Rainbow the Mummy Hunter is a television program detailing the adventures of Rainbow and his various companions and their endless battles against the forces of darkness. It has been described by some as "Buffy with a Canadian sensibility that only British performers could possibly bring to the screen". While others have compared it to the original Star Trek, but with William Shatner playing all the parts. No matter how you describe it, Rainbow the Mummy Hunter is a show that isn't just seen, it is experienced, some even say that it is lived.

The hero of the story is Rainbow ("Rainbow, just Rainbow, like my scarf") who is played by veteran performer David Tennant. He is a sort of wandering adventurer with a certain roguish charm. It seems that he is some sort of natural weirdness magnet, because supernatural trouble seems to follow him wherever he goes. Luckily his natural cunning and wit usually allow him to vanquish the baddies without even resorting to violence, although he has been know to use a whip ("I've always thought it had a sort of Indiana Jones kind of flair going, never really been into the cowboy bondage aspect of whips"). Rainbow is the Kirk, the Buffy, he is the hero of the show and is larger than life in every way.

The origins of Rainbow are sort of a mystery, he doesn't seem to have any family, and only appears to be in his mid 30s, yet at the same time his knowledge of history is that of a person who lived it, and he seems to have contacts and enemies everywhere. In episode 1-14 ("No Fool Like and Old Fool"), while investigating the haunting of a nursing home he runs into a woman who appears to be a former lover of his, despite the fact that she is easily in her 70s. Rainbow's mysterious background is the inspiration for endless fan fiction, most of which is best avoided.

Rainbow is joined in most of his adventures by Kitty, who was played by Darlene Wood in the pilot and by the lovely Theresa Copperfield in every episode since then. Kitty derives her nickname from the fact that she often wears clothing with cartoon cats on them, and her typical uniform is a black kitty t-shirt along with a green kitty hat. Fans had always assumed that her name was a nickname for "Katherine", but that name has never been used on the show. However during one episode (episode 1-07 "The Tsar's love Triangle") Kitty has a brief run in with her mother (played by her real mother, Martha Copperfield), and in that scene her mother refers to her as "Resa". This has ignited quite an online debate between those who believe that the Kitty character is actually named "Resa" or "Theresa" and others who claim that it was a slip that the director never caught, which is fairly probable since Theresa Copperfield used to sign her autographs as "Resa Copperfield".

Kitty is the character who grounds the show in reality. She is a normal girl of about 20. She doesn't have these non-specific undefined superpowers like Rainbow does, nor has she been fighting ghouls and undead her entire life. She is just a normal girl that got tangled up in things in the first episode and has been with Rainbow ever since (much to the disappointment of her family, who wants her to come back home and finish college). There has been a lot of on screen sexual tension between Rainbow and Kitty, but so far absolutely nothing has come of it. Kitty appears to be a bit more attached to him than he is to her, although as often as not she will stop off to visit her ex-boyfriend whenever they roll through her old hometown. The Rainbow/Kitty relationship has also been the inspiration for hundreds of downright pornographic bits of fan fiction, which should be avoided at all costs. Honestly, you are better off just sticking with the official material, as you can't trust the freelance stories, no matter how good they are.

The only other major recurring character is Abby, who is played by Jennifer Love Hewitt. Abby is Kitty's friend and her usual role is that of researcher, she is seldom shown on screen, and instead is usually only heard on the other side of a cell phone, clicking away on the internet trying to figure out the weaknesses of the latest monster while Kitty is running full speed away from it. Kitty/Abby slash fiction is probably the second most common type of Rainbow fan fiction, really, just stay away from this stuff.

Most episodes have Rainbow and Kitty almost randomly running into one supernatural infestation or another, and then conquering it. The show is largely episodic, although there are some real continuing storylines in the area of the recurring villain "Akhenaten" (who to date has never been shown on screen), and in the evolution of the Kitty character from scared girl into some sort of low-grade superhero. Overall, it is a great show, although some episodes can be kind of repetitive ("Werewolves? It's always werewolves, sometimes I lay awake at night just dreaming of the day I could run into a simple spectre").

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.