DVD
Shadow Raiders
Season 1

Starring (voice): Jim Byrnes, Gary Chalk and Michael Dobson
Metrodome
RRP: £15.99
MTD5201
Certificate: 15
Available 11 July 2005


Fleeing an attack on her home planet by the warriors of the Beast Planet, Princess Tekla crash-lands her small starship on the Planet Ice, arriving barely in time to warn the ruler of the planet, King Cryos, of the imminent danger posed by the Beast Planet hordes. While on planet Ice Tekla meets Graveheart, a humble but courageous miner from the Planet Rock, and the two of them team up with King Cryos and vow to fight to protect Planet Ice and the adjacent planets of Rock, Fire and Bone from the Beast invasion. As the epic interplanetary battle progresses, Tekla, Graveheart and Cryos are joined by a small band of like-minded warriors determined to rid the once-peaceful universe of the devastating threat to their galaxy...

Also known as War Planets, the first season of Shadow Raiders contains all 14 episodes on two discs. Anyone thinking that this series looks, stylistically, a lot like ReBoot will probably not be surprised to learn that Shadow Raiders was created by the same company - Mainframe Entertainment. Like ReBoot, this series uses CGI animation to tell the epic tale of a small band of diverse characters fighting against a common enemy.

There are a lot of nods to Star Wars throughout this first season - including a scene that borrows heavily from the attack on the Death Star in Episode IV: A New Hope. There is even a direct quote borrowed: "I can't shake 'em!" There is also a ship that looks incredibly like the silver ship from Episode I: The Phantom Menace as well as some spacecraft that look a little too similar to Boba Fett's Slave 1.

Each of the first few episodes introduces the other planets and rulers. Graveheart and Jade from planet Rock, Cryos and his daughter from planet Ice, Pyrus from planet Fire and, my personal favourite, Femur from planet Bone. Femur is the ruler of planet Bone, and is a bit of a spineless character who is out for himself. Like a short, fat Gremlin, he's the one that is likely to do the wrong thing.

The first four episodes rattle along at an okay pace, but the introduction of each of the main planets does seem to take its time. Episode 4, Bad to the Bone, sees the introduction of the inhabitants of planet Bone and at long last some much needed humour is injected into what was previously a rather dry series.

I thought it was interesting that the main hero is not actually the ruler of his planet. Graveheart is just a lowly worker on planet Rock. Oh, and while I remember... Is it just me? Or does the ruler of planet Rock look like Lennin?

What's interesting about this series is that at the start none of these planet's get along. In fact, for centuries each race has mined all of the other planets in order to steal their resources. So, at the start of this series there is no real bad guy (although the Beast are seen as the villains even though they just do the same as the other planets in order to survive.) - they'll all been pinching the resources of each others planets.

Episode 6, Mind War, illustrates how our new main hero, Graveheart, is actually a bit naff when it comes to making decision and it is down to Cryos to step in and save the day. This episode also sees Femur being tricked for the second time by one of the Beast rulers. It was good that the writers hang him out to dry for being so stupid.

In episode 7, J, accuse, Graveheart's friend from planet Rock is under suspicion for murder. The evidence is overwhelming, but Graveheart defends her saying that Jade would only ever kill in self-defence. However, in Mind War, she was willing to kill Tekla in order to destroy the Beast woman who had taken over her body. So it sounds to me like Jade would indeed kill someone if it suited her.

Episode 11, Uneasy Hangs the Head, would have worked a little better if it had been included a little earlier on. And, it suffers from the fact that it includes quite a few clips from previous episodes.

Bonus extras include DVD-ROM content featuring the original shooting script for each episode.

While, on the whole, this series is enjoyable I did find that some of the episodes didn't quite keep my attention and I ended up nodding off on more than one occasion. But as entertainment for the kids, this is pretty entertaining.

Nick Smithosn

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