CAPTAIN OF THE GALACTIC GUARDIANS
Hydron
The red-haired starship captain who went back in time looking for a hero, and came home with two.
Hydron is the captain of the Galactic Guardians in The New Adventures of He-Man (1990), voiced by Don Brown. He and Flipshot travel back in time and bring He-Man to the planet Primus.
The record
The facts
WHERE HE COMES FROM
The captain who went looking for a hero
Hydron comes from The New Adventures of He-Man, which Jetlag Productions made in 1990 to move He-Man to the planet Primus, far in the future, where the Mutants of Denebria under Flogg are wearing down the shield that has kept the planet safe for centuries. The Filmation He-Man never met him, and his story belongs to the later run, which this encyclopedia treats as non-canon.[1]
The series begins with him. In Jack Olesker's premiere, "A New Beginning," Master Sebrian sends Captain Hydron and the young pilot Flipshot back through time in search of the power of the good and the way of the magic. On Eternia they are grabbed by Skeletor's men, and Skeletor is delighted to tell them he is the hero they came for. Prince Adam arrives with the real claim, the time hole starts closing, and the two travelers cannot tell the men apart, so they bring both. Primus gets its champion and its worst enemy on the same trip, and Hydron is the one who made the call.
After that he is the steady officer at the center of the Primus side: captain of the Starship Eternia and later the Colossus, commander of the Galactic Guardians, and the man who reports the blip on the screen before anyone else knows there is trouble.[2] Flipshot is the pilot who, as a fellow officer puts it in "The Guns of Nordor," never could follow orders; Hydron is the one giving them.
[1] ^ epguides puts the first syndicated run of The New Adventures of He-Man between September and December 1990.
[2] ^ The series is not always careful with him. In "The Battle for Levitan" he is drawn near the end with black hair and a different face, and in "The Running of the Herd" his arms and legs are flesh-colored instead of green as the Guardians leave the starship on Equinos.
THE SIGNATURE EPISODE
The Mind Lens
Doug Molitor's "The Mind Lens" gives Skeletor the Mind Lens of Denebria, which lets him take hold of another mind, and the mind he picks is Captain Hydron's, the officer whose orders the rest of Primus follows without a second thought.
The first sign is in a dogfight. Hydron has Flogg's ship in his sights, then calls it off: "Scrub the attack." Skeletor tells Flogg to let the Primans go, because they will soon have all of Primus for a shooting gallery. Back on the ground, told that he ordered the retreat himself, Hydron cannot account for it: "Retreat? I don't remember that. Am I losing my mind?"
It gets worse in public. Hydron talks his way into a Council session and makes Skeletor's case for him, "I say it's time to lay down our arms and trust our good friends, the mutants," and the answer from the chamber is a model of polite refusal, that nobody favors disarmament more, but since the Mutants persist in the war, let them be the first to put aside their arms. Then he takes the Starship Eternia and points it at Levitan. He-Man stops the ship and is taken over in turn, and the cure has to come from the Library of Humanity and a Council that agrees to focus its minds on him together. By the end the lens is working on Skeletor, who finds himself telling the Mutants that the shield is down.
The animators give the possessed Hydron a sly grin at the controls of the stolen ship, and Don Brown lets the voice go smug to match.[3] It is the one episode where the series' steadiest officer gets to play someone else.
[3] ^ Don Brown is credited as Hydron in IMDb's full credits for "The Seeds of Resistance" and "Flogg's Revenge", and in Wikipedia's cast list for the series. The same credits give him Gepple, Optikk and Kayo, and the credits for "Zone of Darkness" add Quakke and Werban, so in "The Siege of Serus" the captain and the scientist whose goo seals the crack share a voice.
Hydron on the 1990 series, slumped in his seat in The Mind Lens.
Clipped from our own copy of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, The Mind Lens (The New Adventures of He-Man, 1990), 5:16 to 7:16, 2 minutes. Nothing is added and nothing is sped up. Copyright Mattel.
THE SECOND ANGLE
Big brother from Serus
"The Siege of Serus" gives him a family. An asteroid storm cracks the casing around the undersea city of Serus, where his sister Aquata lives, and her call comes through to his ship. He tells the others that he is the only one of their family who left Serus for the surface, and that now he wishes he had not; when Aquata says she hates to call on her big brother for help, he answers, "That's what big brothers are for." Gepple's goo holds the crack long enough for the scientists to seal it, and when Aquata thanks him, Hydron insists, "All I did was provide the transportation." She tells He-Man that her brother always did like giving others the credit.
That habit runs through his other episodes. In the flashback "The Galactic Guardians" he tells Gepple that reprogramming a runaway ship's orbit is a job for scientists, not pilots, and he and Gepple then bluff Flogg with a warning that the ship will explode if the Mutants attack it again.[4] In "The Guns of Nordor" his craft is the one the Mutants cripple, and the rescue has to come to him.
[4] ^ The flashback episode "The Galactic Guardians" shows Hydron and Flipshot auditioning Artilla, Spinwit and Tuskador, the recruits who fill out the team.
THE PARTNERSHIP
Hydron and Flipshot
Most of his scenes are shared with Flipshot, and Jack Olesker's "Four Ways to Sundown" turns the partnership into a comedy of memory. Flying medical supplies to Muninos, the two of them retell the battle of the Quagmi Swamp. In Flipshot's version Hydron freezes at the sight of the planet and Flipshot lands the ship; in Hydron's version Flipshot is the nervous one, and the captain promises him a return to flight school. Hydron's dry remark that Flipshot has a great imagination, and that he remembers things a little differently, sums up the episode.
The pair are a team from the start. In "Quest for the Crystals" they finally fly a real starship, the Starship Eternia, on a planet that outlawed weapons long ago; in "Sword and Staff" they are in Goron City buying oil for the Vasionic Resonator when Quakke arrives to start a fight; in "Juggernaut" they talk down a lost girl from Tetron who turns out to be a machine; in "The Call to the Games" they are in the cockpit when the Guardians begin to suspect that a ship half the size of a moon is not the Mutants' doing.[5]
[5] ^ He also turns up in "The Heat," "The Ultimate Challenge," "The Pen Is Mightier Than the Sword, Or Is It?," "Glasnost Schmasnost," "The Festival of Lights," "The Gift," "The Seeds of Resistance," "Escape from Gaolotia," "He-Man Mutant," "Fading Star," "Adam's Adventure," "Cold Freeze," "The Test of Time," "The Sheriff of Gorn City," "He-Fan," "No Easy Way," "The Bride of Slush Head," "Dreadator," "Mutiny on the Mothership," "Balance of Power," "The Taking of Levitan" and "Flogg's Revenge."
IN PLASTIC
Two Hydrons
Mattel made Hydron for the first New Adventures wave in 1989, alongside He-Man, Flipshot, Flogg, Slush Head and Skeletor, with a removable helmet, a backpack and a Triton spear gun, and a twist-waist action that swings his arm. In 2014 he returned as a Masters of the Universe Classics figure, sold through Mattel's collector subscription, with a clear diving dome, a backpack with breathing tubes and the spear gun again. Both are long retired.
IN BRIEF
From Primus to Serus
The first Hydron figure
Mattel's first New Adventures wave puts him beside He-Man and Flipshot, with a removable helmet and a Triton spear gun.
A New Beginning
Hydron and Flipshot travel to Eternia and bring back both Prince Adam and Skeletor.
The Mind Lens
Skeletor takes over his mind and turns the Starship Eternia toward Levitan.
The Siege of Serus
He goes home to the undersea city to save his sister's people.
Four Ways to Sundown
He and Flipshot argue over who lost his nerve in the Quagmi Swamp.
Masters of the Universe Classics
A collector Hydron arrives through Mattel's subscription, diving dome and spear gun included.
Questions
Hydron questions, answered
Who is Hydron in He-Man?
The captain of the Galactic Guardians on the planet Primus in The New Adventures of He-Man, and the officer who brings He-Man to the future.
Is Hydron in the original 1983 He-Man cartoon?
No. Filmation's He-Man never leaves Eternia for Primus, and Hydron was created for the 1990 series.
Who voices Hydron?
Don Brown, who also voices Gepple, Optikk, Quakke and several other characters in the same series.
What episode does Hydron first appear in?
"A New Beginning," the series premiere, in which he and Flipshot travel back to Eternia.
Why did Hydron bring Skeletor to Primus?
He could not tell Skeletor and Prince Adam apart. Both claimed to be the hero he was looking for, the time hole was closing, and he brought both.
Does Hydron ever turn evil?
Only under Skeletor's control. In "The Mind Lens" he calls off an attack, argues for disarmament before the Council and steals the Starship Eternia before He-Man and the Council break the lens's hold.
Does Hydron have family?
A younger sister, Aquata, who lives in the undersea city of Serus. She is introduced in "The Siege of Serus."
Why does Hydron wear a helmet and mask?
He comes from an undersea city, and the series and both figures give him a diving-style helmet. Mattel's own bio for the first figure calls him the Guardians' underwater commander.
Was there a Hydron action figure?
Yes. Mattel made him for the New Adventures line in 1989, and a Masters of the Universe Classics version followed in 2014. Both are retired.
Is Hydron in the He-Man movies?
No. The 1987 film stays on Eternia and Earth with no Galactic Guardians, and he is not in the 2026 film either.
Compiled by the heman.org desk from The New Adventures of He-Man episodes and their English subtitles, and the episode guides to The Mind Lens, The Siege of Serus, A New Beginning and Four Ways to Sundown. The voice credit follows IMDb's episode credits and Wikipedia; the 1989 figure follows The Toy Collector's Guide and the 2014 figure Action Figure Barbecue; air dates follow epguides.
Alongside
