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| Atypical Writers, Characters, Stories
| | * [[About the Series:Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers|Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers]] |
| That tongue-in-cheek quality isn't the show's only departure
| | * [[About the Series:Staying Power|Staying Power]] |
| from standard cartoon fare. A glance at the credits reveals one major
| | * '''Atypical Writers, Characters, Stories''' |
| difference: the roll of "storypeople" reads like a guest list at a
| | * [[About the Series:The Animated TV Series Was Financial Disaster|The Animated TV Series Was Financial Disaster]] |
| science fiction convention. Owen Lock, a senior editor at Del Rey
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| Books at the time the show was made, and novelist Christopher Rowley
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| were the series story editors. Lock and Rowley worked with series
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| creator Mandell to map out the basics of the universe, but there was
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| no series bible. Writers included the late Brian Daley, known for his
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| <i>Star Wars</i> novels and for his collaborations--under the pen
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| name Jack McKinney--with James Luceno, who also wrote for "Galaxy
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| Rangers"; Tom De Haven, Mick Farren, and Josepha Sherman, all | |
| published novelists; Shelly Shapiro and Veronica Chapman, both
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| editors at Del Rey ; and Daniel Fiorella and John Rawlins, who penned
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| many of the series' comedic episodes. In a 1987 interview with
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| <I>Starlog</I> magazine, Mandell said, "In addition to writers who
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| had experience writing books, I also wanted to get new writers
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| involved to infuse the stories with some new ideas and
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| characterizations." Accordingly, Mandell skipped "accomplished"
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| cartoon writers in favor of those new to the medium.
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| Many fans say that the detailed universe and the
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| well-rounded characters are the major strengths of the show. Among
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| those characters, Niko, often pointed out as the antithesis of the
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| token female, is very popular. "Niko has been kind of a special
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| character for us because we wanted a female lead who would be able to
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| handle herself as well as the men," said Mandell in his
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| <I>Starlog</I> interview. Appearing as the rescuer as often as the
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| rescuee, Niko can construct a psychic force shield, cut the rug at a
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| diplomatic reception, and administer a boot to the head with equal
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| aplomb.
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| Equally well liked--and equally unusual--is Doc, the
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| wisecracking computer expert. In the first few episodes, Doc used
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| jive slang extensively, a mannerism that, combined with his
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| more-than-passing resemblance to Billy Dee Williams, could have
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| landed the character squarely in the Department of Tacky Racial
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| Stereotypes. Instead, Doc developed into a witty, cultured graduate
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| of Miss Abercrombie's Charm School, a leading expert in an
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| intellectually demanding field, and perhaps the first hunky geek in
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| an American cartoon.
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| Perhaps the most "normal" of the four leads is Zachary, a
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| married career ranger with two children--yet he, too, is fully
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| developed, with his own quirks and defects. Not the sort of man to
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| put his trust in machines and technology, at the end of the pilot
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| Zachary finds himself seriously wounded and in the position of having
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| to rely on technology to save his life. In the <I>Starlog</I>
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| interview, Mandell explained, "Now, he has this internal conflict
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| with how to deal with his own bionics."
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| "We never really got a chance to explore that too much,"
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| added Mandell, "because along came Goose." With respect to fan
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| fiction, Shane Gooseman is arguably the most written-about of the
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| Series Five team. His approach to life (at the beginning of the
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| series, he seems rather like Dirty Harry) and unusual background
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| attract interest from a broad spectrum of fans--and, as in the
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| series, allow for a wide range of story types.
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| In its stories and subject matter, "Galaxy Rangers," unlike
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| most other shows aimed mainly at children, tackles grey areas. A
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| number of episodes introduce the low tech vs. high-tech debate--and
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| high-tech doesn't always come out on top. The stories also raise
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| issues of bioethics and environmental responsibility. The episodes
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| that explore the Supertrooper Project are among the most notable
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| results. After an illegal experiment conducted within the project,
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| most of the Supertroopers go insane, and all but Gooseman revolt
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| against the government and flee Earth as outlaws. Because of
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| Gooseman's origins, the Board of World Leaders does not trust him,
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| and he is allowed to become a ranger only on the condition that he
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| hunt down all of the escapees. As Mandell noted in his interview with
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| <I>Starlog</I>, the internal conflict he faces over his orders is a
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| familiar theme in Westerns. Not so familiar, but equally compelling,
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| is the question of the rights of genetically engineered life
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| forms--more pertinent than ever in the wake of the 1997 | |
| href="http://www.sciam.com/1998/1298issue/1298wilmut.html">cloning of
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| a sheep from adult tissue and the 2000 | |
| href="http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/01/13/monkey.cloning/">cloning
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| of a monkey through a technique called embryo splitting.
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| The show is atypical, too, in that the good guys do not
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| always win, or at least not hands down. Although Zachary and the
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| Series Five team rescue Eliza Foxx's body from the Psychocrypt, the | |
| Queen still holds Eliza's psycho-crystal, a story thread that is
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| never resolved in the series' 65 episodes. At times villains escape,
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| although it's usually in the wake of a larger triumph. Still, the
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| ambiguity that makes GR so popular with an adult audience was
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| undoubtedly a factor in the demise of the show.
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|
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|
| [[Category:BM1.0]]
| | ---- |
| [[Category:Cleanup-Format]]
| | |
| [[Category:Cleanup-Add Pictures]]
| | <center>'''<big>About the Series:</big>'''</center> |
| [[Category:Fatima]]
| | <center><big>Atypical Writers, Characters, Stories</big></center> |
| | |
| | <center>'''by Elizabeth 'Fatima' Bales'''</center> |
| | |
| | ---- |