The Pastmaster



The Pastmaster is an undead, skeletal sorcerer from the Dark Ages, voiced in four episodes of the series by Keene Curtis - The Pastmaster Always Rings Twice, Bride of the Pastmaster, A Bright and Shiny Future and The Deadly Pyramid. His powers are many and varied, and most come from his magical pocketwatch, which has the power to open Time Vortices to either send cats and objects through them, or summon them forth from other time periods. It can also be used to fire a destructive red beam, or, if the Pastmaster so desires, he can use it to give life to the dead and/or otherwise inanimate. He has control over any creature he brings to life or summons through from a portal and it will mindlessly do his bidding.The Pastmaster was imprisoned for his evil deeds by the magic council of Megalith City within the "Casket of the Ages," where he remained for 800 years. In The Pastmaster Always Rings Twice, a graveyard was built over his tomb in the present-day Megakat City and the Casket was dug up by two grave robbers, Jack and Tom. Tom accidentally awakened him in trying to take his gold pocketwatch, and the Pastmaster promptly set out to recover his spellbook, the Tome of Time, from the Megakat City Museum of History. Obtaining the book, the Pastmaster attempted to use a spell cotnained within to transform Megakat City back to Megalith City by opening up a Time Vortex. He was defeated by the timely arrival of the SWAT Kats, who knocked him through the Vortex and back into the Dark Ages. Time and again, he has come back to take revenge and to win, and though he is always defeated by the SWAT Kats, he never gives up. In Bride of the Pastmaster he was back in the Dark Ages attempting to force Deputy Mayor Briggs' lookalike ancestor Queen Callista to marry him, threatening to destroy Megalith City with his army of mythological monsters unless the Queen did as he asked; he had at his disposal several cyclopes, a firebreathing dragon and two harpies. His evil plans were foiled by the sudden arrival of the SWAT Kats, accidentally flung back through time by one of the wizard's misplaced Time Vortices. Using the mythical Dragon Sword, they were able to slay his dragon and rescue the Queen. The Pastmaster himself was seemingly killed when the dragon exploded while he was riding it, after being stabbed with the magical sword. He was back again, though, in A Bright and Shiny Future. Here, he lures the SWAT Kats to Old Megakat Bridge and traps them within a Time Vortex, sending them to a dark future world he has created for them: a world where the Metallikats control the city, having renamed it "Metallikat City" and killed or imprisoned all "non-metallic" (i.e., organic) lifeforms. Although the Pastmaster initially plans to just abandon the vigilantes here, Mac and Molly betray him and steal his pocketwatch, forcing him to team up with the SWAT Kats - as well as older versions of Commander Feral, Felina Feral and Professor Hackle - to get it back and rescue both the Mayor and Deputy Mayor in the process. After getting his watch back however the Pastmaster attempted to strand the SWAT Kats in the future, but the SWAT Kats stopped him and flung him back into the Vortex once they were back in modern-day Megakat City, giving him "a one-way ticket back to the past."The Pastmaster's fourth and final appearance in the series, in The Deadly Pyramid, has him summoning forth the giany mummy warriors of Katchu Pichu from within a lost pyramid uncovered by Dr. Abby Sinian and her team. Using a "jeweled headdress of power," the Pastmaster controls the mummies and initially sends them to kill Mayor Manx so he can take over Megakat City. But when he sees Callie Briggs without her glasses on and sees how much she resembles Queen Callista, her kidnaps her and tries to force her to marry him. The SWAT Kats, with the help of Professor Hackle and his robot guardian Cybertron, are able to break into the pyramid and rescue Callie however. The jeweled headdress is destroyed, effectively killing all of the mummies as well as causing the pyramid to collapse. Although the SWAT Kats and Callie escape, the Pastmaster is seemingly killed when the floor gives way underneath him and he falls into molten lava.