Darna (2005 TV series)

Mars Ravelo's Darna
Genre
Based on Mars Ravelo's Darna
Starring Angel Locsin
Opening theme "Di Na Mag-iisa" by Regine Velasquez
Country of origin Philippines
Original language(s) Tagalog
No. of episodes 170
Production
Production location(s) Philippines
Camera setup Multiple-camera setup
Running time 30-40 minutes
Production company(s) GMA Entertainment TV
Release
Original network GMA Network
Picture format 480i (SDTV)
Original release April 4 (2005-04-04) – November 25, 2005 (2005-11-25)
Chronology
Related shows Darna (2009)

Darna is a 2005 Philippine television drama fantasy action series broadcast by GMA Network. The series is based on the Mars Ravelo's fictional character of the same name and a loose adaptation of the 2003 Mars Ravelo's Darna miniseries. It stars Angel Locsin in the title role. It premiered on April 4, 2005 on the network's Telebabad line up. The series concluded on November 25, 2005 with a total of 170 episodes.

Plot

Evil Queen Braguda together with her race the Anomalka attacks the planet of Marte. Surprised by the attack, Adran, Queen of the Adranika, realizes that Braguda is eager to possess the Adranika's powers. To avoid taking their power, Adran gives a white stone to Aio who is tasked to give it to whoever is worthy to inherit it. Aio escapes to Earth before Braguda can destroy the planet Marte. Braguda follows Aio, and when Aio reaches the earth's atmosphere, Braguda disables her spaceship and it crashes while the white stone fall out of the ship where the young Narda discovers it. Aio survives the crash and meets Narda to tell her to keep the stone until the right time comes to receive "the call". After eight years, Aio secretly disguises as an old beggar calls Narda through a telepathic message. The message tells that Narda is the sole inheritor of the power of the Adranika and she will protect the earth from evil. After Narda hears the message, the word "Darna" appears in the white stone and she is instructed to swallow it and yell "Darna". Narda follows the instructions and becomes the superheroine Darna. Darna returns to her mortal state when she utters the word Narda and then the white stone comes out from her mouth.

After Braguda discovers that Narda possesses the white stone, she and her minions try to steal the white stone. Braguda's intention is to combine the power of the magic white stone with her magic black stone so that she can transform the Planet Earth into another "Planet Marte" and mutate all human beings into Anomalkans so that they can survive in the new environment and serve Braguda in her quest for galactic domination. Those servants of Braguda who are sent to fight Darna and cause havoc in Metro Manila include Mambabarang, Dr. Zombie, Sulfura, Nosforamus (resurrected father of Narda) and Valentina the half-sister of Narda whom she once thought was her cousin. However, Narda is able to defend the city against her enemies.

Origin of Narda

Once thought of as the daughter of Totoy and Ising, Narda is really the biological daughter of Mulong's half-sister, Prospera and her true love, Rafael. When Prospera was pregnant with Narda she discovered a space craft that had crashed on her land one fateful evening. As she approached the craft, a dying alien being (an Anomalkan) emerged and transferred its alien seed to Prospera.

The alien fled to Earth in the hope of escaping the massacre of infants that Braguda had ordered on the Planet Marte. Braguda's rampage was in response to a prophecy that predicted her death one day at the hands of a fellow Anomalkan. To try to avoid her fate, Braguda ordered the killing of all Anomalkan infants that could oppose her one day. But one Anomalkan managed to escape the planet Marte and in doing so crash landed on Earth.

To help bring about the fulfillment of the prophecy, the fugitive Anomalkan impregnated the earth female Prospera in the hopes that the blending of their species would create a new breed of Anomalkan: strong and reliant enough to survive in Earth's environment.

Prospera now carried two babies, one completely human (a product of her relationship with Rafael) and the other a monstrous Anomalkan humanoid.

When Prospera gave birth, she discovered her human child to be perfectly normal and was horrified at her alien one. She carried her alien child to the spaceship in the hopes of killing it there but when the child suddenly shapeshifted to resemble a normal child, Prospera took it back home.

When she returned, her normal baby had disappeared (who unknown to her was stolen by Mulong when his wife's own baby died in birth). Prospera planned to name her human child "Valentina" now gave this name to her alien baby.

Origin of the Magic White Stone

Braguda revealed to Valentina the origins of the two stones and the prophecy. The Anomalkans originally owned the two stones which came from two powerful planets that were destroyed when they collided. They were created in the wake of that cosmic event. The first Anomalkan Queen obtained these two stones and passed them on to succeeding generations.[1]

Cast and characters

Angel Locsin portrays Narda.
Alessandra De Rossi portrays Valentina.
Dennis Trillo portrays Efren.
Katrina Halili portrays Carol.
Eddie Garcia (right) portrays Mambabarang.
Christine Reyes portrays Molecula.

Main cast

She envied Narda and never appreciated what was her own, so she tormented Narda from childhood and became the cause of her misfortunes. When she was eaten by the giant snake sent by Braguda for Aio, she and the snake merged turning her to a mutant that could control all kinds of snakes.
An orphaned boy found by Narda's family from the province back when Narda was younger. He was later inadvertently granted the power to shrink at will by Aio but loses these powers at the near end of the series.
The queen of the Anomalkan race of the Planet Marte. She dreamt of the whole galaxy bowing down to her but for that to happen, she must get Darna's white stone and merge it with her black stone.
Black Darna is the result of Darna's cooped up emotions. Before she became Black Darna, she was Carol, Narda's boss at work who is jealous of her. After merging unintentionally with the darker side of the original Darna's essence, Carol later became engulfed in a bizarre cocoon in the middle of the city causing a massive traffic jam. The real Darna encountered the cocoon beforehand and tried to destroy it, but it proved too indestructible even for her strength, forcing her to just let it be as it was not harming anyone in any way at that time, and instead proceeded to thwart a nearby occurring hostile takeover. Black Darna was conceived from the said cocoon shortly afterwards. Having all of the original Darna's strengths and abilities, Black Darna was undeniably one of the most formidable adversaries the heroine had to face; she was also noticeably faster than Darna.

Supporting cast

Narda's best friend.
She was known as Ms. Luna. She has all the known powers of a regular manananggal. She and Darna engaged in a stunning aerial battle where she, due to her lack of legs at the time, was forced to combat against her foe by flapping her wings fast and swung her fists at Darna to knock her into submission, belting at least two on-screen punches at Darna's face (both directly at her cheeks) - she is apparently the first villain shown in the series to ever do so. Having had enough of getting sucker punched time and time again (with her face getting turned into mush), Darna retaliated and Manananggal met her end when the heroine threw a necklace of garlic which caught her in the neck.
Being a dirty beggar, his only friends are his insects. After he died of starvation, Braguda resurrected him as Mambabarang and takes revenge on society by his insects and pests. The creatures that he rule are supernatural in their own way, actually able to pierce through Darna's skin - something that most conventional weapons are incapable of.
Dr. Ted's prominent life took a twisted turn after the death of his beloved wife. A genius in his own right, he invented a concoction to cure his wife from end stage cancer but was too late. Surprisingly this concoction had the power to reanimate the dead - into zombies. He also wielded an assortment of weaponry unique only to himself, as he is apparently the only non-superpowered major foe in the series.
Once a selfish supermodel who mentored Valentina in the modeling business. Due to Valentina now hating her, Valentina's mother put acid on her bath burning her. Braguda then used this and turned her into a villain by putting her into a volcano giving her back her beauty (in a mutant way). As her villain name states, she has the power to fly, spew fire, rock and acid to melt her enemies.
A smart woman who looks like a nerd. She was a rape victim whose body was thrown to a river infected with Braguda's alien parasitic worms. She lived but became a mutant. The people thought she was some kind of new super hero (actually arriving several minutes at the scene before Darna) but received Braguda when people saw her kill her abductors before. Molecula can break herself apart to practically a molecular level, splitting herself to countless, minute molecular parts to gain more mobility and versatility; she could also fling these said particles at targets and trigger a dissolving effect similar to corrosive acid or coagulate instantly.
The right-hand man of Braguda. He is the transformed form of Narda's father who she thought is dead. Nosferamus is also known as the grim reaper; his powers include being able to dissolve into a black mist, summon blasts of dark-red energy, and conjure a lump of molten metal which he flung at Darna's eyes, blinding the superheroine. He died when he sacrificed his life for his daughter.
A mysterious girl with latent mind powers bordering on telekinesis and telepathy. Like Iking, she was orphaned when she, as an infant, accidentally used her powers to cause a tragedy that killed her parents, forcing her to live with her grandfather.
The younger sister of Molecula, who was determined to exact vengeance upon Darna after she what she did to her sister. A member of the Divas Impaktita, the three right hand she-vampires of Valentina. They were created by the black stone, granting them immunity to the sun as well as crosses and crucifixes.
Has the power to scream supersonic screams, screams that could give severe trauma to those within her vicinity. In Darna's case, her own extra-sensitive hearing caused her to become severely disoriented and vulnerable whenever Divina blasted her with her powers, which is how Divina nearly bested the heroine in hand-to-hand combat. Divina Demonica was originally an elderly woman who was a pop sensation during her time as a sensational singer; Anomalkan power gained her the potential to revert her back to her youthful self, but compels her to constantly "extract" voices from other people and absorbing them to keep young. She stores her "spare" voices in bottles until time has come for them.
Has the power to control toys as well as other abilities that border on the realm of magic, allowing him to defy the fabric of reality by summoning corporeal objects out of nothing or generating an irritating sound beating his drum, powerful enough to disorient even Darna. He stole his powers from a gnome.
A young man with artistic talents, along with a "lone-wolf" complex prior to first encountering the superheroine, where he witnessed Narda swallow the white stone and transformed into Darna. Determined to once again meet Darna, he staged a hostage situation where he hired some police officers, a few bystanders, and a man with probably a fake gun to act as the "bad guy" with himself (Daniel) as the hostage. And to top it off, he even hired a camera man to ensure that the scene will be broadcast. The ploy worked, as Darna in her civilian guise saw what was happening on TV, and she quickly arrived on the scene and ordered that the man let go of Daniel. At which point, Daniel, at "gun-point" immediately offered his thanks to his cohorts to call it a day all the men eased up, subsequently confusing Darna. Daniel offered his explanation, much to Darna's chagrin and quickly told the policemen to arrest Daniel to hide her embarrassment, only to learn that they were also in league with the young man. Daniel then proceeded to tel Darna that he only wanted to meet her personally, and this was the only possible means in which he could come up with. Darna decided to teach the lad a lesson by lifting him up and then flying into atmosphere with him in the hoping that he's afraid of heights. Unfortunately, Daniel exhibited fascination than downright fear after being levitated several feet from the ground by the beautiful woman holding a firm grip on his person; so Darna let go of him, and Daniel fell several stories before Darna manages to catch him. Finally Darna was satisfied at Daniel's expression after she saved him from splatting unto the ground. But before she could bid him farewell, Daniel told the superheroine that he knows her secret. Confused, Darna asked what he's talking about, to which Daniel pulled out two pieces of paper; one showing a sketch of Darna, and another showing one of Narda - both of which bore little difference from each other. Realizing what this meant, Darna warned Daniel to leave her alone, but the latter later discovered Darna's civilian identity as Narda and even coerced her into going out on a date with him as Darna, or else he would reveal what he knows to the general public. Blackmailed, Darna later landed on Daniel's place where they engage in an awkward date of sorts in which Darna did most of the talking and Daniel, who was too mesmerized by Darna's beauty, was only registering several words as he beheld the red-and-gold-clad heroine in front of him. He was later ambushed by Valentina with the intention of interrogating him for information regarding Darna's secret identity and died with what he knows undivulged.

Guest cast

Ratings

According to AGB Nielsen Philippines' Mega Manila household television ratings, the pilot episode of Darna earned a 47.1% rating, the highest rating for a pilot episode in Philippine television. The series had its highest rating on April 7, 2005 with a 52.1% rating.

References

  1. ↑ Darna internationalhero.co.uk
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