Animorphs - Group of teen-age superheroes who change
("morph") into animals on the Scholastic Productions
sci-fi series ANIMORPHS/SYN/1998. Based on the popular kids books
Animorphs written by K.A. Applegate in 1996, the Animorphs battle the evil
Yeerks, a parasitic species from a distant planet who invade a host's
brain and turn them into zombielike robots called "Controllers."
To battle the threat of the Yeerks, a dying alien named Elfangor, a prince
of the Andalites (who crash-landed on Earth) gave five children the power
to morph to prevent the Yeerks from enslaving every human being on the
planet. The Animorphs can become any animal they touch and use their
energy and instincts to resist the invading aliens. The Animorph members
consist of Shawn Ashmore as
Jake; Brooke Nevin as Rachel; Boris Cabrera as Marco; Nadia-Leigh
Nascimento as Cassie; Christopher Ralph as Tobias; and Pauolo Costanzo as
Ax.
Barbapapa - Family of
cuddly, multicolored shape-shifting blobs of ectoplasms featured on the
animated half-hour series BARBAPAPA/SYN/1981. They included the father
Barbapapa, a pink blob; the wife Barbamama, a black blob; and their seven children
Barbabravo, the sporty red blob; Barbabright, the inventive blue blob;
Barbazoo, the yellow animal-loving blob; Barbabeau, the furry, black
artistic blob; Barbabelle, the purple beautiful blob; Barbalala, the green
musical blob; and Barbalib, the orange book-loving blob. The Barbapapa
creatures were created in 1970 by Parisian born Annette Tison, an
architect and San Francisco native, Talus Taylor, a biology mathematics
teacher. The popular French children's book series Barbapapa was
first introduced to the world in the book, Barbapapa. Annette
Tison explains that the origin of the made-up word "Barbabpapa"
is from the french word for cotton-candy.
The
Barbapapa cartoon series was produced by Polyscope (Netherlands) and
syndicated to the U.S. by LBS
Communications. Allen Swift provided the program's narration while Ann
Costello and Alexander Marshall did the character's voices.
Manimal - Privy to
the secrets that "divide man from the animals," Professor
Jonathan Chase (Simon MacCorkindale) metamorphosed into a variety of
animal species on each episode of the police drama/fantasy MANIMAL/NBC/1983.
His powers apparently came from his father, "sole heir to the secret
link that binds man and animal." Working as a consultant for a
special investigative unit of the New York Police Department, Professor
Chase frequently transformed into a snarling black panther (actually a
black leopard). Five leopards were used for the show. Owned by animal
trainer Mark Harden, they included Magic, Dusty, Stormy, Stark and Ivory.
Ivory was used for sitting scenes; Magic for leaping; Dusty hit the mark
for the camera; Stark was a stand-in and Stormy did the snarling scenes.
The cats were paid $1,000 a day.
Maya - Inhabitant of the planet
"Psychon" who joined forces with starlost members of Moon Base
Alpha on the sci-fi series SPACE: 1999/SYN/1975-77. When the Moon was
blown out of Earth's orbit by a nuclear detonation, the members of a
research colony stationed on the lunar surface were thrust into space on a
uncontrollable trajectory. While passing by the planet Psychon, its
evil-minded leader known as Mentor decided to capture the inhabitants of
this runaway moon and drain their minds. However, his daughter Princess
Maya (Catherine Schell) intervened in this diabolical plot and escaped
into space with the earthlings. Grateful for her assistance, Commander
Koenig (Martin Landau) made her a crew member. Maya possessed the power of
molecular transformation. Being a "Metamorph" she could change
herself (for short periods of time) into any form on which she
concentrated. The image of whatever she was turning into could be seen in
her eye's iris immediately before the transformation took place. Maya
debuted during a 1976-77 episode entitled "The Metamorph."
Odo - An amorphous alien with
the ability to change its shape on the sci-fi adventure STAR TREK: DEEP
SPACE NINE/SYN/1993-99. Odo's molecular structure becomes unstable after
holding a shape for more than 16 hours. At this time his body reverts to a
silvery-orange liquid which rests in a bucket-like receptacle until his
body function is energized enough to resume his human form, a form he
assumes while working as space station security head on board the space
station Deep Space Nine. Later in the series, Odo discovered he belonged
to a race of beings called the Dominion. He was one of 100 probes sent out
into the galaxy to gather information and return to the homeworld. Before
he could accomplish his task, he was discovered as an infant in the
Donorious Belt, classified by scientists as a "Unknown Sample"
and later educated by humanoids. In honor of his Bajoran benefactors, he
took on the shape of a biped human and
fashioned his hairstyle after a scientist assigned to study him.
When his species later threatened the security of the Federation of
Planets, Odo chose to side with the "Solids." For this, he was
transformed into a human as a
punishment for killing one of his own kind. Later when a Dominion baby
died in Odo's hands, its remaining life force merged with Odo's molecular
structure and gave him back his abilities to shapeshift. Despite the
Dominion's efforts to entice Odo to "link" with the commonality
of the his changeling race, her refused. He later fell in love with
Bajoran Liaison Officer Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor).
Suliban - Deadly shape-shifting aliens
on the sci-fi adventure ENTERPRISE/UPN/2001+. The Suliban are recurring
villains who debuted on the two-hour pilot episode "Broken Bow"
that aired September 26, 2001. They are a primitive humanoid species from
Sector 3641, but some of their species are obsessed with genetic
enhancement and follow orders from a yet unknown leader situated somewhere
in the near future. The Suliban's initial incursion was to incite a civil
war on the Klingon homeworld. They tried to kill Klaang, a Klingon warrior
who carried genetically encoded information that proved Suliban quilt in
the matter but Starfleet Captain Archer (Scott Bakula) thwarted their
plans. The Suliban's "skeletal restructuring ability" enables
them to turn their arms, legs and wrists 360 degrees and squeeze through
cracks in the wall or slide under doors. Their skin has a pimply texture
yet exhibit chameleon-like qualities. Hence, the Suliban can think their
clothing into being and change themselves into other forms. Essentially,
the Suliban can re-arrange their DNA to do anything. The anatomy of the
rouge Suliban has been drastically altered: five bronchial lobes
instead of three, alveoli clusters modified to process different kinds of
atmospheres, subcutaneous pigment sacs, a bio-mimetic garment, and
compound retinas. Not all the Suliban are enemies, however. A Suliban
female named Sarin exposed a militant group of Suliban called the
"Kabal" lead by Silik who take their orders from the future. They
have received genetic engineering in exchange for their participation in a
temporal cold war. Sadly, Sarin was killed while helping Archer and
company escape. On episode "Cold Front," a Suliban named Silik
(who first appeared on episode "Broken Bow") helped save the
Enterprise from destruction from a fanatical time traveler whose hidden
agenda was to alter the course of history. But can Silik really be
trusted? Luckily, the Suliban bio-signs can be detected on little
hand-held devices operated by Starfleet personnel. Note: The Suliban can
be constrained by force fields.
Ta'ra -
Beautiful blue-eyed, blonde female alien featured on the sci-fi series
SOMETHING IS OUT THERE/NBC/1988. Reluctantly teamed with Jack Breslin (Joe
Cortese), a Los Angeles police detective, Ta'ra (Maryam d'Abo), a medical
officer from the alien prison spaceship Angelon (now destroyed),
desperately sought the capture of a dangerous Xenomorph, a scorpion-shaped
creature (in its natural form) that escaped from her spacecraft and took
refuge on Earth. Tracking the monster was difficult because it camouflaged
itself by taking possession of human bodies (shapeshifting). Ta'ra's
skills with mind-reading and levitation and the detective's knowledge of
Earth gave them an arsenal of weapons to track down the sinister creature
before it killed again. A unique feature of Ta'ra's race were her hands.
On her planet, hands were the focus of sexual activity, so when Jack
attempted to shake her hand, it was an encounter of the no-no kind. When
Ta'ra drank coffee, she got blitzed on the caffeine and began to act like
a drunk. She gets sexually aroused by watching the TV series "Crime
Story" (coincidentally another NBC series). Once when Jack was
staring at Ta'ra's sexy black jumpsuit Ta'ra read his mind and remarked
"You want to do WHAT! with my body?" Retiring for the day, she
sleeps in the nude "I cannot sleep in garments. It would be unnatural
and uncomfortable to me." The Ta'ra character first appeared in the
May 1988 NBC miniseries SOMETHING IS OUR THERE.
Timelords - Technically
advanced society from the Planet Gallifrey in the constellation
Casterborus on the British sci-fi series DOCTOR WHO/BBC/1963-89. Humanoid
in appearance, the Timelords have for centuries monitored the time and
space continuum observing the comings and goings of countless
civilizations. Their domed cities are governed by the Cardinals (Capitol
City is the most prominent). The Timelord's physiology enables them to
have two hearts, two pulses, maintain a body temperature of 60 degrees,
and be able to regenerate themselves through twelve lifetimes. Their main
source of power is the Eye of Harmony, a black stone that gives them the
control over time and space travel. While their main mission in life is to
gather knowledge, they do so without interfering in the lives of other
species. Their established policy of non-intervention was disobeyed by the
eccentric genius, Timelord Doctor Who, who would rather interact with time
than just watch it. Stealing a time machine called a TARDIS, the Doctor
hurtled through the corridors of time on fantastic adventures. The Master
(Roger Delgado) an evil maverick Timelord despairingly remarked of his
race "Know everything, do nothing." TRIVIA NOTE: A similar race
of beings known as "The Watchers" appeared in the Marvel comic
book series The Fantastic Four. See also - "Doctor Who"
and SPY
GUYS & SECRET
ORGANIZATIONS: - "The Watchers"
Ultraman - Alien
from Nebula M-78 in the 40th galaxy on the Japanese syndicated live-action
sci-fi series ULTRAMAN/SYN/1966. As the show's theme song
intoned"...he comes from the sky, watch our hero fly; in a super jet
he comes from a billion miles away; from a distant planet land comes our
hero...Ultraman." Streaking through Earth's atmosphere, this
mysterious alien's spacecraft accidentally collided with a jet plane
belonging to the Scientific Patrol, and killed its pilot, Iota. In an act
of unselfishness, the alien resurrected the dead pilot by merging his own
life force with Iota's body, thus creating...Ultraman, a super-powerful
giant with special karate fighting abilities. As Ioto revived, the alien
communicated the following to his conscious mind. "You and I will
become one and we will fight as one for the peace of Earth for all time to
come. You will remain in your present (human) form, Iota. Whenever you are
in trouble, use the Beta capsule (a cylindrical silver capsule of alien
origin) and you Iota, will become Ultraman." From that point, Iota
lived a double life. Publicly, as a member of the Scientific Patrol and
secretly, as the powerful Ultraman, a towering giant clad in helmet and
flight suit of red blue and silver, who battled Earth's enemies, which
usually turned out to be large reptilian monsters in the tradition of
Godzilla. Despite the tremendous powers endowed to Iota, he could only use
them for short periods of time. A flashing warning light on his costume
alerted him to his draining strength. In 1992, a new syndicated version
ULTRAMAN...TOWARD THE FUTURE was produced in celebration of the show's
25th anniversary.
