History Series / Tracker

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[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/115821000.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Cole (Adrian Paul), on the hunt for fugitive aliens.]]
->''"This is Cirron, my home. One of six planets in the Migar Federation. There was a prison break. Two hundred eighteen of the most violent fugitives have disappeared into the city of Chicago. Finding them won't be easy. They aren't human. Fortunately for Earth, neither am I."''
-->-- '''Cole''', opening narration

A syndicated sci-fi series that aired during the 2000–01 U.S. TV season. ''Tracker'' centered on an extraterrestrial bounty hunter named Daggon, known as Cole on Earth, who was sent to find and capture 218 alien fugitives hiding in human bodies in the city of Chicago. He is found soon after his arrival by Mel Porter, owner of a Chicago bar called the Watchfire, and she quickly begins aiding Cole in his quest. Over the course of the series, they form a close friendship and discover secrets about Mel and her family. Other characters include Cole's nemesis, Zin; Mel's on-again off-again boyfriend, Detective Vic Bruno, and Mel's best friend, Jess.
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!! This series contains examples of:

* AgonyBeam: Mostly alluded to. Cole says he can make the collection process very painful.
* AlienAutopsy: Cole almost ends up the subject of one.
** Zin tells Remel the story of a Vardian, who crash-landed in Lake Michigan during TheFifties and was captured by the government and studied.
* AlienAmongUs: Both Cole and the fugitives hiding in human bodies.
* AllThereInTheManual: They never had time to reveal the part about Mel's father dying in a boating accident or the Cirronian part of her heritage being her grandfather, but it was in the show's 'bible'.
* {{Area 51}}: Cole breaks into a version of it in "Roswell" (which also makes the classic mistake of mixing up Area 51 and Roswell)
* BizarreAlienBiology: Cirronians don't sleep.
* TheBusCameBack: Jess. She left the series and then returned for one episode in "Fever of the Hunt".
* CassandraTruth: Cole tries telling Vic the truth about himself and the aliens in one ep. Naturally, Vic thinks he's nuts.
* CelibateHero: Cole believes he could get distracted and injure himself and Mel if he acts on the feelings he has for her.
* ChameleonCamouflage: Nestov and other Dessarians. They can both blend into any enviroment in a more general sense and literally disappear into the background of it.
** Said "environment" also includes social ones, meaning Nestov is a party animal.
* ChekhovsGun: The key. It's just an odd trinket with Vardian writing at first, and Mel hangs it on the wall. Later, the vault with the weapon turns out to be hidden under the bar.
* ClassyCatBurglar: Zareth in her human form. It also helps that, as a Desserian, she can literally hide in plain sight.
* ClipShow: "Remember When". It used triggering Cole's memory as an excuse to look back over the first-and only-season of the show.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Played with, as both Cole and a fugitive pretend to be these in "Long Road Home".
* CollectorOfForms: Cole actually has to model his new physical form on someone, and decides on a handsome human male in an underwear advertisement. By contrast, the escaped prisoners he's hunting down are more inclined to take over human bodies by touching them.
%%* CrusadingWidow: Cole, whose wife and daughter were killed in backstory by one of the fugitives.
* DisappearedDad: Mel's dad; WordOfGod says he died in a boating accident.
* DoomsdayDevice: The Strada Brac which can destroy a whole planet.
* EnergyBeings: Cole for sure, and possibly the others as well.
* EnergyWeapon: Cole uses one in the beginning of "Trust".
* ExploitedImmunity: One episode had an assassin who exposed himself to a deadly virus which could kill by touch but didn't harm him as long as he killed often enough. Except in human form, where it turned into a MateOrDie thing.
* ExposedExtraterrestrials: Cole, for much of the first episode.
* EvilOverlord: Zin, who really doesn't care much about Earth, but wants to take over his homeworld with the weapon hidden here.
* FakedKidnapping: 'Trust' centered on on of these.
* {{Fanservice}}: Cole, in the striptease scene.
* FantasticDrug: The Enixian eyedrops drug, which had a nasty side effect of nearly killing humans.
* FantasticFightingStyle: Cole's alien martial arts moves.
* FootPopping: Tina (a girl who Cole saves in one of the episodes) does this when she reunites with her Dad.
* FlashStep: Hyperspeed does this.
* FriendOnTheForce: Vic, who was Mel's former boyfriend and was a detective on the Chicago PD
* GovernmentConspiracy: It's revealed that the government (or at least an agency known as the U.S.D.A.S.) is aware of the existence of aliens and has been at least since the Roswell crash. Another ship from the Migar System crashed in Lake Michigan a few years later, and the surviving Vardian pilot was interrogated and, probably, experimented on. No wonder they picked up the wormhole and started tracking the fugitives so quickly.
* HalfHumanHybrid: Or one quarter, in Mel's case.
* HealingFactor: Cole can heal injuries.
* HellHound: Mederan, in his scary monster dog form.
* HybridAllAlong: Mel. The [[AllThereInTheManual series bible]] said her great-grandfather was Cirronian.
* HyperspeedAmbush: Cole can use his hyperspeed ability to surprise his targets.
* HyperspeedEscape: Cole used this to escape from the fugitives several times.
* ImpersonatingAnOfficer: Cole and Mel, at least once. Mel had some old police badges hanging on the wall of the bar, and she and Cole used them to get info about a Cirronian in a teenager's body.
* InnocentAliens: Cole, especially before he knows much about living on Earth.
* InnocentFanserviceGirl: Guy, as Cole’s species normally doesn’t wear clothes, being {{Energy Being|s}} aliens. He spends a lot of the pilot in his underwear.
* JackTheRipoff: Suudor, in "Fever of the Hunt". He studied famous Earth killers, including the Ripper, and impersonated them.
* KryptoniteFactor: Lodestone and cold both cause problems for Cole.
* LegendaryWeapon: Strada Brac. [[note]]note that as the series ended just after its discovery, we still have no idea how it's spelled for certain. This spelling is a fan consensus[[/note]] It was the subject of Vardian and Cirronian legends about how it was made during an ancient war and then stolen by the Migar council and hidden on Earth to keep it away from the Vardians. By the modern era, most of their peoples believed it was simply a myth. Cole and Mel obviously proved them wrong.
* LifeEnergy: Cole collects the fugitives' life forces in his collector device.
* LightsOffSomebodyDies "Eye of the Storm". a fugitive knocks off someone during a brief power outage, and Cole and Mel have to figure out who the fugitive is, since Cole's sensing abilities are weakened.
* LineOfSightName: Mel gets Cole's fake last name from a parking spot.
* TheMafia: "A Made Guy". Zin was employing the mafia for his means, and Cole went undercover as a gangster to figure out what they were up to.
* MateOrDie: Tevv, who was infected with an alien virus. In his real form, he could get rid of it with a touch, but in human form, sex was required to keep him from dying of it.
* MeatPuppet: The human bodies the fugitives took over
* MindOverMatter: The Vardians, like Zin, have limited telekinetic abilities.
* TheMole: Nestov, who agreed to help Cole find the other fugitives in return for not collecting him.
* MonsterAndTheMaiden: Downplayed: Mel Porter thinks she's an ordinary woman when she gets pulled into helping an alien bounty hunter track down fugitives on Earth, though she later finds out she's actually part alien herself.
* MonsterOfTheWeek: Only one or two episodes didn't have a fugitive for Cole to go after.
* MrFanservice: Cole, whose human form is modeled on an underwear model.
* MsFanservice: Jess and Mel.
* MurderDotCom: It turned out to be a faked kidnapping, but it was being streamed to the girl's parents on a website.
* NamedAfterTheirPlanet: All of the races
* OhCrap: Nestove has a big one right after Mel discovers her heritage secret. Cole tosses her the collection device and she uses it on a fugitive, much to the shock of Nestov, whom she's always threatening to hurt anyway for hitting on her.
%%* OurWormholesAreDifferent
* PowerPalms: Cirronians can project energy with their hands. This can range from stun blasts to electronics manipulation. Zin can also project energy from his hands, even though no other Vardian is shown to be able to do that.
* PuppeteerParasite: The fugitives, though the human host died when they moved in.
* RightHandAttackDog: Mederan, literally. He was Zin's bodyguard stuck in a dog's body.
* RoswellThatEndsWell: A mix, actually, of Roswell and Area 51, with the crash site being near the government area.
* ScarilyCompetentTracker: Naturally. An episode involved an elderly Native American man with whom Cole feels kinship, claiming they're both trackers (the man is able to read trails in the woods like a book). The man is looking for his son's killer, who turns out to be one of the alien fugitives.
* SecretLegacy: Mel finding out she's from a line of DoomsdayDevice guardians with alien lineage.
* SealedEvilInACan: Zin, by the end of the series. Also the fugitives after they were captured.
* SensorCharacter: Cole can sense the fugitives' life forces most of the time.
* SerialKillerBaiting: An alien serial killer, who was voluntarily infected with a virus as an assassin, is in a MateOrDie situation because of it. Human women he's having sex with die thereafter. Mel insists on being bait to lure the killer out. The operation does not go smoothly. Because of a mistake by his ally Nestov, Cole doesn't notice the moment Mel goes missing. He barely manages to reach their location in time and to save Mel from being raped and infected. When, later, Mel's alien heritage is revealed, this is also a source for FridgeHorror as Mel would have suffered a fate worse than the human victims.
* SleuthDatesCop: Mel's on-and-off boyfriend is a police detective. He is constantly doing favors for her, hoping to rekindle their relationship. He even searches for her missing fiancé, who disappeared years ago. He is distrustful of Cole, whose quirky personality and speech patterns don't help matters.
* SufficientlyAdvancedAliens: All of the species, really. They have much better technology than Earth does. The Vardians have been developing planet-busting weapons for thousands of years.
* SuperSenses: Enixians have super sensitive eyes and need to wear sunglasses on Earth.
* SuperSpeed: Cirronians can both move faster than normal and enter [[TimeStandsStill hyperspeed]]. The latter can only be done once per day, lest they grow weak. Zin also proves to be able to move fast during his and Cole's climactic fight in "What Lies Beneath".
* TechnoWizard: Cole can use household appliances to make high-tech computers.
* ThatOnePlayer: Nestov used his Dessarian intellect to make a bundle off one of the bar's video games.
* TheFederation: The Migar Alliance, the group of five planets that both Cole and the fugitives came from.
* TheSleepless: Cole, and any other Cirronian; they don't have to sleep.
* TimeStandsStill: When Cole enters hyperspeed, everything else appears to be frozen in place. In one episode, Cole uses this to fake Mel's ex-boyfriend's death (by first taking his form) when a mobster tries to shoot him in the back of the head. He enters hyperspeed at the moment of the gunshot, moves his head, waits for the bullet to slowly pass, puts the head back to where it was, and resumes normal speed. He then falls off the pier to complete the illusion.
** In another episode, Zin's people manage to develop a device that allows anyone to do the same. In fact, the device (in the form of a small orb) is better, as it takes only minutes to recharge, while Cole needs a whole day.
* TraumaInducedAmnesia: Cole, in "Remember When" loses his memory when he knocks his head into something during a power surge.
* TruthSerum: Cole is given truth serum in "Dark Road Home". He snuck into a mental hospital to find a dangerous fugitive who was hiding out there in the body of a psychologically troubled human. The nurses give Cole the serum to see if he'll tell something, but it backfires. He starts talking about the alien stuff and just seems to be saying more crazy things.
* TwinTelepathy: Orsian twins communicate with each other on Earth by wearing metal jewelry; each set of twins is naturally telepathic.
* UndercoverAsLovers: "Love Cirronian Style" had Cole and Mel infiltrating a couples' retreat to catch a pair of Orsians.
* UnevenHybrid: Mel. Her grandfather was Cirronian, making her 3/4 human and only 1/4 Cirronian.
* UnresolvedSexualTension: All over the place with Mel and Cole. They obviously have feelings for each other, but Cole fears distraction if he acts on his.
* UselessSuperpowers: Cole is rendered powerless by an energy weapon in "What Lies Beneath".
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Dessarians can shift to blend with their environment naturally, and aliens like Cole can take on the forms of other species since they are energy beings.
* WeaksauceWeakness: Cole is weakened by cold, even something as simple as a blast of compressed air. In contrast, Nodulians are severely weakened and dehydrated by heat. Enixians are disoriented by bright lights and loud sounds.
* WitnessProtection: Mel's ex-boyfriend Rod has to disappear after stumbling onto a mod dealing.

* Fanservice: Cole,in the striptease scene.

* TheFederation: the Migar Alliance, the group of five planets that both Cole and the fugitives came from.

* TimeStandsStill: When Cole enter hyperspeed, everything else appears to be frozen in place. In one episode, Cole uses this to fake Mel's ex-boyfriend's death (by first taking his form) when a mobster tries to shoot him in the back of the head. He enters hyperspeed at the moment of the gunshot, moves his head, waits for the bullet to slowly pass, puts the head back to where it was, and resumes normal speed. He then falls off the pier to complete the illusion.

* TruthSerum:* Cole is given truth serum in ''{{Series/Tracker}}'' 'Dark Road Home'. He snuck into a mental hospital to find a dangerous fugitive who was hiding out there in the body of a psychologically troubled human. The nurses give Cole the serum to see if he'll tell something, but it backfires. He starts talking about the alien stuff and just seems to be saying more crazy things.

* CrusadingWidower: Cole, whose wife and daughter were killed in backstory by one of the fugitives.

* AbsoluteCleavage: Both Mel and Jess at times. Cole also wore low-cut or tight shirts to show ''his'' cleavage--when he was [[WalkingShirtlessScene wearing a shirt]], that is.