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About the Series: Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers
Written by Elizabeth Bales - fatima@seelo.com
For Betamoutain.org - http://www.betamoutain.org
Submitted and posted March 30, 2001 - info@betamountain.org

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[Page 01]
About the Series: Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers
By Elizabeth "fatima" Bales

"In 2086, two peaceful aliens journeyed to Earth, seeking our
help. In return, they gave us the plans for our first hyperdrive,
allowing mankind to open the doors to the stars. We have assembled a
team of unique individuals to protect Earth and our allies.
Courageous pioneers committed to the highest ideals of justice and
dedicated to preserving law and order across the new frontier. These
are the Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers."

Combining elements of Westerns, space opera, and even a touch
of sword-and sorcery-style fantasy, "Adventures of the Galaxy
Rangers" brought to television a unique and often tongue-in-cheek
spin on the space Western subgenre. Aired in 1986, the half-hour
cartoon lasted only one season. Its 65 episodes, which ran five days
a week, starred four unusual law enforcement officers (their slogan:
"No guts, no glory") working to bring law and order to the new
frontier of space. Although the animation was done in Japan by Tokyo
Movie Shinsa, "Galaxy Rangers" was one of the first anime-style shows
to be created, scripted, storyboarded, voiced, and produced in the
United States.
"Galaxy Rangers," produced and created by Robert Mandell,
director of F/X (1986) and the pilot episode of "The X-Files"
(1993), offers a well-developed universe, strong characters, and
stories that push the boundaries of children's programming. The show
follows the exploits of Zachary Foxx, a by-the-book cop with
extensive bionics; Walter "Doc" Hartford, a computer genius and
hacker with a penchant for outmoded slang; Niko, a mysterious psychic
archaeologist who's also an expert in tae kwon do and a crack shot
with her energy shotgun; and Shane "Goose" Gooseman, the
shape-changing final product of a government supersoldier program.
Together these four Galaxy Rangers form the Series Five team, named
for the experimental brain implants that enhance the rangers' special
powers and abilities. As members of the law enforcement arm of the
Bureau of Extraterrestrial Affairs (BETA), the Series Five rangers
face situations as diverse as <a href=[link to
Progress]>environmental disasters</a> on low-tech planets, <a
href=[link to Boomtown]>outlaw incursions</a> on mining towns, and
invasions--of <a href=[link to Armada]>one sort</a> or <a href=[link
to Invasion]>another</a>.
Supporting characters include Waldo Zeptic of Andor and Zozo
of Kirwin, the "two peaceful aliens" of the show's introduction;
Princess Maya of the tech-shunning world Tarkon; the rangers'
commanding officer, the gruff and forgiving Joseph Walsh; and the
robotic ranger Buzzwang, who holds the dubious distinction of being
the most disliked character on the entire show.
The Series Five team faces a number of enemies. Perhaps chief
among them is the Queen of the Crown, the evil ruler of a
galaxy-spanning empire. To keep her empire from crumbling, the Queen
has developed a technology based around psycho-crystals that allows
her to use the psychic essence of captive beings to create slaver
lords, ghostlike spies through which she can see and hear. In the
pilot episode, the Queen captures Zachary's wife Eliza and uses her
to create a slaver lord. Although the Series Five team rescues
Eliza's body from the Queen's Psychocrypt, the Queen still holds
Eliza's essence. Zachary's quest to rescue his wife forms one of the
central threads of the series.
Other notable enemies include Mogul, a four-armed sorcerer
whose schemes frequently fail courtesy of his bumbling demon
assistant Larry; Ryker Killbane, an insane, embittered survivor of
the Supertrooper Project that also produced Shane Gooseman; the
outlaw Black Hole Gang, led alternately by Macross, a swarthy alien,
and red-haired Irish gunslinger Daisy O'Mega; the Scarecrow, a
horrific being left over from wars of millennia past; and Lazarus
Slade, a "Southern gentleman" mad scientist bent on world domination.

[Page 02]
Staying Power
Much to the bemusement of former production staff members, GR
(as it's known among fans) has sparked a loyal, almost cult following
in the years since 1986. The show boasts a fairly tightly knit fan
community that maintains two Internet mailing lists (although one
generates very little traffic) and a number of Web sites. Writers
produce fan fiction, or fanfic, that continues the rangers' stories
and explores new ideas. List members meet regularly on <a
href="http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/falcon/5/chat.html">IRC</a>
to chat about the show, discuss fan fiction, and just shoot the
breeze. Some staff members are in touch with the fan community: two
of the writers lurk on the mailing list, and others have been
receptive to contacts by individual community members. Those fans who
can manage it even meet in person at RangerCon, a small gathering
(usually in Seattle, Washington) that, at its fourth year, is making
a fair bid at becoming an annual event.
A series of 13 videotapes was released while the show was
running, but at $69.95 a pop, they were outside the price range of
many fans at the time. Nowadays tapes are extremely hard to come by,
though fans dub free copies for each other while hoping for an
official rerelease. It's not uncommon to find GR tapes and
memorabilia being hawked on eBay, either--one more sign that the show
has a small but faithful following.
Although the characters and the universe are probably the
central draw, some fans also cite the show's refusal to take itself
too seriously as a major attraction. Comedic stories abound, and the
dialogue is liberally sprinkled with references to '80s culture,
music videos, Westerns, and Japanese animation. Writers even gave
Niko one line cribbed from the animated Beatles flick "Yellow
Submarine." Catching the in-jokes can be half the fun.

[Page 03]
Atypical Writers, Characters, Stories
That tongue-in-cheek quality isn't the show's only departure
from standard cartoon fare. A glance at the credits reveals one major
difference: the roll of "storypeople" reads like a guest list at a
science fiction convention. Owen Lock, a senior editor at Del Rey
Books at the time the show was made, and novelist Christopher Rowley
were the series story editors. Lock and Rowley worked with series
creator Mandell to map out the basics of the universe, but there was
no series bible. Writers included the late Brian Daley, known for his
Star Wars novels and for his collaborations--under the pen
name Jack McKinney--with James Luceno, who also wrote for "Galaxy
Rangers"; Tom De Haven, Mick Farren, and Josepha Sherman, all
published novelists; Shelly Shapiro and Veronica Chapman, both
editors at Del Rey ; and Daniel Fiorella and John Rawlins, who penned
many of the series' comedic episodes. In a 1987 interview with
Starlog magazine, Mandell said, "In addition to writers who
had experience writing books, I also wanted to get new writers
involved to infuse the stories with some new ideas and
characterizations." Accordingly, Mandell skipped "accomplished"
cartoon writers in favor of those new to the medium.
Many fans say that the detailed universe and the
well-rounded characters are the major strengths of the show. Among
those characters, Niko, often pointed out as the antithesis of the
token female, is very popular. "Niko has been kind of a special
character for us because we wanted a female lead who would be able to
handle herself as well as the men," said Mandell in his
Starlog interview. Appearing as the rescuer as often as the
rescuee, Niko can construct a psychic force shield, cut the rug at a
diplomatic reception, and administer a boot to the head with equal
aplomb.
Equally well liked--and equally unusual--is Doc, the
wisecracking computer expert. In the first few episodes, Doc used
jive slang extensively, a mannerism that, combined with his
more-than-passing resemblance to Billy Dee Williams, could have
landed the character squarely in the Department of Tacky Racial
Stereotypes. Instead, Doc developed into a witty, cultured graduate
of Miss Abercrombie's Charm School, a leading expert in an
intellectually demanding field, and perhaps the first hunky geek in
an American cartoon.
Perhaps the most "normal" of the four leads is Zachary, a
married career ranger with two children--yet he, too, is fully
developed, with his own quirks and defects. Not the sort of man to
put his trust in machines and technology, at the end of the pilot
Zachary finds himself seriously wounded and in the position of having
to rely on technology to save his life. In the Starlog
interview, Mandell explained, "Now, he has this internal conflict
with how to deal with his own bionics."
"We never really got a chance to explore that too much,"
added Mandell, "because along came Goose." With respect to fan
fiction, Shane Gooseman is arguably the most written-about of the
Series Five team. His approach to life (at the beginning of the
series, he seems rather like Dirty Harry) and unusual background
attract interest from a broad spectrum of fans--and, as in the
series, allow for a wide range of story types.
In its stories and subject matter, "Galaxy Rangers," unlike
most other shows aimed mainly at children, tackles grey areas. A
number of episodes introduce the low tech vs. high-tech debate--and
high-tech doesn't always come out on top. The stories also raise
issues of bioethics and environmental responsibility. The episodes
that explore the Supertrooper Project are among the most notable
results. After an illegal experiment conducted within the project,
most of the Supertroopers go insane, and all but Gooseman revolt
against the government and flee Earth as outlaws. Because of
Gooseman's origins, the Board of World Leaders does not trust him,
and he is allowed to become a ranger only on the condition that he
hunt down all of the escapees. As Mandell noted in his interview with
Starlog, the internal conflict he faces over his orders is a
familiar theme in Westerns. Not so familiar, but equally compelling,
is the question of the rights of genetically engineered life
forms--more pertinent than ever in the wake of the 1997 <a
href="http://www.sciam.com/1998/1298issue/1298wilmut.html">cloning of
a sheep</a> from adult tissue and the 2000 <a
href="http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/01/13/monkey.cloning/">cloning
of a monkey</a> through a technique called embryo splitting.
The show is atypical, too, in that the good guys do not
always win, or at least not hands down. Although Zachary and the
Series Five team rescue Eliza Foxx's body from the Psychocrypt, the
Queen still holds Eliza's psycho-crystal, a story thread that is
never resolved in the series' 65 episodes. At times villains escape,
although it's usually in the wake of a larger triumph. Still, the
ambiguity that makes GR so popular with an adult audience was
undoubtedly a factor in the demise of the show.

[Page 04]
The Animated TV Series As Financial Disaster
In the guest book of a GR Web site, eleven years after the
series ended, Mandell wrote, "The making of the series was a labor of
love, which means it was a financial disaster." When Mandell started
work on "Galaxy Rangers," Transcom Media had no toy deal for the
series, an exception in the licensing-crazy cartoon industry.
Transcom, in association with Gaylord Production, made a deal for
toys only after the series went into production. In the U.S., Galoob
made a line of action figures, including prototypes for figures that
never went into production; in France, the toys were sold under the
Ideal label. Fans have also reported seeing lunch boxes, Golden
Books, and even a dart board, and Roy Rogers featured boxed "Galaxy
Rangers" children's meals. However, the toy deal failed, and with it
financing for a second season.
"The critical thing, as I recall it," relates story editor
Christopher Rowley, "was that to nail down a toy deal, the show had
to get solid ratings first. But with the strong disagreement between
Robert and Battista, the TV syndication distributor, about the order
of eps--which led to 'Tortuna' being shown first--the show got off to
a confusing start, which only got worse since GR was not tightly
scripted like say, [Thundercats], to concentrate on a few easily
understood themes for younger viewers. Once the show's ratings
demonstrated that it was not a big hit, the toy deals evaporated.
Then, without toys, the whole process of building the 'brand' amongst
6- and 7-year-old boys--the key market group for these shows--failed.
They watched T-cats, and a much smaller group of kids watched GR."
Asked in 2000 about his involvement, series writer John
Rawlins noted, "Actually, I'm just very grateful for the chance to
have done it.... If the toy company hadn't walked out on us, and if
the TV markets hadn't bounced us from one time slot to the next, I
think Transcom could have made some real money
"But really, nobody was there for the money," Rawlins
concluded. "You can be sure of that, because there wasn't any money.
We just all wanted to do a really cool TV show."

Note: Mandell is currently exploring options for bringing
"Galaxy Rangers" back to its audience in the U.S. Although the show
has played in syndication in a number of markets abroad, distribution
rights in the U.S. have been tied up for years. Hearst Entertainment
acquired rights to air the series in 1998, but nothing seems to have
been done with those rights. Mandell may also be considering
negotiating the rights for release of a video or DVD boxed set.
</pre>

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About the Series: Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers Written by Elizabeth Bales - fatima@seelo.com For Betamoutain.org - http://www.bet..."