SWAT KATS: THE RADICAL SQUADRON EPISODE GUIDE Source: _Animato!_, Spring 1995, Issue #32 Edited from the original article by Dana Uehara (razor@netcom.com) DISCLAIMER: Unless otherwise noted, all comments are those of the author (Mark Lungo) and not mine. Each episode is listed along with a summary (as it appears in _Animato!_), Lungo's grade (yes, he graded all the episodes) and comments/musings on it. Episode #24, the "SKIQ" episode, is not listed because it does not appear in the original article. 1. THE PASTMASTER ALWAYS RINGS TWICE Airdates: September 11/12, 1993 Written by Glenn Leopold When two grave robbers accidentally free the Pastmaster from his 800-year imprisonment, he steals his "Tome of Time" spellbook from the Megakat City Museum of History and attempts to change the metropolis back to the Dark Ages form he prefers. The wicked wizard summons dinosaurs through a magical "time vortex" to act as his bodyguards, one of whom knocks the SWAT Kats through the portal into the prehistoric era. Can our heroes fight their way past the dinosaurs, return to the present and stop the Pastmaster before time runs out? This may have been chosen as SWAT Kats' premiere episode because its use of dinosaurs was very timely in the wake of _Jurassic Park_. It's okay, but not the best possible introduction to the series. B Trivia: Most _SWAT Kats_ episodes are preceded with a clip of an action scene from the story, with Razor's voice saying "Today on _SWAT Kats_..." Since "Pastmaster..." was the first episode aired, it has a different beginning, intended to introduce the series, in which Razor narrates a brief overview of the _SWAT Kats_ format over an assortment of clips (all from "The Giant Bacteria," except for one closeup of the Pastmaster from this episode). Appearances: Dr. Abby Sinian has a strong supporting role in this episode. 2. THE GIANT BACTERIA Airdates: September 18/19, 1993 Written by Glenn Leopold Dr. Viper turns his fellow evildoer Morbulus (Jim Cummings) into the title creature, which then goes on a predictable rampage through Megakat City (and inconveniently divides into two anytime it's hit). Viper's reason for creating the monster is so it can break into the "impenetrable" Megakat Biochemical Labs and steal a chemical he wants. (Oh well, he's a mad scientist -- his evil plots don't have to be logical.) This was the first _SWAT Kats_ to be completed, and it's worth watching because it sets up many of the show's key elements. Unfortunately, it's also the series' most violent and horrific episode. After Morbulus' agonizing transformation, the bacteria monster(s) eat a farmer and his cow, Viper's old colleague Dr. Zyme (Paul Eiding), and -- in a shocking scene I can't believe the censors allowed -- ate a subway car full of passengers. Yes, _SWAT Kats_ is a violent show where characters sometimes die (often for no compelling dramatic reasons), but "Bacteria" goes way too far. Therefore, I must make an example of it. D+ Musings: 1. There is one good thing about this episode -- an amusing scene where Chance moons over Callie when she brings her car to Jake & Chance's garage. 2. "Bacteria" also wastes a potentially good villain by killing of Morbulus as soon as he's introduced. Morbulus is even given a distinctive shtick -- he literally has eyes in the back of his head, which gives him 360 degree vision. This is presumably so all the bacteria monsters (there are three) can have eyes after they divide. Trivia: Morbulus was originally called Oculus, but it was discovered that there had already been a _Fantastic Four_ villain with that name. As a result, all the original dialogue featuring the name "Oculus" had to be re-dubbed. 3. THE WRATH OF DARK KAT Airdates: September 25/26, 1993 Written by Jim Stenstrum When Dark Kat steals the material for a homemade nuclear bomb to destroy Megakat City, neither the SWAT Kats nor the Enforcers can break through his defenses. Commander Feral tries to sneak aboard Dark Kat's ship (a plan even he admits is "desperate and stupid") and quickly gets captured. The ambitious Lt. Steel (Hal Rayle), Feral's yuppie scum aide- decamp, would rather advance his career than rescue his boss, so it's up to the SWAT Kats to save both Feral and Megakat City. A suspenseful, exciting episode, but what makes it special is a flashback sequence that shows as much of the SWAT Kats' origin as we're ever likely to see -- which is why this should have been the first episode broadcast. A Appearances: Burke & Murray appear in the flashback. 4. DESTRUCTIVE NATURE Airdates: October 2/3, 1993 Written by Lance Falk The 300-story Megakat Tower office building is about to open for business, but its first tenant is a most unwelcome one: Dr. Viper, who seizes the structure with his army of monstrous, acid-spitting "plantimals." He places a huge "spore pod" on top of the penthouse; when it explodes, it'll cover Megakat City with spores, turning the metropolis into the "Megaswamp City" of Viper's fantasies. Obviously, the SWAT Kats can't allow this. While T-Bone runs interference in the Turbokat, Razor sneaks into the building and tries to stop Viper -- with the help of Callie Briggs, who happened to be in the tower when it was taken. Like the _Outer Limits_ classic "Demon With A Glass Hand" (which also concerns a man and a woman trapped inside an office building fighting evil attackers), this is a vibrant, briskly paced thriller that increases the tension by restricting much of the action to a confined space. This is also Dr. Viper's best solo appearance; he's almost funny as he continually tells his grotesquely mutated creations how "beautiful" they are. A+ Appearances: Mr. Young's debut is in this episode. Mayor Manx tries to persuade him to house his corporate headquarters in Megakat Tower; of course, the less-than-civic-minded Viper ruins Manx's plans. Lance Falk: Falk was a unit head for H-B's art department who wanted to get into writing (he'd previously done four spec scripts for _Star Trek: The Next Generation_). He was also one of the artists who attended the _SWAT Kats_ development meetings. Davis Doi (who had worked with Falk on _Capitol Critters_) allowed him to pitch ideas for _SWAT Kats_, all of which Doi liked, and "Destructive Nature" became Falk's first produced script (and the first of six _SWAT Kats_ episodes Falk would write). "I wanted to do a Die Hard-like thing. Originally I didn't have Dr. Viper, I had a different villain -- I called him Leiter Greenbox [a name Falk reused in "Chaos in Crystal" and "Unlikely Alloys"]. In Falk's early outline, Greenbox creates the plantimals, who go berserk and cause an accident that turns him into a half-plant/half-kat creature, but the plot is otherwise similar to the finished episode. "Davis said, 'We've already got a mad scientist -- just make it Dr. Viper.' It made more sense to me -- 'Yeah, bring the guy back.'" After the episode aired, Falk learned that his script was open to some unusual interpretations. "Somebody told me after the show was on, 'Man, that show was so dirty! You have this big, tall building, like this phallic symbol, and then this big thing that's going to explode on top of it and spread seed all over the city.' When I was writing it, it never occurred to me, but now I can't *not* see it like that." 5. THE METALLIKATS Airdates: October 9/10, 1993 Written by Jim Stenstrum For the first time since their posthumous "complete makeover," The Metallikats are back in Megakat City and planning to "tear up this town like a scratching post!" However, Mac and Molly's first priority is "rubbing out that crud Mayor Manx," because they think [he] denied their parole. It's mayhem in the mayor's office as the SWAT Kats fight to save both Manx and Callie from the mean machines. This is a SWAT Kats classic, thanks largely to the villains, who play their unique shtick (Bonnie & Clyde meet Al and Peg Bundy -- as robots) to the hilt. Valiant Callie also gets a powerful moment when she tells the Manges that she, not the Mayor, denied their parole ("Manx hasn't done an ounce of paperwork around here for years!") -- and almost pays for it with her life. A+ Musings: The theme of villains returning from the dead and seeking revenge was used often on _SWAT Kats_. Other variations on the theme include "The Pastmaster Always Rings Twice," "The Ghost Pilot," "Enter the Madkat" and "The Origin of Dr. Viper." 6. BRIDE OF THE PASTMASTER Airdates: October 16/17, 1993 Written by Glenn Leopold Caught in one of the Pastmaster's time vortexes, the SWAT Kats are drawn back to the Dark Ages. They find the wretched warlock invading "Megalith City" with an army of magical monsters, threatening to destroy the town unless its leader -- Queen Callista, Callie Briggs' lookalike ancestor -- agrees to marry him. And that's not the only romantic complication; when Callista sees Razor pull a certain sword from a certain stone, she falls for him, causing T-Bone to become jealous. This fun episode puts the SWAT Kats in unfamiliar territory, both physically and emotionally -- this is the first time either of them has a requited love interest. Queen Callista is as courageous, intelligent and likable as her present-day descendant. (Tress MacNeille's excellent vocal performance, subtly different from her Callie Briggs voice, adds a lot to the Queen's appeal.) "Bride" also uses a clever framing device: the episode begins and ends with the SWAT Kats in mid-battle against two worm-like sea monsters who are attacking oil tankers. A- 7. NIGHT OF THE DARK KAT Airdates: October 23/24, 1993 Written by David Ehrman Dark Kat enlists Hard Drive to help him destroy both the SWAT Kats and their reputation; after the villains lure the pilots into a conveyor belt death trap, Hard Drive uses the stolen Turbokat to pose as the SWAT Kats and frame them as criminals. Good points: 1. Mook's animation is well done. 2. Callie has a strong role that tests both her courage and her trust in the SWAT Kats; she even gets to save their lives for a change. Bad points: 1. The cliched "make the heroes look like villains" plot. 2. The whole death trap business. Dark Kat is foolish not to kill the SWAT Kats outright; even Hard Drive sensibly complains to his partner, "I still say you should have let me fry those two!" 3. Hard Drive's introduction is marred by a clumsy, contrived monologue meant to explain the "high- voltage lowlife's" powers to the audience. The verdict: I've seen worse, but this one needed one or two rewrites. B 8. CHAOS IN CRYSTAL Airdates: October 30/31, 1993 Written by Lance Falk An accident with an experimental diamond mining machine somehow transforms brutal convict Rex Shard (John Vernon) into a crystalline giant whose touch turns people and objects into crystal... and that's only the beginning of his new powers. Yes, it's another "giant monster" episode, but at least this time the creature has a unique gimmick (not to mention a personality). "Crystal" is also the first _SWAT Kats_ set totally outside Megakat City -- most of the desperate battle between Shard and the two fighter pilots takes place in the desert. Not a classic, but a decent way to kill a half hour. B Appearances: The mining device's inventor is one Dr. Greenbox (Terminator 2's Robert Patrick), who returns in the second season's "Unlikely Alloys." Musings: Warden Cyrus Meece (Jim Cummings), whose greedy exploitation of his prisoners causes Shard's accident in the first place, is knocked onto his office floor and shattered after he's "crystallized" (which Falk intended as "poetic justice"). As the episode ends, every location Shard turned to crystal is shown changing back to normal -- except the warden's office. No prizes for guessing why. Lance Falk: Falk planned to make Rex Shard another recurring _SWAT Kats_ villain -- backed up with two concepts that had never been used before. "What makes [Shard] a villain is his mean and criminal mind, and after the crystal incident, he's so bent on getting the heroes back that he'll go to any length to get some kind of edge, some kind of weapon or power. What I wanted to do was to bring him back three, four or five times, and each time he came back [he'd have] a different power. He'd escape from prison and dive into an experimental energy source and [become] and big fire demon... or a snow guy that freezes the city over. I would have done something more original than those things I mentioned; I thought the crystal guy was an original idea, and I want to come up with stuff just that cool. The other thing was, not only did [Shard] keep coming back with different powers, but every time out there'd be a price to pay the next time he came back. He'd lose an eye, so from then on when you saw the guy he had an eyepatch. And each time he comes back, he's a little more beat up. He's become a fanatic, and he's lost all sight of everything but revenge, and it's really destroying him." 9. THE GHOST PILOT Airdates: November 6/7, 1993 Written by Von Williams The vengeful spirit of The Red Lynx (Mark Hamill), an enemy air ace from "Megawar II," returns from his watery grave to kill the descendant of the flier who put him there, The Blue Manx. Said descendant happens to be -- you guessed it -- Mayor Manx, the flier's great-grandson. Can even the SWAT Kats shoot down "the most evil pilot in history"? And can Mayor Manx overcome his cowardice -- even to save his own life? Manx gets the biggest role of the entire series here, but it's The Red Lynx who makes this episode a classic. The ghost pilot, with his grotesque character design and aura of creepiness, is one of _SWAT Kats'_ best one-shot villains, and he inspires the animators to create several wonderfully eerie images throughout the episode. A Appearances: The ever-helpful Dr. Sinian discovers that only a relative of the Blue Manx (such as the Mayor) can destroy the Red Lynx. 10. METAL URGENCY Airdates: November 13/14, 1993 Written by Lance Falk and Eric Clark The Metallikats escape from their creator Professor Hackle, who intends to "program out all [their] criminal tendencies." In search of their armored hovercraft, the Metallikat Express, Mac and Molly wind up at the salvage yard near Jake and Chance's Garage -- where they discover SWAT Kats headquarters! In a unique action scene, Clawson and Furlong, still in their civvies, must defend their own base from the robot gangsters. The SWAT Kats destroy the Metallikats' bodies, but the tin- plated thugs survive as two disembodied heads crawling around on spider-like legs, and they soon continue their rampage by taking over two huge space exploration robots. There's mayhem aplenty in this episode, but there's also some of _SWAT Kats'_ best dialogue, as well as two character-driven scenes involving Commander Feral. First, Feral and Callie Briggs finally have The Big Argument over the commander's hatred of the SWAT Kats. Then Feral redeems himself at the end of the episode; in a powerful scene, he chooses his principles over a chance to capture his hated rivals. All this and a cameo by Hard Drive -- who could ask for anything more? A In-Jokes: 1. Early in the episode, Professor Hackle and the Metallikats watch the SWAT Kats capture Hard Drive on TV, making a fool of Feral (as usual). HACKLE: "Such senseless violence. It's all so disheartening." MAC: "Wow, Molly! That Feral hates the SWAT Kats even more than we do!" MOLLY: "Why shouldn't he, Mac? Those fighter jocks make him look stupid at least once a week!" 2. Hackle plans to turn the de-criminalized Metallikats into servants -- Mac, a chauffeur, Molly, a housekeeper. He even buys uniforms which the Manges destroy when they escape his lab. However, Hackle must have had two spare uniforms, because they're shown in the second season's "Deadly Pyramid." Appearances: Burke & Murray harass Jake & Chance yet again while the Metallikats watch. (Mac refers to the four as "dueling lowlifes." He should talk!) _Star Wars_ fan Lance Falk says, "Comedy characters aren't my forte. I put [Burke & Murray] in there just so I could meet Mark Hamill." Lance Falk: "I wanted to do a big, blowout episode, and I wanted to do something with Feral. I thought Feral was kind of one-dimensional." Falk expanded on Feral's personality in "Metal Urgency"'s finale, where the Commander refuses the defeated Metallikats' offer to exchange the _SWAT Kats' secret identities for their freedom. "I wanted to show that jerk though he may be, he's got a code -- he has a line that he won't cross, and that line is he doesn't deal with scum. He doesn't need to know anything bad enough to owe the bad guy. That moment is my favorite moment in the whole series, and I think it's my best character writing for the show. I know it's a kids' cartoon, but that scene was really important to me, and all the other stuff was just a device to lead to that last scene." 11. THE CI-KAT-A Airdates: November 20/21, 1993 Written by Glenn Leopold Cicada-like aliens (with pointed, kat-like ears!) take over MASA Space Center, turning scientist Harley Street (Robert Ridgely) and others into literally bug-eyed slaves as part of their plan for world conquest. It's up to the SWAT Kats to thwart the invasion -- and T-Bone must fight his phobic fear of insects every step of the way. This self-conscious tribute to 1950's sci-fi thrillers is moderately enjoyable, but it's undone by the aliens' lack of personality -- compared with the flamboyant Mutilor (from the second season's "When Strikes Mutilor"), the giant bugs aren't very memorable. The best things about this episode are Callie Briggs' brief fight scene with Dr. Street (one of her best heroic moments) and the unusually large role given to Ann Gora (who discovers the alien plot in the first place). B In-Jokes: 1. "The Ci-Kat-A" reuses locations from two earlier SWAT Kats adventures when the alien leader feeds on energy at Megakat Nuclear Plant ("The Wrath of Dark Kat"), then creates a nest for its new brood in the penthouse of Megakat Tower ("Destructive Nature"). When Callie sees the nest she exclaims, "Not again! This building must be cursed!" MASA Space Center had also appeared briefly in "Destructive Nature." 2. Speaking of "Destructive Nature," Mr. Young has a silent cameo here. He and Mayor Manx fare even worse than in the earlier episode, getting covered with alien bug slime at the climax of the action. 12. ENTER THE MADKAT Airdates: November 27/28, 1993 Written by Glenn Leopold Insane comedian Lenny Ringtail, whose mind snapped when he was turned down by _The David Litterbin Show_, lets himself be possessed by the vengeful ghost (yes, another one) of a medieval court jester who suffered a similar rejection hundreds of years ago. The result is Madkat (Roddy McDowall), a wisecracking, shapeshifting harlequin who uses his magical powers to kidnap "the king, queen, knight and jester" (AKA Mayor Manx, Deputy Mayor Briggs, Commander Feral and David Litterbin) one by one, then vanish into thin air before the SWAT Kats can stop him. Madkat's Beetlejuice-like stunts make for some wonderfully surreal action sequences, but he just isn't a memorable character -- and for a comedian, he's not very funny, either. McDowall does a good job as Madkat, but an actor with more of an off-the-wall sense of humor (Dan Castellaneta? Micky Dolenz? Matt Frewer?) could have given the character the Joker-like personality he needed. And unlike his inspiration, David Litterbin (John Byner) comes across as surly instead of amusingly sarcastic. B Appearances: Lt. Steel, who somehow avoided getting fired after his irresponsible actions in "The Wrath of Dark Kat," assumes control of the Enforcers when Madkat captures Commander Feral. Trivia: When "Enter The Madkat" aired during the first season, it ran with the wrong closing credits (from "Metal Urgency"), so guest voice actors McDowall, Byner and James Hong initially received no recognition for their work. The credits were corrected during the second season. 13. KATASTROPHE Airdates: December 4/5, 1993 Written by Glenn Leopold SWAT Kats concludes its first season with the supervillain teamup many fans had been waiting for, as Dark Kat, Dr. Viper and The Metallikats form "an invincible alliance of evil" with only one goal: "Destroy the SWAT Kats!" Can the SWAT Kats (and Manx, Briggs and Feral) take on four villains at once? And how long can these greedy, selfish evildoers cooperate before they start stabbing each other in the back? This episode has a lot to recommend it besides the Teamup -- the pacing is just right, Mook's animation is great, Feral gives one of his best performances, and the end of the second act is a powerful emotional moment. Only some inconsistent writing in the third act (Dark Kat gives three contradictory orders within two minutes, and gives away his desire to betray his partners with two "slips of the tongue" to boot) keeps this from getting an A+. A 14. MUTATION CITY Airdates: September 10/11, 1994 Written by Glenn Leopold Dr. Viper floods Megakat City with a "hideous mutating ooze" that transmogrifies ordinary animals into (what else?) giant monsters. With the city submerged in slime and infested by huge, repulsive creatures, the SWAT Kats undertake the perilous mission of reaching Megakat Biochemical Labs, where they must retrieve an anti-mutagen that can change everything back to normal. Complications: 1. T-Bone, who can't swim, nearly drowns in the muck. 2. Later, T-Bone becomes a mutant when one of the monsters bites him. (T-Bone's really having a bad day, isn't he?) 3. Viper eventually uses the mutagen to turn himself into a Godzilla-sized monstrosity. This is no classic, but it keeps your attention. It's also Felina Feral's debut episode -- ironically, she's first seen rescuing Callie Briggs, whom she replaced as SWAT Kats' major heroine. B Trivia: Callie's communications link with the SWAT Kats is supposed to be a secret, but her she not only uses her communicator in front of Mayor Manx, but she also lets him use it. 15. A BRIGHT AND SHINY FUTURE Airdates: September 17/18, 1994 Written by Glenn Leopold The Pastmaster sends T-Bone and Razor to Megakat City's near future -- a nightmare world where The Metallikats rule as fascist dictators, killer robots confine "non-metallic creatures" to slave labor camps, the SWAT Kats' friends are fugitive freedom fighters, and the SWAT Kats' future selves are dead. This is one of _SWAT Kats'_ highlights; the story is intriguing, the team up of high tech and magical villains is unique within the series, Mook's animation is excellent, and the art staff really earn their pay in creating the dystopian setting. A 16. WHEN STRIKES MUTILOR Airdates: September 24/25, 1994 Story concept by Christian and Yvon Tremblay Written by Lance Falk Mutilor (Michael Dorn), the four-armed, vaguely lobster- like leader of a pack of space pirates, plans to drain all the water from the SWAT Kats' world and sell it to a desert planet. The SWAT Kats and the Enforcers (especially Felina Feral) defend their homeworld by engaging the aliens in an epic battle that begins over Megakat City and ends on Mutilor's spaceship (which he stole from a kat-like race of pacifist called the Aquians). This exciting episode moves like a shot; once Mutilor starts his attack, the action barely lets up till the end. The theatrical Mutilor is one of SWAT Kats' most entertaining villains, and Traag (Christopher Smith), his sycophantic aide-decamp, is also a fun character. One of the best episodes of _SWAT Kats'_ second season. A Trivia: "When Strikes Mutilor" is _SWAT Kats'_ second alien invasion episode, and both here and in "The Ci-Kat-A" the writers go out of their way to avoid mentioning the name of the SWAT Kats' planet because they didn't want to raise the questions that might have resulted, such as what the world outside Megakat City was like, were there any intelligent species besides kats, etc. In-Jokes: Lance Falk derived the name "Mutilor" from an unusual source: some goldfish once owned by his friend Chris Otsuki, now a director at Warner Bros. TV Animation. "Because they were such little, harmless, stupid-looking things, I gave them ridiculous, tough names." These included Galactus (after the _Fantastic Four_ villain), Bruno the Orangutroid -- and Mutilor. "Years later, I'm doing this show and I needed a name for this big, lobster-like villain, so I named him after Chris' goldfish because the name worked, so there's no point in not using it." Lance Falk: After the SWAT Kats free the Aquians, their leader Captain Grimalkin (Michael Bell) tells the pilots that his peaceful crew won't help fight Mutilor. In the finished episode T-Bone replies, "Hey, I can respect that, but we have to get your ship out of Mutilor's hands. He's destroying our world!" Falk had intended T-Bone to criticize the Aquians: "You've got a responsibility to clean up after your own messes," he says to them in an early draft. "You made this dangerous toy, and this toy is going to kill us, so you'd better help us!" An H-B executive caused the scene to be changed. Also, Falk wanted to give "Mutilor" a provocative conclusion. "I thought the twist ending made the story like the Feral scene made 'Metal Urgency.' The pacifist aliens were originally all wearing helmets and you couldn't see what they looked like, because Mutilor took over their ship, and he changed the atmosphere to suit himself so it was poisonous to the actual owners of the ship, so they had to wear space suits. [The SWAT Kats] rally these aliens, they free the ship, they get the bad guy, and at the very end, the saucer's taking off and the little computer voice says, 'Okay, the environment's back to normal,' and [the aliens] look at each other and one says 'Wow! A planet of intelligent cats! How interesting!' and the other guy says, 'Well, it's a big universe. Anything is possible.' And they pop their helmets off, and they're human! And then you back away and see the American flag on the wall, and what you're seeing in one fell swoop is that SWAT Kats is absolutely [set] on another planet in the future. I thought that would have blown people out of their seats if they saw that, but one of the executives said, "Naah, I don't get it. Just make them cat aliens.' And that cheesed me off quite a bit." 17. RAZOR'S EDGE Airdates: October 29/30, 1994 Written by: Mark Saraceni Razor's self-confidence is shattered when he believes that he injured two elderly civilians during a battle. Will he become discouraged enough to quit the SWAT Kats, leaving T-Bone to face Dark Kat's latest evil plot alone? Saraceni's script emphasizes characterization (a sadly rare occurrence on _SWAT Kats_), and acknowledges that the violence surrounding our heroes has to affect them sooner or later. Speaking of violence, Saraceni also offsets the usual trash-the-city mayhem with a funny, cleverly staged hospital fight scene. His only misstep is the tiresome plot device of Dark Kat having a stupid henchman who accidentally gives his scheme away. A 18a. CRY TURMOIL Airdates: November 5/6, 1994 Written by Lance Falk Turmoil (Kath Soucie), a harshly beautiful villainess in a Nazi-like uniform, attempts to conquer the skies of Megakat City with a powerful airship, a squadron of female fighter pilots and disorienting "vertigo beam." When T-Bone withstands these obstacles, Turmoil is so impressed (and smitten) that she offers him a job as her flight commander -- but first he must prove his loyalty by killing Razor. The first _SWAT Kats_ short (and the only one originally planned as a half-hour episode) has a familiar plot, but compensates with the unusual relationship between T-Bone and Turmoil: he's genuinely attracted to her ("She's kind of cool, in a nasty sort of way"), but his duty to stop her is clear. (So much for T-Bone's crush on Callie Briggs, a running gag during the first season.) B+ In-Jokes: When Lance Falk pitched "Cry Turmoil" to the Tremblays, they had already conceived "The UFO Story," which eventually became "When Strikes Mutilor." Falk saw that the ideas were similar: "They're [both] about a big, giant aircraft that has a lot of little fighter aircraft in it, and there's a main bad guy on the big aircraft, so they're structurally the same. [The SWAT Kats] fight their way through the defenses, go inside, beat the villain, and that's the end." Falk was chosen to write both episodes in order to make them as different as possible. As a reference to the situation, he named his villain "Turmoil" -- which is an anagram of "Mutilor." Lance Falk: "I created [Turmoil] because outside of Molly [Mange]. we didn't have any female villains, and even Molly, as good a villain as she is, is half of a team." Falk originally conceived "Cry Turmoil" as a "bookend" to "Metal Urgency," in which he depicted Commander Feral as a character with integrity: "I wanted to show that he could be a really bad guy under the right circumstances. At the very beginning of the episode, Feral is made a bigger fool than ever by the SWAT Kats. He loses his cool and gets fired. Turmoil is impressed with him in spite of all that. She sees that 1. He knows all the city's weak points, 2. He's as made at the SWAT Kats as she is, 3. She finds him virile and manly, and 4. He's got nothing to lose by joining her, because he just got drummed out." Feral joins with Turmoil, just as T-Bone does in the finished episode. But unlike T-Bone, Feral really does become a villain: "He's not just pretending, not just waiting for the right moment to turn the tables on her." When Feral realizes that the SWAT Kats are going to beat Turmoil, "He turns on her out of self-interest and says 'I was planning to do this all along'", and at the end only Feral and the audience know the truth. Falk's idea was changed by an H-B executive who said, "The show's about Razor and T- Bone, so make her fall in love with T-Bone instead." Falk says this changed the tone of the episode: "It's possible that Feral would be bad, but it's never possible that T-Bone would ever betray his partner, so there's nothing suspenseful about it." As for Commander Feral, he doesn't even appear in the final version of "Cry Turmoil." 18b. SWAT KATS UNPLUGGED Airdates: November 5/6, 1994 Written by Glenn Leopold Hard Drive uses a stolen "anti-weapons scrambler" to deactivate the Turbokat's weapon systems. "We can't fight him, so we're going to have to outwit him," Razor declares, eloquently summarizing the simple plot of this SWAT Kats super short. It's only 7:15 long, which isn't nearly enough time to develop a compelling adventure story. Everyone tries their best, though. B- Appearances: This is supposed to be Hard Drive's solo showcase, but even here he has to share screen time with a second villain: Chopshop (Nick Chinlund), a loudly dressed thief with pink hair and an annoying laugh who is quickly caught by the SWAT Kats and never seen again. In-Jokes: When Ann Gora asks the SWAT Kats why they do what they do, T-Bone paraphrases a famous line from Raymond Chandler's essay "The Simple Art of Murder" when he answers, "We have a mission, Ann. Down these mean skies a kat must fly." 19. THE DEADLY PYRAMID Airdates: November 12/13, 1994 Story concept by Christian and Yvon Tremblay Written by Glenn Leopold Every action/adventure cartoon does a mummy episode, but leave it to _SWAT Kats_ to top the other series with an army of mummy commandoes as big as a small building. They're controlled by the Pastmaster, who unearths them from "the lost pyramid of Katchu-Picchu" as part of his latest attempt to take over Megakat City. When one of the monsters knocks off Callie Briggs' glasses, the sorcerer finally sees her resemblance to his beloved Queen Callista ("Bride of the Pastmaster"), so he kidnaps her and starts the whole "You will marry me!" business all over again. As in "The Giant Bacteria," the plot is pretty basic and the violence is excessive, but "Pyramid" has some good points. It's _SWAT Kats'_ best-looking episode; Mook's animation here is among the finest ever done for an American television program. Callie has never looked better (which almost makes up for her being relegated to damsel-in-distress status in this story). And the underused Dr. Sinian gets her most active role of the whole series. B+ Appearances: Another member of "Pyramid"'s crowded cast is Professor Hackle, making his only appearance in an episode without the Metallikats. [We also see] Cybertron, a plucky, R2D2-like robot who protects the pilots and their friends. Considering the dismal track record of plucky, R2D2-like robots in TV animation, Cybertron is surprisingly tolerable, even almost likable. 20. CAVERNS OF HORROR Airdates: November 19/20, 1994 Story concept by Christian and Yvon Tremblay Written by Glenn Leopold When the SWAT Kats, Felina Feral and Ann Gora search for some missing miners in the caverns beneath Megakat City, they soon find the cause of the disappearances: rock scorpions who have been mutated into gigantic, kat-eating monsters by illegally dumped toxic waste. As with "Bride of the Pastmaster" and "Chaos in Crystal," this tale's setting is a welcome change of pace from all the "Megakat City under attack" episodes. The heroes' underground journey is interesting in its own right, and it also means that the Turbokat must be used sparingly for once. But after all the buildup, in the end this is just another "SWAT Kats vs. monsters" episode. And _SWAT Kats_ had done too many of those already. B 21a. VOLCANUS ERUPTS! Airdates: November 26/27, 1994 Story concept by Christian and Yvon Tremblay Written by Glenn Leopold Mayor Manx and Mr. Young plan to build an industrial park on Anakata Island, the _SWAT Kats_ equivalent to Hawaii. During construction, the ancient "fire demon" Volcanus (Frank Welker -- no dialogue, just monster noises) is accidentally freed from his volcano prison. "Lava Lips" soon heads for the mainland and becomes the latest giant monster to stomp through the streets of Megakat City, ho hum. There are only two things of interest here: Razor wears a nifty heat suit while battling the beast, and veteran character actor Clyde Kusatsu (_All-American Girl_) plays an islander who tries to warn Manx and Young about Volcanus. C 21b. THE ORIGIN OF DR. VIPER Airdates: November 26/27, 1994 Written by Glenn Leopold With _SWAT Kats_ nearing its end, the mystery surrounding one of its major villains is finally solved in this flashback story. Dr. Zyme (who was killed in "The Giant Bacteria") and his partner Dr. Elrod Purvis co-develop Viper Mutagen 368, a regenerative growth formula that the "idealistic fool" Zyme wants to donate to Megakat City but the greedy Purvis wants to sell to the highest bidder. While attempting to steal the chemical, Purvis spills it on himself and seems to die, but the flawed formula causes him to revive as the murderous mutant we all know and hate. And when Viper endangers Zyme, Mayor Manx, Deputy Mayor Briggs and Commander Feral with his giant mutant mosquitoes, only the _SWAT Kats_ can rescue them all. Easily the best of the _SWAT Kats_ shorts, this is so densely packed with characters and subplots that it easily could have been expanded to a full-length episode. But then, how could we live without "Volcanus Erupts!"? A- 22. THE DARK SIDE OF THE SWAT KATS Airdates: December 10/11, 1994 Written by Jim Katz T-Bone and Razor enter a parallel dimension where evil counterparts of the SWAT Kats and Callie Briggs are conspiring with Dark Kat to blow up Enforcer headquarters. It's fun to watch the three evil twins verbally abuse each other, but this episode has little else to offer because Katz fails to take full advantage of the alternate universe concept. What if more of the good characters had been evil in the parallel world? What if some of the villains had been heroes? "Dark Side..." just isn't as good as such similar tales as _Star Trek's_ "Mirror, Mirror" and _Darkwing Duck_'s "Life, The Negaverse and Everything." B- Musings: One of this episode's best moments is a silent sequence in which both sets of SWAT Kats infiltrate Pumadyne (a high tech weapons company that appears in several other episodes) to retrieve the "mega-detonator" for Dark Kats' bomb. The good ones are content to sneak past the guards; the evil ones knock them out for the sheer sadistic pleasure of doing so. 23. UNLIKELY ALLOYS Airdates: December 24/25, 1994 Written by Lance Falk "Chaos In Crystal"'s Dr. Leiter Greenbox (now voiced by Nick Chinlund) creates Zed (Charlie Adler), a "micro-brain repair unit" that can automatically fix and damaged machine. When the injured Metallikats use Zed to rebuild themselves, the device's programming is "contaminated with their criminal personalities." Zed begins absorbing other machines (including Mac Mange), builds an ever-growing armored body around itself that's eventually large enough to dwarf a skyscraper, and starts talking about "total world domination." The SWAT Kats, Dr. Greenbox and Molly Mange reluctantly team up and enter Zed's body in a desperate attempt to deactivate the metal menace from the inside. Molly predictably acts up, but Greenbox's reaction is even worse -- overwhelmed by what his genius has produced, his mind snaps and he unites with Zed so they can take over the world together! _SWAT Kats'_ last episode (at least so far) is one of its best. Mook's animation is fantastic, the story is strong, the Metallikats' devotion to each other makes them semi- sympathetic characters, and Greenbox's transformation is effective even though it's abrupt. All this and Commander Feral's first name is finally revealed, too! (It's Ulysses.) A In-Jokes: The SWAT Kats, when they first encounter Zed: T-Bone: "Crud! What *is* that thing?" Razor: "Giant monster of the week?" Lance Falk: "Unlikely Alloys," which was an unused idea from the first season, is Falk's favorite of the _SWAT Kats_ episodes he wrote. "It was Davis [Doi's] idea to split the Metallikats up," says Falk, who had planned to have both Manges join the fantastic voyage inside Zed's body. "I [originally] had a big robot fight at the end, but Davis turned it into a love story. As bad as [the Metallikats] are, as much as they fight and bicker, they're willing to sacrifice themselves for one another. I thought that was a very strong idea, and the instant I heard it I was mad at myself for not thinking of it." THE UNFINISHED EPISODES (All written by Glenn Leopold, provided by Lance Falk. Comments are assumed to be Falk's, although not specifically noted in the article.) TURMOIL II: THE REVENGE Turmoil busts out of jail. It opens up in a women's prison, and this big mole machine comes out of the ground and [the prisoners] all pile into it. Turmoil busts out the entire women's prison, and they all work for her. "She gets ahold of a massive laser satellite system, or a big death beam -- I've forgotten exactly what it was. It's controlled from her fortress, which is a castle on top of a snowbound mountain. The SWAT Kats must scale the mountain and do all this snow fighting stuff. It's real James Bond-ish." DOCTORS OF DOOM Dr. Viper teams up with Dr. Harley Street, the alien- possessed scientist from "The Ci-Kat-A" (hence the title). "They create a lot of monsters that have to be blown up within 22 minutes. I hardly remember that one." THE CURSE OF KATALUNA "It was a succubus story, about a woman that Commander Feral really had a thing for, and she was really draining the life out of him. He was getting older and older through the show, until he was practically a mummy at the end. [Kataluna] drained his energy and became this big, huge harpy, and she had other harpy things that helped, her, and they were terrorizing the city." The SWAT Kats became involved when a justifiably concerned Felina Feral called on them to help save her uncle. Kataluna was voiced by Nancy Linari, who had played Morticia on H-B's 1992-94 _Addams Family_ series. "'Kataluna' was a real strong episode with another terrific female villain," Falk says. "It used Commander Feral more than any of the other shows that used him -- it was really Feral's episode." Not surprisingly, Dr. Sinian also appears; after helping the SWAT Kats defeat the Pastmaster and the Red Lynx, she's an old hand at handling supernatural villains by now.