The premise of the show was the classic battle of good against evil. In the evil corner was Lord Dread, the half machine, half man baddie determined to make the world a better place by making us all perfect. Humans would denounce all emotions, to let themselves be led by logic.Human consciousness would be transfered into machine bodies - creating eternal life and physical perfection. To be human was bad, to be like the machine, perfect, logical, emotionless - was good.
In the good corner, was Captain Power and his team, the Soldiers of the Future. Power and the Soldiers of the Future, are part of the dying resistance against Dread. Assisted by advanced technology in the form of their Power Suits, Power is able to keep the battle against Dread going and to inspire continued resistance. With the Soldiers of the Future, he fights to keep the spirit of humanity from being extinguished.
Why isn't Captain Power on TV anymore?
CP [as it's fans refer to it] was a syndicated television show. That often means it's made without any network backing and it usually needs to do a LOT better than most other shows to stay alive. Depending on who's version of the story you hear, the show was cancelled for a variety of reasons - bad ratings, too much violence, toys weren't selling.
The prevailing theory has been basically that CP was attacked by parental anti-television violence groups and Mattel,which had a stake in the production of CP, was so concerned that it pulled the plug. CP involved the use of live actors which also made it an easier target for these concerned groups (and also more expensive in terms of Screen Actor's Guild and Writer's Guild of America residual payments alledgedly.)
The theory that the toys weren't selling well is hard to support without evidence of poor sales - some posts to USENET have suggested that the toys were actually selling like hotcakes but the show got cancelled anyway. As for bad ratings, well, put a show on at 5am on Sunday morning and see what kind of ratings it gets...Nuff said.
For a 'behind-the-scenes' insider view of why CP met it's end is Captain Power creator Gary Goddard on Buying Back the Future
Is there any possibility of renewal?
In late 1997,there was a rumour floating around that Landmark was seeking new financing to produce 1 hour episodes of the second season. This later proved to be untrue.(Read more about the whole rumour schbang in 'The Revival Saga').
After Gary Goddard dropped by the site last week and left his e mail address, a couple of people e-mailed him to find out if there are any prospects of the show being continued on for a second season (hey, if CP fans can be accused of anything, its persistance!) GG replied as follows:
Thanks for your recent eMail. Needless to say I am gratified to see the response to Captain Power - fans are the most important thing in getting a new show on the air again, and yes, we HAVE been working on that. The landscape for television has changed dramatically since we first created Captain Power, but we have some support from a number of countried where the show was a major hit when it first aired. We are working now on trying to put together an international group of broacasters to assist us in getting the new shows made. We can't begin producing until we have outlets that will air it. All the cast has done well -- I am happy to see them as they move ahead in the careers as well. Thanks for your interest, faith and support for Captain Power, we really appreciate it! Gary Goddard (Thanks to Trish for forwarding the e-mail to me)
I will keep people posted on the developments with regard to this. Please note that this DOES NOT anything is definitely set to happen.
On an incidental note, American fans might want to try to bug Sci-Fi into doing reruns, if anything, so they can get video copies! But also,if this show grabs more fans now,especially in the US of A, it makes Landmark's job of getting financing for the second season potentially that little bit easier. Write to the Sci-Fi Channel Programming Dept and ask for Captain Power reruns!
If there had been a second season, what would have happened?
A whole new page has been devoted to this subject, with a summary of some of the major plotlines,e-interview with Story Editor Larry DiTillio, spoilers,new character bios, second season episode guide(!!).Find out all about what Season Two had in store for the Soldiers of the Future.
Why was Pilot killed off?
It seemed to be a strange move - killing off one of the show's most interesting and complex characters AND the only female character. A double blow. Killing off Pilot threw out the possibility of interesting human relationship stories between Power and Pilot and stories exploring her past as a member of the Dread Youth. For years, some fans never found out why Pilot was written out of the series.[Those of us who kept up our subscription to STARLOG would have undoubtly found out that it had been in the pipeline right from the start]
But because the series never made it past it's first season, there was never really any explaination as to WHY the character of Pilot was killed off. Her death seemed to spark off a trend in killing of female characters - as Starlog cheekly pointed out in their cartoon which illustrated Tasha Yar of ST:TNG meeting Pilot in the place up there for dead token female characters.
Subsequently,the matter came into the open reputedly after J.Michael Straczynski, the Executive Story Consultant on Captain Power, writing in his capacity as B5 Executive Producer was on a asked on a newsgroup why Pilot was killed off. It then all came out that the actress Jessica Steen had only signed a one year contract and therefore her character was to be killed off at the end of the season. In an e-mail interview,Larry DiTillio indicates that Steen was concerned about being typecast as a sci-fi actress.
Jessica Steen's own explaination materialised some time later. Steen re-entered the sci-fi limelight following her role Amblin/NBC's Earth 2 and all was revealed.In an interview with STARLOG, Steen revealed that she had known from the start, that Pilot was going to die and that she had never intended to work with the series for more than 1 year. She cited her concerns with the post-apocalpytic nature of the program, its affiliation with the toy company Mattel and the violence as amongst the factors which motivated her decision to sign only for a year. In 1996, at New Pacificon '96, an Earth 2 fan organised convention, Steen reiterated her reasons for leaving the show.
How can I get to meet other people who are Captain Power fans?
Ta-Da! I've finally managed to find a free automated mailer for a Captain Power List. To subscribe to the list, you have to visit ONElist.com. On the sidebar, select the 'Find List' option. This will take you to a search engine. Enter 'Captain Power' into the search engine and follow the instructions on how to subscribe from there.
Where can I get Captain Power merchandise and videos?
Brit TV is no longer a reliable source of CP videos. I have written to Landmark for information on whom they have licensed the video rights of CP to so keep checking back. I'm also working on providing information to collectors on toys,lunchboxes and thermos flasks, if there are any takers :)
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