Spellbinder

[Zor]

This is a show i remember seeing on the Family Channal as a child and i wonder if anyone else heard of it?

The idea behind it is that there is a parralel universe alongside ours, which is for the most part at a technological level comprable to that of the middle ages, save for a few examples of high technology (including maglev aircraft and suits which can shoot electric bolts at their foes) made long ago and now monopolized by a sort of knightly upper class known as Spellbinders. It is possible to travel between these worlds when electric anomalies open portals. The story starts with a young man opening a gateway between worlds, with him trying to get home and a Female Spellbinder who comes to our world and plans on using our technology to seize control of her world.

I don't remember too much of the fine details of this series, but unlike most child based live action shows (at least the kind that come out of North America) it actually had a overarching storyline. Speaking of where it came from, it was aparently a joint Australia/Poland venture, which is a bit weird (then again, there are a bunch of Canadian/France productions). It also has some early CGI. They also made a spinoff, with other Parralel dimentions and focused mainly on a Chinese Dominated world.

Zor

[Stark]

Dude, this show was hilarious when I was 12. Polish people? Clearly aliens. Physics? IRRELEVANT.

It was better than goddamn Ocean Girl that's for sure.

[BLACKSUN2000]

Yeah I remember that show, They suppressed technology in the other dimension a dude built a small glider and that psycho bitch threw an electric bolt at it causing it to burn. The lower cases saw technology as magic and they were forbidden to use it under penalty of their law. When they caught the main character using knowlege to use technology to make peoples lives easier they arrested him and brought them before a council which explained their laws and even after he proved he was NOT from their world using his cam corder they still planned to imprison him in order to keep the common folk stupid.

The main character knew it was technology they were using right down to the pesticides they would spray on the crops at night and passed it off as a magic ritual to protect their crops. Everyone was forbidden to enter the crops at night.

The last episode I remember watching that psycho would be conqueror came to our world and used our advances in technology to power up her power armor to the point where she could float around and shoot larger electric bolts.

I remember seeing it on Nickelodeon ages ago.

[Darth Hoth]

This show aired in Sweden somewhere back in 1996, if I recall correctly. It was awesome back then, although it became drastically worse when Paul and Rianna went back home to Australia. Still, I actually had fond enough memories of it that I went to the trouble of importing the DVD collection a couple of years ago. Even if the bad guys (and the people in the Spellbinder universe in general, for that matter) tended towards being massively retarded.

Now? As far as kids' shows go, it is definitely not bad. And those are the standards one has to judge it by.

[JointStrikeFighter]

The spinoff featured a world where ROGUE ROBOTIC TANKS had DESTROYED civilisation.

[Stark]

Did they have paternal Polish accents?

[JointStrikeFighter]

That would be stupid

They had chinese accents

[BLACKSUN2000]

This show aired in Sweden somewhere back in 1996, if I recall correctly.

It aired earlier where I lived.

Anyway, when I was a kid it was pretty good.

[Ford Prefect]

Man, THIS show. Nostalgia much? I always thought the improved Spellbinder armour MANUFACTURED IN AUSTRALIA was pretty cool looking, from memory.

It was better than goddamn Ocean Girl that's for sure.

Man, Ocean Girl, what was that even about, again? I mean, okay alien chick shows up and ... what? What was that evil corporation trying to do? But I always remember it for the dead serious 'nothing could be more problematic than a male alien who believes in the superiority of women' line, which was just bizarre.

[Chris OFarrell]

Man, THIS show. Nostalgia much? I always thought the improved Spellbinder armour MANUFACTURED IN AUSTRALIA was pretty cool looking, from memory.

It wasn't half bad.

The show was at least quite interesting from a scientific point of view, albeit for teenagers. Stuff like magnetic fields, how magnets are formed, how a faraday cage works, triangulating in direction finding and so on were introduced, albeit on a simple level.

And the story itself was interesting enough, although it did take a bit of dip when they came over to Australia.

And at least SOME of the Spellbinders wern't *complete* dicks, there was IIRC a senior Russian sounding guy who was critial in working with the Protaganist to stop the bad Spellbinder. Still, it was well done IMHO.

Now I'm getting nolstalgic for it!

It was better than goddamn Ocean Girl that's for sure.

Man, Ocean Girl, what was that even about, again? I mean, okay alien chick shows up and ... what? What was that evil corporation trying to do? But I always remember it for the dead serious 'nothing could be more problematic than a male alien who believes in the superiority of women' line, which was just bizarre.

Ocean Girl was a funny enough show.

IIRC there were several seasons, mostly filled with highly incompetent bad guys.

The first was a scientist/developer who wanted to build a huge underwater city which of course would do massive environmental damage. Then he found out about the alien girls and their terraforming thingy and tried to grab them.

The second was the girls people, or at least a faction of them, launching an invasion of Earth in secret, which came very close to succeding because the Earth agencies sent to stop it were about a tenth as competent as Katherine Janeway. I remember they were heavily into the Egyptian connection to these aliens, including an underwater Pyramid housing another Terraforming device, from which they launche their 'invasion'.

You know, now I want to write a fanfic where these guys start their little plot, then a ring transporter activates and a bunch of Jaffa come out with Staffs charging, including a Goa'uld - say Poseidon who looks at what these interlopers have done to his old digs and shouts 'Jaffa, KREE!'...

[Archaic`]

Now? As far as kids' shows go, it is definitely not bad. And those are the standards one has to judge it by.

I vaguely remember this being the first show I saw as a child which actually had an overarching plot, with no episode that could be viewed as a stand-alone. Or one of the first. Cheez TV started on 10 a few months before this ran on Channel 9, but I don't think it was showing Teknoman (a.k.a. Tekkaman Blade), X-Men or Exo-Squad until a little later. Fond memories.

[mr friendly guy]

That would be stupid

They had chinese accents

Except the sort of love interest for the boy who strangely enough spoke in a Japanese accent. But one of the worlds which was destroyed by Robotic tanks I am sure had polish accents. Also another world where they were immortal had a distinctively European accent.

Anyway, I must admit I enjoyed Spellbinder when I was in high school. Not so much that I would get the DVD, but I do have fond memories. It was definitely better than the second one where a scientist from a Chinese theme world builds a device which allows him to explore parallel universes and accidentally transports a family from Australia. I cringed when the family made some silly line about "It looks like we are in China." Yes China where people dress exactly the same as they did several centuries ago and they have the ability to create giant holographic projections which throw out fireballs.

IIRC there were several seasons, mostly filled with highly incompetent bad guys.

The first was a scientist/developer who wanted to build a huge underwater city which of course would do massive environmental damage. Then he found out about the alien girls and their terraforming thingy and tried to grab them.

The second was the girls people, or at least a faction of them, launching an invasion of Earth in secret, which came very close to succeding because the Earth agencies sent to stop it were about a tenth as competent as Katherine Janeway. I remember they were heavily into the Egyptian connection to these aliens, including an underwater Pyramid housing another Terraforming device, from which they launche their 'invasion'.

You know, now I want to write a fanfic where these guys start their little plot, then a ring transporter activates and a bunch of Jaffa come out with Staffs charging, including a Goa'uld - say Poseidon who looks at what these interlopers have done to his old digs and shouts 'Jaffa, KREE!'...

Er no. The first season was two competiting scientific teams trying to decipher the whale's language. Yeah I know. The good guys ORCA who live in that giant underwater city meet the heroine (Neri) of the series. The bad guys UBRI steal her research and in the end try to capture the whale our heroine talks to.

The second season has the UBRI head discovering the existence of Neri and trying to capture her. Near the end we find that she has a sister and she rescues her. The girls activate a technobabble device which acts as a homing device, however Neri elects to stay on Earth.

Season three had Neri discovering another of her kind in suspended animation on her crash ship and they discover a technobabble device which manipulates ocean currents or something. Naturally UBRI gets hold of it.

Season four jumped the shark with a x-files bastich of Mulder and Scully who hunt aliens. Meanwhile aliens from Neri home plant want to take over Earth, because a devastating plague is hurting the marine life of their own planet, never mind that it was the bad guy who released this plague in the first place. Oh did I mention that there is a giant pyramid off the coast of Australia with the power to melt the polar ice caps, which would lead to an instant win if they could activate it, since the aliens can breath underwater. The series as a whole most probably dropped off in quality after season 2.

Of note Jeffrey Walker who played the little kid on Ocean Girl, ended up being director of numerous Australian shows including Underbelly.

[LionElJonson]

I remember seeing some novelizations of Spellbinder in the school library back in high school. Never read them, though.

[Swindle1984]

Man, I loved Spellbinder when I was in junior high. Probably my favorite scene is where he's making blackpowder and "teaches" the evil Spellbinder's assistant to make it by having him mix together baking soda and vinegar. Then when the guy smugly announces that he knows how to make blackpowder now and they don't need him... it blows up in his face, big mess.

I haven't seen that show since it first aired in the US. I wonder if it's available online...

[Stark]

I hope you can handle a high level of mambo shirts and curly hair. Its pretty awesome in a hilarious way, though.