The Invisible Destroyer

Hardware has built a laser satellite for Mon*Star, designed to be invisible in the light of the Artificial Sun, and once it is in orbit over Bedlama the Mob will be able to make the Bedlamians do anything, even hand over all their money. At Hawk Haven the squadron's regulars have gone to an intergalactic council meeting on Bedlama, leaving Stargazer with Flashback and Moon Stryker, and the Copper Kidd has fitted new boosters to the Hot-Seat and taken it for a spin without permission.

The Kidd flies straight into the path of the satellite's launch and crashes on Brim*Star. The Mob captures him, and Mon*Star has him sealed inside the satellite so that the launch will be rid of him too. Mayday's distress call brings Flashback and Moon Stryker, who find the satellite and learn that the Kidd is trapped inside it; he has tapped into its computer and found that it is a laser satellite targeted on Bedlama. Mon*Star orders it made invisible, and it vanishes.

Reasoning that the satellite is invisible only in the light of the Artificial Sun, the SilverHawks have Professor Power change the sun's light, and the satellite reappears in Sector 12. Mon*Star transforms and rides out on Sky-Runner to stop them. Moon Stryker and Flashback keep him busy with a fight in open space, the satellite goes up in a blast, and Mon*Star's plan ends with a bang.

Back at Hawk Haven the regulars arrive to find they have missed the excitement. Stargazer is inclined to scold the Kidd, but Flashback and Moon Stryker point out that without his crash on Brim*Star nobody would have known about the satellite, and the commander forgives him, provided he stops tinkering with SilverHawk vehicles. He has already put new boosters on the Mirage.

Hardware threatens to destroy Bedlam with his invisible satellite.

Hardware: "I designed the satellite to be invisible in the light of the Artificial Sun!"

Flashback: "Kid, can you hear me in there?"

Commander Stargazer: "Just don't monkey around with any more SilverHawk vehicles without my permission."

How do you raise the alarm when you cannot speak and nobody can see the danger? The Copper Kidd has only whistles, and the weapon Hardware builds for Mon*Star is a laser satellite designed, in Hardware's own boast, "to be invisible in the light of the Artificial Sun!" Dow Flint Kowalczyk's script, his only credit on the series, sets those two problems against each other and lets the smallest SilverHawk solve both from the inside of the machine.

The Kidd starts the trouble himself, doing what small boys do when the grown-ups are out at a council meeting on Bedlama: bolting a set of boosters onto the Hot-Seat, asking how to switch them on, and taking it for a spin nobody authorised. The joyride puts him in the path of the satellite's launch and down on Brim*Star, and Mon*Star, never one to waste a prisoner, has him sealed inside the satellite. From there he cannot shout for help, so he does something cleverer, tapping into the satellite's computer until Flashback and Moon Stryker, following Mayday's distress call, can read off what it is and where it is pointed.

Flashback and Moon Stryker carry the rescue, and they do it well. Flashback, calling "Kid, can you hear me in there?" into the hull of a machine he can barely find, gets the best of the dialogue; Moon Stryker, in a grey jacket for the scenes at Hawk Haven, gets a lovely grin when he tells Stargazer the Kidd is taking the Hot-Seat for a spin. Professor Power supplies the science. The satellite hides in the Artificial Sun's light, so the SilverHawks change the light, and the machine blinks back into view in Sector 12. Tidy plotting! The fix comes out of the satellite's own design, with no new gadget.

The standout is the Kidd in the satellite's belly, visor down, fists clasped at his chest, as the lights of the computer bank burn behind him. He has no line to deliver; the rescue depends on the signal he is sending from that bank. Against that, the Mob's side gets its usual scenes, with Mon*Star storming at his launch tower and Yes-Man hovering at his back, and the transformed Mon*Star riding out on Sky-Runner into a burst of pink laser light.

But the climax is the weakness. Once Mon*Star transforms, the episode goes almost silent for several minutes of a fight in open space, and when the words come back the satellite has gone up with a bang and the Kidd is safe at Hawk Haven, with no scene of anyone getting him out.[1] Mon*Star's transformation buys him little more than a mount and a light show. The likely reason is the slot: the story spends its first half on the joyride, the capture and the invisibility trick, and a twenty-two minute episode has no room left to play the rescue it has been building toward.

Stargazer is ready to scold, but Flashback and Moon Stryker take the Kidd's side: "If the kid hadn't crashed on Brim*Star, we never would have known about Mon*Star's plan."[2] The commander forgives him with a warning, "Just don't monkey around with any more SilverHawk vehicles without my permission," and is told the Kidd has already put new boosters on the Mirage. The new heroes who read his signal are the ones who speak up for him.

1 ^ The fight includes a manoeuvre someone says was taught at the SilverHawk Academy, the only mention of the place in this episode; the manoeuvre's name is hard to make out.

2 ^ The regulars, back from the council meeting, get one line between them: "Looks like we missed all the excitement!"

1. The episode opens with a narrated preview that ends on a question: will Flashback and Moon Stryker rescue the Copper Kidd, or will Mon*Star destroy both Bedlama and the Kidd?
2. The Copper Kidd fits new boosters to the Hot-Seat without permission at the start, and by the end he has put a new set on the Mirage as well.
3. Hardware designs the satellite to be invisible in the light of the Artificial Sun; the SilverHawks undo it by having Professor Power change the sun's light.
4. Mayday's SOS is what leads Flashback and Moon Stryker to the satellite, and Yes-Man offers to send Sky-Shadow after the Kidd.
5. Stargazer is left short-handed because the regulars have gone to an intergalactic council meeting on Bedlama; they reappear only in the closing scene.
6. The Kidd, who communicates only in whistles, identifies the satellite by tapping into its computer from inside it.
7. A manoeuvre used in the fight is said to have been taught at SilverHawk Academy; its name is hard to make out.
8. The closing quiz is about Saturn, light enough to float in a big enough bathtub, and its rings; the Copper Kidd finishes on twenty points.

One name enters the series in this episode.

• Laser Satellite

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.