The Hardware Trap - Part I

Commander Stargazer calls Quicksilver in and admits that the SilverHawks have nothing to show against the Mob this season. The new game plan starts with Hardware, the man who built the Sky Chomper and the Planet Eater, copied Quicksilver as Darkbird and developed Sky-Shadow. Hardware seems safe inside Mon*Star's fortress, but Tally-Hawk has recorded something new: Hardware, in a bar, complaining that he has never been paid for any of it, until Mon*Star turns up, seizes him and tells him he will be paid when one of his inventions gets rid of the SilverHawks forever. With the two fallen out, Stargazer decides to strike at once, and the Steel twins build a Hardware trap.

Quicksilver goes in disguised, in a mask good enough to fool Tally-Hawk, and leaves the bird behind so the Mob will not see them together. At the Sini*Star Diner he asks for Hardware, is warned off by the regulars, and after a scuffle Hardware steps forward to say he has been found. He poses as a pirate from beyond the Light Year Limit and offers a partnership in deep space piracy aboard his new ship, and Hardware agrees on a fifty-fifty split. Hidden cameras let Hawk Haven watch, while Hardware's suspicions grow and the two trade demands over the mask and his backpack.

When a target appears in the shipping lanes, Hardware takes the cannon, loaded with pulverizer shells, and fires, and the trap springs. Quicksilver reveals himself and arrests Hardware for intergalactic mayhem, deep space destruction and universal conspiracy. Mon*Star transforms and rides out on Sky-Runner to free him, and goes head to head with Quicksilver until the rest of the team arrive with Bluegrass playing them in; outnumbered, Mon*Star withdraws, vowing to free Hardware. Hardware is locked in a cell, where he swears that one day he will get out and come for the SilverHawks.

Quicksilver goes undercover as a bandit to catch Hardware. First of a two-part episode.

Hardware: "Hardware's the name, and hardware's the game."

Quicksilver: "You're under arrest, Hardware, for intergalactic mayhem, deep space destruction, and universal conspiracy."

Hardware: "One day, I'll get out of here."

Hardware has spent the season building the Mob's best ideas without ever seeing a pay packet. Peter Lawrence's script opens by taking that grievance seriously. Stargazer's case for going after Hardware is his record, from the Sky Chomper to Darkbird and Sky-Shadow.[1] Then Tally-Hawk's recording shows us that record from the other side, as Hardware reels it off to Mon*Star in a bar and adds that he has not been paid for any of it!

Mon*Star's answer sets the episode going, with a nasty and well-judged bit of villainy. He picks Hardware up by the head, calls himself the Planet Master, and tells him he will see his money "when one of your infernal inventions gets rid of the SilverHawks forever!" The Mob's most useful man is the one it never pays, and the SilverHawks catch him by offering him the partnership Mon*Star never would.

The middle act is a con, and the best stretch of writing in the season so far. Quicksilver goes in masked, calling himself a pirate who has been operating beyond the Light Year Limit, and his pitch is aimed straight at the grievance: he needs a partner who knows Limbo, and he has heard that Hardware fell out with Mon*Star. Hardware's only condition is an even split of the loot. Hardware takes to the ship at once, telling his new partner "Hardware's the name, and hardware's the game". Then the con starts to fray, and the script gives the fraying real time. Hardware has a funny feeling he knows this man from somewhere, the mask starts to bother him, and before long the two are trading demands over the mask and Hardware's backpack.[2]

It is also where the episode's one real weakness sits. The disguise is only a mask, and it fools a bird that has ridden on Quicksilver's arm since the start of the series, and then a man who built a copy of Quicksilver's face. The script has Hardware half recognise him, but it never quite pays the doubt off. The likely reason is the format, since a two-parter still has to get its hero into the room and its villain into a cell inside twenty-two minutes.

When the trap springs it springs cleanly. Hardware fires on the target, finds himself looking at Quicksilver, and gets the full charge sheet read to him: "You're under arrest, Hardware, for intergalactic mayhem, deep space destruction, and universal conspiracy." Hardware answers that he will get Quicksilver for this if it is the last thing he does, a promise Part II takes up. Mon*Star's rescue, riding Sky-Runner with a tentacle groping into Quicksilver's cockpit, is spectacular and brief,[3] and the rest of the team arrive late with Bluegrass bringing them in on Hot Licks. The last scene belongs to Hardware behind bars, promising that he will get out and come for them wherever they are.

The trap is simple and it works, and Part I ends with the Mob's inventor locked away.

1 ^ All of it is on the record: the Sky Chomper in The Planet Eater, Darkbird in Darkbird, where Hardware also complains about his pay, and Sky-Shadow in Sky-Shadow.

2 ^ The Steel twins built hidden cameras into the trap ship, so the standoff plays out on a screen at Hawk Haven.

3 ^ Before he rides out, the frame of Mon*Star rising from his throne in the transformation chamber is the same drawing used in Zero The Memory Thief.

1. Stargazer's briefing recaps Hardware's record: the Sky Chomper and the Planet Eater, Darkbird, Sky-Shadow and the attempt to destroy Tally-Hawk, with footage from earlier episodes shown on screen.
2. Stargazer opens by admitting the SilverHawks are "a zip against the Mob this season", and the football talk carries on later with a call to the Coach that the game will soon be in the fourth quarter.
3. Hardware's complaint that he has never been paid follows his demand for payment for Darkbird in Darkbird.
4. The barman at the Sini*Star Diner is addressed as Harry.
5. Quicksilver's cover story is that he has been operating beyond the Light Year Limit; he leaves Tally-Hawk behind because the Mob would recognise the bird.
6. The trap ship carries hidden cameras built in by the Steel twins, and its cannon is loaded with pulverizer shells for Hardware to fire.
7. The shot of Mon*Star rising from his throne in the transformation chamber at 14:26 is the same drawing as the one at 14:10 in Zero The Memory Thief.
8. The closing quiz is about Venus: it is smaller than Earth and its atmosphere is carbon dioxide, and the Copper Kidd finishes on eleven points for the day.

2 names enter the series in this episode.

• Hardware Trap Vehicle
• Earth Rocket

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.