An Official Facebook Page & Teaser Website has gone up announcing that Captain Power will be returning in 2012. Not much in the way of details, but an introductory/restrospective video has gone up on youtube with Gary Goddard and JMS talking about the show. Michael Reaves also dropped a line on the FB page: I've written a helluva lot of TV. Some of it has been frankly horrible; most of has been simply a day's work for a day's wage. But a few I remember as having that spark, that sense of potential greatness. Those are the ones you remember with pride, and with gratitude at being not just allowed, but encouraged to push the envelope. Batman. Gargoyles. Ghostbusters. And Captain Power. I've still got my crew jacket. (And, even more amazingly, it still fits.) Power On!
Never heard of it, looked into it, seems interesting but some of the criticism on the Wiki is not nice at all, bless the writer.
[image=http://scootermoviesshop.com/cubecart/images/uploads/Captain%20Power%20and%20the%20Soldiers%20of%20the%20Future.jpg] [image=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vY8I5HvOvk8/SUL7N7ake1I/AAAAAAAAAbw/0Zcm359zoYw/s400/team08jv7.jpg] [image=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1Tu6nsEVLvk/TPXDOJLrWYI/AAAAAAAAAa8/V_90ZChecKU/s1600/Captain_Power_And_The_Soldiers_Of_The_Future.jpg] [image=http://www.captainpower.com/images/soaron.jpg] [image=http://www.captainpower.com/images/soaron2.jpg] [image=http://www.captainpower.com/images/blastarr2.jpg] It was a live action post-apocalyptic saturday morning series in the late 80's, based on a Mattel toy line, that attempted to appeal to both kids and adults. I think it was the first TV series to use CGI characters too. It had a lot of criticism for being considered too violent/mature for kids, while other aspects (such as the title) were seen as too immature for adults. It was also one of the big examples used by parent protest groups in the late-80's of shows being used just to sell kids toys (funny how mindsets changed so quickly after that). But, basically, it attempted to be a pretty serious sci-fi show that just happened to have a toy line for kids (the main toy hook was that episodes had interactive segments that were basically 1st person POV target shooting games that you'd play with the light guns built-into the fightercraft toy vehicles- it would track your score but if you took too many hits, the ship would eject the cockpit and pilot). The characters themselves had an Iron Man-esque element with their power suits from their power base (but what's interesting is the writers tried to push beyond the toy elements- killing off a major character and planning to destroy the power base in the never-happened second season so the characters couldn't use the suits, etc). The main badguy, Lord Dredd, was also the "inspiration" (aka: they basically stole it) for the design of the Borg on The Next Generation as well. [image=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vY8I5HvOvk8/SULwq3xt1SI/AAAAAAAAAa4/PgkSCd1cPKo/s320/lorddread.jpg] The series is definitely an 80's sci-fi show, but it was definitely ahead of it's time and it was impressive what they managed to do with it.
Man, do I remember Captain Power! One of the things about the TV show was that people sort of "died" every episode, so it really is quite dark. And they accomplished this with a little loophole. See, the mechanical creatures in this universe would often "digitize" people. They had this triangular mechanism on their arm which looked like a gun, and they would shoot it at, often, cowering and defenseless human civilians. These people would essentially be broken down into digital bits then and there, and promptly uploaded. Essentially what was happening was that humans were being hunted down and "Tronned" -- pushed into the machine like what happens in the original movie Tron (although by the late 80s it looked a little better than that). But since you never really knew what was going on inside the machine and you never heard from those people again, the emotional weight of what was sort of happening was that you were watching an execution. Actually you see Soaron with a digitizer right there in a photo above, in one of his usual "execution-type" poses. That was probably what was getting them into trouble. The actual fight scenes themselves were very star-wars like tame. You had all sorts of robot flunkies that functioned like stormtroopers, etc. The main feel of Captain Power was something out of the "Terminator" movies, welll before the last Terminator movie came along. And it had elements of what we might think of as the Matrix and Tron as well. I remember SEEING that last episode of Captain Power and thinking it was so incredibly great. I wanted to talk about it with friends of mine, but none watched the show. That they killed her off really got my imagination going at about 10 years old. PS: Not only did they kill off that character, but the character they killed off used to WORK for the bad guys. She was someone who had been indoctrinated as a child into a sort of "Hitler Youth" for the machines, and was once a fanatic for the baddies who was turned to work for the good guys. Crazy stuff for an 80s kids show.
I that probably contributed to my lasting impression of fear from characetrs like Soaron- the combination of the execution-like scenes and the early CGI really made them scary for a kid (low-polygon stuff is often more unsetllingly creepy than photo-real stuff. There's things the N64 could inadvertedly accomplish that a modern system could never replicate, for example).
So, it turns out it *was* for a DVD release- but the trailer mentions that they do hope this might be the first step towards a return of the show/concept. Captain power: The Complete Series DVD trailer JMS on FB: A bit more of a sneak peek at the Captain Power DVD (dumbest name in the history of TV but a decent show).
Thanks for the link . "Captain Power" (Def a corny name) is often remembered more for it's gimmick than the series itself, which is a shame because it's a darn good show. Much darker and more mature than the Saban-era children's genre shows that followed.
I faintly remember this only because i had the vcr game with the ship/gun thing that was used to shoot the ships on the screen when I was a little boy.
Captain Power DVD launch event video, where they confirm they're "actively developing the property" in 2012.
So, they clearly missed their 2012 target but development seems to have gotten somewhere, as they've released an announcement teaser (albeit it a very rough one that doesn't look anywhere near a finished product and more of a concept demo): http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/44152/1980s-tv-series-captain-power-gets-rebooted "The original series was a twenty-two episode space drama set on Earth in the year 2147 and the aftermath of a global confrontation between humans and machines. The show was one of the first series to incorporate CG characters with live-action performers. The new take begins fifteen years after humanity lost a devastating war against an A.I. called Overmind. Jonathan Power, the son of the man who caused that war, learns the truth about his father and discovers a new type of battle armor that will enable a team of soldiers and civilians to fight the Bionic armies of the New Order. The original's co-creator Gary Goddard is one of those behind the reboot which is in active development at Goddard Film Group and Planet X Productions. Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens ("Star Trek: Enterprise") are penning the pilot while Thomas Vitale and Craig Engler will produce. MastersFX will create the effects for the new series which hopes to raise awareness at Comic Con this week." Sadly, no mention of JMS returning.
I never had the light gun lazer toy to watch the show with so I always kind of felt like I was missing something and couldn't properly experience it without it.
It seems to be the general consensus that the toy part was more of a distraction but the actual story/show was pretty solid on its own, with the more mature writing/target demo elevating it beyond the toy tie-in and unfortunate title name. Reminds me I really need to get around to rewatching this series. I'm wondering if the CGI characters are still as creepy as I remember.
Excellent! This has been brewing for quite a while, and TBH I thought it was probably dead by this point. Stoked to see it's still a-go. Power on! Captain Power sorta came at the tail end of my toys and 'toons years, but I was a faithful viewer every Saturday morning. Then it fell off my radar a bit until last year when my friend and I reviewed it for our (now on hiatus and/or potentially defunct) blog that reviews(ed) short-lived genre TV series. I won't pimp the blog here, but when you get around to watching Captain Power let me know if you'd like the link so you can "watch along with us", as we reviewed each episode (with bonus entries covering the toys, comics, series bible and a look at the storylines for the never produced second season). My ultimate take-away was that it was more than its famed interactive gimmick, being both substantially darker and well thought out than I'd given it credit for. The rub is that it was just starting to hit its stride at the end of its lone season; well, the final two-part episode anyway.
Talk about unexpected! I remember watching Capt. Power on Saturday mornings as a kid. Pretty cool news.
