DCAU Spotlight: The Zeta Project

Your brain here. I like listening to Tooncast

while trying to take over the world. Okay, Teen

Titans is not in continuity. My name is Zeta.

I was built as a weapon to destroy, but I will

not destroy anymore. Hello and welcome to the

96th episode of ToonCast, brought to you by the

KeyCast Radio Network. I'm your host, Steve,

Jim, and Mike, and today I'm joined by JT from

the Canadian Wild. Hello, sir. How are you doing?

Pretty good. How are you? I bought comic books

today. I am happy. Yay. When was the last episode

of ToonCast you were on? Wasn't it Bravo? Yeah,

it was Bravo. That was like 27 episodes ago.

Something like that. It was 69, so... Wow. We

so did not plan this, ladies and gentlemen. 27

episodes ago, JT was on episodes 69 and 96, so

you have 69 -96. Lovely. We did so not plan this.

Lucky numbers. I should play the lottery. If

you win, I want half. How would I buy you every

Puggle Farmer that will ever come out? Um...

No, because I already have plans for that. Okay.

I have my own deals I've made with the Puggle

Goddess, but anyways. Don't you mean safe? Talk

about that off -air. Yeah. Yeah, that's not for

public knowledge. Let's see. Yes, this is episode

96. This is the Zeta Project episode. We'll be

talking about the Zeta Project. I went through

probably... Five to six, seven, maybe even ten

different people asking them if they wanted to

be on this episode. And then tonight we're recording

this on a Friday night. I just said, fuck it,

I'll just do it. by myself, a solo episode. And

then I started advertising on Twitter and Facebook

earlier, about an hour and a half ago from when

we're actually recording this, that, you know,

hey, who wants to come out for a Ustream on Zeta

and listen to me rattle off my ideas about this

completely shitty cartoon? Oh, sorry. Sorry to

show my hand there. Gee, you're working blue

already, Mike? Yeah. Well, if I was going to

go blue, I would have said something else. But,

yeah, no, so I just said screw it, and then JT

had posted on my – he commented on my Facebook

post, so that's why he's here. Me, we just recorded

last – the other night we just recorded episode

20 of GeekCast Radio, the flagship show, which

is the introduction to the top 100 animated series

of all time. And that's going to be going on.

I've got From the Command Center coming up to

record episode one, all that kind of really,

really cool stuff. And this is the fourth to

last episode of ToonCast. It's almost over. Two

years. Wow. Good times. Yeah. Seems like just

yesterday we were commenting on Johnny Bravo

and his ability to not get laid. Which, for the

people that listen to this show, it's the only

frame of reference I really have for working

with Mike. So on this series, anyhow. Yeah, yeah,

yeah. And in ToonCast. You've been on a couple

of M -Wires. But we've got stuff coming up. We've

got stuff coming back. So we've got stuff ending.

So it's all good. It'll work out in the end.

So to get into today's history lesson, the Zeta

Project is a science fiction American animated

series produced by Warner Bros. Animation. First

aired on Kids WB January 2001. It's a spin -off

series based off the character Zeta from the

Batman Beyond episode of the same name. The show

was created by Robert Goodman and Warner Bros.

Animation. Oh, lovely. That's interesting. The

story's main character, Infiltration Unit Zeta,

is a humanoid robot synthoid designed to carry

out covert assassinations on the behalf of the

NSA. However, when Zeta discovers that one of

his targets is innocent, he experiences a kind

of existential crisis about goodness and value

of life. Following his epiphany, Zeta finds he

can no longer kill. The newly enlightened Zeta

refuses to continue on as an infiltration unit

and abandons his mission, going rogue. Zeta is

pursued by a team of NSA agents led by Kerwood

Smith. Red Foreman. Yes. And is aided by 15 -year

-old runaway Rosalie Roe Rowan. So what do you

remember about Zeta Project, sir? The crappy

animation, mostly. I mean, it's a spinoff of

Batman Beyond, and you can see the kind of Kirby

-esque designs in the series to establish it's

in the same universe and all. But aside from

the animation, which was really light and almost

fluffy, it was a kid's cartoon first and foremost.

But besides that, the only thing I really remember

is I really like the idea of this robot who basically

has an existential crisis. And then he discovers,

you know, he can't kill. He's got all these,

you know, what is the soul, basically. And I

just really, I like that idea that it was a fairly

adult premise for a Saturday morning kids cartoon.

And the fact that it's basically Robocop without

the weapons. He's got Robin the Girl Wonder as

a sidekick. That's an insult to Dick Grayson,

goddammit. Well, not so much, because they did

have a female Robin in the comics. That's, I'm

sorry, comparing Roe to any Robin, well, maybe

minus Jason Todd, but he was a little bit more

violent. Comparing Roe to either Tim Drake or

Dick Grayson is a, just, that's an abomination

to me. I recant the statement, I'm sorry. But

still, it's basically, boil it down, I mean,

the only frame of reference, it's Robocop without

the violence being chased by Eric Foreman's dad.

Yeah. And The Flash, because, you know, we'll

get to it later, but I mean, Michael Rosenbaum

voiced the character in this series as well.

So he's getting chased by Red Foreman and Lex

Flippin' Luther. Oh, well, yeah, you're meaning

the adult version of Lex Flippin' Luther from

Smallville. Yes. Not the animated version, which

was Clancy Brown, which, incidentally, Clancy

Brown was just a few days ago, was just in, or

last week or something or other, was just in

an episode of Transformers Prime. So, yay, Clancy

Brown is now in two of my favorite things. The

Kurgan is taking over. The what? It was the Kurgan

in the first Highlander movie. Oh, you know,

everybody keeps mentioning that to me since I've

mentioned about Clancy being in the latest episode

of Transformers Prime as we're recording this.

I have nothing, and this is a total tangent,

I have nothing against Highlander. I've seen

a couple of the films, but it's not something

I'm well versed in. So every time someone references

that stuff, the main things I remember Clancy

from, obviously Justice League and Superman and

all that is Lex and then... All that, and then

obviously he was head guard Hadley in Shawshank.

He's also Mr. Krabs on SpongeBob. I know. That's

freaky to me. And then just before we quit the

tangent, when I found out that the Kurgan, who's

in my top ten villains of all time, you know,

when I found out the Kurgan is on SpongeBob and

he's SpongeBob's boss, I was like, holy crap.

That's awesome. Yeah, it is. For me, I... Like

I said last episode with Batman Beyond, when

I first saw Batman Beyond specifically, I thought

it was just going to be more adventures with

Bruce Wayne. And when I eventually got used to

Batman Beyond, all of a sudden it was over. And

then there was this cartoon, and I'm like, really?

They go from Batman Beyond to this? Yeah, like

I said, aside from the fact that it's in the

same universe and it has some like I said, kind

of adult storylines. It was made for kids, and

hardcore fans of the traditional DCAU universe

just probably couldn't hang with that. I know

it's in continuity by a slim margin just because

it's a spinoff of Batman Beyond, but I mean,

really? There's only two names in the entire

director -writers thing. that I recognize from

any of the other DCAU stuff. It's Kurt Gaeta

and Dan Reba. Everybody else is totally Hillary

Bader. I recognize her name as a writer, but

yeah, anyway. So getting into the characters

here, we have Infiltration Unit Zeta, voiced

by Oswald from Drew Carey. Oh, I mean, Diedrich

Bader, yeah. You could also say Batman. I mean,

he does that now too, so. Let's not go there.

Okay. Yeah, let's not go there. What did you

think of Zeta's overall character? I did like

Zeta's character, like that whole innocent soul,

fish out of water sort of thing. He's experiencing

everything for the first time. It's a slightly

friendlier version of Data from Star Trek Next

Generation. Like in the first episode, you know,

we watched it where he's like, oh, hello, Mr.

Cockroach. And he's like checking out the cockroach.

He's having a good time. And Ro, the girl, is

like, oh, gross, get that away. And she flicks

it away. And he's like, but it was a cockroach.

It was kind of cool. You know, he's experiencing

all this stuff. And something about that type

of character I could really get behind. You know,

that sort of innocence in a way was kind of entertaining.

Yeah, it was. It got tiring after a while. But

the first couple of episodes, it was entertaining

because Zeta was learning. Now, I will say I've

liked Diedrich Bader in other stuff that he's

done. Me, personally, I just... I go all apeshit

when I see Batman the Brave and the Bold and

just hear his voice coming out of Batman's mouth.

It just doesn't work for me. But anyway... I

mean, I do like him in other stuff that he's

done. And I did like him voicing Zeta in this.

I mean, he has that, I don't know if it's the

actual, if it's a voice effect or if it's something

he did with his own voice, but he has that robotic

sound effect to him, to Zeta's voice, especially

when Zeta is in his true robotic form. Kind of

monotone. Yeah. Yeah. A slight inflection of

emotion. Yeah, and then when he's in his human

forms, he obviously has more emotion and less

monotone. And, you know, Zane is pretty cool.

I do agree with what you said. It's pretty much

Robocop without the guns and without the badge,

actually. But he does have guns. I mean, let's

not underestimate this thing. This thing does

still have guns on it. He just chooses not to

use them. Yeah. I'm trying to remember from his

watching. I hadn't seen this episode for a while,

but didn't he mention that he disabled his weapons

or something like that? He probably disabled

them, but I'm sure they're still on him because

I know specifically in the intro, it shows him

raising a gun out of his arm. So I'm sure they're

still there. Like I said, he just chooses not

to use them because he did disable them. Yeah,

but he's like a mechanical MacGyver. He's a walking

Swiss Army knife with laser cutters and buzz

saws. Yes. He doesn't need a gun. He can cause

some shit with all the tools at his disposal.

Very true. Wow, they didn't list – that's interesting.

Moving on to Rosalie Roe Rowan, voiced by Julie

Nathanson, who is a 15 -year -old orphan who

before joining Zeta in his – In a quest to prove

his innocence, she usually acts as a wiser, older

sister to Zeta, who is often clueless about how

to properly blend in with humans. She sees Zeta

as family and refuses to abandon him since she

owes him her life. That's true, but she also,

in the first episode, he's like, oh, I have a

built -in credit card with unlimited amounts

of money. I'm sorry. This is so far -fetched.

Like, I get this cartoon's in the future. But

I'm being serious. The only thing missing from

that was, like, the dollar signs rolling through

her eyes. I know it. I know it. But the thing

of it is, though, is, like, I get that they wanted

to, you know, further the story of Zeta and all

that stuff, but I'm sorry. Any kid or anyone

that watched this cartoon back in 2001 or whenever

originally, you know, 2001, you know, I was 21

at that time. It's like if I see an episode of

a cartoon that says, oh, this robot has a built

-in credit card, what do you think the first

thing I'm going to do is? I'm going to start

applying for credit cards. Yeah, not exactly

the lesson. Technically, even though it's my

own fault that I've been in debt for the last,

I don't know, 25 years of my life. Not 25, the

last 15 years of my life or whatever. Yeah. It's

all a tribute to Zeta Project. Zeta Project put

me in debt. Oh, sure. Because it brainwashed

me. It brainwashed me. Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike.

Don't blame the cartoons for your own weakness.

Right, whatever. All right, so the next character

to talk about is Bucky Buenaventura. Okay, I

don't think that's a distant relative of Ace.

No. He was voiced by Ulysses, Kendra in Season

1, and then Blaine Barbarossa in Season 2, a

child genius who occasionally aids Zeta and Ro.

This is probably the single worst character in

the DCAU. This kid is even worse than the terrible

trio. From Batman the Animated Series. I don't

even remember this guy. Yeah, he's pretty bad.

Then you have... Infiltration Unit 7, a later

model of Infiltration Unit, who Zeta comes into

conflict with after foiling one of his missions.

Infiltration Unit 7 poses all of Zeta's abilities,

greater strength and durability, and a much larger

arsenal, and is much less subtle in the execution

of his duties than Zeta. This is basically the

rogue RoboCop of the series. Yeah. Yeah, the

end 209. Yeah, pretty much. And another thing,

I think he was voiced by Dietrich Bader as well.

Probably was. It doesn't say here, so it probably

was. And then Dr. Selig is Zeta's hard -to -find

creator. Now, Agent Bennett, I could have sworn,

I know he's voiced by Red Foreman, a .k .a. Kurtwood

Smith. But I could have sworn at one point he

had got replaced with, oh, what the hell is his

name? You watch NCIS at all? Mark Harmon? No,

not Mark Harmon. The FBI agent, Agent Farnell.

Oh, yeah. I could have sworn it's that guy voicing

Bennett at some point. I know from the first

episode it's Kurtwood Smith, but I could have

sworn at some point in the series the guy that

plays Agent Farnell on NCIS. voices Bennett at

one point. I don't know. I could have sworn it

was, but I'm not sure. Bennett is the leader

of the NSA team who is sent to capture Zeta.

What do you think of Bennett? I kind of like

Bennett. I mean, again, from the two episodes

I watched, he's got that classic kind of driven,

he's a robot, he's just been reprogrammed. He's

got that kind of inflexible. air of authority

around him which kind of made made him for uh

the standard villain who's just you know he's

just doing his job but uh i don't know like i

said i haven't watched in so long except for

those episodes but he seemed like you know this

kind of a stock character yeah pretty much i

mean he's your standard fbi agent or nsa agent

or whatever you want to however you want to classify

him And then we have Agent Wally West. Oh, I'm

sorry. Don't you mean Agent Lex Luthor? No, well,

no, Agent Wally West, because Michael Rosenbaum

voiced The Flash, a .k .a. Wally West in Justice

League. No, I got you. Yeah. And he did, like,

the standard bumbling type, too, with that voice.

Agent West is the incompetent agent whose desire

to prove himself only results in annoying his

superiors. Yeah, this is the one agent that has

the dunce cap on all the time. He never gets

that stern look in his face. Every time you see

him on screen, he's got this sad, like, why me?

Yeah, exactly. And, you know, honestly, until

I watched the premiere episode and that tonight,

I didn't even recognize the voice back in the

day. It just sounded like standard annoying guy

voice, and I was like, holy crap. I know that

guy. Yeah. See, for me, I had already, you know,

I had already known. Like, as soon as I heard

Agent West's voice, I knew it was Rosenbaum.

Not just because of playing Lex on Smallville,

but because of playing Flash in Justice League

and because of doing his Christopher Walken impression

for Ghoul in Batman Beyond Return of the Joker.

So, yeah, I knew immediately that it was Rosenbaum.

And you have two more agents. That's really all

that we have on the cast list here. We have Agent

Lee, who's voiced by Lauren Tom, who is the more

level -headed agent who comes to see Zeta in

a more redeeming light as he continues to go

out of his way to help people. Again, you know,

these, I mean, the main two characters are...

I mean, the main characters out of the agent

is Bennett and West. I mean, Bennett's more specifically

because, you know, as we said, he's the team

leader and he's the one going after Zeta. So

if you had to pick out of these characters, who

would be a favorite of yours, if any? I'm going

to go with, like, out of the agents or just out

of the cast in general? The entire cast in general.

I'm going with Zeta. I mean, I like... I like

Bennett, if only, but it's such a stock character

in my opinion. Like, you've seen it a hundred

times before in any number of sci -fi movies

and TV shows. I like Zeta for that whole kind

of innocence about the character, how he's learning

about everything. You know, he's like a kid.

You know, he just kind of had that innocence

about him, and I love that. Yeah. Yeah, I like

the relationship between Zeta and Ro. Just because

she's helping him, he's helping her type of thing.

I like that a lot with them. There are several

good episodes and good character developments.

I think it's Rose Reunion where supposedly she's

coming up against her parents or trying to find

her parents and all that. Honestly, it's just...

The animation is just so horrible in this show.

It's spongy, is what it is. It's like, you know,

you said before, they tried to copy the Batman

Beyond Future World design as far as the actual

environment, and it just, oh, God. I mean, you

look at Batman Beyond, and it's like most episodes

you get that kind of... neutral kind of tan it's

sunny or sometimes you get like the red skies

from like new adventures of batman and all that

but when you ever whenever you get into zeta

it's like it's so bright and it's light yeah

it's like i it's like color is like look at this

we're colorful we're safe for kids watch us please

it's neon it's tie -dye Your kids couldn't possibly

get the wrong idea about the world watching this

cartoon. What's that? We can get credit cards?

What's that? There are unlimited credit cards?

I never have to pay for it? Well, sign me up.

Exactly. As far as the actual show, we've kind

of gone over the plot already. Basically, it's

Zeta trying to... get his freedom from the NSA,

from being supposedly this bad robot. Wow. That's

a horrible J .J. Abrams reference. Bad robot.

Well, at least they didn't have a Cloverfield

monster in this thing. Oh, thank God. So, yeah,

so basically each episode... Most of the episodes

are just one -shots of their adventures continuing.

There are some continuity episodes amongst the

actual show, like as far as, you know, they do

the whole previously on Zeta Project, blah, blah,

blah, blah. Yeah. And, I mean, they had, like

I mentioned, Diedrich Bader, there's the upgraded

infiltration unit. Yeah, infiltration unit seven,

yeah. You know, his cousin, you know, he came

back. What episode would he first come in? Crap.

Well, I know he is like probably like four or

five or six, something like that. He showed up

and Zeta screwed with his mission in that episode.

And then he kind of imprints on Zeta. He's like,

OK, Zeta is the new mission. I got to destroy

him. And he shows up in episode eight, which

was also the first and I think only appearance

of Batman Beyond in this series. Yeah. Although

Zeta did crossover in an episode of Batman Beyond

where it got reprogrammed by Mad Stan. Yeah,

there was two crossovers. The Zeta episode of

Batman Beyond was the original episode where

Zeta was created, where Zeta first came into

the DCAU. And then he spun off into his own series.

Batman Beyond had a crossover with the Zeta Project.

And then vice versa afterwards where Batman Beyond,

Zeta came back to Batman Beyond and Mad Stan,

who is one of the best villain characters in

that show. Information overload, Batman. We can't

take it. I love Henry Rollins, man. Anything

that he's in, I'm down for. The only thing I'm

not really cool on him being right now is Kilowog

and the new Green Lantern animated film coming

up, Emerald Knights. It just doesn't sound Kilowog

to me, but yeah. I haven't heard anything yet.

I mean, I like Michael Madsen, but Henry Rollins

was great. But yeah, no, they had the crossovers

and all that. But again, this series was just

too fluffy. Yep, too fluffy. This series... Even

though what I'm going to compare it to isn't

fluffy at all. Why is Stitch popping into my

head? Anyway, moving into the music segment.

Oh, God. Blue Punch Buggy. Oh, God. Why is Stitch

popping into my head? Damn it. Moving into the

music segment. Honestly, for me, this Zeta Project

is just like GoBots for me. The theme song is

the best thing about the show. Yeah, it's so

good because it's got that kind of pop to it.

Yeah. It's got that kind of 80s synth sound to

it like that. Yeah. Which was awesome. Yes. And

moving into the legacy segment. This show's only

10 years old. It has no legacy. The only season

on DVD is season one. And the only reason why

there haven't been, like, I believe it's Warner

Home Video that... that does the distribution

rights for DCAU, for any of the Warner Brothers

superhero cartoons. And I know that Warner Home

Video does other Warner Brothers cartoons as

well. But I believe they've stated several times

since they've been releasing DCAU stuff on DVD,

their goal is to get every single incarnation

out on DVD. Well, apparently the numbers for

Zeta didn't do so well for the DVD sales. Because

there has been no news since that season one

release a couple of years ago. Yeah, it's like

it's on DVD. I was like, why? You know, we've

said that we've watched a couple episodes on

YouTube. Just from what I've searched, like just

searching the Zeta Project episodes or just episode

one, you know, the first eight or nine or ten

episodes are really easy to come by on YouTube.

So your best bet is to just watch it for free

on YouTube. Yeah. Yeah. Variant quality abound,

but honestly, does it matter? True. True. So

with that, we are going to take a quick break.

You're going to hear some ads. You're going to

hear some stuff about GCR Top 100 animated series

of all time. And then we'll come back with our

final thoughts in the outro. Tooncast will be

back after these messages. When I'm not reading

Third Earth of Mumra's Evil, I'm enjoying Tooncast

with the other Thundercats. Hey guys, this is

Optimus Solo from the Geekcast Radio Network,

and I was thinking the other day that maybe I've

been too hard on the folks over at IGN. I mean,

they had to put some effort into their Top 100

Animated Series of All Timeless, right? I mean,

maybe it's just me that wants to punch a baby

when I read it. So in all fairness, I thought

we should gather some of the people who were

involved with this list and get their opinions.

So what do you guys think about the IGN list?

I didn't think it was physically possible, but

this both sucks and blows. Okay, anyone else?

Dumb, dumb, dumb! Those dudes are so dumb! I'm

afraid to ask, but anyone else? Epic fail. Homer,

they put your show at the top of your list. You

gotta like their list, right? I stand by my disappointed

groan. So I guess we should do something about

it then. Are you pondering what I'm pondering?

I am, brain. I think we should unveil the Geek

Cast Radio Network's Top 100 Animated Series

of All Time list. I second that emotion. And

I know that our list will be much better than

the IGN list. Do you know why? We watch a lot

of TV. That and the fact that we are teaming

up with This Week in Geek, the Pop Culture Network,

Chicken Pop Pod, and some other great geek sites.

By your powers combined. We will give you a list

geeks everywhere can be proud of. So that's going

to do it for ToonCast episode 96. I know it's

been a short episode. What are your final thoughts

overall on Zeta, sir? I think it was an honest

attempt to make a spinoff that wasn't nearly

as dark as Batman Beyond was and make it very

kid -friendly, and they certainly succeeded in

that, but it's not an animated series that for...

I'm not going to say the casual fan, but for

the average DCAU fan, it's not something I'm

going to recommend. Yeah, no. I've said this

before, and I'll say it again. The cartoons that

are in, and I'm not saying that Zeta is not in

continuity, but for me, the cartoons that make

up the DCAU, this is just my own personal opinion,

Batman the Animated Series, Superman the Animated

Series, Batman Beyond, Justice League, Justice

League Unlimited. That's it. Excuse me. Static

shock to a certain extent. But, you know, just

those four or five. So that's going to do it

for us. Thank you for joining us here on ToonCast.

If someone wants to get in contact with us or

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hope you enjoyed this episode of ToonCast and

wish you'll join us next time when we'll be continuing

the DCAU Spotlight with Static Shock when Steve

Megatron and Tara the Rising Star will join me

for that. For now, I am TFG1 Mike with... JT

from Saskatoon. Thank you for listening. Until

next time.