ghostbusters chase the ogres out through the Firehouse entrance, both Ecto-1 and the dragon are composited partly over the door frame rather than behind it, a cel layering mistake.
Trivia
As in the earlier episode Once Upon a Slime, Slimer makes off with a book to read on his own after Ray is too tired to keep reading. Orlox's armored ogre minions bear a passing resemblance to the goblins seen with Samhain. A "No Ghost" advertisement appears on the wall of the subway station before the team crosses into the Realm of Fantasy. Peter name-checks J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Winston admits he is rusty after playing a horn badly outside the castle.
Episode navigation
By air date and DVD order, "Surely You Joust" follows Transcendental Tourists and precedes Kitty-Cornered.
References
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
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Eatock, James & Mangels, Andy (2008). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection booklet, p. 34. CPT Holdings, Inc.
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Marsha Goodman (1989). Episode Call Sheet and SAG Report, "Surely You Joust" (1989).
