Battle of the Planets for Newbies

All you need to know to understand the fanfiction.
Maybe.

Battle of the Planets!
G-Force, 5 incredible young people with superpowers.
And, watching over them from Center Neptune, 7-Zark-7.
Watching, warning against surprise attacks
by alien galaxies from beyond space.
G-Force: fearless young orphans,
protecting Earth's entire galaxy.
Always Five, acting as One.
Dedicated, inseparable, invincible!

Yep. Pretty hokey. And the science is pretty bad too. But it's a lot of fun.

Julieann Adolf has a good detailed description, and a quick summary of most episodes, at http://www.akdreamer.com/botp/index.html(approve sites)

The show was made in the late 1970's and set in the generic future. Earth has colonized other planets and met people from other worlds. Most of our problems -- pollution and resource depletion -- have been solved. Earth is a friendly and helpful planet and the leader of the Federation. Yep, produced in the late 1970's.

G-Force is a team of five teenagers who protect Earth (and allies) from various enemies. Each member has a communicator bracelet which is used to transmute between civilian clothes and fighting uniforms -- body-suits with helmets and wings, sometimes called birdstyles. They have cerebonic implants which, we assume, increase their strength and speed. They fight like ninjas -- lots of leaps and flips and martial arts. Each member has a special vehicle with civilian and transmuted mode, and a favoured weapon.

The main enemy is the planet Spectra, which is ruled by the Luminous One (a talking head on a screen, looking somewhat like a mutated chicken), through Zoltar. They often, but not always, send out a big machine or mech, sometimes based on an animal and with a captain in a matching uniform. Neither captain nor machine returns for a second episode. The generic soldiers of Spectra wear green. Many of the machines morph into other machines. Zoltar always gets away.

G-Force's team vehicle is the Phoenix, a very large blue ship with red highlights which is equally at home in space, atmosphere, or water. The main access is through a clear bubble on the top; the floor lowers into the ship. The individual vehicles dock into it. It can be converted into the Fiery Phoenix, which is very very hot and almost indestructable.

Mark is the leader. He flies a small plane which transmutes into a jet fighter. His weapon is a sonic boomerang. His father abandoned him when he was four -- fourteen years ago. This is the only indication in the series of the ages of the team.

Jason is the second in command and in charge of the Phoenix's missles. He has a cable gun which has many accessories, including a drill. He also likes feather shurikens. As a civilian, he is a famous driver, both track and road. His civilian car transmutes into a fancier car. Zark often tells us he is hot-headed and doesn't follow orders, but many fans think Zark's exaggerating. Jason is famous for girlfriends who turn out to work for Spectra.

Princess is the electronics, computers and science expert, with a sideline in explosives. Unlike the boys, who get to wear bodysuits with long sleeves, she gets to wear a short-sleeved mini-dress and white panties; yes, there are gratuitous panty shots. Her weapon is a yo-yo, with optional explosives. She drives a motorcycle which turns into a fancier motorcycle. There is some speculation, and a lot of fanfic, about the relationship between Mark and Princess -- kids show. She remembers when her parents died. Yes, her hair is sometimes a very dark muddy green.

Keyop is the youngest on the team; guesses range from age nine to twelve. He drives a jeep (yes, he's too young) which transmutes into a Space Buggy or Widget -- scripts vary; this vehicle flies, drives and swims. His weapon is a bolos (two egg-sized balls attached to a string) with optional explosives. He was "manufactured from a single embryonic cell", whatever that means, and has a speach impediment as a result.

Tiny Harper is the pilot of the Phoenix. He is a good fighter, but has no weapon and is often left on the Phoenix. He is the only team member with a last name and a family (some cousins).

When trapped, the team often stand on each others' shoulders, like cheerleaders, and start to spin, forming the Whirlwind Pyramid -- a mini-cyclone which causes much destruction.

Security Chief Anderson is their boss and science advisor, and their main contact to the Federation Council.

The team is watched over by 7-Zark-7, a robot (looking an awful lot like another famous robot) who works in Centre Neptune, deep beneath the sea. He is accompanied by 1-Rover-1 and sometimes talks with Susan out on Planet Pluto. Susan's sultry voice, and much of her conversation, is intended for the parents and older siblings.

Colonel Cronus leads the Red Rangers of the planet Riga, who show up in other places too. His history varies a bit, depending on the episode. Half-way through the series we learn that he is Mark's father; he dies a few episodes later.

The uniforms are based loosely on birds. They aren't named in the series, but much fanfiction uses them. Mark is the Eagle; Jason is the Condor; Princess is the Swan; Keyop is the Swallow; and Tiny is the Owl. For the colours, see this chart.

And, now that you're totally confused, here's the scoop on Gatchaman.

Gatchaman was the orginal series in Japan, and it was for teens and adults, not kids. It was on one planet -- no space flight, no Federation. It was not Earth -- the continents are the wrong shapes and the geographical names are only loosely based on our Earth's. There is much more blood, and there are deaths. (In Battle, the planes that go down are all flown by robot drones.) Even the character names are different: Ken, Joe, Jun, Jinpei, Ryu, and Dr. Nambu. This series is where the bird names come from.

Sandy Frank saw one episode and bought the series. Except, he didn't translate it. Nope, he hired Jameson Brewer to write new dialogue based on the images, turn it into a space show (Star Wars was all the rage), and cut out anything that wasn't suitable for kids -- anti-violence censorship was common back then. They filled the time with cheesy space shots and Zark and the Ready Room scenes (and useless bits of educational trivia), and renamed the show. The work was done on a very tight schedule, and many of the continuity errors can be blamed on this. The episodes were not done in order and not all episodes were translated, which leads to more confusion.

For more details, start with Carolyn Kaufman's page: http://www.totalimagespecialists.com/Gatchaman(approve sites)

This page is by a fan, for fans. I have no rights to either show. Sandy Frank and Tatsunoko own them, I think.

August 17, 2001

Fixed the punctuation and grammar.

April 1, 2004

Added bird names to BOTP and character names to Gatchaman.

December 23, 2005

Converted to new format. Added a bit, took out the colours as they're now in the chart.

Generic Disclaimer for entire Fanfic section: I own none of the characters, settings, or anything else you recognize from canon, and make no money off them. I do, however, own the rest, and have this fond, unrealistic dream that some day I might turn them into a way to pay off the mortgage.