- "Five hundred years into the future, she will enter a world where machines rule the Earth. Mankind has been driven underground. And Cleopatra is about to discover...there's no place like home."
- — Series intro, narrated by Gina Torres.
Cleopatra 2525 was a science fiction television series that ran from January 17, 2000 to March 5, 2001. It aired back to back with sibling show Jack of All Trades, to fill the time slot that was made empty when Hercules: The Legendary Journeys finished. After Jack was cancelled, the show was expanded from a 30-minute runtime to a 60-minute runtime, but Cleopatra was cancelled itself after the second season wrapped.
Unfortunately, its cancellation left it on a permanent cliff-hanger, and as of the spring of 2024, no official resolution to the Human-Bailey Unit War which the series chronicled had been known to be published. Any such resolution that might come from fandom, just as unfortunately, had to be considered apocryphal as far as the program went.
Synopsis[]
When complications arise during her breast augmentation surgery in the year 2000, a 20th-century exotic dancer who calls herself Cleopatra (Jennifer Sky) is put into suspended animation. Upon her revival 525 years in the future, Cleo joins two women in their fight against the Baileys, gigantic heavily armed and heavily armored flying machines that now control Earth's surface.
Her team leader, Hel (Gina Torres), is commanded by a mysterious female entity called "The Voice," who relays orders to her by means of a communications implant under Hel's left ear. The Voice controls many other teams and gives them their orders in a similar fashion, in effect forming a resistance to the Baileys, with their ultimate goal being to retake Earth's surface.
Their final team member is Sarge (Victoria Pratt), whose sister belongs to a cult that regards the Baileys with reverence and willingly sacrifices themselves to them.
In the time in which Cleo has awakened, humanity has moved underground and built a complex of elaborate shafts and tunnels created by the "shaft builders" to survive the Bailey menace. Cleo herself (pictured above on the right) wows the 26th century denizens with her philosophical sayings--many of which come from 20th century popular culture. Together, the three women keep hope alive, seek to reclaim Earth for humanity, and look ahead to mankind's rebirth.
[]
- Jennifer Sky as Cleopatra, or "Cleo"
- Gina Torres as Helen, or "Hel"
- Victoria Pratt as Sarge (née Rose)
- Patrick Kake as Mauser (nee Roger)
- Elizabeth Hawthorne providing "The Voice"
- Danielle Cormack as Raina
- Joel Tobeck as Creegan
- Stacey Edgar as Lara
- Stephen Lovatt as Schrager
- Mark Ferguson as Confessor
- Colin Moy as Quint
- Paolo Rotondo as Porter
- Kate Elliot as Lily
Main antagonists[]
Creegan is a brilliant, dangerous and psychotic scientist who lacks any scruples and has a vendetta against the Voice, whom he claims to know. His methods are massively destructive, and he is the team's most frequent enemy. Hel has a personal stake in bringing him to justice, as he is responsible for her family's death. His unusual taste in clothing, such as dressing like an evil-looking circus clown, complete with white face, shows a dangerous psychosis.
However, there is, in fact, a practical reason for the make-up Creegan wears.
His real name is Dr. George Bailey.
He was the creator of the Baileys and the former lover of the Voice. He is still in love with the Voice, but his psyche has completely snapped. Though he did not program the Baileys to betray humanity, he agrees with his creations's logic.
Raina is a dangerous psychic and a former Voice team member. Though she only appears in three episodes, she is considered one of the more memorable villains. Her favorite trick was to make people see friends as enemies and vice versa. The team members disarmed her powers the first time around, but this drove her to come after them again in an effort to regain her powers by having an implant chip imbedded in her brain.
The Bailey Units, themselves, are enormous, heavily weaponized flying robots that have taken over Earth's surface, forcing humans underground. They will usually attack humans on sight. Although most of the underground dwellers assume that they are alien life-forms from another planet, the Bailey Units were actually originally manufactured at the approximate turn of the 22nd century as environmental maintenance robots. Their name comes from Dr. George Bailey, their creator. (See Creegan above.) Cleopatra once developed a psychic connection with a Bailey and tried to use it to the team's advantage.
Betrayers are dangerous robotic enforcers who kidnap people, assimilate their every detail, and then kill them, becoming a perfect clone. They are devoid of emotions and are unrelenting, taking massive damage. Guns are built into their arms, their eyes fire optical blasts, they can regenerate themselves, and they have highly sensitive scanners. They also possess their human counterparts's memories.
Mauser is a Betrayer who has been pacified so as not to be a threat to the team, and he does not use his abilities very often.
Additional remarks[]
In addition to providing the opening narration, Gina Torres (Helen/Hel) also sang the series theme, a version of Dennis Zager's and Rick Evans's "In The Year 2525, or--Exordium And Terminus," with different lyrics that reflected the show's overall synopsis and the quest of the team Cleo joined.
As part of the "Back2Back Action" programming that Universal Television was transmitting in first-run syndication during the two years that marked the turn of the Third Millennium, Cleopatra 2525 was a production of Pacific Renaissance Pictures And Television, the New Zealand-based division of Renaissance Pictures, Samuel Marshall "Sam" Raimi's and Robert Gerald Tapert's production company, for which Richard Joel Stewart was one of the staff writers. Many of Cleopatra 2525's cast members could, with some accuracy, be called "Pacific Renaissance Repertory Actors," for they had previously appeared in such Pacific Renaissance programs as Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and/or Xena: Warrior Princess. The gallery below corroborates this.
