I saw Battle of the Planets for the first time when I was 9 years old in the late 70's. It came on weekday afternoons on Channel 5 (Fox Channel). I checked it out because a couple of my friends had seen it and were snickering about it. Obviously, I didn't snicker. I was instantly hooked. I hadn't seen Star Wars, but still could see the cross-reference they were trying to establish with the dome shaped robot and one of the characters being named Princess. That part I did snicker over.

I don't remember the show being on for very long or if it even made it through all 85 episodes its first run (not that I knew how many episodes there were back then). My family and I moved to another part of the state, and we didn't have TV for awhile. We had stored all our belongings in the basement of our new house, and lost everything when heavy rains from a hurricane flooded the basement. When we did have TV again (an old borrowed black and white portable set), Battle of the Planets was gone. I remember being angry, but not devastated, so the depth of my obsession must have come later.

Eventually, Channel 5 aired the show at 6:30 a.m. and later at 6:00 a.m. This time, I know they made it through all the episodes, because I remember when we came back around to episodes I had seen before. I also remember being very confused when I saw the pilot episode and Zark had that echoey voice and Tiny's and Jason's voice was different.

Then one morning, BotP (what I called it, even then) was gone. Some other cartoon with characters that were very similar took its place. Similar, but not my characters. This time I was more than angry, I was furious. I searched for weeks, but it hadn't been moved to another time slot. What to do? What else could I do? The show could only live in my memory. I had one episode recorded on a music cassette and listened to it a couple of times a week until the tape got eaten by the player.

I also tried to write fan fiction (not knowing it was called that). My first attempts at writing failed miserably. Rapidly approaching puberty somehow transformed or carried all the story lines towards sex scenes that my friends and I would giggle over like the grade-school kids we were.

Until March 2000, all other "writing" took place in my mind only. Until my late teens - early twenties, I don't think a single day went by that I didn't think about the show or create a scene for the characters to play out.

Ahem. Well, I think my pen name says it all for this question. :-D

When I was a kid, there might as well have been only two characters on the show, Mark and Jason. I didn't really care for anyone else. I think I liked Princess the least, and I'm sure being dragged on my back across the school playground by my legs by two Spring Fever infested girls had nothing to do with my opinion of females at that time, either.

I have since made my peace with Princess (and with females in general). These days I would choose 1-Rover-1 as my least favorite. He's useless to the story since he serves no purpose. Some would argue the same about 7-Zark-7. If anyone were to say I have mental problems based on my obsession with BotP, I would blame Zark for it immediately. To this day, I doubt my attention and comprehension skills thanks to that little tin can. How many times did we all watch one thing happen to have the tin can tell us something completely different? And it didn't help that he did this after a commercial break, so at least three minutes had gone by to help fuzz my memory on what really did happen.

Shortly after I joined the list at eGroups, a heated debate broke out on the characterization of Mark (the character). I was struck with the idea to write a journal from his point of view. I would do it daily and write whatever came to mind, but try to do it with what I saw as his characterization. Fortunately, my ability to write improved greatly from when I was a pre-teen, but it was not nearly improved enough to save me from the occasional audience of crickets.

I had a tendency to listen to music while writing when I first started. Music helps to set mood, but when taken too far, it gets me into trouble. I also love thunderstorms and write better when a storm is approaching or going on overhead. So far, I have been lucky not to have my computer zapped during one of these sessions.

The turning point in my writing "career" came when a certain woman entered my life and offered her services as beta-reader. Without her help, I think I would have eventually succumbed to the forever, silent audience. Instead, she has helped me to avoid many mistakes and has helped me grow as a writer.

My latest helpful tool has been Stephen King's book, "On Writing." I have been suffering and struggling through writer's block during the writing of my latest fic and his book got me moving a couple of times.

I remember reading a story about Mark having a dream where he and the team chases Zoltar through the Hundred Acre Woods and they all meet Winnie-the-Pooh, Tigger, and the whole gang. This story sticks with me because of how well the author portrayed the characterizations for both universes and then did a remarkable job of convincingly blending the two universes together.

I like "Muse" best. It was the first piece I wrote that was not fic based on the show. It still dealt with the show, so it wasn't a complete tearing away, but for me it was a significant start at turning my writing towards other topics.

The one I'm writing now is my hardest. I want this piece to be a huge improvement over anything I've written so far. I've also promised myself that once I finish it, I'll move on to a story that is not about BotP. My muse is not happy with me and I don't doubt much of my block is self-induced.

The journal entries were pretty easy because they were mostly written at the spur of the moment with whatever emotion controlled me at that time. That did not necessarily make them my best writing, however.

I have re-written Part 6 to "The Search for Mark." It had resulted in the second and loudest of the cricket sessions due to bad writing. When a part goes as bad as that one did, a re-write is always recommended. Otherwise, I try not to do rewrites after "going to press." Some might consider this part of laziness. I consider it part of seeing my growth as a writer. I prefer to take any criticism and recommendations forward to my next story so I can see its improvement over previous work. Otherwise, I would forever be correcting the same stories instead of moving on with new ideas.

I hate reading fan fiction written by people who obviously don't do any reading of their own. I attribute this to any style that seems childish or very greatly lacking in conventional story format rules. I also don't like to see the characters turned into idiots or porn stars.

Hmmmm. Are you asking if there are two voice actors from the show I wish I could meet, or are you suggesting I admit I wish the characters were real people that I could meet? :-D Either way, I suppose my first two choices would be Mark and Jason. It would be nice to get an up-front and personal reality-check on what these guys are really like.

Will the real Mark Anderson please stand up? I always connected best with Mark. Here was a young guy that kept getting a raw deal from life (friends and loved ones getting killed left and right, a father that kept dying every other episode), and yet he continued to maintain some kind of control and kept doing his job. It was also pretty cool that he (or the others, for that matter) could show tears and not be considered weak or "unmanly." It was okay to have feelings and to show them. It was a nice change from the macho crap that had been shoved down my throat most of my life.

My life without BotP? I really can't contemplate how different a person I might be if I never saw the series. So many decisions on how I should handle certain situations, or paths I have chosen based on interests that the show helped me to develop - I suppose I might have made similar choices or developed the same interests anyway, but... Most likely I would have found a different show to obsess over in BotP's place and it probably would have been a sci-fi based show.

For a long time I was obsessed with owning anything written by Stephen King in hard back. My mom still does a nice job of getting me his latest books for Christmas every year, but that's not an obsession anymore. These days, his books might sit on my shelf for months or even years before I find time or a desire to take them down and read them (although I didn't let that happen when I unwrapped "On Writing" last Christmas).

I remember playing "Dukes of Hazzard" with my cousins, and briefly latching on to other shows over the years (Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Greatest American Hero, Battlestar Gallactica, Buck Rogers, A-Team...), but none have remained in my mind, heart and soul the way BotP has.

I suppose if I had to pick an all-time favorite, it would be "The Stand" by Stephen King. But I also greatly enjoyed "Bag of Bones," "Storm of the Century," and "Wizard and Glass."

Right now I have myself spread in so many different directions, most nights I tend to chase my tail rather than accomplish anything. But currently I write fan fiction, help my mom and sister put auctions up on eBay, read, work at learning html and how to create web pages, chat with friends in chat rooms or in instant messengers, draw, watch video tapes and DVD's, listen to music, and play a digital saxophone.

I am a draftsperson/designer for an engineering firm that specializes in material handling.

I'm currently 32, in dire need of a haircut (shoulder length isn't THAT long, is it?) and reside in Pennsylvania, USA. Although I enjoy drafting and working with CAD, my real interest is working in 3D modeling and rendering. I'm able to do a small smathering of this where I work now, but it's not nearly enough to help me retain what few skills I've taught myself.

My dream would be to design computer models and renderings that are used to develop special effects in today's cinematic movies. I've had this dream since the late 80's after reading an article about how computerized special effects were used in the movie "Ghostbusters." I was further intrigued after learning how Terminator 2 was handled. Today's DVD's provide a constant reminder if the special features portion of the disc has any kind of information about how it's special effects were handled. Two movies I recently watched, "The Matrix" and "The Perfect Storm", have reminded me once again that I'm still not doing what I really want. But I also try to be a realist and know that now still isn't the right time to chase my dreams. One might say, "If not now, when?" Don't worry. I have vowed that even if I have to move to California after I retire and volunteer my time to work on a special effects project, I will realize my dream. I hope to get out there long before then, though. And who knows, maybe I'll wind up being the next Stephen King, instead (now THAT's a dream :-D ).

http://battleoftheplanets.terrashare.com/eaglenest/