Harley Harris

Harley Harris - Single Parent of the Year?

Hunter's father appears in only one episode of Eagle Riders, namely Abduction and Return. This is a translation of Gatchaman 2 episode 14, "Red Impulse from Space", which includes original footage from Gatchaman ep 53 (the one where Red Impulse pilots a missile to push the Van Allen radiation belt back into position, and Ken finds out that Red Impulse is actually his father thirty seconds before he dies). This footage is also in BOTP and G-Force and gives a very interesting comparison of the writing, voice direction and voice acting skills used in the english dubs. But that's a whole different essay...

The story of the the death of G1's father is told in flashbacks as follows:

The Vorak have created a radiation band around the Earth. Harley Harris is going to pilot a cluster bomb to a specific point in that radiation band to disperse it. Hunter, naturally, doesn't want him to go. In the characters' own words...
(G1 = Hunter Harris, RI = Harley Harris; HH and HH just wouldn't have worked :-) )

[scene starts with RI at the base of the steps to the missile, whirling G1 around his head and throwing him across the floor.]
G1 - No father you can't do this.
RI - I'm sorry about this son. There's only one way to destroy that radiation band. I can pilot the missile. It's my job.
G1 - Dad let me help you.
RI - You can help me by understanding.
G1 - No dad I don't understand, please.
RI - You'll make a fine soldier son, you're brave and you're smart.
G1 - No father don't leave me, come back.
RI - Goodbye son, I love you. [walks up steps]
G1 - You won't make it.

RI [inside the missile rocketing upwards] Though I now give my life to defend the global good, I do so willingly and with pride. But my final thoughts are with Hunter, and how lucky I was to have him as a son. Farewell.

G1 [watching sky from base] Vorak, you destroyed my father!

G1 [after flashback finishes] That was the longest day of my life. The idea of sacrifice was no longer glamorous. The planet was saved but my world had just blown away.

During a second flashback the dialogue changes slightly, but it's more or less the same.

Then follows a third flashback. At the beginning and end of this sequence, Hunter is talking to a Major Benton, who came out of the flying saucer at the beginning of the episode after going missing a month or so earlier, presumed dead but abducted. It is Major Benton who has been the source of the information that Harley Harris is still alive and on the flying saucer, but has amnesia.

G1 - We had some tough times during my training to be the leader of the Eagle Riders. He meant well, he was trying to be protective. It was after the Eagle Riders finished training. We thought we were finally going on our first combat assignment but when we got to the base we got a rude awakening.
[Flashback, the entire team and RI are present standing below the missile. Following the actual timeline, this happens right before the scene above where RI twirls G1 around his head]
RI - You'll provide support from here.
G1 - That doesn't make any sense, we've been trained to be professional pilots.
RI - That may be true but you're not ready to fight the Vorak.
G1 - I beg your pardon Commander but how can you be sure when we haven't been given a chance to prove ourselves.
RI - You're questioning my judgement.
G1 - You bet. [grabs RI by the lapels] We came here to defend the planet and no fat-head's gonna dismiss us.
G3 - Hunter stop, we still have to follow military protocol.
G1 - Not if it's a personal problem.
RI - You shouldn't be here.
G1 - But we're ready to fly.
[RI lifts visor so G1 can see face]
G1 - What? [G1's eyes widen in realisation] You've been the reason we aren't getting any missions. G3 - He never intended for us to fight.
G5 - All this time he's been extending our training, keeping us from going into battle.
G1 - I'm sorry... but father, you taught me about duty.
RI - Yes, but I never thought you would dedicate your life to the cause.
G1 - I understand father, I understand everything now. Since mother died, you've been all alone and worried about me.
RI - Yes. I loved your mother very much and you represent her hopes and dreams. She'd be so proud of you. [weeping waterfalls] Son, if something happened to you I'd have nothing to live for. Forgive me, I couldn't put you in harm's way.
[RI walks towards the steps which lead up into the missile, the first scene would have followed on directly from this.]

G1 [after flashback] He gave up everything for me. He was really something. He's the person who's had the most impact of anyone in my life. I think about him almost every day. I'd give up my life for his.

It seems that Hunter and his father had a close relationship. Unique among all the G1s, he knows who his father is and what he does. Ken and Ace Goodheart believe that their father is alive somewhere and have an idealised idea of what he should be like, but largely dislike the attitude and interference of their real father (since they don't know him) when he comes along to help. Mark's relationship with Colonel Cronus is more of a friendship, but he also does not know that the man is his father until he's just about to die.

This episode also tells us that Hunter's mother died while he was a child but no information about age or cause of death.

The dialogue suggests their relationship had become strained during training, understandable since Harley does not want his son to be doing a dangerous job and Hunter is impatient to be out saving the world. One wonders why he was training his son in the first place if he didn't think he would dedicate his life to it. But it is also clear that Hunter thinks his father was a good parent. He also shows greater consideration for Major Benton when he discovers that he is also a single father, promising to personally fly him home to visit his son as soon as possible, showing that he remembers the value of his own relationship with his father and also how much he wants to see him again.

In the original Gatchaman 2 episode, Red Impulse is the pilot of the alien spacecraft. Given the distant relationship between Red Impulse and Ken, it doesn't seem ridiculous that Red Impulse wouldn't get out to see his son. However, this doesn't work for loving father Harley Harris so in the Eagle Riders version of the story, Harley has amnesia and is merely looking out of one of the windows.

We know from the beginning of the series that the Eagle Riders are in their second active term of duty after previously defeating the Vorak. This episode suggests that *if* their previous adventures followed the lines of original Gatchaman, that their first mission would have been eg 54, "Gatchaman Burns with Rage", and that Red Impulse's team would have been the heroes before that. It's an interesting parallel universe :-) However, there is nothing in Eagle Riders to suggest that their first term of duty followed the story line of Gatchaman.