Information on Hypernauts from Christy Marx
Rich A Kabakjian
[ Article reposted from rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.info,rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5 ]
[ Author was Lee Whiteside ]
[ Posted on Fri, 26 Jan 96 15:59:00 GMT ]
GEnie Science Fiction Media Roundtable
Category 15, Topic 43
Message 13 Mon Jan 22, 1996
C.MARX [Christy] at 01:29 EST
Been meaning to post here, but it's just taken me a while to get my act
together.
How about some basic info?
CURRENT AIR DATES:
It looks like we'll get a special Friday night premiere before they
begin the regular weekly airings. This hasn't been absolutely confirmed yet,
but it looks about 90% definite. Stay tuned for confirmation when I get it.
Consider the following dates and times subject to change and keep checking
here, just in case.
March 1st, Friday night during ABC's "TGIF" line-up. Time unknown.
March 2nd and every Saturday, 11 am.
ABC asked me to write a single paragraph description of the show for use in PR
materials. Here's what I gave them:
Three young Cadets from the Academy of Galactic Exploration - MAX, ACE
and SHARKEY - find themselves accidentally catapulted to the very core of the
galaxy and trapped there by the planet-devouring menace known as the Triiad.
They cannot go home without leading the Triiad to Earth. Full of energy,
daring and desire for adventure, the Hypernauts pursue their goals of
exploring the unknown, aiding alien civilizations and battling the Triiad's
robot-armada. As the mission continues, the Hypernauts grow from raw,
rebellious kids to mature, responsible teammates. They're helped by an alien
mentor, KULAI; their alien pet, THE GLOOSE; and a curmudgenouly Artificial
Intelligence, HORTEN.
I should add to this that our villain is PAIYIN, a traitor from the same race
as Kulai, the Pyrans. He serves the Triiad.
We have a tremendous number of BABYLON 5 alumni on the show.
First off, the creator is Ron Thornton, who is doing CGI for this series that
will knock you into another dimension. They are *phenomenal*!
I was brought in to do the series development and have the title Executive
Story Editor. I wrote four of the 13 scripts done so far. I wrote the
"Grail" episode for the first season of B5.
John Vulich and Optic Nerve are providing the alien make-up and effects. John
also directed one of our shows.
A couple of our directors worked on B5: Jim Johnston and Janet Greek. Our
Producer, Kevin Cremin, also worked on B5 and is directing some B5 episodes.
Our music is by Christopher Franke, known for his work with Tangerine Dream
and sound scores for B5.
Three other people deserve special mention for giving the show such an
excellent look:
Steve Burg -- conceptual artist, who does *big* budget movies
(WATERWORLD, THE ABYSS, etc.) and did the incredible favor of doing marvelous
work for us. Some of his work appears in the latest issue of Cinefex magazine
in the WATERWORLD article.
Jeff Luthor -- Art Director, who did unbelieveable sets on a very,
very tight budget.
Jim Mathers -- Director of Photography, who had a VR-style camera rig
that gave us tremendous flexibility and creativity in shooting the show.
Some of our actors have crossed over from the B5 territory. Wayne Alexander,
who was "Jack the Ripper" in a recent B5, guested as alien characters in a
couple of our shows. Carrie Dobro can been seen as a human in a B5 episode
(one of Franklin's doctors, I think). There may be more I don't know about.
THE CAST:
Russell "Ace" Antonov = Glenn Herman
Noriko "Max" Matsuda = Heidi Lucas
Ricardo "Sharkey" Alvarez = Marc Brandon Daniel
Kulai = Carrie Dobro
Paiyin = Ron Campbell
Horten = Lewis Arquette (voice only)
Of our three "kids", Heidi Lucas may be best known for appearing in a couple
of shows on Nickelodeon. Glenn brings some New York attitude. Marc came to
us from Canada. All three of the young actors really settled beautifully into
their roles.
Carrie and Ron are fantastic as our main aliens. Carrie has brought a certain
impishness to her character that was totally unexpected, but a lot of fun.
Ron is an astounding character actor (he's done tons of theatre) and when he
becomes Paiyin, he is SO evil and SO vile, he simply steals the scenes. It
all adds up to a terrific ensemble.
The Gloose, a three-legged alien creature with a mind of its own, steals a lot
of scenes, too. The Gloose comes in three major incarnations: CGI, mechanical
animatronic, and puppet. Well, four, if you count the non-moving "stunt"
stand-in Gloose. <g> The physical Glooses (Gleese?) were made by Optic Nerve.
Here's a list of the thirteen shows that have been shot:
"First Contact" written by Christy Marx, directed by Leslie Hill
"The Star Ranger" written by Christy Marx, directed by Jim Johnston
"Icebound" written by Katherine Lawrence, directed by Janet Greek
"Battle at Vekara" written by Larry DiTillio, directed by Jon Kroll
"A Walk in the Garden" written by Len Wein, directed by Leslie Hill
"Cloudholm" written by Richard Mueller, directed by Jon Kroll
"Into the Dark So Deep" written by Larry Carroll and David Carren, directed
by Ron Thornton
"Gone To Meet The Maker" written by David Carren and Larry Carroll, directed
by Adam Weissman
"Reunion" written by DC Fontana, directed by Christin Harty
"Hole in the Sky" written by Larry DiTillio, directed by Jon Kroll
"New Alliances" written by Katherine Lawrence, directed by Jon Kroll
"The Challenge Part 1" written by Christy Marx, directed by Adam Weissman
"The Challenge Part 2" written by Christy Marx, directed by John Vulich
------------
Lee Whiteside le...@indirect.com, 76044,502 CIS, L.WHITESIDE GEnie
SFTV Web page at "http://www.indirect.com/www/leew/index.html" <*> "The
darkest reaches of Space. The furthest boundaries of adventure. One starship
journeys into the unknown, exploring the mysteries that lie Beyond the Beyond!"
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