I notice that alot of T-Cats fans seem to speak negatively of series writer William Overgard. Recently, I decided to take a look at which episodes he wrote just so I could decide for myself whether or not his contributions to Thundercats were good or bad.
-
Mandora: Evil Chaser = I actually really liked this episode. It wasn’t a classic, but it introduced us to Mandora who would be a semi regular presence for the rest of the series, and I don’t know why, but I just always liked Quick Pick. Very basic and fun episode.
-
The Fireballs of Plun-Darr = OK, this is probably Overgard’s best episode. Its one of my personal favorites in the entire series, and its probably Slithe’s best showing as a character. He was very menacing and imposing as the lead villain here. It showed that even without Mumm-Ra, The Mutants can be a pretty evil force if handled well.
-
Mandora and the Pirates = The main problem with this episode was that in introduced the major hole in T-Cats that bothered me even as a kid. There is NO WAY that the characters should be able to breath in space. And unfortunately, this was something that was adopted and continued for the rest of the series. So if you want to talk about a bad Overgard contribution, there you go. But as an individual episode, again I enjoyed this one. Capt. Cracker is a silly, but enjoyable character, and overall its a fine episode. Not one of my favorites, but not bad.
-
Dr. Dometone = Now this is usually one of the most hated episodes in the series. I don’t think that is because there is anything wrong with it, I think that is just because its so different from the norm. And that’s usually the problem with a show when you completely change the setting (I remember a few of He-Man: MOTU’s water based episodes not being too good either) It didn’t really feel like a T-Cats episode, but I’ll give Overgard credit for trying to think outside the box. My only major gripe with this episode is that Scrape is probably the most uninteresting villain in the entire series.
-
The Thunder-Cutter = This is probably Overgard’s most fondly remembered episode, and that is because of the introduction of Hachiman, one of the series most popular guest characters among fans. Its a really fun episode, and yes Hachiman is indeed one of my favorites. I said this in another thread, but give Overgard credit: He helped create two of the Thundercats most memorable allies in Hachiman & Mandora.
-
Sword in a Hole = Despite the odd sounding title and the “breathing in space” issue (which I won’t bother bring up again for the rest of this), Overgard once again gets credit for creating one of the series most memorable characters in Captain Shiner. I am really a fan of how they presented Shiner: He’s a villainous mercenary, but he has admirable qualities. He doesn’t become a T-Cat ally when its over, and goes right back to doing what he was doing before, but even Lion-O admits that he respects him, and that kind of complexity I always found interesting. I always liked this episode not only because of the great handling of Shiner’s character, but having Mumm-Ra just flat out get rid of the Sword of Omens in over the top fashion makes this one a gem.
-
Side Swipe = This one is just…odd. I don’t know of any other way to describe it. Space Travel to pick up Mexican food, The Brailboard being an image inside Lynx-O’s head, Vultureman inexplicably being a jailmen in Sky Tomb, and the whole episode is centered around a traffic violation. Bizarre. Now this was one that I watched and when it was over I was thinking “What on Earth did I just watch?”
-
Exile Isle = This is arguably the worst episode in the series, or at least the most disappointing. I didn’t see this one until it aired on Cartoon Network the first time, but I remember reading a 1 sentence summary of it online and it was something like “The Thundercats have to banish the Lunataks to deadly Exile Isle” and I thought it sounded really cool. Unfortunately, what we got was a pointless excuse for Lion-O having to leave the Sword behind (pointless because he ended up calling it anyway), a strange partnership between Cracker & The Lunataks, some plot inconsistancies (when did the T-Cats get a teleporter beam?), Silly ways for Lion-O to fight the Lunataks, and of course the introduction of Scooper. I thought this episode sounded like it could be cool, & I was reeeeally let down by it.
-
The Jade Dragon = Now this one was also bizarre but in a very good way. This one feels like an Anime more than any other episode in the series, and if you think about it, Hachiman had wanted revenge on Mumm-Ra going back to when he deceived him in Thunder Cutter AND Thundercats Ho, so to finally get that awesome fight with all kinds of craziness going on was just great. There are some issues with it (Scooper returns, Hachiman’s origin inconsistancies) but overall, this is a very entertaining, loud, & action packed episode. Definitely Overgard’s best from Season 2.
-
The Circus Train = OK, I hate this one. You have to write off The Mutants & The Lunataks, and this is how it happens? They go down at the hands of Wily Kat and some weird Circus owner Bounty Hunter. This is another candidate for worst episode in the series not only because of the absurdity of it, but because of the major impact it had on the series as well.
-
Screwloose = This is another really weird one, but I kind of liked it. It was a comedy episode, and was really wacky. General consensus among fans seems to be that the New Thundera episodes (Return to Thundera Part 1 to Book of Omens) aren’t that great, but at least this one made me laugh.
-
Cracker’s Revenge = I guess this one is the spiritual sequel to Exile Isle. I don’t really have much to say about this one. Its pretty forgettable, which is kind of disappointing considering its the final appearance of The Lunataks.
-
Swan Song = OK this one sucks. Its probably the most unremarkable episode in the series.
-
Book of Omens = I often say that “The Last Day” should have been the final episode, but as a finale, I think this episode works well too. They really went all out to make this one pretty epic, including one final confrontation between Lion-O & Mumm-Ra, a planetwide threat, and a new enemy in Pyron, who is definitely one of the more visually interesting characters if nothing else. T-Cats went out with a bang with this one.
So overall, I’d say Overgard was about half and half as far as having good & bad episodes, but I’d say his contributions to the series were mostly positive. He created Hachiman, who is a big fan favorite. Mandora was a great & fun character, even in the weaker episodes. Shiner is easily one of the best one shot villains. And when discussing some of the best episodes in the series, I think “Fireballs of Plun-Darr” “The Thunder Cutter” & “Book of Omens” deserve alot of recognition. Sure he wrote some of the worst episodes in the series as well, but we’re all T-Cats fans here (or at least we should be or else why post here?) and I feel its more worth it to focus on the positives, and I think Overgard gave us plenty.
