|
|
Best Viewed with
.
In Screen Resolution of 800x600
TEKNOMAN SERIES REVIEW
by Pat Munson-Siter
edited by Shane Terpstra
CHARACTERS
TEKNOMAN/"SLADE": Slade is one of the survivors of the Saturn Expedition. His father was the expedition's commander. The Venomoids have inserted small parasites into the survivors to control them, and have turned them into "Teknoman Weapon Systems" - they are to lead the alien forces in taking the Earth. Slade managed to escape before the parasite could be 'given' to him, although at the beginning of the series he has no memory of who he was before he woke up among the aliens. He has realized that he is human, like the Terrans he was supposed to fight. He turns against his masters. The only name he remembers being called by is Slade. The Space Knights do their best to discover how his strange armor works, hoping to be able to develop copies of their own that they can use in the battle against the invaders. Slade is somewhat lost at first, but luckily finds a home among the Space Knights fairly quickly. He tends to be too over-eager for battle for either his or his partners' good, and he has a temper that he must learn to control. He tends to be a bit overemotional. He hates the aliens even more than the humans who have been fighting them since they attacked the Earth. He is approximately 18 years of age. Slade has black hair and grey-green eyes; he has a nasty scar that he acquired during the battle with Teknoman Gunnar during the first episode that extends both below and above his left eye - bisecting his eyebrow and missing taking out his eye by scant millimeters. His real name is Ness Carter. Teknoman stats: the armor is 2.32 meters high, and weighs 81 kg. STAR SUMMERS - One of the Space Knight officers, she is a scientist who is a member of the team that finds Slade after he crash-lands on Earth. She is a martial arts expert and quite capable of handling most weapons currently used by the Earth forces. She is level-headed and more mature than her years would indicate. She is 19 years old, has long black hair and green eyes. She seems to be somewhat attracted to the rather naive Slade; eventually this will turn into love. RINGO RICHARDS - Another Space Knight officer, he was the second member of the team that found Slade. He is one of the hottest pilots in the Space Knights, and a bit of a card shark and gambler. At 20 years old, good looking and blond, he tends to be a bit overconfident at times and displays a bad tendency to lose his temper. He feels a bit adversarial toward Slade at first, at least in part because he's got a crush on Star and is somewhat jealous of her affection for the young man. However, he soon finds an initially grudging respect for Slade, and in time they become friends. He will become the pilot for Teknosuit #2, a type of body armor built by the EDF, (Earth Defense Force), using what the Space Knights have learned of Slade's armor. COMMANDER JAMISON: Commander of the Space Knights, he is an albino with white-blond hair and red eyes. He frequently sports a pair of dark glasses to help protect his sensitive eyes from harsh light. He is very thin and is 35 years of age. He has a somewhat adversarial relationship with General Galt, the leader of the EDF. Many years ago he was Galt's chief aide. Freeman is an entirely capable commander and his Space Knights - and soon Slade - are devoted to him. MAGGIE MATHESON: A computer whiz, Maggie is a bit of a tomboy and seems to have developed something of a crush on Slade She is 19 years old and has red hair and brown eyes. MAC MACKELROY: An older man, he seems to be an engineer or technician of some kind. He is also quite fond of Maggie and frequently acts as her protector. He likes to make kites in his spare time which he plans on releasing at the end of the war. TINA CORMAN - Chief communications officer for the Space Knights, she is only 16 and can at times act rather childishly - yet at other times may see things more clearly than anyone else. She has shoulder-length brown hair and blue eyes. GENERAL GALT - Leader of the Earth Defense Force, he seems almost as much interested in gathering more power to himself as trying to free Earth from the aliens. He at one point even threatens to destroy the Space Knights' base if they don't hand Teknoman over to him! (Yes, eventually he agrees to let Slade stay with them, so long as he has some say in which missions the "new weapon" is sent on...) He is a large, almost fat bald man probably in his fifties. BALZAC ST. JACQUES: - 25 years old. He initially appears as a military reporter assigned to do a story on the Space Knights. He is actually a spy for Galt, and will become the pilot for the first Teknosuit. He can be quite nasty, and is in large part responsible for the nervous breakdown Slade suffers mid-way through the series. He himself goes through some trying times after the collapse of the EDF, and when he reappears has mellowed out enough that he joins the remaining Space Knights in their battle against the alien enemy. ULYSEES CARTER - Commander of the Earth's Saturn Exploration Expedition, and father of Ness (Slade), Cain (Saber), Shara, and Slade's older brother Kengo (Darkon). He is killed by the Venomoids while making possible Ness' escape. TEKNOMAN GUNNAR - The first of the humans we meet who are fighting for the aliens, he displays a fanatic hatred for Teknoman Slade. He was once one of Ness Carter's best friends. Slade knocks out one of the eyes of Gunnar's armor. He is 27 years old, and his real name was Fritz von Braun. Armor stats = Height: 2.40 m, weight: 86 kg. TEKNOMAN SABER - The second Tekkaman living weapon to be sent against Slade. His first appearance is in episode #13. His real name is Kain, and he is Slade's younger, non-identical twin brother. Unfortunately for Slade, this means he has a good insight into what Slade's weaknesses are. Something that Saber uses to great effect. TEKNOWOMAN SHARA - Shara is a young girl and is Slade's younger sister. She doesn't appear in person until episode 20. She has also turned against the Venomoids and comes to support her older brother. While trying to defend the Space Knights' base she self-destructs in an attempt to stop Saber, Axe, Rapier, and Lance. DARKON - Commander of the Teknoman Weapons and of the Venomiod forces. His armor is not as humanoid at the other Tekkamen. He is actually the older brother of Slade, Saber and Shara. He has been under the Venomoid's control much longer. He is 22 years old. TEKNOMAN LANCE: His real name was Morotoh. He only appears in three episodes - two in the company of Saber, Axe, and Sword. The one episode in which he's on his own, Slade kills him rather quickly. TEKNOMAN RAPIER: A young woman, Hun Rii was engaged to be married to Kengo Carter before the Venomoids captured them. She dies in battle with the first Teknosuit, piloted by Balzac. TEKNOMAN AXE: His real name was Godaado. He was a long-time friend of the Carter family, and has trained the boys in martial arts. He was a professional boxer at one point in this life. CAPTAIN O'ROURKE: Commander of the remaining Space Marine force, Captain O'Rourke becomes a good friend to Slade. O'Rourke is also in the confidence of Commander Jamison. ANGELA: O'Rourke's wife, she is also a freedom fighter who, after O'Rourke's death, takes his place as the Space Marines' commander. THE TEKNOMAN WEAPON SYSTEM The "Teknoman Weapon System", created by the Venomoids, is organic in nature; it is basically made of organic crystals. The Venomoids have developed a technology that is organic in nature; even their spaceship is more organic than mechanical. While this means that the Venomoids Teknoman Weapon System is not mechanical, it is still the result of technology - just not technology as we humans have developed to date. The Venomoid Teknoman armor is almost a living thing, existing in symbiosis with its wearers. The armor stores and focuses the bio-energy generated by its wearer. Further, it is self-repairing: in most cases any damage caused in battle will have been repaired by the next time it is called up. If the wearer is willing to waste the energy, the armor can repair itself even without changing back and forth. The armor will also change with the need and experience of the wearer. For example, as Slade gains more experience with the armor and learns to better utilize it, and is given an outside power source at one point, he discovers the "Teknoman-Plus" version of his armor. (He can't use it very often as it takes much more bioenergy to power the Plus transformation; he can't afford to use that much energy unless it is absolutely necessary.) Also, while the Teknomen humans initially lose their clothing during transformation, as they become more used to the process and gain more control of it, they no longer become naked when they send away the armor. In later episodes, the Venomoids use the energy absorbing power of the armor by placing captive humans in huge crystals and encasing their paralyzed bodies in basic Teknoman armor. The armor draws out the human bioenergy so the aliens can feed on it. In these cases, the humans are not strong enough to control the transformation or the armor - instead, the armor controls them, and they will eventually die as all their life force is siphoned off. The Teknoman Weapon System is called and later sent away by using the tekno-crystal - usually a four-pointed crystal that fits the hand. (It is normally absorbed into the body when not in use, so it cannot be taken away from the wearer. Unfortunately the animators weren't consistent on this point, as sometimes it appears some of the characters have their tekno- crystal hidden somewhere on their person. The wearer can also chose to NOT absorb the tekno-crystal immediately after sending away the armor; before Slade's crystal was damaged he allowed Chief Freeman and the Space Knight scientists to examine his tekno-crystal. It seems that once the tekno- cystal is cracked or broken, the crystal cannot be repaired or reabsorbed into the body. In addition, the damage to Slade's tekno-crystal also means he cannot remain armored for as long as a Teknoman whose crystal is whole.) The crystals are all different. Each set of armor is by its very nature 'tailored' to the individual warrior. A warrior can use another's tekno- crystal, or even more than one at once, but the effort to use a Teknoman Weapon System not created for that wearer will quickly burn out the nervous system of that person. Each warrior is controlled by a tiny Venomoid parasite that helps insure the human stays loyal to the Venomoids. The parasites are visible as "eyes" in the armor of the wearer; most of the Venomoid-controlled Teknomen have these "eyes" on the back side of their armor near or over the neck - I am assuming that the parasites control their hosts through the nerve clusters at the back of the neck where the spine connects to the brain. While not always visible in the footage in the series itself, the character design sheets for the armor for each Venomoid Teknoman shows the location of each 'eye'. Both Slade and Shara have managed to escape prior to being 'infected' by parasites; the other Teknoman Weapon Systems remain firmly under Venomoid control. The parasites also help their hosts control the Teknoman Weapon Systems and enable them to remain in armor longer than the two who are not hosts. Shara, minus the parasite, cannot control the power flow of her armor and eventually, while being attacked by the Venomoid controlled Teknomen, she is killed by her own power overload. Her armor is also curiously uneven; I suspect she escaped before her armor was complete; this further aggravates her problems of controlling the power flow resulting from the 'virus' that 'infects' her body. Even those still under control cannot remain in armor indefinitely (with the possible exception of Kengo/Darkon, who at the time of the series has a parasite who has almost entirely absorbed his human form); and the more energy used by the warrior the sooner the armor will have to be released. The armor 'lives' by using the bioenergy of its wearer. The crystal in the center of the forehead of the helmet begins to blink when the wearer's energy is nearing its end. However, the wearer does not die immediately if this time limit is passed; instead they are subjected to so much pain that they go temporarily insane. Slade has a green colored tekno-crystal while the others have red ones. I don't know if this is related to his not hosting a Venomoid parasite or not. Additionally, those under Venomoid control have red pupils to their eyes while both Slade and Shara have normal eyes. I assume the presence or absence of the Venomoid parasites within them have something to do with this fact. Stats for each Teknoman are as follows, when the information has been given. Teknoman Slade is 2.32 meters high, and weighs 81 kg. The "Blastor" transformation (more info on this in Part 3, as it occurs after the episodes to be reviewed herein) for Slade's armor is 2.38 meters high, and weighs 87 kg. The Pegas unit is 2.70 meters high and weighs in at 6.5 TONS. BLUE EARTH, the spacecraft used in so many episodes of the series, is 32.1 meters long and has a 27.3 meter wingspan. No weight given, but it's got to be a heavy piece of equipment! Teknoman Gunnar is 2.40 meters high and weighs 89 kg. Saber weighs in at 90 kg and is 2.36 meters high. Shara is one of the shortest and lightest Teknomen at 1.95 meters and 70 kg; of course Shara is also the shortest of the humans turned into Tekno-being, too. Teknoman Rapier, the other female Tekkaman, is 2.20 meters high and 70 kg. Teknoman Lance is 2.42 meters high and 86 kg. No stats are given for Teknoman Axe, but he's probably the heaviest of the Teknomen but one of the shorter ones, as Godaado, the human under the armor, is a short but heavily built man. The beginning stats for Darkon are 2.41 meters and 108 kg, making him the heaviest of the Teknomen. By the end of the series, however, he seems to have grown to around 4 or 5 times Slade's size. Teknosuits #1 & 2, the two armor units built by the EDF from the information the Space Knights have on Teknoman Slade, are much heavier than the Venomoid Teknomen. While only 2.30 meters high, they weigh in at 181 kg! The Teknosuits - one is mostly greenish white in color while the other is mostly blue) is a mecha in the truest sense of the word. Balzac St. Jacques and Ringo become the pilots for the two armored suits. While their technology is quite sophisticated by human standards, they are no match for a Venomoid Teknoman like Saber. Against Venomoid spidercrabs they are extremely effective - at least until their ammo runs out! Their main weapons are several large guns, which must be reloaded - a disadvantage when fighting a Venomoid Teknoman who does not have that limitation. Teknosuit #1 piloted by Balzac also has a laser-like weapon on its back which can be quite effective when he has enough energy in his batteries to power it.
The title image on this page was created by me. If you want to use it. E-MAIL me and tell me
If anyone has any suggestions for my Web Page please E-MAIL me. Thanks for visiting....
