BattleTech: The Animated Series

BattleTech
Title card to the series.
Created by	Saban Entertainment
Country of origin	United States France
No. of episodes	13, plus one special
Production
Running time	23 minutes
Release
Original network	Fox
Original release	September 10, 1994 – December 10, 1994

BattleTech is an animated television series based on the BattleTech fictional universe, produced for syndication by Saban Entertainment in 1994. The series ran for 13 episodes and focused on the character of Adam Steiner, a military officer in the distant future who struggles to liberate his home planet from an attacking faction.

The series was noteworthy for its blending of animation techniques, with computer animation used to depict most battle sequences and traditional animation used for most other scenes.

The series takes place in the year 3050 as the Inner Sphere, the central region of settled interstellar space, is suddenly invaded by a powerful human faction identifying itself as the Clans. One of the many planets that falls to the Clan onslaught is a small, mostly unimportant world in the Federated Commonwealth called Somerset.

Far away on the planet Tharkad, Major Adam Steiner, a teacher at the Nagelring Military Academy and native of Somerset, receives word of the attack on his homeworld and the loss of all communication with the forces there, including his brother Andrew. Using his relationship to one of the Federated Commonwealth's ruling family, he gains permission to assemble a force to gather intelligence on the Clans and, if possible, liberate Somerset.

Unfortunately for Steiner, the only available JumpShip is the Katana, a Draconis Combine spacecraft recently seized for smuggling. The early episodes focus on Steiner recruiting and developing his team and reconciling differences between them, particularly between the Draconis JumpShip crew and the Federated Commonwealth soldiers, while gathering information about the Clans and their technology.

After several successes Steiner's unit is given BattleMechs enhanced with stolen Clan technology and begin offensive missions against the Clans, culminating in a Trial of Possession for the planet Somerset. Steiner wins the duel, but the Clan commander, honouring the letter of the deal, gives Steiner the planet but keeps the planet's population as prisoners. The series ends with Steiner vowing to rescue the people of Somerset.