Photon (TV series)

"Photon" was a live action television show in the mid 1980s, which was tied in to the lasertag arenas and home game.

Hook

"Photon" followed the adventures of a young high school student, Christopher Jarvis with the alias of "Bhodi Li". Chris discovers that the lasertag game is actually a way to detect the strongest warriors in the galaxy, who will then be recruited to fight the forces of darkness. After shooting his laser gun and saying "The light shines!", he would be transported to a space ship to join his fellow Photon Warriors. His alien compatriots include an orphan earthling boy genius named Parcival, a shape-changing blob named Pike, a dinosaur named Leon, a cyborg named Lord Beatham, and Tivia, a black ninja princess from another world populated by women after the males became extinct. Their mentor is a sort of computer named MOM. The villains' motto is "Let the darkness grow!"

Quirks

* Most of the action was about recharging "Photon Crystals". Either the good side or bad side could shoot the crystal and thus make the associated planet good or evil for the next hundred years.
* At some point during the show, a music-video-like sequence, featuring a recent hit song, would be played.
* The monsters notably had the letters "-arr" at the end of their names. For example, Pirarr (a pirate themed monster), Bugaar (a giant British bug), Dogarr (a doglike monster), Destructarr (an indescribable alien) and Warriarr (a four-armed monster). Bhodi Li's nemesis is Mandarr/Evan, a fallen Photon warrior under mind control. Their master is an evil overlord known as the Warlord of Arr (although the planet itself is never seen).
* The villains would project holograms of themselves onto the battlefield and leave their bodies behind so that when they were shot they would survive to appear later.
* This was one of the first kids shows to show the main character, Bhodi Li, get defeated (appeared to have been killed by getting Laser tagged) and having the episode end. He came back soon after.
*Before and after every commercial break, one of the heroes would say "The Light Shines" to the viewer.

Production and airtime

The show was filmed in both the U.S. and Japan. Many of the costumes were designed and manned by people who worked on Super Sentai and other tokusatsu programs in Japan. Production values were rather low, and a majority of the sets were chroma-keyed in.

The show only lasted one season. However, it did have a series finale.

Directors: Yasuhiro Horiuchi and Koichi Nakajima.

Writers: Ray Dryden, Tsunehisa Itô, Satoshi Namiki, Sukehiro Tomita.

Cast and characters

*Bhodi Li (played by Christopher Lockwood)
*Tivia, Princess of Nivia (played by Loretta Haywood)
*Lord Beatham (played by Graham Ravey)
*Parcival (played by Eros Rivers)
*Leon/Sarge (played by Akiyoshi Ono)
*Uncle Pike (played by Kazuhisa Kanamaru)
*Kathy Jarvis (played by Clarissa Reid)
*Barbara Johnson (played by Tamara Johnson)
*Richard Jarvis (played by Paul Laroque)

*Pirarr (played by Sam Taylor)
*Mandarr/Evan (played by David Anthony, aka David Stay)
*Warriarr (played by Satoshi Ishihara)
*Dogarr (played by Deiichi Igarashi)
*Bugarr (played by Yoshito Shiraishi)
*Destructarr (played by Yoshito Nagatsuka)

Related books

There were a number of book tie-ins, some of them written by popular comic book and TV author Peter David under the pseudonym of David Peters.

Two series of books were planned and started. The series aimed at a younger audience was by Peter David, under the pseudonym of David Peters, and 6 books were written. The first and only published novel of the series aimed at the Young Adult market was written by Michael P. Kube-McDowell under the house name Michael Hudson.

Reruns

The Club Mario segments of "The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!" included segments of "Photon" under the title "Spaced-Out Theater".

External links

* [http://www.photon-qei.com/ Photon QEI homepage]
* [http://www.x-entertainment.com/articles/0740/ Your life isn't really being lived until you've experienced Photon]
* [http://www.chilandra.com/ent/photon.html Episode guide and characters]
* [http://www.sff.net/people/K-Mac/photon.htm Webpage for Photon: Thieves of Light, at Kube-McDowell's website.]