Terrahawks
Encyclopedia
Gerry Anderson & Christopher Burr's Terrahawks, simply referred to as Terrahawks, was a 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 utilize puppets for its characters; to date, it is also his last. Anderson's previous puppet-laden TV series included Thunderbirds
and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
.
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.
technique, which made use of electronically augmented marionette
s (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.
'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 opening titles began with a Defender-style computer game which is interrupted by Ninestein who declares an emergency. The remainder of the sequence features the key Terrahawks craft and their respective pilots. 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 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 and , respectively, by The Lillies Naomi and Mayumi Tsubame.
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 actually 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'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. The series is available on DVD
in the United Kingdom
and North America
.
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.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television series produced by Anderson Burr Pictures and created by the production team of Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson MBE is a British publisher, producer, director and writer, famous for his futuristic television programmes, particularly those involving specially modified marionettes, a process called "Supermarionation"....
and Christopher Burr. The show was Anderson's first in over a decade to utilize puppets for its characters; to date, it is also his last. Anderson's previous puppet-laden TV series included Thunderbirds
Thunderbirds (TV series)
Thunderbirds is a British mid-1960s science fiction television show devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and made by AP Films using a form of marionette puppetry dubbed "Supermarionation"...
and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, often referred to as Captain Scarlet, is a 1960s British science-fiction television series produced by the Century 21 Productions company of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, John Read and Reg Hill...
.
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
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
led by Zelda. Like Anderson's previous puppet series, futuristic vehicles and technology featured prominently in each episode.
Background
Prior to Terrahawks and throughout the entirety of the 1960s, Anderson's series were noted for their use of his patented SupermarionationSupermarionation
Supermarionation is a puppetry technique devised in the 1960s by British production company AP Films. It was used extensively in the company's numerous Gerry and Sylvia Anderson-produced action-adventure series, the most famous of which was Thunderbirds...
technique, which made use of electronically augmented marionette
Marionette
A marionette is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a manipulator. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control bar in different forms...
s (the final series to use this technique was the live action
Live action
In filmmaking, video production, and other media, the term live action refers to cinematography, videography not produced using animation...
/Supermarionation hybrid The Secret Service
The Secret Service
The Secret Service is a British children's espionage television series, made as a Century 21 production for ITC Entertainment and broadcast in 1969...
in 1969; Anderson switched to live action production beginning with 1970's UFO
UFO (TV series)
UFO is a 1970-1971 British television science fiction series about an alien invasion of Earth, created by Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson with Reg Hill, and produced by the Andersons and Lew Grade's Century 21 Productions for Grade's ITC Entertainment company.UFO first aired in the UK and Canada...
). In contrast, producers of Terrahawks made use of latex
Latex
Latex is the stable dispersion of polymer microparticles in an aqueous medium. Latexes may be natural or synthetic.Latex as found in nature is a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants . It is a complex emulsion consisting of proteins, alkaloids, starches, sugars, oils, tannins, resins,...
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.
Premise
The series is set in the year 2020, after an alien force has destroyed NASANASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
base and Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
is under threat. A small organisation, The Terrahawks, is set up to defend the planet. From Hawknest, their secret base in South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, 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
Thunderbirds (TV series)
Thunderbirds is a British mid-1960s science fiction television show devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and made by AP Films using a form of marionette puppetry dubbed "Supermarionation"...
, whilst the alien invasion plot was reminiscent of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, often referred to as Captain Scarlet, is a 1960s British science-fiction television series produced by the Century 21 Productions company of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, John Read and Reg Hill...
and the live action UFO
UFO (TV series)
UFO is a 1970-1971 British television science fiction series about an alien invasion of Earth, created by Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson with Reg Hill, and produced by the Andersons and Lew Grade's Century 21 Productions for Grade's ITC Entertainment company.UFO first aired in the UK and Canada...
.
The Terrahawks
Terrahawks (technically, the Earth Defense Squadron) is an elite task force that protects Earth from alien invasion.- Doctor "Tiger" Ninestein (real first name unknown): The team's leader, so named as he is the ninth clone created by Dr. Gerhard Stein. Somewhat bloodthirsty, his first reaction to alien contact is often to blast it out of the sky. In between alien attacks, he's often seen trying (and failing) to beat the high score on his favourite video-game. Ninestein's catchphrase is, "I have a theory...", and when frustrated he often cries, "Flaming thunderbolts!" If he is killed, he can be replaced within 24 hours by another of the nine clones; his nickname of "Tiger" comes from the myth of catCatThe cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
s similarly having "nine lives". Tiger's voice was provided by Jeremy Hitchen, which according to Hitchen is done in somewhat of an imitation of Jack NicholsonJack NicholsonJohn Joseph "Jack" Nicholson is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is renowned for his often dark portrayals of neurotic characters. Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times, and has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice: for One Flew Over the...
. - Captain Mary Falconer: Battlehawk's pilot. She acts as Ninestein's second-in-command, weighing his offensive tendencies with her own regard for the value of life...whether in regards to one of Zelda's henchmen, or to the Zeroids. She was voiced by Denise BryerDenise BryerDenise Bryer is an English voice actress.Bryer voiced Billina in Disney's 1985 film Return to Oz, as well as The Junk Lady in the 1986 movie Labyrinth, and many other films. In addition to her work voice acting in film and television she also worked extensively on UK radio and children's recordings...
. - Captain Kate Kestrel (real name: Katherine Westley): The pilot of the Hawkwing fighter aircraftFighter aircraftA fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...
, Kate is also an internationally famous popPop musicPop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
singer. Her record company is "Anderburr Records" - a portmanteau of "Anderson" and "Burr." She was voiced by Anne RidlerAnne RidlerAnne Barbara Ridler OBE was a British poet, and Faber and Faber editor, selecting the Faber A Little Book of Modern Verse with T. S. Eliot . Her Collected Poems were published in 1994...
when speaking; Moya Griffiths provided her singing voice. - Lieutenant Hawkeye (real name: Hedley Howard Henderson III): The Hawkwing's gunnerAir gunnerAn air gunner a.k.a. aerial gunner is a member of an air force aircrew who operates flexible-mount or turret-mounted machine guns or autocannons in an aircraft...
. Due to a track-and-field accident, his eyes have been replaced with micro-computers that enhance his targeting abilities. When given an order, he always replies "aye-aye" as a pun on his name. Hawkeye's voice was provided by Ben StevensBen StevensBen Stevens is an American politician and former President of the Alaska State Senate. He is a Republican and the son of former United States Senator Ted Stevens, the longest serving Republican in United States Senate history.- Career :...
. - Lieutenant Hiro (full name unknown): The commander of the Spacehawk, Hiro keeps a large collection of flowers to which he gives names and reads poetry. His thick JapaneseJapanese languageis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
accent is sometimes a source of humour. Hiro was voiced by Jeremy Hitchen.
- Zeroids: Spherical robots that perform ground operations and serve as the firepower for the Spacehawk. 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 DaviesWindsor DaviesWindsor Davies is a British actor, well known for playing the part of Battery Sergeant Major Williams in the 1970s/1980s British sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum.-Early life and career:...
), commands the Zeroids stationed on Earth, while Space Sergeant 101 (voiced by Ben Stevens) 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 FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and has a handlebar moustacheHandlebar moustacheA handlebar moustache is a moustache with particularly lengthy, upward curved, extremities. It is named for its resemblance to the handlebars of a bicycle. It is also known as a "spaghetti moustache", because of its stereotypical association with Italian men...
, and 55, who bobs up and down in rhyme. They can increase their mass (becoming as heavy as a black holeBlack holeA black hole is a region of spacetime from which nothing, not even light, can escape. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will deform spacetime to form a black hole. Around a black hole there is a mathematically defined surface called an event horizon that...
), which allows them to perform devastating body-crash manoeuvres. This is often accompanied by a cry of "St-roll on!" - Colonel Johnson (first name unknown): The head of WASA (World Aeronautics & Space Administration). Ostensibly Terrahawks' co-director, his authority is constantly overridden by Ninestein. Colonel Johnson's voice was provided by Jeremy Hitchen.
Terrahawks vehicles
- The Battlehawk - A heavy-duty carrier aircraftCargo aircraftA cargo aircraft is a fixed-wing aircraft designed or converted for the carriage of goods, rather than passengers. They are usually devoid of passenger amenities, and generally feature one or more large doors for the loading and unloading of cargo...
which transports the Zeroids, the Megazoid-manned Battletank for heavy support, and other auxiliary equipment. The Battlehawk is hangared directly below the Hawknest mansion; the building opens out to allow the Battlehawk to launch and land. Captain Mary Falconer usually flies it. - The Terrahawk - A flying command centre which can detach from the main body of the Battlehawk. This is Dr. Ninestein's personal ship; it is aboard its cockpit that he usually plays his favourite video-game.
- The Hawkwing - A fighter aircraft with a separate over-wing which can be released to act as a flying impact bomb. The Hawkwing launches along a narrow tunnel which leads under the ocean. A mechanically-generated vortexVortexA vortex is a spinning, often turbulent,flow of fluid. Any spiral motion with closed streamlines is vortex flow. The motion of the fluid swirling rapidly around a center is called a vortex...
pushes the water away from the tunnel exit allowing the aircraft to leave. The aircraft can split into two independent fighters. The overwing is fitted with a massive Particle Accelerator Cannon, whilst the smaller narrower main craft is fitted with laser lancers. Captain Kate Kestrel and Lieutenant Hawkeye are its joint pilots. - The Treehawk - A single-stage-to-orbitSingle-stage-to-orbitA single-stage-to-orbit vehicle reaches orbit from the surface of a body without jettisoning hardware, expending only propellants and fluids. The term usually, but not exclusively, refers to reusable vehicles....
spaceshipSpacecraftA spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
which transports personnel, such as Lieutenant Hiro, to the Spacehawk. The Treehawk is so named because the exit to its launch pad is disguised as a tree, which opens out to allow the craft to leave. For re-entry and atmospheric flight, the Treehawk deploys lifting body wings, and can VTOL to land; it is armed with a small laser turret. - The Spacehawk - An orbital battle stationSpace stationA space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...
, customarily manned by Lieutenant Hiro, that provides the first line of defence against an attack. It is armed with several batteriesArtillery batteryIn military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit of guns, mortars, rockets or missiles so grouped in order to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems...
of Zeroids, and carries numerous auxiliary vessels including shuttles, tanks, and support machines.
Other vehicles
- HUDSON (Heuristic Universal Driver with Sensory and Orbital Navigation) - Dr Ninestein's personal motor car (although Kate actually seems to get the most use out of it), HUDSON is a heavily modified Rolls-Royce which possesses artificial intelligenceArtificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
and is painted in a very special colour - chameleon - effectively equipping him with active camouflageActive camouflageActive camouflage or adaptive camouflage, is a group of camouflage technologies which allow an object to blend into its surroundings by use of panels or coatings capable of altering their appearance, color, luminance and reflective properties...
. - The Battletank - a large tank manned by two Megazoids (large Zeroids) who are apparently built into the structure of the vehicle. The Battletank is transported aboard the Battlehawk and has a flip-up rollbar which allows it to be quickly airlifted out of battlezones.
- The Overlander - an automated all-terrain vehicle similar to a rail-free train with multiple, articulated sections that brings supplies to Hawknest.
- Spacetank - A large, powerful vehicle the Terrahawks had built to use in their sneak attack on Zelda's home base. It is ostensibly based on the technology used in the Overlander supply vehicle.
- The Groundhawk - A ground vehicle used by the Terrahawks to investigate a bomb in "Child's Play". As it only appears in this episode, little is known about it. It resembles a construction vehicle and has a variety of sensor equipment.
- The Hawklet - Carried by Spacehawk, it is basically a more-maneuverable and better-armed version of Treehawk.
- MEV (Martian Exploration Vehicle) - used once in a raid against Zelda's "Android City" on Mars. Possibly borrowed from Spectrum, since a craft of the same name was used to destroy the Mysteron City in Captain Scarlet and the MysteronsCaptain Scarlet and the MysteronsCaptain Scarlet and the Mysterons, often referred to as Captain Scarlet, is a 1960s British science-fiction television series produced by the Century 21 Productions company of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, John Read and Reg Hill...
. - Big White One - a combination space-dreadnought/aerospacecraft-carrier that dwarfs even Spacehawk. Commanded by General "Rip" Cord in a near-catastrophic attempt to obliterate Zelda with a thermonuclear missiles. The name comes from "The Big Red One", a nickname for the 1st Infantry Division of the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
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. They need to consume only small amounts of silicate minerals to sustain their functions.- Zelda. The main villain of the series, Zelda is the wicked and scheming would-be conqueror of Earth. She has power over matter, mainly used to teleportTeleportationTeleportation is the fictional or imagined process by which matter is instantaneously transferred from one place to another.Teleportation may also refer to:*Quantum teleportation, a method of transmitting quantum data...
her servants to and from Earth and to manipulate the size of any of her ships or aliens. "Zelda reclaims her own," Dr. Ninestein frequently says whenever Zelda teleports a defeated minion back to the Mars base. Her voice was provided by Denise Bryer. - Cy-star, pronounced "Si-ster." Zelda's "sister" is not very bright, but is endlessly bubbly and optimistic. Frequently she gets so excited her hair slides around her head, leading Zelda to shout, in one episode, "One of these days I'm going to nail that to your skull!" Her voice was provided by Anne Ridler.
- Yung-Star. Zelda's "son," Yung-Star is, like his "aunt," not very intelligent—he mistakes the term "nincompoop" for a compliment. However, he is also cowardly, lazy and greedy, although he is occasionally sent to accompany a monster. His catchphrase, uttered slowly in a revolting guttural voice, was "Great Steaming Lava!" Strangely enough, despite being an android, Yung-Star is partial to bowls of "granite crunchies" - rocks in a slimy green goo; he consumes these frequently, leading Zelda to call him gluttonous since, as stated, the Guk androids need only to consume small amounts of silicate minerals to sustain their functions. He was voiced by Ben Stevens.
- It-Star is also known as "Goybirl" or "Birlgoy," since Cy-Star never decided on what gender this construct would be. It-Star is a "baby" android mothered by Cy-Star near the end of the series. It-Star is a hermaphroditeHermaphroditeIn biology, a hermaphrodite is an organism that has reproductive organs normally associated with both male and female sexes.Many taxonomic groups of animals do not have separate sexes. In these groups, hermaphroditism is a normal condition, enabling a form of sexual reproduction in which both...
with two minds and voices, a young girl's voice when "innocent," and a male voice with a German accent when plotting. The female voice was done by Anne Ridler while the male voice was by Jeremy Hitchen. - Cubes are the aliens' answer to the Zeroids. They can combine into large constructs such as guns and force field cubicles. Their different sides are marked differently, indicating their different functions, such as one serving as a gun. Cy-Star keeps one, Pluto, as a pet.
Alien Vehicles
Zelda commands a fleet of large ships that combine into her headquarters on Mars, which are used for large-scale attacks. Most of the time, she sends her minions out in small warcraft called ZEAF (Zelda's Earth Atmospheric Fighter)s. It is not entirely clear who usually pilots the ZEAFs; in some episodes Yung-Star or the monsters are shown to pilot them, but in most instances the pilots are simply never shown.- Zelda's "Hub" / Mothership: Zelda's command ship, which hovers above the grounded city of satellite ships. It is capable of traveling anywhere throughout the universe. It moves through space with its legs fully extended, and with its belly forward.
- Docking Ring: Section that all six satellites, plus the mothership, connect to. It has six spidery legs which help dig in, when the entire fleet joins and becomes a city on the Martian surface.
- Satellite Ship #1 - Fin-class Cruiser: Space Destroyer capable of altering its size, and of generating an extremely powerful invisible force field.
- Satellite Ship #2 - Dog-class Cruiser: Space Destroyer with heavy power capacity.
- Satellite Ship #3 - Shark-class Cruiser: This Space Destroyer has the ability to become sub-aqua, with numerous smaller bays containing a number of ZESAWs (ZEldan Sub-Aqua Warcraft).
- Satellite Ship #4 - Rhino-class Cruiser: Space Destroyer and Transporter mainly used for travelling to Earth, where it lands and disgorges ground vehicles. Also carries a number of ZEAFs (ZEldan Aerospace Fighters).
- Satellite Ship #5 - Icebox-class Cruiser: Space Destroyer used by Zelda as her laboratory and contains her cryogenic chamber.
- Satellite Ship #6 - Phantom-class Cruiser: Metamorphic Space Destroyer. Can change into any craft or ridged structure.
Zelda's monsters
Zelda possesses a collection of monstrous servants, kept in cryogenic storage until needed.- Sram is a reptilian 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. In his first appearance Sram is quite articulate, but he does not speak in any further appearances. 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 an hallucination of him is seen in "Mind Monster".
- The Sporilla is a savagely powerful beast that Zelda controls with a signalling 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," another Sporilla appears. The Sporilla is a 7 foot tall metal-eating space gorilla (SPace gORILLA), covered in an off-white fur, a black gorilla face with horns and fangs.
- 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 pitiable, and he seems to regret living a life of servitude to Zelda. Appears in "Happy Madeday," "Unseen Menace," and briefly in "Play it Again, Sram" as Mozart. A hallucination of him is seen in "Mind Monster."
- Yuri is a teddy bearTeddy bearThe teddy bear is a stuffed toy bear. They are usually stuffed with soft, white cotton and have smooth and soft fur. It is an enduring form of a stuffed animal in many countries, often serving the purpose of entertaining children. In recent times, some teddy bears have become collector's items...
-like creature 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 alter its flow locally. Lord Tempo appears in "My Kingdom For A ZEAF!," "Time Warp," and as a member of Zelda's war party in "First Strike."
- The Krell is a hairy creature with an eyestalk that can fire a laser beam powerful enough to shoot down objects in orbit. It appears only in "The Midas Touch."
- Cyclops is a black and red crawling creature with one giant eye. The cyclops absorbs metal. It appears only in "Space Cyclops."
- Captain Goat is a space buccaneerBuccaneerThe buccaneers were privateers who attacked Spanish shipping in the Caribbean Sea during the late 17th century.The term buccaneer is now used generally as a synonym for pirate...
who captained a pirate radioPirate radioPirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. The term is most commonly used to describe illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes, but is also sometimes used for illegal two-way radio operation...
ship. He appears in "Jolly Roger One." - Cold Finger is an alien who is an expert at weaponising water and ice. His entire ship was made of ice. He only appears in Cold Finger.
Title sequence and end credits
The opening and closing sequences were created using hand-drawn cel animation to imitate computer graphicsComputer graphics
Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....
. The opening titles began with a Defender-style computer game which is interrupted by Ninestein who declares an emergency. The remainder of the sequence features the key Terrahawks craft and their respective pilots. During the end credits, the Zeroid and Cube robots would often "play" noughts and crosses (tic-tac-toe
Tic-tac-toe
Tic-tac-toe, also called wick wack woe and noughts and crosses , is a pencil-and-paper game for two players, X and O, who take turns marking the spaces in a 3×3 grid. The X player usually goes first...
) 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
Title sequence
A Title Sequence is the method by which cinematic films or television programs present their title, key production and cast members, or both, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound...
was used for both the United States and the UK versions of the series, but a different version of the end credits
End Credits
"End Credits" is the first single from Drum and Bass duo Chase & Status' second studio album No More Idols. The single was co-written, co-produced and features vocals from Plan B and was released on 29 October 2009, reaching a peak position of No. 9 in the UK Singles Chart...
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
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
-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 and , respectively, by The Lillies Naomi and Mayumi Tsubame.
Production
Tony Barwick
Tony Barwick was a British television scriptwriter who worked extensively on series created and produced by Gerry Anderson....
, 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
Donald James
Donald James was the author of the bestselling novels Vadim, Monstrum, The Fortune Teller and The Fall of the Russian Empire as well as non-fiction books such as The Penguin Dictionary of the Third Reich...
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 actually 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'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
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
until the series began to be released on DVD. The series is available on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
.
Unlike virtually all of Gerry Anderson's other puppet-based series, Terrahawks was not produced by ITC Entertainment
ITC Entertainment
The Incorporated Television Company was a British television company largely involved in production and distribution. It was founded by Lew Grade.-History:...
. 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.