Since everyone was asking for it, here is Dr. Pandora. I'll let James fill in the background details (because he's soooo good at it. ) but in the meantime, here are some pictures. Sylvie Pandora in happier days, with her daughter and husband: The team's first view of Dr. Pandora: putting on lipstick. Shades of Sarah Palin! Winking flirtatiously at Jinpei: Meeting the team. Notice how Ryu is gushing. Hard at work: On a mission with Joe: Joe is weakened by a magnetic field, and Dr. Pandora helps him: Knocking out a bad guy, all by herself. Don't you love the 'Grease' outfit with the skinny 80s tie? And of course, Ken is there to rescue her when she gets in over her head: Doing the Firebird all by herself in the original God Phoenix, so she can rescue the team: Pandora's horror at discovering that her daughter isn't really dead, but is her enemy, Gel Sadra: The last we ever see of Pandora, being blasted into space on a rocket to certain death:

Okay, dr. Pandora wasn't exactly on my Gatch favvie-character list! Why? I can't exactly put my finger on! Maybe because of her relationship with Joe! She was at the right time in the right place too many times! She always had the air of hiding something, and I was tuned to see if she'll really turn out to be a Gallactor. Till the final episodes, her connexion with GelSadra gave me the creeps. At one time I thought she was the embodiment of Sosai. She gets points for shooting Nambu in the head. And I was glad I got more glimpses with GelSadra when Pandora was around! Apart for that, I willed her good riddance in her trip to Van Allen Belt! P.S. Has somebody noticed that all tiresome parents are flushed into space?

Thank you for all those pics TJ. If any one can add any more information I would be grateful. James?

LOL, Amy! I must admit that in the Eagle Riders I don't really have any liking for Dr. Aikens. She seems like too much of a know-it-all. Add that to having all of the guys drooling over her, combined with her junior James Bond antics, and I think we have someone's serious Mary Sue. She just always got under my skin in a way that was annoying...

Mary Sue! Yep, that's the word! Anyway, TJ, those screencaps beg for captations! So if you don't mind!

Originally posted by amyltrer She gets points for shooting Nambu in the head. And I was glad I got more glimpses with GelSadra when Pandora was around! Apart for that, I willed her good riddance in her trip to Van Allen Belt! P.S. Has somebody noticed that all tiresome parents are flushed into space?

After being away for a few days, I'm back babies! At least until Wednesday, that is. What I've read about Pandora is she seemed a little too secretive and I didn't like the fact that she outed Joe about being a cyborg without asking him first. LOL, Amy for blowing troublesome parents out into space!

Originally posted by Condorfan After being away for a few days, I'm back babies! At least until Wednesday, that is. What I've read about Pandora is she seemed a little too secretive and I didn't like the fact that she outed Joe about being a cyborg without asking him first. LOL, Amy for blowing troublesome parents out into space!

Welcome back! Yes, not nice of her to out Joe unless she honestly thought the others already knew he was a cyborg, but I get the impression that wasn't the case. I wonder if she was part of the Gatch II storyline from the beginning, or if the writers invented her later into the series. Her arrival, halfway into the series, does handily provide a way for everyone to find out Joe's a cyborg, provides a cyborg expert to replace Dr. Raphael (who gets killed), and a reason for Gel Sadra's dramatic turn against Sosai X at the end.

Welcome back Condorfan. Hope all went well.

I have no idea if Pandora's entrance was planned from the beginning of Gatch II, but she is offed not long after Raphael is, so I suspect being a 'replacement for Raphael' wasn't part of the motivation. I hope someone who knows more about this can add to this discussion. ITA, outing Joe's secret without even talking to him about it first wasn't exactly something that endeared me to her. Glad to see you here, Condorfan!

Great to see you here Condorfan ITA with the views on here about Pandora, she was almost about the same annoyance that Zark was in the BOTP series. And for her to out Joe like she did, I know the ER doesn't do the "whole" story but she gained no brownie points for that.

I suppose a case could perhaps be mustered in Dr. Pandora's defense that the others would have figured out, before much longer, what was going on with Joe, or even that they should have figured it out -it seems they all received some pretty big hints (heat resistant, able to channel high electric current through his body, vulnerable to EMFs, can rip apart tanks with his hands etc.)

Thanks for the all the Pandora shots... was she Gatch II or F?

Originally posted by shamrokchick Thanks for the all the Pandora shots... was she Gatch II or F?

Gatch II. She was around for roughly the second half of the series.

Originally posted by Transmute Jun I have no idea if Pandora's entrance was planned from the beginning of Gatch II, but she is offed not long after Raphael is, so I suspect being a 'replacement for Raphael' wasn't part of the motivation. I hope someone who knows more about this can add to this discussion. ITA, outing Joe's secret without even talking to him about it first wasn't exactly something that endeared me to her. Glad to see you here, Condorfan!

Yes so casually mentioning..."Oh Joe is a cyborg..." Like everyone knew NOT....

But she was suppose to be like a Bond chick to the guys.. You know beautiful, mysterious...

Welcome back, Condorfan.Hope everything has been going well. TJ,thank you for the Dr. Pandora pics.I've only gotten familiar with Dr. Pandora from Daniela's Gatch II translation site,and I also must admit that based on her dialogues in the series, she sometimes annoyed me because she was such a know-it-all. I did love however the scene when the KNT firstly met her, in which the swan was definitely annoyed by the eagle who was mesmerised by Dr. Pandora at the first sight, oh, that was classic. She was indeed beautiful in a mysterious way, like she was always hiding something in her mind. Perhaps that's why the creator named her Pandora, after the Pandora character in the Greek Mythology, basically "the beautiful Evil"

Ok I've been scrambling to find any Pandora pics...and I found a couple by Allen Rowe... and one by Diinzumo... I've never considered drawing Pandora before...may try one if I can find time...

Is Diinzumo's picture Joe's reaction to Dr. Pandora outing him as a cyborg? He looks like he wants to take her head off! Anger aside, he looks very good though... Oh, and so does Pandora.

Originally posted by lborgia88 Is Diinzumo's picture Joe's reaction to Dr. Pandora outing him as a cyborg? He looks like he wants to take her head off! Anger aside, he looks very good though... Oh, and so does Pandora.

ITA those pictures are done well--I really like the last one.

Those are great, Springie! Thanks for sharing!

James has been reading up on Pandora the past two days. He's putting together some info on her, but it's been kind of slow going--not much free time. Anyway, I thought I'd let folks know that there will be more info to come!

Thank you for sharing those great pics, Springie, and am looking forward to your own depiction of Pandora.

Originally posted by Barrdwing James has been reading up on Pandora the past two days. He's putting together some info on her, but it's been kind of slow going--not much free time. Anyway, I thought I'd let folks know that there will be more info to come!

Will be patiently waiting for the info, Barrdwing. After all, good things come slow sometimes. Any info from James is definitely worth the wait.

Originally posted by Barrdwing James has been reading up on Pandora the past two days. He's putting together some info on her, but it's been kind of slow going--not much free time. Anyway, I thought I'd let folks know that there will be more info to come!

Thanks for letting us know. I look forward to reading it!

Thanks Barrdwing I look forward to reading James's info too

Originally posted by Barrdwing James has been reading up on Pandora the past two days. He's putting together some info on her, but it's been kind of slow going--not much free time. Anyway, I thought I'd let folks know that there will be more info to come!

I look forward to reading what ever information you come up with James. Even if it is only a little bit more information I know it will be more than I know now.

Originally posted by Barrdwing James has been reading up on Pandora the past two days. He's putting together some info on her, but it's been kind of slow going--not much free time. Anyway, I thought I'd let folks know that there will be more info to come!

Whoo hoo! Go James! And thanks Barrdwig for the update!

Springie... thanks for posting those drawings... the last one is my favorite, and seeing the Condor about to smack Pandoras head off makes it even better! Barrdwing... I too look forward to reading any updates that James can provide us!

Fantastic James!! You know there's a gypsy that Joe has an encounter with in Gatch 2. She looks a little like Pandora. But she's pretty, and I think She fell for the Condor...and dies of course! She was after all a Condor girl...

I was kinda thinking that could have been me Ebony, that is until she died!

Hi all! Well, as Heather mentioned, things have been a bit busy lately, but I finally had a little time to spare to delve into Dr. Pandora. Dr. Pandora is definitely a more difficult character to get detailed information on. As was speculated earlier in this thread, Pandora was not a character who was created for the series when it began, but was one that was added as the series was in production. For a major character like her, this is quite unusual, but there's a reason for it. You see, when Gatchaman II was first being plotted out, it was only intended to run for 26 episodes. Then, when the series was being broadcast, it had the good fortune of being a winner in the ratings, making Fuji TV happy, and the Gatchaman II merchandise sold well, making the sponsors happy. As a result, it was decided to extend the run of the series, which I would assume made Tatsunoko happy. This extension did present a problem, though. The sequence of events planned for a 26 episode series didn't necessarily provide enough material for a good 52 episode series. So, the studio took another look at things and made some modifications to rectify this situation. One of those modifications was the addition of a new character, Dr. Pandora. Along with her creation, they also added the element of Pandora's connection to Gel Sadra. As originally conceived, Gel Sadra wouldn't have ever had any contact with her past life. By making Pandora her mother, something known to the staff but wasn't revealed until episode #50 of the series, this allowed them to add an element of mystery through the mental connection felt between Pandora and Sadra whenever they were in close proximity to each other. Though, to be honest, this element is ignored for quite a while after Pandora's first appearance in episode #26. The next time it comes into play is in episode #38. One possible explanation for this may be that the episodes between those two points were almost all written by Yu Yamamoto and Hirohisa Soda. While these gentlemen were certainly talented enough, the majority of the "key" episodes of the series were written by Jinzo Toriumi and Satoshi Suyama, who had previously done the same for the first Gatchaman series. These two gentlemen wrote all but two of the episodes from episode #38 (With the return of Pandora's link to Sadra) through the end of the series (For those who care, the two episode they didn't write were #39, written by Yu Yamamoto, and Pandora's farewell in #50, written by another first series writing veteran, Akiyoshi Sakai). Along with the changes involved by adding Pandora to the mix, the series also needed to tie up some loose ends that were hanging around from the earlier planning, but were no longer needed with the new direction they were taking the story. The most obvious one of these was the entire "Joe, the Secret Cyborg" storyline. As originally intended, Jun would have been the first to uncover Joe's secret (Revealing the truth to viewers at the same time). This would likely have happened with the events of episode #16, had the direction for the series not been undergoing some changes. While Jun would have kept Joe's secret, Dr. Raphael would have later revealed the truth to everyone else, just before the build-up to the series conclusion. So, the studio took the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone by introducing Pandora into the series and having her reveal to everyone that Joe was a cyborg. I know some people don't care for her revealing Joe's secret, but going strictly from the Japanese version, it's obvious that this was done without malice. For Pandora, it was simply commenting on something that was so painfully obvious that she wouldn't have thought that the others were unaware of it. It would be like you or I making a comment about the sky being blue and only then discovering that the people you were speaking to had never noticed this detail. So, I wouldn't be too hard on her about it. Besides, she was just being used as a means to an end desired by the writers. As for what information we have regarding her, the show itself doesn't provide a whole lot. We know from what Dr. Nambu says when she's introduced that she has knowledge in a variety of sciences, with a specialty in robotics and cybernetics (Episode #26). She used these skills to create such devices as the Shin-Radar (Which, in Japanese, would be phonetically transliterated into "shinreda," and is a combination of the words "shinrei," meaning spirit or soul, and "reda," which is the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "radar"), which allowed people to use mental power to create energy beings from their imaginations (Episode #27), and the Brainwave Deciphering System, which allowed humans to communicate with animals (Episode #40). She had a deep concern regarding the strange mental flashes she experienced with Gel Sadra, allowing both to know where the other was and what they were doing (Episode #'s 26, 38, 42, 4. It is this concern that led to her insisting on accompanying Joe when he went to Dragon Island (#3, and to her sneaking alone into the observatory owned by Richman III (Episode #42). Prior to her appearance on the series, she was married to Domenico Pandora, a robotics technician for the I.S.O.. The couple had a 3-year-old daughter, Sami. Roughly six months before her first appearance, she and her family were on the cruise ship that was sank by Governor X when he returned to Earth, killing Domenico. Dr. Pandora had thought that Sami had perished as well, but as she found out on the one year anniversary of the sinking of the ship, Sami had survived and been changed by Governor X into Gel Sadra. Governor X hoped to use the bond between mother and daughter to sway Dr. Pandora to Gallactor's side. When this didn't work, X had her executed (Episode #50). It was during this same episode that we found out that Dr. Pandora's first name was Silvie. When Dr. Pandora was first introduced, her addition to the series was mentioned as part of articles on Gatchaman II in both the Tatsunoko-produced Tatsunoko Fan Club News and an article in the May, 1979 issue of Animage. The Tatsunoko Fan Club News write-up included a few stats for her that never appeared elsewhere. According to what they printed there, she is approximately 21~23 years of age. She is 168cm tall (5', 6"), and weighs 47kg (104 lbs). Her measurements are Bust: 88cm (34 3/4"), Waist: 58cm (22 3/4"), and Hips: 92cm (35 1/4"). The Animage article featured the following comment from Gatchaman II's Chief Director, Hiroshi Sasagawa: "The original idea for Dr. Pandora, when Part II was announced, a fan in Osaka asked if Dr. Nambu could be given a private secretary. And, rather than simply putting her in, she will be given an important role, even though she appears after two segments have passed. For the establishment of Dr. Pandora, she is a woman with vast knowledge, including speaking many languages, physics, chemistry, as well as medicine and robotic engineering, and even literature and history. She is even supposed to possess extrasensory perception. Her name is taken from one of the foremost female names in Greek mythology. Concerning her face and style, it was decided upon by the entire staff. (Laughs)" The reference to "two segments" having passed is in reference to the production of the series being broken into segments that ran roughly 13 episodes each. Dr. Pandora's appearance in episode #26 (And the end of the Secret Cyborg Joe storyline) marked the beginning of the third segment in the production run. It is thought that the unnamed fan who suggested a private secretary for Nambu was the President of the now-defunct Osaka-based Dr. Nambu Fan Club. That same Animage article also included two images of Dr. Pandora. One of these was an early design image of Pandora wearing the outfit she eventually wore in episode #42, only colored in shades of pink instead of the black and purple it was colored in #42. By the way, you might be interested to know that Miyuki Ueda, the actress who provided the voice for Dr. Pandora, is now married to Isao Sasaki, the voice of Joe, the Condor. The two first met when Ms. Ueda was a guest actress on Gatchaman II, playing Cathy in Gatchaman II #13, and married on February 1, 1981. I hope this helps! James

Wow. So Dr. Pandora was a later addition to the series, when changes were made to extend the storyline. Jun was originally intended to know Joe's secret before any of the others. All these scientific accomplishments and yet Dr. Pandora is no more than 23. And so much else that's here -Thank you, James !!! I just can't get over the fact that "Joe" really did end up happy with "Kathy" of ep. 13 ! (or at least as represented by the actors)

I can just hear it now...Mr. Sasaki sees Ms. Ueada walking down the aisle, gets all misty eyed, and shouts, "KASHIIII!" One more time just for Old Time's sake...LOL (For those of you who haven't heard him in the infamous "Cathy" episode, it sounds like he is wailing, "KASHIII!" in that deep voice of his...) TJ, CD and I were cracking up at it this summer...poor Joe...

Oh, and the KASHIII remark side tracked me...James, that information was impeccable as usual...didn't we say something about posting all of your GURU posts somewhere here? Like in some type of information thread, or something? Cep, was I dreaming?

Thank you for all this information James. This really provides some great information that I had never heard before. You truly are amazing.

Wow, James, that is incredible! Thank you for all of the time you spent putting this together. It is especially interesting to know what the writers were doing, and how they intended the storyline to progress. One thing I really enjoy about Gatchaman II is the progressing storyline, and I appreciate the insight into how that was developed. As for Pandora... wow, only 21-23 years old? Awfully young for a PhD, but I guess she's just brilliant.

James, Thank you so much for spending some time to research on Dr. Pandora, and as usual, all of your information are second to none. Great job! Really think that you should consider to write the Gatchaman lexicon, there should be many other Gatchaman fans who would love to read all of the information that you have provided to us here all this time.

Wow, James thanks for all your great information, especially since I've never seen Dr. Pandora before...

The bit about Jun finding out Joe's secret is interesting--she must have put that together in the episode where they couldn't do the Firebird and Joe uses his body as a conduit. She find out the wires couldn't have met without someone holding them. Once again, thank you James!

Thanks James for providing all of this interesting information. The idea of Pandora really hooking up with Joe has me .

Originally posted by gatchgirl The idea of Pandora really hooking up with Joe has me .

I'm still at Springie's description of the bride coming down the aisle and the groom yelling out 'Kaaaassssshhhhhheeeeeeee'!

Originally posted by Springie I can just hear it now...Mr. Sasaki sees Ms. Ueada walking down the aisle, gets all misty eyed, and shouts, "KASHIIII!" One more time just for Old Time's sake...

OMG! I had almost the same thought, Springie!! Though I was thinking "Did he call her Kath(sh)y during the nuptials??" (I think it took me half the ep to realize Joe really was saying "Kathy!" BTW, has anyone ever counted just how many times he yells her name in that ep???) GREAT info, as usual, James. I think we definitely should put all your wonderful insight in one place around here!

Originally posted by Hinotori GREAT info, as usual, James. I think we definitely should put all your wonderful insight in one place around here!

I think we need a shrine to James. Some kind of altar for James worship. Only, instead of having burnt offerings as sacrifices, we could offer our screenshots and DVDs...

Cloud clutches her DVD's tightly. No way I would give these up, unless he is willing to take offerings of "An officer and a Gentleman and Tron". But I would find a way to offer James screenshots if he wanted them. I suspect he has a good collection of the artist work though.

Hi all!

The bit about Jun finding out Joe's secret is interesting--she must have put that together in the episode where they couldn't do the Firebird and Joe uses his body as a conduit. She find out the wires couldn't have met without someone holding them.

It probably wouldn't have been as a direct result of that episode, since that was episode #9, when they were still building the mystery of how Joe had been changed (Something we know now, but not something that viewers in Japan would have known back in 197. Episode #16, which involved Joe and Jun working together, and Jun seeing Joe do some incredible things (Like single-handedly destroying a Gallactor tank), would have fallen more-or-less into the proper timeframe for her to have discovered his secret, had they followed the original outline through to a 26-episode conclusion. James

Originally posted by Transmute Jun

Originally posted by gatchgirl The idea of Pandora really hooking up with Joe has me .

I'm still at Springie's description of the bride coming down the aisle and the groom yelling out 'Kaaaassssshhhhhheeeeeeee'!

That is a moment. Visualizing it now in my head.