Brainiac/Filmation

Brainiac is a fictional alien robot and a foe of Superman. Based upon the DC Comics character of the same name, this iteration of Brainiac first appeared in the "Superman Meets Brainiac" episode of The New Adventures of Superman, which originally aired on CBS on December 31st, 1966. The actor who provided the voice for Brainiac is unknown.

Biography
Brainiac was a robotic construct designed to appear humanoid in appearance. He was created by Professor Eckla of the planet Mega during the aftermath of that world's atomic wars. He programmed Brainiac to venture forth to habitated worlds to collect perfect specimens of various life forms and bring them back to Mega so that they could begin to repopulate their barren world.

Brainiac's programming brought him to the planet Earth sometime around the late 1960s. He landed outside of the city of Metropolis, which was hosting a circus. Using his abilities to render himself both invisible and intangible, Brainiac began stealing pairs of animals from the circus. He used a miniaturization ray to reduce them in size so that they could be more readily transported aboard his space ship. This included a pair of elephants, a pair of giraffes and a pair of gorillas.

The ringmaster of the circus informed the costumed superhero Superman of the animals' disappearance and he began investigating the circus grounds along with Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane. They found Brainiac making off with some animals and Superman tried to apprehend him. However, he was unable to penetrate Brainiac's force field. Observing that Superman and Lois were perfect specimens, Brainiac turned his reduction ray upon both of them, miniaturizing them to a size no bigger than six inches in height. He brought them aboard his spacecraft and placed them inside of his interplanetary zoo.

Although smaller in size, Superman still possessed his super-strength. He was able to break free, but still could not break through Brainiac's field. Brainiac gave a brief account of his history and explained why he was stealing pairs of animals. He grabbed the six-inch Lois Lane and brought inside of his force field. Superman used his x-ray vision to determine that Brainiac was a robot. He then instructed Lois to adjust the amplification on her transistor radio. The electronic interference ruptured the electrode circuitry atop Brainiac's head, shorting him out. This also shorted out his force field. Superman used Brainiac's reducing ray to return them to their normal size and they exited the ship. Moments later, the space vessel self-destructed presumably destroying Brainiac.

Notes & Trivia

 * This is the first version of Brainiac to appear in a medium outside of the comic books. This version of Brainiac was created by writer Oscar Bensol. The original Brainiac was created by writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino and debuted in the pages of Action Comics #242 in 1958. Later stories revealed the character's name to be Vril Dox.


 * This episode states that Brainiac was constructed by a scientist named Professor Eckla and is from the war-ravaged planet Mega. The original Brainiac was actually from the planet Colu and was created by the Computer Tyrants.


 * There are several similarities between the animated version of Brainiac and the comic book version. Their physical appearance is identical and they are both artificial constructs. They both make use of a personal force field, a miniaturization ray and a space saucer. In the comics, the ray and the field are referred to as a Hyper-Ray] and Ultra-Force Shield. In the cartoon, Brainiac simply calls his shield a "field of force".