Mutant X [Season 1, Episode 1]
The Shock of the New (1)
Shown 17th October 2001 - Wednesday
It is night in the big city, and late-teens girl Emma ( Lauren Lee Smith ) with a terrible hairdo is on the run. The bad-guys catch up with the babe, but she is saved by Mutant X, a group of super-heroes led by Adam Kane (John Shea - Lois & Clark ). His sidekicks are a guy named Jesse who can change his density, and Shalimar ( Victoria Pratt ) whose speciality is irritatingly unconvincing wire-fu. In comparison, the villain can only use his powers when it is relevant to the plot.
This is the newest adaption of a Marvel superheroes comic. It was written by Howard Chaykin, a long-time Marvel comics scribe. The director is TJ Scott, veteran of Xena: Warrior Princess and fiance of Ms Pratt. the scenes with the mutant professional thief are directed with flair.
The mutants get their super-powers from genetic enhancements performed on them by a company named GenoMax. The heroes, Mutant X, are on the run from GenoMax and its disfigured albino bad-guy leader, Eckhart. If you think this show sounds very similar to Dark Angel , you are right. This reviewer even thought it was that show, before the starting credits rolled.
Of note, the show was co-produced by Tony Thatcher ( Relic Hunter ).
This is the second part of the Pilot story. The Mutant X team band together to rescue the tall one who got captured. Of course, everything is as predictable and cliched as you can imagine.
The two Mutant X guys are jumped by a pair of Russians with the technology to detect and neutralise mutant superpowers. Brennan (Victor Webster - Continuum ), the criminal one with electro-powers, gets zapped and loses his powers. He spends most of the episode out of sight, which gives the density-changing dude a lot more screen time.
The Ruskies are bounty-hunters in the pay of evil Eckhardt, who for some reason has gone without his usual henchman Mr Thorn.
Laura Vandervoort guest-stars.
Shalimar ( Victoria Pratt ) takes point this episode. She is assigned to deal with another Feral woman, who is involved in some secretive dealings. While investigating, Shalimar meets the man of her dreams.
TJ Scott, Ms Pratt's fiance, directs.
In contrast, Emma ( Lauren Lee Smith ) struggles to get the guys to treat her equally. She trains in hand-to-hand combat, and gets herself an Emma Peel-style leather jumpsuit. Hmm, could this possibly be a blatant attempt to increase ratings?
A new mutant who calls himself Kilohertz starts a campaign of electronic sabotage. Shalimar ( Victoria Pratt ) and Jesse are almost killed when he shorts out their plane. They have to track down the saboteur before the worst happens.
Meanwhile, Evil Eckhart sends a rookie agent after Kilohertz.
A strange virus is killing off New Mutants. John Shea tries to develop a cure, but Evil Eckhardt sends a man to kill him and steal the cure.
Gordon Currie ( Codename: Eternity ) is a vicious bounty-hunter who wants to sell Mutants to Eckhart. Unfortunately, Eckhart loves to double-cross people - even when it is completely against his own interests!
The mutant being hunted is an attractive young lady with the power to absorb electricity. Everyone tries to keep her away from Brennan (Victor Webster - Continuum ), but they do not try hard enough.
Jesse falls in love with Toni Quintana ( Reagan Pasternak ), a computer hacker. However, Eckhart wants her for himself. Well, for her skills. He wants her to hack into public news sources like Proxy Blue, so he can plant disinfo about Mutant X and cover up his own activities.
Shalimar ( Victoria Pratt ) takes on a couple of renegade New Mutant ferals, but gets taken out by Ralf Moeller ( Gladiator ). It turns out they are survivors of a Special Forces unit named Dark Star.
Eckhardt has a new sidekick - Andrew Gillies ( Codename Eternity ), head of the Biomed corporation that Dark Star are targetting.
An invisible mutant breaks into the top secret Mutant X HQ and steals Adam's fancy new toy, the Genetic Resequencer. Adam (John Shea - Lois & Clark ) tracks the mutant down - it is his ex-GF from 16 years ago, when they worked together at Genomax.
Eckhardt has a new sidekick - a Feral who rats out his fellow mutants. The rat wants a promotion, so Eckhardt puts him on salary and sends him out to collect the invisible woman and the gadget.
John Shea tries to keep the episode afloat. However, the plot is threadbare and unoriginal. The invisibility SPFX are far inferior to those on the current TV show The Invisible Man (1999) .
Lightning-Boy Brennan (Victor Webster - Continuum ) and Emma the psychic girl ( Lauren Lee Smith ) go to meet with the thief's underworld contact. They get ambushed by the bad guys, and the psychic girl gets caught in the crossfire of two energy blasts. Her associate manages to drag her to safety, but the villains also capture her. Yes, in a blatant rip-off of the Trek episode she has been split in two!
The villains have managed to genetically alter humans and give them mutant powers. Andrew Gillies ( Codename Eternity ) is the scientist responsible ...
Jesse, the density-changing guy, has a surprise when his father comes to town. Dad is not a civilian, he happens to be an ex-Secret Agent on the run from some cohorts of Genomax!
Genomax sends its newest field agent, an African-American with super-hearing. Why the fool volunteers for the job is unknown, though he must know that every one of his predecessors met a grisly fate at the hands of their boss!
The director was John Fawcett ( Ginger Snaps ).
Adam (John Shea - Lois & Clark ) tries to save Caroline ( Emily Hampshire ) the daughter of his old enemy. However, the girl blames Adam for her father's demise and has the power to turn good people evil ... Yes, not unlike pretty-boy Billy in Angel [Season 3]
Eckhart sends in a goon who has the power to suck the oxygen out of peoples' lungs. He captures the girl's weasely boyfriend, and intends to recruit the girl to destroy Mutant X from within.
The episode does get better, though. Adam gets turned evil, and procedes to kick the crap out of his Mutant X kids.
Ron Perlman ( ) plays an architect and ex-commando who has strange visions. He witnesses his ex-wife getting murdered. Peter DeLuise ( SeaQuest DSV, Stargate SG-1 ) is the police detective assigned to investigate.
Eckhardt's minions this week include a memory-sucker and an acid-spitter. They frame Adam (John Shea - Lois & Clark ) for murder ...
The team co-opt a new guest-star sidekick. He can detect what is on the other side of a wall, and display a hologram of it. OTT or what?
To add to the drama, the new guy is Shalimar's ex. Has he changed his ways, or is he the untrustworthy git she remembers?
The Mutant X team are infected with a virus that puts them all in a shared psychic illusion. Only Adam (John Shea - Lois & Clark ) can deal with the man who put them there ...
The Electricity Guy Brennan (Victor Webster - Continuum ) seems to be having a special friendship with Shalimar ( Victoria Pratt ). This makes it difficult for her to accept when he gets seduced by a rogue new mutant ( Krista Allen ). Not only is she beautiful, she has scorpion DNA which means she has a great set of pheremones. And a hidden stinger.
Eckhardt is after a mcguffin that the scorpion-woman has obtained.
A new group of mutants appears on the scene, at war with both Genomax and Mutant X. Their leader is Gabriel Ashlocke (Michael Easton), the most powerful New Mutant, and he manages to take care of Genomax with frightening ease.
A freelance reporter type gets hold of footage of Mutant X in action. If the footage is broadcast, both Mutant X and Genomax will suffer. Shalimar ( Victoria Pratt ) falls for the suspect ...
Though this is listed as Ep 22, since it centres around Genomax it must pre-date Ep 21, A Breed Apart.
The show has a crummy voice-over. Gabriel Ashlocke (Michael Easton), the villain, wants the blonde babe Shalimar ( Victoria Pratt ). Emma the redhead ( Lauren Lee Smith ) has a nice hairstyle for a change. There is also a clone of an Egyptian Priestess. This was written by Chaykin, directed by TJ Scott.
The heroes chase villainous Gabriel Ashlocke (Michael Easton). His sidekick is Lindy Booth , who should be now in her 30s but she still has her dark hair from Odyssey 5 .
The fugitives get through a time portal into 1970s retro-land. Shalimar ( Victoria Pratt ) and lightning-boy Brennan (Victor Webster - Continuum ) follow.
After the compulsory references to Blair Witch Project , the team go looking for Bigfoot. Is he a Feral?
The usual stereotypical reporter and big game hunter are present. But at least it is not the usual stereotypical villain of the week!
Gabriel Ashlocke (Michael Easton) is dying. His last act is to seize sanctuary. Can Adam's team defeat his own security measures?
Sandrine Holt guest-stars.
The team go to a war zone to recover a US military weapon and rescue US POWs.
Electric guy Brennan (Victor Webster - Continuum ) has amnesia. They get stuck in The Village, with redneck cowboys.
Jesse's GF is taken.
A ghost possesses people, and goes for revenge on a Doctor. Specifically, the doctor who is Shalimar's new luv interest.
Street ( Earth: Final Contact ) is an interfering reporter.
Shalimar's childhood friend ( Jenya Lano ) replaces her. The team search for a superweapon.
Christina Cox is Brennan's ex. But is he the father of her son?
Adam's team protect a pollution company.
Emma ( Lauren Lee Smith ) goes undercover and bonds with a Precog eco-terrorist who looks like Jesse. Yes, this ep owes more than a little to Point Break.
Brennan (Victor Webster - Continuum ) is self-richeous. This is ironically hypocritical, considering in a previous ep he had a GirlFriend.
The villain's plan is to release the Doorways bacteria.
A pair of thugs rescue a convict, Maddox (Steve Baccic - Andromeda ). Not only is he a highly-trained assassin, he is also a super-powered mutant!
Adam (John Shea - Lois & Clark ) has a contact - a former lover of his, and Maddox's ex-boss. Adam visits her to get more info, just at the same time that Maddox and his cronies drop by for revenge.
With Adam and his ex trapped in the basement, will jealous electro-boy Brennan (Victor Webster - Continuum ) and the others rescue them in time?
Emma's hair is bright red, and she is on roller-skates!
An old pal of Brennan's escapes from jail, but dies soon after. Brennan (Victor Webster - Continuum ) and Jesse go undercover as convicts to discover the truth.
It turns out that the cons are used as cage-fighters. Yes - for all you ladies out there who are annoyed by the proliferation of Babes on TV, here are some specimens of hunky shirtless man-meat rolling around together!
Someone hires a secret group of international assassins to assassinate Adam (John Shea - Lois & Clark ) before he can make a public speach.
Luckily, the Assassins' base is in a local bar. Shalimar ( Victoria Pratt ) goes undercover, and gets cosy with top hitman Sebastian Spence ( First Wave ). He is tough, but he is not a feral.
Jeffrey Cooms ( Star Trek: DS9 ) is boss of the Assassin group.
The team are on Witness protection duty.
Adam (John Shea - Lois & Clark ) is kidnapped by The Tribuneral. They put him in front of a kangaroo court, and have him prosecuted by Nigel Bennet ( Lexx ). The result is a clip show.
The team are hunting an arsonist who turns out to be a Pyrokinetic.
Emma ( Lauren Lee Smith ) reads the mind of a dying man, and part of his personality is absorbed into her brain. The new split-personality Emma becomes obsessed with catching the arsonist.
The team guard a Senator's daughter, but she still gets kidnapped. Brennan's powers are on the fritz.
This was written by Freddie Prinz Jnr (actor husband of Sarah Michelle Gellar ).
Shalimar ( Victoria Pratt ) is becoming ever more feral. A psychic kidnaps her and gives her visions.
Explorers at the South Pole discover a Frozen lizard man. They have obviously never seen The Thing ...
There is a new v/o intro, not the old one by John Shea. George Buza is the new narrator, for reasons explained below.
Adam (John Shea - Lois & Clark ) and Emma ( Lauren Lee Smith ) are gone.
A new Brunette with the superpower of invisibility arrives. She is Lexa ( Karen Cliche ), and she claims to be Adam's back-up plan in case he got killed. Lexa's backers are a group called The Dominion. Their contact man is George Buza ( Adventures of Sinbad ).
Arch-villain Mason Eckhart is back in business. He wants the team to hand over Adam's database. This time he does not rely on human agents, he has a handful of mutant thugs for protection.
Lexa ( Karen Cliche ) the bossy agent is after Dominique (the arch-villain).
The team attend an auction in a casino.
Adam's pal is in an NBC lab. Predictably, it has a Resident Evil scenario.
Jesse does not use his powers this ep. Regardless, the Team must save the day.
The movie ripped off this week is Silence of the Lambs . An Indian TP babe is the Clarice character, and a male model with stubble is Lector.
Shalimar ( Victoria Pratt ) must trace copycat killer. The TP mind-rapes the convict, but he likes it (he has no morality).
Lexa ( Karen Cliche ) is drugged. The only one who has the cure is an ex-Genomex scientist now in prison.
Lexa and Shalimar ( Victoria Pratt ) go undercover in prison farm, clad in skimpy t-shirts. They re-used the solitary set from previous ep.
MacKay from Stargate: Atlantis is a mutant drug-lord.
The Team investigate Suicides in an asylum.
Shalimar ( Victoria Pratt ) is phobic of hospitals, which was not an issue for her a mere two episodes ago. Jesse exhumes a grave (because Shalimar is too girlie!).
The cinematography is nice (widescreen and splitscreen). However, they re-use the same solitary set.
The team are sent to find a healer-mutant in a remote area. Shalimar ( Victoria Pratt ) is wounded. Luckily the healer is around. Odd how the main characters never incurr a potentially fatal wound unless the magic healing power is pre-established in the ep.
Another female mutant (a feral?) is also after the healer. And she has a mercenary thug to help her.
Like previous ep, there is a downbeat ending. The show is cynical about Lexa's boss The Dominion.
Locust swarms destroy crops.
Jesse's background is revealed - apparently he is a millionaire, but in Mutant X [Season 1, Episode 13] Blood Ties his dad was ex-CIA.
Sasha Roiz ( Grimm ) guest-stars.
Jesse's VR game takes over the base.
A Telepathic villain from a previous ep controls it.
The team must defeat Adam's security!
The team must capture a super-mutant (Lexa's brother). He is unstable - mentally as well as physical. His alter-ego is an evil Klingon!
A villainous organ-stealer is after the Klingon's heart. It turns out the villain was formerly Eckhart's head of Security - back when Lexa ( Karen Cliche ) worked there.
Lexa must choose between her psycho brother and the man she loves.
Shalimar ( Victoria Pratt ) is a sadistic bitch, which is good news for her fans. And Jesse does some field-work, but does not use his powers.
A time-travelling babe helps the team defuse a bomb. When they get it wrong, she gives them yet another chance.
Brennan (Victor Webster - Continuum ) and Shalimar ( Victoria Pratt ) hunt aliens with a conspiracy journalist named Eddie (not Crazy Eddie from First Wave ), who lost his job for a Genomex photo of Brennan.
They uncover a US Government conspiracy to make Mutant assassins.
Lexa ( Karen Cliche ) is thinking of quitting.
The team are after info hidden in art collection.
Shalimar ( Victoria Pratt ) gets an anonymous tip.
Lexa ( Karen Cliche ) gets laid.
Five Dominion council-members are kidnapped.
Shalimar ( Victoria Pratt ) helps a framed scientist (her love interest of the week).
The secret helper is still feeding her info.
A gang of armed robbers is after Dominion secrets. Brennan (Victor Webster - Continuum ) goes undercover.
We finally get a good fight (i.e. no wire-fu).
As the plot arc appears, the team get a secret helper!
After Mutant X [Season 3, Episode 8] Wasteland we get yet another story about Jesse's family. His father's father was a pilot in World War Two, fighting against the Japanese. It turns out that he was used in a secret experiment to create eternal youth. This would be like using the Tuskeegee airmen (the most decorated unit in the USAAF) in the Tuskeegee syphilis experiments. The mastermind behind this is an old man named Burns ...
The anonymous source gives Shalimar ( Victoria Pratt ) a tip-off about the experiments. Since this episode focuses on Jesse, he now gets to speak to the source directly. This means that of the original cast, only Brennan (Victor Webster - Continuum ) does not know who the source is.
Lexa ( Karen Cliche ) dreams she conducted a one-woman raid on an office building. Then she wakes up ... covered in someone else's blood. Jesse scans her, and discovers she has a brain implant from her days working for Genomex.
Brennan (Victor Webster - Continuum ) does not trust Lexa any more, not that he ever did. Jesse imprisones her, and even the Dominion do not want to take risks. The only person who trusts her is Adam (John Shea - Lois & Clark ), who reveals his existence to her. Now poor Brennan is the last one to know the secret!
This is a non arc story.
An Eeeevil scientist clones women for slavery, so Shalimar ( Victoria Pratt ) and Lexa ( Karen Cliche ) go undercover as exotic dancers ...
Jesse actually does something for a change. Two things, actually.
Jesse and Lexa ( Karen Cliche ) flirt. Brennan (Victor Webster - Continuum ) and a telepathic bountyhunter ( Monika Schnarre ) chase a monster (a reference to Ashlocke).
It is a travesty that this show got a third Season, while Dark Angel got cancelled after only two.
Brennan (Victor Webster - Continuum ) and Shalimar ( Victoria Pratt ) go undercover at a Mutant Cirus. This leads up to an Eckhardt cameo. Yes, we finally get some closure on his story arc as we discover his final scheme to destroy all mutants.
The soundtrack includes a song by Tia Carrere .
The episode starts with a bit if phony jeopardy. Shalimar ( Victoria Pratt ) - in a t-shirt negligee - and Brennan (Victor Webster - Continuum ) are in their HQ when a SWAT team burst in and attacks them. Back in the main storyline, twelve hourse earlier, they end their UST (unrestricted sexual tension).
Lexa ( Karen Cliche ) is contacted by the Dominion. They have discovered that Jesse survived his sell-by-date, so Adam (John Shea - Lois & Clark ) must have cured him. As a result, the Dominion want to capture them and get the secret of the cure.
Lexa decides to take on the Dominion, so she goes after their secretive leader - the creator. This leads up to the cliffhanger ending to Season Three.