Undercover

The Mob has been hijacking the space tankers that carry oil to the Artificial Sun. Mon*Star explains the plan: every stolen tanker is fed to the Planet Eater, his breeder reactor under the surface of Brim*Star, so the Artificial Sun runs lower and lower on fuel, and when it goes out, anyone who wants light will have to pay the Mob for it. Yes-Man sends Timestopper and Buzz-Saw after another tanker. With Shredator's help they take it, and its pilot ends up floating in deep space.

The pilot tells Commander Stargazer about the ambush and picks out Timestopper and Buzz-Saw from the Mob's mug shots, so Stargazer sends Quicksilver along on the next run, flying shotgun. The Mob attacks and starts breaking the tanker up for scrap. Quicksilver takes on Buzz-Saw, but Timestopper stops time on him, and the tanker is drawn toward the Planet Eater. It escapes only by jettisoning its aft tanks, which saves the ship and loses the oil.

Professor Power warns from the Artificial Sun that it will go out unless oil arrives right away, and Stargazer sends Quicksilver back out with the tanker. On Brim*Star, Mon*Star berates Buzz-Saw for letting the tanker get away. On the second run Timestopper and Buzz-Saw come after it again, and Quicksilver deals with Shredator and then with Buzz-Saw, while Mon*Star, on his throne, gives Yes-Man his orders and then sets out himself, transformed.

The tanker docks at the Artificial Sun and starts pumping. The transformed Mon*Star arrives, Quicksilver is told to get clear before he is flattened, and the Artificial Sun comes back up to full strength, shining brightly again. In Stargazer's office afterwards, the pilot thanks the commander and asks for a ride home. Quicksilver has a report to write, and the other SilverHawks are on deep space duty, so Stargazer offers the lift himself and hopes the pilot does not mind the wind in his hair.

Mon*star aims to block the supply of oil to Limbo's artificial sun, and put his own reactor into place as the new Sun.

Commander Stargazer: "Okay, Professor. You'll get your oil. You better get that tanker to him, Quicksilver, or start passing out flashlights."

Quicksilver: "Sorry, Commander, but I've got a report to write."

"Then we'll jettison the aft tanks and lighten the load!"

Somebody has to drive the oil to the sun. Danny Peary's script is about that somebody, a tanker pilot in a hard hat, an orange shirt and braces, with a rhinoceros horn on his snout. The Mob has been ambushing men like him all month, and we meet him in Stargazer's office after being dumped in deep space, giving the facts of the ambush.

Mon*Star's scheme is one of the show's better villain plans, because it is so plainly about money! He feeds each hijacked tanker to the Planet Eater, which he now calls his breeder reactor under Brim*Star, and waits for the Artificial Sun to run dry, at which point everyone who wants light will have to buy it from him.[1] The Artificial Sun only shines because a man in a hard hat keeps hauling oil to it, and the Mob means to make Limbo pay for light by cutting that line. Most of the story happens on the tanker's flight deck, and Quicksilver's job is to get a delivery through.

The writing gets real comedy out of the logistics. Stargazer's mug-shot parade of the Mob comes with a line of commentary for each face, and the pilot picks his hijackers out of it.[2] The first rescue only half works: to break free of the Planet Eater they dump the aft tanks, so the tanker is saved and the oil is gone, and the pilot's complaint, "I didn't make my delivery to the sun!", is the right one. Stargazer's instruction to Quicksilver on the second run is the standout line of the episode: "You better get that tanker to him, Quicksilver, or start passing out flashlights." The animation keeps track of the damage, too, leaving the cockpit glass cracked in a web of lines from the first attack right through to the docking at the Artificial Sun.

The weakness is the title. Nobody in the episode goes undercover; Quicksilver rides along as himself, flying shotgun in full chrome, and the Mob addresses him by name the moment it arrives. The climax is thin as well. Timestopper stops time on Quicksilver in a single stroke that is barely seen. The transformed Mon*Star then turns up at the Artificial Sun and is gone again almost before the soundtrack says what happened, and the sun is back at full strength. The likely reason is the twenty-two minute slot. The script rightly spends its time on the supply run, and it has little left for the fight at the end of it.

It closes on the tanker pilot. The pilot needs a ride home, Quicksilver suddenly remembers, "Sorry, Commander, but I've got a report to write.", the rest of the team is on deep space duty, and so the commander of Hawk Haven gives a tanker driver a lift himself, wind in his hair and all.[3] Giving the last scene to the pilot is the right call!

1 ^ The Planet Eater was first seen in The Planet Eater; here Mon*Star has turned it into a reactor meant to become Limbo's new sun.

2 ^ Windhammer and Melodia get a shared entry in the parade, as "a couple of tough customers", and Poker-Face is billed as the gambling boss.

3 ^ Stargazer's closing remark about the wind in the pilot's hair suggests an open vehicle, but the ride home is not shown.

1. Mon*Star calls the Planet Eater his breeder reactor under the surface of Brim*Star, and has each hijacked tanker fed to it; the Planet Eater first appeared in The Planet Eater.
2. Stargazer's mug shots cover Hardware, Mumbo Jumbo, Poker-Face the gambling boss, Windhammer and Melodia, and finally Timestopper and Buzz-Saw, the two the pilot recognises.
3. Stargazer assigns Lieutenant Quicksilver to the tanker run flying shotgun. The rest of the team is on deep space duty, and Quicksilver is the only SilverHawk in the story.
4. Buzz-Saw sends Shredator in against the tanker, and Quicksilver finishes the bird before he turns on its owner.
5. Timestopper stops time on Quicksilver during the first attack, and afterwards he is blamed for having done his number on the tanker.
6. Professor Power speaks from the Artificial Sun, as he does when he calls Hawk Haven for help in Amber Amplifier.
7. The closing quiz is on the night sky: Sirius as the brightest star, the North Star and its proper name, Polaris, for fourteen points on the day.

3 names enter the series in this episode.

• Space Tanker Pilot
• Space Tankers
• Space Tanker #27

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.