Act I
Grave robbers Jack (Earl Boen) and Tom (Charlie Adler) are digging around in an old cemetery outside of Megakat City looking for priceless artifacts to sell to the museum when they accidentally unleashed the Pastmaster (Keene Curtis), an undead skeletal sorcerer, who immediately sets about attempting to find his missing spellbook, the Tome of Time. Using his magical pocketwatch, the Pastmaster summons two skeletons which chase the grave robbers away. Enforcer pilots Burge (Frank Birney) and King (Earl Boen) happen along in their attack chopper, make short work of the skeletons, and decide to take the chest that the Pastmaster was imprisoned in to the museum. Overhearing them, the Pastmaster decides to stow away aboard their helicopter.
Meanwhile, T-Bone (Charlie Adler) and Razor (Barry Gordon) are training in a centrifuge, trying to see who can go the longest at Mach 5 without passing out. T-Bone wins by not only lasting ten seconds, but by not passing out at all. Razor meanwhile has passed out ("like a blown engine") and accuses T-Bone of lying since he didn't actually see it. T-Bone challenges him to a rematch.
At the museum, Callie Briggs (Tress MacNeille) is speaking to curator Dr. Abby Sinian (Linda Gary) about upcoming exhibits when the Pastmaster breaks in. Accosted by a guard (Frank Welker), he brings a stuffed sabertoothed cat to life, which attacks the guard, causing a dinosaur skeleton to collapse on him. He then sics the taxidermied terror on Callie and Dr. Sinian when they come to see what the noise was. Digging through Callie's purse, he accidentally activates her communicator, tossing it on the ground. Back at the SWAT Kats' hangar, Razor has passed out again. T-Bone goes to answer Callie's call. Getting no reply, he fears the worst, waking Razor up. The duo hop into their high-tech fighter jet, the Turbokat, and fly to the museum, arriving in time to save Callie and Dr. Sinian from the sabertoothed cat.
Act II
The Pastmaster finds the Tome of Time in the Hall of Ancient Manuscripts and steals it. Leaving the museum, he is stopped by Sergeant Talon (Ed Gilbert), who demands he surrender the book. Instead, the Pastmaster uses a spell from the book to open a time vortex, through which he summons a "Megasaurus rex," which crushes Talon's car. The Sergeant barely escapes.
Declaring that they'll handle the beast, which has picked up the Pastmaster and is carrying him down the street, the SWAT Kats launch Octopus Missiles at it. But it smacks them back towards the vigilantes with its tail, severing the Turbokat's fuel line. The out of control jet flies through the still open time vortex, trapping the SWAT Kats in the prehistoric era. The spin of the jet going through the vortex causes Razor to pass out again. After crashlanding in a swamp, T-Bone and an awakened Razor realize they need to fix the torn fuel line and find an alternate means of powering the jet because "the closest gas station is only a million years away." But first they have to evade a bevy of prehistoric monsters, most notably winged, Pteranodon-like creatures with long necks.
Back in the present, Commander Feral (Gary Owens) orders his men to fire knockout gas at the Megasaurus rex. Flipping through his book, the Pastmaster finds a spell that will revert Megakat City to its previous medieval state. It must be cast from the tallest clocktower in the land. The Enforcers' gas takes effect, disorienting the Megasaurus and causing him to stumble into a tar pit, but the Pastmaster summons an army of Pterodactyls. One of them grabs him off the top of the sinking Megasaurus' head before the Enforcers can throw a net over him, and he commands it to fly him to the clocktower atop City Hall.
Act III
In the past, the SWAT Kats evade the long-necked flying reptiles by flying through an active volcano in the Turbokat's self-propelled "Ejektor seats" while wearing their oxygen masks. The pursuing dinosaurs are overcome by the fumes and fall into the lava. This gives Razor the idea to use a mixture of volcanic gases to power the downed Turbokat, despite T-Bones doubts that it'll work.
Back in the present, Commander Feral demands Mayor Manx (Jim Cummings) let him attack "that gnome and his buzzards," but Manx tells Callie to go tell the Pastmaster that he's willing to make a deal with him. She and Dr. Sinian go to the clocktower, but the sorcerer is uninterested in anything the Mayor can offer him; he's already getting what he wants. When the clock strikes noon, the spell will be complete. An attempt by the two women to take away the Tome of Time ends in them being blasted by his pocketwatch, but they survive.
In response, Manx finally gives the Enforcers permission to attack the Pastmaster directly, after evacuating himself and his golf trophies from his office. The Enforcers' chopper assault ends with most of their aircraft destroyed. Feral himself loses control and crashes into the side of the building, wrecking Manx's office, but he survives.
The SWAT Kats escape back to the present day using the volcanically-powered Turbokat to fly through the still open time vortex before it closes, and after being briefed by Callie, engage and defeat the Pastmaster's Pterodactyls. Evading two of them forces T-Bone to fly into a downward spiral, causing the two dinosaurs to smack into one another and fall. Razor doesn't pass out from the Gs this time, but T-Bone does, and Razor has to wake him up so he can fly the jet before they crash. He then launches a missile that wedges between the hour and minute hands of City Hall's clock, preventing them from coming together to strike noon, interrupting the Pastmaster's spell. He himself is then knocked through the time vortex and into prehistoric times, while the Tome of Time flies from his hands and is sucked through the Turbokat's intakes and shredded.
The vortex closes, trapping the villain in the dinosaur days. Dr. Sinian laments the loss of the spellbook, but says they don't need to worry about the Pastmaster anymore.
Tropes featured in this episode include:
- Animation Bump: Although this was the first episode to air, it was the third made, and its animation is markedly superior to the two made before it.
- Attack Reflector: When the SWAT Kats fire Octopus Missiles at the Megasaurus rex, he simply knocks them back at the Turbokat.
- Artistic License – Engineering/Artistic License – Chemistry/Artistic License – Geology: Razor somehow using volcanic gas fumes as jet fuel just by modifying the Turbokat's fuel tanks in some unspecified way.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: All over the place. The Megasaurus rex and what the model sheets refer too as "long-necked flying reptiiles" are completely fictional dinosaurs, for starters. The sabertoothed cat has a long tail, when most such prehistoric cats had short ones, the Pterodactyls look more like Pteranodons (and have teeth!) as well as possessing long tails with Stegosaurus-like spikes on them.
- Big "NO!": The Pastmaster gives the first of many, many of these when he's knocked through his own time vortex at the end. The museum guard also lets one fly when he's attacked.
- Convection Shmonvection: The SWAT Kats flying through the volcano are not affected by the heat. Handwaved as them wearing their oxygen masks. Averted completely with the long-necked flying reptiles pursuing them, as they are overcome with the heat and fall into the lava.
- Creepy Cemetery: The old cemetery that the grave robbers are digging in.
- Dem Bones: The two kat zombies (with kitty ears!) that attack the grave robbers at the beginning.
- Establishing Character Moment: This being the first episode, we get a few of these. The next one has even more.
- The SWAT Kats are introduced in the scene with the centrifuge, establishing that despite being friends, T-Bone and Razor are extremely competitive with one another.
- T-Bone's preference for grappling with the sabertoothed cat sets him up as tough to the point of being overconfident.
- Callie's first scene has her personally getting information from Dr. Sinian at the museum, setting her up as much more hands-on than her boss.
- Manx is established as a Mayor Pain (though not a Dirty Coward just yet) with his insistence to Feral that he is in charge, and refusing to let the Enforcers attack "that gnome and his buzzards" until it's almost too late.
- The first words out of Feral's mouth are him wondering where "those meddling SWAT Kats" are. He also says "Well, we can handle this!" (and for the first of only two times, he's right), showing us his supreme (over?)confidence in the abilities of his men, and his arrogance is shown when he ignores Sinian's advice at first.
- In his only scene, Sergeant Talon gets out of his car, walks right up to the reanimated Sorcerous Overlord and demands that he hand the Tome of Eldritch Lore over without a trace of fear.
- The grave robbers likewise get their very functional personalities established in the first few seconds they're onscreen: Jack is superstitious and reminds his partner of the cemetery's reputation, while Tom is greedy, irreverent and verbally abusive ("Shut up and keep diggin'!").
- Everything's Deader with Zombies: In addition to the two undead skeletal kats at the beginning, the sabertoothed cat which the Pastmaster brings to life is explicitly identified as a zombie in the model sheets.
- Furry Confusion: In a world of anthropomorphic cats, there once existed non-anthro sabertoothed cats.
- Giant Foot of Stomping: The Megasaurus rex crushes Sergeant Talon's cruiser, and then goes on to grind several more cars underfoot as he rampages through the city.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: The Pastmaster's (one) eye briefly glows with fury after Burge and King destroy the skeletons he sent to attack their chopper.
- Hellish Copter: As would become standard for the series, the Enforcers' chopper get destroyed, with Feral's in particular crashing into Manx's office.
- Ignored Expert: Dr. Sinian — for about two seconds, anyway. Feral doesn't listen to her until Callie presses the issue. Then he relents.Sinian: Get that spellbook from the Pastmaster, or we're all still in danger!Feral: I give the orders around here!Callie: Feral, Dr. Sinian knows what she's talking about! She's the curator of the museum!Feral: All right...
- Inescapable Net: Averted. The Enforcers fire a Net Gun at the Pastmaster, but he's pulled out of the way by one of his Pterodactyls before it can trap him.
- Instant Sedation: Averted. Although the Enforcers launch enough Knockout Gas to put a herd of elephants to sleep, it not only doesn't affect the Pastmaster at all, but only makes the Megasaurus rex somewhat drowsy, and he's still visibly conscious when stuck in the tar pit.
- Ironic Echo: Feral is brushed off by the Mayor the same way he tried to brush Dr. Sinian off earlier.Feral: Let me blast that gnome and his buzzards off of there!Manx: I give the orders around here, Feral!
- Irony: T-Bone spends the whole episode making fun of Razor's propensity for passing out due to the strain of the gs the SWAT Kats endure, only to suffer it himself while performing a spiraling nosedive at the end.
- Karma Houdini: The grave robbers, Tom especially, never receive any comeuppance for being Unwitting Instigators of Doom in digging up and reviving the Pastmaster. The most that happens to them is they get scared and run away.
- Literal Cliffhanger: The scene where Callie and Dr. Sinian are knocked off the museum roof and hang onto the gutter, which slowly but surely gives way under their weight.
- Mayor Pain: Manx refuses let the Enforcers deal with the Pastmaster at first, because he hopes he can make some kind deal with him. By the time he finally authorizes Feral to attack, it's too late.
- A Molten Date with Death: Two of the flying reptiles who chase the SWAT Kats through the volcano become overcome by the fumes and fall into the lava offscreen.
- Museum of the Strange and Unusual: Although it has plenty of legitimate things museums might like dinosaur skeletons, the Megakat City Museum of History also has ancient evil spellbooks on display as well as exhibits dedicated to serial killers like Kat the Ripper and even one dedicated to the Pastmaster.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: What the Pastmaster's pocketwatch does is dependent on whatever is required by the script. At first it seems like all it does is bring dead or animate things to life, but later he uses it to zap Callie and Dr. Sinian, leaving one to wonder why he didn't deal with the grave robbers and the guard at the museum this way.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: The episode ends with the SWAT Kats flying into the horizon yelling "Rock and roll!" Also a variant of Riding into the Sunset.
- One-Steve Limit: Jack is named Mac in the script. His name was probably changed to avoid confusion with Mac Mange of the Metallikats.
- Panthera Awesome: The sabertoothed cat.
- Police Are Useless: Averted, unusually. The Enforcer blockade successfully takes down the Megasaurus rex without any help from the SWAT Kats.
- Power Glows: When Jack and Tom open the chest, a Sickly Green Glow briefly emerges. Later, when the Pastmaster obtains the Tome of Time and remarks about its power, it emits red glowing energy right on cue.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Twice:
- When King kills the zombies - "You have the right to remain buried!"
- When T-Bone fries a Pterodactyl using the Turbokat's volcanic engine backwash - "Eat afterburner!"
- Properly Paranoid: Jack. He spends the entirety of his screentime whining that the old cemetery is cursed and they shouldn't be digging there. Turns out he was right, considering what he and Tom unleash.
- Power-Strain Blackout: Razor is especially susceptible to this. He continuously "conks out" from the strain of the g-forces, either in the centrifuge or in the Turbokat. Later, so does T-Bone.
- Quicksand Sucks: The Megasaurus rex sinks at least up his jawline in the conveniently-placed tar pit.
- Reused Character Design: Burge and King look exactly alike because both of them use the same generic "Enforcer Pilot" character model. The only thing setting them apart from each other (and their equally identical fellow pilots) are the fact they have names and personalities. This is done with almost every Enforcer character as a cost-cutting measure throughout the series.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The grave robbers decide to get going while the getting's good.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Pastmaster is found locked inside of a chest.
- Spell Book: The Tome of Time, which acts as the main source of the Pastmaster's power. Not only does it allow him to summon prehistoric creatures to serve him, but one particular spell would enable him to transform Megacat City into a Dark Age kingdom.
- Take My Hand!: A twofer. T-Bone pulls Callie and Dr. Sinian up to safety when they're hanging onto the rain gutter. Complete with a One-Liner!T-Bone: Lemme give you a hand, ladies!
- Tempting Fate: "At least we don't have to worry about the Pastmaster anymore." Although it'd be an entire season later, poor Dr. Sinian will be eating those words.
- Time Traveler's Dinosaur: The Pastmaster summons a Megasaurus rex and Pterodactyls from the past.
- Trapped in the Past: The SWAT Kats, as a result of unwitting Time Travel.
- Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Tome of Time.
- Uncertain Doom: We don't know if the museum guard died when the dinosaur skeleton fell on him, or if the Megasaurus rex sank past his jawline in the tar and drowned.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Jack and Tom never appear again after escaping from the cemetery.
- What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: Even before he's actually done anything evil, Tom wants to sell the Pastmaster to the museum (how?), viewing him not as a fellow kat but as an "old gnome" he can sell like a puppy he found just because the Pastmaster is short and ugly.
