- [Jesse] Did you ever have an idea that you thought, yeah,
this is brilliant,
but then realize it's too unrealistic to achieve.
Well, no one realized that in the show that we're about
to cover today.
This show failed in its concept only to succeed
in a completely different way, sort of.
"Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future" was
that show.
Now, some of you may be wondering,
what the hell is he talking about?
What's so special about this show?
Well, the series aspired to do something that no show did
or has ever done.
It made toys.
So what?
You may ask.
Lots of shows have made toys.
Well, it didn't just make a toy about the show.
It tried to merge them into one entity.
That's right.
The toys interacted with the show in real time.
How so?
Well, let's get into that in this episode
of "Gone But Not Forgotten."
(gentle music)
It all started with a name, Gary Goddard,
the director and producer of the live action, "New Gods,"
or I mean, "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe."
Through this movie, Goddard developed a friendship
with the people running Mattel at the time.
He kept thinking
about what live action project he could come up with
that would work with Mattel toys.
After being involved in "He-Man" and watching "G.I. Joe,"
Goddard began to think why there aren't any heroes
from the future.
He then thought about the shows he watched growing up,
and thought of a name that would harken back to those days.
"Captain Power," and to sell the series to Mattel,
he added to the title "And the Soldiers of the Future"
to remind them of "He-Man."
Goddard appealed to Mattel's need
for a new product since the "He-Man" toy sales began
to decline.
Gary had some basic ideas of what the show should be.
It would be set in a world
in ruin where the human race has fallen to the evil
of a robotic race called Bio-Mechs.
These evil robotic beings were led
by the man who betrayed the human race, Lord Dread.
Captain Jonathan Power was the man who led the resistance
against Dread with fellow soldiers,
who also donned the incredible power suits with each
of their power suits having its own superpower.
Major Matthew Hawk Masterson, played by Peter MacNeill,
had a suit that could fly.
Lieutenant Michael Tank Ellis, played by Sven-Ole Thorsen,
had a powerful suit that was more resistant to damage.
And Sergeant Robert Scout Baker,
played by Maurice Dean Wint,
could take the form of anyone to be the perfect spy.
The final member
of the unit was Corporal Jennifer Pilot Chase,
played by the beautiful Jessica Steen.
Chase was the pilot of the signature vehicle of the series,
the Jump-Ship that would be constantly in battle
with the villains of the show.
As for the more detailed aspects of the background
of the show, those were done
by the legendary Marc Scott Zicree.
Zicree has a long career in writing
on classic shows like "Sliders," "M.A.N.T.I.S.,"
"Star Trek: The Next Generation" and "Deep Space Nine."
Not only that, but he also wrote
on classic cartoons like "The Real Ghostbusters," "He-Man,"
and "The Centurions," just to name a few,
but even though Marc wanted to be more involved
in this show, he had too many commitments on his plate.
So, he turned over the show to a writer he had worked
with previously, the one, the only J. Michael Straczynski.
To say that Straczynski has a legendary career is
an understatement of mythical proportions.
He has been responsible for such amazing comics like,
"Rising Stars" and "Midnight Nation."
Both of which have rabid fan bases.
He has written for numerous animated shows
and is more well known as the creator
of the massively popular series, "Babylon 5."
J.M. became the show runner and helped steer the show
into a series that was far ahead of its time.
"Captain Power" started
out as a simple show where the heroes just went
on basic missions which were only written to set
up an action scene.
It was pretty obvious that it was a TV show for kids,
but Straczynski ended up shaping it into something
that could appeal to both adults as well as children.
The stories began to take on a darker
and more interesting tone.
You began to see this shift in the direction of the show
in the 12th episode "Flame Street."
In this episode, Power is tricked into going
into a virtual reality that Lord Dread uses to try
to drive him insane.
This episode was very memorable to me because
of the incredible acting from both Tim Dunigan
and David Hemblen.
Tim Dunigan starred as the noble Captain Power,
a man struggling not only to win this war,
but also to be a beacon of hope to the rest of humanity.
David Hemblen, on the other hand,
played Lord Dread as a complex character.
At the beginning of the series,
Lord Dread was just a generic super villain.
It wasn't until the two part episode,
"A Summoning of Thunder,"
that we learned Dread and Power's origin story.
Dread was a scientist and friend to Power's father,
Dr. Stewart Gordon Power.
Dr. Power and Dread created a super computer named OverMind
that would take control of the world's robotic armies.
Power wanted to use it to destroy the war machines
to create a world without war, but Dread became impatient
and connected himself to OverMind, thus corrupting it.
He became obsessed with merging the human race with machines
to create perfection.
Thus begins the Metal Wars,
where humans and machines battle for survival.
It's funny how much this show would
inadvertently predict tropes
that many future popular shows would introduce.
While watching the show,
I immediately thought of the Power Rangers,
as the Captain would do the morphing transition
from the "Power Rangers" TV show.
Also, the AI named Mentor, which helped Captain Power
and his soldiers, had the exact same look as Zordon.
I can also see the influence
that other classic sci-fi shows have had on this series,
like "Buck Rogers" and "Doctor Who."
However, the special effects were hit or miss.
Watching the series,
it was pretty clear that they used the same set
and locations many times because they built a warehouse
that housed multiple sets for the show like the Power Base
and Dread's lair Volcania.
They also used detailed miniatures for most special effects.
I ensure you it was very impressive to look at.
- It's only a model.
- Shh.
- [Jesse] But the worst thing about the show was
its use of CGI.
To say its CGI was crude is being nice.
It was so bad.
It made the first season
of "Superboy" look like "Avatar" by comparison.
Yet, many people who worked on this show would wind
up having a huge career in computer effects.
Rob Coleman, for example, went on to become the head of ILM.
And it wasn't just special effects that would lead
to a huge career in show business.
Straczynski said that cutting his teeth
on this show directly led him to developing "Babylon 5."
Also Jessica Steen would get her role as the shuttle pilot
in "Armageddon" when Producer Jerry Bruckheimer remembered
her from "Captain Power."
This is a great way to transition into the most famous thing
about this show, the toys.
"Captain Power" tried to merge both merchandising
and the TV show into one entertainment experience.
It's main toy was a replica of Captain Power's ship.
It was a light gun that would count points
for the flashing targets you could shoot at in the episodes.
If you got hit too many times by enemy fire,
your ship would eject the action figure
that was piloting the ship.
Sounds great, right?
It was garbage, and I speak from experience.
At first, you think to yourself, man,
this is gonna be so cool.
When a few minutes later you realize
that you're not getting any points.
So, you have to shove the toy way too close to the TV for it
to do anything.
The worst part was that you could be shooting for points
on the show, and then this would happen.
(whimsical music)
- Data flow's a mess.
But with a blast trauma and a loss of power,
I don't know if we'll ever make sense of it.
(laser blasts)
- [Jesse] Oh, what the hell?
(triumphant music) (explosion booms)
♪ My Little Pony ♪
♪ Tie a ribbon ♪
(laser blasts)
Ah, crap.
Okay, let's try this again.
(laser blasts)
(explosion blasts)
(static crackles)
- We interrupt this program to bring you-
(bouncy electronic music)
(laser blasts)
- [Jesse] Ah, son of a bitch.
Anyway, back to the show.
The cast of "Captain Power" was great.
They never phoned it in.
Tim Dunigan played Captain Power as a man who struggled
to stay hopeful in a world full of despair.
Dunigan took his role seriously due to the effect
that he knew his character would have on children.
He would go to toy stores whenever he was asked,
and said his happiest memories
of his career was meeting the young fans of the series.
Peter MacNeill said he had a blast on the show.
He got to fly on a rig previously used on "Superman."
He also loved playing a superhero and shooting at robots.
He even still has the action figure made of him.
As for Sven-Ole Thorsen, this guy is a legend
in the film industry with a long career working specifically
alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger.
He appeared with him in "Conan," "The Running Man,"
and my personal favorite role,
LaFours the security guard in "Mallrats."
I always felt bad for Thorsen because he had
to wear the most uncomfortable costume on this show.
It was the bulkiest one and gave him very limited mobility.
Now, Maurice Dean's role was probably the most
underdeveloped on this show.
His character was just the guy who would go undercover
to confuse the enemy.
They could have done a lot more with him outside of that,
but unfortunately, that was not meant to be.
Jessica Steen's character was the most interesting role
on this show as she grew up manipulated by Dread
and his cronies.
She was part of the Dread Youth
and committed many crimes against humanity.
At the time, she was brainwashed into believing
that Dread's goal of human
and machine perfection was the only thing
that mattered in life.
However, when she met Captain Power,
she realized the horror of her actions
and fought with the group to make up for her mistakes.
David Hemblen, who played Lord Dread,
was a veteran British actor who mostly worked
in Canadian TV and film.
He was an utmost professional who took every role
of his seriously with a massive career in many TV shows
and films, but most of you would
of course know him as the voice of Magneto
in the 1996 "X-Men: Animated Series."
Now, a big focus
of the "Captain Power" show was the will they,
won't they romance between Power and Chase.
We would wind up seeing the conclusion of their romance
in the season finale, but more on that later.
The action scenes on this show were pretty entertaining
for the time.
Lots of explosions, laser fights and squibs
that just reminded me of the "Power Rangers."
The goal of this show was to appeal
to both adults and children.
The adults would enjoy the storyline,
while the kids would play with the toys next to them.
It was a win-win, right?
- Wrong.
- [Jesse] Nope.
J. Michael Straczynski said it best.
The name "Captain Power" alienated serious sci-fi fans.
Because it sounded goofy.
And parents were turned off by the dark themes of the show.
The show began to get a lot of bad press
from family advocacy groups,
with their two main complaints being
that the show was only made to sell toys,
and that it was too violent for children.
Peggy Charren was the loudest voice of dissent
against this show.
Charren has had a long career of trying
to censor children's programming.
She founded the Action for Children's Television group,
also known as ACT, where she promoted regulations
of children's programming.
Charren did have some noble causes.
She wanted to promote more educational programming
and fewer commercials targeting kids.
But over time, she just began
to promote straight-up censorship of children's TV.
Goddard said he tried to reach out
to Peggy because he felt she hadn't even seen the show
to make a fair judgment of it.
However, Peggy refused to listen to him,
and she just kept trying to get the press
to shut the show down.
It wasn't just Charren who did this though.
Straczynski said that they had someone else rallying against
it who told them they would stop only if they were hired
as a consultant on the show.
And once he did get hired as a consultant,
he would end up never making any adjustments to the script.
Now, Mattel was also going through a bad financial time,
and had to cut corners to try and save the company.
So, all these things combined meant the end
of "Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future."
The last episode of the show was
about Dread discovering the location
of Captain Power's secret base.
So, to prevent Dread from getting his hands on it,
Pilot blows up the base, killing herself in the process.
This episode was not only memorable for the twist ending,
but also because of a sad behind the scenes fact.
During the episode, Power begs Chase
to not sacrifice her life to destroy the base.
Only to have her profess her love for him,
and blow up anyway.
Straczynski has stated that this was based on an incident
with a friend who committed suicide.
Where he tried to stop his friend over the phone from doing
it only to fail.
He says he can't watch the series finale without crying.
So, so tragic.
The show had a planned second season,
which would've featured Power trying
to avenge Pilot's death.
It would've centered on the rest of the crew trying
to talk him out of going down a dark path.
New characters would've been introduced,
such as a double agent who would've been Power's
new love interest.
But alas, it was not meant to be.
And thus, we lost the chance to see any new adventures
of Captain Power.
Sadly, the DVD of this series is now out of print.
There is no place to officially stream this show.
But do not despair, YouTube has yet again,
come to the rescue as the entire series is available
to stream there.
As for the question we always ask at the end of this show,
should this show come back?
Well, I don't think so.
The show is a product of its time.
Many shows have done similar stories,
and the toys are outdated.
The technology is completely obsolete now.
It did have a comic book adaptation,
so maybe it could continue like that,
but I just don't see it coming back again.
I don't even think it could work as a cartoon,
unless they give it some new take
that I just can't think of.
But regardless, "Captain Power" was a show that was ahead
of its time.
It's a shame that people didn't appreciate it when
it was still on the air, and I'm sad to say I was guilty
of this as well.
But if you're interested in seeing a TV show
that paved the way for many others,
then I recommend you give "Captain Power" a watch.
So, put on your helmet, press play, and get ready to...
- Power on.
- [Jesse] You will not regret it.
(gentle music)
♪ I've got a secret ♪
♪ I've been hiding under my skin ♪
♪ My heart is human ♪
♪ My blood is boiling, my brain IBM ♪
♪ So if you see me acting strangely, don't be surprised ♪
♪ I'm just a man who needed someone and somewhere to hide ♪
♪ To keep me alive ♪
♪ Just keep me alive ♪
♪ Somewhere to hide ♪
♪ To keep me alive ♪
I'm Jesse Shade speaking on behalf of David Arroyo
for JoBlo.com, and thank you for watching our show.
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for the next installment of "Gone But Not Forgotten."
(funky relaxing music)