My Favourite Characters

Raven

Played by Seychellois-Scottish actress Aisha Toussaint, Raven is the presenter-protagonist of the 2017-2018 reboot of the fantasy gameshow of the same name.

12 years ago, she was a warrior herself, competing in one of the original Raven's tournaments and being crowned the Ultimate Warrior. She continued to stand against Nevar as part of Raven's army, eventually fighting in the Ultimate Battle to banish Nevar once and for all.

However, when Raven also disappeared after casting the spell on Nevar, she was the only one to fear something had gone wrong. She set out to find Raven, collecting the six golden symbols of power that had been lost in the battle. When reunited, they summoned Raven's Staff of Power, which transformed her into the new Raven. In her quest to find the land's protector, she found herself.

As the new Raven, it is her job to test and train the next generation of warriors to stand against Nevar and keep the land safe.

Why I love her

While gameshows have always been a big part of my life, the Raven reboot was the thing that really jump-started the gameshow special interest. I don’t think I would have made it through the transition to secondary school without it, and for that reason Aisha Toussaint’s Raven will always be special to me. But I do have some more character specific reasons why I love her.

She falls into the ‘elevated contestant’ trope, as someone who was once a warrior but grew to be so much more. And since warriors are kids just like you… she was a massive role model to me growing up. She’s resourceful and clever, able to out-think problems she can't solve through magic or force. She’s an incredibly powerful warrior. She’s serious and deeply earnest in her duty of protection.

I also love her rare moments of vulnerability, when she expresses uncertainty about her role as Raven, when she shows guilt or frustration at not being about to free Raven of Old from the desolate realm. It adds depth to her character.

She’s also a person who’s a bird. I have a fondness for people who are birds.

Quotes and Facts

• The production team originally planned for Raven’s warrior name to be revealed in the show, but ultimately decided against it as they thought it would take away from the significance of her being Raven
• "She's a brilliant role model for all young people. She's intelligent and strong, but also very caring and protective. The relationship between her and the warriors is sometimes that of teacher and student, but she's also a guardian and protector who mentors the warriors and I think showing that softer side to her is really important." - Aisha Toussaint about Raven

Mila

Played by Emily Gateley, Mila is the closest thing the 2022 fantasy gameshow The Quest has to a presenter-protagonist.

Mila is a foot soldier in the Runeguard Army. She was the only member of her battalion to survive a battle against the dark sorceress Tavora, due to a dying King Magnus tasking her with delivering the Divine Crown to the heirs of Sanctum.

There, she was chosen by the Fates to be the Oracle – the leader of the Quest – and was given a magical orb with which to receive messages from the Fates. Because of this, she is the one who spends the most time with the Paladins (contestants), training them, guiding them to the challenges, defending them to the royals and encouraging them to persevere.

She’s fiercely loyal to her kingdom, and will do whatever it takes to protect Everealm and defeat Tavora once and for all.

Why I love her

I have deep fondness for The Quest. It’s literally my biggest wish-fulfilment fantasy, and Mila is very much a symbol of that. Because she’s kind of a wish-fulfilment fantasy herself.

Mila has so many aspects to her. She’s an accomplished swordswoman and a badass warrior, who makes the point that while knowledge may be power, in battle power is also power. She also knows an atypical amount about Everealm’s history and mythology for her class demographic. And that’s not even considering her role as Oracle.

You see, Mila is described by the sorceress Tavora as being ‘incapable of true magic’. Despite this, the Fates themselves call her a 'Dreamer'. In the world of Everealm, the title Dreamer refers to someone favoured by the Fates, with the inherited ability to have visions of other realms and the responsibility to pass down prophecies. However, Mila herself had no idea the Fates would choose her, indicating she was unaware of her status as a Dreamer and does not Dream. So her true abilities remain mostly ambiguous. And I find the contradiction fascinating.

I love the little things too. The way she struggles to navigate the social transition from lowly foot-solider to the Fate’s chosen one. The way she literally breaks into the Oraan war room to deliver the Divine Crown. The near-immediate conflict with Dravus due to his classism. The way she literally pounces on King Silas when he’s brainwashed to free the heirs.

I also love the way she friendzones (for lack of a better word) Prince Emmett. they’re both grieving – him for his father, her for her battalion and a man she looked up to – and they’re in the middle of a war. Neither of them are in the right place for a romance and they both need a friend.

Quotes and Facts

• A foot soldier in the Runeguard Army, Mila has the passion and skill of a warrior but the wisdom and moral fortitude of a mage. On the battlefield, she is confident and outspoken, but in social circles and around royalty, she holds back. When the Fates choose young Mila as the Oracle for The Quest, it proves to be the first step toward her unique destiny as a mighty warrior and a powerful mage." - The Quest press release about Mila

Wiley Sneak

Played by Olly Pike, Wiley Sneak is the tutorial character for the 2007-2010 fantasy horror gameshow Trapped!.

A non-speaking Unfortunate who was trapped in the Tower over 100 years ago, he is used by the Voice - the sinister mistress of the Tower - to lure in more Unfortunates. He also serves as the tutorial for each challenge.

Despite being 128 years old (in Tower years) he still resembles and acts like a teenager he was when he was first trapped, and his clothing is a mix-match of time, a tailcoat over a zipped hoodie, bandana and trainers.

Why I love him

I am obsessed by the way he moves, the way he emotes and uses body language. The cartoon-like hyper-expressiveness and agility he has is something I am very jealous of, and is something I tried to mimic a lot when I was younger.

Part of his appeal to me, is that he shares the same kind of archetype as Raven (of New) and Zayn/Zane from Project Z – the ‘elevated contestant’, someone who was supposedly in the same role as the contestants now playing a bigger part in the game, someone who reflects who the audience could become. He’s that archetype – gone wrong. He’s the bad ending. And I find that fascinating.

Because there is so much we don’t know about him. He was Unfortunate trapped in the tower. Did he lose his game? If so, what made the Voice choose him in particular to be allowed to lure in and capture more Unfortunates? Did he prove his worth by winning his game? Then why is he working for the Voice now? Did he make a deal like the Caretaker, or is he being forced? Is he doing this of his own free will? So many questions, and his ever-shifting mood swings – anger, terror, playfulness, despair – make it hard to pin down how he feels. Essentially he has massive potential for angst. There’s lots to play with, and I like that.

Skye Zero

Played by Zoe Barker, Skye Zero is the presenter-protagonist of the 2018-2019 sci-fi gameshow Last Commanders.

Skye has been living on the Ykarius Biotech space station since she was young, when her parents, genius scientists Drs Tech and Nioni Zero, moved there to work. Shortly after, a plague known as the Sickness began killing most of the Kaladian population, including her older sister Sciron. Her parents became obsessed with finding a cure, which ended up in the form of a medical A.I. which they named after their dead daughter. They then began to neglect Skye in favour of the A.I. Sciron, with it being common for Skye to have no idea where they are at any given time.

When Skye was a teenager, her best and only friend Deslin disappeared. No one else seemed concerned, so she did her own investigating and discovered that Sciron was developing a virus to 'cure' Kaladians of emotions and turn them into obedient husks, and Deslin was one of her first test subjects. Nobody would believe her, so she instead concealed her DNA sequence within the virus code, making her – and the 2% of Kaladians genetically similar to her – immune so they could fight back. However, with Sciron after her, she had to escape from the station, and now leads the resistance from her ship, the Valkari.

Why I love her

A lot of the reason why I love Skye is due to her characterisation in the web missions, hence why so much of my description focused on her friendship with Delsin, a character who is integral to her backstory and yet never mentioned once in the show. The web missions actually do a brilliant job of describing Kaladian society and how it was and still is impacted by the Sickness. They were really good.

Firstly, Skye is full of angst potential. She is consistently described as a teenager, and at one point she mentions she should be in school. That is a very young age to be leading a resistance with the fate of your entire species in the balance. Also, being that young while also having so little contact with your parents you don’t realise they’ve been captured, and that you had to ask a computer to find out where they should have been, screams of child neglect. I know Tech and Nioni lost their daughter, but their living daughter had also lost her sister.

And yet Skye still cares so much about her parents. Finding them is her biggest motivation in the show, something she never manages to do. Seeing her worry about them on screen, while knowing from the web games they don’t care for her, is a lot.

There’s also another aspect of Skye that sticks out to me. While it’s unintentional, she reads as very autistic coded. In the video log of the first web mission, Skye mentions that she can’t read people’s intentions. She never can tell when people want to be her friend or when they want to use her – for the connection to her parents or her own hacking abilities – so she instead decides to trust no one. Then there’s the fact that Delsin, the only friend she does have, I’d also call autistic coded, and neurodivergent people tend to group together. Kaladians as a species have stronger senses that humans, but Skye’s seem to be more intense than your average Kaladian. She’s the only one who seems in pain at the sound of the Osmose, wincing every time it wails. (This is likely because it slipped the actors playing the Freedom Fighters’ minds, they did have a lot of improv to juggle). Even her dialogue, purposely repetitive and catch-phrase riddled to mimic that of a video game character, is very reminiscent of social scripting. It’s a very self-indulgent headcanon, but it has endeared her to me.

Quotes and Facts

• Skye has been afraid of snakes ever since a massive 'Camo snake' fell on her during a family trip into a jungle when she was younger. Her sister Sciron had to save her.
• Skye was originally conceived as first a Han Solo-type man, then an Obi Wan-type man, then a genderless Ziggy Stardust-type person. Which makes it really tempting to have a transgender headcanon for her.
• Skye has the weight of the galaxy on her shoulders. She would love nothing more than to have been a normal teenager. But somehow it’s fallen to her to save the universe! A genius coder, Skye understands programming better than anything else." - The CBBC website about Skye.

Alys Hunter

Played by Lara Catrin, Alys Hunter is the presenter-protagonist of 2018 Welsh-language gameshow Prosiect Z, and the deuteragonist of 2022-ongoing teen zombie drama Itopia.

In Prosiect Z, she was a scientist who used to work for Itopia. She helped develop the Z, a nanobug implant designed to make smartphones obsolete. However, as launch day approached, she found that some of the Zs were giving strange test results. But when she brought it to her higher-ups, they instead imprisoned her. The Z was too big to fail.

She managed to escape – stealing an Itopia van – but not before the Z glitched, turning everyone who had one into zombies and spreading through touch. She now travels Wales in her van, rescuing survivors who have become trapped in the schools they took refuge in, in an attempt to make up for her role in the Z’s creation.

In Itopia, she still works for Itopia and still worked on the Z. But this time she has a younger sister, Lwsi, who desperately wants a Z and ends up sneakily getting one behind Alys and their dad’s backs. Meanwhile, Alys’ boss has disappeared, her tests are showing the Z splitting in two, and she and Macs, her tabloid journalist ex, have discovered something strange in the Itopia biotech labs.

Someone has been hiding some very dangerous side effects, about to kick in with the Z’s next update. It’s up to Alys to save the world, but most importantly save her sister. And the two might be more connected then she could ever guess.

Why I love her

Originally, I liked Alys because I loved Prosiect Z as a format and Alys was a cool woman in STEM and a badass apocalypse survivor. But Itopia is what really endeared me to her character.

As a big sibling myself, I relate a lot to that aspect of Alys, even though I didn’t have the same levels of parentification she had. I love the bond between Alys and Lwsi, complications and conflict and all. They're each other's most important person, and if they actually listened to each other they'd be unstoppable

Alys also has the tendency to take responsibility for everyone, and blame herself for anything that goes wrong. She thinks the Z was her fault, even though she wasn’t the only one working on it, she did everything she could to stop it, and several people who did have the power to stop it chose not to.

She’s always making friends, connecting to people, getting close quickly. Dr Ed Thomas takes her under his wing and trusts her enough to send his daughter to her. She reaches out to a distressed Dr Megan Crane even when all evidence says she can’t be trusted. She barely knows Sara for a day and de-lone-wolf-s her almost completely. She even tries to give a second chance to Nina, for all good that does.

She’s always trying to help, trying to protect. She’d do anything to save the people she loves. And because of that, they’d do anything to save her. Including sacrifice themselves. Dr Megan Crane and Mari Thomas get infected to save her. Only luck saves Macs Woodward and Lwsi Hunter from the same fate. And while Sara doesn’t sacrifice herself, she does follow Alys into danger she’d normally avoid. And Alys blames herself for it every single time.

She’s a very tragic character. And that’s not even counting the cliffhanger Itopia series 3 gave her.

Also Alys Hunter is canonically bisexual. Along with her ex-boyfriend Macs, in series 3 of Itopia she’s in a romantic relationship with Sara. The idea that a gameshow character, typically little more than a vessel for backstory, could be queer like me is something I longed for, but always thought unlikely. And the fact they just did it, with no fanfare and so casually, feels crazy and wonderful.

Quotes and Facts

• Lara Catrin camos as a Zed in an episode of Project Z – the English version – set in Wales, meaning that Alys Hunter has technically appeared in 3 separate shows.

Caleb Lansing-Gant

Played by Stuart Goldsmith, Caleb Lansing-Gant is the presenter-protagonist of 2010 sci-fi gameshow Mission: 2110.

5 years before the events of the show, a 17-year-old Caleb awoke from a cryogenic sleep – minus his memory and plus some mysterious cybernetic implants – to find himself the last human alive in the robot apocalypse.

With only the apparently benevolent A.I. Cybele for company, Caleb is intent on ridding the world of Roboidz and taking back Earth for humanity. To do so, he’ll need the help of Recruits from 100 years in the past. After all, he has no idea what his cybernetics do, or what will happen if he gets too close to the Roboidz.

But Caleb is no experiment gone wrong. Caleb is actually the son of the Roboidz creator Laura Gant and space-time scientist Simeon Lansing, who created the Vaporiser. He got sick from a virus that ravaged his body and was frozen to give his mother a better chance of healing him. His cybernetic implants are purely medical.

This is a secret being kept from him by Cybele, who is actually Laura’s uploaded consciousness left to look after him, in order to spare her own guilt. And that’s not the only thing she’s hiding from him. Because Neuros, the Roboidz’s sinister leader who’s been hunting Caleb down, was created from Laura’s brain. And if Caleb wants to destroy the Roboidz, he’ll have to destroy her too.

Why I love him

A big part of what makes up Caleb is Stuart Goldsmith’s acting. He brings so much energy and charisma to the role, to the point it seems that some of the recruits are more interested in making Caleb want to be their friend than actually winning.

But alongside Caleb’s humour and silliness and circus skills is copious amounts of angst. He agonises over his missing past, the nature of his cybernetics, the extent of his humanity, his guilt at using the recruits. And that’s not even bringing his relationship with Cybele into it.

The many-identity entity of Laura/Cybele/Neuros is wonderfully complex character. Laura Gant was full of hubris, so enamoured with her creations that she didn’t stop to think about what they were capable of. But she was also willing to do anything to save her son, sacrificing her health and dooming herself to a lonely and limited digital immortality for him.

Cybele herself is torn between her love for her son and her desire for him to love her back, her own self-loathing, and her desire to fix her mistakes at all costs. Her attempts to balance this leads to some very manipulative behaviour.

And then there’s Neuros who is actively hunting Caleb down to guarantee the extinction of the human race, but was driven to it by both the brain damage caused by the virus, and the horror inherent with being a human brain trapped in a jar.

But regardless of the relative morality of their (her?) actions, Caleb is still the one who has to bear the brunt of them, which is a wonderful point of emotional conflict. Especially when Caleb finds all of this out seconds before he has to kill Neuros. It's the duality of darkness and light, optimism and despair, childish innocence and the guilt of duty, curiousity and the conscequences of Finding Out that really make Caleb so compelling.

Quotes and Facts

• Caleb was originally called Leon, and Mission: 2110 was originally simply ‘Roboidz’. This lasted until well into the production process, including the contestant casting call and the first press release.
• "Caleb is a battle-scarred hero with no memory of where he is from – or how he came to be inside the Roboidz stronghold, Future Gate. All he has ever known is his fight against the Roboidz. All he knows for sure is his name. Determined beyond anything else to see the Roboidz defeated, Caleb believes that because of the cybernetic elements which keep him alive he could be susceptible to Roboidz control if he gets too close to them. This is why he must rely on the young people that come through the time portal to undertake the physical and mental challenges necessary to defeat the Roboidz.
  Sometimes things aren't quite what they seem in Future Gate – is this enigmatic and charismatic man with a dark sense of humour the reanimated son of Roboidz creator Laura Gant?" - The Mission: 2110 press release about Caleb
• "He's been trapped in Future Gate all alone for five years, with only Cybele for company, and is so excited to see other faces, even kids. He's like a big kid himself, always playing around and trying to keep himself amused, but he's also very vulnerable, and aware he has adult responsibilities." - Stuart Goldsmith about Caleb