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| Mutant X | |
|---|---|
 Mutant X title card |
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| Genre | Science fiction Action adventure |
| Created by | Avi Arad |
| Starring | Victoria Pratt Victor Webster Forbes March Lauren Lee Smith Karen Cliche and John Shea |
| Country of origin |  Canada[1] United States |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 66 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | approx. 44 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Fireworks Entertainment Tribune Entertainment Marvel Studios |
| Distributor | Marvel Entertainment CanWest Global Communications |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Syndicated |
| Original run | October 6, 2001 – May 17, 2004 |
Mutant X is a television series that first aired October 6, 2001. Created by Marvel Studios (a division of Marvel Comics), the story centers around Mutant X, a team of "New Mutants" who possess extraordinary powers as a result of genetic engineering. Like hundreds of other unsuspecting people, the members of Mutant X were used as test subjects in a series of covert government experiments. The company behind the project now wants to control these New Mutants for its own purposes. The mission of the Mutant X team is to seek out their fellow New Mutants, help them come to terms with their abilities, and protect them from those who want only to exploit their powers. The series was filmed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Mutant X is unrelated to the Mutant X comic book series. However, according to Volume 5 of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z hardcovers, the Mutant X television series takes place on Earth-704509, making it an alternate reality in the Marvel multiverse. Even though the series had high ratings and was renewed for a fourth season, it was abruptly canceled in 2004 due to the dismantling of Fireworks Entertainment, one of the production companies.
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Mutant X Team
Adam Kane (John Shea), is arguably the smartest man alive--the strategist, tactician, and moral center of Mutant X. It was his experiment that inadvertently created New Mutants, and he takes as his responsibility the salvation of these innocent victims of society. Adam has the serenity of a warrior poet--the perfect leader of Mutant X.
Shalimar Fox (Victoria Pratt), is in her mid 20s, fiery, Feral, and stunning, a sensual beauty utterly in touch with her primal self. Blessed with both human and animal DNA, Shalimar has the strength, speed, and cunning of the animal kingdom with a tempestuous nature to match. She is uncannily fast, inhuman agile, and sensual Feline. Walking the line between human and Feral, Shalimar is a little wild and completely unpredictable.
Jesse Kilmartin (Forbes March), is a sweetly, naive, and good-natured guy in his early 20s who can alter the density of his body at will-going from rock solid as a stone wall one moment-then walking through a stone wall the next. Jesse led a sheltered childhood, and still has a lot to learn about the harsh realities of the world, but he's more than proved himself an invaluable member of Mutant X. Jesse is the only known New Mutant to have surpassed his "Expiration Date."
Brennan Mulwray (Victor Webster), is a tough, yet vulnerable, street-smart wise guy in his late 20s with the astonishing ability to generate enough electricity from his own body to power a small city. A fast talking cavalier with an ingratiating grin, Brennan is a master of electricity-who throws bolts of energy from his fingertips. Brennan loves being a New Mutant-throwing off sparks is an absolute blast.
Emma deLauro (Lauren Lee Smith), was a mischievous knockout in her early 20s-a Tele-Empath who could communicate her own feelings-and receive the feelings of others around her. Emma couldn't read thoughts, but she could sense in great detail and emotional state of mind-and learn an awful lot about another person from it. When these gifts combined with her party girl personality, fun and trouble were a double guarantee. She died in the explosion at Naxcon Corporation Industries (Nicholas Fox's Company).
Lexa Pierce (Karen Cliche), is a mystery. Her shadowy past includes covert operations for several intelligence agencies and security agencies. Like the other members, she was unwittingly subjected to genetic experimentation and as a result, can manipulate light in amazing ways. Lexa Pierce is a Chromatic Molecular, and can bend light to make herself and those she is touching invisible to the naked eye. She can also shoot penetrating lasers to wound or kill her enemies, and create blinding light flashes with her hands to blind her enemies. There is a time limit on Lexa's invisibility, and while invisible, her heat outline can still be seen with infra-red goggles or by Feral vision.
Genomex
Genomex, formerly known as The Breedlove Foundation, is a biotech company dedicated to genetic research. Their employees include some of the top scientific minds in the world, and it was these people who created New Mutants. The victims of their experiments fall under four categories: Elemental, Feral, Molecular, and Psionic. Genomex understood perfectly what their experiments would do, but their subjects were kept in the dark, though the late Paul Breedlove did try to warn them.
The GSA
When New Mutants began appearing in the news, Mason Eckhart, head of security for Genomex, set up The Genetic Security Agency (GSA). Their mission was to recapture New Mutants for further genetic testing. Under Eckhart's command, their ranks include Non-New Mutant Agents and a minority of New Mutants. His Second-In-Command changed weekly, most ending up in stasis pods as instant demotion after a failure. Eckhart is killed in a confrontation with Mutant X in the opening of the final season over the presumed deaths of Adam and Emma.
Patient Zero
While most New Mutants' abilities fall under one category, Gabriel Ashlocke (Michael Easton), (a.k.a. Patient Zero), the first and most powerful of New Mutants, had the combined abilities of all four classes: Elemental, Feral, Molecular, and Psionic. As a child, Ashlocke killed his parents with his powers. He was the first New Mutant that Adam worked on, and the subdermal governors and stasis pods used by The GSA were developed by Adam because of him. With the help from The Strand, Gabriel was released from stasis, defeated Eckhart, and replaced him as the series' main antagonist for Mutant X's second season.
While Eckhart's goal was to destroy New Mutants, Ashlocke wishes to empower them to conquer the world. Ironically, having the same New Mutant Genes within him, his glory proves to be his downfall as the sheer amount of power that he wields literally tears him apart at a molecular level, despite his best efforts to stop the process from happening. Gabriel had powers such as Energy Blasts, Feral Strength, Intangibility, Force Field Generation, Telepathy, Mind Control, Telekinesis, and Psionic Blasts.
New Mutant Classifications
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New Mutants are categorized into four different groups, depending on their abilities: Elementals, Ferals, Moleculars, and Psionics.
- Elementals are New Mutants with the ability to channel, project, and control different types of energies through their bodies. Different types of Elementals include Electricals (who can absorb and channel electricity); Thermals (who can absorb and control fire or cold); Sonics (who can control sound waves); Chemicals (who can project chemical substances, such as acids, from their bodies); Botanicals (who can control and manipulate plants); and the extremely rare Geologicals (who control earth).
- Ferals are New Mutants with a combination of animal and human DNA, allowing them to use the abilities of the animal DNA within them. Different types of Ferals include Feline (who possess cat, tiger, lion, puma, leopard, or cheetah DNA); Ursines (who possess bear DNA); Canines (who possess dog, wolf, coyote, or fox DNA); Reptuses (who possess lizard, snake, alligator, crocodile, or turtle DNA); Porcines (who possess pig, boar, or hog DNA); Bovines (who possess cattle, buffalo, bison, or yak DNA); Cervines (who possess deer DNA); Amphibians (who possess frog, toad, salamander, or newt DNA); Piscis (who possess fish DNA); Insectums (who possess insect or arachnid DNA); and Aves (who possess bird DNA), although the eleventh subclass type is rare.
- Moleculars are New Mutants who manipulate their body structure and molecular density in various ways. Some Moleculars possess more than one ability. Moleculars abilities include Intangibility (the ability to pass through solid objects); Impervious (the ability to increase their mass so they're invulnerable to projectile weapons); Invisibility (the ability to project an aura that renders them invisible); Propulsive (the ability to move at high speeds); Gravitative (the ability to manipulate gravity); Chromatics (the ability to change color, light and shades like a chameleon); Stasis Suspension (the ability to slow down time); Replication (the ability to duplicate solid objects); Elasticity (the ability to change their shape or size); Teleportation (the ability to teleport anywhere they desire); and Regeneration (the ability to heal and repair tissues and limbs).
- Psionics are New Mutants who have heightened mental abilities. Different types of Psionics include Telepaths (who can read other peoples thoughts); Telekinetics (who can move solid objects with their minds); Telempaths (who can feel and to various degrees, manipulate, the emotions of others); Tele-Cybers (who can mentally connect with machines and control them); Precognitives (who are able to receive visions); Illusionists (who can create and project illusions to other people); Astrals (who can project their consciousness elsewhere); Pain Synthesizers (who can project pain into others); and Multi-Dimensionals (who can create dimensions).
- Rare Others There were only two such other Rare New Mutants these were Gabriel Ashlocke and The Child, Both of which were mutants that possessed the powers of all four above groups
Lawsuits
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In 2001, 20th Century Fox (the producer of the X-Men series of films) sued Marvel (the originator of the characters in Mutant X and the X-Men), Tribute Entertainment (the distributor of Mutant X) and Fireworks Entertainment (the producer and international distributor of Mutant X) for breach of their licensing agreement and false advertisement. Fox stated it had exclusive rights from Marvel to develop the X-Men property, and anything similar was an infringement. Fox claimed that Mutant X was too similar to X-Men, and that Mutant X was being advertised as an "X-Men replacement." Fox asked that Mutant X production be stopped.
Marvel, within weeks, countersued Fox, saying that the two were dissimilar and asking the courts to allow Mutant X production to go forward. Production was allowed, as long as X-Men material was not used in the promotion of Mutant X. Apparently the title "Mutant X" itself was deemed too close to "X-Men" to be effectively leveraged.
With this environment, there was virtually no development of Mutant X merchandising.
In 2003, Fox and Marvel resolved their differences in confidential settlements of their suits, while Fox continued to pursue their cases against Tribune and Fireworks (apparently focusing on the false advertisement issues of using X-Men as a "springboard" to launch Mutant X). Tribune then sued Marvel (for $100,000,000) for fraud and breach of contract, stating that Marvel encouraged Tribune to connect Mutant X to the X-Men, misrepresenting what they were getting in their license, and causing millions in losses due to the need to alter storylines and characters to ensure distance between Mutant X and X-Men (which Tribune asserts led to the failure of the Mutant X series) as well as fighting Fox's litigation.
Litigation between Tribune and Marvel (and perhaps still between Fox and Tribune) appears to be continuing its way through the courts as of December 2006.
Cast
Main cast
- Victoria Pratt as Shalimar Fox
- Victor Webster as Brennan Mulwray
- Forbes March as Jesse Kilmartin
- Lauren Lee Smith as Emma deLauro (Seasons 1–2)
- John Shea as Adam Kane (Seasons 1–2; recurring Season 3)
- Karen Cliche as Lexa Pierce (Season 3)
Recurring cast
- Tom McCamus as Mason Eckhart (Seasons 1–3)
- Andrew Gillies as Dr. Kenneth Harrison (Seasons 1, 3)
- Michael Easton as Gabriel Ashlocke (Seasons 1–2)
- George Buza as Lexa's Dominion Contact (Season 3)
Locations
- Skywalk escalator between Rogers Centre and Toronto's Union Station.
- Genomex - Water Filtration Plant in the Beaches Area of Toronto.
- Sanctuary (external shot) - Season 2 - The Scarborough Bluffs, Toronto
- Outdoor fighting sequences - most shot under Gardiner Expressway near Cherry Street studios, Toronto.
- Various episodes internal and external shots - Ontario Science Centre, Toronto.
- Various episodes, external shots - Toronto Islands, Scarborough Bluffs (base and top), Old Don Jail
- Climax of Season II – Naxcon – Ontario Place Cinesphere and buildings.
- External forest shots - Guild Inn and Park
- External and internal building shots - Living Arts Centre, Mississauga.
Episodes
DVD
All three seasons have been released on DVD in season box sets, but are currently out of print. In late 2008, a complete series collection was scheduled to be released by ADV Films, but it was later cancelled. [2]
References
- ^ Claire Bickley (2001-08-19). "Mutant X Next". The Ottawa Sun (Sun Media). http://fyiottawa.com/cgi-bin/niveau2.cgi?s=sport&p=46508.html&a=1. Retrieved 2007-01-11.
- ^ http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Mutant-X-DVDs-Canceled/10477
External links
- Mutant X at the Internet Movie Database
- Mutant X at TV.com
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