HYPERNAUTS
(ABC,
March 1-April 13, 1996)
Greengrass
Productions, Inc., The Hypernauts Production Company, Inc.
MAIN
CAST:
Heidi Lucas – Noriko “Max” Matsuda
Marc Brandon Daniel – Ricardo “Sharkey” Alvarez
Carrie Dobro – Kulai
Lewis Arquette – Horton
Ron Campbell – Paiyin
Evan Brainard – The Gloose
Tony Jay – Opening narration
Babylon 5 was
a hit, due to equal parts the writing and planning by creator J. Michael Straczynski, the
phenomenal cast, and the remarkable visual effects that won Foundation Imaging
an Emmy Award. Foundation co-founder Ron Thornton had worked with
Straczynski before on the previous series Captain Power and the
Soldiers of the Future and convinced him that doing CGI over
traditional models would aid in keeping production costs low.
 |
| The Hypernauts' mech suits. |
However, Babylon was largely
set in a singular location as an additional method to keep costs down. Thornton
wanted to really show what visual effects could accomplish on television and
decided to come up with his own show with a much grander scope. He also wanted
to make something for the kids’ market more akin to the type of shows he grew
up loving, rather than the mindless stock-footage laden fare he found on
television at the time. Thornton partnered with Babylon 5 executive
producer Douglas Netter and
created a 3-minute demo reel which secured them a spot on the ABC network. Finally, he recruited Christy Marx to develop the show’s bible
and flesh out his concepts, having worked with her previously on Captain
Power and Babylon.
One of the VHS covers depicting the Hypernauts' base, Star Ranger 7.
The resulting show was Hypernauts.
Three cadets (cut down from five by network request) from the Academy of
Galactic Exploration who are sent on a disciplinary mission. They ended up lost
in a hyper bubble (aka hyperspace) and landed in an unfamiliar part of the
galaxy. They want to go home, but are unable to do so without allowing the
sinister warlike race known as the Triiad to follow
them. The Triiad’s sole desire was to wipe out intelligent races and raze
conquered planets for the material to create new war machines and automated self-replicating
factor ships called “Makers.” Their greatest asset was their anonymity; nobody
knew who or what the Triiad was, nor found any reason to believe they existed
until it was too late.
 |
| Our heroes: Ace, Kulai, Sharkey and Max. |
The Hypernauts were comprised of
Russel “Ace” Antonov (Glenn Herman), an ace pilot in either a ship or their mech suits,
who was being punished for using the simulation trainer to play war games;
Noriko “Max” Matsuda (Heidi Lucas), the team medic who joined against the
wishes and beliefs of her people, the isolationist and xenophobic Caduceus
Enclave, and was punished for making unauthorized calls to her sister; and
Ricardo “Sharkey” Alvarez (Marc Brandon Daniel), the engineer and computer
technician that suffered from claustrophobia due to childhood trauma, who was
being punished for hacking the Academy’s mainframe. They took up residence in
an abandoned space station, Star Ranger 7, which was occupied by the
onboard computer AI, Horton (Lewis Arquette).
 |
| The Gloose, part puppet, part CGI. |
The Hypernauts met
and befriended Kulai (Carrie Dobro, who appeared on Babylon), the last
spiritual leader (or “Chalim”) from the planet Pryus. The spiritual leaders of
her race are long-lived (centuries) and are necessary for the psychic bond that
united all Pryans to keep the members of the race strong, healthy and able to
procreate. She used her long life of experience to help mentor and guide The
Hypernauts in their conflict with the Triiad. They also adopted a three-legged
alien they found on a decimated planet, The Gloose (operated by Evan Brainard).
Their primary foe was Paiyin (Ron Campbell), a Pryan who joined forces with the
Triiad and led to the destruction of their home world.
 |
| The evil Paiyin. |
Hypernauts (known as Voyager
in Japan) debuted on ABC mid-season on March 1, 1996. The series had a
tremendous sci-fi pedigree behind it as the members of the crew were plucked
from various franchises in the genre, including many from Babylon. Brainard
designed a simplified mechanism for Gloose’s head motions based on the ones he
utilized for the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park (this ate up a huge chunk of
the show’s budget, but they felt it was worth the investment). In keeping with
the intention of the show’s creation, a great number of the sets were CGI along
with the machinery. A typical episode could have upwards of 100 effects
shots--nearly as much as a feature-length movie. Along with Marx, writers for
the show included Katherine
Lawrence, Larry
DiTillio, Richard
Mueller, Len Wein, J. Larry Carroll, David Bennett Carren, and Star Trek veteran D.C. Fontana, with music
composed by Christopher Franke. The
special make-up effects were designed by Optic Nerve Studios (now Alchemy Studios).
 |
| The cast with developer Christy Marx. |
Once the season was wrapped,
pre-production work began on a second season that would never be. Despite all
the cast and crew’s efforts to make a quality show that didn’t talk down to
their intended audience simply because it was on Saturday morning, the show’s
days were ultimately numbered from the outset. When it was set to air, Disney had just finalized
its purchase of ABC and would soon begin purging all of the content not
from the studio off of the network. Ultimately, ABC decided to speed things
along by ending the show before the final five episodes were aired.
Interestingly enough, The
Disney Channel would air several episodes edited together into a single
movie for a time. The largely-forgotten series has only seen several
VHS releases outside of the United States from Von VPS Video. It also
received a nomination for the Writers Guild
of America Award for Lawrence’s script.
 |
| The Triiad attacks. |
Despite changing the look of sci-fi
forever and making Lightwave 3D an
industry standard throughout the 1990s, Foundation found itself in dire straits
when Netter started his own effects company, Netter Digital Entertainment,
and convinced the Babylon production that they could do their effects
cheaper using the same equipment and techniques. Foundation was ousted for Babylon’s
final two seasons, films and spin-off series, Crusade. Fortunately,
Foundation was able to secure a spot working on Star Trek: Voyager and
Star Trek: Deep Space
Nine. With the end of Crusade, Netter attempted to stay afloat
working on the animated series Dan Dare, Max
Steel and Robotech
3000, but ended up folding in 2000 and replaced by Foundation in a bit
of karmic irony. Unfortunately, Foundation found themselves out of business as
well the following year.
EPISODE
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