#super 7 Thundertank

[fly-pow-bye]

ThunderCats Roar - “Driller”

Co-Executive Producer: Victor Courtright

Supervising Producer: Nate Cash

Producer: Marly Halpern-Graser

Story by: Victor Courtright

Teleplay by: Marly Halpern-Graser

Directed by: Jeremy Polgar

Is it killer, or is it filler?

This episode begins with Panthro doing repairs on that mighty ThunderTank. I never really talked about its looks, as this is one of the first good clear shots of it. This ThunderTank looks even more like a cat than the original, with a big red nose and a cat-like mouth, and it has a perpetually sticking out tongue. It's not as fierce looking as its original counterpart, but considering this is more of a comedy than an action show, it's fitting.

Panthro finishes the job, as indicated by the ThunderTank shining, and he talks to himself about how it must have been so long since he didn't have to fix something. He really must like to tempt fate with that one, that kind of saying is usually followed by everything breaking at the same time.

Surely enough, everything starts to break, all at the same time, and it's all because of his teammates. Cheetara broke the ThunderTread by exceeding its maximum speed it can handle, and the ThunderKittens broke the ThunderFridge trying to get that sweet ThunderCake.

Even the ones that are usually more competent than the others are involved with this massive breakage, as Snarf, the robot cat-dragon-thing with an intelligence level of 20 according to the first episode, is messing around with some wiring like it's a ball of yarn. Panthro doesn't even know what it is, and one thing I'm thinking of is that I'm surprised they didn't pull out a "samoflange" joke yet. As for Tygra, the usual straight man, he's just the victim of a falling ThunderSecurity Camera.

Suddenly, Sadako shows up, calling out to Panthro, presumably telling him that his 7 days are up, and he has to pay for that one month of Youtube TV whether he likes it or not.

No, that's just Lion-O drawn with much longer hair than usual for the sake of the Sadako gag, and he needs his blowdryer fixed. Not a ThunderBlowdryer, just a regular blowdryer. For a second, I thought he was melting, too, but that's actually his fur. They are cat people, after all.

All of the other ThunderCats come in, and Panthro tells them that he'll get to work on all of those problems, and the only repayment he'll need from his teammates is the appreciation he gets for doing everything. Que Lion-O throwing that fixed blowdryer to a wall, breaking it immediately! Get it, because Lion-O is selfish.

It's quite clear, even with Panthro's assurance that it was a easy mistake, that this is getting to him. It doesn't help that he hears something else breaking just outside. He assumes it must be yet another one of his teammates...except they're all here.

The alarms go off, and Lion-O knows what the ThunderCats should do in this situation as their great leader.

Lion-O: The lair is under attack! ThunderCats...PANIC!

(everyone panics)

See, it's funny because this isn't normally what happens! All of the ThunderCats search through various rooms, seeing that someone has been drilling through all of it, leaving giant holes everywhere. Worst of all, whatever is causing this has taken Lion-O's cake! Tygra shows up to tell Lion-O that he found it. No, not the cake, much to Lion-O's chagrin, as he'll never know the truth about that. Alas, poor ThunderCake.

The drilling came from this new robotic man with a drill for a lower body, named, appropriately, Driller. This was a character who first appeared in the eighteenth episode of the original. In the original, he was a mercenary who accepts diamonds as payment, which he will use to sharpen his mighty drill. At the very least, he confirms his want for diamonds in the first minute of his appearance, as the first thing he does is scan if those strange cat people have them.

Tygra tries to stop this new potential threat with a "stop right there, miscreant" and an all important pointer finger, and the miscreant just says no and continues drilling. He doesn't say "no" like a villain would say "never", just an uncaring "no".

There are higher stakes. According to Panthro and what looks like a portable video game console, Driller is heading towards the lair's Thundrillium core! If that gets destroyed, the rest of the lair goes with it. This comes much to the shock of everyone...except for Lion-O, who has a stupid face on throughout this speech. Lion-O only seems to care when Panthro clarifies that it's his stuff that's on the line, too. Get it, because Lion-O is selfish.

So they all try to fight him, but it's no use. Even with his need for diamonds at the time, his drill is still powerful enough to spin both Cheetara and the ThunderKittens out of the way. It takes Panthro's super strength to do any kind of stopping, but Tygra tries his best to be useful with his special ability to have a bola whip. I could take this as confirmation that they just got rid of one of the ThunderCat's special powers, though I doubt disappearing would have helped this situation. It almost seems like all is lost and Tygra is about to get a hole in the head, all until the Bola whip eventually makes his drill stop.

They take him in for questioning, and he properly introduces himself as Driller, and he drills. One point that ends up being a sticking point for Lion-O is that he's trying to get diamonds so he can sharpen his drill, which he uses to drill for more diamonds, and even his tiny little brain can admit that is an unending cycle with no real point.

He compares this to shampoo, which has the specific instructions to lather, rinse, and repeat, but one shouldn't repeat forever. Nice to see that blowdryer scene is relevant to the rest of the episode; he seems to know his hair products. He knows enough to know that shampoo is pointless, just like drilling just for the sake of drilling.

While the former is certainly wrong, as Tygra points out, Driller does not take that advice too well. He looks at the diamond on top of his head, which pops out instantly, and he tells himself that he is pointless. He lies down on the ground, clearly saddened of this realization, and this makes everyone else sad too. There is one exception, who boasts that he is glad to help. Here's a hint: it's funny because he's selfish!

Panthro tries to calm his senses, saying that his life is also an endless cycle: he fixes things, his teammates break them, he fixes them again. Driller then gives him his own bit of foresight.

Driller: So Panthro is pointless too?

I always wondered what that guy from that one Radiohead music video was talking about. And yes, Lion-O never gets this, either. Even in the end, he just kind of gets told to do the right thing eventually.

One week passes, and the Lair is still just as holey as ever. Tygra decides enough is enough, and something must be done about it, but Lion-O is happy about this new home arrangement, as he can jump straight from his living room to the kitchen in one jump. The ThunderKittens are happy too, as Lion-O made them a toy out of the shower curtain to cover up one of the holes, a...

JUMP PAD!

Yes, with a choir, too. It doesn’t work too well, though, as it eventually breaks, and we get this overly long joke about how they have to wait for WilyKit and Kat to hit the ground. Lion-O assures the rest that they have to hit the ground sometime. Don’t worry, they turn out to be okay, because nothing has to make sense in this wacky comedy.

Even Lion-O admits that something has to be done. The problem is that Panthro is still depressed and feeling pointless, and he doesn't want to do anything. They do bring up one thing they've been ignoring until now: what about the Ro-Bear Berbils? They built this whole lair from scratch, certainly they would be available to re-build the lair without having to do anything!

Unfortunately, they're busy working on Castle Plun-Darr. Interesting diversion from the original, and it's also interesting to watch this after the episode of the original that explained the origins of that series' Castle Plun-Darr. At least this species is okay with being slaves, because that means they can build something. They didn't want payment from the people who would pay them.

...actually, come to think of it, they probably wouldn't have any Third Earth money, and it wasn't until this episode where they realized they had diamonds. Hmm, let's let something else distract from this, shall we? Cheetara manages to find Panthro, who was literally under her feet, but he's still depressed and unwilling to just fix what will eventually be broken. Even when our favorite baby king begs him to, he won't budge, so he makes a great plan.

To finally give him a point, Lion-O decides to trash the one room of the Lair Driller didn't destroy: that room with the Thundrillim in it! Now he can fix everything he broke, including that unimportant circle thing he was told would blow everything up! Admittedly, that one wasn't intentional, and Lion-O finally has an expression other than pure happiness over the silly things he does. It might have been more than alarm than anything else, though.

See, as he's basically a kid, he only seems to feel remorse whenever something really goes wrong. The original Lion-O had the excuse that he was a kid. Roar Lion-O is just a really, really silly character in a really, really silly cartoon.

They go to Driller, who is eating popcorn, watching an episode of Building with Berbils. They are really using those Berbils this episode; they must be making up for their lack of appearances since the first episode. Also, how is he even enjoying that popcorn? Is that an alternative fuel source? Whatever.

Panthro, having dots for eyes for no real reason other than they didn't want to finish drawing the ThunderCats, begs Driller to drill, as only drilling can solve this problem somehow. Lion-O tries to handle it, because that worked so well for the rest of the episode, with a speech about drilling.

Or, since Driller is a robotic being, Panthro can just rewire his positronic brain to bypass all of his emotions. Thanks to this rewiring, Driller stops caring about anything, being happy all the time, and he doesn't mind this at all because he's always feeling good. See, all we had to do was essentially brainwash the guy to be good. That's what heroes should do!

To make a long story short, Panthro fixes everything, just as he always does. To make a short story long again, he has the unwillingly-happy Driller drill directly to the core, and then pushes his "Reverse" switch. Somehow, for reasons that are surely different than "this episode needs to end", this stabilizes the core. Even the show is aware of how silly this is.

Lion-O: He stabilized the core by unstabilizing it in reverse!

Tygra: That's how science works!

SCIENCE!

It's no Respek Knuckles. At this point, I honestly expected a scene where Driller goes backwards, somehow causing the holes to disappear. Maybe that's what happened, but they didn't animate it.

In the end, Driller becomes his...

NEW FRIEND!

Oh hush. As payment for helping him find his point again, not only does he accept his new head rewiring, he offers to fix Panthro's head wiring with his head drill! I guess that's one bit of comeuppance, even if he never gets to do it.

Lion-O reassures Panthro that he will continue to have a point too, as he broke everything already, and the rest of the ThunderCats and Driller laugh at how he has learned nothing. Driller then teleports, and Cheetara asks what was the point of him even being here. I don't really get it.

How does it stack up?

The creep factor of this episode's solution aside, this isn't a terrible episode. Most of it is just Lion-O being silly and not really being that funny outside of maybe a handful of jokes, and the rest is unnotable at worst. It's adequate. Three cats.

Next, unicorns! Yup, they did exist in the original, believe it or not. Honestly, I'd be surprised if they didn't exist in a universe with cat people in it.

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