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| BeastMaster | |
|---|---|
 BeastMaster cast |
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| Format | Action/Adventure Fantasy |
| Created by | Sylvio Tabet |
| Starring | Daniel Goddard Natalie Jackson Mendoza Jackson Raine Marjean Holden Monika Schnarre Dylan Bierk Grahame Bond Steven Grives |
| Country of origin |  Australia,  Canada, United States |
| No. of episodes | 67 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Sylvio Tabet Greg Coote Allan Eastman Steve Feke Jeffrey M. Hayes |
| Running time | 45 mins |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Sci-Fi Channel |
| Original run | October 11999 – May 12002 |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
BeastMaster is a Canadian television series that aired from 1999 to 2002. It was loosely based on characters created by Andre Norton in her seminal science fiction novel The Beast Master (which itself spawned a 1982 MGM movie). The series aired for three complete seasons (66 episodes). The series was nominated for the Open Craft Award in the category of cinematography by the Australian Film Institute in 2000, and for the Saturn Award for Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films, USA, in 2001. BeastMaster is currently running in syndication on Sci-Fi Channel in the USA, but not in any prime-time slots.
Contents |
Premise
Dar (Daniel Goddard) is the last survivor of his tribe. He wanders the lands seeking his lost loved one, Kyra (Natalie Jackson Mendoza), protecting the oppressed and the animals. His friend Tao (Jackson Raine), a fearful, psychology-attracted young man, helps him in his quest. Tao is the scholar and the medicine man; Dar also meets another orphaned warrior named Arina (the athletic Marjean Holden) who first joins his quest for her own reasons, but eventually becomes a faithful companion. The world of the Beastmaster is full of lost tribes, genocide appears to be common, and all three of these characters are the survivors or last survivors of lost tribes. The series also featured Monika Schnarre as the Sorceress, apprentice to the Ancient One, played by Grahame Bond. The regular human enemy of Dar, King Zad, was played by Steven Grives, and Marc Singer, the original Beastmaster, appears in the third season as Dartanus, the Spirit Warrior who helps Dar on his quest. The series also included many memorable guest appearances, such as the appearance of Grace Jones as the Impatra Warrior, Keith Hamilton Cobb as a Terron defector who is also in love with Kyra, and King Voden, played by Dai Paterson throughout the second season. Some people apparently found the series confusing, but the general story arc of the series is that the world is changing, civilization is advancing, technology is gaining ground slowly, the old orders of magic and sorcery are fading, and the world is threatened by the supernatural being Balcifer, the Dark One, played by Jeremy Callaghan. Dar is the son of King Eldar, who was destroyed by Balcifer, and must locate and reunite his entire family, who have been turned into animals to hide them from Balcifer, in the Crystal Arc, to defeat Balcifer. It's never quite clear exactly how or why this would defeat such a powerful evil being, but it's central premise of the story in the third season. Balcifer's agent on Earth is King Zad, who is first King of the Terrons, a savage tribe that enslaves and pillages at will, and later, when the tribe is destroyed by King Voden leading a group of Viking-like northerners, Zad re-emerges as the King of Xincha, the city at the center of the world (and Tao's former home), after deposing Voden, who fled into the wilderness at the end of the second season. There is a wonderful contrast there between the crude savage badness of King Zad and the refined, insane evil genius of King Voden, and King Zad emerges from the contest a more civilized, but still savage character. The first episodes were violent and featured some very intense combat scenes, but as the first season wore on, the series began to take on a pacifist and naturalist tone. The series story arc should not be viewed strictly as a good vs. evil story, but rather a nature vs. technology, and nature vs. the unnatural story.
Characters
Curupira is the forest demon who gave Dar his abilities as Beastmaster. She finds no need for humans, but only needs the beastmaster to protect her animals. Her most striking feature to remind people that she is not human are her backwards feet. It seems to be part of a trick to make her enemies run away from her instead of running to her.
Dar is the last surviving member of the Sula tribe. The Sula were all killed by merciless Terrons when Dar was around 10 to 12 years of age. Dar saw his own mother’s death. He helped his father complete the mission to get the special Sula tigers to safety as was bid by Curupira. During all this, Dar’s father, also a beastmaster, was killed, and his betrothed Kyra was captured by the Terrons. From then on, he was alone.
Tao is a font of knowledge. He is a scholar of his people and was sent out both to spread and gather more knowledge. Whenever he and Dar enter a new situation, Tao usually has some information about it. There is rarely a new place or culture that Tao doesn't know. His mind is excited by knowledge and possibilities.
The Sorceress is a nameless student of the Ancient One. She is truly and quite simply a worker of great magic. The skills of her magic have been growing. She has tampered with the lives of humans. She was punished by The Ancient One for falling in love with a fellow student Sharak, and as punishment had her memories and emotions taken away from her.
Sharak was once a man who was deeply in love with the Sorceress.They both were cursed by the Ancient One. Sharak has been cursed to live forever and eternally roam the sky. The Sorceress was cursed to never have her memories of him or their love.
The Ancient One is the almost god-like figure in the beastmaster's world. He has vast power that may be truly omnipotent. He is older than all else, and an enigma. Above all this, one of the greatest changes in the Ancient One happened at the end of the first season. He started the series with the appearance of being truly ancient, but he decided to age in reverse order. It was one of his whims that he did simply because he could. By the time we reached the end of the season one finale, the Ancient One looked greatly younger and no longer had the crystals on his head.
The Black Apparition (Daughter Of Darkness) a former student to The Ancient One but she fell in love with him and was punished. It was in that moment the she embraced the full darkness and evil of the world into her, and became The Daughter Of Darkness, her domain is The Burning Forest.
King Zad King Of The Terrons
Television airings
The series is shown on the UK FTA satellite channel Zone Horror (Sky EPG No. 321). It is shown every Monday, Wednesday & Friday at 11:30am, 3:30pm & 7:30pm. It also airs on a Saturday, at 12:00pm & 6:30pm In the United States, syndication rights are held by Tribune Broadcasting.
Continuity issues
There are some unclear points in the story, for example, that King Zad appears to have been alive for a very long time, as he was involved in the slaughter of Dar's father. Yet, he doesn't appear that old. This is not readily apparent in the beginning, but that sense develops later in the story, and is explainable by the fact that Zad is Balcifer's agent. Zad was apparently killed in battle and resurrected by Balcifer at some point, but it's never clear when this happened. It does not happen during the series. There also appears to be a major gap in the series between the end of the second and the beginning of the third seasons that is never really explained. It appears that some considerable time elapses between the two seasons, and new characters, such as Zad's soothsayer, appear suddenly at the beginning of the third season without background or explanation. One gets the feeling perhaps that the series was shortened by about a half a season, or that there was supposed to be an interseason movie that never happened, hence the jump in the storyline.
