Robotech II: The Sentinels

: This page is on the "pilot," released in 1988. For other uses, see Robotech II: The Sentinels (disambiguation).
 was a movie released in 1988 on VHS by Palladium Books.
It was created out of the animation that was completed for the unfinished Sentinels TV series. The animation included footage from what would have included "A New Threat", "The Inorganics", and "Wedding Day", but also featured flashbacks to the original show - almost all of which were edited to fill a more romanticized context. Various remasters have been released over the years, including a version split into the intended three episodes and a version without the flashbacks.
== Plot ==
Cadet Jack Baker is in the middle of a battle against Zentraedi rebels alongside the now-General Rick Hunter. Baker disobeys direct orders to stay in autopilot and Rick is shot down. Baker goes to rescue him, again disobeying Rick's orders to stay away from him and regroup with his Squadron. Baker is shot down when he tries to rescue him, immediately the screen goes white and is revealed that the entire battle was just a combat simulation. Max Sterling praises Baker's determination but Rick dislikes how Baker disobeyed direct orders.
As Rick scolds Baker for failing to obey direct orders and to rescue him from the enemy, Lisa Hayes gets prepared for her wedding with Jean Grant and Miriya Sterling accompanying her, Minmei comes to help Lisa with her wedding dress and to make peace with her before the wedding.
Later the Robotech Defense Force announces their plans to form the Robotech Expeditionary Force for the Pioneer Expedition in order to travel to the Robotech Masters's homeworld Tirol to avoid a Second Robotech War on Earth, leaving the charge of the defense of Earth to Anatole Leonard's Army of the Southern Cross, Leonard complains about the Expeditionary Force taking all the available Robotech weaponry to the mission as Col. Edwards watches the press conference from the TV smiling, later Leonard complains in his office with Rolf Emerson about the Expeditionary Force taking the entire Robotech weaponry to a "diplomatic" mission, leaving Earth vulnerable to an alien invasion.
The Movie shows the fall of Tirol by the Invid Regent, introducing Rem, a clone of Zor and Cabell, a Tirolian scientist who is investigating the connection between the Flower of Life and the Protoculture.
Exedore introduces the SDF-3 to Lisa, Miriya, Dana and Rick inside the Robotech Factory where a micronized Breetai appears to announce his desires to accompany the bride to the wedding. Later, Edwards talks about his desire to get revenge on Rick Hunter with his colleague who asks why. Meanwhile, Max and Karen Penn, another pilot cadet, test the newly developed Alpha Veritech and their add-ons on Earth's atmosphere where Karen losses control of her Veritech (Miriya's Veritech) when she attempted to synchronize the Alpha with the Add-on but is saved by Max.
Later, before the wedding, Rick is visited by Max and Rick talks about his regrets and doubts but Max encourages him to go on. Rick and Lisa are finally wedded inside the new SDF-3, as Jack Baker and Karen Penn are accepted into the REF as Pilots, Rick and Lisa go to their honeymoon, and Minmei accepts that Rick is gone and that she must continue with her life as she cries.
The film ends with the Invid Regess migrating to Haydon IV in order to continue her research to find the perfect species to involved themselves.
== Background information ==
Robotech II: The Sentinels was a planned 65 episodes continuation of the original Robotech series, with animation by Tatsunoko Productions and a brand-new story written by Carl Macek.
Due to legal issues with Studio Nue and Big West, all of the Macross Characters had to receive new designs to avoid copyright issues with Super Dimensional Fortress Macross's designer Haruhiko Mikimoto. Ironically, at the time in Japan, Macross: The Movie (also known as Macross: Do you Remember Love) was being aired, which proved so popular that future Macross projects used designs directly from the film. This resulted in some redesigned characters in The Sentinels looking more similar to their original designs than their Macross counterparts, such as Exedore.
As Studio Nue owned the mecha designs of Macross as well, The Sentinels series were going to rely on MOSPEADA and Southern Cross weaponry, such as the Alpha Veritech as the main REF Attack Veritech; and the VHT-1 Veritech Hover Tank and the VF-8 Logan as ground vehicles, as Genesis Climber MOSPEADA and Southern Cross were owned by Tatsunoko.
The Series was canceled after Matchbox withdrew from the project, due to the Yen/Dollar crash at the time. Only three episodes were produced. Because of this, the film set up more stories that were left unresolved.
The book Robotech Art 3: The Sentinels detailed the production of the series by the creator Carl Macek — covering all levels of production and story, as well as including many character and mecha designs. Because of this book, most of the plot details and twists within the series were well-known within the Robotech fandom, meaning that later adaptations decided to make most twists totally known to the audience, but still unknown to the characters, such as Rem being a clone of Zor, Janice Em being a robot, and T. R. Edwards being a survivor of Alaska Base.
The Sentinels' story is continued in numerous comics and novels that were based on unused but finished scripts made for the series. However, after the Storyline was rebooted, the novels were removed from continuity — the comic being continued on into Robotech: Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles.
== Cast ==
* Tony Oliver as Rick Hunter
* Aline Leslie as Lisa Hayes
* Reba West as Lynn Minmei
* Greg Snow as Emil Lang
* Abe Lesser as Jonathan Wolfe
* Jimmy Flinders as Maximillian Sterling
* Leonard Pike as Exedore
* Jeffrey Platt as T. R. Edwards / Rolf Emerson
* Oliver Barrett as Bowie Grant (voice)
* John Alexander as Breetai
* Guy Garrett as Anatole Leonard
* Drew Thomas as Tesla
* Cyn Branch as Cabell
* Catherine Battistone as Miriya Sterling
* Ardwight Chamberlain as Rem
* Lara Cody as Dana Sterling
* Richard Epcar as Vince Grant
* Barbara Goodson as Jean Grant
* Milton James as Colonel Adam Reinhardt
* Russell Johnson as the Narrator
* Alexandra Kenworthy as Regess
* Wendee Lee as Janice Em
* Kerrigan Mahan as Jack Baker
* Ike Medlick as Minister
* Lisa Paulette as Karen Penn
* Mike Reynolds as Harry Penn
* Melodee Spevack as Mission control (voice)
== Crew ==
* Dialogue Writer and Director: Ardwight Chamberlain
* Additional Dialogue: Steve Kramer
* Production Supervisor: Alan Letz
* Production assistant: Duane Capizzi
* Storyboard Artists: Kevin Altieri, Kent Butterworth, Paul Power
* Post Production: Intersound
* Production Manager: Kent Harrison Hayes
* Production Coordinator: Andrea Coppola
* Chief Engineer: Bryan J. Rusenko
* Video Tape Editor: Guillermo Coelho
* Recording Engineer: Eduaro Torres
* Foley: Ossama Khuluki
* Music Editing and Final Mix: George Bours
* Original Music Composed By: Michael Bradley, Steve Wittmack, Arlon Ober, Jack Alan Goga, Ulpio Minucci
*Animation: Tatsunoko Production
* Supervising Producer: Kenji Yoshida, Ippei Kuri
* Animation Producer: Hiroshi Iwata
* Art Direction: Oskura Design Group
=== Remastered Version ===
* Digital Video Transfer: Digital Post Services
* Restoration Services: Tommy Yune
* Archivist: Billy Davis
== Memorable quotes ==
* Dana: "I don't get it, how can Rick get married? I thought that he already had a wife!"Lisa: "Dana, I think that you're confusing him with someone else!"Dana: "But mom says he's married to his job!"
* Lisa: "See you all after the honeymoon!"Rick: "Yeah in about 5 hours from now!"
* Regess: "My husband's ignorance and stubbornness are enough to drive me mad! He is in every way my intellectual and spiritually inferior, a de-evolutionized barbarian! And yet his will is strong. When I am with him, I feel his mind reaching out to me, trying to smother me. He is jealous of my evolutionary achievements and would pull me down to his level. That is why I have returned to Optera, the homeworld of our civilization, in order to free my mind of his influence. Now I see the path I must take. No longer will I be subservient to the Regent. The time has come to act on my own. If the Invid Flower of Life is to be found, then I am the one who will find it, not by blasting some insignificant little world into dust, but by tracking down the flagship of the Robotech Master Zor. I will go to Haydon IV and activate the Sensor Nebula. No matter where Zor's ship may be, even though it lies beyond the farthest fringe of the cosmos, the Sensor Nebula will find it. Then, at last, I will take the flower back from the thief who betrayed me, and woe to anyone who would stand in my way!"
==References==
===Characters===
* Jack Baker
* Rick Hunter
* Max Sterling
* Emil Lang
* Exedore
* Anatole Leonard
* T. R. Edwards
* Lisa Hayes
* Miriya Sterling
* Jean Grant
* Dana Sterling
* Bowie Grant
* Lynn Minmei
* Tailor
* Rem
* Cabell
* Two Tirolians watching Inorganics — Seb and Jerl
* Regent
* Emil Lang
* Jonathan Wolfe
* Vince Grant
* T. R. Edwards
* Nolan Benson
* Adam Reinhardt
* Breetai
* Aide #1
* Regess
* Harry Penn
* Karen Penn
* Tesla
* Jack Baker's Computer
===Vessels and vehicles===
* Alpha Fighter
* TBP-Z1 Battlepods
* Inorganics
** Hellcat
** Odeon
** Crann
* Bioroid
** Bioroid Commander
** Bioroid Armored Fighter
* Invid
** Invid Scout
** Invid Soldier
** Invid Fighter Scout
** Invid Assault Speeder
** Invid Shocktrooper
* Scorpion Assault Carrier
* Shuttle 1
* Robotech Factory Satellite
* SDF-3
* Tirolian Corvette
* VFB-9 Beta
=== Technology ===
* Tirolian Missile Launcher
* Tirolian Rocket-Boots
* Tirolian electronic net-launcher
* Jack Baker's Computer
=== Planets ===
* Earth
* Fantoma
* Tirol
=== Continuity ===
* Anatole Leonard fears that if the SDF-3 leaves the Earth will leave the Earth vulnerable to attack. His worries will be answered years later by the start of the Second Robotech War in "False Start."
* Max mentions his last trip to the Robotech Satellite, where he notes that he had to "sneak onboard," and recalls the Zentraedi reaction to seeing baby Dana. (Macross Saga: "Viva Miriya")
* Exedore mentions the SDF-1's first jump through hyper-space, and how it took a piece of the planet with it. (Masters Saga: "Space Fold")
=== Songs ===
* A cover of "The Way to Love" by Lynn Minmei can be heard lightly in the background of the Jack Baker testing scene.
* "Together"
===Other===
* Pollinators
* Rilack
==External Links==
*ANN
*IMDB
es:Robotech II: Los Centinelas
Category:Films
Category:Robotech II: The Sentinels episodes