Tracker
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This is Cirron, my home. One of six planets in the Migar Federation. There was a prison break. Two hundred eighteen of the most violent fugitives have disappeared into the city of Chicago. Finding them won't be easy. They aren't human. Fortunately for Earth, neither am I.
—Cole, Tracker opening narration.
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A syndicated sci-fi series that aired during the 2000–01 U.S. TV season. Tracker centered on an extraterrestrial bounty hunter named Daggon, known as Cole on Earth, who was sent to find and capture 218 alien fugitives hiding in human bodies in the city of Chicago. He is found soon after his arrival by Mel Porter, owner of a Chicago bar called the Watchfire, and she quickly begins aiding Cole in his quest. Over the course of the series, they form a close friendship and discover secrets about Mel and her family. Other characters include Cole's nemesis, Zin; Mel's on-again off-again boyfriend, Detective Vic Bruno, and Mel's best friend, Jess.
Tropes used in Tracker include:
- Absolute Cleavage: Both Mel and Jess at times
- Actor Allusion: Cole wields a katana to escape an underground museum vault, an obvious nod to Adrian Paul's Highlander series.
- Adorkable: Cole at times.
- Agony Beam: Mostly alluded to. Cole says he can make the collection process very painful.
- Alien Autopsy: Cole almost ends up the subject of one.
- Alien Among Us
- Area 51
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Cirronians don't sleep.
- California Doubling: Toronto for Chicago, in this case.
- Chameleon Camouflage: Nestov and other Dessarians. They can both blend into any environment in a more general sense and literally disappear into the background of it.
- Chekhov's Gun: The key
- Cloudcuckoolander: Played with, as both Cole and a fugitive pretend to be these in "Long Road Home".
- Cop Boyfriend: Mel and Vic in backstory.
- Crusading Widower: Cole
- Disappeared Dad: Mel's dad; Word of God says he died in a boating accident.
- Doomsday Device: The Strada Brac
- Energy Beings: Cole for sure, and possibly the others as well.
- Exposed Extraterrestrials: Cole, for much of the first episode.
- Evil Overlord: Zin
- Fanservice: Cole,in the striptease scene.
- Fantastic Drug: The Enixian eye drops drug
- Fantastic Fighting Style
- Frickin' Laser Beams: Cole uses one in the beginning of "Trust".
- Friend on the Force: Vic
- Half-Human Hybrid: Or one quarter, in Mel's case.
- Healing Factor: Cole can heal injuries.
- Hell Hound: Mederan, in his scary monster dog form.
- Hey, It's That Guy!: Cole is played by Adrian Paul, of Highlander fame.
- Zin is played by Geraint Wyn Davies, of Forever Knight fame
- Rhee, in the first episode, was played by professional wrestler Chyna.
- Hyperspeed Ambush: Cole
- Hyperspeed Escape: Cole, again
- Impersonating an Officer: Cole and Mel, at least once.
- Innocent Aliens: Cole.
- Jack the Ripoff: Sudor, in "Fever of the Hunt"
- Kryptonite Factor: Lodestone and cold both cause problems for Cole.
- Life Energy: Cole collects the fugitives' life forces in his collector device.
- The Mafia: "A Made Guy".
- Mate or Die: Tev.
- Meat Puppet: The human bodies the fugitives took over
- Mind Over Matter: The Vardians, like Zin, have limited telekinetic abilities.
- The Mole: Nestov
- Monster of the Week
- Ms. Fanservice: Jess and Mel
- Murder.Com
- Named After Their Planet: All of the races
- Oh Crap: Nestove has a big one right after Mel discovers her heritage secret. Cole tosses her the collection device and she uses it on a fugitive, much to the shock of Nestov, whom she's always threatening to hurt anyway for hitting on her.
- Our Wormholes Are Different
- Puppeteer Parasite: The fugitives, though the human host died when they moved in.
- Right-Hand Attack Dog: Mederan, literally. He was Zin's bodyguard stuck in a dog's body.
- Roswell That Ends Well
- Scarily Competent Tracker: Naturally.
- An episode involved an elderly Native American man with whom Cole feels kinship, claiming they're both trackers (the man is able to read trails in the woods like a book). The man is looking for his son's killer, who turns out to be one of the alien fugitives.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Zin, by the end of the series. Also the fugitives after they were captured.
- Sufficiently Advanced Aliens: All of the species, really.
- Super Senses
- Techno Wizard: Cole
- The Sleepless: Cole, and any other Cirronian.
- Time Stands Still: When Cole enter hyperspeed, everything else appears to be frozen in place. In one episode, Cole uses this to fake Mel's ex-boyfriend's death (by first taking his form) when a mobster tries to shoot him in the back of the head. He enters hyperspeed at the moment of the gunshot, moves his head, waits for the bullet to slowly pass, puts the head back to where it was, and resumes normal speed. He then falls off the pier to complete the illusion.
- In another episode, Zin's people manage to develop a device that allows anyone to do the same. In fact, the device (in the form of a small orb) is better, as it takes only minutes to recharge, while Cole needs a whole day.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Cole, in "Remember When"
- Twin Telepathy: Orsians
- Undercover As Lovers: "Love Cirronian Style"
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: All over the place with Mel and Cole
- Useless Superpowers: Cole is rendered powerless by an energy weapon in "What Lies Beneath".
- Voluntary Shapeshifting
- Witness Protection: Mel's ex-boyfriend Rod.