Sneak Attack - Part I

Commander Stargazer calls in Quicksilver and Hotwing with a problem named Mon*Star. Since his escape from the penal planet he has committed every crime in the book, and Stargazer wants them to get into Brim*Star, arrest him and put him back behind bars. Brim*Star is virtually impregnable, so the Steel twins have made a spray that turns its wearer invisible for a short while. Bluegrass flies the pair in close, and they lie low until the Mob heads out into the night to raid a freighter, leaving Mon*Star on his own.

Hotwing says he could make them invisible with a pass of his hand, but the spray it is, and it gets them past the security cameras and into the fortress. Mon*Star wants to know how they beat his system and shouts for Yes-Man and Mumbo Jumbo. In the scuffle Mumbo Jumbo grapples with Quicksilver and ends up with his foot on fire, and the SilverHawks get Mon*Star out before he can transform, reading him his rights for larceny, looting and space mayhem as they go.

Their ride to the penal planet is Seymour's Space Hack, requisitioned by Stargazer as the only vehicle big enough for Mon*Star, and neither Seymour nor Zeek the Beak is happy about it. Mon*Star promises that help is on the wing, and Sky-Shadow comes after the cab. Hotwing steps out to clip its wings and beats it with a hat trick. Then a gang of space bandits, who reckon Mon*Star will pay millions to be rescued, attacks. The cab loses its roof, and the bandits are sent packing.

Mon*Star is locked up again, bellowing that he will break out, stomp Zeek and Seymour and tear the SilverHawks apart. Seymour and Zeek are not sure the cell will hold him. Stargazer congratulates Quicksilver and jokes about enrolling Mon*Star in the prison choir.

Hotwing and Quicksilver attempt to sneak into Brim*star to arrest Mon*star. First of a two-part episode.

Commander Stargazer: "He's committed every crime in the book and some which aren't in the book yet"

"Take it up with the commander. He believes in technology, not magic."

"Hmm, maybe we'll enroll Mon*Star in the prison choir."

Beating a villain and arresting one are different jobs, and Cy Young's script is interested in the second. Stargazer does not send Quicksilver and Hotwing to fight Mon*Star; he sends them to take him in, with a charge sheet that runs from skipping out on a life sentence to setting up a gambling palace, and the phrase that sums it up is his: "He's committed every crime in the book and some which aren't in the book yet."[1] His plan is to get the pair into Brim*Star, arrest Mon*Star and put him back behind bars.

Quicksilver and Hotwing go about the job like police officers. The pair lie low until the Mob heads out, use the spray to get past the security cameras, and get Mon*Star out of the fortress before he can transform. The arresting officers read Mon*Star his rights while he roars at them, then read them again when he interrupts. Even the transport is a police matter. The Space Hack is requisitioned, and Seymour, whose cab the Steel twins have kept flying longer than it deserves, finds he owes the Commander a favour.

Seymour and Zeek the Beak are the best thing in the second half. They are civilians dragged into a prisoner transfer, and they complain the way civilians would, with Seymour signing off every grievance with "You know what I mean?" and Zeek slumped in the passenger seat with his head in his hands.[2] When the roof comes off in the bandits' attack, somebody in the cab finds the bright side: "Great! I always wanted a convertible." The torn roof stays torn for the rest of the ride.

The standout is Hotwing. He is set up in the opening as the one who would rather use magic, offering to turn them invisible with a pass of his hand, and he is told that the Commander believes in technology, not magic. The script pays that off when Sky-Shadow comes for the cab and Hotwing steps out to meet it as a stage act, "Ladies and gentlemen, observe", and brings it down with a hat trick.[3] Technology got them into Brim*Star; a magician gets them out of trouble on the road.

The weakness is the Mob. Buzz-Saw, Windhammer and Melodia barely register for us, Mumbo Jumbo is mostly a large obstacle with his foot on fire, and the space bandits arrive from nowhere, drawn by a rumour of millions, and leave as quickly. The likely reason is that this is the first half of a two-parter, whose job is to get Mon*Star into a cell and leave him promising to break out, and the slot fills the road trip with whoever is to hand.

It works, though. Mon*Star ends the episode behind bars, bellowing that he will break out, stomp Zeek and Seymour and tear the SilverHawks apart, and Stargazer, hearing about it, jokes that they should enroll him in the prison choir. They have arrested him, read him his rights and put him in a cell. It is a tidy piece of police work.

1 ^ The rest of the sheet: the Mob has roughed up important officials, and Mon*Star's boys have tried to rip off all the money in Limbo.

2 ^ The exchange in which Seymour complains that Stargazer said nothing about taking Mon*Star for a ride, and is told it is all part of the bargain, is heard twice, word for word, once as the cab sets off and again as the bandits set out.

3 ^ Hotwing's patter at the hat trick seems to be "the hack is quicker than the hawk", though the line is hard to make out.

1. The Steel twins' invisibility spray is short-lived but lasts long enough to get Quicksilver and Hotwing past the fortress security cameras.
2. Hotwing offers to turn the pair invisible with a pass of his hand, and is reminded that the Commander believes in technology, not magic.
3. Mon*Star is arrested for larceny, looting and space mayhem, and read his rights more than once.
4. Stargazer requisitions Seymour's Space Hack as the only vehicle big enough for Mon*Star; the Steel twins have been keeping the cab flying.
5. Sky-Shadow comes to Mon*Star's aid on the road, and Hotwing brings it down with a hat trick.
6. The space bandits attack because they expect Mon*Star to pay them millions for a rescue, and the fight tears the roof off the Space Hack.
7. Mon*Star ends the episode in a cell, promising to break out; the story continues in Sneak Attack - Part II.
8. The closing quiz is about the space shuttle: its hold would take a school bus, it launches satellites and it stays up about fourteen days, and the Copper Kidd finishes on ten 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.