Mortal Kombat: Conquest

Mortal Kombat: Conquest was a TV series which aired from 1998 to 1999. The series is based on the fighting game series Mortal Kombat and acted as a prequel to the first Mortal Kombat film. Filmed in Conquest was cancelled after just one season (22 episodes).

Plot summary
"In each of us there burns a soul of a warrior. In every generation a few are chosen to prove it. Centuries ago, in a time of darkness and fury, that fate befell three strangers. A monk Kung Lao, an exiled guard Siro and a thief Taja who have to defend our earth realm from the forces of Outworld. By fighting for their lives, by fighting for their honour and by fighting for their realm. In a tournament called Mortal Kombat."

Many millennia ago, the Earth was a young and desirable planet. Powerful and rich with natural resources, the vicious megalomaniac, Shao Kahn wanted Earth as part of his growing collection of conquered realms known as Outworld. To protect the Earth (a.k.a. Earthrealm) from Shao Kahn, Mortal Kombat - a tournament in which the fate of the planet is decided in battles between competitors from Earthrealm and Outworld - was created. Five-hundred years in the past, the monk warrior, Kung Lao defeated Shao Kahn's sorcerer, Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat. When Kung Lao spared his life, Kahn imprisoned Tsung in the cobalt mines.

Kung Lao now had to train the next generation of warriors, who would give their lives to save the Earth. Kung Lao creates a partnership and friendship with two warriors Siro, a former bodyguard and Taja, an ex-thief. In the dark and mysterious city of Zhu Zin, Kung Lao and his new friends are guided and watched over by the thunder god, Raiden. The three now battle various evils of both Outworld and Earthrealm, including an imprisoned Tsung, who swore eternal revenge on Kung Lao for his humiliating defeat and his ally; the sultry and seductive Vorpax who is also imprisoned in the cobalt mines and has an agenda of her own.

Main characters

 * Kung Lao (Paolo Montalbán)
 * Siro (Daniel Bernhardt)
 * Taja (Kristanna Loken)
 * Vorpax (Tracy Douglas)
 * Shang Tsung (Bruce Locke)
 * Raiden and Shao Kahn (Jeffrey Meek)

MK game series characters

 * Scorpion (Chris Casamassa)
 * Sub-Zero (J.J. Perry)
 * Noob Saibot (Master Sultan Uddin)
 * Quan Chi ('Adoni Maropis)
 * Kitana (Dara Tomanovich)/(Audie England)
 * Mileena (Meg Brown)
 * Rain (Percy 'Spitfire' Brown)
 * Reiko (Jim Helsinger)
 * Reptile (Jon Valera)

Trivia

 * In the episode "Debt of the Dragon," the Black Dragon organization is featured.


 * The episode "The Serpent and the Ice" featured a cameo by Smoke in the very last scene before the credits. It was spoken by the Lin Kuei master that he would hunt down the now rogue Sub-Zero. This storyline never came into play, possibly because the show was cancelled prematurely.


 * The episode "The Master" features a character named Master Cho. It is rumored that he is the prototype of Bo' Rai Cho.


 * The episode "Unholy Alliance" features an alliance between Shang Tsung and Quan Chi, which is the premise for Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.


 * Former WCW wrestlers Meng and Wrath also made guest appearances.


 * Guest stars Angelica Bridges, Sung Hi Lee, Dana Hee, Jamie Pressly, Renee Tenison, Kathleen Kinmont, Candace Miller and Suzanne Stokes all posed nude for the adult magazine, Playboy . Another guest star, Eva Mendes, was also featured doing an interview in one issue.


 * Due to budget constraints, the costuming department was unable to afford any bras for the female cast members.


 * The series originally aired on the WB Network and was later picked up by Turner Network Television, which aired the remaining new episodes as well as broadcasting the previous ones in syndication. The show was very popular, but according to the show's developer, Joshua Wexler, this resulted in higher budget costs for the show than anticipated. The cancellation was not announced at first and rumors of a second season circulated. However, TNT pulled the plug on the show leaving it with a cliffhanger ending. It was said that the last two episodes were a dream Kung Lao had, making what happened not true. The cliffhanger ending would have been resolved in the second season, which would have summed up the series and corresponded with the MK timeline.


 * Former QVC model Dorian played the barmaid Magda in the episodes "Twisted Truth" and "Quan Chi".


 * Martial artist J.J. Perry guest-starred as Sub-Zero in the third episode, "Cold Reality"; ironically, he briefly appeared as Scorpion for a fight scene with Sub-Zero in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.

DVD Availability
The show has not been released on DVD in North America, but is available in the United Kingdom and Australia where it had enjoyed a later, more successful run on television. The complete DVD collection is currently available only in Australia (in two sets), as a number of the episodes were not included between the several incomplete packs released in the UK.

Added 27/07/07: The MKC DVDs released in the UK have never been officially licensed, Warner Bros. TV are in charge of the licensing. Australia is the only country to have released official DVDs so far. Some of the MKC DVDs from the UK have spelling errors on their covers, the video and sound is substandard and some episodes have major cuts.