Captain Simian And The Space Monkeys - Television Tropes & Idioms

A hilarious, yet still very well written, animated sci-fi series focusing on the exploits of a rag-tag crew of a interplanetary ship composed entirely of monkeys from Earth. They have been transformed into anthropormorphic, intelligent versions of themselves by the Applied Phlebotinum of the " ", a mysterious race of benevolent aliens whose name can't be spoken or written, only thought. The sworn enemy of the " " and the Space Monkeys is Lord Nebula, an immensely powerful being who wants to destroy the universe and recreate it in his own image. Nebula's second-in-command is Rhesus-2, a rhesus monkey whom he turned into a Hollywood Cyborg with several interchangeable brains.

Captain Simian And The Space Monkeys includes examples of:

Action Girl: Shao Lin.
Affectionate Parody: The series lovingly satirizes various Science Fiction tropes and franchises.
Attack Pattern Alpha
Big Bad: Lord Nebula.
Body Swap ("Escape from the Plant of the Apes")
Brought Down To Normal: Lord Nebula is nigh-omnipotent in the first episode and about to carry out his grand plan, only to lose most of his powers thanks to the apes and spend the rest of the show trying to get them back.
Chuck Yeager: Captain Simian.
Combining Mecha: Their ship, the Primate Avenger, can split up into five smaller ships, each piloted by one of the crew.
Crowning Moment Of Funny: After Dr. Splitz/Splitzy get separated into two individuals:
Orbitron: It could be worse! It could be the Olsen twins!
Distracted By The Sexy: More of a straight and deliberate example here. In one episode Shao Lin purposefully uses the fact she is a female to distract a bunch of monkey mooks, before going Ape-shit on their asses.
The Dragon: Rhesus-2.
Dumb Muscle: Gor, who broke the intelligence amplifier partway through his amplification.
Everythings Better With Monkeys
Evil Counterpart: Rhesus-2 to the Space Monkeys, especially Captain Simian.
Expospeak Gag: Dr. Splitz/Splitzy is this trope.
Five Man Band:
- The Hero: Captain Simian
- The Lancer: Shao Lin
- The Smart Guy: Dr. Splitz/Splitzy
- The Big Guy: Gor
- The Chick: Spydor, perhaps
Frank Welker: Voiced a few incidental characters.
Gentle Giant: Gor.
A God Am I: What Lord Nebula is trying to accomplish.
Gory Discretion Shot: Averted fiercely in a flashback that showcases Rhesus-2's predecessor being disintegrated by Nebula, complete with full on lingering shots of the bloody aftermath. And this was a kid's show.
Grand Finale: The last three episodes.
Half Human Hybrids: Lord Nebula is half-human, half-black hole.
Hey Its That Voice: Matrix, the evil supercomputer, shares a voice with a certain other megalomaniacal critter.
Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each episode title features some kind of monkey-based pun.
In Medias Res: The first episode begins this way, with the Back Story revealed through a series of Flash Backs.
Jeff Bennett: The voice of Orbitron and various incidental characters.
Killer Space Monkey: Without the "killer" part, of course.
- Unless you count Rhesus-2...
Lady Of War: Shao Lin.
Maurice La Marche: The voice(s) of Dr.Splitz and Splitzy.
My Future Self And Me: At the end of the Grand Finale, The Reveal is that Mandrax, "a mysterious mandrill with unimaginable powers" who has been helping the heroes, is actually Captain Simian's future self.
Non Lethal Warfare: The " " give the Space Monkeys non-lethal weaponry.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: The implicit reason for this.
Ragtag Bunch Of Misfits: The Space Monkeys.
Red Shirts: The holo-boons, Hard Light baboons in red jumpsuits who exist to both enable this trope and avoid angering the censors.
Running Gag: "The who?"
- "Gotta get that thing fixed".
- "Check. It's a [insert thing here] thing."
- "Strangely soothing."
Shout Out: The series references many famous Science Fiction films and series, including:
- Alien
- Plan 9 From Outer Space
- And, inevitably, Planet Of The Apes.
- The holo-boons also parody many famous characters.
- In the first episode, when Gor accidentally crushes him, Orbitron garbles a few lines of "Bicycle Built For Two," a la HAL.
- Then there's this little gem from the episode "The Monkey Has Landed":
Captain Simian: I've seen things you wouldn't believe. Holographic baboons on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched radioactive gorillas glitter in the darkness of Tannhäuser Gate.
Split Personality: Dr. Splitz/Splitzy exemplifies this trope.
Sufficiently Advanced Aliens: The " ".
Unresolved Sexual Tension: It was vaguely implied that the Captain and Shao Lin may have had some feelings for each other (when they weren't verbally assaulting each other of course).
Unstoppable Rage: When Gor gets mad... well, he's a gorilla. It gets even more dangerous when he's hit with alien technology that causes him to go One Winged Angel ("Gormungous") when he gets mad.

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Captain Simian And The Space Monkeys includes examples of: