Smiley

It is a slow night at the Starship Casino, and Mon*Star, who did not come all that way to watch Poker-Face count money, wants some action. Poker-Face obliges with Smiley, the greatest fighting machine ever assembled, who can fight on automatic or be run from a remote control unit. Mon*Star thinks him old-fashioned and says even Yes-Man could take him out, so Smiley picks up Yes-Man until he is told to put him down. Poker-Face promises a packed house that night. At Hawk Haven, word of gridlock at the casino makes Commander Stargazer send Tally-Hawk for a closer look.

That night Smiley fights Mumbo Jumbo in front of a full crowd, with the transformed Mon*Star ringside, and then Buzz-Saw. Stargazer punches up the criminal records and remembers the face: long ago he hauled Smiley in for assault and battery and for burning up a space station. He sends Quicksilver in the Sprinthawk to check out the casino. Mon*Star decides he would enjoy the show more if Smiley worked for him, takes the controls from Poker-Face, and makes the robot one of the Mob, with a first job breaking into the money bins on Dollare.

Lord Cash calls for help as the Mob smashes through Dollare's checkpoints and Smiley loots the vaults. Quicksilver arrives, promises the robot a stretch on the penal planet, and is driven off by Smiley's heat.

Back at Hawk Haven, Bluegrass cannot believe a little old fighting robot could cause such a ruckus, and is told he will soon see, because Smiley is on his way. Stargazer activates the Warp Shield, and the Steel twins run what they call a two-minute drill, flying crazy patterns to confuse the robot. When it is over they ask Coach Stargazer for a couple of time outs, and are told they can have all they need once they help get Quicksilver out of the Mirage.

Poker-Face sets up boxing matches at the Starship Casino, and puts a robot called Smiley in the ring with Mumbo-Jumbo.

Commander Stargazer: "One hundred fifty years ago I hauled him in for assault and battery and burning up a space station."

Mon*Star: "I didn't come all this way to watch you count money."

"Maybe now Coach Stargazer will give us a couple of timeouts."

Bruce Shlain's script starts with a boxing robot in a casino ring and ends with the same robot laying siege to Hawk Haven! Before the robot, though, there is a villain bored at a casino. Mon*Star has come a long way to Poker-Face's Starship Casino and finds nothing happening: "I didn't come all this way to watch you count money." What Poker-Face gives him is Smiley, a boxing robot who can fight on automatic or from a remote control unit. Mon*Star will later take that remote from Poker-Face.

Smiley is designed to look old-fashioned. He is teal and white with yellow shoulder pads, a painted grin on a domed head, and arms and legs of concertina tubing like a vacuum cleaner hose. He comes out of his packing lying on his back, and Mon*Star calls him "a little old-fashioned." When Mon*Star says even Yes-Man could take him out, Smiley picks Yes-Man up and holds him until he is told to put him down. The casino fight that follows is the episode's best-drawn stretch. The ringside crowd is a wall of odd, individually designed faces with the transformed Mon*Star planted among them on a throne of a seat, and Mumbo Jumbo climbs through the ropes.

A robot built for show fights gets turned into a weapon, and the SilverHawks beat him by treating the real fight as a game. Once Mon*Star decides he would enjoy the show more if Smiley worked for him, Smiley stops being a prizefighter. Mon*Star takes the remote from Poker-Face with "You've shown me enough," and the robot becomes a safecracker on Dollare and then a siege engine aimed at Hawk Haven. The SilverHawks, for their part, talk about the fight as if it were a football game. The opening narration asks whether the Steel twins can sack Smiley before Smiley sacks Hawk Haven. The twins run a two-minute drill and fly crazy patterns to confuse him, and at the end they ask "Coach Stargazer" for time outs and are told they made a great play!

The scene that lands best is a quiet one for Stargazer. He punches up the criminal records, looks at the robot on the screen,[1] and remembers the face: "One hundred fifty years ago I hauled him in for assault and battery and burning up a space station." It is a nice touch that Hawk Haven's veteran commander turns out to have arrested this robot before.

The weakness is Smiley himself. For an episode named after him he has no will of his own. From the moment the remote changes hands he is a machine being driven,[2] and the script never asks whether the champion of Limbo minds being made a burglar. The fight on Dollare and the siege of Hawk Haven are told mostly in effects and shouted orders,[3] and the finish is hard to follow. The likely reason is the twenty-two minute slot, which has to fit a prizefight, a robbery on Dollare and a siege of Hawk Haven, and Smiley's own point of view is what gets cut.

The ending goes back to the sports talk. The twins want their time outs, and Stargazer promises them all they need once Quicksilver is out of the Mirage. Smiley never gets a say, but the football language gives the episode a pleasing frame.

1 ^ Before that picture reaches the screen, Tally-Hawk has been sent to the casino for a closer look, so the bird is the first SilverHawk to see Smiley fight, ahead of Quicksilver.

2 ^ Mon*Star is transformed at the casino and back in his untransformed shape by the time he is driving Smiley's remote in the second half.

3 ^ Melodia, Windhammer and Mo-Lec-U-Lar appear only on Stargazer's monitor, not in person.

1. First appearance of Smiley, introduced by Poker-Face as the greatest fighting machine ever assembled; he can fight on automatic or be run by remote control.
2. Stargazer says that a hundred and fifty years ago he arrested Smiley for assault and battery and for burning up a space station.
3. Smiley fights Mumbo Jumbo and then Buzz-Saw in the ring at the Starship Casino before Mon*Star takes his controls.
4. Mon*Star is transformed during the casino scenes and untransformed when he drives Smiley's remote later on.
5. Hawk Haven's Warp Shield is activated against Smiley and shown as a honeycomb of hexagons.
6. The sporting talk runs from the opening narration's question about sacking Smiley to the twins' two-minute drill and their request to Coach Stargazer for time outs.
7. Lord Cash calls the SilverHawks when the Mob breaks through Dollare's checkpoints, and Quicksilver promises the robot a hundred years on the penal planet.
8. The closing quiz is about Jupiter and Saturn: what lies under their clouds and whether it rains ammonia there, and the Copper Kidd finishes on twenty points.

One name enters the series in this episode.

• Smiley

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.