Paralyzed after being shot while trying to rescue a child from an inner city riot, Dr. Miles Hawkins is roused from his recovery by a letter of resignation from John Stonebrake, a brilliant cyberneticist working at Hawkins Industries. Stonebrake has been working on a powered suit that could restore Hawkins’ mobility, and Hawkins demands to try it out, control helmet and all, with John following closely. During their test of the suit, Hawkins overhears a woman screaming, and races to intervene, discovering that he can hurl her attackers a great distance as a result of the suit’s superhuman strength. But after stopping the assault, a malfunction brings Hawkins to his knees and John rushes him back to the lab.
Hawkins is called in to offer his medical advice on what seems to be an outbreak of a fatal disease. Hawkins immediately recognizes the genetically engineered virus from its effects: it’s a biological weapon that he created. Despite the fact that he informs Lt. Leora Maxwell she is almost certainly infected from even a brief exposure, she breaks quarantine to try to find who’s responsible for spreading the virus. Hawkins also breaks quarantine to visit an old business partner of his, Solomon Box, who was ordered to destroy the virus. After his confrontation with Box, Hawkins survives an attempt on his life, and is then stunned when Taylor Savage, a witness to his foray in the suit has tracked him down and “wants in” on whatever Hawkins and John are up to. With his help, Hawkins discovers that Box plans to sell the virus to North Korean operatives, and the only solution may be to once again don the Mantis suit.
written by Bryce Zabel
directed by David Nutter
music by Christopher Franke
Cast: Carl Lumbly (Dr. Miles Hawkins), Roger Rees (John Stonebrake), Christopher Gartin (Taylor Savage), Galyn Gorg (Lt. Leora Maxwell), Kenneth Mars (Reese), Cordelia Gonzales (Dr. Rivera), Brion James (Solomon Box), Clabe Hartley (Tony), Lorena Gale (Lynette), Jerry Wasserman (Detective Paul Warren), Kevin McNulty (Fred Saxon), Ric Reid (Rex Hauck), Suki Kaiser (Ashley Williams), Martin Cummins (Dog Face), Cathy Weseluck (TV Interviewer), Robin Douglas (Manager), Madison Graie (Hassled Girl), Brock Johnson (Punk), Harvey Thomison (Dr. Zoom), Jason Lee (Korean Official)
Notes: M.A.N.T.I.S. has undergone a significant rethink to become a weekly series, walking back some elements of the pilot movie aired in January 1994. The fictional “Ocean City” setting is now “Port Columbia”, though it still has all the hallmarks of a major coastal California city. With the sole exception of
Carl Lumbly as Dr. Miles Hawkins, the entire cast of the pilot, and their characters, have been jettisoned by the weekly series.
There’s strong evidence to suggest that the series and the pilot movie are not in the same “universe”. This episode seems to portray the first time Hawkins has tried on the M.A.N.T.I.S. suit, which he had already used prior to the pilot movie. Unlike the pilot’s plot point that Hawkins had worked with the city government of Ocean City, here he says that the investigation into the outbreak is the first time he’s consulted with the police since being paralyzed. In the pilot, M.A.N.T.I.S. is an acronym for the suit’s technology, whereas here it’s a term invented by Taylor Savage. It’s probably best to view the pilot movie and the series as two very different tellings of the same story.
LogBook entry by Earl Green
