Mandora the Evil Chaser

The winter of 1987 will forever be associated with two things - the heaviest snow you can ever imagine and the exciting debut of Thundercats on the BBC! The two will always be inextricably linked in my mind, at any rate.

Thirty-five years ago today, Thursday 26 February 1987, the snow was just a fond memory, but Thundercats was launching into its golden age. The first eight episodes (or nine, technically, since the first two were shown as a 40-minute compilation to British audiences) had been the world-building original stories, introducing the characters and settings, and chronicling their early adventures. With those out of the way, the series recruited a team of talented writers to create the main bulk of the episodes, and the first of them was broadcast today - Mandora the Evil Chaser.

It must have been the half-term holidays. We can use the BBC genome website to confirm the date, and for once I can use my own memory to provide the details without needing to ask my brother - we definitely watched this one at our grandma's house. It would have been our mother's birthday the previous day, so we probably all went to Toton for the whole week. I don't really remember anything else about it, but watching Mandora there has definitely stayed with me.

It's a fantastic episode, it really is. You should go and watch it - and watch it as a ten-year-old in 1987, because that's the best way to experience the wonders of Thundercats. I fully intend to celebrate a whole series of 35th anniversary viewings on Saturdays going forwards. It's The Ghost Warrior next week, and that's quite possibly the best one of them all!