Centurions
Entry updated 13 April 2026. Tagged: TV.
US animated tv series (1986). Ruby-Spears Enterprises. Executive producers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears. Producer Larry Huber. Animated by Nippon Sunrise Studio 7. Music by Udi Harpaz. Design and concepts are credited to Gil Kane, Jack Kirby and Norio Shioyama. Story editor Ted Pedersen. Writers included Michael Cassutt, Gerrad F Conway, Larry DiTillio, Donald F Glut, Barbara Hambly, Larry Huber, J Michael Reaves and Marc S Zicree. Voice cast includes Pat Fraley, Neil Ross, Vince Edwards, Ron Feinberg, Ed Gilbert, Diane Pershing, Michael Bell and Jennifer Darling. 65 22-minute episodes (initial five-part mini-series followed by 60 more). Colour.
In the Near Future of the early twenty-first century, the world faces conquest by the Villainous Cyborg Mad Scientist Doc Terror (Feinberg) and his minion, Hacker (Gilbert). From a hidden base, the pair directs swarms of Doom Drones in a campaign of global domination. The only effective counter is an elite strike team known as the Centurions. Operating from the orbital Space Station Skyvault under the guidance of operator Crystal Kane (Pershing), the Centurions don lightweight exo-frames (see Powered Armour) that can instantly interface – on the memorable catchphrase "Power Xtreme!" – with modular Assault Weapon Systems beamed down from orbit. Each specialist has a signature domain: aquatic operations expert Max Ray (Fraley) fuses with sea-based systems, rugged land-combat specialist Jake Rockwell (Edwards) with heavy ground ordnance, and hotshot aerial ace Ace McCloud (Ross) with flight and air-superiority modules. Later episodes introduce two additional Centurions: Rex Charger, the energy expert, and John Thunder, the Apache infiltration expert.
The format follows the template of late-1980s syndicated Children's SF action-adventure: self-contained weekly missions in which a small team is deployed to exotic global locations, equips modular weapon systems, and thwarts the schemes of Doc Terror, with routine affirmations of teamwork and responsibility. The series originated as a tie-in to a 1986 Kenner Toys line, whose interchangeable exo-suit components directly informed the on-screen "Power Xtreme" transformations; the cartoon began as a five-part launch mini-series before expanding into full syndication to sustain merchandise sales. Spinoffs include a 1986 Board Game by Parker Brothers, Jake Rockwell's Battle to Stop Dr. Terror; a 1987 action shooter Videogame, Power X Treme by Ariolasoft for home computers including Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC; and a Comic release (4 issues, 1987) from DC Comics, scripted by Bob Rozakis. A DVD version was released in the early 2010s. There were also several illustrated books for children: two from 1986 coupled with audio cassettes (Vacation on Terror Island and Terror for President, written by Dwight Jon Zimmerman), and Annual 1988 (1988) published by World International Limited.
Centurions shares DNA with contemporaneous series such as Spiral Zone (1987) – another small team of high-tech specialists fighting a Mad Scientist-led planetary takeover – and shows such as M.A.S.K. (1985) and Bionic Six (1987), but distinguishes itself through the elegant modular-weapon conceit and the visual spectacle of man-plus-machine fusion. The Near Future setting, orbiting command post, and emphasis on rapid-deployment combined-arms tactics give it a Military SF flavour, though the tone remains firmly child-friendly: villains monologue, unmanned drones (see Robots) explode in bright colours, and no lasting harm is ever shown. Animation by the Japanese studio Sunrise lends the series an unusual degree of fluidity and sophistication in mechanical design, markedly above the norm for American Toy-driven productions of the period, although the stories remained more tame than these of contemporaneous Japanese Anime – including Sunrise's own Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) – which offered long, plot-driven arcs, and frequently explored Psychological strain, moral ambiguity, and the costs of War. Later episodes of Centurions experimented with two-part stories, but the series never develops a single overarching arc or final confrontation with Doc Terror; it ends, like most of its peers, with another routine victory for the protagonists.
Centurions offers a largely consequence-free Optimism amid bright, primary-coloured fireworks – a textbook example of how Japanese toy action aesthetics were imported for American children's television while the plot complexity was left behind, but perhaps not in the dust. The writing had a number of redeeming qualities: the team leader, Max Ray, is African-American (see Race in SF), and some episodes gesture toward contemporary concerns such as environmental degradation (see Climate Change; Ecology). More centrally in sf terms, Doc Terror's scheme – to coercively "upgrade" humanity through cybernetic conversion (see Posthuman), contrasted with the heroes' exo-frames, which enhance human capabilities while preserving identity – introduces a rudimentary exploration of the cyberethics of human/machine interface. The villain's back-story as a rejected Scientist pursuing radical innovation also introduces a trace of moral ambiguity, critiquing societal resistance to boundary-pushing innovation.
While the writing remained consistent and arguably even improved towards the end, the show was intricately tied to its toy line, and, just as with Spiral Zone or Starcom: The U.S. Space Force (1987), its marketing strategy of high-end, expensive Toys proved to be its undoing despite decent writing. Retrospectively, the series maintains a modest cult reputation among viewers of the toy-cartoon boom, remembered for its theme music, toys, and modular weapons systems that anticipate later developments in Mecha design. Its central motif, the integration of human and machine, coincided with the genre's broader opening to such themes in the mid-1980s, exemplified by William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984) and the emergence of Cyberpunk. That in Centurions this material was presented in simplified, episodic form for a juvenile audience does not diminish its relevance: sf ideas have often circulated first through popular and youth-oriented media before gaining wider recognition (see also Pulp). [PKo]
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