The Threat of Dritt

A Triangulon cruiser arrives in Limbo carrying Ambassador Dritt, who has come to sign a peace treaty with Earth. Commander Stargazer orders Quicksilver to escort him from his ship to Bedlama, taking Bluegrass and Tally-Hawk. Mon*Star wants the treaty ruined and a war started, so he sends Mo-Lec-U-Lar to collect the ambassador first. Calling himself Ensign Jones, Mo-Lec-U-Lar radios the cruiser with orders to escort Dritt, and Dritt insists on going alone, sure that nobody would dare harm him when harm would mean all-out war. Once aboard the launch, he is kidnapped and taken to Mon*Star.

When the Mirage arrives, the Triangulons tell Quicksilver the ambassador has already been picked up. Quicksilver persuades their commander that an impostor has taken him, and the commander gives him eight hours to bring Dritt back before the cruiser's main laser destroys Hawk Haven. Tally-Hawk tracks the launch to the Light Year Limit, where the trail goes cold, and then reports that Mon*Star is holding the ambassador. Mon*Star tells Dritt that war is what he wants.

Bluegrass drops Quicksilver off for Brim*Star and covers him with a diverting solo on Hot Licks. Inside the Mob's hideout, which he calls a maze, Quicksilver searches against the clock with Tally-Hawk and finds Dritt, introducing himself as his real escort. Mon*Star transforms to stop them, and Quicksilver fights past Mo-Lec-U-Lar and gets the ambassador out with eighteen minutes left on the clock. Bluegrass picks them up, and Quicksilver calls the cruiser to stop the countdown. The main laser stands down, the meeting on Bedlama goes ahead as planned, and Dritt thanks the SilverHawks.

The Silverhawks protect an alien ambassador from the Mob, which wants to prevent the signing of a peace treaty.

Bluegrass: "Uh-oh. This is Colonel Bluegrass piloting the spacecraft Mirage, sir."

Bluegrass: "Hmm, nothing. This Light Year Limit's a great place to hide, but it's a lousy place to seek."

"Sounds like a cowboy out there. Identify yourself properly."

How do you make peace with someone you have never met? The Triangulons rule the far side of the universe, their cruiser looks like "one tough customer", and their ambassador has come to Limbo to sign what Stargazer calls "the first such peace treaty in the history of the universe". Mon*Star wrecks it with a radio call: Mo-Lec-U-Lar hails the cruiser as Ensign Jones, announces that he has orders to escort the ambassador, and flies off with him!

In Bruce Smith's script, everything depends on the Triangulons believing what they are told. Dritt goes alone because he is sure he is safe, telling his own commander "we've made it very clear to them that if any harm comes to me it will mean all-out war", which is the one outcome Mon*Star is hoping for.[1] A treaty between strangers runs on taking people at their word, so the SilverHawks have to win that trust back against a clock after an impostor has already fooled the Triangulons. By the time we meet the real escort, turning up in the Mirage with the real orders, it is too late for anybody to be believed on sight.

The funniest scene in the episode is also the one that states the problem. Bluegrass hails the cruiser with "Say hi there, this here's the Mirage. We're coming in to take your boy to the big parley.", gets "Sounds like a cowboy out there. Identify yourself properly." back from the Triangulon side, and straightens up at once with "Uh-oh. This is Colonel Bluegrass piloting the spacecraft Mirage, sir."[2] It plays as a joke about his manners, yet it is the same test Mo-Lec-U-Lar passed earlier just by sounding official. Quicksilver has to go aboard and say "My name is Quicksilver, Commander" in person, and the best he gets is "If you're telling the truth, then an impostor has abducted our ambassador", along with a deadline before the main laser turns on Hawk Haven.

The designers give the Triangulons pointed ears, tufted red crests, and green triangle badges on every scarf and tunic, with Dritt in spectacles and a long scarf and his commander in a cape and a walrus moustache. Mo-Lec-U-Lar's getaway launch is a boxy red thing with a pair of beacon lamps on the roof, and the gag of the frame is the ambassador realising who is at the wheel, a man made of gold spheres who has stopped pretending to be an ensign.[3]

The standout is Tally-Hawk, who does most of the finding. He tracks the launch, he brings back the report that Mon*Star has the ambassador, and inside a hideout Quicksilver calls "a labyrinth, a maze" he flies on ahead while Quicksilver checks the time and mutters that he has "less than an hour and a half to find him". Bluegrass's diverting solo buys the time for it, and the teaser's promise of a serenade for Melodia is at least half kept.[4] The weakness is the kidnapping itself. Somebody on the cruiser says outright that "this is very irregular", and nobody stops the ambassador of a whole civilisation from climbing into an unchecked launch with a stranger. The Steel twins and the Copper Kidd, meanwhile, sit the story out until the ride home. Both come from the twenty-two minute slot, which needs the ambassador gone early and has room for only two SilverHawks and a bird on the rescue.

It ends with the countdown stopped, the laser stood down and Dritt deciding "It seems my mission will be successful after all". The Triangulon Commander gave Quicksilver eight hours on nothing but his word, and Quicksilver brought the ambassador back with the countdown already running.

1 ^ The line is Dritt's own guarantee of safety, spoken to the Triangulon Commander a few seconds before he leaves with Mo-Lec-U-Lar.

2 ^ Stargazer calls the assignment a Code One alert; Bluegrass tells the cruiser it is a Code 7 mission.

3 ^ This is the third episode running built on somebody wearing a false identity, after Darkbird's copy of Quicksilver in Darkbird and Stargazer's disguise in The Backroom.

4 ^ The pre-title narration promises Bluegrass serenading Melodia. She is named in the hideout scene, but no published frame shows her face.

1. The Triangulons are said to rule the far side of the universe, and Dritt's treaty with Earth is called the first such peace treaty in the history of the universe.
2. Mo-Lec-U-Lar collects the ambassador under the name Ensign Jones; someone on the cruiser calls the arrangement very irregular, and Dritt goes anyway.
3. Bluegrass introduces himself to the Triangulons as Colonel Bluegrass and calls the job a Code 7 mission, where Stargazer had called it a Code One alert.
4. The Triangulon Commander arms the cruiser's main laser against Hawk Haven and puts the countdown on screen for Quicksilver to watch.
5. Tally-Hawk tracks the ambassador's launch toward the Light Year Limit; it is Bluegrass who notes that the limit is a great place to hide and a lousy place to seek.
6. Bluegrass plugs Hot Licks into the Mirage's console for a diverting solo while Quicksilver goes into the Mob's hideout alone.
7. Stargazer's orders send only Quicksilver, Bluegrass and Tally-Hawk; the Steel twins and the Copper Kidd appear at the end, riding the Mirage home.
8. Bluegrass's closing quiz is about the length of a planet's year: Mercury has the shortest at 88 Earth days, and the longest is given as Pluto's.

6 names enter the series in this episode.

• Triangulons
• Ambassador Dritt
• Triangulon Commander
• Bedlama
• Triangulon Cruiser
• Ensign Jones Transport

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.