Dr. Richard Smith

NOTE: This article is about Voltes V: Legacy character. For the original character from the 1977 anime, see Professor Hamaguchi.

Richard Hamaguchi Smith was one of the supporting characters of GMA Network's drama action science fantasy series Voltes V: Legacy. He was portrayed by Albert Martinez.

Biography[]

Richard Smith was born in the Philippines. He became an accomplished scientist at some point in time. However, his life would be changed when he would cross paths with a man named Baron Hrothgar.

Baron Hrothgar was an alien who's spaceship crashed on Earth by accident. Upon being taken in for questioning, he revealed his past to those would listen - he arrived from Planet Boazan, the where he was forced to live as a slave after the throne was usurped from him. Hrothgar was the son of the Emperor's little brother, but he was born without horns, which were considered an anomly in Boazania. Only those with horns were allowed to be nobles, while those without them were subject to extreme cruelty and treated as slaves. To make sure he didn't live a life of slavery, Hrothgar's parents fashioned for him a pair of fake horns. Hrothgar lived amongst the nobled, and because of his skill in technology and invention, the Emperor chose Hrothgar as his succesor.

On the day of his coronation, Hrothgar was exposed hornless by his jealous and ambitious cousin Zambojil. Zambojil's minions had tortured doctor that delivered him into admitting his dark secret. Hrothgar was booed by the crowd, and then forced to work as a slave. Branded a traitor, he was told by Zambojil that his wife, Rozalia, and their newborn child were dead. In actuality, Rozalia died in childbirth, while the newborn child, Zardoz, was raised by Zambojil.

Hrothgar managed to escape to Earth, with the knowledge that Emperor Zambojil will set his sights to Earth. His ship crashed and he was found by Mary Ann Collins Armstrong. She learned of his story and fell in love with him. He adopted the name "Ned Armstrong" on Earth. While many people didn't believe Ned Armstrong's warning, Dr. Richard Smith did, and together they set up Camp Big Falcon.

Ned/Hrothgar and Mary would go on to have three children, Steve, Bert and John. Hrothgar created the robot Voltes V because he knew the Boazanians would invade, and wanted a way for Earth to defend itself. He returned to Boazania to convince Zambojil not to invade the planet. This didn't work, but he managed to escape arrest and flee to Earth where he would manage the Mechanical Eagle. Mary and Richard believed Ned/Hrothgar was dead as he never came back, so they began training pilots at Camp Big Falcon to join the Voltes team. Apart from training Steve and Bert, Dr. Smith also oversaw the training of other pilots including Mark Gordon, Jamie Robinson, Eva Sanchez, PJ Santiago, Ally Chan and Tomas del Rosario. Jon Armstrong wanted to join them, but due to his age, he was rejected as a potential candidate.

When the Boazanians inevitably invaded, with Prince Zardoz leading the invasion, Steve, Bert, Jon, Mark and Jamie were the only available pilots and working together, managed to repel their Beast Fighter from the Earth. As a result they became permanent members of the Voltes team.

Dr. Richard Smith would guide them in battle, instructing them on how to defeat the Boazanian's Beast Fighters. Unfortunately, he died when the Boazanians sent a fake robot Ned to Camp Big Falcon, who choked Smith by the neck and stabbed him.

After he died, he was replaced by Dr. Hook as Camp Big Falcon's lead scientist, though his style was radically different from Smith's.

Differences[]

He isn't a skilled fighter like his anime counterpart, who fought Jangal while imprisoned and escaped from Skullrook after battling many Boazanian soldiers.
Like Mary Ann, he is opposed to Jon Armstrong's deployment in the Voltes team, until he proves himself later on.
He is much closer to Little Jon and encourages him to create Tako, which his anime counterpart didn't do.
He dies when he's stabbed by the fake Ned Armstrong robot. His anime counterpart, on the other hand, died willingly after he was taken prisoner by the Boazanians, who wanted to use him as a hostage against Voltes V. He resisted the soldiers who held him, exited Skullrook by manually piloting an enemy ship and crashed it into the Beast Knight Voltes V was fighting.