S01E26 · EPISODE 26 OF 65

One on One

The Mob creates exact clones of the SilverHawks and sends them on a deadly mission against Commander Stargazer.

SILVERHAWKS · S01E26

● TITLE CARD · 1986-10-13

Mon*Star sits chin in hand in the episode's first scene, before the action cuts to Hawk Haven.

At Hawk Haven, Steelwill is furious that his sister Steelheart has gone to Brim*Star, and Commander Stargazer tells him it was her idea. One of Stargazer's informers on Fence says the Mob is making SilverHawk clones, and Steelheart has gone alone into Mon*Star's fortress to stop them. Inside, she finds her way to the clone area. Mon*Star gloats that his clones will rub Stargazer out and asks to see the Steelheart clone again, but the Steelheart they find is the real one. The order goes out to ice her, and she ends up telling her attacker that he has the wrong Steelheart.

Stargazer sends Quicksilver, the Copper Kidd and Bluegrass out in the Mirage to a space freighter that clears them to land. It is a trap: Mo-Lec-U-Lar is waiting, the real SilverHawks are put out of action, and their clones take their places, radioing Hawk Haven that the freighter has a clean bill of health. The Mob has no clone of Steelwill and is counting on him not to suspect a thing.

Back at Hawk Haven, Steelwill is out cold and is put to bed in his quarters, while Stargazer admits that something is not quite right and puts it down to getting old and suspicious. In open space, Steelheart gets the real SilverHawks off the freighter, an old hulk towed into place, and with Bluegrass at the controls they get it running and bring it in close. When the fight is over the clones are gone, and the team asks Stargazer about a trick he has never shown them before.

Stargazer explains how he should have known. The Mirage landed too smoothly for Bluegrass to have been flying it, the Kidd's clone was much too polite, and Quicksilver's clone never interrupted him or tried to play boss. The SilverHawks, he says, are partly metal but also partly real, individuals, and no machine could copy that.

Steelheart goes to Brim*Star to stop the production of SilverHawk clones, and falls into a trap.

Commander Stargazer: "I'm in charge here. If you're gonna tear anything apart, start with me."

Commander Stargazer: "Easy. Didn't interrupt me once or try to play boss."

Commander Stargazer: "The truth is, you guys are partly metal, but you're also partly real."

What gives a copy away? Darkbird asked that about Quicksilver alone, and William Overgard's script asks it about the team. An informer on Fence reports that the Mob is building SilverHawk clones, and Steelheart has gone alone into Mon*Star's fortress to stop them.[1] The opening scene at Hawk Haven is a good one, because it shows us Steelwill's temper and Stargazer's authority before any clone appears. Steelwill, told where his sister is, says "She was right. I don't like it." and threatens to tear the place apart, and Commander Stargazer answers him with "I'm in charge here. If you're gonna tear anything apart, start with me." Steelwill argues as a brother and Stargazer as a commander, and neither of them is polite about it!

The SilverHawks are known by their faults, and Stargazer sees through the copies of his team because they behave better than the originals do. The Mob's plan is sound on paper. Mo-Lec-U-Lar springs the trap at the freighter, the real Quicksilver, Bluegrass and Copper Kidd are put away, and the copies radio home that all is well, with "a clean bill of health" for the freighter. The clones are drawn to match the heroes they replace line for line, so the audience gets no more help than Stargazer does; the only evidence against them is how they act.[2]

Steelheart carries the first half, and the staging treats her mission as a spy story, with tight close-ups of her in the dark of the fortress, eyes narrowed, alone in a way the SilverHawks rarely are. The Mob's attempt to ice her is brief, and it ends on her parting line to the attacker: "You got the wrong Steelheart, Shorty."[3] Later it is she who gets the others off the freighter, and the shot of the rescued team crowded behind Bluegrass at the old hulk's controls, the Kidd grinning at his elbow, is the warmest image in the episode.

The standout is a quieter moment. With Steelwill out cold and sent to his quarters, Stargazer admits that something is not quite right, and then he talks himself out of it: "Ah, forget it. I guess I'm just getting old and suspicious." He is right, and he doubts himself anyway. None of the clones ever second-guesses anything, and his doubt makes his closing explanation easier to believe!

Steelwill gets the worst of the plotting. He opens the episode ready to tear Brim*Star apart for his sister, the Mob singles him out as the one SilverHawk it has no copy of, and then he sleeps through the climax behind a locked door. The script sets him up as the only real SilverHawk left inside Hawk Haven and then has no use for him, most likely because the clones, the heroes they copy and a Mob plan already crowd a twenty-two minute slot.

The clones go down to a trick Stargazer has never shown his team before.[4] His closing speech states its moral outright, as these endings do, but the episode has argued for it since the first scene: the smooth landing Bluegrass could never make, the Kidd's clone "much too polite", Quicksilver's that "Didn't interrupt me once or try to play boss." Then he sums it up: "The truth is, you guys are partly metal, but you're also partly real." The clones gave themselves away by being perfect.

1 ^ The opening narration lists clones of all five SilverHawks, Steelwill included, but the Mob later says Steelwill is the only one it does not have.

2 ^ Quicksilver has been copied before, in "Darkbird", where the copy was at least drawn in different colours.

3 ^ The opening narration frames the episode as Steelheart having to outsmart Hardware, and the threat just before this scene is "Don't worry, boss. I'll ice her."

4 ^ What Stargazer did to surprise his own team is never named. The team says "You never showed us that before, Commander." and he answers that a commander has to keep some secrets.

Steelheart's solo mission into Mon*Star's fortress was her own idea, and Stargazer calls it top secret; his source for the clone plan is one of his informers on Fence.
Mon*Star plans to keep the Steelheart clone with him while the other clones take the real SilverHawks' places.
Mo-Lec-U-Lar springs the trap when the Mirage lands at the space freighter.
The real SilverHawks escape in an old freighter that was towed into place; the dialogue says there is no reason it could not run under its own power.
Stargazer's three giveaways are the Mirage's smooth landing, the Copper Kidd's clone being too polite, and Quicksilver's clone never interrupting him or trying to play boss.
Quicksilver was copied once before, by Hardware, in Darkbird.
The closing quiz is on Jupiter: the fifth planet from the Sun, big enough for about 1300 Earths, and made mostly of hydrogen. The Copper Kidd finishes on 16 points.

We do not yet have a production script for “One on One”. If you have one, please consider contributing it to the archive.

What we are looking for: production scripts only. Writer’s drafts, shooting drafts, and studio copies of the actual script for this episode. We strongly prefer scans of the original printed pages over retyped text, since scans preserve the layout, scene headings, director notes, and any handwritten annotations that make the document interesting and verifiable.

What we are not looking for: fan-written transcripts of the broadcast dialogue, episode summaries, or AI-generated reconstructions.

Email a script for “One on One”

All contributors are credited on the Production Scripts archive page and on the relevant episode guide.

2 names enter the series in this episode.

SilverHawk Clones
Prowler

Cast, in order of appearance12

Places3

Craft2

The Mirage
Space Freighter

Weapons and equipment4

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.

Mon*Star

Mon*Star

Yes-Man

Yes-Man

Steelheart

Steelheart

Steelwill

Steelwill

Commander Stargazer

Commander Stargazer

Quicksilver

Quicksilver

Bluegrass

Bluegrass

The Copper Kidd

The Copper Kidd

Hardware

Hardware

Mo-Lec-U-Lar

Mo-Lec-U-Lar

Prowler

Mon*Star's fortress rises under a red sky in the establishing shot that opens the episode.

Yes-Man stands at the foot of the stairs while Mon*Star sits at the top, in the episode's first scene.

Hawk Haven, the hawk-topped asteroid base, hangs small above a pale planet as the scene moves to the base.

The door marked Commander Stargazer (Private), as the scene shifts to his talk with Steelwill.

Stargazer, at his desk, tells Steelwill that going alone into Mon*Star's fortress was his sister's idea.

Steelwill, told the mission was Steelheart's own idea, says he does not like it and will tear the place apart.

Stargazer tells Steelwill it was his sister's own idea to go alone into Mon*Star's fortress.

Stargazer tells Steelwill that Steelheart's mission is top secret, then says the Mob is making SilverHawk clones.

Steelheart flies through a red sky on her solo mission, as Stargazer describes it.

A star-shaped opening in Brim*Star's red rock, the way in to the hollow planet.

Steelheart makes her way through a dark passage toward the SilverHawk clone area.

Steelheart, alone inside Mon*Star's fortress on the top-secret mission Stargazer describes to Steelwill.

Steelheart, now inside Mon*Star's fortress, searches for the SilverHawk clone area.

Steelheart catches a mention of the SilverHawk clone area, the target of her mission.

Steelheart stands in a dark cavern beside a large pink sphere on her way to the clone area.

Steelheart, seen from above, drifts over a large dark round structure.

Hardware works a purple device in the foreground while Steelheart passes behind him.

Hardware handles the purple device in the same Mob workshop scene as Steelheart.

Hardware, seen from behind, watches Mon*Star on a monitor as the Mob plans to replace the SilverHawks.

Steelheart presses on through the Mob's fortress, eyes on something off-screen.

Mon*Star sits with his hand at his chin as the Mob's clone plan is discussed.

Yes-Man and Hardware in the fortress as the Mob talks about replacing the SilverHawks with clones.

Mon*Star, one finger raised, gloats that his clones will rub Stargazer out.

Mon*Star gloats that his clones will rub Stargazer out, then has Yes-Man switch on the workroom.

Steelheart in the workroom, moments before the Mob finds out she is the real one, not the clone.

Yes-Man stands at the workroom's machine console as Mon*Star watches from his throne at the top of the stairs.

Mon*Star, told that the Steelheart in the workroom is the real one, orders her eliminated.

Mon*Star gives the order to eliminate Steelheart, now known to be the real one.

Hardware raises a grey device toward Steelheart after Mon*Star's order to eliminate her.

The real Steelheart stands beside her red-eyed clone, the two facing the same way.

A red-eyed Steelheart clone in the workroom, with an electrical spark flaring at the edge of the frame.

Steelheart tells Hardware he has the wrong Steelheart, an iced figure at lower left and his bedroll in front.

Hawk Haven in open space, as the Mob turns its attention to the SilverHawks.

At his command board, Stargazer sends Quicksilver out with the Copper Kidd and Bluegrass.

Steelwill and Stargazer watch a console screen at Hawk Haven that shows the space freighter.

The Mirage sits in its bay as Quicksilver, the Copper Kidd and Bluegrass are sent out to the freighter.

Mon*Star, transformed, faces the SilverHawk clones and tells them to take the real SilverHawks' places.

Mon*Star faces two of his SilverHawk clones as he lays out how they will take the real team's place.

Mon*Star, transformed, learns that the Mirage has turned up on the Mob's intercept screen.

Hardware peers around a doorway as Mon*Star orders everyone into position for the Mirage's arrival.

Steelheart, Quicksilver, Bluegrass and the Copper Kidd line up side by side against a starfield.

Mo-Lec-U-Lar, red ring in hand, clears the Mirage to land at the space freighter.

The Mirage flies in toward the space freighter, into Mo-Lec-U-Lar's trap.

Mon*Star stands on a ledge beside a small grey-suited figure who cannot be identified from this frame.

Steelheart, or her clone, stands against a metal wall; the frame does not show which.

Mon*Star, transformed, as the Mirage lands in the Mob's trap at the space freighter.

The Copper Kidd appears on a framed screen as Mo-Lec-U-Lar's trap is sprung on the SilverHawks.

An unidentified figure in a white helmet, blue suit and red gloves appears as the trap closes at the freighter.

Mo-Lec-U-Lar springs the Mob's trap on the SilverHawks after the Mirage lands at the space freighter.

Mo-Lec-U-Lar on the freighter as the SilverHawks tell him he is out of there.

Quicksilver aboard the space freighter as Mo-Lec-U-Lar says he has the SilverHawks where he wants them.

Bluegrass stands in the freighter's dark interior as the Mob's trap closes.

The Mirage sits on a ledge of the space freighter after it was cleared to land.

Mon*Star, in his armour, stands with Hardware and two grey clone figures as the trap on the Mirage is sprung.

Mon*Star and Hardware wait as the Mirage is reported to Hawk Haven as clear.

Steelwill takes the Mirage's call at the Hawk Haven console, Bluegrass's face on the screen.

Steelwill says he has a feeling something strange is going on after the Mirage's report.

Mon*Star's Sky-Runner flies through a nebula-lit starfield.

Mon*Star, transformed, and Hardware beside a red craft as the Mob notes it has no clone of Steelwill.

Steelwill beside a Steelheart; with a Steelheart clone in the Mob's hands, the frame does not show which one.

The Bluegrass clone, its eyes red, as the order comes to prepare to launch.

The Copper Kidd clone, red-eyed, salutes inside a ship's cockpit.

The hawk head atop Hawk Haven, seen up close against the stars.

The Copper Kidd and a larger chrome SilverHawk in flight armour drift past a field of asteroids.

A large gridded dish with two support rods, a small figure inside the ring at its center.

Hardware stands beside Steelwill and a Steelheart against a starfield; the frame does not show whether she is the clone.

The Mirage approaches Hawk Haven, the hawk-topped asteroid base.

An orange energy beam strikes a dark disc in a burst of blue light.

Steelwill sits at the Hawk Haven command console beneath the dome windows.

The long, flat space freighter drifts in a burst of streaking light, its central tower rising from the deck.

Steelwill slumps at the Hawk Haven console, eyes shut, as a jagged wave of light crosses the frame.

The Mirage flies past Hawk Haven.

The Mirage flies through open space on its way in to Hawk Haven.

The Mirage sits on its circular landing pad at Hawk Haven.

Steelwill grins in the scene that follows the Mirage's landing.

Steelwill grapples with a pale chrome figure whose face is turned away.

Bluegrass and the Copper Kidd lie in a heap on a wooden floor beside a pale chrome figure.

Steelwill's face beside the Copper Kidd and Bluegrass, all tangled together on the floor.

The clones of Quicksilver, Bluegrass and the Copper Kidd stand together in Stargazer's office.

Stargazer, at his desk, says something is not quite right as the three clones stand before him.

The clones look on from beside Stargazer's chair as he says he is just getting old and suspicious.

Stargazer admits something is not quite right and puts it down to getting old and suspicious.

The old space freighter, a flat deck with a central tower and solar panels, drifts among asteroids.

A blue energy beam hits a mass of dark goo lying on a red-brown floor.

Quicksilver lies with his legs caught in dark goo as two beams cross a yellow-lit frame.

Quicksilver lies on the freighter floor, his legs still caught in dark goo.

Two hands, one chrome and one bare, grip a hull ledge beside a dark doorway.

Steelheart in open space on her way to free the SilverHawks trapped on the freighter.

Steelheart out in open space, on her way to get the trapped SilverHawks off the space freighter.

Steelheart in open space, looking toward something off-screen as the rescue gets under way.

Hardware wields a wrench in each hand in open space during the fight around the freighter.

Steelheart, both arms raised overhead, in open space.

Quicksilver in open space by the space freighter, as the real SilverHawks are let out of the Mob's trap.

Hardware grins in open space during the fight near the freighter.

Prowler, Hardware's bird, opens its red-lined beak in open space.

Steelheart and Quicksilver move past a mass of dark goo on the freighter.

Steelheart and Quicksilver look over the Copper Kidd, lying on the freighter floor after the trap.

The Copper Kidd stands beside Steelheart aboard the freighter.

The old freighter's worn control console and blank screen, as the order comes to warm up the computers.

Bluegrass and Quicksilver aboard the old hulk, where Bluegrass is told to warm up the computers.

Hawk Haven, where Steelwill is still out like a light behind a secured door.

Steelheart, seen from behind, pulls at wiring inside an open panel on the freighter's console.

The clones of Quicksilver, the Copper Kidd and Bluegrass come through the door of Stargazer's office.

The old freighter's central tower, its top glowing red, with its side panels and dish in view.

Bluegrass takes the old freighter's controls, with Steelheart, the Copper Kidd and Quicksilver crowded behind him.

The red-eyed clones of Quicksilver and the Copper Kidd stand together in Stargazer's office.

Steelheart, Quicksilver and the Copper Kidd take up position as Bluegrass brings the old freighter in close.

The Copper Kidd's red-eyed clone stands in Stargazer's office where Stargazer sits with his feet up and face hidden.

Steelheart, Quicksilver and the Copper Kidd in Stargazer's office after the fight, looking off-screen.

Steelheart, the Copper Kidd and Quicksilver stand at the door of Stargazer's office after the fight.

Stargazer, at his desk with Quicksilver and Steelheart, says he should have known the others were clones.

Quicksilver and Steelheart listen as Stargazer explains that the Mirage's smooth landing gave the clones away.

Quicksilver and Steelheart look down at Stargazer as he says the Copper Kidd's clone was much too polite.

Quicksilver and Steelheart smile as Stargazer says Quicksilver's clone never interrupted him or tried to play boss.

Stargazer tells the team that the clones could never copy them: no machine could take their individuality.

Stargazer at his desk explains to Quicksilver, Steelheart and the Copper Kidd how he should have known about the clones.

The Copper Kidd looks out a viewport as the quiz on Jupiter gets under way.

The closing quiz asks how many Earths would fit inside Jupiter: about 100, 500 or 1300.

The seven-point question asks whether hydrogen, oxygen or nitrogen is most abundant on Jupiter.

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