 This article is about a monster in Power Rangers Zeo .
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- "Hey, this is a PRIVATE slumber party!"
- ―Somnibot speaking to the Gold Ranger after her singing was interrupted by him.[src]
Somnibot is a female lullaby-singing, sleep-themed monster, created by Klank & Orbus on Mondo's suggestion, whose sleep-inducing power enabled her to put both human and machine into a deep sleep (the type of sleep that Snow White and Princess Aurora would fall into) by the hypnotic power of her singing; she uses a music- and brainwave-based hypnotic spell that both tires and weakens her victims (even herself), putting them into a deep sleep. She even attempted to place the Gold Ranger under the power of her lullaby and put him to sleep as well. She was first defeated in her battle with the Gold Ranger at a riverbank near Angel Grove. To protect themselves from being affected by the sleeping spell, Klank & Orbus both wear acoustic, spell-resistant headphones/earmuffs at one point. Her powers could not only work on humans but also fellow robots, as several Cogs become affected by her song twice during the episode, beginning to fall into a deep and peaceful sleep. Even she, too, can fall under her spell's power.
Somnibot speaks and sings with a very childlike-sounding voice similar to Prince Sprocket's and Notacon's. However, her spell is similar to Beamcaster's as well, as it involves the transmission of powerful energy waves (delta waves in her case) to initiate the hypnotic effects of sleep.
In both of her forms, her primary method of attack is to induce sleep; an especially deep slumber that can be experienced by both humans and machines alike. She does this by singing a lullaby, while her eyes glow brightly like twinkling stars, intending to mesmerize and lull her opponents into sleepiness. As she sings, her eyes glow and her hands emit a twinkling, powderlike substance that appears red or violet (depending on which footage is used). Her victims are then hit by the twinkle dust and briefly glow in that color. Her victims would then fall asleep and then possibly experience very sweet and peaceful dreams (albeit against their will), but she was destroyed by the Zeo Ultrazord before they could be seen. If she could not be stopped, according to Zordon, her powers could leave behind what he called "permanent damage", meaning that most likely she would have used her powers to kill some of her victims just as her Sentai counterpart did.
When Zordon was briefing the Rangers on Somnibot, Rocky mused that her spell (and in effect, her singing and presence itself) sounded like a good idea right then, as the Rangers were sleepy from overwork at the time and needed some rest. She is also described by Zordon as "King Mondo's latest creation" when he is briefing the Rangers on her.
As seen with her second form, Somnibot feeds on massive charges of electricity.
In her first form, she wears a large pink nightcap with white trim on her head and her voice is rather yawn-heavy on occasion, as if her singing puts her to sleep as well. True to her motif, she also makes various sleep- and bedtime-related puns and metaphors in her first form as well, specifically during her battle with the Gold Ranger at the riverbank, making her quite punny. In her second form, however, her puns become a little more dark and sinister. As explained, in her first form she is very narcoleptic. Overall, she has a very adorable-looking appearance in her primary form, resembling a cute cartoon robot.
After her initial defeat, she returns with a giant, megaphone-shaped speaker where her face used to be, losing her cute, cartoony appearance. Even the Gold Ranger is no match for her powered-up sleeping spell and her attitude is much nastier, her characteristic sleepiness and sweet-looking nature entirely gone. Later when she grows huge, she is destroyed by the Zeo Ultrazord but not before arrogantly claiming herself to be invincible. Queen Machina later fretted over Somnibot's destruction, though her husband was asleep at the time. 
TV STORY-Rock-A-Bye Power Rangers
Somnibot was later seen as an audience member in Prince Gasket's Machine Arena. It is unexplained how she got revived from the Zeo Ultrazord finisher, but she was resurrected from the assault with no permanent injury. TV STORY-King for a Day She has not been seen since. She was not seen among the monsters in King Mondo's monster army, leaving her final fate unconfirmed, but it can be assumed that she was destroyed by Zordon's Energy Wave because, despite her docile and harmless initial appearance, she had used her sleep induction abilities only for evil. TV STORY-Countdown to Destruction
Character History
Somnibot was created when King Mondo and his wife Queen Machina were impressed that their plan to wear out the Rangers (with two weeks worth of Cog attacks) was working. Mondo asked Klank and Orbus to assemble her as a way to finally finish the job and, the following afternoon, she was presented to the Gadgetry Family. Mondo asked Klank to ask a Quadrafighter pilot to send her to Earth to begin singing her cradle song to the citizens of Angel Grove, which she agreed to before boarding her flight.
Somnibot begins to fall under the power of her own spell, and she yawns.
While flying to Earth on the back of a Quadrafighter, Somnibot decided to practice using her spell. She sang the lullaby "Rock-a-Bye Baby" as a way to practice using her spell, which caused the pilot to almost fall asleep. Realizing this, she woke him back up and told him not to fall asleep at the wheel, but she herself began to fall under her spell's effects, telling the pilot to wake her when they got to Angel Grove.
When she arrived at the park, several citizens were about to run away, but she cast her spell and put them to sleep with her song. She briefly boasted about her spell's strength before laughing.
Later, she, Klank and Orbus were at a riverbank outside of the city, along with several Cogs. After the Cogs and the Rangers engaged in battle for a few moments, Klank gave Somnibot her cue to sing. She began casting her sleeping spell, her eyes and hands glowing violet as she sang her cradle song to put the Rangers and Cogs to sleep. After a prolonged period of time, the Gold Ranger showed up to stop her. Somni unleashed her pink energy projectiles at the Ranger, but he attacked her with one of his own; "No!", she shouted, and she was blasted apart.
Machina fretted over her destruction, and Mondo ordered Klank to not only rebuild her, but boost her power. Thus, her spell was amplified to a more powerful state than before. She used it on Bulk and Skull when they were arresting a burglar (who also was subjected to her spell) and then on the Rangers when they arrived at the parking lot to confront her. The Gold Ranger arrived to fight her, but Somnibot used her spell on him as well. After a prolonged period of time, she was finally shorted out by a power surge initiated by Alpha 5; her spell, to her anger, was broken and her frequency was terminated. This presumably woke up everyone that she had placed under her spell. Declaring that she can stop the Rangers even without her spell, Klank summoned the Cogs to aid her in fighting the Rangers. After a bit, the Rangers fired on her with the Zeo Cannon. Klank flew Orbus to her, and he re-energized her and made her grow. This forced the Rangers to summon the Zeo Megazord. It is discovered that not only did Somnibot herself grow, but also her arrogance did as well. After the Rangers beat her around for a bit, they call forth Pyramidas (after another bedtime-based metaphor) and form the Zeo Ultrazord. Unimpressed with their "fancy contraption", she declared herself to be invincible before laughing again. But she is proven wrong, and with a cry of surprise the Rangers fire on her, destroying her.
She later appeared in Prince Gasket's Machine Arena, none the worse for wear and back in her original nightcap-wearing form. She is not among the monsters that receives the Neo-Plutonium Armor, however.
Personality
Unlike other monsters that have come before her and since (with the exception of Waspicable), Somnibot's personality is very childlike, playful and yet despite her sweet-natured appearance she is pretty deceptive in her first form, due to the fact that she has a very nurturing, non-threatening initial appearance and sleep-based powers. However, she was putting people to sleep (and sending them to the Dream World) against their will, which is wrong and she clearly didn't care given her enthusiasm on continuing to do so. In her second form, however, she is far more sinister and overconfident after she has been given a power boost and an upgrade to her appearance. In both forms, she is very dedicated to her mission of singing the Rangers to sleep. She also is very proud of her singing ability, though she understands whether or not to sing and cast her spell (as she almost put a Quadrafighter pilot to sleep, which would have spelled disaster for her). However, her confidence got the best of her when she arrogantly declared to the Rangers that she was invincible before getting destroyed by the Zeo Ultrazord, which she called a "fancy contraption". To this end, she takes her power very seriously and isn't above boasting about her spell's powerful nature, proclaiming "This is too easy!" and laughing wickedly when she puts several Angel Grove citizens to sleep against their will in Angel Grove Park. When her spell is finally stopped, she is not at all distraught, wanting to take on the Rangers directly "with her own powers" despite her being rendered powerless due to her frequency being terminated and her power broken. Her hubris proved to be her literal undoing when she is destroyed by the Zeo Ultrazord.
She is also quite punny, making various sleep- and bedtime-related puns and metaphors in both of her forms (most monsters built on a certain "theme" tend to make many puns and metaphors, and she is no exception).
Modus and Arsenal
Modus operandi
Somnibot singing while she spreads her twinkle dust, her eyes glowing the same color.
Somnibot singing her lullaby and casting her spell.
Somnibot's powers are based on music and song, specifically the singing of lullabies. Her main ability is possessing a singing voice that makes anyone, whether organic or machine, fall asleep upon hearing her cradle song - similar to how the Sirens of Greek mythology used their beautiful singing to lure sailors and their crew to their doom. In other words, her powers are essentially based on song. However, Zordon states that the main source of her powers is her delta wave frequency (which somehow matches that of the human brain), which must be altered in order for the spell to be broken. Her singing just serves as the incantation and as a method of focusing the delta waves to her victims, and thus has the power to control a human's or robot's circadian rhythm and delta waves, creating the intended effect of falling asleep during the daytime. Her singing appears to harmonize with the delta waves (the pink energy and twinkle dust that she spreads) to force relaxation and sleep on her victims. Her lullaby singing and twinkle dust spreading is keyed solely toward that purpose, and her glowing eyes serve as a fixation point. However, even she too can fall under her spell's power, as she yawns and tells the Quadrafighter pilot to awaken her once they get to Angel Grove, taking a short power nap.
Despite her cartoony appearance and gentle, childlike voice, her powers make her a hazardous threat, especially on moving vehicles like cars, buses and trucks, and on planes and trains too.
The Rangers' Zeo power frequencies, which somehow match hers, are said by Alpha to have been altered by him (prior to them morphing and teleporting to the riverbank) to protect them from her spell, but the spell is so strong that little can be done to stop the Rangers from going to the dream world. The Power Chamber's computer systems also apparently cannot pick up her song's amplitude when she is casting her sleeping spell, as this is mentioned twice by Alpha and Billy. Thus, Billy and Alpha are unaffected by Somnibot's singing. Her power and abilities change and evolve as she goes through multiple forms:
- In her first and most recognized form, she sings and hums the lullaby "Rock-a-Bye Baby" (or a song to the lullaby's melody, as is the case with the Rangers), making anyone within a short range fall asleep and are drained of their energy while hearing it; this form affects the Zeo Rangers, several civilians and several Cogs. She can also fire pink energy spheres from her mouth as projectiles. Her eyes glow a brilliant red to violet when she sings, her eyes resembling twinkling stars. Her victims also glow as well, being drained of their energy as they slowly fall asleep. She also waves her arms as well, sending a blanket of warm, red to violet energy and sparkling twinkle dust (resembling red to violet beams of twinkling starlight) that spreads over her soon-to-be-dreaming victims, specifically the Rangers.
- In her final form, granted to her by Klank after being blasted apart by the Gold Ranger, her head has become megaphone-shaped and her sleeping spell is much stronger than before, to the point where her victims glow white instead of red or violet as they are being drained of their life force. Her body is now a stronger golden color as her way of mocking the one who blasted her apart. She finally gets shorted out by a power surge courtesy of Alpha 5, terminating her delta wave frequency, stopping her concert and returning the Rangers' energy to them. Before the shortout, the spell is powerful enough to even affect the Gold Ranger. She stops singing after a short while, however.
Arsenal
- Her Voice: Somnibot's singing voice seems to possess magical abilities. She primarily uses her voice in song to put people and other robots to sleep. Her primary lullaby is "Rock-a-Bye Baby" and she often sings to the song's melody. Somnibot's singing is a talent that she utilizes as part of her spell.
- Twinkle Dust and Energy Waves: In addition to her singing, Somnibot has the ability to entrance anyone into a deep slumber, using the red to violet twinkle dust and energy waves that are emitted from her hands. She uses both of these things in tandem for her spell to work correctly (when she is in both forms), though she seems to struggle a bit in her second form as it took a bit longer for her to put Bulk to sleep. Her twinkle dust is also now colored white, like that of the brightest stars in the night sky.
- Her Frequency: According to Zordon, the main source of Somnibot's powers is her brainwave frequency, which can work on both humans and machines alike. It must be altered or terminated, according to him, in order for her to be defeated. However, the actual number of this frequency is not stated outright. Hilariously, she too is not immune to her frequency, as she yawns and tells the pilot to wake her later.
- Energy Balls: Somnibot has no tangible (i.e.: she can hold them in her hand) weapons. However, she can fire concentrated pink energy spheres from her mouth (in rapid succession) as projectiles to attack her opponents, similar to Pineoctopus's attack. This same attack is utilized by Digster as well, only they shoot out of the gatling gun located on his right shoulder.
Behind the Scenes
Etymology
- Her name comes from the Roman Latin word somnus, which means "sleep, drowsiness". She is thus named after the Roman god of sleep, Somnus.
Portrayal
- Somnibot is voiced by Barbara Goodson, both singing and speaking. She is suit-acted by an uncredited suit performer in the original PR footage.
Barbara would later use Somnibot's exact voice as the voice of Notacon in Trip Takes a Stand.
Notes
- Bara Gūsuka, Somnibot's Japanese counterpart, was originally male (voiced by a female, veteran voice actress Kazue Takahashi), but she herself was changed to female (albeit her voice sounding a bit like Prince Sprocket's on occasion, due to Barbara Goodson providing her singing and speaking voices). However, King Mondo accidentally refers to Somnibot as male when he orders Klank and Orbus to reassemble her and boost her special powers (most likely due to confusion on David Stenstrom's part, as he and the other voice actors likely watched the Ohranger episode before going into the recording room to do the ADR dubbing). This makes her a part of the somewhat extended list of Power Ranger characters (usually monsters) that were gender-swapped from their respective/original Sentai Series counterparts, such as Flame Head, Photomare, Wedding Dress Org, Octoplant, Somnibot herself, Florabundacus and Crazar among others.
- It's most likely because Bara Gūsuka speaks and sings with a voice that sounds like a young girl and that he wears a pink sleeping cap that Saban opted to change the monster's gender when the episode was being produced.
- Somnibot also had a second form before her megaphone speaker face - a windup version of herself (complete with winding key) combined with two phonograph horns on top of her head (to project her singing towards longer distances), a computer module on her stomach (likely to check the equivalent to her vitals) and a baby doll taped to her back. This form was never shown due to time constraints and problems with the source footage, as there were too many Japanese people in the footage and that said footage showed pileups, car accidents and mass deaths (even a gas station exploding), which is against Saban Entertainment's rule of never showing or even mentioning death in PR. The form she would have taken would have made her resemble a cute wind-up toy robot or a music box.
- According to the 1996 TV Guide magazine (when Zeo was under development), Somnibot's name was originally going to be Slumber before the production team decided to change it to her current name.
- Somnibot's name comes from the Latin prefix somni- and the second part of the word robot. It actually makes sense due to what she is based on, as well as what her abilities are.
- In some respects, she resembles the Sandman, as the Sandman puts people to sleep and sprinkles sand on their eyes, but Somnibot includes a lullaby into this while the Sandman doesn't sing.
- Somnibot reappears as an audience member in King for a Day, having reverted to her sleeping cap-wearing first form. However, her voice is drowned out by the loud cheers of her fellow monsters. Somnibot can be seen when Tommy is about to fight Jason, after saying "starting for you, Gold Ranger". She has not been seen or heard from since.
- Barbara Goodson, Somnibot's American voice actress, was uncredited in the episode.
- Somnibot's eyelids are articulated—that is, they can open and close. She opens her eyes really wide when she fires her pink energy orbs at the Gold Ranger.
- Her mouth, however, is not articulated despite her ability to sing. Several shots of her face reveal that several versions of it were constructed showing her mouth open at different points.
- In Mondo's Last Stand, she was described as one of King Mondo's finest monsters. However, her counterpart in Ohranger was deemed "lazy" and "worthless" and ordered to be sentenced to death for making the entire Royal Family fall asleep.
- Somnibot's pink nightcap is in a different position on her head in American footage than in the Ohranger footage.
- The lullaby that Somnibot sings throughout her episode is Rock-a-bye Baby, a lullaby with, according to theory, possible origins during the colonial period of North America. However, Mondo implies that Somnibot could sing other cradle songs as well. Brahms' Lullaby, for example, is played in the musical score after she puts Bulk, Skull and a burglar to sleep.
- The lyrics to Somnibot's cradle song to the Rangers go like this:
- Rock-a-bye, Rangers, in the treetops
- When the wind blows, the cradle will rock
- When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall
- And down will come, Rangers, powers and all
Later, she sings more lyrics when she is given her upgrade. They go like this:
- Say good night, Rangers, time to go flop
- I will keep singing until you drop
Somnibot's body (minus her hands, head spikes and feet) was auctioned at the ABC Monster auction for well over $400. As it turns out, her costume had fallen into a state of disrepair after Rock-A-Bye Power Rangers and King for a Day were filmed, which is why she was never seen again. The only part of her not damaged is her face.[1] Additionally one of her hands was sold to an unknown buyer.
Gallery
References
See Also
- Bara Gūsuka - Super Sentai counterpart in Chouriki Sentai Ohranger. See comparison page.
- The song that Somnibot sang in the episode, Rock-a-Bye Baby
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