Terrahawks

Terrahawks
Genre Science fiction (alien invasion), action, adventure, children's television
Created by Gerry Anderson and Christopher Burr
Written by Gerry Anderson, Tony Barwick, Donald James, Trevor Lansdowne
Directed by Tony Bell, Tony Lenny, Alan Pattillo, Desmond Saunders
Voices of Denise Bryer, Windsor Davies, Jeremy Hitchen, Anne Ridler, Robbie Stevens, Moya Griffiths (Kate Kestrel's singing voice only)
Composer(s) Richard Harvey, Lionel Robinson, Gerry Anderson, Christopher Burr
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of series 3
No. of episodes 39 (list of episodes)
Production
Producer(s) Gerry Anderson and Christopher Burr
Editor(s) Tony Lenny
Camera setup Single
Running time 25 mins approx.
Production company(s) Anderson Burr Pictures
Release
Original network ITV
Picture format Film (16 and 35 mm)
Audio format Mono
Original release 3 October 1983 (1983-10-03) – 26 July 1986 (1986-07-26)

Gerry Anderson & Christopher Burr's Terrahawks, usually referred to simply as Terrahawks, is a 1980s British science fiction television series produced by Anderson Burr Pictures and created by the production team of Gerry Anderson and Christopher Burr. The show was Anderson's first in over a decade to use puppets for its characters, and also his last. Anderson's previous puppet-laden TV series included Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.[1]

Set in the year 2020, the series followed the adventures of the Terrahawks, a taskforce responsible for protecting Earth from invasion by a group of extraterrestrial androids and aliens led by Zelda. Like Anderson's previous puppet series, futuristic vehicles and technology featured prominently in each episode.

History

Prior to Terrahawks and throughout the entirety of the 1960s, Anderson's series were noted for their use of his patented Supermarionation technique, which made use of electronically augmented marionettes (the final series to use this technique was the live action/Supermarionation hybrid The Secret Service in 1969; Anderson switched to live action production beginning with 1970's UFO). In contrast, producers of Terrahawks made use of latex muppet-style hand puppets to animate the characters, in a process Anderson dubbed Supermacromation.

This was partly dictated by the relatively low budget (latex hand puppets being much cheaper to produce than the sculpted wooden marionettes of previous series), but the absence of strings allowed for much smoother movement, and could be used to more easily produce the illusion of the puppets walking. The necessarily static puppets of previous series had been a source of frustration to Anderson during his Supermarionation days.

Production

The series' most prolific contributor, Tony Barwick, constantly used tongue-in-cheek aliases whenever he wrote a different episode, calling himself, for instance, "Anne Teakstein," and "Felix Catstein." (He was not alone in this; Donald James wrote the episodes "From Here To Infinity" and "The Sporilla" under the names "Katz Stein" and "Leo Pardstein" respectively.) The only episodes of the series not credited to pseudonyms ending in "-stein" are "The Midas Touch," scripted by Trevor Lansdowne and Tony Barwick, the latter billed under his real name for the only time on the series, and the two-part opener "Expect The Unexpected," written by Gerry Anderson.

A fourth season would have developed the characters of Stew Dapples ("Stewed Apples") and Kate Kestrel further. This was explained in a 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 (as "Gerry Anderstein"), and "Attempted MOIDer" by Tony Barwick (alias in this case D.I. Skeistein).

In the UK, six specially-prepared compilations of Terrahawks were released on video cassette, covering 24 out of 26 episodes from the first season. The first tape contained a few scenes in the premiere episode that had been edited out of the broadcast master due to time constraints (those scenes are not on DVD). The final volume, entitled "Zero Strikes Back" 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. The series is available on DVD in the United Kingdom and North America. A Blu Ray release of the first series is to be released in June of 2016.

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 production, the series was noticeably hard to find compared to Anderson's other series, most of which received a renaissance throughout the 1990s.

Title sequence and end credits

The opening and closing sequences were created using hand-drawn cel animation to imitate computer graphics. 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 Cubes usually had to cheat and steal a Zeroid's position in order to win). The exception to this was the episode "A Christmas Miracle", which featured the song "I Believe in Christmas" as sung by Kate Kestrel played over a still of a Zeroid.

The original opening title sequence was used for both the United States and the UK versions of the series, but a different version of the end credits was produced for the US variant, featuring a Zeroid bouncing up and down next to one of Zelda's Cubes as a "Kate Kestrel" song plays. At the conclusion of the credits the Zeroid jumps off of the screen and crashes back down onto the Cube.

When the series was purchased for airing in Japan, the title and ending credits were augmented by an all-new anime-style sequence, the first highlighting the Terrahawks craft and the Zeroids, and the ending credits showcasing a lonesome spacesuited female remembering her life on Earth as Spacehawk flies over her. The songs used in these sequences are "Galactica Thrilling" (ギャラクティカ・スリリング Gyarakutika Suriringu) and "Taisetsu na One Word" (大切な言葉(ワン・ワード) Taisetsu na Wan Wādo, "One Important Word"), respectively, by The Lillies Naomi and Mayumi Tsubame.


Audio revival

It was announced on 19 April 2014[2][3] that Terrahawks will be returning as a run of full cast audio dramas featuring original cast members. The new audio series are produced by Anderson Entertainment in association with Big Finish Productions. The first new series was released in April 2015, and consists of eight episodes. Ann Ridler who played Kate Kestrel and Cy-Star was replaced by Beth Chalmers, and Windsor Davies who played Sergeant Major Zero was replaced by Jeremy Hitchen.

A second series was commissioned by Big Finish Productions for release in April 2016.

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 organisation, The Terrahawks, is set up to defend the planet. From Hawknest, their secret base in South America, they develop sophisticated weapons to prepare for the battles to come.

Terrahawks was less straight-faced than any of Anderson's previous series, featuring a wry, tongue-in-cheek humour as well as dramatic jeopardy. The ensemble cast, with each member assigned a vehicle, had many similarities with Anderson's Thunderbirds, whilst the alien invasion plot was reminiscent of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and the live action UFO.

The Terrahawks

Terrahawks (technically, the Earth Defense Squadron) is an elite task force that protects Earth from alien invasion.

Sergeant Major Zero action figure by Bandai

Terrahawks vehicles

Aliens

Robots ("androids") from the planet Guk rebelled when their creators and masters deteriorated into a state of apathy. Zelda and company are modelled after the oldest and wisest citizens of their planet, explaining their grey hair and wrinkled skin. Zelda hopes to conquer Earth and make it a home for her Family of Androids and NONE-Human Beings. They need to consume only small amounts of silicate minerals a month to sustain their functions.

Zelda's monsters

Zelda possesses a collection of monstrous servants, Outcasts from various world or Civilizations, who she keeps in cryogenic storage until needed.

Spin offs

Video game

The CRL game of the series, released in 1984, was one of the first video games based on a TV show.[5]

Zeroids Vs Cubes

On 10 December 2014, an animated spin-off web series was announced titled Zeroids Vs Cubes.[6] It is being produced by IDO Design & Animation and Anderson Entertainment and will come to YouTube in 2015.[7] Both Jeremy Hitchen and Robbie Stevens will reprise their roles as the Sergeant Major Zero and Space Sergeant 101.[8]

Episodes

The first episode aired on 19 June 2015.[9]

Ep. # Title Director Writer Air Date Production Code
1"Party[9]"Dave LowDave Low19 June 2015 (2015-06-19)01
Sergeant Major Zero and Space Sergeant 101 decide to have a party themed around the 80s.

References

External links

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