Episode 014 – The Spaceship Beneath the Sands

In which the Mutants get their spaceship back.

The Mutants are up to some slippery tricks this week, setting a clever trap. Well, I say “clever”. It’s actually nothing more than a net covered in glue. Still, it’s good enough to capture Cheetara and Tigra, who are evidently not the sharpest tools in the shed. In the subsequent crowing, Slythe reveals that he wants the remaining Thundercats to come and attempt a rescue, which might suggest that he was able to get a buy-one-get-one-free offer on nets.

With stunning predictability, Liono and Panthro leap into the Thundertank and come charging along to the rescue. God knows what the Mutants’ plan at this stage was, though, since they don’t try anything remotely clever and are defeated easily. I can only assume they didn’t really want to win, for all the effort they put in.

While the Thundercats merrily return to the Cats’ Lair, the Mutants retreat to Castle Plun-Darr, where they discuss their recent failure. Eventually they conclude that their defeat is due to the fact that they no longer have access to their advanced weaponry, thanks to Mumm-Ra burying their spaceship beneath the desert back in The Unholy Alliance. With this in mind, the Mutants go to Mumm-Ra’s pyramid to ask him to retrieve the ship.

Unexpectedly, Mumm-Ra agrees, and brings the spaceship back to the surface of the desert. The Mutants eagerly board, to find that though the ship no longer has any power, they are able to salvage various vehicles and equipment. None too surprisingly, they immediately take their newfound weapons to the Cats’ Lair to launch an attack, and the rest of the episode consists of an epic battle that puts Helm’s Deep to shame. I was on the edge of my seat, I really was.

 

Character checklist

This never varies. We’ve got Liono, Panthro, Cheetara, Tigra, Wilycat, Wilykit, Snarf, Mumm-Ra, Slythe, Jackalman and Monkian. The only new face is a guy called Cabot, who is a tax collector and appears in the opening scene.

 

Insults

Jackalman makes sure to express his feelings on the Thundercats, referring to them – behind their backs – as “fools” within about 30 seconds of the beginning of the episode. “Fool” is also used by Slythe to describe Cabot, while Jackalman prefers “pinchpenny” for the tax man. Otherwise, Panthro utters a mildly exasperated “blasted Mutants” to encompass the Mutants, and right at the end, Mumm-Ra addresses Slythe as “reptilian”.

 

Thundercats Ho or Thundercats No?

It’s big on action but rather lacking in heart, to be honest. It’s really difficult to care about any of the characters when all they’re doing is shooting at each other or chasing each other round in implausible vehicles. There is a last-minute effort to raise the stakes, revolving around a trapped sea-horse baby, but I don’t think anyone ever will have cared about that. Ultimately, despite the episode being a possibly important change to the status quo, what with the Mutants recovering their technology, it all feels a little hollow. The only particularly notable thing about this one is that the actress playing Cheetara sounds like she’s doped up to the eyeballs today, and while that’s amusing for a minute or two, it doesn’t make the episode worth watching.