Misplaced Pages

#359640

20-484: Netter Digital Entertainment was created by Douglas Netter in 1995. The company produced the show Hypernauts before moving to digital EFX work and replacing Foundation Imaging in the final two seasons of Babylon 5 as the sole producer of CGI special effects for that series as well as several of the B5 Made-For-TV movies. NDE also produced all the effects for its short-lived spinoff, Crusade . With

40-606: A crucial psychic catalyst. No matter where she is, Kulai can sense whether or not her people continue to exist, and they, to a lesser degree, can sense her existence. Paiyin (Ron Campbell) was decreed a traitor after he betrayed his people to the Triiad, and facilitated the destruction of his own homeworld. He now serves the Triiad. The following is a complete list of episode titles for Hypernauts , in original broadcast order. The broadcasts aired on successive Saturday mornings on ABC . Episode descriptions courtesy of Hypernauts On

60-463: A fairly intricate plot, especially for a Saturday morning children's series. The premise of the series was that three cadets from the Academy of Galactic Exploration become lost in a Hyper Bubble (hyperspace) mid-jump and must band together with an alien named Kulai in order to survive in an unfamiliar part of the galaxy. Kulai (unbeknownst to the cadets) is a Chalim priestess from a planet called Pyria,

80-549: A planet decimated by the Triiad and kept as a pet on board the Star Ranger. Horten ( Lewis Arquette ) is the Star Ranger's discrete AI . He is used to control and monitor the systems of the ship. Kulai ( Carrie Dobro ) is the last Chalim (spiritual leader) from Pyrus. She joined the Hypernauts as a friend and mentor due to the help they provided in the conflict with Paiyin. The average Pyran lives about 300 years. Kulai

100-458: A planet that was strip-mined by a warlike race called the Triiad, led by the Pyran traitor, Paiyin. The sole purpose of the Triiad is to wipe out intelligent races, and in the process acquire raw materials from their destroyed planets to continually create new war machines using automated self-replicating factory ships called "Makers". The Hypernauts, as they are called in the academy, cannot match

120-745: A short range, unlike a full-fledged exploration ship. They use the Star Ranger as a mother ship (with fusion engines) and with its vast database of explored nearby planets, they continue exploring (as they are trained to). After learning of the Hypernauts (from their first encounter with Paiyin), the Triiad have activated and englobed the central region of the Milky Way Galaxy in a sensor net called "The Sphere of Interception", which can identify any end-to-end destination point for any hyperspace jump passing in and out of it (which includes any form of communication) so returning/calling home would lead

140-408: Is 342 and has an extended lifespan which is a part of the unique abilities with which she was born and which make her a Chalim, so she will probably live another 200 years. Pyrans share a common psychic bond, a sense of shared existence. The presence of a Chalim generates a critical element of the bond which keeps the race strong, healthy and able to procreate. Without a Chalim, the Pyran race would lack

160-508: The Babylon 5 character of Earth Alliance President Luis Santiago ( The A-Z Guide to Babylon 5 , ISBN   0-440-22385-7 ). Between the third and fourth seasons of Babylon 5 , he founded and appointed himself CEO of Netter Digital , a CGI special effects company. Netter Digital then replaced Foundation Imaging as the special effects studio for the series, doing all the CGI work for

180-464: The computer-generated imagery and visual effects created in Babylon 5 were easily applied to other venues, the Hypernauts were born. ABC purchased thirteen episodes of the show from DIC Productions, L.P. , eight of which ran on Saturday mornings for a single season in 1996 at 10:00 AM. ABC decided not to pick up the series for a second season, and did not air the five remaining episodes. The show

200-405: The "Flapjack" on excursions away from the Star Ranger, and is also the team's best mech pilot. Noriko 'Max' Matsuda ( Heidi Lucas ) is the team medic who was sent on the disciplinary mission that stranded the three Hypernauts because of unauthorized calls to her sister. Legally separated from her family to join the Academy, Max joined the Academy in defiance of the wishes and beliefs of her people,

220-750: The NBC TV movie Buffalo Soldiers . Over the next two years he also executive produced Wild Times and L'Amour's The Cherokee Trail . 1987 saw Netter's first involvement with J. Michael Straczynski , when he was producer of Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future that was story-edited and partially written by Straczynski, after which he was executive producer of the Babylon 5 TV series and various spin-offs (sharing equal executive producer credit with Straczynski). A still photo of Netter shows him portraying

SECTION 10

#1732794611360

240-453: The Triiad directly to Earth. The Hypernauts must keep the location of Earth a secret and somehow try to warn Earth of the Triiad's existence. Russell 'Ace' Antonov (Glenn Herman) is the team's "ace' pilot who joined to Max and Sharkey on the discipline mission as a punishment for using the Academy of Galactic Exploration's sim trainer to play war games. Ace pilots the team's shuttle known as

260-488: The Triiad's firepower with their own so they must rely on stealth, wits and (occasionally) their modified " mech suits" in order to escape the Triiad. They are based in an ancient abandoned exploration ship called the Star Ranger which is hidden in an asteroid field. The ship's obsolete AI is named Horten. For long-range missions they use a four-person "jump" ship called the Flapjack which is Hyper Bubble capable but has

280-572: The cancellation of Crusade in 1999 , Netter Digital lost its only client. They subsequently worked on the Dan Dare , Max Steel , and Robotech 3000 animated television series, but this was not enough to prevent them going out of business in 2000 . They were replaced on Dan Dare and Max Steel by Foundation Imaging . This United States media company article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Douglas Netter Douglas Netter (May 23, 1921 – May 8, 2017)

300-480: The final season of that show, as well as several of the Babylon 5 telefilms , and did all the effects for its short-lived spinoff, Crusade . He was also an executive producer for the only season of Hypernauts in 1996. With the cancellation of Crusade in 1999, Netter Digital lost its only client. Unable to promptly replace it with other customers, the company went out of business in 2000. In 2006, Netter began executive producing Babylon 5: The Lost Tales ,

320-421: The isolationist and xenophobic Caduceus Enclave. Ricardo 'Sharkey' Alvarez (Marc Brandon Daniel) is the team's engineer and computer technician who was placed on the disciplinary mission after hacking into the Academy's mainframe. As a child, Sharkey was injured in an accident that killed his parents. Unresolved trauma from this incident led to Sharkey's claustrophobia . Gloose is a three legged alien found on

340-490: The latest venture set in the Babylon 5 universe. The direct-to-DVD publication was released on July 31, 2007. Netter died on May 8, 2017. His grandson Jason Netter was an associate editor on Babylon 5 and has gone on to produce a number of shows including Preacher (2016-2019) for AMC and The Boys for Amazon Prime . Hypernauts Hypernauts is a proof of concept show produced by Foundation Imaging and Netter Digital Entertainment . To further prove that

360-591: The treatment they received from Netter and studio president James Aubrey. In 1975 he produced the Dean Martin crime movie Mr. Ricco , and in 1978 was co-producer of the African mercenary movie The Wild Geese . The next year he began a period when he concentrated on the Western genre, producing The Sacketts , a TV miniseries based on Louis L'Amour 's Sackett family and serving as executive producer of

380-491: Was an American television executive, largely in the science fiction genre. His first credit was as associate producer of the 1967 Matt Helm ( Dean Martin ) comedy The Ambushers , about a government-built flying saucer. Between 1970 and 1975 Netter was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at MGM Studios . It was a controversial period at the studio with many filmmakers unhappy with

400-469: Was created and produced by Ron Thornton and Douglas Netter , its executive story editor was Christy Marx , who also wrote four episodes. Marx had previously written for both Babylon 5 and Captain Power . Another series writer was Katherine Lawrence who was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award due to her script for Ice Bound . Due to its lineage, Hypernauts featured relatively detailed designs of its technology and its aliens, as well as

#359640