The Harder They Fall

A space freighter is on a quiet run when the giant Sky-Shadow, rebuilt by Hardware as the biggest bird in the galaxy, takes it in tow. It is a test. Mon*Star explains to Yes-Man that if Sky-Shadow can pull a freighter, it can pull Penal Planet 10 all the way to Brim*Star, where the Mob will release the prisoners, sign them up and outnumber the SilverHawks. The test works, and Hardware takes Timestopper along for the big job.

Seymour picks up the stranded crewmen and brings them to Hawk Haven. Stargazer tells the team the Mob's super Sky-Shadow is back, and orders the Steel twins to build a giant Tally-Hawk that can knock it out of the sky. Meanwhile Hardware and Timestopper hook Sky-Shadow up to Penal Planet 10 and tow it away, taunting a would-be rescuer that he is in a towaway zone. The warden radios Stargazer, who sees the plan for what it is: the biggest jailbreak in the history of Limbo.

The twins unveil the giant Tally-Hawk, ten thousand pounds of steel with the real Tally-Hawk as its brain, and Hotwing and Flashback fly it out. They meet the Mob at the stolen planet. Timestopper stops time and Flashback reverses it, Hotwing adds a touch of magic, and the SilverHawks hook up the penal planet to take it back where it belongs. Mon*Star, transformed, arrives to stop them and Hotwing is knocked out; the warden sends a Mayday, and Stargazer sends Condor and Moon Stryker. With one chance left, the heroes release the real Tally-Hawk.

Penal Planet 10 is returned to its rightful place, and Warden Lock-Up thanks the SilverHawks for heading off the biggest crime wave in history. They tell him Tally-Hawk is the one who deserves the thanks.

Mon*star plots to test a giant Sky-Shadow by having it tow the Penal Planet to Brim*star, where he will make all the prisoners members of the Mob.

"Ten thousand pounds of solid steel muscle."

Warden Lock-Up: "If it wasn't for you, the galaxy would now be in the grip of the biggest crime wave in history."

"That's right. Tally-Hawk's the one that deserves the thanks."

What is a giant worth without a brain? Chris Trengove's script sets two enormous birds against each other over a stolen prison. The Mob thinks in size: Hardware has made Sky-Shadow "the biggest bird in the galaxy", and Mon*Star wants to use it to tow Penal Planet 10 to Brim*Star so he can set up what the SilverHawks call "the biggest jailbreak" in Limbo's history. A bigger bird can pull a whole prison, and a freed prison would give the Mob more men than the SilverHawks.

Size counts for little without a brain inside it. The SilverHawks answer size with size, but only up to a point. The Steel twins build a giant Tally-Hawk,[1] which they introduce with a line worthy of a wrestling announcer, "Ten thousand pounds of solid steel muscle",[2] and then they do the thing the Mob never thinks to do: they put the real Tally-Hawk inside it as its brain. When the fight is nearly lost, the plan is to let the real bird out.

The best idea in the episode is a smaller one. Hardware brings Timestopper along for the heist, and Trengove sets him against Flashback, whose own gift is running time backwards; the moment Timestopper freezes the scene, Flashback unwinds it, and the villain finds himself back where he started, asking what he is doing there. Of all the fights in the episode, this is the only one won by thinking rather than by weight. Hotwing gets a smaller turn of the same kind, adding "a touch of magic" once Flashback has done his moves.

The design makes the size believable. The giant Tally-Hawk is drawn as a proper machine, white panels laid like feathers, the bird's face picked out in blue and gold, with cockpit hatches set into its back for Hotwing and Flashback to lean out of. Penal Planet 10 hangs behind them as a great grey wheel, and it looks heavy. Warden Lock-Up, the insect-faced gentleman in the grey suit, gets a good scene of his own, hurrying down his own corridors with a robot guard while his whole prison is towed away.

The weakness is the crowd in the final act. Mon*Star transforms and flies out on Sky-Runner, Hotwing is knocked out, the warden calls a Mayday, Condor and Moon Stryker are sent for, and in the scramble the Sky-Shadow the story was built around loses its place as the threat. The likely reason is the slot: a twenty-two minute episode carrying a gang of villains, a giant robot on each side and a relief party has no time left for the two birds to fight it out.

The warden thanks the SilverHawks for saving the galaxy from "the biggest crime wave in history", and they wave him off with "Tally-Hawk's the one that deserves the thanks." The Mob built the biggest bird in the galaxy and forgot to put anyone clever inside it.

1 ^ Stargazer's order to the twins begins "We've built a giant Tally-Hawk before", so this is not the first; the episode does not say when the earlier one was built.

2 ^ It is Steelwill who speaks for both twins when they take the job: "No problem, Commander. Sis and I can handle it."

1. The episode opens with a narrated preview that promises 'the clash of titans' between the giant Sky-Shadow and a super-sized Tally-Hawk.
2. The Mob tests its rebuilt giant Sky-Shadow by towing a space freighter before it tries Penal Planet 10.
3. Stargazer says the SilverHawks have built a giant Tally-Hawk before; the Steel twins build this one, with the real Tally-Hawk as its brain, and Hotwing and Flashback fly it.
4. Timestopper's power to stop time is matched against Flashback's power to reverse it.
5. Mon*Star orders the Transformation Chamber prepared mid-episode and comes out on Sky-Runner to stop the SilverHawks returning the planet.
6. Warden Lock-Up calls Hawk Haven twice: once when the planet is towed away, and again with a Mayday when Mon*Star attacks, which brings Condor and Moon Stryker.
7. Seymour ferries the stranded freighter crew to Hawk Haven in his cab, with Zeek the Beak riding along.
8. The closing quiz is about galaxies and stars; the Copper Kidd misses the second question and finishes on five points.

2 names enter the series in this episode.

• Freighter crew
• Super Tally-Hawk

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.