Small World

Hardware has a way to steal the planet Automata from under the SilverHawks' noses: a gadget of his own invention that can shrink anything. Once it is small enough to carry off and out of the SilverHawks' territory, the Mob can make all the money it wants. At Hawk Haven, Stargazer gets a code 8 alert from Automata, and Monotone, the planet's central computer, reports that a valve has failed: in one hour it will explode and set off a chain reaction that will destroy the Galaxy of Limbo. The recommendation is to replace the valve within the hour or evacuate the galaxy.

Hotwing goes after the problem and ends up a prisoner of the Mob on Brim*Star, where the shrunken Automata is being held. He warns Mon*Star that the planet is a bomb that will blow Limbo to pieces, Mon*Star included, and Mon*Star does not believe a word. Using what he calls his telekinetic powers, Hotwing gets a one-way message through to Hawk Haven, where Stargazer has just summoned Flashback, Moon Stryker and Condor. Then Monotone signs off: the mission has failed, the explosion will come in two minutes, and Monotone is sorry.

Flashback offers to go back in time and repair Automata, and does. He reaches Hotwing with less than a limbo minute left, fixes the valve, and is promptly shrunk himself. He calls Hawk Haven to report the mission accomplished, and Stargazer sends Condor and Moon Stryker. Mon*Star transforms, and the Mob makes a run for the Light Year Limit with the planet, but Condor gets hold of the shrinking gadget and turns the tables, and the Mob flees. The SilverHawks ease Automata back into its place, Flashback is back to his own size, and the team heads home.

Hardware plots to steal Automata and tow it out of the SilverHawks' jurisdiction, unaware that a mechanical fault in the planet will cause an explosion that will destroy Limbo Galaxy.

Monotone: "Recommendation. Replace valve within one hour or evacuate the galaxy."

"I am sorry."

"I can go back in time and repair Automata."

Kimberly Morris builds her story around a planet small enough for Hardware to cradle in his arms, and the joke underneath it is that the Mob thinks shrinking Automata has made it harmless. They mean to tow it out of the SilverHawks' territory and name their price. What they do not know, and what Monotone has already told Stargazer, is that a single failed valve inside it will blow up the Galaxy of Limbo within the hour.

Size has very little to do with danger. Shrinking Automata does nothing to the failed valve inside it, and shrinking Flashback does not stop him fixing it. Mon*Star is the one character who cannot see it. When Hotwing, a prisoner on Brim*Star, tells him the planet has turned into a bomb that will take the Mob with it, Mon*Star answers that Hotwing would have better luck selling him the Brooklyn Bridge. It is a good laugh line, and Hotwing is telling the truth. He still manages to get word to Hawk Haven from his cell.[1]

The best scene belongs to Monotone. Automata's central computer speaks in clipped report form, and Monotone's last message to Hawk Haven keeps to that form until the very end: the mission has failed, the galaxy is about to explode, everyone should take shelter, and then, haltingly, "I am sorry." It is the only apology anywhere in the story, and it comes from the one character who did nothing wrong. When Flashback jumps back in time to stop it, the message plays again, and the second time we hear it, Flashback is already on his way.[2]

Flashback's trip through time is also the episode's weakness. "I can go back in time and repair Automata," he tells Stargazer, borrows a few items, and does it, arriving with less than a limbo minute to spare. It solves the problem cleanly, but it also means the countdown Monotone has been running since the first act was never really binding. A twenty-two minute slot with Moon Stryker and Condor, new from Battle Cruiser, also to be fitted in explains the shortcut, but once a SilverHawk can go back in time, no countdown has much tension.[3]

The Shrink-a-later pays off better. Hardware brags that it can shrink anything, and it spends the episode doing just that, to Automata and then to Flashback, until Condor gets hold of it from the saddle of a space motorcycle and points it back at the Mob. Flashback, shrunk moments after defusing the planet, has to report the mission accomplished and ask Hawk Haven for help getting out of Brim*Star, and at the very end the team is about to head home until a small voice asks whether they are forgetting someone. Hardware's great invention sends its owners running!

The last business of the episode is easing Automata back into position, a little to the left, before the word is given. The SilverHawks treat the little planet with more care than the Mob ever did!

1 ^ Hotwing's message says he is sending it by his telekinetic powers: "I just hope my telekinetic powers are strong enough." The episode does not show this ability anywhere else.

2 ^ The warning is heard at 11:30 and again at 12:26, both times ending on Monotone's apology, and the clearer second hearing shows the message also asks for Bedlama to be told to take shelter.

3 ^ Stargazer had already ordered Flashback, Moon Stryker and Condor to report to him before Hotwing's message arrived.

1. Monotone, Automata's central computer, returns from The Great Galaxy Race; here Monotone reports the failed valve, counts down to the explosion and apologises for failing the mission.
2. Moon Stryker and Condor, introduced in Battle Cruiser, are back as part of the team, and Condor finishes the job with the Mob's own gadget.
3. Hardware calls his shrinking device his own invention; its name is heard both as 'shrink-o-lator' and 'shrink-a-later', and the site spells it Shrink-a-later.
4. The Mob's plan is to take the shrunken planet out past the Light Year Limit, beyond the SilverHawks' territory.
5. Stargazer's alert from Automata is a code 8, and Monotone's recommendation is to replace the valve within the hour or evacuate the galaxy.
6. Hotwing contacts Hawk Haven from his prison on Brim*Star by what he calls his telekinetic powers.
7. Flashback travels back in time to repair Automata, and Monotone's final warning is heard a second time after his jump.
8. The closing quiz is on Saturn's moon Titan, and the Copper Kidd finishes on fifteen points.

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.