Black Scorpion TV series

Thank you for re-introducing men to Black Scorpion Markiehow

Loving the campiness of it  

And ye, you will never get women, costumes, and certain shots today, like you did back then

Peace.

/K

All these stills are fantastic!  I actually remember watching Black Scorpion when it was first broadcast and not thinking anything odd about the costumes.  They were hot obviously, but also what I expected any kind of campy superheroine to wear.  Standard issue, if you will.    But now things are so different, that I simply can't believe the characters wore them on a family show.  It doesn't seem so far away, but 2001 was a generation ago and you forget how much things change in that much time.

Agent00Soul wrote: All these stills are fantastic!  I actually remember watching Black Scorpion when it was first broadcast and not thinking anything odd about the costumes.  They were hot obviously, but also what I expected any kind of campy superheroine to wear.  Standard issue, if you will.    But now things are so different, that I simply can't believe the characters wore them on a family show.  It doesn't seem so far away, but 2001 was a generation ago and you forget how much things change in that much time.

THANK YOU!
My point exactly.
Light, escapist entertainment.

Why isn't a bright, colorful show like Supergirl light, escapist entertainment?
Flash seems to pull it off.

Markiehoe wrote:
THANK YOU!
My point exactly.
Light, escapist entertainment.

Why isn't a bright, colorful show like Supergirl light, escapist entertainment?
Flash seems to pull it off.

I was speaking specifically of the costumes, but the point does work on TV in general.  Don't get me wrong, I'm a sucker for Darcy's costume, but I'm also a sucker for Diana Rigg's "Emmapeelers" from 1967 and Nichelle Nichol's uniform from 1966, but both of those wouldn't fly now (or 2001 for that matter).  I guess the best example is comparing The Orville with Star Trek: Discovery.  As has been written on this site, Orville is essentially a remake of Next Generation, complete with social topics from the 1990s that seem pretty safe and uncontroversial these days.  Discovery feels like now, for better or worse.  In other words, the definitions of what makes up light escapist entertainment are always changing and after 17 years, you realize they have changed quite a lot right under your nose.

Diana Rigg as Emma Peel is one of my all-time biggest crushes

I even enjoyed watching Uma Thurman play the role in the 90s adaptation.  Which, to be fair, has its flaws*, but I enjoyed watching anyway. It captured the "feel" of what The Avengers** was for me.

Peace.

/K

* Strange story.  Long ago, in a roundabout way, I knew a woman who was friends with a stuntwoman.  The stuntwoman was Uma's stuntwoman on the film, and she said there were MASSIVE amounts of scenes cut/re-jigged from the final edit.  The story played out completely differently when they were filming it.

** Obviously not the Marvel Avengers  

kikass2014 wrote: Diana Rigg as Emma Peel is one of my all-time biggest crushes

I even enjoyed watching Uma Thurman play the role in the 90s adaptation.  Which, to be fair, has its flaws*, but I enjoyed watching anyway. It captured the "feel" of what The Avengers** was for me.

Peace.

/K

* Strange story.  Long ago, in a roundabout way, I knew a woman who was friends with a stuntwoman.  The stuntwoman was Uma's stuntwoman on the film, and she said there were MASSIVE amounts of scenes cut/re-jigged from the final edit.  The story played out completely differently when they were filming it.

** Obviously not the Marvel Avengers  

Yes, the final film was almost incomprehensible and clocked in at just 77 minutes!  I thought for sure that the DVD would restore the missing footage, but the movie flopped so badly, I guess they just didn't bother.  I too thought the director and production designer's hearts were in the right place and I didn't mind the casting of Uma or Ralph either.  I wanted to like that movie so badly but I just couldn't.  The thing that did it for me was the gravitas they gave the main characters.  Steed isn't supposed to actually be a repressed member of the British establishment, he just dresses like and riffs at them. Emma isn't supposed to have a chip on her shoulder and out to prove herself to the world, she already knows she has.  

Basically, the life of adventure was their light escapist entertainment in the show, even though they were battling diabolical masterminds.

Episode ten An Officer and a Prankster

The Mad Scientist Dr. Phoenix brings the Gangster Prankster back to life in his never ending quest to reform dead super criminals.
This time he implants a pain inducer that is triggered whenever Gangster Prankster wants to do evil.
This device actually works and Gangster Prankster becomes a law abiding citizen and a Police officer.


The detectives are intolerant as a group and  do not trust him.
Surprisingly Darcy/ Black Scorpion will not give him the benefit of the doubt and shadows him as he foils seven crimes in one day.

Early in the episode we get reused Gangster Prankster footage from the feature film Black Scorpion 2 Aftershock
Stoney Jackson reprises his role as Super Villain Gangster Prankster,
He is brilliant.
I believe this makes him the first African American to portray a supervillain in a live action show.
Of course Eartha Kitt broke ground in the old Batman TV show.

We also get Giggles as the moll in this episode.
A very live action Harley Quinn type.
She was adorable.

Episode eleven Life's a Gas

Eco Terrorist Ariel Haize seeks out the advise of Super Criminal Breathtaker. Guest star Adam West
She is smitten with him and is a bit of a groupie.
Then things go horribly wrong.


After a break in at the chem lab she is doused with pollution absorbing material and becomes Pollutia a living embodiment of gas.



Darcy plays the good cop and fails to get the needed info from Breathtaker and it is up to Black Scorpion to put on the needed pressure to save the city.

This episode features several girl fights and a goodguy vs badgirl fight which is pretty brutal which is still pretty odd even by today's standards.
We also get Baywatch babe Traci Bingham as one of the airheaded henchwomen,

The same police chase stock footage is used again and again.
I am wondering if this is supposed to be a gag.

Episode twelve Roses are Red you're Dead

Squiggy from the old Laverne and Shirley tv show plays Greenthumb who wants to punish the entire city to try to win the unrequited love of the Mayor's bimbo Babbette.

He has two Henchwomen that are sympathetic and help him out.

(This knucklehead can not see the forest for the trees)
A great plot and I loved it.

He uses plant based scents to induce "Apathy" amongst the population.
Fortunately Darcy has a head cold and can not breath in the pollen.
She sneezes on Steve a couple times during the episode.
However at the end when Steve comes down with a cold he attributes it to the one time Black Scorpion sneezed on him.
Thus pushing the fun Darcy, Steve, Black Scorpion love triangle.

We also get a special guest star.
I am pretty sure the Audrey II puppet from Little Shop of Horrors is in this one.
I could not find a screen grab.

Plenty of cleavage for fans of that stuff (like me)

Episode thirteen Fire and Brimstone.

The ugliest Cupid I have ever seen is having fun making people fall in love with the first person they see.
Usually him causing problems with couples all over make out spot Heavenly Point.


This is a love themed episode where Medusa, who survived her fall from the dam, is still in love with Steve.
Inferno, resurrected by Dr. Phoenix, is still in love with Darcy.
The two team up to get revenge on their rivals and secure the unrequited love of their dreams.


Therer is plenty of twists and turns in this one where sometimes you don't know who is in love with who and who wants to accomplish what to achieve a goal.


In one fun moment Steve, who under Cupid's spell is in love with Darcy and vice versa, is revived by Black Scorpion but he calls out to Darcy.
Black Scorpion gets jealous and slugs him then kisses him.
FUN STUFF.


Much time is spent in flashback to the two origin episodes of our villains.

The biggest joke of all, Cupid is never captured and that plot line is dropped or forgotten.

Fire & Brimstone was the episode that really stood out to me when I first saw it.  This was the episode that I realized that this show wasn't so much a tribute to the 1966 Batman show, as an all out let's take the same format and do a  no-rules, take-the-genre-tropes into the stratosphere episode.  Whenever I thought it got too ridiculous, the producers would add to it by being more ridiculous a few scenes later.  In retrospect, it kind of was an ancestor to a lot of more recent "post-modern" TV. Rather than a jump-the-shark moment, it made me like the show more.

Having said that, even in 2001 I did wonder if it might be a bit too dodgy for a TV villain to make the population of an entire city jump random peoples' bones.

Agent00Soul wrote:
Having said that, even in 2001 I did wonder if it might be a bit too dodgy for a TV villain to make the population of an entire city jump random peoples' bones.

It's in his nature.

Episode fourteen Virtual Vice

Full Disclosure.
I am a HUGE Lana Clarkson fan.

Dr. Sara Bellium has an insane plan to warehouse the poor in a virtual world to ease their suffering.
After the Mayor cancels her funding her and her two assistants are zapped while playing a new VR game and become Mindbender, Gig and Byte.


I love Lana Clarkson's look here and I always thought at 5' 10" and with her figure she would have made a perfect Ms. Victory in a live action AC Comics FemForce Tv show or movie.

Mindbender frees up the funds by trapping the Mayor and Babbette in the VR world Wrath of Warriors.



Quickly followed by all the detectives including Darcy.
Much footage from Lana Clarkson's three fantasy movies Deathstalker and Barbarian Queen I and II is reused here fairly effectively with a couple of clunky shots.
We even get a couple inserted scenes with muscleman Lou Ferrigno.
We get Lana in many action scenes fighting off hordes of swordsmen.



A super fun episode.

Near the end of the episode Darcy is sent into the VR world.
Her scenes are cut in with playmate Barbi Benton's scenes from the movie Deathstalker.
In the movie scene Barbi wears a very sheer bit of silk which hides almost nothing while actress Michelle Lintel is a little more covered up in the TV version.

In this screen grab from the TV show we clearly see Barbi's figure where this is supposed to be Darcy.
We also see a blooper as Lana Clarkson'e movie character is present but in the TV continuity Mindbender was not in the VR world at this time.


I was OK with all this.

See what I mean?  The show was totally unapologetic about itself at this point.

Episode fifteen Bad Sport

Steve's old college buddy is a championship Hockey player who is critically injured on the ice by three team mates who are throwing the game.
Paralyzed, he is given a suit of powered armor that lets him walk again so he can get his revenge against his team mates and eventually the fans as Slapshot..

This is a straight up action/ revenge episode.
Which is OK by me.





In this episode Steve rescues Black Scorpion from certain death.
This is the first time this has happened where a male hero rescues Black Scorpion.
Steve and Argyle have both rescued Darcy in other episodes.
And yes there is a difference.

There are a couple of cameos here.
Charles Fliesher, voice of Roger rabbit, plays Dr. Kiro Practer and Sopranos star Steve Schrippa plays an Enforcer.

I spotted one of Slapshot's cheerleaders, she is played by Beckie Mullen.
A busty actress best known for catfighting Pamela Anderson in an episode of Married with Children.


Fans of Throatlifts will be pleased with this episode as there are several.

And once again we get the same police car chase footage cut into the episode.
I am convinced this is a goof played by the producers.

Episode sixteen Kiss of Death

A very interesting episode that explores costumed vigilantes.
Angela, a driven cop who uses excessive force to apprehend criminals is kicked off the force.
After miraculously surviving a multi story fall she snaps and becomes the Angel.
The Angel of Death.
No longer wishing to catch criminals she wants to kill all of them.
She comes up a killer lipstick and literally gives criminals The Kiss of Death


Mentally broken, she is crazy strong and physically she is more than a match for Black Scorpion.
 



Several back and forth battles happen where Black Scorpion is beaten again and again.
Like last episode Steve also rescues Black Scorpion once.

The most interesting scene is where Angela and Darcy meet for a little Girl Talk.
This bit is really quite well executed.
Darcy was able to catch her father's killer where Angela was not.
She now feels driven to catch all the criminals.


The episode falls apart in the final act.
I see where the writer was going but I don't think it was executed well.

Episode 17 He Who Laughs Last

The Gangster Pranksters girl Giggles frames Argyle for car theft and Darcy is sent to arrest him.


Argyle is immediately sent to Maximum Security (?) where he meets up with his brother the Gangster Prankster.
It takes the Gangster Prankster about 30 seconds to convince Argyle to join the gang and break out of prison.

Together they construct a weapon that can punish people if they laugh by inflating that person with helium.
Which the Gangster Prankster uses to kill people, off screen but you can imagine how gruesome, against Argyle's wishes.
Argyle teams up with Black Scorpion and they bring in the gang for justice.



I did not like this episode.
It seemed unnecessarily cruel and I don't know how Argyle was not locked up for years after for committing so many crimes and as an accessory to murder.

Stoney Jackson who plays Gangster Prankster is wasted this episode as the material is not up to his talent.

Thanks for the mammeries -- er, I mean memories!  I also remember enjoying this extremely campy show back when it originally aired on the SciFi Channel.  In fact, when I found out my friend Jeff was going to a comic convention where Michelle Lintel would be there promoting the show, I implored him to wait in line to meet her and get an autograph for me.  He took this pic for me to commemorate the event!

Lucky guy

Peace.

/K

Wow great shot!  It’s rare for the actors to be in costume at a convention. And that particular one too....

WELL DONE!

I am glad people are enjoying the trip down memory lane.
Just a few more episodes to go.

That photo op with Michelle Lintel in costume reminded me just how hard Sci Fi channel was pushing this show in the beginning.

Episode eighteen PowerPlay

The conservative Deputy mayor seems to be taking the fall for all of the Mayors corruption.
She is electrocuted trying to save the Mayor when he is fooling around the city's new Electric Chair.
Her conservative clothes are destroyed and some sexy undergarments are revealed.


She gathers up scraps of wire and other electrical gear and becomes the electrified Super Villainess Stunner
 

While supercharging the electric chair many supervillains are released and it is up to Black Scorpion to round them up.
Slap Shot is apprehended on an ice rink with Black Scorpion out skating him.
I absolutely loved this scene and rewatched it several times.
I have always enjoyed Ice Skaters for their grace and poise.
Seeing a Skater in the Black Scorpion costume being graceful and powerful was a complete new thing to me.
 



Of course the episode would not be completer without the Black Scorpion being trapped in the electric chair!


This episode was directed by the actor Scott Valentine who plays Steve on the series.

That's Alison Armitage, really lame costume here but she's always been super-mega hot (remember the other tv serie Acapulco H.E.A.T. ?)