"The Lost Prince" is the fifth episode of Star Wars: Droids: The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO. Written by Peter Sauder and directed by Ken Stephenson, the episode originally aired on ABC on October 5, 1985.
C-3PO and R2-D2 land on the mining world of Tyne's Horky. On the advice of an agency, the two droids apply for work at Doodnik's Café. C-3PO believes they are looking for a maintenance droid and translator. However, the two find themselves working as servers waiting on tables. C-3PO struggles to remember orders including photon fizzles, one bowl of Giva jumbo, and two supernovas. R2-D2 delivers a tray of items that C-3PO was about to deliver.
C-3PO's inability to work fast annoys the four-armed chef Doodnik Sharpelz, who tells him to look after the crime lord Kleb Zellock, who owns several businesses in town, including the café. A bearded man accuses Kleb of changing the terms of the deal, but Kleb's aide-de-camp Yorpo Mog removes him. C-3PO goes to serve Kleb, but the impatient crime lord demands the usual. C-3PO trips on R2-D2, spilling drinks and causing a mess.
Sollag Den enters the café and offers Kleb 40,000 keshels to find someone named Mon Julpa before the assassin droid IG-88 finds him. Kleb asks what makes this fellow so important. Sollag tells the crime lord that all he needs to know is his picture. Kleb accepts the offer, saying that if he can't find him no one else can.
R2-D2 serves a bowl of stew. Yorpo trips over R2-D2 and plunges into the stew. An enraged Yorpo hurls R2-D2 into several dishes and trays, creating a mess. After one too many mishaps, Doodnik terminates their employment and tells them not to return. C-3PO asks what they should do since they can't function without a master. Speaking in Binary, R2-D2 proposes auctioning themselves. C-3PO initially objects but complies.
The two droids go to a nearby auction block and place themselves for sale. The auctioneer offers 500 keshels for R2-D2 and C-3PO, with the latter taking offense since he believes they are worth 5,000 keshels apiece. When the buyers show little interest in the droids, the auctioneer offers a shoddy-looking work android. However, the crowd is not interested. C-3PO appeals to a young human miner named Jann Tosh, telling him that they are worth 5,000 keshels.
Jann is sympathetic but has already spent his uncle's money on a green humanoid mining droid. The auctioneers sells the work android to Yorpo Mog for 60 keshels. When the android struggles to walk, Jann helps him up and tells Yorpo to leave him alone. Jann takes pity on Yorpo, who appears to be falling apart. Translating for Yorpo, C-3PO explains that Yorpo says that it is only a worthless android. Jann offers to sell his newly purchased mining droid for 3,000 keshels in return for the android, C-3PO, and R2-D2.
Yorpo agrees to the deal and is delighted with the mining droid. Yorpo shows his master Kleb Zollock the new acquisition. However, Kleb realizes that the android is Mon Julpa, who is worth 40,000 keshels to him. Greedy for the 40,000-keshel reward, they give chase. Having no idea who the third strange droid truly is, Jann and the others escape from Kleb and Yorpo on a wheel bike. Yorpo grabs onto to the vehicle, but Jann kicks him off following a brief pursuit. Kleb picks up Yorpo and vows that nobody gets between them and their quarry for long.
Jann brings the droids to his uncle Putch Gundarian's mine. Uncle Gundy is initially excited but is furious that his nephew traded the work droid for two droids and an android. Gundy criticizes Jann for sacrificing their interests out of a desire to help the galaxy. He warns his nephew that he is too soft and that people will take advantage of his kindness. R2-D2 passes Uncle Gundy's hat back to him, prompting Gundy to thank him.
When Mon Julpa falls out of his seat, Jann and R2-D2 tend to him. R2-D2's sensors indicate that Julpa is not an android. C-3PO explains that there is no trace of any non-organic mechanisms of any kind, making him a complete life form. Jann removes his mask and hood, revealing a purple-skinned Tammuz-an. Uncle Gundy is enraged that Jann brought home another mouth to feed. Losing his temper, he kicks R2-D2 but hurts his foot. C-3PO is concerned that they are not making a very good impression on their new master.
Later, C-3PO works on a pot of stew and drives several rodents away. Later, Jann and Uncle Gundy arrive with the Tammuz-an. While C-3PO serves Gundy soup, he warns him that R2-D2 has a hard body. While the Tammuz-an eats, Jann asks C-3PO what they should call him. C-3PO proposes calling him "hungry." Later, the alien helps C-3PO by carrying two pails on a pole. Uncle Gundy grows to like the alien, who is able to help around the mine.
Shortly, Kez-Iban saves Gundy's life during a cave-in and carries him out. Gundy thanks the alien for his help, addressing him as Kez-Iban. C-3PO explains that Kez-Iban is a Bocce word for "he who returns from the dead." Jann decides to call him Kez-Iban.
Later at Doodnik's Café, Max Rebo, Droopy McCool and Sy Snootles entertain the guests. A grim Yorpo stands guard while Kleb samples some dessert. Yorpo shows him a sample of the element Nergon-14, which he had just recently discovered in Zellock's own mining station. Zellock knows that the unstable mineral is valuable in the use of proton torpedoes and plans on selling it to the Galactic Empire.
The two gangsters spot Jann and the others arriving on their wheel bike. Seeking to collect the 40,000 keshels, he reminds Yorpo of his instructions. At the medcenter, Jann and C-3PO are pleased to see a recovering Uncle Gundy being wheeled by a medical droid. Jann says that it will take more than a cave-in to break Unce Gundy. Just then, R2-D2 alerts them that Kez-Iban has gone. C-3PO fears that Yorpo has made off with him.
Sollag Den argues with Kleb, who is demanding more money for Mon Julpa. Kleb says that others are interested in Julpa, but Sollag warns that they would destroy him and says that he is here to save him. Kleb demands that he pay his price, prompting Sollag to attack him. Yorpo grabs him. Jann demands that Yorpo put Sollag down and asks what he has done to Kez-Iban. Kleb says he has been expecting him and sends Yorpo to attack them.
At C-3PO's signal, R2-D2 sprays a simian customer with water, causing him to charge at Yorpo. A fight breaks out in the café. The simian customer charges at Jann and the droids but he is stunned by a dark-skinned human woman named Jessica Meade, who is wielding a miniature stunner. The two thank each other and exchange names. Jann attempts to leave. However, Yorpo and Kleb gain the upper hand and capture Jann, Kez-Iban and the droids.
Kleb puts them to work in the mines digging for Nergon-14, which he describes as the most unstable raw element in the universe. C-3PO and Jann warn Kleb that the Nergon-14 is volatile and dangerous. Kleb suggests that they be careful and orders his mining droids to take them away.
Later, Jann encounters Kez-Iban in a cell but discovers that C-3PO and R2-D2 have broken free. C-3PO has detached his lower right leg in order to reach the power connector and deactivate the cable restraints. A mining droid tries to stop them, but Sollag shoots the droid. He tells Jann and his friends that he has come to help them as they have helped him.
Before long, Sollag finds Kez-Iban and presents him with the royal scepter of Tammuz-an. Upon accepting the scepter, Kez-Iban recovers his faculties and acknowledges that he is in fact Mon Julpa, the rightful heir to the throne of Tammuz-an. An evil vizier had used magic to strip him of his identity in order to take the throne for himself. R2-D2 also repairs C-3PO's leg.
Mon Julpa and the others decide to escape from the mines. They discover that Kleb's ore-cutters are cutting pockets into the bedrock, which is releasing flammable gas into the caverns. Too much of the gas will ignite the Nergon-14, causing a massive explosion. They fight Kleb's miner droids with Mon Julpa aiding the fight with his scepter.
Hijacking one of the mining machines, they take a turbolift up to the criminal's control platform. On the lift, C-3PO conveys R2-D2's message that the Nergon gas is reaching critical level. At the platform, Kleb immobilizes the organics with a wave that stings their ears. C-3PO implores them to stop the ore-cutters before it is too late, warning that they will ignite the gas that will activate the Nergon.
Kleb tells Yorpo not to trust a droid. Just then, the Nergon element activates, damaging the control platform. Kleb and Yorpo flee through the tunnels, with C-3PO, R2-D2, Jann, Sollag, and Mon Julpa in pursuit. C-3PO and R2-D2 confront Kleb and Yorpo as they are preparing to flee on an airspeeder. Kleb intends to abandon Yorpo and keep all the money for himself. Yorpo is angered by Kleb's treachery. Before Kleb can stun Yorpo, C-3PO knocks the stunner out of his hands, allowing the droids and organics to overpower him. Together with Yorpo and the unconscious Kleb, they escape the mine before it explodes, tossing out the cargo.
Aboard the airspeeder, Yorpo praises the droids for picking the right master. Jann replies he knows how to pick the droids. R2-D2 remarks that Kleb will be furious because the cargo the speeder was carrying was all his keschels. After dumping Kleb at the nearest security station, they return to Jann and Gundy's camp.
Gundy is grateful to Mon Julpa for saving his life and inadvertently helping him to discover a keschel vein during the cave-in. He hopes that he and Jann will be rich. Mon Julpa is grateful to his new friends for helping him to regain his faculties. He prepares to return to Tammuz-an to claim his throne. Jann decides to remain with his uncle.
C-3PO and R2-D2 receive an oil bath. Gundy issues orders to the droids but hurts his foot when he kicks R2-D2. While Gundy howls in pain, R2-D2 repairs C-3PO's loose ankle joint. Gundy subsequently reconciles with the two droids.
This episode was given two separate VHS releases by J2 Communications: It was released on a tape by itself, and on "Droids Volume 2" along with the episode "The New King." It was also released by CBS-FOX on a VHS entitled "Droids 2: The Pirates and the Prince." The VHS included several other episodes. The episode was released on VHS format in 1999 and on DVD in 2004 as part of the feature film The Pirates and the Prince.
This episode was adapted into the children's storybook entitled The Lost Prince: A Droid Adventure by Ellen Weiss.
The wheel bike that Jann Tosh uses to escape from the auction block is similar to the vehicle that General Grievous used in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith.