A Piece of the Action

Timestopper was supposed to deliver Mon*Star's ultimatum, and he has left the envelope on the seat of Seymour's cab. Mon*Star sends Melodia to find the cab, grab the envelope and turn Seymour's meter off permanently, and then, deciding that in the end you have to do everything yourself, orders the transformation chamber. Melodia chases Seymour, and Bluegrass turns up with his guitar.

Mon*Star arrives in the Governor's hall with Yes-Man and demands a piece of the action. Every other racket in the Galaxy of Limbo, he says, cuts him in on its take. The Governor answers that Bedlama is a planet with no take, but the Mob reckons there are more than 500 million limbo bucks in the treasury, and Mon*Star wants his standard cut of ninety percent. If the Governor refuses, the Mob will blow the dam at Lake Lustre and destroy Bedlama City. He has one hour.

The envelope Melodia was after spells it out: if Governor Zander does not hand over the treasury, Buzz-Saw will cut the dam. Quicksilver tells the Governor to play for time and promise the cash, and calls Hawk Haven for the Steel twins and Sly-Bird, because Tally-Hawk is on patrol and may need help. Bluegrass brings the Mirage on station, but Tally-Hawk has gone off the air. Quicksilver puts Sly-Bird over the city and the twins at the dam.

The dam bursts. Mon*Star offers a way out: Timestopper will stop time and give the SilverHawks one minute to repair the dam, and Quicksilver gives his word that Mon*Star and his boys can walk. Steelheart calls play 37B, the old Hercules bit, while Tally-Hawk lies injured nearby. The minute runs short, Quicksilver pushes Timestopper past his limit, and the twins finish in overtime. The Governor thanks the SilverHawks but asks whether Quicksilver had to let Mon*Star go, and Quicksilver answers that he gave his word.

The Mob threatens to flood Bedlam City unless the Governor pays it a percentage of the planet's income.

The Governor of Bedlama: "This isn't a racket. It's a planet."

Timestopper: "I can't! One limbo minute is all I can do!"

Quicksilver: "I gave him my word, Governor. I had no choice."

A piece of the action is a gangster's phrase, and Bruce Smith's script takes it at face value. Mon*Star walks into the Governor's hall on Bedlama and explains himself as a matter of business practice. "Every other racket in the Galaxy of Limbo", he says, cuts him in on its take, and Bedlama is the one that does not. The Governor's answer, "This isn't a racket. It's a planet.", is the best line in the episode. To him there is no difference between a casino and a world with a treasury, and ninety percent is just his standard cut.

Everyone in the episode is making a deal, and Mon*Star's terms and Quicksilver's promise turn out to be very different things. Mon*Star's terms come with a deadline and a dam. With the dam at Lake Lustre breaking and the city about to be washed away, he takes the only offer on the table, a minute of frozen time from Timestopper, and he pays for it with his word. "Okay, Mon*Star. You and your boys can walk if you stop the river." Nothing in the script forces him to keep it once the city is safe, but he keeps it anyway.

The opening is the episode at its most playful. Timestopper, trusted with the ultimatum, has left the envelope on the seat of Seymour's cab, and the chain of blame that follows is gangster comedy played with a straight face. Mon*Star sends Melodia after it with orders to turn Seymour's meter off permanently, and then, hearing her say "Leave it to me boss!", grumbles that that is what they all say and orders his transformation so that he can do it himself. The animation stages the demand as theatre in the Governor's white and gold hall, the transformed Mon*Star filling the doorway with Yes-Man coiled beside him, while the Governor sits small behind his desk at the far end of the room.[1]

The standout is the frozen minute. Steelheart calls "play number 37B, Will", which she names "The old Hercules bit", and the twins go to work in front of a wall of water that hangs in the air behind them. Timestopper becomes the most interesting figure in the story here, a Mob man straining at the dial on his chest while Quicksilver stands at his shoulder and urges him on, because the city now depends on a villain doing more than he says he can: "I can't! One limbo minute is all I can do!"[2] He does it anyway, and the twins finish in overtime.

The weakness is how little the SilverHawks do to earn the ending. Tally-Hawk is off the air and out of the fight,[3] Sly-Bird is sent to patrol and we never see him do anything useful, and the plan Quicksilver gives the Governor, to play for time and promise the cash, is overtaken when the dam goes anyway, so that the rescue rests on Mon*Star's own offer. The likely reason is the running time. The ultimatum, the chase and the flood have used most of it before anyone could make a plan, so what is left goes on the frozen minute, and we can hardly blame the script for choosing the spectacle.

It closes on the Governor, grateful and still unhappy, asking whether Quicksilver really had to let Mon*Star go, and on Quicksilver's answer: "I gave him my word, Governor. I had no choice." It is a stubborn answer, and not a comfortable one for a planet that nearly drowned, but it is the reason the offer was made at all. Keeping his word to Mon*Star is what saved Bedlama City, and Quicksilver knows it!

1 ^ The Governor is addressed as Governor Zander, and he calls Quicksilver Lieutenant, the rank the aged Stargazer gives him in Flashback.

2 ^ Timestopper's limit is one limbo minute, and the instruction to the twins is that they have sixty seconds to fix the dam. He comes from Stop Timestopper.

3 ^ The pre-title narration promises that Sky-Shadow knocks Tally-Hawk out of the sky and that Buzz-Saw cuts through the dam, but neither Sky-Shadow nor Buzz-Saw appears in a published frame.

1. Mon*Star's standard cut, by his own account, is ninety percent, and the Mob reckons the Bedlama treasury holds more than 500 million limbo bucks.
2. The Governor of Bedlama is addressed as Governor Zander (the transcript spells it Xander), and he in turn calls Quicksilver Lieutenant.
3. Timestopper, of Stop Timestopper, is working for Mon*Star here, and his frozen time lasts one limbo minute unless he strains to stretch it.
4. The plot turns on a lost letter: Timestopper leaves Mon*Star's ultimatum on the seat of Seymour's cab, and Melodia is sent to get it back.
5. At Hawk Haven the team is out of armour, in grey flight suits with Steelwill in a red and white shirt, when Quicksilver's call comes in on the big screen.
6. Quicksilver sends for Sly-Bird the Spy Hawk for reconnaissance; Tally-Hawk is on patrol, goes off the air, and ends the episode injured.
7. The closing science segment is about the Earth's axis and the equator, and the Kidd scores nine points for the day.

One name enters the series in this episode.

• Lake Luster Dam

Appearance lists compiled from the episode articles on the ThunderCats wiki, checked against this site's encyclopedia. Names we have no entry for are shown without a link rather than left out.