Third Earth in the OS, was hinted to be our Earth in the future. However in the NS you can clearly see another planet in the sky along with the moon, so in the NS Third Earth isn’t our Earth.
Maybe…maybe not. We’ll see , I suppose.
I’m starting to wonder if Third Earth is a world that will be colonized by our decedents. Maybe it’s the third try?
My guess is, that Mumm-ra is a scientist from earth in the future, who was obsessed with immortality and galactic domination. The cats and other animals were probably genetically engineered by future humanity, and colonized other planets, either they did that themselves or were placed there by the future humans. Mumm-ra likely horribly mutated himself through a combo of science and magic, explaining his appearance.
Where were hints of this (that Third Earth was our planet in the future)? Sorry, I think I missed that.
This is the theory I like the most so far.
There were a few things like how Mumm-Ra said he remembered when Third Earth was First Earth, Panthro saying in the first episode that the planet was the “third one out” from the Sun, and how when you saw a globe on their computer monitors in Cat’s Lair the land masses were the same as our Earth’s. Also Mandora said that her enzyme-catalyzer was called soap in ancient times. Little things like that.
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I don’t really like the idea of Mumm-ra as a Mad Scientist. It just doesn’t sit right with me. He’s always been a magical villain (even though in the NS he uses a lot of technology.) If he altered himself I would want it to be from more magical means.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.The BoO is my proof. Mad scientist, mad wizard, it’s all one and the same.
Not so. Technology has to obey the laws of science and physics. Magic doesn’t. The Book of Omens was clearly stated to be a combination of both. If they’re the same how/why would you combine them?
The key words are sufficiently advanced. You do have a point, it’s a matter of taste: I just don’t like magic that much.
Back to Mumm-Ra, the idea was to shrug off the difference between stormbringer’s idea and your preference: it could work with him both a scientist or a wizard/ancient priest/magic whatever.
I’ve always liked the idea that he was OLD. So old that originally his powers came from a purely supernatural source. And that he just eventually lived so long that technology advanced to a high degree and instead of relying purely on his magic he learned how to adapt the technology to his needs.
Old I’m cool with And of course supernatural forces are all right, after all I’m here, right?
What I mostly liked about stormbringer’s proposition was that the animal races had been genetically engineered. IMO, it would be an amazing twist.
That could definitely be how they go with it. Though personally I’ve always thought it would’ve just been more like Planet of the Apes and the animals just eventually evolved into more human-like species.
It’s kind of odd that all species evolved similarly, developed anthropomorphic features and self-awareness (not to mention opposing thumbs!). In sci-fi a planet with only two sentient species is considered extremely rare, and how many are we counting in Third Earth already? Of course they were implated in the planet, so they could have been harvested by Mumm-Ra and the cats from different planets and enslaved, but it’s still odd. Not impossible.
well I don’t think we can get too scientific. It is just a cartoon. Heck look at Star Trek. How likely is it that so many species from different planets look so similar? Or even that they’re able to reproduce with each other?
They were seeded by the Preservers so all humanoid races came from the same lot LOL About the interbreeding, my extremely smart biologist friend from HS explains “It’s a biological impossibility. DNA does not mix like that. They needed some amount of fantasy to tell this story”.
But TC is not ST and can weave as much fantasy as it wants into this new story. I just like some possibilities better than others.
Right, thanks!
The ones in bolds I noticed and remember now, the others… well, I didn’t get them back then 
Well in the original series, Mumm-Ra said that he had known of the Eye of Thundera’s power “for a thousand years”; so he must be at least that old. I’m not sure how that would work in this new series though; I don’t think we know what year it was set in, do we?
I’m not sure if I would really want them to give us Mumm-Ra’s origin, as I think it would spoil the mystery behind the whole thing. I think sometimes, some things are best left unexplained (eg. like Sonic the Hedgehog’s origin [I’m also a Sonic fan if you didn’t realise already ;))
I’d love to see them try to explain how leafs/leaves[?] evolved to be able to walk, talk, and live an entire lifetime (or ‘leaftime’ :p) within a matter of hours! 
Not to mention ‘living’ rocks etc. in the classic series.
This wasn’t discussed in the actual show, but there were a couple short segments with interviews and stuff from Ethan Spalding and Michael Jelenic where one of them (I forget which) said Mumm-Ra has known about the sword for 5000 years. So that’s how long ago the events in Legacy happened.
edit- found the video
Whoa. 5,000 years is long enough for a culture to forget and/or bury the past. The myth of tech is easily explained in this span of time.