Script Notes

These are notes regarding the differences from the official episode script and what appeared in the finished episode.

The Dark Side of the SWAT Kats isn’t an episode I’m all that familiar with, all things considered. I’ve never really considered it that great of an episode. The bad SWAT Kats are kind of dull and uninteresting and, as Mark Lungo liked to point out in his original Animato! episode guide, writer Jim Katz basically does nothing with the alternate universe concept beyond “the SWAT Kats and Callie are evil.” If Katz was really going to be this uninspired with the concept, he would’ve been better off omitting evil Callie altogether, as well as ditching the alternate universe angle, and just have the “Dark SWAT Kats” (as fans have unofficially named them) be evil clones of the SWAT Kats created by Dark Kat. Since, the Creeplings aside, Dark Kat seems more like a techno-thriller themed villain than a dark, arcane sorcery themed one, even though this hasn’t stopped various fanfic writers from delving into the eldritch and demonic stuff he might get up to (the closest I came to this was some suggestion that he’s into voodoo, with the Creeplings being homunculi, an idea inspired by Dean Koontz’s novel Darkfall, but nevertheless it’s clear even I wasn’t immune to this).

Anyway… regardless of my opinion of it, let’s delve into Jim Katz’s script for The Dark Side of the SWAT Kats and see how it matches up to the finished episode. I’ll most of the differences appear to be superficial.

1. When T-Bone comments on the storm, his dialogue is a little more formal: “This is quite a storm, Razor!” When Razor says the dimensional radar has locked it on the hangar, he just calls it the radar, not the dimensional radar.
2. T-Bone just says “Crud!” instead of “Aw, crud!” when lightning hits the jet.
3. Different dialogue from Razor when giving T-Bone a status report: “Still checking! But the dimensional radar’s down!” This was simplified to “Checking. Dimensional radar’s down.”
4. T-Bone says “What the…?!” instead of “Wha–?!”
5. Deleted dialogue (bordering on being a deleted scene): T-Bone tells Razor he should make sure the dimensional radar is not susceptible to electrical shortages when he fixes it: “That was too close, buddy! Better start working on a lightning proof dimensional radar!” Razor uncharacteristically brushes his concerns off when the radar starts working again, saying “Negative, T-Bone! We’re back on track!” Then when Feral starts shooting at them, Razor cries “What was that?!” instead of another “Wha–?!”
6. When Razor says Feral is angry at them for mocking him, T-Bone has some additional dialogue where he says he thinks Feral is overreacting. Feral yells at them over the radio: “You won’t get away this time, SWAT Kats!” Note that I properly capitalized all of “SWAT.” It’s rather odd, but despite “SWAT” being an acronym for Special Weapons and Tactics, basically every writer writes it mostly lower case as “Swat Kats.” Since these appear to have been written on a typewriter, it was likely to avoid having to do “SWAT” in all uppercase every time, when they already have to do that a lot with the place and time descript (such as “EXT. TURBOKAT,” which I’m reading as I write this).
7. Feral gives the order to move in, rather than Felina saying to do so. This actually makes more sense here in the script, as otherwise in the finished episode it kinda feels like Felina is giving her uncle orders, which is odd. Feral lets his niece get away with a lot, but ordering him to attack instead of the other way around seems out of character. I suppose one could argue that since this is Feral from an alternate universe, he’s a bit more lenient, but if this was Katz’s intention, then it’s odd this is the only instance of it. Feral otherwise behaves exactly the same as his main universe counterpart.
8. Also, both Feral and Felina are described as explicitly firing lasers. In earlier scripts, the writers tried to get away with saying bullets were fired, and in some cases they were in the finished episodes, albeit with laser sound effects, or else they were otherwise vague about some of the weaponry, especially the guns used by the Enforcers. This is the first time I’ve noticed them finally just straight up saying unambiguously that the guns are lasers.
9. When T-Bone wonders “What’s with the Lieutenant?”, Razor expresses confusion: “She didn’t even hear the donut joke!” This is funny, but I must point out that although we know the SWAT Kats have been hurtled into an alternate universe where the conversation about Feral needing more prune donuts in his diet didn’t happen, even if they weren’t in an alternate universe, there are in fact two very easily explainable ways for Felina to have learned about the SWAT Kats said. Either she heard it on the radio, or Feral told her about it after it happened.
10. The chase to escape the “crazy” Feral and Felina is a bit more involved, involving the Turbokat having a harder time losing Felina. T-Bone says, of Felina, “She’s good… but not this good!” I can’t tell if he’s commenting that Felina is a better pilot all of a sudden, or saying that as good as she is she can’t catch the Turbokat with him flying it.
11. A deleted scene happens where the SWAT Kats try to elude the pursuing Enforcers by flying through a tunnel. Felina flies over the top of it, intending to head them off, and tells them as much: “I’ll be waiting to nail you scum at the other end.” Razor says he’s pretty sure she means it, but T-Bone stops the jet halfway down the tunnel, throws it into VTOL mode, turns around, and flies back the way they came. SWAT Kats has always played fast and loose with physics, but even this is a little silly, since T-Bone would first half to slow down before he could stop, due to the jet’s forward momentum. To quote Colonel Sandurz, “We can’t stop! It’s too dangerous! We’ve got to slow down first!” T-Bone and Razor are lucky they didn’t get Dark Helmeted through the windshield. Still, this would’ve been a fun sequence, but I can see why it was cut. It goes on for a bit too long. Not by much, but every second counts in an episode that’s only minutes long. The storyboard artists probably wanted to get the story moving as quickly as possible.
12. Felina says “Crud!” instead of “Shoot!” She also says, “Roger that, Uncle,” instead of simply “Roger that.”
13. Not a difference, but I have to comment on how hard the writers worked to try and downplay the fact the SWAT Kats, as vigilantes, are by definition criminals, which makes T-Bone’s line “You’d think we were criminals or something!” unintentionally hilarious. If I were being especially charitable, I’d say that what he means is “evil criminals,” i.e. villains, but if that’s what Katz intended for T-Bone to mean, he should’ve had him say that. It’s not like SWAT Kats has ever been too high and mighty to be melodramatic and just flat-out say “villains” in reference to evil criminals before.
14. There’s nothing indicating that Razor has a vocal but non-verbal reaction to seeing the state of the hangar (“Ooooo!”). Something Barry Gordon ad-libbed?
15. Katz describes the Glovatrix T-Bone finds as “evil-looking.” In hindsight, T-Bone’s line that he’s never seen a Glovatrix that looked like it before is kinda funny, considering the used-once-and-never-again spike-knuckled “Super Glovatrix” from Metal Urgency (which was originally supposed to debut in Blowout! but since Methal Urgency was written and produced as the twelfth episode of the first season, I assume Lance Falk and Eric Clark decided to use it there while Glenn Leopold wrote Katastrophe, since Leopold didn’t end up using it in his script).
16. T-Bone has different dialogue when reacting to the first Creepling: “And what’s this Creepling doing here?” Also, yes, Katz does describe this first Creepling as rubbing his eyes sleepily as though the SWAT Kats loud talking (yammering, Mac would say) woke him up, and it’s adorable.
17. The Creepling has an intelligible “Oof!” when T-Bone punches him, as opposed to the usual “Charlie Adler noises” they make.
18. When the other Creeplings attack, one of them appears from behind the stacked Deadhead Missiles and shoves one of them aside. In the finished episode, I believe he just leaps out from behind them.
19. When T-Bone calls Dark Kat his and Razor’s favorite nickname for him, Katz emphasizes that it’s spelled “Dark Krud” with a “K.”
20. Dark Kat’s explanation of his plan is slightly different: “But I promise you… get me that mega-detonator, and my bomb will disintegrate Enforcer Headquarters once and more all.”
21. For some reason Katz capitalizes the “D” in “dimension” when Razor calls the world they’re in “a quicky, alternate Dimension.”
22. Deleted scene: Razor’s explanation of exactly what happened when lightning hit the jet is a lot longer and way more complicated, and of course leaves T-Bone far behind (I can’t tell if Razor is being overly technical or of it’s another example of a trope I hate when a character explains something that isn’t complicated in and of itself but uses big words, forcing someone else to ask “In English, please?”). His exact description is as follows: When T-Bone asks if it’s an alternate dimension, Razor says it’s worse, and explains, “I believe we could be in a Quantum state in which the Heisenfur Uncertainty Principle prevails.” Obviously this is a SWAT Kat-ified version of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, one of the most well-known theories in sciences, to the point where even T-Bone should know what Razor is talking about unless he a complete dunderhead (which he appears to be; “Say what?” he asks). Razor continues: “It means anything can happen. I saw it on the All Science Channel. If something by a huge electrical charge, electrons can got into a quantum alternative dimension.”
23. I’ll get back to Razor’s theory about what happened in a second, but first I wanna point out that Katz describes T-Bone as rolling his eyes at Razor’s overly technical explanation. Unless the episode was going to make use of his pupils, I’m not sure how it would’ve indicated this; the main models for both seasons do indicate that the SWAT Kats’ pupils should be visible for certain explains, though as far as I know it was only utilized once, when Callie clobbers Razor with the flower pot in Destructive Nature.
24. Anyway, back to Razor’s explanation. Firstly, he goes from describing an actual scientific theory to talking complete nonsense. Quantum dimensions being accessible via electrical charges has nothing to do with the Uncertainty Principle… but then, SWAT Kats and science have never really been on speaking terms. Anyway, the fact Razor specifically specifies it’s a quantum dimension would, based on my limited understanding of physics, mean that the theory I put forth in the SWAT Kats Hideout years ago (back when I still welcome there), that the SWAT Kats don’t so much go into a true alternate dimension but one which is effectively a miniaturized version of the -D dimensional radar schemtic of Megakat City, is true; at any rate, assuming this dialogue is still canon, it does mean that this alternate dimension is much smaller than the main one.
25. Razor says they need to stop Dark Kat from getting his claws on the mega-detonator as opposed to just “his claw.”
26. The official name of the bad SWAT Kats is the Evil SWAT Kats, Evil T-Bone and Evil Razor. The Turbokat is alternately referred to as first the Nasty Turbokat and then the Evil Turbokat. “Dark SWAT Kats” and “Dark Turbokat” etc. is fanon… though even I have to confess that just calling them the Evil SWAT Kats, official or not, is kind of uninspired, and then fan nickname has more flare to it.
27. Evil Razor doesn’t get mad at Evil T-Bone and throw a money bag at him, so the lines “Ugh, watch it!” and “Wanna make something of it?” are absent.
28. Katz didn’t describe the Glovatrix in much detail before, but now he does, and he makes the possibly unfortunate choice of referring to the spikes as barbs.
29. Speaking of that scene where they knock their Glovatrixes together, it isn’t present in the script. Katz simply says they flex their fingers (“their sharp claws;” seriously, why can’t the writers just say “hands” and “fingers?”) as the camera zooms in the “evil Glovatrixes” dramatically.
30. The Puma-Dyne guards stationed outside, who in the episode are just Enforcer commandos in different colored outfits and with the Puma-Dyne “PD” logo instead of the Enforcer “M” one, are simply referred to as “tough guards” (presumably to distinguish them as being more vigilant and imposing than the third guy asleep at his desk inside) and not described. It appears as though the Doylist reason for them being palette-swapped Enforcer commandos was a cost-saving measure, though a Watsonian explanation could be that Puma-Dyne either makes the uniforms and gear the Enforcers use, or gets theirs from the same supplier. And once again, the weapons they’re using are explicitly called laser rifles.
31. What the SWAT Kats use to cut their way through the fence are referred to as “Glovatrix Cutter Blades.” Katz indicates these were used previously in , The Ci-Kat-A, from when they cut through the fence at MASA. This would appear to be the proper name for those weapons then.
32. The “tough guards” are downgraded to “security guards” when they reappear.
33. One of the guards briefly thinks he hears something and glances over, just missing the SWAT Kats. This happens in the episode. Sorta. One of the guards does stop and glance to his left (screen right) but I don’t remember it being made apparent that it’s because he thinks he saw or heard anything unusual.
34. Both guards patrolling the exterior of the building are described as being taken out, vs. just the one guy being grabbed and subdued. Katz doesn’t say which of the Evil SWAT Kats takes out which guard, simply describing “a claw from each side reaches out from the shadows, grabs the guards, and pulls them behind the air con unit with a loud thunk.” In the episode, although we only see one guard get taken out, it’s obviously Evil Razor doing it. The way Katz describes it is a bit more cartoonish, whereas as actually animated it’s a bit more violent.
35. The third guard (the guy asleep at his desk) is described as having a “katnap.” Cute.
36. One of the odder but understandable decisions made during the storyboarding and/or animation process was to omit the spikes from the knuckles of Evil Razor’s Glovatrix when he punches the guy as he’s waking up, since otherwise that might well have ended up being the most violent punch in the entire series. That said, Katz makes no indication that the knuckle spikes be removed for this one shot to tone down the implied violence; he just says Evil Razor socks the guard and that’s that, meaning it’s entirely possible he intended for the spikes to remain and for the guy being punched to in fact be more violent than it ended up being… an odd decision after he has the guards outside being taken out in a sillier, more Looney Tunes style manner than in the actual episode.
37. After the guard is knocked out, we were supposed to see the Evil SWAT Kats’ feet walk past him and his overturned chair. This is impossible because Katz established that the guy was sitting behind a desk, which would’ve been between him and his attacker even after he ends up on the floor… unless the Evil SWAT Kats made a point of walking behind the desk for some reason, which makes no sense. An oversight caught and fixed during storyboarding, no doubt.
38. Deleted bit: As the Evil SWAT Kats enter the “top secret hallway,” they’re described as lowering their infra-red goggles (actually visors) and grinning evilly. In the finished episode it just cuts to them having already done so and making like One in Resident Evil (but obviously with more success and less bodily dismemberment) as they dodge the lasers.
39. “Scuzzball” is spelled “skuzzball.” Katz is really leaning hard into the “substituting ‘K’ for ‘C'” trope with this show. So much so I’m surprised he doesn’t call the Creeplings “Kreeplings.”
40. When the third knocked guard out wakes up, he presses a panic button on his walkie-talkie instead of on the phone on his desk. Checking screenshots, he lacks a walkie-talkie and in fact has no gear or weaponry on his belt. Not even a holstered pistol. That said, perhaps it was decided he didn’t need one because in the finished episode there’s an entire wall of different guns behind him. Speaking of which, unlike the guy in Razor’s Edge, his survival is definitively confirmed; after hitting the alarm, he “lapses back into unconsciousness.”
41. The physical differences between the two sets of SWAT Kats is made a little more apparent in the script. For example, when Razor encounters Evil T-Bone after acquiring the mega-detonator, it isn’t what Evil T-Bone says that clues Razor in to the fact he’s encountering his partner’s evil self; Katz explicitly describes Razor reacting to the fact Evil T-Bone “looks sinister.” This is something lost in the finished episode, where it just kind of ignores that not only are the evil versions of the SWAT Kats dressed differently, but they’re bigger and bulkier (and also, props to whoever decided Evil T-Bone was going to be a bit more stylish than his good counterpart and wear an ascot; it’s an odd but nice touch).
42. T-Bone is a little slower on the uptake than his friend when he encounters Evil Razor. Unlike good Razor, he doesn’t notice the different outfit and build and it’s what Evil Razor says that tips T-Bone off. This isn’t a difference, just me commenting on how quickly Katz abandoned the notion that anyone notices any physical differences between the two sets of SWAT Kats.
43. Originally, the shadows cast on the wall of the corridor were supposed to be the two Razors fighting, not the two T-Bones.
44. Deleted scene: Two more Puma-Dyne guards happen upon the fight and try to apprehend the Evil SWAT Kats. They just grab the guards and throw them into the good SWAT Kats. T-Bone and Razor rather uncharitably dodge these two and allow them to go flying through an open door to crash into something offscreen. I’m glad this bit was cut since as written it makes the SWAT Kats look like they don’t care about these two, and it would’ve been a nice bit to have the Evil SWAT Kats force their good counterparts to catch the flying guards midair and help them while they escaped.
45. After the two guards are dispatched, there’s more fighting between the two sets of SWAT Kats, with the evil ones jumping onto the good ones and rolling offscreen, then it is revealed the Evil SWAT Kats escaped offscreen while T-Bone grabs Razor by the throat and lifts him off his feet. In the episode, obviously, the fight isn’t interrupted by any more guards, and instead of the four SWAT Kats dogpiling one another all at the same time, Evil T-Bone just knocks good T-Bone into Razor, allowing him and his equally evil buddy to slip away offscreen. Much more effective and streamlined as far as fight scenes go.
46. Not believing his friend is who he says he is, T-Bone throws Razor against the wall, not a closed door.
47. Alternate bit where the Evil SWAT Kats fire what amount to bad guy versions of Octopus Missiles, called Mini-Squid Missiles. In the finished episode, they just fire what appear to be ordinary, unchanged Mini-Octopus Missiles. As described by Katz, their tentacles were supposed to have spikes lining the insides of the arms.
48. Deleted dialogue from T-Bone as he begins losing his patience with his and Razor’s evil counterparts: “So, these kats want to play rough, huh?” This leads into him and Razor firing the Bolo Missiles at the villains.
49. When Evil Razor tries to stop Evil T-Bone from firing his Mini-Megaton Missiles, Evil T-Bone tells him, “Shaddup! I wanna see fur fly.”
50. When Feral and Felina show up, they’re accompanied by “two Enforcers.” In the episode, it’s specifically two commandos… or it’s supposed to be. Someone screwed up and they’re actually recolored Puma-Dyne guards (the first versions who are just palette swapped Enforcers… making them re-re-colors). You can tell because they still have the Puma-Dyne “PD” logo on their uniforms instead of the Enforcer “M,” although it’s easy to miss.
51. Interestingly, the Enforcers with Feral and Felina are referred to as “Enforcer guards.” Perhaps the original idea was that, much like the Defense Center in Night of the Dark Kat, the Enforcers provided security at Puma-Dyne, and giving Puma-Dyne its own guards with (mostly) unique uniforms was a last minute decision.
52. When Feral is talking to the SWAT Kats in the holding cells, it just says “Felina and several guards” are with him. Not mention of the stalwart Sergeant Talon (or at least an Enforcer sergeant who might be him) who is definitely there in the actual episode and even holds the door for everyone. His inclusion is likely something else added during the storyboarding phase. Although he has no lines, it’s nice that someone remembered him and bothered including Feral’s usual sidekick.
53. The Enforcer commando on the runway, the guy Callie gases, is referred to in the script as “Enforcer Guard,” explaining why his voice actor is credited as “Guard.” Prior to this script, I’d assumed they got the guy who voiced Robin in Batman: The Animated Series for nothing more than the grunts and groans the Puma-Dyne guards make. This random commando still isn’t a big role, but at least he has dialogue.
54. Likely because good Callie never appears, the evil alternate universe version of Callie is just called… Callie. Not Evil Callie. But since this is the naming convention for all the evil alternate universe characters in Katz’s script, it’s a safe bet the closest thing she has to an official name is “Evil Callie.”
55. When Evil Callie says “As if you didn’t know!” she hisses first. That or Katz is indicating she is intended to say the line as a hiss.
56. The episode is a little unclear about whether the gas Evil Callie uses on the runway guard is fatal or not; the script says it isn’t, explicitly calling it “knockout spray.”
57. Apropos of nothing, I find it funny how the deputy mayor can unlock the building’s holding cells on a whim, freeing prisoners, but doesn’t have access to the runway. The only way this makes sense is if Evil Callie isn’t supposed to have that keycard she uses, and being able to unlock the prison cells is not, in fact, “one of the perks of being Deputy Mayor” and she was just being smarmy and facetious.
58. And while I’m at it, where is Manx? It’s funny how Evil Callie is way more ambitious (in fact, outright greedy) compared to her good counterpart, but evidently never got around to offing Manx so she could be mayor herself. If she did that, then there’d be no need for Dark Kat to destroy Enforcer Headquarters to take over the city (which is the villains’ explicitly stated reason for doing so), since he’d have a mayor even more corrupt than Manx on his side and who could make sure Feral got in line or fired him and replaced him with someone else (likely Steel), since basically every other episode makes it clear that the Enforcer commander answers to the mayor. As it is, the villains’ plot in this episode is slightly convoluted. But then, Dark Kat’s evil plans are always either clownishly simple or pointlessly complicated.
59. I must’ve skipped over where it’s mentioned, but the full name of the Mega-Bomb is the Particle Ionizer Mega-Bomb.
60. The survival of the guy Evil Callie gassed is further confirmed as the script makes it clear he’s the guy who contacts Feral on the radio that the SWAT Kats escaped… which makes the fact he doesn’t mention Evil Callie’s involvement all the stranger. I always assumed it was some other Enforcer who radios Feral, that the guy who got gassed was found unconscious and still recovering, explaining why nobody knows of Evil Callie’s involvement until T-Bone explicitly explains things to Feral, but for it to be the same guy Callie knocked out and for him to only mention the SWAT Kats escaped but now how they escaped and who helped them is kind of silly. There’s nothing about the gas affecting his memory (and even if it did, why is his amnesia so selective, excluding Evil Callie but definitively remembering the SWAT Kats, especially considering he doesn’t even acknowledge then when they come through the door with Callie?).
61. Evil Razor just says “Nice flying” instead of “Aw, nice flyin’.”
62. Some extra dialogue from Felina when she mentions she’s also chasing a set of SWAT Kats. She says “That’s impossible!”
63. Interestingly, Evil Razor’s red-tinted targeting visor is said to be made of gel (or “jel,” as Katz spells it), implying the Evil SWAT Kats’ gear is a bit more high-tech than the good ones’.
64. The bitey-chompy missiles which are used to shoot down the two Enforcer jets accompanying Felina are given a canon name: Mega-Shark Missiles. The jets hit with these missiles also suffer way less damage here than they do in the finished episode. Also, Felina says “Crud!” in response to losing both her wingmen in a moment cut from the episode. The fact Evil Razor completely misses Felina’s jet and only partially damages the other two makes Evil T-Bone’s criticism about his aim make a bit more sense, since he failed to completely eliminate the three targets.
65. The Deadhead Missiles are described a little differently, with more of a skull motif than a grinning green monster one.
66. Evil Razor says “Deathspike Missile, locked!” instead of “launched.”
67. The Deathspike Missile, like the Deadhead Missile, is also described somewhat differently than the final design.
68. The missiles knocks off “part of Feral’s fuselage” as opposed to the right wing. I guess a jet’s wing is part of the fuselage, but still. Also, Katz suddenly seems to briefly forget the nameless Enforcer pilot is actually the one flying, as he says the jet is hit despote Feral’s, not his pilot’s, attempt to veer (is Feral flying from the backseat?)… only to then remember the other Enforcer exists when it comes time for him and Feral to eject to safety before they crash, making him luckier than the two poor suckers crewing Feral’s tank in Metal Urgency who as far as I’ve been able to determined by consulting the script, storyboards and by directly asking Lance Falk, pretty much only got killed because he and Eric Clark forgot they existed.
69. Dark Kat says “Just drop the bomb!” instead of, well, just “Drop the bomb!”
70. Evil Razor says “Yeah, chill out!” instead of “Aw, chill out!”
71. T-Bone never says “Crud!” during the ensuing dogfight. Katz was kind overusing it in this script anyway.
72. Deleted Scene, Part : The aerial battle between the two Turbokats is a bit more involved and to some extent follows the same beats from the earlier scene where the good SWAT Kats are chased by the Enforcers, right down to them flying through what I assume is the same tunnel to escape an Octopus Missiles. Not even an “evil” one, just an Octopus Missile; was Katz running out of names for the weapons the Evil SWAT Kats use, or did he just assume they’d basically have the same Octopus Missiles as their good counterparts? If so, then I guess he forgot he’d already established they use Squid Missiles in lieu of Octopus Missiles.
73. Deleted Scene, Part : Anyway, as mentioned, to escape (what should be called) a Squid Missile, T-Bone flies the Turbokat through the tunnel. An oil tanker blocks the way. It’s stuck, apparently experiencing engine problems, complete the guy driving it still sitting in the cab. Razor cries “Uh oh!” though not, apparently, out of concern for the driver, since he makes no mention of the guy and doesn’t seem to care that T-Bone’s solution to the pursuing missile is to apparently intentionally lead it to hit the tanker and not the Turbokat. Yes, Katz does make a point of saying the driver leaps out in time, but still, this is an odd bit where the good SWAT Kats more or less recklessly endanger this random truck driver.
74. Deleted Scene, Part : The Evil SWAT Kats follow the good ones through the tunnel. Of his missile hitting the tanker truck and not his enemies, Evil Razor says “I had gridlock!” (nevermind the truck was the only vehicle in the tunnel). The good SWAT Kats get behind the evil ones (“Hey, where’d they go?” “Right behind ya, creeps!”) and they fire some Shredder Missiles at the villains. Evil T-Bone barely avoids them; Evil Razor chides him for his carelessness: “Fool! They almost clipped out tail!”
75. Deleted Scene, Part : Evil T-Bone deliberately flies the Evil Turbokat through the Goodkat Blimp, not only puncturing it but causing it to explode (meaning they still use hydrogen zeppelins in this dimension, interestingly; then again, oxygen is still flammable, so whatever). Amazingly, the tourists in the gondola survive this, but still almost get killed because they fall towards the ocean. The SWAT Kats save them using the Mega-Mancles (simply called “clamps”), then set the gondola and its passengers down on land before resuming their pursuit of their evil counterparts.
76. Deleted Scene, Part : Deleted Scene, Part : Holy crap, the stuff that didn’t make it into the episode just keeps going! This is an entire aerial battle that nobody bothered to consider worth including! It is while our heroes are saving the people from the blimp that their evil counterparts catch them by surprise. “It worked!” cries Evil T-Bone. “Now I’ve got these do gooders right where I want ’em!” This is probably as intelligent as Evil T-Bone gets. Dark Kat is losing his patience and tells them for a second time to abandon their attack on the good guys and blow up Enforcer Headquarters first, then kill them, but Evil T-Bone tells him to shut up. He and Evil Razor pretty much rebel against their erstwhile “boss” at this point: “Yeah, we’re through takin’ orders from you! We’ll take care of Enforcer Headquarters when we’re good and ready.” Evil Razor then destroys the viewscreen he and Evil T-Bone were using to talk to Dark Kat, effectively ending his involvement in the story from this point forward except for the scene where he reacts to the fact these two dunderheads get themselves killed (more on what the script has to say about their actual fate momentarily). I do wonder, if the Evil SWAT Kats had succeeded and/or at least survived, what would’ve ultimately happened to them; given his intolerance for for this kind of rebelliousness, it’s entirely possible Big D would’ve decided they’d outlived their usefulness and they wouldn’t have reaped any rewards from their success. Not that they seem intelligent enough to foresee possible consequences. Anyway, this bit where they effectively rebel and turn against Dark Kat, and are no longer working for him from this point onwards, was effectively removed from the episode entirely.
77. The script now picks up with the finished episode does as Evil Razor hits the good Turbokat with what he refers to as a Mega-Magnesium Missile (so much for my theory that Katz was running out of ideas for their missiles), and causes it to crash into the bay.
78. Evil T-Bone says “Bingo!”, not Evil Razor. It’s interesting how many of these scripts, especially by writers who only did one or two, keep giving “Bingo!” to T-Bone when it’s Razor’s catchphrase. Admittedly, these are evil versions of the characters from another dimension, but still.
79. Ah, here we go. The full name of the bomb and how it functions is explained by Evil Razor thusly: “Yeah, Dark Kat’s Particle Ionizer Mega-Bomb will disintegrate every Kat in it!” “It” being Enforcer Headquarters. So now were know the Mega-Bomb disintegrates its targets using particle ionization and that this is intended to be fatal (whether ot not ionized particles would disintegrate anything being beside the point).
80. Extra dialogue as the Evil SWAT Kats bicker some more. “Locking in now!” “Sure you can hit it?” How these two morons got as far as they did without killing each other on purpose or accidentally is beyond me. They really, really, really must’ve just benefited from Dark Kat’s genius guiding their hand, since it’s noticeable, especially here, that their successes stop, and stop very quickly, the minute they rebel against him and stop listening to him. Why did he ever bother with them?
81. Not a difference but another small detail: When the good Turbokat reappears, Katz notes it still has damaged from the Magnesium Missile and, sure enough, it does in the finished episode.
82. Deleted dialogue: After T-Bone says it was the Speed of Heat Shields that allowed them to survive underwater, Razor says, “I just hope we’re in time to save the Enforcers!”
83. The missile Evil Razor fires at the good SWAT Kats is called a Mega-Shock Missile. When Razor tells T-Bone to hold the jet steady in spite of the approaching missile so he can target their enemies’ bomb bay, T-Bone, concerned they’ll be hit and thus sacrifice themselves, grumbles “Then I guess we’re gonna take it on the chin!” To which Razor adds, “Yeah, but I’m gonna cement up those bomb bays before we go!” T-Bone’s line was deleted entirely. Razor’s remains, but slightly altered to account for the fact T-Bone’s line about them possibly being shot down was cut; he simply says “I’m gonna cement up those bomb bays before we go.” Thus at last we have the true context for “before we go.” Without T-Bone’s line, it seems as though he means “before they return home,” when in fact he means “before they probably die.”
84. It’s made more clear that it’s the electrical discharge from the Mega-Shock Missile that sends our heroes hurtling home courtesy of the zapped dimensional radar.
85. Evil Razor, preparing to drop the Mega-Bomb without realizing it’s been cemented up, says, “It’s showtime!”
86. Evil Razor says “Bomb’s stuck!” without the “the.”
87. The Evil Turbokat is explicitly described as disintegrating. Considering what we’re told about the Mega-Bomb, how it works and how it was intended to be used, I think it’s a safe bet to assume that, at least according to the script, the Evil SWAT Kats are pretty dead.
88. The angry Dark Kat knocks a Creepling aside in his rage, whereas in the episode, the Creepling simply leaps back, startled, as Big Purple pounds his fist on the control panel.
89. Evil Callie is surprised to be arrested rather than angry.
90. When the SWAT Kats return and make Feral spill his hot coffee on his leg, he is alone in the chopper. There’s no mention of another Enforcer, which means that guy finding Feral spilling his coffee amusing, and being in the chopper with Feral at all to begin with (something pointed out by Craig Rohloff in the transcript of the episode on Swatkats.info), was something else added during storyboarding. This is interesting as it’s the only example of an Enforcer besides Felina (due to her often siding with the SWAT Kats) and Steel (due to him wanting Feral’s job) showing any sign of disliking Feral or finding anything bad that happens to him amusing.