*VileVillainSaccharineShow: Sometimes the villain plots were funny, but sometimes they were ''not'' and either would have killed lots of people horribly if Servo hadn't stopped them, or ''must have killed lots of people horribly'' but a kids' show has to gloss over it (again, putting hydrochloric acid in all tap water was not a nice thing to do.) Kilokhan more than once attempted a YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness and would have let Malcolm die. Malcolm himself is not the HarmlessVillain he sounds like by this point: he's as gleeful about watching the suffering caused by the "kill a whole lot of people" plans as he is about the "annoy Sam, because why not?" plans so long as he himself isn't in the line of fire, and then there's the FridgeHorror of him: a kid whose ego and paranoia makes him take anything not going his way, or even gestures of kindness, as proof everyone is out to get him, and he wants revenge on everyone around him for these either very minor or completely imagined slights? Many an actual mass-murderer - including some school shooters, are basically people like Malcolm who found guns instead of evil computer programs in need of a MonsterOfTheWeek designer.

1st Feb '13 10:29:16 AM StFan

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1st Feb '13 10:27:37 AM StFan

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->''"The evil [[SIPrefixName Kilokhan]] lives inside computer circuits! With the help of Malcolm Frink, he creates Megavirus Monsters to attack electronic systems! Meanwhile, a freak accident turns Sam Collins into Servo! His friends join forces in their samurized attack vehicles! Together, they transform into... the SUPERHUMAN SAMURAI SYBER-SQUAD!"''

Yet another in the wake of post-''Franchise/PowerRangers'' superhero shows adapted from Japanese ''tokusatsu'' series. Adapted from ''DenkouChoujinGridman'' ("Electric Superhuman Gridman"), '''''Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad''''' (yes, that is [[XtremeKoolLetterz "Syber" with an "S"]]) tells the story of Sam Collins, a high school student, guitarist and video game programmer who, after being hit by a power surge through his guitar, briefly vanishes, only to reappear with a wrist-mounted doohickey!

At the same time, the same power surge, presumably, strikes a military base. Using it as a distraction, the AI Kilokhan escapes into the internet. He pops onto the monitor of Sam's classmate, Malcolm Frink. Malcolm enjoys designing monsters, and Kilokhan offers to bring his monsters to life as Megavirus Monsters to attack computers. Malcolm agrees, because he's just that kind of malcontent.

Later, Sam, still having an unknown phlebotinum attached to him at the wrist, tries to call a girl he recently met, only to be interrupted when a Megavirus Monster attacks the phone company, disrupting every telephone on the planet. Dejected, he notices strange activity on his computer in the form of a model called the Servo Program. While he checks it out, yet another power surge hits, this time drawing him into {{Cyberspace}}. He takes the form of Servo, and is forced to fight the Megavirus, which he has been transported to. Later, the rest of the band, Syd, Tanker, and Amp, later replaced by Lucky, assist using 'helper programs', taking the form of various 'samurized attack vehicles' that can fight the Megavirus independently, join together into a single robot, called Xenon, or able to combine with Servo to from Synchro. Later, they gain another set of vehicles, able to transform into Drago, and to combine with Servo to form Phormo.

* Sam Collins -- Matthew Lawrence
* Tanker --- Kevin Castro
* Sydney "Syd" Forrester -- Robin Mary Florence
* Amp Ere -- Troy Slaten
* Lucky London -- Rembrant
* Kilokahn -- TimCurry 
* Malcolm Frink -- Glen Beaudin
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!!''Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad'' provides examples of the following tropes:

* AIIsACrapshoot: Kilometric Knowledge-base Animate Human Nullity (Kilokahn). Really, what were they thinking giving him a name like that?
* AllGuysWantCheerleaders: Sam's girlfriend Jennifer is head cheerleader. Malcolm also pines for her too. 
* AllJustADream: In one episode, a Megavirus Monster in Sam Collins's alarm clock gives him a sequence of DreamWithinADream nightmares. Eventually he wakes up for real and defeats it.
* AsYouKnow: Quite often.
* BigDamnHeroes: Sam's teammates did this repeatedly whenever he was being overwhelmed by a virus and needed help. Sometimes they came in with their "helper programs", other times they simply sent him his sword and shield. 
* BigDamnVillains: In one episode where Servo was BrainwashedAndCrazy and actually began working with the virus, the rest of the Squad came in to stop him with Xenon. Xenon was winning against both Servo and the virus until Kilokahn intervened, using his powers to banish the rest of the Squad from Syberspace. 
* BoisterousBruiser: Tanker. The only things he likes more than beating up viruses are his friends and football, in that order. 
* ByThePowerOfGreyskull: Each member of of the team had (at least) one.
** Sam: "Let's Samuraize, guys!" 
** Sydney: "Pump up the power!"
** Tanker: "Let's kick some Giga-Butt!" 
** Lucky: "Surf's up!"
** Amp usually has a [[CouchGag random battle cry every episode]] he "samurized". Here's a few: "Two for a Dollar!", "Three for a Dollar!", "With a Cherry on Top!"
** What's funny is, it turns out the phrases are ''completely'' unnecessary. Miss Starkey finds herself in the digital world after ''pushing a button'' when she sees Drago (and the improvements Syd was making to it) onscreen and thinks it's part of a video game.
* ClingyMacGuffin: The device that allows Sam to become Servo is stuck to his wrist and can't be removed, which probably explains why he's the only one who ever becomes Servo, with one exception. 
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Amp was frequently called a "space cadet", and in fact it was revealed that he regularly attends space camp. In fact, in his farewell episode, he leaves behind a postcard that reads "Greetings from the Crab Nebula."
* CombatMedic: Servo was an unusual variant in that he had healing powers, but he didn't restore the other members of the Squad. Rather, he could repair the damage done by the viruses after he'd destroyed them and restore the machines they'd infected to their normal functions. 
* CostumeCopycat
** Tanker was forced to take Sam's place as Servo on one occasion when Sam wasn't available. 
** On a larger scale, in the toyline, the main Servo figure was repainted numerous times to represent armored versions of Tanker, Syd and Amp (along with the requisite Servo repaints and chromed figures). These armored forms did not appear in the show.
* DarthVaderClone: Kilokhan
* DeadpanSnarker: Malcolm Frink, who goes out of his way to insult everyone around him on a regular basis.
* DistaffCounterpart / SpearCounterpart: Sam travels to an alternate universe in one episode, where he meets a version of Malcolm who's a nice guy, a computer genius and essentially a male version of main-universe Sydney. Main-universe Malcolm's role is filled by Yolanda Pratchett, the principal's daughter and friend to Sydney and Jennifer, serving as a black female version of Malcolm in that she colludes with Kilokhan and creates the Mega-Virus Monsters. 
* DubInducedPlotHole: In the original Japanese show, we get at least some sort of explanation of where Gridman came from. The American version doesn't really give any explanation as to where Servo or his helper programs came from. 
* DudeWheresMyRespect: In one episode, Amp scored the highest on a national aptitude test. He's very hurt when everyone assumes that there was either a mistake in the scores or that he cheated. The Respect came at the end of the episode where a repeat of the test (due to loss of data earlier) showed his score was on par with Sidney.
* EverythingIsOnline: Telephones, wristwatches, and pompoms, among other things. Considering today's environmentn=, the show wasn't very far off.
* ExactWords: In one episode, Syd tries to design a "good" megavirus monster, and Kilokhan agrees to animate it, promising that ''he'' won't make any changes. So he gets Malcolm to reprogram it for him.
* {{Expy}}: Servo and Xenon bear a striking resemblance to Series/{{Ultraman}} and [[Franchise/{{Transformers}} Optimus Prime]] respectively. This is not a coincidence, since the original Japanese series (''Gridman'') was a co-production between Tsuburaya and Takara.
* FantasticSlurs: Kilokhan refers to humans as "meat-things".
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In one episode, Amp, who always says something random when they do ByThePowerOfGrayskull, says "I'll show you yours if you show me mine." Yeah, that's backward, I know.
* HeelFaceTurn: Both Malcolm and Kilokhan, on separate occasions. It doesn't take either time.
* HeroesPreferSwords: The handle of Servo's shield contained a sword that he could use as a melee weapon. It could also be fused with the shield to create a strange sword/axe combination. 
* HeroicSacrifice: Combined with [[spoiler:TheHeroDies and SenselessSacrifice]] and subverts all three of them at once. [[spoiler:When Servo is battling Kilokhan, it's clear that he's outmatched and tells Malcolm, who by now has gotten a HeelFaceTurn, to reboot the computer to destroy them both. Malcolm does so, with Sam being ready to sacrifice himself to destroy Kilokhan. All three tropes are turned on their heads as Sam's consciousness escapes the computer and returns to his body, and it turns out that Malcolm had already backed up Kilokhan on a floppy disk, so Servo's sacrifice would have been in vain.]] [[StatusQuoIsGod Go figure]]. And [[spoiler:everyone loses their memories of the event, which is why Malcolm notices that Kilokhan is missing and re-installs it onto his computer. *gonk* ]] It's like we're watching a CosmicRetcon ''in action''. "Those past twenty minutes? Ignore them, they never happened!"\\\
Apparently, they thought they were getting cancelled, so they used the Gridman finale for this blockbuster ending where Kilokhan finds where Sam lives, [[spoiler:fails to kill Malcolm in a YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness moment, ''does kill Sam dead'' with an electric jolt before he can enter the net as Servo, there's a touching TakeUpMySword scene with Malcolm, and when Malcolm tries to become Servo, it turns out the Servo program has saved Sam via BrainUploading. Sam battles Kilokhan ''personally'' in the bowels of ''Servo's own program'' (with the villain destroying all of the helper programs except the already-summoned sword and shield) takes the battle to Kilokhan's own turf, and has to use the power surge from the rebooting to wipe it and Kilokhan out for good. He appears to be destroyed too as Kilokhan - along with the area of the net that is him as much as his body - breaks up, but Servo manages to survive, and leaves for parts unknown hoping that he can return to his human life, somehow, someday]]. ''Damn.'' Did we mention this was the Christmas episode? When they had to do more episodes, there was no way to do it ''but'' to tack on a "It all got undone somehow and nobody remembers" ending. And when they had to end the show, it feels like a CutShort as they'd already used up the GrandFinale. The last episode could've been any old episode.
* HeWhoMustNotBeSeen: Elizabeth, Sam Collins's sister. Sam talks with her through the laundry chute, and she drops objects on Sam's head. We also never see ''or'' hear Sam's parents, though sometimes one of the team is heard talking to them on the way down.
* HumansAreSpecial: Servo keeps telling Kilokhan that this is the reason he always wins. For his part, Kilokhan doesn't believe that Servo is a human, because inferior "meat-things" could never defeat his superior programs.
* HumongousMecha: Zenon and Drago, which were formed by combining different vehicles and could also transform into armor wore by Servo.
** CombiningMecha
*** Vitor + Tractor + Borr = Zenon
*** Jamb + Torb = Drago
** MechaExpansionPack
*** Servo + Zenon = Phormo
*** Servo + Torb = Synchro
* AnIcePerson: Plexton's sister Gramm is an ice virus, although she isn't nearly as strong as her brother.
* ImportationExpansion: Like ''PowerRangers'', the show shot an entirely new plot around the ''Gridman'' fight sequences.
* InstantAwesomeJustAddNinja: The virus Skorn had various ninja-related powers, including the ability to create illusory duplicates of himself, energy bolts shaped like shurikens, and ninja weapons like nunchuks and katanas. 
* InsufferableGenius: Malcolm Frink certainly has the "insufferable" part down. As for the "genius" part, well, ''[[SmallNameBigEgo he]]'' certainly thinks he is one...
* IncrediblyLamePun: Most of which come from Amp, and tend to be rather well-written.
-->'''Amp:''' Holy Creator/MelGibson! That's enough to turn Servo into a Film/LethalWeapon!
* KnifeNut: Hock had large knife-like blades on his hands, large knife-like blades in his tail and a large knife-like blade in the center of his face. Notice a pattern here? 
* LightningCanDoAnything: Or at least power surges.
* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: One of Servo's "helper programs" is a shield that he can use to protect himself from enemy projectiles. The shield's handle also contains a sword that Servo can use to fight back.
* ManVersusMachine
* MerchandiseDriven: Well, duh, but this the toyline was absolutely terrible with {{Palette Swap}}ped Servos. Just a cursory [=eBay=] search came up with a half-dozen; not only EnvironmentSpecificActionFigure variants but some labeled as "Syd" and "Tanker" figures.
* MisappliedPhlebotinum: Malcolm isn't all that interested in helping Kilokahn TakeOverTheWorld; he just wants to make Sam Collins miserable and steal his girlfriend. Malcolm often has to practically trick Kilokhan into going along with his small-scale plans. Of course, this doesn't necessarily prevent Kilokhan from enjoying the mayhem that results. 
* MonsterOfTheWeek: The show manages to avert this trope on a number of occasions.
* MythologyGag
** In the AlternateUniverse episode, Tank incredulously remarks there's probably one where they're all Japanese.
** The moment in the supposed GrandFinale when [[spoiler:Sam urges Malcolm to become Servo in his place]] is probably a reference to the discussed but never-produced sequel to the original Japanese show, where Malcolm's equivalent character would himself have become Gridman's new human partner.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Kilokhan's counterpart in the original Gridman is called Khandigi[[TheDevil fer]].
* NotQuiteDead
** Malcolm always has another copy of the Megavirus to bring back later, although he doesn't reuse them very often. Also averting NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup.
** This also applied to [[spoiler:Kilokhan]] himself in the Christmas episode. Malcolm had already [[spoiler:backed Kilokhan's data up on a floppy disk before the battle with Servo that ultimately destroyed him. When Malcolm booted up his computer and tried to reload his files, Kilokhan was revived.]]
* OncePerEpisode
** Elizabeth, Sam's little sister, calls him to the laundry chute and dumps something mesy on his head. The list includes ice cream, marshmallows, and on one rare occasion, [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming her piggy bank]].
** Other characters have fallen victim to this too. Elizabeth once dropped a bunch of cookies on Tanker, and she dropped a mousetrap on Malcolm. Ouch. 
* PersonalitySwap: There was a monster that did this. When it used its powers on Servo, he turned evil. 
* PlayingWithFire: Recurring fire virus Plexton was one of these, spitting both fireballs and fire waves at his enemies. Kord was another example, being able to generate heat of up to 10,000 degrees Celsius on his body and concentrate that heat into fireballs. 
* PoweredArmor: Drago and the attack vehicles could help Servo fight viruses as separate entities, or reshape themselves into body armor for him to wear. 
* ProductPlacement: Gee did ''COMPAQ'' hope this show would help drum up business? Possibly not, as in one of the early episodes Sydney remarks Sam's computer was a piece of crap until becoming Servo somehow turned it into a supercomputer.
* PunnyName: Amp Ere = Ampere, the SI unit of current.
* PutOnABus: Amp moves away, leaving behind a postcard that says "Greetings from the Crab Nebula."
* RuleOfFunny: The effect of the Megavirus Monsters on the real world is usually something comedic, such as turning the school principal into the [[NewAgeRetroHippie hippie he had been in the 1960s]].
* ShowWithinAShow: Whenever a TV show or movie is shown playing and it's not a plot-advancing newscast, it's always ''WesternAnimation/JayceAndTheWheeledWarriors''. Not that it's ever identified within the show.
* StalkerWithACrush: Malcolm wanted Jennifer to pose for him so he could draw her. How does he get her to do it? Uses a virus to trap her in the Digital World and freeze her in place on his computer screen. [[{{Squick}} Ick.]]
* SurferDude: Lucky London
* TakeThat: In a scene where Sidney demonstrates her synthesizer's voice manipulation:
-->'''Amp:''' This is so freaky! I sound like an alien, or a... [[NonSequitur green can-opener]] or something!\\
'''Tanker:''' Amp, that's your real voice.\\
'''Amp:''' Oh sure. And wrestling is all fake.
* TechnologyMarchesOn
** Kilokahn boasts processing speed of 400 megahertz.
** More or less the whole show basically. The series made considerable use of floppy disks for important information.
* TeenGenius: Malcolm and Sydney both qualify.
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: See TechnologyMarchesOn. Anything that involves real-world computers is going to run right into this. Even though the computer is turned into a supercomputer by the Servo program, everything we see onscreen ''still'' looks pretty darn primitive when it isn't digital world battle footage. Also, Sydney's outfits, especially her ''Series/{{Blossom}}''-style hats, are vintage-early 1990s and look positively quaint by today's standards. And the hairstyles looked outdated ''five'' years later; we were on the tail end of EightiesHair.
* VillainExitStageLeft: Kilokahn will sometimes withdraw viruses if he thinks they're too valuable to lose, most notably Plexton and Hock. Sometimes they come back, [[OneWingedAngel with improvements]].
* WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld
* WhamEpisode: And in a ''ChristmasEpisode'' no less! See HeroicSacrifice.
* WrestlerInAllOfUs: Servo handed out the occasional german suplex and bodyslam.
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