I was reading the episode guide on wikipedia and it mentions the list below is not in chronological order however it doesn’t provide the correct order and a quick google search did not provide a different guide besides one placing Lion-O’s Anointment together, while continuity wasn’t very strong in the show I’d still like to see it in the right order. So if anyone has the right order it’d be appreciated.
I don’t think there’s any way to know for sure, but I’ve always thought of the Cartoon Network broadcast sequence as being the order of events “in-universe”. It doesn’t have any continuity glitches, as far as I know.
I always think that Spaceship Beneath The Sands and Lord of the Snows should be swapped around. Not only could the Mutants have called Vultureman in after getting the equipment back in Spaceship Beneath The Sands…there is also the issue of Vultureman’s flying machine appearing and then an episode after, the Mutants moaning they have no vehicles to attack the Cats Lair with…
So those eps need flipping around in my opinion 
Don’t they mention that Vulture man is a new ally? In his next appearance they just mention he’s another of the mutants but I’m pretty sure they called talked to him like he was new in his first appearance.
These might not necessarily be errors in one episode Lion-O gets the time capsule, then we get a filler episode and after we see Lion-O can’t wait to use the time capsule. Its possible that an adventure happened between those two time capsule episodes however the fact that Lion-O couldn’t wait to use it is strange that he didn’t care about in the last episode and just now he can’t wait, so maybe The Time Capsule and Return to Thunderra need to go after each other.
There is also another similar example in which they mention the Lord of the Snow episode (I think it was about how they just finished getting the Thundrylium out of it) but there was a filler episode in between, of course like above its plausible that they could have had an adventure in between.
Then there is also the fact that just a few episodes before the Lord of the Snow episodes they had found “plenty” of Thundrylium in Third Earth and by Lord of the Snow which is only a few episodes after they have completely run out? That doesn’t make a lot of sense, they should have waited more episodes to use that plot. A good explanation would be that the meteor of Thundrylium takes place first and when they ran out they looked for Thundrylium on Third Earth in the episode Trouble with Time, however I’m not sure if that causes some other continuity errors since that is Willa’s introductory episode. There is also the fact that they mention the meteor will last them “a long time”. Then again maybe the Thundercats way of thinking of “a long time” and “plenty” is only a few days, to back that up they mention they have plenty of food supply saved from the ship and yet they look for food just an episode after that.
Its definitely hard to tell because the show is very episodic but I’ll definitely post more observations as I watch the show, maybe it can be a community effort to place them in the best order.
One question, is the movie version of Exodus and Thundercats Ho! different in anyway from the episode versions? Besides the fact of added opening/credits? Do they feature more animation not found in the actual episodes? For Gargoyles the movie version is shorter than the 5 parter however it did include some extra scenes not found in the actual episodes.
Hi. Yeah, the episodes leave a lot to be desired as far as continuity and making sense at times. I think Peter Lawrence once explained part of that was due to the writers referencing that bible thing Starr came up with rather than previous eps…and it sounded like a lot of eps were probably written at the same time, and those writers were unaware they’d be contradicting each other lol
The best ones obviously seem to be the five parters for that continuous arc feel.
Definitely this stuff is more noticeable as we’re able to watch back to back rather than wait a day or more to see the new eps like back in the day.
Not sure about ThunderCats Ho, but the uncut Exodus movie is different…little bits here and there that aren’t in the aired versions of the first four eps.
This is where it gets a little complicated…based on the UK VHS release of the Exodus movie (the FHE USA VHS might be different?) The first 27 or so mins (is basically an extended version of the DVD released episode ‘Exodus’) including many scenes cut from the episodic version on the DVD sets. I believe the ThunderCatsLair YouTube channel has these said ‘cut’ scenes uploaded 
However the Exodus movie after the 27 or so minute mark (basically The Unholy Alliance, Berbils and Slaves of Castle Plun-Darr) is completely butchered on the movie version. So for The Unholy Alliance, Berbils and Slaves of Castle Plun-Darr, your best watching the episodic DVD released versions. I believe Berbils is the worst effected, missing out a complete scene involving the Giants and Trollogs!
So it’s definately worth having both the VHS movie version of Exodus and of course the individual eps on DVD too!
As for ThunderCats Ho!, the episodic versions are uncut. The movie was created from cutting the 5 eps together. In the process some small scenes were cut (Ma-Mutt as a fireball confronting Lion-O in the Pyramid being one) So it’s best to watch this saga as 5 individual episodes (as per the DVD’s)
Well I was using the CN airing order but I’m not so sure how correct it may be anymore, unsure which episode list i want to continue.. I think i’m just going to go with the dvd one.
I didn’t get the feeling there was a show bible since some of the inconsistancies were very jarring at times.
Hi, been reading this site for a bit, time to chip in I think.
I started on an attempted ‘repair’ the Exodus movie a while ago, hit a few snags due to the different manners in which the UK VHS and DVD have been converted to PAL from NTSC, resulting in different playing speeds, audio etc, but did come clear on a number fo things relating to this matter.
Coupled with what I know of Exodus already, and a few years experience in video/film production, here’s what I dsicovered along the way:
*Exodus was a 1 hour pilot originally. It had Slaves of Castle plunn-Darr bolted onto the end to bunk up the running time for the VHS movie release version.
*When splitting the hour pilot into three episodes (done at a later date) the episodes had to be extensively altered to get proper ending points. this resulted in footage missing from the first 2.
*Berbils is not cut at all in the movie version. After the re-cutting break them into 3 episodes, Berbils ended up too short and the Trollogs/Giants sequence was added in to bunk up the length.
There’s a fair few tell-tale signs such as-
-When Lion-O returns to the camp at the end, the Thundercats are already there and ask him where he’s been. Contradicts their presence at the Berbil village.
-Slight difference in animation quality in the inserted bits.
-Trollogs/Giants have no relevance whatsover to the rest of the episode.
-Diallogue is altered in certain bits, such as when the lookout Berbil is ringing the triangle bell. Originally it’s ‘Locusts’, then changed to ‘Trollogs’.
-Shots generally flow and edit much better in the Exodus version at the attack point.
Also worth noting here is that the UK version is censored, due to the BBFC director James Ferman’s bizarre personal issues with Nun-Chucks.
The opening title Panthro shot is removed and replaced with one of him doing a summersault instead, and the entire Panthro vs. Slithe fight from Slaves of Castle Plunn-Darr is cut-out. Slithe just runs off. These should have been there.
I will get back to finishing off my restoration at some point, it’ll take awhile to fine tune the audio pitch differences to get it right, but I’m a tad busy on other things currently.
I am sure when it first aired in the UK, it was a 45-50 minute special that was made up of Exodus and The Unholy Alliance (including both 100% uncut) I’m certain Berbils aired as a single episode the following week? 
How do you know all this? Do you have a source or is it only based on your own observations?
I have to agree on this. Exodus, movie version, is too long for a 20 minute episode. They had to cut it down enough to fit in a 30 minute time slot with commercials. The other 3 episodes in the movie version did not get chopped up like Exodus.
Your points on Berbils is good. My thoughts on the short episode are in this thread: http://www.thundercatslair.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4395 . I too feel the Trollog and Giant fights are “filler” and they actually make for some weird conversation. For example, why did the other ThunderCats show up to fight the giants, but just wander back to camp while Lion-O rode a giant locust into a volcano? And later why did Lion-O have to introduce the Berbils to the other ThunderCats when they would have met due to the giant fight earlier in the episode?
it’s obvious. I’ve been working in video/film since 1993, and you see things in a different technical manner. You learn to nit-pick and discect things, without even wanting to do it, it becomes second nature, and when I’m there purosefully for that very reason to disect different video material to rebuild a decent version of Exodus, it’s impossible not to see.
There are too many anomalies in the individual episode of Beribils for it to have been planned that way.
Take the ThunderCats themselves. They’re at the base, Lion-O leaves, goes to the Berbil village, and returns to the camp with the Berbils after the events. At the ending, the rest of the group are still there exactly as before, doing the exact same thing as before. No writer would have them go the village, desert Lion-O as he gets carried off, and have them return back to the camp and act as if nothing happened. They never left it.
If you watch the 2 versions, it becomes very obvious where the extra footage has been cobbled in.
When CBBC originally broadcast Thundercats there was no UK pilot version in the series, all were episodical versions. If there was a longer pilot, it would have been broadcast some degree of time earlier and I didn’t catch it.
My perosnal first exposure to ThunderCats was actually the toys, which my local Co-Op had in before the series started showing. Similar to He-Man really, which I discovered in toy form first. Never got on with Filmation’s comedy relief character, patronizing moral message show, I always preferred the dark ‘barbarian’ approach from the original mini-comics that came with the toys.
They are definately interesting theories, which add to the discussion, but can’t be considered as fact without an official source to back it up. The pilot episodes are not the only inconsistancies, in regard to the writing in the series…In one of the Mumm-Ra Lives saga episodes, the ThunderCats travel through darkside to Sky Tomb to rescue Bolkin and Wallo slaves, but leave at the end of the episode without freeing them! :rolleyes: So writing mistakes did happen!
Sorry you are wrong I have the airdates info straight from the BBC and the pilot (Exodus/The Unholy Alliance) aired on 2nd January 1987. I know it was the uncut version because of the scene where Wilykit cries and says Jaga is always right. I still remember watching it to this day, down to the fact it was my dad who spotted it in the TV guide (he was still off work from the Christmas holiday fortnight)
As for Berbils, it is cut on the VHS version (regardless of what version came first) as those scenes make the full ep up. So if you are missing any existing footage (regardless of when it was added) the episode is cut.
I believe the toys hit stores in the UK in 1986, as the first Argos catalogue they appear in, is the Autumn/Winter catalogue issued around July 1986.
So I finished watching Season 1 in the CN airing order and I thought I’d comment on it. I didn’t notice any big continuity errors with that order even if its fairly different than the DVD order. I’m not sure how the DVD order is but at least with the CN order you do get introduction episodes of characters (allies or villains) and any flashbacks all work fine. Unsure if the DVD order messes things up with having characters not introduced yet appear or even sections of Thunderra.
With that said theres definitely a few things about that order that makes it maybe not the right order but it could also just be the way the show was written. I mean with the CN order you do get say a bunch of mutant episodes together instead of giving them a break with other villains and then you may have other villains or mumm-ra episodes together. some interchanging would be nice/make sense instead of the mutants attacking episode after episode. Then again the mutants appear in almost every episode so its hard. You also get episodes too similar to each other, all the “X mutant betrays the other mutants” are almost back to back. You’d think it would be a while before the other decides to betray them. Same thing you get an episode where Snarf is the one that saves the team and the next episode he saves the team again, you would think there would be some episodes separating them. Another possible error is we see Mumm-Ra wear glasses to protect from his reflection in one episode, I think I recall seeing those glasses all the time as a kid, I haven’t watched much of Season 2 but if thats true that he wears them all the time later in the series it means that episode must take place close to the end of the season and not near the end since where its placed we still see Mumm-Ra defeated by his reflection episodes after that and he doesn’t think of putting the glasses on.
Now theres Lion-O’s anointment, the episodes are obviously back to back so the DVD order makes no sense. The CN order has them in order right after the first part, however that places the episodes very early in the series. Could it be that the episodes take place near the end like the final episode in the DVD order? And that the only reason it started early is so it could finish its run in the end? The final fight is pretty epic and the Thundercats act at the end like Mumm-Ra is defeated, its kinda weird that in no other episode of season 1 the thundercats act shocked that Mumm-Ra is still alive. So yeah I’m unsure where to place this episode since it’d have to be before Thundercats Ho! right?
From what I’ve read it seems like all seasons after S1 are in the correct order so this was only for Season 1, so unless I find a huge error I probably won’t comment on it.
The DVDs are in the original broadcast order, but they are not in chronological order story-wise.
Generally, for all the new fans who are now watching the Thundercats 80s Series, keep in mind that the Second season(starting in episode 66,Thundercats HO! Part 1) is much more consistent and continuity driven, hence the many Parts. The main plot of Season 2 is the reformation of Thundera and colonization,once again, by the Thundercats.
I think each season has its own advantages and disadvantages, personally i tend towards Season 1.
regarding berbils, you’re just reinterpreting things, changing the definition of ‘cut’. Something has to have technically been removed from the original version for the ‘cut’ terminology to usually be applied. It wasn’t cut in the movie, just added to and re-edited for the individual episode. Not the same thing.
I’ts like saying that John Carpenter’s original shorter directors cut of Dark Star is cut because it doesn’t contain the extra material footage that he was later forced to put into it for its theatrical release.
I have the DVDs and ehre they’re divided in 4 seasons, season 2 being almost about the new TCs, season 3 about reformation of Thundera, and season 4 about they going there again.
Yeah, i know they follow Wikipidias’ episode list but the long-time, hardcore fans, have decided to separate the 130 Thundercats episodes in two seasons:
Season 1: Exodus-Fond Memories(#65)
Season 2 Thundercats HO! Part1(#66)- The Book of Omens(#130)
Besides,I think it’s a better way keep track of the episodes!!
Thanks for the explanation.
I think it’s indeed better with 2 65-episodes seasons, but I also like the idea of different sasons focusing on different moments.
Maybe season 1 could have also been divided in two (or three?): their arrival to Third Earth and their exploration of it and adaptation to it, and then the 2nd part focusing on Lion-O becoming lord, starting with a five-episodes arc with the trials and all that.