Metamorphosis

"Metamorphosis" is the fifteenth televised episode of the series Gargoyles, and the second episode of Season 2.

• Story Editor: Michael Reaves
• Writers: Brynne Chandler Reaves & Lydia Marano

Tidbits

In the very early plans for the series, the mutated victim was originally to be a scientist in Xanatos' employment who was (due to some behind-the-scenes manipulation by Xanatos) transformed into a feline mutate by one of his own experiments, and afterwards went by the name of Catscan (so called because his eyes could shoot out blasts of radiation). However, after the introduction of Elisa's family in Deadly Force, Greg Weisman realized that it would be even more effective to make the mutated figure Elisa's brother (thus anchoring him more strongly in the main cast), and revised his plans accordingly, changing Catscan into Derek/Talon, and splitting his "scientist" side off to become the separate (and far less ethical) figure of Sevarius.

Brooklyn initially mistakes Maggie for Demona when he first sights her (another allusion to his feud with her that began in Temptation).

Bruno and his team from Awakening serve as Sevarius' security at Gen-U-Tech.

Broadway describes Gen-U-Tech's logo as a "symbol"; since the logo consists of the actual words "Gen-U-Tech" (if written in a stylized fashion), it is tempting to wonder if this is a subtle reference to his illiteracy that would play such an important role in A Lighthouse in the Sea of Time.

Xanatos and Sevarius, during their discussion of Sevarius' plans to "create" gargoyles for Xanatos in front of Derek, mention that they had been unable to clone one; we will discover in Double Jeopardy that they were lying about that.

To save money on voice actors, Fang was voiced by Jonathan Frakes in this episode.

When the episode ran a little short, the production team added in a brief scene at the beginning of the gargoyles awakening, which became one of my favorite "little bits" in Metamorphosis. It is beautifully atmospheric, with small stones raining down from the gargoyles' perch (pieces of their stone skin) on top of a bewildered bystander, and pigeons hurriedly flying away from the clock tower.

Links

• Background Memo
• Greg's Ramble
• Extensive Synopsis and Review

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