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Category:CITV Shows Category:Mentorn Category:Rescue Robots Category:Pinewood Category:CITV Rescue Robots Logo.png in 2003. It was presented by Anna Williamson, with commentary by Eddie Matthews. 15 episodes were planned/produced however only 7 of them were ever aired.

The show was based on an original idea by Adam Clark, creator of the robot 259 which featured on Robot Wars.

The set was one of the biggest ever built for a children's show, which included urban and industrial landscapes, countryside, lakes and rivers.

It was broadcast every Friday on ITV/CITV at 16:00 between August 25 and September 12 2003.

Series Conception
The series was based on an idea by Adam Clark, a Robot Wars contestant for the first 6 series and web consultant for the official Robot Wars website. Clark came up with the idea of a series based around robots exploring, rather than fighting each other.

Episode Format
Each episode featured teams of four children operating three robots best suited for the challenge. Three contestants would operate a robot of their own while the fourth contestant would act as commander. The commander would utilize each robot's onboard cameras as well as a satellite view to help them direct their team. The teams had to battle against the clock in a mission to save Calamity City from disaster, whether its combating forest fires, recovering a crashed satellite or preventing nuclear meltdown.

Following the introduction sequence, Anna would welcome viewers to the Rescue Robots Command Centre where she would briefly mention the nature of today's disaster. Then all members of the episode's rapid response unit would be introduced by Anna in a roll call fashion - where she would state their name, age and their rescue skills. Next, Anna would explain to the team the nature of today's disaster and the implications if they were to fail. Then three or four initial stages would be highlighted, outlining the main objectives of the mission. This was then followed by introducing three out of five robots that will be used in today's mission.

If the team succeeded in accomplishing their mission, each member would be presented with a medal from Anna. Then each member would receive their A.C.E score, which measured their ability, communication and effort. The one with the highest A.C.E score would receive the title of "Highly Commended".

Anna would then conclude the episode, prompting viewers to tune in next time for the next episode. Every episode would end with Anna uttering the phrase, "Until then, stay vigilant". The next episode's trailer would play during the end credit sequence, with Eddie Matthews providing one final narration.

Robots
The five Rescue Robot vehicles were designed by Chris Reynolds who also worked on Robot Wars. Each robot was built using off-the-shelf, off-road chassis. While the robots were built to a scale of 1:8, the set was built to a scale of 1:10 - this would make the robots more imposing on-set.

Calamity City
The show was set in the fictional town of Calamity City, which was made up of 5 unique areas.


 * The Industrial Zone
 * The City
 * The Desert
 * Forest of Fear
 * Mountain Pass

The set measured 80 square metres, making it the largest miniature city ever built for a children's show. Calamity City was built to a scale of 1:100 and it was reported that 200 tonnes of earth was used to sculp the landscape.

Cancelled
Sometime in September, further episodes of Rescue Robots came to an end. It is unclear why the series came to an abrupt end, being last listed in television guides for broadcast on September 12 2003. The series' end may be the result of ITV's children department closing down around this time. However, it is still unconfirmed if the eighth episode was broadcast at all. The eighth episode was set during a thunderstorm which had damaged the city's transmitter tower. It would have been up to Transporter, Talon and Muscles to repair the tower while negotiating the dangerous mountain pass.

It was hoped that 15 more episodes would have been produced if a second series got the green light. Subsequent series would have featured brand new worlds for the Rescue Robots to explore. Polar, desert and tropical landscapes were suggested.

Episodes
It is unconfirmed if all 15 episodes of Rescue Robots were produced, only 7 of them were confirmed to ever have been broadcast. TV guides from the time indicate only that Rescue Robots aired for 8 weeks from July 25 to September 12. Currently, there are only four known episodes that are available to watch online. Part of episode 1, "Forest Fire", was found in a showreel for Anna Williamson from 2008 - this is the only footage of the episode that exists online.

Trivia

 * Ranger was originally named Scout during pre-production.
 * Contestants would only have 30 minutes prior to shooting to became acquainted with their vehicle's controls.