Sky Trackers (TV series)

[brunogt1]

Sky Trackers is a 26-part science-based Australian children's television adventure series, and a stand-alone children's television movie of the same name, which feature the adventures of children who live at space-tracking stations in Australia.

Zbych Trofimiuk plays one of the main roles !



The series is available in English on youtube : [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQBMYSk ... fMdR4LATI0[/youtube]

It is also available in French (for purchase) on : https://www.actf.com.au/catalogue/item/529/

[Roja]

Hi Bruno,

I watched the first episode of Sky Trackers this morning and it’s an interesting story- I will definitely continue watching it and update this thread with more of my thoughts and impressions about the show.


I had heard about Sky Trackers before and had seen pictures of Zybch Trofimiuk in it, but hadn’t watched it until now because visually, Zybch’s character looked identical to how he looked when he’d played Paul in Spellbinder, so, although I think he is a good actor, I had this idea that I wouldn’t be able to appreciate his performance in Sky Trackers because in my head he would still be Paul from Spellbinder!

I prefer actors to look different in different roles, and for their appearance to reflect their character’s personality- for example, when Miles Buchanan played the dimwitted henchman Eddie in The Girl From Tomorrow, he had a crewcut and a slightly punky dress sense, but in the horror film Dangerous Game, where he played one of the good characters, he had a hilarious hairstyle (shaved at the sides and long, fluffy and backcombed on top!!) and wore baggy, brightly coloured patterned shirts.

Anyway, I decided to give Sky Trackers a go after Fanat mentioned it to me in a message, and I’m glad I did.

Petra Yared, who went on to play Jo in Mirror Mirror, was very good in her role as Nikki. I thought her acting during the arguments with her little sister, Maggie, was very realistic, and I was impressed by all 3 young actors in the the scene inside the dish where Nikki, Mike and Maggie were panicking, screaming in fear and shouting over each other, which is usually how real life people react in scary situations like that!

Nikki was quite different to Jo in Mirror, Mirror- she had a sense of responsibility and came across as very mature for her age, whereas Jo tended to let her heart rule her head and was more reckless and impulsive.

I did notice however that Nikki did have a bit of an ego hidden away in the scene when she asked Mike’s Dad for his autograph, and she dictated a long paragraph of praise for him to write to her!! That was a funny moment. But I guess Nikki acted that way because she was so starstruck to meet someone she looked up to, and she wanted to show off the autograph to her friends.

Also, perhaps she was the kind of person who deep down KNOWS very well that they are gifted and intelligent, but acts modest most of the time, but in the excitement of meeting her astrophysicist hero, she dropped her false modesty!! I didn’t think Nikki was full of herself though- I think she definitely possessed knowledge and skills beyond her years, otherwise the adults wouldn’t have given her such important tasks to do.

As for Mike, at first I thought he WAS like Paul from Spellbinder, and the way he called out “Dad!!” In exactly the same way as Paul really didn’t help!! But he turned out to hate science, so in that way he was the opposite of Paul Reynolds, who used his science knowledge all the time. And Mike was a rebellious daredevil, so I think the costume department could have had some fun creating a look for Zybch as Mike which would have emphasised his character as a skater boy with attitude. They could have given him edgier clothes, dyed his hair and gelled it into lots of little spikes, for example, and given him some facial piercings (or realistic looking fake piercings, if Zybch didn’t want to get real ones).

It was a nice surprise to see the familiar face of Paul Sonkkila (RIP) who played Vance in Tomorrow’s End, playing Frank.

Also, I REALLY liked the 90s sci fi incidental music used in the show!!

[Roja]

I’ve now watched episodes 2 and 3, and these are my thoughts…

I found Mike’s romantic dream sequence at the start of episode 2 quite humorous… does anyone know if any real teenage boys have cheesily romantic soft focus daydreams about their crushes?

lt was also a surprise for me to find out that Mike was interested in Nikki in that way, as I didn’t notice any of those vibes from Mike when he first met Nikki in the first episode! Although the daydream also heavily featured the horse, and to be honest I think that Mike (at least at this point in the series) is more interested in getting a horse than in pursuing a romance with Nikki. I reckon his primary motivation is the horse- but also he also thinks that getting together with Nikki might be a fun possibility.

I can guess the reason why the writers are doing this storyline- because Nikki loves science while Mike has no interest in it, but Mike’s goals of getting the horse and of getting closer to Nikki will lead him into situations where he starts becoming more interested in science.

Definitely, the series explores astrophysics in a way that would have made the kids watching more interested in science- I can imagine many children decided they wanted to try meteorite tracking and hunting after watching episode 2. And I have learned some interesting things about space from watching the show.

I also noticed that when Mike is motivated to pursue a goal, he can be very cunning when he wants to be- he’s not academically brainy like Nikki, but is quick witted and resourceful. For example, when he realised that the bully threw a decoy ‘meteorite’ into the oil pool and still had the real one, and when he stole the aerial from his Dad’s TV to track the “beast” in episode 3.

Mike, Nikki and Maggie are all intelligent kids, but they are intelligent in different ways, so they work well together as a team, like Alana, Jenny and Nik combining their different abilities in Tomorrow’s End.

I have to say that as a cat lover, I hated the end of episode 3 But at least the episode highlighted the problem of cat owners dumping their pets.

Other than that I have enjoyed the story, and will continue watching.

Oh, and I don’t think there’s a very high chance of Mike’s dad going into space! I don’t mean to be rude, but he’s slightly overweight and not in peak fitness, and from what I’ve seen, astronauts and cosmonauts need to be extremely physically fit (I think usually they are chosen from the military?) and have to undergo rigorous physical tests and training before being allowed to venture into space.

[Fanat]

Roja, thank you very much for sharing your thoughts! I really appreciate the depth of your analysis and the detailedness of your wordings/formulations.

does anyone know if any real teenage boys have cheesily romantic soft focus daydreams about their crushes?

I'd say it's possible but probably not really common.

[Roja]

I’m glad you’re enjoying my posts -I’ll keep writing them!

Re: Mike’s fantasy sequence, in my experience of observing boys his age at school in the 1990s, most of them were not very romantic, and would giggle and pass around magazines with pictures of naked women, so I imagine their daydreams about girls were more X-rated than Mike’s, but obviously it wouldn’t have been appropriate in a kid’s show to depict Mike having those kinds of daydreams about Nikki!!

However, I just watched Episode 4 which revealed a much more vulnerable side of Mike (and the roots and reasons for his frustration and anger towards his father), so, you never know, he could have a secret soft and romantic side!

The sequence was funny to me at the time because it contrasted so much with Mike’s external bad boy persona, and it seemed out of character, but I now see it as a reflection of his wish for a more idyllic, happier and carefree life, especially considering how unhappy he is with his current living situation, the ongoing conflict with his father, and losing his mother at a young age in such a tragic way. Perhaps Mike wishes for the kind of idealised family life depicted in TV commercials, and that’s why his dream sequence was shot in that style?

I was really impressed with Zybch Trofimiuk’s acting skills in this episode, especially when Mike was extremely distressed. Mike was feeling such intense, conflicted emotions, ranging from being utterly distraught at the fear of losing his father the same way he lost his mother to being absolutely FURIOUS with his Dad when they found him, to the point of not appearing to care when his Dad fell and hurt his leg, and Zybch portrayed this very well!!

I forgot to mention that I was also impressed with his stunt skills in the scenes in Episode 2 during the fight with the bullies over the meteorite.

Mike’s Dad (I haven’t memorised his name, sorry ) is a rather stereotypical example of someone who is highly intelligent in their field of expertise, but woefully lacking in emotional intelligence. It is sad because I think at heart he is a good man, and he is grieving the death of his wife, but I have much more sympathy for Mike, who is still a child and understandably acts out his anger and frustration by rebelling, than for the grown middle aged man who avoids dealing with uncomfortable feelings by immersing himself in his work. I think Mike’s Dad should make more effort to emotionally connect with and comfort his son, and consider the impact that his job has had on Mike’s life- for example the disruption caused by moving from place to place.

It was implied by the casual way that Mike got into the car and was driving it that this wasn’t his first time driving!! I imagine he has been getting up to all sorts of things for several years while his Dad has been busy working!

I hope that as this series goes on, their relationship can begin to heal. I really felt Mike’s frustration when he voiced his fear to his Dad about losing him in the same way he’d lost his mother, but his Dad just didn’t get it!!

It was possibly implied this episode that Nikki might POSSIBLY be beginning to warm to Mike when she was so keen to go riding with him, but I’m not sure yet… but Maggie’s hopeless unrequited crush on Mike has become very obvious!!

Maggie has nice collaging skills by the way.

[Roja]

My thoughts on Episode 5…

After the dramatic showdown between Mike and his father Tony in the previous episode (my ADHD brain has at last memorised his name!!) I was expecting their conflict to continue in this episode, so I was surprised that Tony barely featured in this one. Although I was glad to see that he hadn’t broken his leg!!

Instead, there was a deeper dive into another character- the little sister, Maggie. After the deeper exploration of Mike’s character last episode, I’m guessing Nikki is going to be next (she mentioned missing her Dad, but I don’t know whether he is dead, working far away, or if Nikki’s parents are separated/divorced?).

Anyway, when Maggie’s crush on Mike was revealed in the previous episode, I initially felt it was a cringey storyline, with Maggie being way too young for Mike, and ridiculously thinking he’d be interested in her in that way!! But, in this episode when they continued the storyline, I found myself feeling a LOT more sympathy for Maggie.

At 9 years old, she was two years younger than me when I had my first crush, and I remembered how intense my feelings were when it happened to me! And I also know that you don’t consciously choose who your first crush will be- it just happens to you, and all of a sudden you have these weird new feelings you’ve never experienced before… and you do become prone to thinking from your heart, rather than your head!! So instead of feeling embarrassed for Maggie, I began to feel more empathy for her situation.

Maggie in many ways is mature for her age- her knowledge of science and technology, and having romantic feelings so young- and she also possesses impressive gifts and talents, like her amazing memory and creative skills. And she is now going through a phase of her life in which her starting-to-feel-grown-up feelings are clashing with the parts of her personality that are still very, very childish- like throwing a tantrum and jealously destroying the card and flowers Mike had bought for Nikki, and shouting “I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU!!” and “I WISH YOU WERE DEAD!!”.

And I know from experience that when puberty hits and new hormone surges kick in, this internal turmoil will only get worse for her.

When girls go through physical changes, especially starting periods, we in many ways start to look more like adults and start to have adult emotions and experiences, but the truth is, our brains still won’t have fully finished developing into adult brains until several years after puberty!!

It’s fine once things catch up and fall into balance and our bodies and brains get used to the new hormones and feelings…The mood swings ease off and, with the perspective of age, things start to feel A LOT less dramatic… but unfortunately it’s a long process!!

So I feel sorry for girls like Maggie who start to feel adult feelings at an extra early age, because it makes the process even longer and more emotionally painful for them. I think the later the process starts and the longer you can enjoy being a kid, the better!!

I think it would have been wonderful if, overnight, at the moment I felt ready for it, I could have gone straight from being a little girl to being an adult woman with autonomy, confidence and tattoos, and skipped the awkward in between phase with embarrassing experiences, greasy hair and spots!! But the transition phase (male or female) is a rite of passage everyone has to go through, and the experiences we have during that time and the mistakes we make help us learn and grow in preparation for adult life.

So I think it’s a good thing when TV series show the difficult parts of growing up, as they did with this storyline, rather than presenting a glossy version of childhood and adolescence that real kids can’t relate to.

And although wrecking Mike’s card and flowers for Nikki was bratty and spiteful of Maggie, I could understand the reasons for her comically childish explosion of rage in that moment. Not only the from the heart-crushing disappointment that Mike fancied Nikki (it was bad enough he fancied someone else, but of all people, HER SISTER!!) but also because Maggie had put so much love and effort into her home made Valentine’s Card for Mike, which went unappreciated…well, he DID appreciate the card itself, but he didn’t appreciate Maggie as the artist or the poet, and Nikki (unintentionally) took the credit for Maggie’s efforts!!

I think at Maggie’s age, she is still learning the harsh truth that unlike in cartoons for children, that depict love in a fairytale way and where people who are kind, do good things and work hard usually get rewarded for it, real life doesn’t work that way. Love is often unreciprocated, and the efforts we make to please others or to win their love may fail.

It was a great aerial shot at the end of the episode when Search And Rescue found the truck and the boy waving for help. The landscape of Australia is breathtakingly beautiful to behold, but at the same time, I have a great respect for the how dangerous those remote areas can be if something goes wrong!!

But it would have been nice to have a scene at the end confirming that the boy’s father was going to be OK. I imagined he must have been badly hurt if he was unable to make a distress call himself, and a few days passed before him and his son were found.

If I could have changed anything about the episode, I would have added a scene at the end where Maggie gets a phone call from the boy afterwards, thanking her for saving his father’s life, and Maggie and the boy would then stay in touch and have a long distance friendship. I think that after the disappointment of her unrequited crush, it would be good for Maggie to have a friend her own age. She has plenty of time to have more serious romantic relationships when she gets older!

[Roja]

My thoughts on Episode 6…

I have to be honest and say that I found it a bit dull compared to the previous episodes, because most of the episode centred on the romantic misunderstandings between Mike and Nikki, and unlike in the other episodes, there wasn’t other action or drama taking place.

I hope my opinion doesn’t offend Sky Trackers fans, and I’m not averse to romantic storylines in an Adventure genre story at all, so long as they don’t distract too much from the main story. But in this episode the main plot WAS the suspected love triangle, with the solar flares being a side subplot and nothing else happening, so there wasn’t any real adventure!

Don’t get me wrong, I think Sky Trackers is a quality kids show with great acting, but perhaps, after watching other Australian kids shows like the The Girl From Tomorrow and Spellbinder, I’m used to more exciting storylines and so my expectations of this show might be unreasonably high?
And it could be unfair of me to compare Sky Trackers with sci-fi and fantasy genre shows that have more complex plots about time travel, other worlds and charismatic and complex antagonists, so a show about family life set in the real world can’t really compete with that.

On the plus side, I thought Zbych Trofimiuk’s portrayal of Mike’s clumsy and awkward attempts to woo Nikki was spot on, and his acting when Mike was frustrated was again very accurate!! This episode again showed another, softer, more unsure side to Mike’s normally cocky personality.

Obviously I’m female so I don’t know how it feels to be a boy, but I think this episode nicely highlighted the pressures that boys in their early teens face, which are different to the pressures that girls the same age go through. It’s not socially acceptable for boys to openly show or talk about certain feelings, and they are pressured to pretend to be outwardly cool and nonchalant when attempting to impress girls, when in reality they are really nervous and totally inexperienced, but feel pressured to act as though they are super confident!!

My favourite scene was when the irritated Mike was talking to Hendrix the horse, attempting to convince himself that Nikki was unattractive (lying that she snored and that she looked terrible in a balaclava!!) because he felt hurt that she was (seemingly) going off him. His sour grapes attitude was so pathetic and childish in that scene (he obviously didn’t hate Nikki, and that’s why he had to make up such ridiculous lies about her!!) and I found it very funny!!

The love triangle story didn’t deserve to be drawn out for a 20 minute episode though- as I said, there could have been other more interesting things going on in the episode. It was a light and fluffy romance story that could have been a photo story in a 90s teenage girls magazine that took 5 minutes to read!

[Roja]

Thoughts on Episode 7…

I was very glad to see things get more exciting again this episode! The hunt for the treasure was intriguing, and I liked the way the kids unraveled the mystery as the episode went on.

I felt sorry for Maggie again- I would like to see something positive happen to her that would help her move on from her disappointment over Mike. Maybe having her artwork win some kind of prize, or finding a new friend who shares similar interests? But it was nice to see that towards the end of the episode, Maggie put her resentment towards Nikki and Mike aside to help them search for the treasure. Maggie’s role as the youngest but very bright kid in their team reminded me a little bit of Petey tagging along to help Jenny and Alana in TGFT- the “annoying” little sibling who comes up with great ideas and proves themselves very useful.

I was glad that Mike wasn’t shown vomiting on screen (from his disgust at seeing the duck dissection) because as a kid I saw some extremely grotesque scenes in Round The Twist that caused me to lose my appetite for days, and I hoped this show would not get as gross as that (so far, aside from showing brief shots of bodies of dead animals, it hasn’t). I recently sat through The Substance without flinching, but there was a certain episode of Round The Twist that put me off spaghetti for life, and I wouldn’t dare watch it again, even though I’m much older now!!🫣

The scene where Mike and Nikki were in front of the computer working out the mystery of the lake was great, and my mind was working away seeing if I could unravel the mystery before they did. When they were talking about the increased amount of algae in part of the lake, my first thought was “Oh my God, is there going to be a dead body down there?”

I liked the underwater scenes, they were beautifully shot.

There was some interesting dialogue between Tony and Marie where they discussed whether they’d ever want to marry again, but again, it wasn’t revealed whether Marie was widowed or divorced. I guess this mystery will be revealed later, and I’ll just have to be patient!

I also wanted to mention that I enjoyed the late Ernie Bourne’s character, Mr Krauss. It was nice to see him playing a fun character because many years before, Ernie had played an EXTREMELY annoying character in Prisoner Cell Block H, called Mervin Pringle, who I absolutely HATED.

Mervin was a prison chef who was constantly sullen and grumbling. He’d replaced the previous chef, Ray, who had been a really fun character, and then the writers decided to give Mervin a romance storyline with one of the prison officers, Joyce Barry, which dragged on for 80+ episodes.

On a Prisoner Cell Block H forum I used to post on years ago, I would often make posts making fun of Mervin, and I certainly wasn’t the only viewer who’d hated him! I even wrote a comedy fanfic in which Ray made a surprise reappearance and utterly humiliated Mervin, and Joyce got fed up of Mervin and walked out on him, which was very well received by other people on the forum!! But I had absolutely NOTHING against the actor Ernie Bourne, just the character he’d played in that show.

Then in 2009 when I heard that Ernie had passed away, I wrote a comment saying I was sorry to hear that, and another person on the forum laid into me, calling me a hypocrite because I had hated Mervin!! But in Sky Trackers I liked the character Ernie played, who was completely different to Mervin, and it proved that Mervin’s unlikeability wasn’t Ernie’s fault- it was just the way his character had been written.

Edited to add: There was another scene where Mike was talking to his horse this episode, and it suddenly struck me that Hendrix serves a purpose as a plot device where Mike can reveal feelings to the viewers that he wouldn’t dare to voice in front of the other characters!! Also I think as well as him enjoying riding, having a pet is good for Mike’s mental health because talking to Hendrix is a safe outlet to vent his emotions- and he knows that Hendrix isn’t going to repeat anything he’s heard to anyone else.

[Roja]

I found Episode 8 very interesting, and I have a lot to say about it!!

I had mixed feelings towards Mike during this episode. His plot to humiliate and undermine Shane was an absolute dickhead move, and certainly NOT his proudest moment!! But he certainly got the karma he deserved when Shane ended up embarrassing him instead!!

But in relation to Mike’s relationship with his father Tony, I felt a LOT of sympathy for Mike there, and I actually suspect that Mike’s anger towards Tony could be in part to blame (although no excuse for!) Mike’s vindictive behaviour towards Shane.

The episode began with Tony moaning at Mike because Mike had forgotten to put out the rubbish. I would not see this as unreasonable if they had a healthy father and son relationship, but the fact is, Tony hasn’t been pulling his weight as a Dad- there has no attempt by Tony to resolve things since the big argument a few episodes ago- so I could understand why Mike felt resentful towards Tony for nagging him over such a trivial thing.

I also completely understood Mike’s irritation when Shane turned out to be yet another fan of his celebrity Dad!! Although Mike was wrong to take this out on Shane, who knew absolutely nothing about the conflict between Mike and Tony.

Sadly, it sometimes can be the case that people who are famous or celebrated experts in their field are not very good parents, and the impression the rest of the world has of these people is very different to what their families experience of them at home!!

I can relate to Mike’s situation in a way, as I didn’t have a great relationship with my own father, who had a bad temper and was occasionally violent, but in public he was very charming and made many friends. And after my father passed away, I felt very uncomfortable at the funeral when I was approached by some of these friends, who were raving on to me about what a wonderful person my father had been… but they hadn’t known him in the same way I had growing up!!

I have to make it clear that I don’t think Tony is an abusive father at all, and neither do I think he intends to upset Mike, but he IS an emotionally distant father, which I view as a form of neglect, and the harmful impact of Tony’s failure to bond and communicate with Mike is painfully obvious.

I had really hoped that Tony would wake up and try to improve their relationship after their big clash, but no, he continues to bury his head in the sand, and Mike continues to act out in anger. And I did feel very sorry for Mike.

I liked the two scenes in this episode where Nikki’s Mum Marie gave wise advice to both Nikki and Mike. I was glad that at least Mike was able to receive empathy and understanding from Marie after Tony failed to step up, and I also understood why Nikki is so much more emotionally mature than Mike despite being a year younger than him!

Nikki is very fortunate to have a parent she can easily communicate with, and come to for advice when she is confused about her feelings or has a problem. And Marie is a good role model for Nikki- she’s compassionate, she can see situations from many sides, and she’s a smart and independent woman. But Tony, on the other hand, is a terrible role model for Mike, because he can’t effectively deal with or communicate his feelings, so poor Mike hasn’t learned how to either!! And that’s why Mike and Nikki cope with their problems very differently.

A couple of episodes ago, Nikki felt jealous when she thought that Mike was attracted to the German girl, and she was upset and angry with Mike, but she didn’t try to humiliate or sabotage the German girl… unlike what Mike did to Shane in this episode!!

Jealousy and insecurity are emotions that everyone feels occasionally, but they are NOT attractive qualities, and as a woman, I see men who behave badly because of their jealousy and insecurity as weak.

Any man who has to tear down or sabotage another guy to feel better about himself is a loser in my eyes, because a strong and confident man doesn’t need to do that- he lets his own positive traits shine and doesn’t feel threatened by his rivals. And I’m sure most men are not attracted to spitefully jealous and insecure women either- for example if a woman spread nasty false rumours about another woman, or tried to chop off another woman’s hair because it was longer and prettier than hers and she’d caught her boyfriend admiring it!!

There will always be other people who possess qualities we wish we had, but there will usually be other qualities WE have that they don’t, and I think we should focus on our own positive qualities instead of being jealous of others.

And the thing is, Mike doesn’t normally act like a loser and he has lots of positive qualities- he is quick witted, conventionally handsome, cunning and daring- but on this occasion he allowed his anger and jealousy to overwhelm him.

Just one episode earlier, Mike had been angry and gutted when the three bullies turned up and sabotaged his, Nikki’s and Maggie’s attempt to find the treasure, popping and sinking their dinghy, but in this episode, Mike showed the worst side of himself and became a bully himself!! And it could be argued that Mike went even further than the three bullies, because Mike wanted to humiliate Shane as well as sabotage him, by making Shane look a fool to the Astronomical union.

I thought Shane’s creative and humorous revenge on Mike was BRILLIANT- much better than if he had reacted angrily when he realised what Mike was doing. It proved that Mike’s impression of Shane was wrong- he might have appeared to be a boring dork on the surface, but he showed he had a sense of fun and humour as well as sharp wits!!

It taught Mike a better lesson than a furious argument would have, and I’m sure Mike went on to cringe over the experience for many years to come!

But Mike said something very revealing to Marie earlier on, about seeing Shane as being a midget version of Tony. So I think that in this situation Mike was nastier than he normally would be because he was projecting his fury against his Dad onto Shane. And I am also starting to wonder whether Mike’s “hatred” of science is actually his hatred of his father being too immersed in his physics career to give Mike the attention he needs!!

[Roja]

Also I had an afterthought about Mike always saying “I HATE science” and “Science sucks!!”

I believe these sentiments come from an angry, age regressed part of himself, similarly to when he was telling his horse that Nikki snored and looked horrible in a balaclava.

Young children often get overwhelmed by their anger and shout things they obviously don’t literally mean- like Maggie shouting that she wished her sister was dead!!

And I don’t believe that Mike truly hates science- he just THINKS he does. I think he feels an automatic aversion to anything that, in his mind, reminds him of what an inadequate parent his Dad has been.

It would be a valid opinion if Mike said that he wasn’t interested in studying science, or that he hated scientists who do unethical experiments or invent devastating chemical weapons, but the truth is, Mike benefits from scientific knowledge and discoveries every day of his life.

He plays an electric guitar and uses computers, flies around in aeroplanes (showing no fear of flying, even though his mother died in a plane crash!), rides in (and drives!!) cars, and listens to CDs. He would lead an extremely boring life without science, and I’m sure that if he ever broke a bone rollerblading or falling off Hendrix, he wouldn’t refuse an X-Ray because “Science sucks”!!

And I also wanted to say that although I complained at the beginning of watching this show about Mike looking too visually similar to Paul in Spellbinder, once I got more immersed into Sky Trackers, I didn’t consciously think about it at all, or even THINK about Paul in Spellbinder while watching Zybch Trofimiuk playing Mike!! I guess this is because personality wise they are such very different characters.

It’s funny because Mike and Paul share a few situational similarities- both lost their mothers and have scientist fathers, but Paul is much more mentally well adjusted and emotionally mature, and has a much better relationship with his Dad (aside from when Paul’s father didn’t believe Paul about the Spellbinders world, and was fooled by Ashka).

I think this is largely due to Paul’s Dad being a much more emotionally intelligent and warm person in addition to being a talented scientist, unlike Tony. Plus it was understandable that Paul’s father didn’t immediately believe Paul about a parallel world, and fell prey to Ashka’s charming facade, as his attraction to her was clouding his usually intelligent judgment!!