When I first started doing these reviews I wanted to start out with the kaiju reviews then after awhile branch out. Well today we’re branching out a little bit and do a series retrospective. Now I’m not going to do this often, just when it feels right. And When I think I can do the series in question a little justice. So let’s begin. Strap in to a trip to the late 1980. Before Power Rangers there was another show were a group of heroes transformed into armor to fight the forces of evil. In a future where man fought machine… and machine won. No not that movie series. We are in the world of Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future.

Now jump into your power suit, charge it up and Power On at the jump.

Taking place in the year 2147 fifteen years after the end of the Metal Wars. The world is in ruins and is run by the Bio-Dread Empire. They are of course opposed by various resistant groups, the most notable being the small force lead by Captain Power, and by small I mean five people. But they have the advantages of the power suit created by power’s father that when activated turn each man into, according to the opening, a one man attack force.Now the show was meant as a live action 80s cartoon. I mean look at the title, you can see that right off the bat. But they also decided to take the story telling one step further and add a level of sophistication that any adults watching might enjoy. And there was some stuff here that adults could sink there teeth into. Before we get into the series any further let’s get into our cast of main characters.

Captain Jonathon Power – The leader of this group of rebels. Trained early on to fight the machines Lord Dredd, more on him later. He also has the typical sense of what is right, and a sense of duty to those he considers friends or family. Wearing a power suit of gold armor and blue under suit his weapons include his gun and later an extendable staff. he also has a jet back for extended jumps.

Major Matt “Hawk” Materson – Power’s second in command and friend of his fathers, Stuart Power. He is the aerial fighter with the silver armor, with the traditional fighter pilot style helmet and wrist missiles. Which also fire lasers apparently. Although based on the ranks, when you get older you wonder why a Major is taking orders from a Captain. Oh well, it’s kids TV probably best not to over think it.

Lieutenant Micheal “Tank” Materson – The genetically engineered strong man of the team. Also the stereotypical gentle giant in a way, joking about Hawk’s age slowing him down and such. His armor is camouflage brown, what it lacks in mobility it makes up in armor and firepower with a cannon attached to his hip.

Sergeant Robert “Scout” Baker – Stealth fighter, spy and computer expert. Much like Tank he jokes around and pretty lighthearted. Although he does consider Christmas trees to be bad luck since he only remember bad things happening the one time he put one up. His armor is all bsilver with red highlights and carries a hand gun. But he has the added ability of a holo generator in the armor to disguise himself to sneak behind enemy lines while on assignment.

And finally Corporal Jennifer “Pilot” Chase – the… well.. pilot… and mechanic of the team. The youngest member of the group and the potential love interest. She’s also the one with the more interesting back story in my eyes since she used to be part of Dread’s youth army. Her armor was silver and had a gun and multi tool. When the show first started she just had a visor over her eyes but near the end he got a proper helmet to wear just like the rest of them.

But that’s only the human members of Power’s team. There’s also the A.I program Mentor, programmed with Stuart Power’s image and voice so Jonathon would never be without him. A bit sweet… in a creepy sort of way. It controls the Power Base’s functions and alerts them to any transmission that would need their attention

Of course you can’t have a group of heroes without a bunch of bad guys to fight. Ladies and gentlemen, the Bio-Dread Empire

Lord Dread – A half man, half machine and leader of the Bio-Dread empire. Formally known as Lyman Taggert he was Stuart power’s former co-worker, partner and friend he created the Overmind computer and after using his brain pattern to activate it saw the future where the souls of human inhabited the gleaming metal of machines, virtual immortality. So he conquered the world to make this happen. But one final confrontation with Stuart left him him in his current cyborg state.

Overmind – a sentient AI that control Dreads base Volcania and reminds him to be more like the machine and act less like a human when his emotions get the better of him. And what Taggart used to gain control of the machine soldiers across the world to take it over. But it also spies on Dread and may have a agenda of it’s own.

Soaron – Dread’a first Bio-Dread and general of his robotic army and aerial unit. Completely loyal to Dread he hunts down human survivors and digitizes them, instantly turning them into data to be stored inside Overmind until the day Dread’s vision for the future can come to fruition. Armament includes the mention digitizer and lasers in his eyes. However there is a line of data in his programming that confuses him. Not to be confused with the big bad from the Lord of the Rings with the same name(different spelling though).

Blastar – Dread second Bio-Dread General and created shortly after the show started. Ground unit with a extendable shield built into his arm  and laser cannons in his fingers as well as the digitizer on his arm. A ground unit with retractable treads on his feet and a has a bit of a rivalry with Soaron.

The BioMechs – Dread’s robotic army, aka the cannon fodder. Mindless drone, although a couple here and there seem to have a more advanced AI and give orders to the rest of the Units. They carry your basic armaments.

Then there’s the humans in Dreads army. The ones who believe in Dread’s vision of the future and will hunt down those who don’t or try to stop it. This includes the “Dread youth”, much like the Hitler youth, they are trained at a young age to be totally devoted to dread’s future. There’s no real regular character here just a revolving spot when they’re on the screen.

If those character descriptions don’t sound like a 80s cartoon I don’t know what does. I should probably explain the power suit a bit. When not activated the suits are just the under suits worn under Power’s and crew clothing, activated by hitting the phoenix symbol on their chest and saying “Power on!”. Not only protecting them against enemy fire, it also protects them from digitization (all these digis you think there be a mon showing up somewhere). But activating the suits doesn’t make them invincible. the suit needs to charge, usually at the power base. And the charge depleats, especially after taking enemy fire and damage. Once the charge is gone the suit disappears and they’re vulnerable as any other human.

But like I said there was some meat on these bones. With some themes that they got as deep as they could take them considering the standards of children programming of the day. Early on in the series we see an army unit who’s commander is waiting for a call from a government and president that’s no longer there. And this commander may be slightly insane. Going on to “kill” one of his men as a traitor when he tries to send a transmission for help. I say “kill” because while see him point the gun at him they never show him pulling the trigger, but they refer to him in past tense for the rest of the episode. And a couple of episodes where Pilot’s past catches up to her. One where she dons her old uniform and sneaks into a Dread base to get medication to help a group of survivors and runs into what was a younger version of what she used to be in the process. And one where she’s in another town seeking aid for Power but is recognized from her days as one of Dread’s Youth and put on trial for an attack on their city back then. And one wanted to kill her on the spot before they decided on the trial.

And Dread’s not just your basic Saturday morning villain either. He had some depth of his own. Like his regret this artist he really admired got blinded by Soaron in the early days of the Metal Wars. Or the fact his human feelings were still there despite the fact his claim that he was of the machine. Best highlighted at the end of a two part story where Power went on his yearly visit to his father’s grave and Dread had him in his sights, but let Power go and left the last things Stuart ever gave him in friendship on the grave as one last good-bye as his own. But he had his traditional evil moments too, like when he undigitized a captive inside Overmind, being digitized and undigitized is extremely painful, had threatened to repeat the process repeatedly until he broke.

Of course there’s the usual plots for this type of show, like the impostor Captain Power and the double agent episode. But there was also the season long Project New Order plot with it’s various stages. Such as toxin stage, a highlight of this being Hawk coming across a boy created in a Dread lab designed to carry a pathogen designed to paralyze a human for days at a time, long enough for Soaron to fly in and digitize them. As well as an orbital platform where he could digitized huge amount of humans at a time. But there was also some seeds being placed for future seasons, the previous line of data inside Soaron I mentioned earlier and Eden 2, a virtual paradise where tired soldiers and other survivors tried to find to get away from the war.

But there was some hooky stuff too. Main thing that pops into mind where Power went into a back alley “cyber” playground so he could inside the net and try and find information on a particular part of Project New Order and the virtual fight with Dread. Who was only defeated when what was left of humanity showed up in virtual form. And Tank’s fight with another genetically engineered soldier and got smashed in the head with a “cinder block”. A scene where Power is surrounded but at least 40 BioMechs and they  shot the crap out of him for like 30 seconds, suit doesn’t disappear and he then goes on to kick their collective metal cans. Granted he took a direct charge off a power line to power up the suit, but still. And my personal favorite, a woman when we first see her is wearing a form fitting helmet. Then she takes it off and there’s huge head of hair that shouldn’t have fit under that helmet.

Of course I can’t do this retrospective without mentioning the show’s gimmick. It was interactive with certain toys you bought, like the jet. Various non human objects had this red light on it that was encoded to register a hit with the toy jet. And the show could “shoot back” lowering your point score. according to the creator of the show this was something that was forced on them by Mattel since they just got this technology and wanted to use it. In fact the head guy, one Gary Goddard, had to write in a opening action shot and ending shot so the toys can be used and keep Mattel happy. But that angered his writers at the same time.

Captain Power was also the first TV show to heavily feature CGI characters, this was in 1987 so this was a big deal. Both Blastar and Soaron where completely CG. But unfortunately the price for CG back than was rather expensive so their movement and shots had to be planned out in advanced. And like traditional animation several shots were reused to save money. In the initial planning stages Dread was supposed to have a CGI bird that would be on his shoulder, taking off and landing when needed. Now a days that wouldn’t be a big deal and easily done, back then the CG animators basically told the producers, “Are you nuts? We can’t do that!” Also in the nearly promotional material there was supposed to be another Soldier of the Future, a man nicknamed Stingray and was supposed to be an underwater character but the underwater scenes would have been too expensive to film so the character was scraped.

But as good as the plots where the show did have things going against it. Mattel demanding the interactive shots in the show. Goodard has said that if they had their way those red targets would have been everywhere. They had to teach an Canadian film crew how to do shots and set ups for this type of show. And the regular special effects cost money too. And everything was filmed in an old bus terminal that they refitted for the sets, green screens and flying rig for Hawk. And there where model sets of Volcania and various destroyed cities. And the setting was dark and depressing enough that the actress who played Pilot didn’t renew her contract for a second year, causing them to kill off her character in what ended up being the series finale.

And the show did end after one season. The Toys weren’t selling so Mattel pulled out. Rating weren’t all that great in some area, and some of the area aired the show early in the morning. And when parent groups back then warred against TV/Toy violence this show was in their cross hairs a lot. And the TV/Toy gimmick didn’t really work that well. So the plug was pulled and we only have what might have been.

And fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, thanks to various interviews with the writers and producers of the show we know what might have been. There were going to be multiple episode arc in season two. There would be new characters, including a new female Soldiers of the Future who would have been a love interest for Tank.

Hawk would have been in charge for the first couple of episodes because Captain Power was in full revenge mode looking for the guy who sold them out and ultimately caused Pilot’s death. There was going to be a new Bio-Dread who was supposed to be really powerful. Dread was going to have a new fully cybernetic body, but retain a human eye. But I don’t know if he was going to be another CG character or a guy in a suit like the BioMech soldiers. And we were going to see Power’s mother, who apparently was in a cybernetic body of her own and siding with Dread. And what was being called the first ever “cybersex” scene. Personally part of me kinda wants to see how they would have pulled it off to get it past the sensors. On the other hand, I don’t even want to think how they would have pulled it off to begin with.

They were also going to find A new Power Base and discover the location of Eden 2. Although it might not be the paradise people on the outside thought it was going to be. And apparently for season 3 we were going to find out that line if data inside Soaron was going to be an order to kill Dread once he went against the plan. Meaning Overmind’s plan since he had his own, which was that it was going to delete all the humans in his database once they were all collect since he felt these perfect machines he was creating shouldn’t be sullied buy human minds and emotions. This would have caused Dread and Power to join forces to stop him. What might have been if the money was still there.

But there was some good things to come out of the ending of the show as well. Micheal J. Straczynski, the head writer for the series, first toyed with the idea a TV show could have a logical beginning, middle and end. In fact he has said he first got the story seeds for what would become Babylon 5 while working on this show. There was a TV movie that aired in Europe, although that consisted of various clips from the show and nothing original outside

of a reworked scene here and there, more than likely a scene shot originally filmed but decided not to use and reshot it a different way. And the show had enough of a cult following over the years that it recently was released officially on DVD.

Which brings us to the future. Gary Goddard has gone on record saying he’s trying to bring the show back. This time as an one hour drama titled Phoenix Rising.  As of this writing there no word outside of we’re trying to get this going. But there is a story bible and a script for the pilot. In fact Tim Dunigan, who played Captain Power, has said he’s read the script and it is amazing. So hopefully this will find a home in the near future.

While the show had it flaws, the story telling was amazing. The mixture of practical and early CG effects really made it stand out to those who watched it. The fact it still has a following to this day says something about the product itself. As a rating I give it 4.5 out of 5.

[Note from Keith Justice]

Just wanted to add this right here.. the greatest toy commercial of all freaking time. As a kid this commercial blew my freaking mind! 😀