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Moaning Stones is episode 52 in broadcast order and episode 68 in DVD order of The Real Ghostbusters, first aired on November 5, 1987 as part of the show's second season. Written by Steven Barnes, it sends the team to a New York museum where three reunited ancient stones bring dinosaur skeletons back to life and stir an immortal demon. The Ghostbusters find their gear useless, and Winston Zeddemore turns out to be the only one who can stop the threat.1
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Marsha Goodman's episode call sheet and SAG report give the production number as 76055.2 The episode was recorded on December 3, 1986.2 The episode's original working title was "Blood Brothers."
The episode aired during Season 2 and appears on the home-video release as Volume 3, Disc 1. Regular voice cast for the episode included Lorenzo Music, Frank Welker, Maurice LaMarche, Arsenio Hall, and Laura Summer, with guest voices by Arthur Burghardt (the Undying One) and Iona Morris (Dahlia and Miss Nuxom).
An Eye on New York reporter interviews a museum curator named Miss Nuxom at the New York Cosmopolitan Museum about the three pieces of the Moaning Stones of Tangalla. Nuxom explains the stones once belonged to the Ibandi, an ancient empire that stretched from a river in the south up to what is now called Tangalla. She strikes two of the joined pieces, producing an excruciating sound, and reveals that the third piece was recovered a month earlier. Ignoring the warning that the pieces were deliberately kept apart, she holds the third near the other two. A nearby dinosaur skeleton begins to stir, then settles when she refuses the reporter's request to join all three. Nuxom also shows a silver medallion found with the third piece, bearing the image of a figure.
The broadcast is watched by an older woman named Dahlia, who is alarmed: she says the stones should have been destroyed because uniting them will bring the Undying One back to life. She compares the figure on the medallion to a newspaper photo of the Ghostbusters, taken during an earlier off-screen case, and recognizes Winston.
At the firehouse, Peter Venkman is testing a "love song" on a new synthesizer while Egon Spengler works nearby and Slimer hides in fear. A blast from the synthesizer knocks the four men into a heap. Janine Melnitz calls them down to the front desk, where Dahlia points to Winston and names him the reincarnation of Shimabuku. Ray Stantz recognizes Shimabuku as the greatest chieftain of the Ibandi empire.
Dahlia lays out the legend: six thousand years ago Shimabuku's people were ruled by an immortal demon, the Undying One. After a war among the gods left the demon exhausted, Shimabuku bound it to the Moaning Stones and split the stones into three pieces, burying them at the corners of the kingdom. Winston knows the story too: his grandmother told him tales from Africa and Puerto Rico about voodoo and Santeria, though he never believed them. Dahlia, a Santeria priestess who says she has lost most of her power, insists Winston is descended from Shimabuku and is the only man who can control the demon. Egon is skeptical but mentions a new mold exhibit at the museum as an additional reason for the team to visit.
At the museum, Miss Nuxom and Ambassador Yali unite all three pieces. The stones glow and float, dinosaur skeletons reanimate, and guests flee as Ecto-1 arrives. Dahlia warns the team their gear will not work, and the skeletons reassemble after each proton stream hit. The team retreats through the galleries, deliberately sparing the Rembrandt Room. Egon scans the skeletons with the P.K.E. Meter and concludes they are dealing with a coherent vibration, so the team fights to the museum's sound room. Egon and Ray boost the public-address system to disrupt the energy holding the Undying One together. A first attempt fails; Egon reasons they need something with no coherence at all, so they play Peter's discordant love song from tape. It works, and the animated skeletons collapse into ordinary bones.
The Undying One itself then forces its way toward the sound room, unaffected by the song. Out of options, Winston steps forward and claims his connection to Shimabuku. Peter invokes Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny to persuade Winston that impossible things turn out to be real. Dahlia transfers what is left of her power to him, and the others form a circle to empower him; Winston transforms into Shimabuku and binds the demon back into the stones. Egon smashes the stones apart again. Miss Nuxom returns to find the wreckage and a missing stone fragment, which Dahlia quietly hands to Winston before leaving. Outside, Peter plays his tape on a boom box confident that Subsidy Records will be interested, but only a crowd of dogs gathers to howl along.
This episode features several one-off characters central to its plot.
The Undying One is the episode's primary antagonist, voiced by Arthur Burghardt. It is an immortal demon that ruled the ancient Ibandi Empire in present-day Tangalla approximately six thousand years ago. According to Dahlia, releasing it brings the twilight of the gods, the resurrection of the dead, and the end of life. The demon exerts powerful control over bones and skeletons, animating them as minions composed of coherent psychokinetic vibrations. It was bound by Shimabuku after a war among the gods left it exhausted, then sealed into the Moaning Stones, which were split into three pieces and buried at the corners of the kingdom. Proton streams have no effect on the Undying One; it can only be commanded back into its prison by someone who carries the soul of Shimabuku. In the call sheet for the episode, the character is listed simply as "Demon."2 The Undying One makes non-canon cameo appearances in IDW's Ghostbusters Issue #10 (page 19, on a gate post) and on the convention cover of Ghostbusters: Get Real Issue #1.
Dahlia is a retired Santeria priestess, voiced by Iona Morris. In her youth she possessed considerable power; by the time of the episode she has lost most of it, retaining only the ability to see and show things to others. She spots the Moaning Stones on the news broadcast and identifies Winston as the reincarnation of Shimabuku by comparing the silver medallion to a newspaper photograph of the Ghostbusters from an earlier, off-screen case. She visits the firehouse to warn the team, implores Winston to accept his heritage, and ultimately channels the combined energies of all four Ghostbusters and Janine into Winston to complete the binding of the demon. Afterward, she entrusts Winston with one piece of the Moaning Stone for safekeeping. Dahlia's visual design later inspired the character Claudia in IDW's Ghostbusters: Get Real Issue #1, and she makes a non-canon cameo as a parade float in Ghostbusters Issue #10 (page 1).
Miss Nuxom (her name is spelled "Nuxum" in some secondary sources, but "Nuxom" is used on the episode call sheet2) is an official at the New York Cosmopolitan Museum who presides over the ceremonial unification of the three stone pieces, disregarding an inscription warning against it. She is voiced by Iona Morris, the same actor as Dahlia. Ambassador Yali is the diplomat whose presence lends authority to the reunification ceremony. Both characters serve as catalysts, their haste triggering the demon's release.
The episode is included on the home-video set as Volume 3, Disc 1. In broadcast order it followed The Thing in Mrs. Faversham's Attic and preceded Knock, Knock; in DVD order it follows I Am the City and precedes The Long, Long, Long, etc. Goodbye.
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
