BotP: Battle of the Planets

1978-1985: Enter Sandy Frank Entertainment

In 1978, Sandy Frank Productions acquired rights to the original Japanese Gatchaman, cut out huge chunks of the original animation (typically 5-8 minutes from the original 30-minute show...which was actually a bit shorter thanks to one commercial break), and tweaked the plots and dialogue using what they had left. One of the biggest problems with this approach was continuity...sometimes, there wasn't much.

Though the company titled the show Battle of the Planets, most kids just called it G-Force (which caused some confusion when Turner Entertainment created G-Force: Guardians of Space years later).

Though Sandy Frank had already expressed an interest in Gatchaman before the release of 1977's Star Wars, the success of Star Wars sealed the deal for him. Like Star Wars, Gatchaman an exciting science-fiction adventure, and the potential for developing an American version that children would love was too good to pass up (lucky for us!). If you're interested in more details, pick up a copy of the wonderful Official Battle of the Planets Guidebook by Jason Hofius and George Khoury.

Mark, Jason, Princess, Keyop, and Tiny

If you were a fan of Battle of the Planets, you know the characters as Mark, Jason, Princess, Keyop, and Tiny. Chief Anderson was their go-to guy and father figure. 7-Zark-7 and later 1-Rover-1 (Zark's dog) provided narration, lessons, and reassurance to young viewers. The writers did an amazing job of having Zark explain away anything that could possibly be constituted as someone dying, and given the original anime, there was a lot of explaining.

The villain was Zoltar, and he took orders from a creature he called O Luminous One or The Great Spirit. From a planet called Spectra, the green-suited cannon fodder they sent out to fight G-Force were often written off as robots or androids (so nobody ever actually died).

Though in Gatchaman Katse (aka Zoltar) was a hermaphrodite who switched back and forth between male and female personas, Zoltar just had a sister named Mala. Though the creators did sneak in a hint in a few hints in the final episodes that Zoltar might not be what he seems.

A number of episodes, including the last four, were never translated. Most were pivotal episodes in Joe's story: recalling his parents' murder [ep 78]; his visit to the island his father controlled as a Galactor (where he ends up killing a childhood friend who became a priest—in the church, no less [ep 81]); and the Infamous Puppy Episode [ep 20], in which Joe gets shrapnel in his head saving a puppy—probably the same shrapnel that later kills him.

7-Zark-7 and 1-Rover-1

Despite fans' complaints about Zark and Rover, Battle of the Planets was campy fun. They were also used to fill the space left when BotP creators lopped out what Jameson Brewer referred to as "rivers of blood and gore."

The flight to Spectra and the rec room the team hung out in when they weren't off saving the galaxy were also added by Sandy Frank, and showed up in the Gold Key comics as well. In the rec room, Princess and Keyop played musical instruments, Tiny ate "spaceburgers," and Mark and Jason played ping-pong. Usually Tiny ended up eating a ping-pong ball.

Of course Zark needed a dog, and Rover was...well, not exactly born, but he still showed up, and ate a lot of wrenches while he was there.

Zark had a crush on another robot named Susan, who was part of the so-called Early Warning System on planet Pluto. (Poor Susan. I wonder if she had to move now that they've decided Pluto isn't a planet anymore.) Susan had a slinky sex-operator voice, and Zark's antennae always stood straight up when he heard from her.

Zark's Anxiety Problems

Zark played the voice of parental reason (or the superego, if you're psychologically minded), and he was incredibly neurotic—a worrier and a big control freak. In retrospect, he had something of an anxiety disorder going on, and if fans hadn't destroyed him years ago, he'd probably have made a good before and after for Prozac.

When he wasn't busy wiping his monitors for the last possible speck of dust, he spent a lot of time reassuring watchers that all was well and good among the G-Force team members. And that nobody died in that surprise attack by Spectra on that city of 5 billion. Maybe Zark was delusional, too.

Zark vs. the Original Gatchaman Plot

Given the adamant "no human was harmed" pattern of the show, it's a good thing the last few episodes were never translated.

If they had been, Zark would have had a really tough time explaining that everything was going to be okay:First of all, how would he have explained that Zoltar wasn't really a brother and a sister, Zoltar and Mala, but one person, whom the Great Spirit had created out of fraternal twins.

This is how I imagine things would have played out:

 

Around the World

La Force G: La Bataille des planètes (includes character profiles: Princesse, Allumette, Kipo, Marc, Thierry)