VR Troopers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| VR Troopers | |
|---|---|
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| Format | Action-Adventure-Drama |
| Created by | Haim Saban |
| Starring | Brad Hawkins Michael Bacon Sarah Brown Gardner Baldwin Julian Combs Richard Rabago Michael Sorich Aaron Pruner Kerrigan Mahan Zeb |
| Country of origin | United States/Japan |
| No. of episodes | 92 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 25 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | first-run syndication |
| Original run | September 3, 1994 – January 21, 1996 |
| External links | |
| IMDb profile | |
VR Troopers (Virtual Reality Troopers) was a syndicated live action show produced by Saban (creators of the similar Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series) from 1994 to 1996. The show tried to profit from the short-lived Virtual Reality fad of the 1990s as well as the success of Power Rangers.
The show featured early CGI and video effects mixed with Japanese stock footage from three different "Metal Heroes" series: Super Machine Man Metalder, Dimensional Warrior Spielban, and Space Sheriff Shaider. This kind of adaptation technique, turning multiple shows into one show, was originally used in anime with shows like Robotech and Voltron. This was the first and only time this was used for a tokusatsu adaptation.
The series was deemed successful, but not as successful as the Power Rangers franchise. Unfortunately, for the series, the Japanese footage was quickly exhausted due to extreme cases where multiple tokusatsu scenes were put together in a single episode to the point stock footage had to be reused multiple times throughout the series. Similarly, another Saban program, Big Bad Beetleborgs, would do well but ultimately end quickly due to a lack of stock footage. Both series were adapted from the Japanese Metal Hero genre, which ended in Japan around the same time. The show spawned a toyline and a videogame for the Sega Genesis.
Contents |
Plot
Saban's VR Troopers was the first official "sister series" to the most popular "action fighting kid show" at the time, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. Much like it, this was an Americanization of a Japanese special effects children's program by Toei Company LTD.
The show focused on three young adults in their late teens, Ryan Steele, Kaitlin Star, and J.B. Reese, living in the fictional West Coast town of Cross World City. They regularly attended and were teachers at "Tao's Dojo", a karate studio. Ryan was the most focused martial artist; J.B. was the computer wizard; while Kaitlin was a photographer & budding reporter for the local newspaper, the Underground Voice Daily. One day, Ryan's search for his long-missing father led him and his two friends to a strange laboratory. Inside, a digitized head of Professor Horatio Hart, a friend of Ryan's father Tyler, explained the truth about his life's work of having developed extremely advanced virtual reality technology in secret. "VR" is a dimension existing alongside our own; within it lie mutants and monsters bent on conquering both worlds. The main ruler of these is a creature known as Grimlord, who, unbeknowst to anyone on Earth, has a human identity as billionaire industrialist Karl Ziktor. As Karl Ziktor tries to overcome the barriers of the true reality to allow his armies easy passage from virtual world, the responsibility falls to Ryan, Kaitlin, and J.B. of defending the planet on both sides of the dimensional barrier. They have assistance in the form of armored bodies having incredible firepower. This included eventual additions to their arsenal, such as a Turbo Cycle, Techno Bazooka, and a flying, laser-blasting Skybase.
Other regular characters on the show included Jeb, Ryan's hound dog, who, after an accident in Prof. Hart's lab, is now capable of human speech; Woody Stocker, Kaitlin's wacky hat-loving boss at the Underground Voice Daily; Percy Rooney, the local mayor's nephew and Kaitlin's bumbling rival reporter; and Tao, the wise martial arts sensei who owns the dojo and a family friend of the Steele Family. Recurring villains include General Ivar, a vicious rocket-shaped monster with his own tank; Colonel Icebot, a cold-blooded virtual menace; Decimator, a sword-wielding warrior; the Skugs, gold-headed foot soldiers, and more throughout.
During the second season, the show changed format very slightly. Ryan's father was finally found, though he did not remain safe for long. With him came an upgrade to Ryan's V.R. armor and powers. Grimlord's base of operation switched from a dungeon to a massive spacecraft, and added new Generals such as DoomMaster and his Vixens, Oraclon, and Despera. The Skugs now had the ability to become more powerful in the form of Ultra-Skugs.
Cast
Cybertron
The show was originally called Cybertron, but was changed to VR Troopers later because of a copyright issue with Hasbro {"Cybertron" being the name of the title characters' home planet in the various Transformers properties). The production studio kept the name Cybertron Productions for the show's lifespan, similar to how Power Rangers kept the name of its original season ("MMPR Productions") until it closed in 2002. Jason David Frank was originally cast in the part of Ryan Steele. However, he had to withdraw due to his popularity on Power Rangers, prompting a return to that series. The theme to Cybertron would be reworked and became the Green Ranger theme ('Go Green Ranger Go') on Power Rangers.
He filmed one episode back when the show was known as Cybertron. At the time, Frank's character was called Adam Steele.[1] Rough promotional reels of Cybertron drew its source footage from Metalder. Adam Steele was depicted as a solo hero going up against an entire army of sentient robots known as War Drones who were led by the evil Grimlord. Grimlord's alternate identity in the pilot was known as Cyrus Riktor (Gardner Baldwin) who also had a son named Percy Riktor, Adam's martial arts rival. Tao Chong (Richard Rabago) was also present, but played a more vital role in the show. Tao was not only Adam's caretaker and sensei, he also served the role of Cybertron's mentor; this was dropped and the character Professor Hart occupied the role. Tao also had a daughter named Mia, and Doug Sloan played the part of Tyler Steele. Also featured were a pair of bumbling news reporters named Elmo (played by Jamie Kennedy) and Scuzzy, who would've served as the series' comedy relief.
Production
According to early VR Troopers promotions, Kaitlin had a different last name. Instead of "Star", her surname was referred to as "Hall". Also in these early promos (seen at the beginning of many Power Rangers home videos), Professor Hart was played by a different actor, and had an entirely different voice and personality than the Professor that was later used.
Like Power Rangers, VR Troopers used a combination of American footage spliced with fight scenes from Japanese shows. The Japanese shows adapted in to VR Troopers are Space Sheriff Shaider, Dimensional Warrior Spielban, and Super Machine Metalder. All three come from Toei's Metal Heroes series. Specifically, Ryan's first season suit was that from Metalder and his second season suit was from Space Sheriff Shaider. Both JB's and Kaitlin's suits came from Spielban.
Out of all of Saban's tokusatsu adaptations, VR Troopers uses the oldest source-footage of any series. Shaider was aired from 1984 to early 1985, making it 11 years old when first used for VR Troopers in 1994; Spielban was aired from 1986 to early 1987, making it eight years old when originally used in 1994; and Metalder was originally aired in 1987, making it seven years old when it was adapted in 1994.
Because more than one Japanese show was used in an episode at any given time, Ryan's alter-ego was never in the same action scene as JB or Kaitlin's (since they were taken from two different shows). Due to this, many episodes involved some sort of plot device that separated Ryan from the other two, forcing them to fight separately. Almost every episode ended with either Ryan or JB destroying the monster of the day (Kaitlin never got to destroy any on her own), at which point his missing comrade(s) would come running up to inquire how the fight went. The only time the group fought "together" was all original American footage.
VR Troopers as an adaptation is different in many ways from Power Rangers and Big Bad Beetleborgs. Because it was syndicated, the monsters were destroyed more violently; mutant/robot destructions included the monster being split in half, impaled, and decapitated. None of the VR Trooper forms were given names since none of them had one main color.
The show lasted two seasons (1994-'95 and '95-'96) with nearly 100 episodes before it was cancelled in favor of Big Bad Beetleborgs, which continued to use footage from the Metal Heroes shows Juukou B-Fighter and B-Fighter Kabuto.
The series was cancelled because all the fight footage was used up. All three of the Metal Hero shows used in the series had a lot of human vs. human battles. However, because the fights featured close-ups of Japanese actors, it was deemed unusable. Distance shots were usable in some of the fights, and battles with the monster footage were also kind of limited (splicing up to 2-3 episodes), but otherwise such footage was limited. In addition, because many episodes of fight footage from Metalder/Shaider and Spielban were being used in a single episode, the footage ran out faster.
In Season 1, the show would open with the traditional "Today on Saban's VR Troopers" teaser, showing scenes from the episode and narrated by a general announcer. After the "Quest For Power" mini-series in Season 2, however, Ryan, Kaitlin, or J.B. took over the part and narrated the teaser (and in the first-person to boot).
Various voice actors were listed under different pseudonyms in this series. For example, in the Season 1 end credits, Kerrigan Mahan was credited under his pseudonym, Ryan O'Flannigan (which was also the name credited for doing the voice of Goldar in the early seasons of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers); in Season 2, he would be credited under his real name and was properly identified as Jeb's voiceover. Likewise, Richard Epcar was occasionally listed in the end credits under a pseudonym of his own, Richard George (although he was credited under his real name for the first two episodes of the series), and Mike Reynolds was credited under the name Ray Michaels.
Episodes
Season 1
| Title | Original Airdate | # |
|---|---|---|
| "The Battle Begins, Part One" | September 3, 1994 | 1 |
| "The Battle Begins, Part Two" | September 10, 1994 | 2 |
| "Error in the System" | September 14, 1994 | 3 |
| "Lost Memories" | September 15, 1994 | 4 |
| "Battle For the Books" | September 16, 1994 | 5 |
| "Oh Brother" | September 19, 1994 | 6 |
| "Grimlord's Challenge" | September 20, 1994 | 7 |
| "Computer Captive" | September 21, 1994 | 8 |
| "Kaitlin's Little Helper" | September 22, 1994 | 9 |
| "The Virtual Spy" | September 23, 1994 | 10 |
| "The Virtual V-6" | September 26, 1994 | 11 |
| "No One's Friend" | September 27, 1994 | 12 |
| "Dogmatic Change" | September 28, 1994 | 13 |
| "Searching For Tyler Steele" | September 30, 1994 | 14 |
| "Save the Trees" | October 3, 1994 | 15 |
| "A Dirty Trick" | October 4, 1994 | 16 |
| "Kaitlin's Front Page" | October 5, 1994 | 17 |
| "The Dognapping" | October 7, 1994 | 18 |
| "My Dog's Girlfriend" | October 10, 1994 | 19 |
| "Digging For Fire" | October 11, 1994 | 20 |
| "The Great Brain Robbery" | October 12, 1994 | 21 |
| "The Dojo Plot" | October 14, 1994 | 22 |
| "Grimlord's Greatest Hits" | October 19, 1994 | 23 |
| "The Disappearance" | October 25, 1994 | 24 |
| "Nightmares" | October 31, 1994 | 25 |
| "Secret Admirer" | November 3, 1994 | 26 |
| "Grimlord's House of Fear" | November 4, 1994 | 27 |
| "Three Strikes" | November 7, 1994 | 28 |
| "Danger in the Deep" | November 8, 1994 | 29 |
| "Small But Mighty" | November 9, 1994 | 30 |
| "Defending Dark Heart, Part One" | November 14, 1994 | 31 |
| "Defending Dark Heart, Part Two" | November 15, 1994 | 32 |
| "Defending Dark Heart, Part Three" | November 16, 1994 | 33 |
| "Defending Dark Heart, Part Four" | November 17, 1994 | 34 |
| "Ghost Biker" | November 18, 1994 | 35 |
| "Endangered Species" | November 21, 1994 | 36 |
| "Field Goal" | November 22, 1994 | 37 |
| "The Littlest Trooper" | November 23, 1994 | 38 |
| "The Reality Virus" | November 29, 1994 | 39 |
| "Friends in Need" | November 30, 1994 | 40 |
| "Good Trooper, Bad Trooper" | February 6, 1995 | 41 |
| "The Transmutant" | February 7, 1995 | 42 |
| "Who's King of the Mountain?" | February 8, 1995 | 43 |
| "The Couch Potato Kid" | February 9, 1995 | 44 |
| "The Old Switcharoo" | February 10, 1995 | 45 |
| "Race to the Rescue" | February 13, 1995 | 46 |
| "Fiddler on the Loose" | February 14, 1995 | 47 |
| "Virtually Powerless" | February 15, 1995 | 48 |
| "New Kids on the Planet" | February 20, 1995 | 49 |
| "Message From Space" | February 22, 1995 | 50 |
| "The Rise of the Red Python, Part One" | February 27, 1995 | 51 |
| "The Rise of the Red Python, Part Two" | February 28, 1995 | 52 |
Season 2
| Title | Original Airdate | # |
|---|---|---|
| "Mutant Mutiny" | September 11, 1995 | 53 |
| "Trooper Out of Time" | September 12, 1995 | 54 |
| "Secret Power" | September 13, 1995 | 55 |
| "Quest For Power, Part One" | September 18, 1995 | 56 |
| "Quest For Power, Part Two" | September 19, 1995 | 57 |
| "Quest For Power, Part Three" | September 20, 1995 | 58 |
| "Quest For Power, Part Four" | September 21, 1995 | 59 |
| "Quest For Power, Part Five" | September 22, 1995 | 60 |
| "Fashion Victims" | September 25, 1995 | 61 |
| "Game Over" | September 26, 1995 | 62 |
| "Watered Down" | September 27, 1995 | 63 |
| "The Negative Factor" | October 2, 1995 | 64 |
| "Kaitlin Through the Looking Glass, Part One" | October 3, 1995 | 65 |
| "Kaitlin Through the Looking Glass, Part Two" | October 4, 1995 | 66 |
| "Kaitlin Goes Hollywood" | October 9, 1995 | 67 |
| "Grimlord Takes Root" | October 10, 1995 | 68 |
| "The Disk" | October 11, 1995 | 69 |
| "Virtual Venom" | October 16, 1995 | 70 |
| "New World Order" | October 17, 1995 | 71 |
| "Grimlord's Children" | October 18, 1995 | 72 |
| "The Millennium Sabre" | October 24, 1995 | 73 |
| "Grimlord's Dark Secret, Part One" | November 2, 1995 | 74 |
| "Grimlord's Dark Secret, Part Two" | November 3, 1995 | 75 |
| "On the Wrong Track" | November 6, 1995 | 76 |
| "Forward Into the Past" | November 7, 1995 | 77 |
| "Into Oraclon's Web" | November 8, 1995 | 78 |
| "Santa's Secret Trooper" | November 13, 1995 | 79 |
| "The Charmeeka Invasion" | November 14, 1995 | 80 |
| "Dream Battle" | November 15, 1995 | 81 |
| "A Hard Day's Mutant" | November 20, 1995 | 82 |
| "Magnetic Attraction" | November 21, 1995 | 83 |
| "Get Me to the Lab on Time" | November 27, 1995 | 84 |
| "Grimlord's Big Breakout" | November 28, 1995 | 85 |
| "Field and Scream" | February 5, 1996 | 86 |
| "The Duplitron Dilemma" | February 6, 1996 | 87 |
| "Despera Strikes Back" | February 7, 1996 | 88 |
| "The Ghost of Cross World Forest" | February 12, 1996 | 89 |
| "Grimlord's Dummy" | February 13, 1996 | 90 |
| "Time Out" | February 20, 1996 | 91 |
| "Galileo's New Memory" | February 21, 1996 | 92 |
See also
VHS & DVD Release
In the US 5 VHS videos were released: Lost Memories, Oh Brother, Computer Captive, Error in the System and Virtual V6.
In the UK 4 DVDs were released by Jetix Films. They included 3 single disc Volumes and a Mega Disc DVD that contained 8 various episodes that were released across the first 3 Volumes. At this time there are no plans for a US DVD release.
External Links
- VR Troopers at the Internet Movie Database
- TVShowsOnDVD.com, vote for VR Troopers to be released onto DVD.
- Toku Central, a fansite for American, Japanese and other Toku related shows.
- Henshin! Talk, a message board to discuss Superhero shows.
References
- ^ May 1994 issue of Disney Adventures
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