Cyberkidz is a rare and obscure children's science-fiction television program from 1994-96 that was Cut Short at 13 of 26 ordered episodes. It has aired sporadically in certain countries, but never saw an official release. As such, while it's not technically public domain, it is in a state of copyright limbo, and the people who made it have proven to be elusive.
Four human kids obtain special headsets and gloves that allow them to access the alternate reality of Cyberland, a world taken over by the evil lord Zorak, who plans to invade the real world. Together Kyle, Ian, Danica and Zak are out to stop Zorak and his minion Zeist and bring back peace to Cyberland.
Watch the whole thing on YouTube here.
The series was made known by WayneRadioTV, who did a pair of streams riffing on the series named "Not For Broadcast," which can be seen here: (part one) (part two.)
Cyberkidz features the following tropes:
- Aborted Arc: The first few episodes establish that Zorak wants the power of the Gloves for himself, either by taking Floyd's or by stealing one of the kids' Gloves. That being said, numerous times Zorak has the kids at his mercy but he doesn't make any mention of his goals. Most notable is Death Arena Blues in which he brainwashes Kyle with his evil music.
- All Asians Know Kung Fu: Zac is undergoing martial arts training, and puts them to good use.
- Bad Boss: Zeist uses Dr. Fubbles' brain to power the Gigazoid when he fails to procure a working brain.
- The Bad Guy Wins: The series ends with Zorak having every glove in his position and the Cyberkids all departicalized. The only loss on Zorak's side is Zeist also being departicalized.
- Black and Nerdy: Ian is the team's kid genius and he's black.
- Blood Knight: Kyle loves to kick Zyloid butt and makes it clear rather often.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Zorak constantly exclaims that he serves the name of evil.
- Cliffhanger: Ian, attempting to save the other Cyberkidz from Zeist, apparently inadvertently departicalizes all of them. He laments his failure before inexplicably vanishing himself.
- Crapsack World: Cyberland is a feudal land under the thumb of Emperor Zorak and his army of Xyloids.
- Cut Short: Of the 26 episodes ordered, only 13 were filmed, leaving the show on a permanent Cliffhanger.
- Death of a Child: The first part of the finale has Zeist chase the Cyberkids to their deaths. Kyle gets hit by a truck, Ian is burnt in an oven, Danica is run over by a Zamboni and Zac falls off a cliff. Subverted as the second part reveals that they all somehow survived. Double subverted when Ian departicalizes the others with a laser helmet alongside Zeist, with Ian himself following soon after.
- Distinction Without a Difference: The Gloves' powers seem to be entirely situational, transforming them to something that will help them in their current situation, but Floyd describes the "mystery power" (marked by a question mark in the visor's interface) as doing the exact same thing without specifying what makes it any different from the other powers.
- Downer Ending: Every single one of the Cyber Kids being "departicalized" at the end of the series with Zorak finally owning every glove, with the only real disadvantage that Zorak has being that Zeist died as well.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The Pilot contains a good amount of this:
- A few of the Kidz' lines are dubbed over in post, which doesn't happen in any other episodes.
- Quix would chitter incessantly between sentences, which was severely toned down in later episodes.
- The Kidz' visor interfaces aren't visible in the shot where they "fall" into Cyberland for the first time.
- Fad Super: Cyber is the number one word of this show. The show runs on an extremely primitive idea of virtual reality. However, Cyberland doesn't quite match the connotations implied, being a rural desert land full of hay.
- Four-Man Band: The Cyberkids are made up of Kyle, The Leader, Ian, The Smart Guy, Danica, The Heart, and Zak.
- Funny Animal: Quix is a massive rabbit-man.
- Fun with Acronyms: The "Kidz" part of the show's title shares the same first letters of the main characters.
- It's All My Fault: Ian says this word-for-word upon accidentally departicalizing the rest of the Cyberkidz, moments before he vanishes.
- Meaningful Name: "This Is The End" is the two-parter final episode of the entire show. It also features the series' only deaths.
- Multi National Team: American Kyle, British Ian, Russian Danica and Japanese Zac.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Said almost verbaitim by Ian after deparitcalizing the Cyberkidz, moments before he gets departicalized himself.
- Last Episode, New Character: In the first part of the finale, Zeist's brother Lavuka is introduced. He fulfills Zeist's role of being somebody for Zorak to talk to as Zeist himself goes to the human world and is obliterated by Ian.
- Left Hanging: The show ended on not only a cliffhanger, but a cliffhanger where every one of the Cyber Kids die.
- Love Potion: Episode 10 very overtly features Zorak giving one of these to Kyle's mother; it even gets called a love potion at one point!
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: The villains obtain new abilities when it's required to make them more threatening. Zeist especially gains the power to fire lasers from his eye and freeze people in the finale.
- Once per Episode: Each time the Cyberkidz fall into Cyberland, they pick a different way to safely descend.
- Most episodes feature the Kidz bringing their Gloves together and yelling, "In the power of the Glove!"
- Out of Focus: Kyle is focused on the most, usually being the character whose life outside of Cyberland is shown off. Ian gets a bit of focus in a few episodes. Danica gets some expansion for only one episode, but she's usually shown ice skating. Zac, unfortunately, is only ever shown training at the dojo outside of the pilot.
- Reset Button: When Kyle's mother ends up in Cyberland, she finds out all about what her son has been doing every time he's been playing the game. However, Astrella hypnotizes her so that she will forget everything that happened from putting the headset on as soon as she takes it off.
- Rhymes on a Dime: Zorak and Zeist do this throughout the second episode,
which is never elaborated upon or ever done again.- "My name's Quix, and I'm good with bricks!"
- Transformation Trinket: The most common application of the gloves is transforming its wearers into a variety of randomized forms.
- Uniqueness Decay: Episode 6 has Zeist make a direct offense on the human world, being treated as a massive event. Later episodes have Zorak's forces access Earth much more casually, although it only makes a major return in the finale.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: As Zeist chases the Cyberkidz in the real world, multiple times the pursuit takes them through crowded areas full of adults, none of whom try to stop the grown man chasing down clearly terrified kids at full sprint.
- When Zeist is demonstrating the Gigazoid in "Gigazoid Brainstorm", two different people walk directly in front of it without even acknowledging it, conveniently allowing it to use them to demonstrate its capabilities.
- Voice with an Internet Connection: Floyd, held captive by Zorak, contacts the Cyberkids in a white space via a blue holographic projection of his face.
