The Milk Run

The SilverHawks have arrested Melodia, and Mon*Star wants the SilverHawks dealt with. Hardware tells him he has something that might interest him, and when Mon*Star scoffs at what looks like a toy, Hardware shows him a sample of what it can do. At Hawk Haven, Melodia is to be escorted to the lockup on the penal planet, and the team prepare for prisoner transport. The Steel twins seat her inside a force screen that she cannot escape until it is shut off, and the escort expects a quiet ride.

It does not get one. Hardware has Yes-Man open the deep space ejector, and his new pinball beam blasts Melodia free, leaving the SilverHawks to report that they have just lost their prisoner. The team go after her, and the Copper Kidd and Tally-Hawk are soon flying through trails of musical notes.

Then Hawk Haven itself comes under attack, and Stargazer, alone at the command deck, is thrown back from his console. Mon*Star sends Windhammer to intercept the SilverHawks and keep them from reaching Hawk Haven. Stargazer takes matters into his own hands on the Equalizer, his space motorcycle.

Afterwards the team want to know where he got the motorcycle. He tells them he brought it with him when he was assigned to the Limbo Galaxy, that it was the latest model three hundred years ago and is now an old relic like him, and he wonders if he is getting too old for this. Melodia made it past the Light Year Limit, outside their territory, so he had to let her go. The team promise to get her back as soon as she re-enters Limbo, and Stargazer tells them to do it for the folks back on Earth, who are depending on them.

Mon*star battles to get Melodia back as she's being transported to the Penal Planet by the SilverHawks.

Commander Stargazer: "It was the latest model 300 years ago."

Commander Stargazer: "Now it's an old relic like me."

Commander Stargazer: "But don't do it for me. Do it for the folks back on Earth."

A milk run is the job that cannot go wrong, and the title tells us the SilverHawks think this is one. Melodia is under arrest, the Steel twins have a force screen ready, and she is bound for the penal planet as the order goes out: "Okay, SilverHawks, prepare for prisoner transport." Lee Schneider's script lets the confidence sit for a moment, long enough for the team to settle into the Mirage.

The plot starts with a gadget pitch. Hardware turns up with something that might interest the boss, Mon*Star sneers at what looks like a toy, and Hardware answers by showing him a sample of what it can do. It is a nice little scene of a craftsman selling to a customer who does not want to be sold to, and it pays off almost at once, when Hardware has Yes-Man open the deep space ejector and the pinball beam takes Melodia out of the escort.[1] In the frame of Hardware levelling his blaster, bedroll up behind him, he wears the smuggest look his bulldog face can manage.

But the episode belongs to Commander Stargazer. Under the chase sits an old commander on an old motorcycle, wondering whether he is past it. While the team are off chasing Melodia, Hawk Haven comes under attack, and the shot of Stargazer being thrown back from his console, gold arm flung out and feet leaving the deck, shows him with nobody there to help. His answer is the Equalizer, a space motorcycle with a mouthful of teeth for a front fairing, and the sight of the old man in his white shirt and braces tearing down a gold corridor on it is the standout image of the episode.

The coda is the best writing in the episode. Asked where he got the machine, Stargazer says he brought it with him when he was assigned to Limbo, and then turns the joke on himself: "It was the latest model 300 years ago. Now it's an old relic like me." A beat later he admits "maybe I am getting too old for this", and the script lets the line stand; nobody on the team rushes in to argue him out of it. It is a quiet, generous moment.

The weakness is the ending the plot settles for. Melodia makes it past the Light Year Limit and out of the SilverHawks' territory, so Stargazer has to let her go.[2] The arrest that opened the episode is undone, and a promise to catch her later is all we get. It is the jurisdiction wall from The Backroom used as an exit, and the likely reason is the plainest one in the series, since a show built on a standing cast of villains cannot lock one of them up for good. It still leaves the chase without a finish, and the pursuit that should be the climax is over before we have seen much of it.[3]

Stargazer's last word is for Earth: "But don't do it for me. Do it for the folks back on Earth." Having wondered aloud whether he is too old for the job, he closes the episode by giving his team their orders anyway. The chase is thin, but Stargazer's scenes make The Milk Run worth watching!

1 ^ The pre-title narration also says the pinball beam traps Stargazer inside Hawk Haven. The episode builds to that attack.

2 ^ Stargazer's own words are "I had to let her go. That's outside our territory."

3 ^ What we do see of the chase includes a flying shot at 16:14 in which the Copper Kidd is painted red rather than copper, the colour slip already seen in Darkbird and The Backroom.

1. The pre-title narration sums up the premise: the SilverHawks arrest Melodia, Hardware's pinball beam blasts her free, and Commander Stargazer is trapped inside Hawk Haven.
2. The Steel twins seat Melodia inside a force screen for the transport, and she cannot escape it until it is shut off.
3. Hardware gives Yes-Man the order to open the deep space ejector, and Yes-Man answers him by name.
4. Stargazer says he brought the Equalizer with him when he was assigned to the Limbo Galaxy, and that it was the latest model when it was new, three centuries back.
5. The Light Year Limit again marks the edge of the SilverHawks' territory, as it did for Poker-Face in The Backroom; Stargazer lets Melodia go once she crosses it.
6. Mon*Star orders Windhammer to intercept the SilverHawks so that they cannot reach Hawk Haven.
7. In the flying shot at 16:14 the Copper Kidd is painted red rather than copper.
8. The closing quiz visits Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun, on its size, its craters and the air and water it lacks, and the Copper Kidd finishes on thirteen points for the day.

One name enters the series in this episode.

• The Equalizer

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.