The character of Mumm-Rana, in her season-one debut and in season two’s “Mumm-Rana’s Belt,” seemed like a throwaway character. More could’ve been done with her, I believe.
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In my opinion, all of the five-parters are a little stretched withe exception of the anointment trials and maybe “Thundercats Ho!”. Do ya’ll notice how almost every five parter has at least one episode that is totally devoted to something outside of the main plot? “Mumm-Ra Lives!” had part IV, which is a half-hour of chasing Snarfer, “Return to Thundera!” also had part IV, which gave us a side adventure back on Third Earth, and “Thundercubs!” had part III all about Snarfs, but to it’s credit, it tied in with the main plot better than the other two examples.
Anyhow, also in my opinion, “Mumm-Ra Lives!” is the five parter that really stretches things out. It pretty much wrapped up in part three, but then went on for two more episodes. Don’t get me wrong, I still love it all, I can’t help it lol.
I guess that ultimately I just don’t agree with all the hate I feel Peter Lawrence gets, especially when I think some of his ideas were good, even if some were dodgy. But if dodgy writing affected my love of a property, well, I wouldn’t be able to love any of the 80’s cartoons that I adore.
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I agree her whole presence, without an explanation, is sort of a WTF? moment in itself. I would love to know her origin, which I imagine would almost have to somehow tie in to Mumm-Ra’s, but then we don’t really know Mumm-Ra’s origin…and Mumm-Rana doesn’t seem to be aware of Mumm-Ra when they first meet. So there we are.
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Do you think the change in style was by accident, as in they were trying to remain faithful to what the show had been in season 1 and failed, or do you think the show changed it’s tone purposefully for one reason or another?
For example, sometimes I’ve thought perhaps the show was asked to push toys more. “Thundercats, Ho!” is clearly evidence of this as almost every series 3 figure and vehicle shows up with only a couple exceptions. I’ve always had to rationalize that the producing of the show had to be behind the plans for the toyline somewhat because it seems obvious that the show was writing to sell Lunatac figures and Thunderstrike vehicles. The how itself went on for some time after new toys stopped but they continued to introduce things that seemed to scream “new toy!” like the Whisker. Of course, this all requires knowledge of how exactly the toy company and the writing team worked together, which I am not privy to. Like…did LJN design a vehicle or toy and then ask for it to be on the show, or was it vice versa? Perhaps a little of both? I imagine that some of the later series 3 toys like Capt. Shiner, Mongor and Capt. Cracker had figures produced following their appearance in season 1, which helps explain the cartoon accuracy of those figs.
IF…and that’s a big IF the show was asked to push toys more, it’d be totally ironic considering that a lot of the post-season 1 episodes aired with no new toys on the shelves.
I’d like to just take a moment here to both apologize to you all as I find myself constantly going off topic here but also to express my gratitude at having a place to toss around the ideas I’ve always had rattling in my head.
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This is true of most cartoons. “Defenders Of The Earth” had three nominal five-parters:
The Necklace Of Oros - part 3 has nothing to do with the main plot, and can easily be omitted.
The Book Of Enigmas - really just five separate adventures tied together by the presence of the book. Parts 2-4 could come in any order.
Prince Kro-Tan - the only true five-parter, class all the way through.
I guess that ultimately I just don’t agree with all the hate I feel Peter Lawrence gets, especially when I think some of his ideas were good, even if some were dodgy. But if dodgy writing affected my love of a property, well, I wouldn’t be able to love any of the 80’s cartoons that I adore.
Peter Lawrence wrote some wonderful episodes, no question - it’s just that when he took over as the writer of the most important episodes (i.e. the five-parters), he didn’t have that extra zing that Leonard Starr had.
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Who on here remembers the “Garden of Delights” episode of ThunderCats’ first season? It was written by Barney Cohen and Julian P. Gardner (Jules Bass). 
I certainly do. It was a trippy fun adventure and much discussed due to its references. Wasn’t Silky originally going to be a horse?
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Yep.
I love “Garden of Delights.” Beautifully animated, and the story is so marvelously tripped out.
I had no idea Julian P Gardner was Jules Bass until I discovered this website. I like all of the episodes that feature a “Julian” credit.
I also love all the Starr episodes, including “Mumm-Ra Lives!”, which I am sad to see not get more love. It’s got a lot of characteristic Starr touches. (Though I concede it’s got a couple of heavy-duty plot holes. But that was true of other Starr episodes as well, including the pilot.)
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“Garden of Delights” featured a variation of Mumm-Ra’s transformation to Ever-Living mode that referenced how he transformed at the end of the “Exodus” character intro.
To me, the weirdest thing about “Book of Omens” is that new guy the Ancient Spirits whip up out of thin air to replace Mumm-Ra for the final big fight.
Seemed like such a weird choice … this armored dude. If the writers wanted something like that, couldn’t they have just had the Ancient Spirits decide to cloth Mumm-Ra in some bad-ass armor?
Apart from that, though, yeah, it’s gets the job done. (Still, probably would have been better if Lawrence had scripted it. Or Starr, obviously.)
“Cracker’s Revenge” isn’t the greatest episode ever, but it is, to my mind, the best episode to feature Cracker. It’s one of the most well-animated episodes from that era (IMO), and while it’s another example of Overgard going (ahem) overboard with the slapstick elements, I really like the way the animators keep pace with the comedy. The character of Cracker himself is beautifully and wittily animated, in particular.
Also, Overgard even seems a little self-aware of his own weird quirks. I don’t know if it was someone else who pointed out to him, “Hey William, both Cracker and Captain Bragg have a little talking bird on their shoulder. What’s with you and talking-bird sidekicks?” But in “Cracker’s Revenge” he has the two birds meet and fight, which is a fairly amusing little acknowledgement of the ridiculousness of it.
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You know what I hated most about Overgard, was when he gave the Thundercats a d*mn robotic dog. Called “Scooper,” of all things.
That was the WORST.
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Ya, scooper was a little out of no where and not really needed. He sort of reminds me of a canine Screwloose.
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Doubtless I’m going to be reacquainted with all this in the next few weeks. I’m watching season 3 now, just seen “Chain Of Loyalty”, one of the dodgiest concepts indeed - but well animated at least.
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So very true.
Yeah as much as I love Starr’s episodes I wish they had made more clear about Lion-O aging in the suspension capsule. I know it said some aging occurs but nothing happened to Kit and Kat. I recall reading that in the comic id noted that Lion-O’s suspension capsule was damaged. But why was this not in the pilot episode…or was it and cut out on the DVD release. I have a copy of the Exodus VHS, but it is from the video with four episodes so I am not sure if anything was edited out of the VHS. I know there was a bit edited out of the DVD.
Also in Ghost Warrior, it said Grune had died centuries ago. I suppose maybe the Thundercats must have really long lives. Jaga looked the same as in Exodus when he fought Grune. But none of the Thundercats recognised him so he must not have been a Thundercat when Panthro, Tygra and Cheetara were Thundercats.
Maybe this was an animation or dialogue mistake.
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A bit unrelated, but speaking of Defeneders of the Earth, I recently discovered David Wise wrote about a dozen Transformers episodes.
The G.I. Joe 5-parters kind of dragged it out a bit.
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I’m not quite sure what you’re driving at here. If you’re talking about the flashback sequences in The Ghost Warrior, they’re only in Cheetara’s mind remember, the other cats can’t see them.
But Jaga IS shown as younger in the flashback at the start of Thundercubs. Just to be confusing!
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There’s another episode titled “The Heritage,” where a Third Earth relic is spotted on New Thundera called the Golden Sphere of Seti. Does that episode qualify as a WTF moment?
I’m actually glad they focused on Pumyra and Tygra and their life on Third Earth at least in one of the eps of “Return to Thundera”. I wish they did that more often.
That brings another WTF thing to my mind: wether there were some action taking place in Third Erath during season 4, the TCs from New Thundera made all their way back to Third Earth to solve the problem. Why was that? Wasn’t the idea of leaving Pumyra and Tygra behind in Third Earth that they would protect it? Wasn’t it that they were trusted enough for that nmission? Then why bringing the others back to TE? And overall, sometimes they didn’t even ask for Pumyra’s or Tygra’s help! If that would have been the case, then Tygra and Pumyra should have been taken to NT with the others; I mean, why leaving them in TE under the assumption that they will take care of it, and then don’t call them when needed?
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