I think that was because the Flagship was a Royal Ship, and commoners were not allowed there.
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I think I would tend to agree. I finally bought and read “Hear the Roar,” and was struck by Lawrence having some odd opinions about the show. I mean, when you get to the seventeenth quote from Lawrence about Bill Overgard being a brilliant writer, you can’t help but be a little dubious …
To me, the best episodes are the ones Starr wrote, and the book says that Starr kind of presided over the first dozen or so scripts, which to me are among the more weird, creative and interesting ones. The show kind of got a bit “safer” under Peter Lawrence, a little less raw and strange. Starr’s five-parters never disappointed me, but under Peter Lawrence the general trajectory of the show was a smidge less interesting, and of course by the end of the series, it had really started to fall apart.
Obviously i’m still a big fan of the series, or I wouldn’t be here … 
But I think Starr is kind of an unsung hero for the franchise. He built the foundation very, very well. I was disappointed in the book to see Lawrence, at times, kind of diminishing Starr’s talent and importance to the series, while praising Overgard’s writing to the skies.
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I agree. I see Starr’s work as the base of the entire series and his are some of the best. It’s a real shame he was no longer involved towards the end.
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Leonard Starr, we have agreed on here before, was, without a doubt, the single most important name in Thundercats. He wrote the establishing episodes, and the multi-part stories in the first season and a bit. Under Peter Lawrence’s leadership, the show lost something.
Championing Overgard as a writer that much is just ridiculous. I can’t help but wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that Overgard is dead, and people always champion the deceased more than the living. Don’t get me wrong, Overgard wrote some fine episodes, but mainly in season 1. In season 3 he just went off on a totally ridiculous tangent, and his episodes from the later series are among the dodgiest the show had.
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Leonard Starr’s writing, though not perfect, was among some o’ the best in the ThunderCats universe.
It would have been better if they had just had a small group of writers instead of such a large group. Or at least got in some of the best freelance writers who were putting out some of the best stories for various other cartoons at the time like Buzz Dixon, Flint Dile, Paul Dini and Larry Ditillio etc.
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The show would’ve turned out a lot more interesting that way, while still respecting the boundaries of children’s programming.
I definitely agree. The first season had some amazing episodes and the stories were more raw and unique and just that ‘‘It Factor’’ that made them really special and stand out to me a lot more than other cartoons at the time.
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I think his writing overall was more suited to a show like Silverhawks. I did like some of his scripts for Thundercats but there was some I definitely wasn’t to keen on.
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Overgard did write some SilverHawks episodes.
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Some episodes of Silverhawks were okay-ish but the show as a whole is a complete mess of ideas/concepts and characters that just don’t work together.
His off the wall scripts, like he did for Thundercats, worked for Silverhawks as every episode by all the writer were pretty much like that.
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Regarding Silverhawks, I liked the original idea (the early eps were really good adn enjoyable), but then it went nowhere IMO. The introduction of the new SH finished killing the show for me (similar to the introduction of the new TCs, but worse lol).
Something weird with SH though, at least for me: I really enjoyed the lead character (Quicksilver, not the Cptn.). I usually don’t like the “leaders” but Quicksilver I did, maybe because he wasn’t the hero in every episode and he suffered and screwed it as much as the other SH (neither he was present in every single episode nor always saved the day at the end). In fact, it’s the only show where I think I actually liked the “leader” more than many of the other good characters. The only two SH I really liked were Flashback and Condor (both of them introduced later in the show, but still their introduction was a bad idea IMO).
I also think team work was present in SH more than in TC, where they emphasized it so much (but had no trouble in leaving two of their mates behind when returning home… such a team lol. I guess they sold Pumyra and Tygra the idea of “making one for the team” when announcing them they wouldn’t be getting back home):
Also, the Galactic Mob was awesome. Great concept for a bunch of villains. I liked almost every one of them: Monstar, Hardware, Melodia, Yes-Man, Windhammer, Mol-Ec-U-Lar, Poker Face, Time-Stopper, Buzz-Saw and Zero. I even liked Sky Shadow and Sky Runner (Monstar’s squid). The only one I found meh was Mumbo Jumbo.
There were some WTF moments in SH too, of course.
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Can you imagine what would’ve happened if the SilverHawks characters were inserted into the ThunderCats universe under William Overgard’s rule?
I’m not familiar with writers and that. Can you point out some of the eps written by Overgard to make me an idea?
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William Overgard is the author of the following episodes of ThunderCats [numbers here represent production order]:
- Mandora – The Evil Chaser
- The Fireballs of Plun-Darr
- Mandora and the Pirates
- Dr. Dometone
- The Thunder-Cutter
- Sword in a Hole
- Side Swipe
- Exile Isle
- The Jade Dragon
- The Circus Train
- Screw Loose
- Cracker’s Revenge
- Swan Song
- The Book of Omens
For the most part his season 1 episodes are all right, although in many cases, he does tend to feature his own characters more than the regulars. The main exception to this is “The Fireballs Of Plun-Darr”.
Season 2, he only wrote the one episode, “Side Swipe” - a bit iffy, but there’s plenty worse.
Season 3 was the real nadir of his work. “Exile Isle” was iffy in the extreme, but that paled into insignificance next to “The Jade Dragon”, in which Hachiman suddenly rides his horse into space with no need to breathe, and reaches New Thundera in a fraction of the time it takes the Feliner. And then of course “The Circus Train”, in which the Mutants and Lunataks are rounded up with ridiculous ease by Captain Bragg.
Astonishingly, his season 4 output is not as iffy as his season 3 episodes, but it’s still pretty damn dodgy. “Screwloose” and “Swan Song” both introduce and focus too much on random guest characters like they’re really important, and “Cracker’s Revenge” was another pointless return of Captain Cracker, who admittedly was an OK one-off villain in “Mandora And The Pirates”, but still should never have been allowed back.
I just watched “The Book Of Omens” this morning - the series finale. I will admit that it does tick all the technical boxes in finale terms, but artistically it’s incredibly flat. There are also a few obvious glitches - Pyron for one, but most nigglingly for me, the items to be presented at the proper time to magically save Thundera weren’t established parts of the Treasure Of Thundera.
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Looking at this list it seems almost all the human males were introduced by Overgard.
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Not my fave eps definitely.
I agreein that he fit better in SH lol.
With Mandora being his only female ThunderCats character.
I know she’s a fan favorite, but I never liked Mandora.
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I have mixed feelings about Mandora - in her season 1 appearances, she’s fine, but in the later series, she’s barely even one-dimensional.
I’d be curious to know what she looks like under the helmet though - so dodgy that her ID actually has her wearing that helmet on the photo! I should have thought she’d have to take it off for that!
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