Zaido: Pulis Pangkalawakan

Zaido: Pulis Pangkalawakan (lit. Zaido: The Space Police or Zaido: The Space Sheriffs) is a Philippine fantasy-drama television series by GMA Network. It is a remake of the Japanese Metal Hero Series Uchuu Keiji Shaider. It may be considered a local revival of the tokusatsu genre from several dubbed productions, including Shaider, that were aired in the country in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The three Zaidos were represented by Dennis Trillo, Marky Cielo and Aljur Abrenica.

The production for the series began October 2006. Originally conceived to be a Filipino remake of the original Shaider the Toei Company rejected the original script but gave its blessing to a spin-off series set twenty years after the original Shaider series. The series' original working title was Shaido.

A series primer aired on September 22, 2007, and was called Zaido: Ang Bagong Alamat (The New Legend) – The Making of Zaido featuring members of the main cast and crew. The series ended on February 8, 2008.

Connections with the Metal Hero series
Zaido is littered with references from the Space Sheriffs trilogy, most notably Shaider. They include footage from Uchuu Keiji Shaider played on computer monitors during the Galactic Force Space City sequences, a "special video game" Alexis inherits from his mother, and beginning in Episode 4 it is revealed that the original Alexis del Mundo (Dai Sawamura's name in the Filipino language dub) lives on as a hologram. A later story arc revolving around a Battle of the Bands also sees Alexis, Cervano and Gallian play the first few notes of the Shaider theme song as part of their performance. The three Zaidos are meant to be an homage to the original Space Sheriffs: Shaider, Gavan, and Sharivan.

Like Fuuma Le-ar (Great Emperor Kubilai) before him, Kuuma Le-ar also has a crossdressing grandson named Ida (a role that a Filipino gay comedian wanted to play) who is rejuvenated by drinking a concoction made from the blood of young women. Paolo Ballesteros was chosen to portray Ida. The character Amy is a homage to Shaider's partner Annie and Sharivan's partner Lily.

The transformable spacecraft Avilo and the Zaido Falcon combat motorcycles are updated versions of Shaider's Vavilos (Babilos in the Philippine dub) and Blue Hawk respectively.

Plot
Twenty years have passed since Alexis del Mundo, also known as the second Shaider, destroyed the clan of Fuuma Le-ar. The descendants of the clan, now known as the Kuuma, have emerged to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting universe. Gallian, a descendant of del Mundo, has a mission and forms an elite group of space police known as the Zaido.

Zaido
Zaido armor is manufactured from the strongest and lightest material known. The suits are designed to boost the wearer's strength and reflexes 100%. A Zaido is armed with the Zaido Blaster, a beam pistol, a Zaido Blade, a laser sword and Zaido Bow which fires arrows that pierce anything it hits.

Galactic Force

 * Commander Zion
 * Lyka
 * Lyvia
 * Amy Maltayra
 * Ulla
 * Luna

Zaido Kids

 * Aqualia/Zaido Kid Blue
 * Oggy Lorenzo/Zaido Kid Green
 * Gelo Torres/Zaido Kid Red
 * Ave/Zaido Kid Yellow
 * Vea/Zaido Kid Pink

Allies

 * Helen Lorenzo
 * Alvaro Lorenzo
 * Carmela Langit
 * Mona Langit
 * Thor Mentor
 * Doctor Eng
 * Toby Mendoza

Kuuma Empire

 * Kuuma Le-ar
 * Ida II
 * Drigo II
 * Ida Dida
 * Fasullo
 * Gayke

Amasonas

 * Amasonang Lila
 * Amasonang Itim
 * Amasonang Rosas
 * Amasonang Puti
 * Amasonang Kahel

Kuuma Monsters

 * Nigi-nigi
 * Bawaw-aw
 * Tinik-ik
 * Siba-tiba
 * mini Siba-tiba
 * Bola-boba
 * mini Bola-boba
 * Pasko-paksiw
 * mini Pasko-paksiw
 * Giga-wiga
 * mini Giga-wiga
 * Roko-loko
 * mini Roko-loko

Known Kuuma grunts

 * Fasullo (Inday)
 * Gayke

Other Villains

 * Ramiro
 * Shigeki
 * Armida

Weapons and arsenal

 * Zaido Blade – a powerful sword used by the three Zaidos. Its finishing move is Zaido Super Slash.
 * Zaido Blaster – a laser gun used to shoot enemies and monsters.
 * Zaido Super Bow – a weapon used only by Zaido Red to target and shoot enemies.
 * Zaido Badges – the henshin devices which have the ability to transform into Zaido. Carmela and Amy can transform themselves also but not in Zaido armor.
 * Zaido Moves
 * Zaido Punch
 * Zaido Kick
 * Zaido Cyclone – a powerful move which would create a cyclone to wipe out enemies and monsters.

Vehicles

 * Zaido Falcons – an updated version of Shaider's Blue Hawk used to transport them into Time Space Warp.
 * Avilo – an updated version of Shaider's Vavilos. This vehicle has two modes: a giant robot and a giant gun which can wipe out Kuuma gunships and occasionally gigantic monsters. The interior also houses a command center.
 * Sky Fighter – an updated version of Shaider's Sky Shaian used to wipe out Kuuma spaceships.

Changes from the original

 * The original Girl's Army (Amazonas) members Amazonang Berde (Girl 4) and Amazonang Pula (Girl 3) are changed to Amasonang Puti and Amasonang Kahel because of the colors red and green which are used for two Zaidos, Alexis (green) and Cervano (red).
 * Drigo's primary weapon is now a trident spear (originally used by Himley) instead of sword (used by Hessler or Drigo I of the original) which only appeared in the first episode.
 * Commander Qom, Mimi and Marin are changed to Commander Zion, Lyka and Lyvia. Commander Qom had no wife and only a daughter in the original series but Commander Zion has his spouses (Sharina and Luna) and his 3 children (Lyka and Lyvia with Luna, and Cervano with Sharina).
 * Kuuma Le-ar's body is in human-sized form instead of the original Kubilai's (Fuuma Le-ar) body which is in mechanized form (the second body).
 * Mini versions of Zaido (Zaido Kids), Ida (Ida Dida) and Kuuma Monsters which were not included in the original have been added.
 * The monsters' naming system in which two syllables repeated are changed to a pair of different syllables e.g. Bola-boba; except for Nigi-nigi.
 * Some of the Kuuma monsters from Zaido are related to the Strange monsters from Shaider: Bawaw-aw bears a resemblance to Petopeto, Tinik-ik also resembles Girugiru.
 * The motherships of Kuuma are different to the motherships of Fuuma (Strange Palace) whose exterior is temple-like.
 * Planet Bird of the Space Sheriff Series is changed to the planets Avea and Nalax while the Planet Mount (Annie's home planet) is also changed to Planet Zendar.
 * The Battle Shaian (drill tank) of Shaider was not included while the Sky Shaian has changed to Sky Fighter.
 * The tomb of Kuuma Le-ar is located in the Philippines. In the original the tomb of Kubilai's (Fuuma Le-ar) body is located in the Easter Islands.
 * The music of Kuuma is remixed from Fushigi Song, performed by Koorogi '73, from the original Shaider soundtrack.
 * The original Fuuma grunts called Miraclers are changed to Kuuma grunts which are now equipped with guns and armor.
 * Fuuma is changed to Kuuma. Kuuma spelled syllabically backwards after Makuu, a space crime organization of the original Space Sheriff Series, Gavan.
 * The original Drigo (Hessler) was killed by Shaider. In this version Drigo saves his son Alexis, Alvaro and the Zaido Squad from Ida and Le-Ar's attack; destroys the mainframe to turn the Amasonas back to their lives; fights both Ida and Le-Ar until he is killed by both of them and for this reason Drigo is also an unofficial ally to Zaido.
 * The Amasonas are switched back to their normal lives by Drigo and turned into allies in the final battle. In the original two of the members of Girls' Army were killed by Shaider and in the final episode three of them became energy for Kubilai to defeat Shaider.
 * Poe sometimes fought Shaider in the original. In this series Ida battles Zaido Green and Zaido Red only in the Finale episode.

Parodies
GMA Network sketch comedy program Bubble Gang spoofed it as Pulis Pang-kalokohan (loosely, "Police of Foolish Behavior") in which the two police officers would arrest a person who made jokes. After the show's finale it was spoofed again by Bubble Gang as Lavandera in the Palace: Pulis Pangkalooban (loosely, Laundrymaiden in the Palace: Police of Deep Inside Onself) a combined parody of Zaido, La Vendetta, Jumong and Jewel in the Palace.

Soundtrack
The theme song for the series is sung by Sandwich and is titled "Pulis Pangkalawakan." The lyrics were written by the series' head writer Don Michael Perez with music by Raimund Marasigan.

Criticism

 * Entertainment critic Nestor Torre viewed that Zaido's visual effects felt "borrowed" from iconic references such as Star Wars. He also cited the inconsistency between the series' glossy sci-fi effects and the dated martial arts fight scenes and sword fights saying that "an advanced civilization would have had an equally high-tech warfare, as well as some distracting details in production design."
 * It was also noted that the director Dominic Zapata was not a Shaider fan either.
 * In the February 2008 issue of Otaku USA, the Tokyoscope R5 Central column called Zaido the "Tokusatsu version of Passions" saying "It's like [GMA Network] just wanted to make yet another soap opera but slapped Shaider on just to get ratings."
 * Television host and manager Lolit Solis revealed in October 2008 that Lorna Tolentino, who played the role of the mother of Alexis and Alvaro in the series, did not want to do another fantasy drama series after Zaido. Solis noted that Tolentino was not too comfortable playing the role because of the small age gap between her and Raymart Santiago, who played her son Alvaro in the show.
 * The show was also aired in Malaysia. After 3-5 episodes, the Malaysians decided to shut down the airing of Zaido because it isComment.jpg a major flop.