Terrahawks

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Terrahawks is a puppet based television series created by Gerry Anderson and Christopher Burr. It ran for two seasons during 1983 and 1984 and a total of 39 25-minute episodes were created.

Contents 1 Background 2 Premise 3 The Terrahawks 4 Vehicles 5 The Aliens 6 Alien Vehicles 7 Zelda's Monsters 8 Episode List 9 Trivia 10 External links

[edit] Background

Gerry Anderson was best known for his Supermarionation TV series of the 1960s, which made use of electronically augmented marionettes. Terrahawks was his first puppet series since The Secret Service in 1969, and a new process called Supermacromation was used to animate the characters in Terrahawks.

[edit] Premise

The series is set in the year 2020, after an alien force has destroyed NASA's Mars base and Earth is under threat. A small organization called Terrahawks is set up to defend the planet. From their secret base in South America, Hawknest, they develop sophisticated weapons to prepare for the battles to come.

[edit] The Terrahawks

The Terrahawks are an elite task force that protect Earth from alien invasion.

• Dr. "Tiger" Ninestein: The team's leader, so named as he was the ninth clone created by Dr. Stein. Somewhat bloodthirsty, his first reaction to alien contact is often to blast it out of the sky. Inbetween alien attacks, he's often seen trying (and failing) to beat the high score on his favorite videogame, although his expertise at playing it saves him and Hiro from destruction in "Space Samurai."
• Captain Mary Falconer: Pilot of Battlehawk. Often acts as Ninestein's better half, weighing his offensive tendencies with her own regard for the value of life whether in regards to one of Zelda's henchmen or the Zeroids.
• Captain Kate Kestrel: Pilot of the Hawkwing fighter craft. Kate is also an internationally famous pop singer.
• Lieutenant Hawkeye: The Hawkwing's gunner. His eyes are fitted with mini-computers that facilitate targeting.
• Lt. Hiro: The captain of Spacehawk. Keeps a large collection of flowers whom he names and reads poetry. His thick Japanese accent is sometimes a source of humor.
• Zeroids: Spherical robots that perform ground operations and serve as the firepower for the team's Spacehawk craft. There are two leaders among the Zeroids who exhibit human-like capacity for thought and emotion (much to Ninestein's annoyance); Sergeant Major Zero (voiced by Windsor Davies), who commands the Zeroids stationed on Earth and Space Sergeant 101, who directs the Zeroids stationed aboard Spacehawk. Other Zeroids are given distinct personality traits of their own, such as Dix-huit (French for the number eighteen), who speaks French and has a handlebar moustache, and 55, who bobs in rhyme. They can increase their mass (becoming as heavy as a black hole), which allows them to perform devastating body-crash maneuvers. This is often accompanied by a cry of "Stroll on!"

[edit] Vehicles

The Terrahawks' vehicles were the Battlehawk, a heavy-duty carrier on board which were the Zeroids themselves, the megazoid manned Battletank for heavy support and other auxiliary gear; the Terrahawk itself, a flying command centre which hooked onto the back/top of Battlehawk; Hawkwing, a fighter-aircraft with a separate overwing which could be released to act as a flying impact bomb; Treehawk a surface to orbit transport which Lt. Hiro and others used to travel to; Spacehawk, an orbital battle station that functioned as the first line of defence against an attack. Dr Ninestein also had a personal car, Hudson, a heavily modified Rolls Royce with advanced technology and artificial intelligence, although Kate actually seemed to get the most use out of it.

[edit] The Aliens

The aliens were in fact androids from planet Guk who had rebelled against their creators. They were patterened after the oldest and wisest citizens of their planet, explaining their gray hair and wrinkled skin.

• Zelda: The main villain. Zelda is the wicked and scheming would-be conqueror of Earth. She has power over matter, allowing her to enlarge or reduce the size of her spaceships, or to teleport her servants to and from Earth ("Zelda reclaims her own," was frequently said when Zelda teleported a defeated minion back to the Mars base).
• Cy-star: Zelda's "sister." Not very bright, but endlessly bubbly and optimistic.
• Yung-star: Zelda's "son." Yung-star is, like his "aunt," not very intelligent (he thinks "nincompoop" is a compliment), but he's also cowardly, lazy and greedy, although he is occasionally sent to accompany a monster.
• Itstar: Also known as "Goybirl," Itstar is a "baby" android mothered by Cy-star near the end of the series. Itstar is a hermaphrodite with two minds and voices, a young girl's voice when "innocent," and a male voice with a German accent when plotting.
• Cubes: The aliens' counterpart to the Zeroids. They can combine into large constructs like guns and force field cubicles. Cy-star keeps one, Pluto, as a pet.

[edit] Alien Vehicles

Zelda commands a fleet of large ships that combine into her headquarters on Mars, which are used for large-scale attacks. Most times, she sends her minions out in fighter ships called ZEAFs (Zelda Earth Atmospheric Fighter).

[edit] Zelda's Monsters

Zelda possessed a collection of monstrous servants, kept in cryogenic storage until needed.

• Sram: A reptillian beast with a devastating roar, capable of shattering mountains and destroying Hawkwing's shots before they can get close enough to hit him. His blood gives off fumes that are highly toxic to human beings. Sram appears in "Thunder-Roar," "Thunder Path," as Zelda's drummer in "Play it Again, Sram," a member of Zelda's war party in "First Strike," and a hallucination of him is seen in "Mind Monster."
• Sporilla: A savagely powerful beast that Zelda controls with a signaling device. After the device is destroyed, however, the Terrahawks find that the Sporilla is capable of halting speech and has no desire to fight them. Appears in "The Sporilla." In "Space Giant," Zelda smuggles another Sporilla to Earth, and uses her powers to make it grow into a giant.
• MOID: The Master of Infinite Disguise. "I wear many faces, but have none of my own," he once said to describe himself. The Terrahawks seem to find him almost pitiable, and in one episode he seems to regret living a life of servitude to Zelda. Appears in "Happy Madeday," "Unseen Menace," briefly in "Play it Again, Sram" as Mozart, and a hallucination of him is seen in "Mind Monster."
• Yuri: A teddy bear-like creature who the aliens find hideous and frightening. He possesses the power to mentally control metal. Zelda sometimes refers to him as "the furry Napoleon." He appears in "The Ugliest Monster of All," "Operation SAS," "Terratomb," and as a member of Zelda's war party in "First Strike."
• Lord Tempo: The master of time. Tempo can travel back and forth in time at will, and locally alter its flow. Lord Tempo appears in "My Kingdom for a ZEAF," "Time Warp," and as a member of Zelda's war party in "First Strike."
• Krell: The krell is a hairy creature with an eyestalk that can fire a laser beam powerful enough to shoot down objects in orbit. It was blown to pieces by a bombardment from Spacehawk. It appears only in "The Midas Touch."
• Cyclops: A black and red, four-legged creature with one giant eye. It absorbs metal to make itself grow larger, but met its doom when it sucked Zero and Dix-Huit inside it, and they tore it to pieces from within with their lasers. It appears only in "Space Cyclops."
• Captain Goat: A space buccaneer who captained a pirate radio ship. He hurled himself out an airlock to keep the Terrahawks from having the satisfaction of killing him, but was teleported back to the Mars complex by Zelda. He appears in "Jolly Roger One."
• Cold Finger: An alien who is an expert at weaponizing water and ice. His entire ship was made of ice. However, even though it had a powerful force field that kept Spacehawk's blasts from hitting the ship, the heat from their shots got through and caused the ship to melt.

[edit] Episode List

• Expect the Unexpected (two parts): Zelda attacks Earth's outpost on Mars and establishes her home there, and then mounts an attack on Earth forcing the Terrahawks into battle.
• Thunder-Roar: Zelda defrosts one of her monsters, Sram, to pit his devastating voice against the Terrahawks.
• Close Call
• From Here to Infinity
• Space Samurai: Tamura, a samurai warrior from outer space, forces Zelda and Ninestein to meet on neutral ground in order to settle their dispute peacefully.
• The Sporilla: Zelda ransacks a listening post on the moon Callisto to lure the Terrahawks there, and once they arrive they find themselves being stalked by the fearsome Sporilla.
• Happy Madeday: Zelda unleashes MOID, Master of Infinite Disguise, who kidnaps Hiro and impersonates him to infiltrate Hawknest.
• Gunfight at Oakys Corral
• The Ugliest Monster of All: The Terrahawks find a teddy bear-like alien adrift in a space capsule, and take him back to Hawknest. However, he is actually one of Zelda's monsters and begins to wreak havoc in the base.
• The Gun: Yung-Star devises a way to make the Cubes more powerful by combining them. Zelda forms a group of them into a gun and threatens to destroy a new dam.
• Thunder Path: Zelda gives Sram another chance by sending him to hijack the Overlander, the vehicle the delivers vital supplies to Hawknest.
• Mind Monster: The Terrahawks pick up a capsule in space containing only a strange vapor. However, it actually contains a gaseous monster that can meddle with their minds.
• To Catch a Tiger
• The Midas Touch: Zelda sends one of her monsters to blow up the "space Fort Knox" to cause economic havoc.
• Operation SAS
• Ten Top Pop
• Unseen Menace: MOID has perfected the greatest disguise of all; the invisible man.
• A Christmas Miracle: Zelda attacks Earth on Christmas eve, sure that the Terrahawks' guard will be down. Ninestein was anticipating such a move, and all-out war erupts.
• Midnight Blue
• Play it Again, Sram: Kate Kestrel wins the world song contest and is going on to compete in the interstellar song contest. Zelda contends that as a resident of Earth's solar system she has a right to participate too, and challenges Kate to a sing-off on a neutral planetoid with her family and Sram as her band.
• My Kingdom for a ZEAF: Zelda dispatches Yung-star and a new monster, Lord Tempo, to find the location of Hawknest. While traveling back in time to avoid Spacehawk, they pick up King Richard.
• Zero's Finest Hour
• The Ultimate Menace: Zelda and the Terrahawks team up to stop Zyklon, a gigantic spaceship dedicated to destroying all life in the universe.
• Gold ("G O ^L D"): The Zeroids find a huge gold nugget, but it's actually a powerful bomb.
• Ma's Monsters: (Clip show) Zelda reflects on the exploits of her monsters, who have all failed to defeat the Terrahawks. She reveals she has a new store of frozen creatures with even deadlier powers. Cy-star has news of her own; she's having a baby!
• Two for the Price of One
• Child's Play
• Jolly Roger One: Yung-star and Itstar are sent with Captain Goat to run a pirate radion ship to lure the Terrahawks into a trap.
• Runaway
• First Strike: An overzealous general seizes control of the Terrahawks to mount a direct assault on Zelda's Mars base. Ninestein futiley tries to warn him that Zelda and her gang of monsters are too powerful to meet in direct combat. Zelda readies a counter-strike team of Sram, Yuri, Lord Tempo and Yung-star.
• Terratomb
• Doppleganger
• Time Warp
• Space Cyclops
• Operation Zero: Zero is feeling out of sorts and goes in for repairs, but makes a grim discovery; Zelda and her family have infiltrated Hawknest!
• Space Giant: A pair of miners find and capture a Sporilla and take it back to Earth to sell to a shady sideshow owner. Once it's on Earth, Zelda uses her powers to enlarge the monster into an unstoppable giant.
• Cry UFO
• Cold Finger: Zelda enjoins the help of Cold Finger, an alien who plans to conquer Earth by starting another ice age.

[edit] Trivia

• During the end credits, the Zeroid and Cube robots would often "play" noughts and crosses (tic-tac-toe) with each other, resulting in a different winner each week.

• The series' most prolific contributor, Tony Barwick constantly used different, tongue in cheek aliases whenever he wrote a different episode, calling himself, for instance, "Ann Teakstien", and "Felix Catstien"

• A fourth season would have developed the characters of Stew Dapples and Kate Kestrel further. This was explained on the documentary on the special features disc of the series, in the Gerry Anderson book "Supermarionation" and the Terrahawks DVDs, two of the scripts were called "101 Seed" (a parody of the title "Number One Seed"), written by Anderson himself, and "Attempted Moider" by Tony Barwick.

• Kate Kestrel works at "Anderburr Records," a portmanteau of "Anderson" and "Burr."

• The opening title sequence was used in both the United States and the UK, but the ending credits were changed for the US version to showcase a Zeroid bouncing up and down next to a Zelda Cube as a "Kate Kestrel" song plays over the credits, at the credit's conclusion, the Zeroid jumps off of the screen and crashes back down on the Cube.

• When the series was purchased for airing in Japan, the title and ending credits were replaced by an all-new anime-style sequence, the first highlighting the Terrahawk craft and the Zeroids, and the ending credits showcasing a lonesome space suited female remembering her life on Earth as Spacehawk flies over her. Despite the ending credits not making a lick of sense, these sequences are the rarest to find of any Gerry Anderson production. They are now available to view on YouTube.

• In the UK, six specially-prepared compilation tapes of Terrahawks were released, covering 24 out of 26 episodes from the first season. The first tape actually contained a few scenes in the premiere episode that were edited out of the broadcast master due to time constraints (those scenes are not on DVD). The final volume, entitled "Zero's Finest Hour" had a smaller print run than the rest of the tapes, and was quite a collectors' item, with copies generally going for around £100 on eBay until the series began to be released on DVD.

• Unlike virtually all of Gerry Anderson's other puppet-based series, Terrahawks was not produced by ITC Entertainment. This meant that after Terrahawks repeats disappeared from UK airwaves in the late 1980s and the six compilation video tapes went out of print, the series was noticeably hard to find compared to Anderson's other series, most of which received a renaissance throughout the 1990s.

• In the episode "Play it Again, Sram," Kate sings a song called "SOS Mr. Tracy" that serves an insider reference to Thunderbirds.

• The series is available on DVD in the United Kingdom and North America.

[edit] External links

• The Terrahawks Cyber Pages
• Terrahawks.org.uk
• Terrahawks at the Internet Movie Database
• Terrahawks at TV.com

Gerry Anderson
Television
The Adventures of Twizzle | Torchy the Battery Boy | Four Feather Falls | Supercar | Fireball XL5 | Stingray | Thunderbirds | Captain Scarlet | Joe 90 | The Secret Service | UFO | The Protectors | Space: 1999 | Terrahawks | Dick Spanner, P.I. | Space Precinct | Lavender Castle | New Captain Scarlet
Feature Films
Crossroads to Crime | Thunderbirds Are GO | Thunderbird 6 | Doppelgänger
Companies/Techniques
AP Films | Century 21 Productions | Supermarionation
Notable Collaborators
Sylvia Anderson | David Lane | Barry Gray | Reg Hill | Derek Meddings | John Read | Shane Rimmer