| Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future | |
|---|---|
| Format | Science fiction |
| Created by | Gary Goddard Tony Christopher |
| Developed by | Marc Scott Zicree |
| Starring | Tim Dunigan Peter MacNeill Sven Thorsen Maurice Dean Wint Jessica Steen David Hemblen |
| Country of origin | Canada United States |
| No. of episodes | 22 (+3 cartoons and compilation TV movie) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Gary Goddard Tony Christopher Douglas Netter |
| Producer(s) | Ian McDougall |
| Running time | approx. 22 minutes (per episode) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original run | September 1, 1987 – March 27, 1988 |
Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future is a 1987–88 science fiction/action television series, merging live action with animation based on computer-generated images, that ran for 22 episodes in Canadian/American syndication. A toy line was also produced by Mattel, and during each episode there was a segment that included visual and audio material which interacted with the toys.[1][2][3]
Contents |
The storyline was set on Earth in the 22nd century following the Metal Wars, a cybernetic revolt that resulted in the subjugation of the human race by intelligent machines. Captain Jonathan Power and a small group of guerrilla fighters, called "The Soldiers Of The Future," opposes the machine forces that dominate Earth.
Each episode began with the following introduction, plus a recap of the storyline:
"Power on." Actor Timothy Dunigan, outfitted in his character's full regalia, would turn to the camera and deliver this line. Then Brad Crandall, a noted voice-over artist, would declaim:
| “ | Captain Power And The Soldiers Of The Future Earth, 2147. The legacy of the Metal Wars, where man fought machines—and machines won. |
” |
By 2132, advanced robotic soldiers known as Bio-Mechs had replaced humans in the armed forces of the world's nations. The existence of Bio-Mechs meant that wars could be fought without significant loss of life. This had the effect of transforming the concept of war into a nearly harmless battle between machines, and wars became an everyday event. A group of scientists led by Dr. Stuart Gordon Power (Bruce Gray) began working on an advanced supercomputer capable of overriding the control systems employed by the world's armed forces to operate the Bio-Mechs, and thus stop them, bringing an end to war.
The supercomputer, OverMind, required an equivalent to human brain patterns to become operational. Dr. Power's closest associate, Dr. Lyman Taggart (David Hemblen), became impatient with the slow pace of the project and hooked himself up to OverMind, using his own brain patterns to bring the supercomputer to operational status.
Both Taggart and OverMind were changed by the experience. Taggart became obsessed with the precision and "perfection" of machines and convinced himself that the next step in human evolution involved the merging of human consciousness in perfect mechanical bodies. OverMind became sentient and shared Taggart's beliefs. Using OverMind to take control of Bio-Mech armies throughout the world, Taggart launched a crusade to bring his vision to life. In mere months, the world was devastated by the Metal Wars, an apocalyptic conflict between Taggart's machine legions and the rest of humanity.
Desperate, the world governments turned to Dr. Power to find a way to stop Taggart. He developed the "Power Suits," exoskeletal armored suits coupled with advanced weapons. But before testing this new weapon, Power died trying to rescue his son Jonathan from Taggart. Taggart himself was severely wounded and OverMind "repaired" him by transforming Taggart into a cyborg. Discarding his previous identity, Dr. Lyman Taggart became Lord Dread.
By 2147, fifteen years after the Metal Wars broke out, humanity had been largely annihilated by Lord Dread's forces, and those who survived lived miserable existences in hiding. To bring about his ideal world, Dread deployed forces of BioMechs around the world to "digitize" human beings, storing them within OverMind. These Bio-Mech armies were usually led by advanced sentient machines called Bio-Dreads or by human officers and troopers loyal to Dread, who controlled the world from his headquarters in Volcania, somewhere in North America.
There are still human resistance groups that battled the Bio-Dread Empire. Some were mere bands, but others such as the East Coast Resistance, and "The Soldiers of the Future," led by Dr. Power's son Jonathan, are organized movements.
Holding the rank of captain, Jonathan Power commanded a group of five soldiers against Dread's forces. His soldiers used the Power Suits developed by Dr. Power, making them much more effective in dealing with the Bio-Mechs. They operate out of a "Power Base," an abandoned NORAD installation concealed in the Rocky Mountains. They relied on a supercomputer programmed with the Mentor, an artificial intelligence whom Dr. Power had created in his own image and with his own voice so that his son would never be without him.
During the show's only season, there was a story arc involving Project New Order, Lord Dread's plan to eradicate human life and develop his ideal world. The plan consisted of four stages:
Captain Power's group used a system of teleportation portals both to move quickly around North America and to keep their base's location secret. But at the conclusion of the first season, Lord Dread broke the codes used to operate this system and sent forces to assault the base. Power and most of his team escaped the facility, but Corporal Jennifer "Pilot" Chase (Jessica Steen), a former member of the "Bio-Dread Youth," was cornered inside and activated the base's self-destruct mechanism, killing herself and the Bio-Dread troops.
J. Michael Straczynski was the writer of the last episode of the series. He commented about Pilot's death, revealing that the scene was inspired by an especially tragic event in his own past.[4]
"I've never talked about this before—said I was in a thoughtful mood—but I've known several people, friends, who've taken their own lives. In one case, I spoke to her just beforehand. Tried, through the phone lines, to reach her one more time, pull her back from the edge. I couldn't. Years pass. Time comes for me to write the last filmed episode of Power."'
"Jennifer Chase is going to die, partly of her injuries, partly of her own volition. Part of my life went into that scene, in the way it was constructed, and what was said. And what was not said, what never had the chance to be said, and thus still burns. I knew that, at the crucial moment of that scene, he couldn't be near her, as I wasn't near my friend...it had to be long-distance, hearing but not seeing her, and the terrible pain of arriving too late. I cannot watch that episode without crying. Ever."
A second season entailed an anguished Captain Power neglecting his duties as the leader of the team and focusing more on a thirst for revenge on Dread and the slicer who betrayed them, Locke. Major Hawk would have taken on more of a leadership role with the team in Power's absence. Two characters were to be introduced: Chris "Ranger" O'Connor, a woman who would be Tank's love interest and Private Chip "TNT" Morrow, a soldier who appeared in the first season under the name of Andy Jackson.
The plot also covered the team's quest to find "Eden II," a supposed secret human refuge mentioned in the first season, while setting up a base of operations on a facility that was the prototype of the Power Base. Lord Dread would have gained a new mechanical form, as actor David Hemblen was not required back (safe perhaps for voice work). His new army consisted of 'Hunter-Seeker' troops and a new BioDread warlord called Xenon. Dread would also have a new assistant called Morgana II, a mechanical with the mind of his former lover – who would prove to be Jonathan Power's mother.
OverMind would have taken a larger role in the war and revealed a hidden agenda: after digitizing all the remaining human beings, it would erase them from existence. Wanting to keep this secret from Dread, it would have proved to have given Soaron, in case case Dread showed any objection or signs of suspicion, secret programming ordering him to get rid of Lord Dread.
A great majority of the show's story line was filled with romance and intrigue, which was made for the adults who watched the show with their children. Thus, the story was filled with romantic kisses, sexual innuendo, and occasionally scenes which implied sexual encounters between characters. Mild profanity was also present; "damn" was said on at least one occasion, and Pilot told Blastaar to "go to hell" in response to his order to surrender. In addition, the violent death of one of the major ongoing characters in the series (detailed above) was also an unusual development for a children's series. The inclusion of a "Bio-Dread Youth," which recruited young survivors to Lord Dread's ideals to further advance his agenda, also paralleled the Nazi regime.
On 2011-12-06 the complete series was released on a 4 disk DVD set in region 1. The set contains all 22 episodes plus many bonus material including interviews and commentaries with cast members.
Captain Power attempted to appeal to both children and adult audiences, with its dark, post-apocalyptic storyline showing the aftermath of nuclear war and featured allegories on topics such as Nazism.[1][5][6] Ultimately, however, this became the show's undoing; it was seen as too violent for children (e.g. toys for shooting at the television, live-action violence), and its less mature aspects, such as the title, drove away adult audiences. Other factors contributing to the show's failure included the higher cost of a live-action show (each episode cost an estimated $1 million to produce) compared to the cheaper production costs of a cartoon, as well as the fact that the gameplay between the show and the toys was extremely poor. Poor timeslot choices also contributed to the show's cancellation: it was sold to syndication as opposed to a regular network timeslot, which resulted in some television stations airing it in the 5-6am timeslot on Sunday mornings. The subsequent poor ratings hastened the show's demise. In an article from Starlog #128 written by Marc Shapiro with quotes from one of the writers of the show, Larry DiTillio, there are the following statements:
But for all those noble sentiments, Captain Power, to the public at large, is perceived as just another excuse to sell toys. It is a notion that rubs story editor Larry DiTillio the wrong way.
"We're not writing stories with the idea of turning each episode of Captain Power into a video game," declares DiTillio. But DiTillio, a first season staff writer who became story editor when J. Michael Straczynski (Starlog #111) left the position for a similar post with the revived Twilight Zone, claimed that ramrodding the script side of Captain Power hasn't been easy.
"This show has definitely not made my life easier," chuckles DiTillio. "This is not just another kid's cartoon show. The writing is always to an adult level. There is the interactivity which has been centered mainly in the battle sequences but we aren't in a position of having to write X amount of animation and interactivity into each episode. I want to make it very clear that around here, we're working for the story."
There is a tone of desperation in DiTillio's voice as he defends the writing integrity of Captain Power. It's a desperation resulting from dealing with cliché story submissions that have come streaming in amid the confusion about how childlike or adult Captain Power is. "People are coming in with the same old stories," DiTillio laments. "I'm getting Star Trek, Star Wars and Terminator. If I wanted another Terminator, I would call James Cameron."[7]
J. Michael Straczynski commented about the show's cancellation and the planned second season.
Re: Captain Power "...Yeah, that's a show that is an example of what to strive for, and how sometimes good intentions can get derailed. We genuinely wanted to come up with a long-term story, and by and large, we succeeded. The problem was the marketing in front of the show, and the merchandising behind the show...we got killed from both sides."
"There's an entire second season of unproduced CP scripts, story edited by Larry DiTillio, in which he follows up on the arc that I and others established during the first season. You would have found out what Dread became, what happened to Power's mother, where Eden was (and there would be direct contact), what the secret was in Soaron's programming, and so on."
In 1987 Captain Power was the target of anti-toy related children's television advocates who claimed that the series focused on selling children expensive toys to fully participate.[8]
Captain Power was also an attempt to cash in on the interactive television game market by Mattel. Some ships and playsets, when firing at the screen, would interact during various segments of the Saturday morning TV program. Video releases were available as well.
In 1988, a second and slightly more scarce series was released. The Dread Trooper and Dread Commander are still unconfirmed if they were ever released. Pictures of these figures were shown in the Mattel dealer catalog.
The first interactive toy and game for the series was a toy XT-7 jet with a video cassette. There were three tapes in all. "Future Force Training," "Bio-Dread Strike Mission," and "Raid On Volcania." The tapes had openings and closings in live action with the cast of the television show. The actual mission itself was animated and took place in the jet cockpit from the first-person point of view of the pilot/player. Players would hold the toy jet and face the screen. The toy was actually a sort of light gun that responded to signals from the television playing the tape. The more the player fired at appropriate targets on the screen, the more points the toy jet would rack up. The more times the sensor on the toy jet got "hit," the more points the jet would lose. Upon reaching zero points, the cockpit would eject automatically. The XT-7 also could interact with the live action television broadcast in the same manner. Since the "game" was only a VHS tape, the missions played out the same way all the time. Other interactive objects in this series were the "Phantom Stryker" Bio-Dread ship, the "Interlocker Throne" for Lord Dread, which consisted of a stationary tank on a tripod and an optional target viewer that could be taken on and off, and the "Power On" platform which one could plug the Captain Power figure into and whenever the transformation was triggered on screen or the base was fired at by one of the other vehicles, the toy would immediately trigger the "Power On" sequence causing the chest of the figure to glow.
| # | Title | Director | Writer | Original air date | Production code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | "Shattered" | Mario Azzopardi | Larry DiTillio | September 20, 1987 | |
| Power is lured to a devastated San Francisco where he meets an enigmatic woman from his past. | |||||
| 02 | "The Abyss" | Mario Azzopardi | J. Michael Straczynski | September 27, 1987 | |
| The team encounters an old general who has been broken by Lord Dread's offensives. | |||||
| 03 | "Wardogs" | George Mendeluk | Larry DiTillio | November 22, 1987 | |
| Hawk tracks a mysterious band of humans and discovers their leader has a link to his past. Meanwhile, Scout and Tank investigate Project New Order, unaware that Dread is manipulating events. | |||||
| 04 | "Final Stand" | Doug Williams | J. Michael Straczynski | October 4, 1987 | |
| Tank meets another man from the Babylon 5 genetic engineering facility and must confront him when civilian hostages are taken. | |||||
| 05 | "Pariah[n 1]" | Otta Hanus | Marc Scott Zicree | October 11, 1987 | |
| Hawk rescues a boy pursued by Dread's forces. The team is determined to discover more about the boy's origins, especially when the places he just left become contaminated by a mysterious illness. | |||||
| 06 | "A Fire in the Dark" | Doug Williams | Marv Wolfman | October 18, 1987 | |
| Lord Dread commissions a blind artist prodigy to create portraits of his ideal world. Power tries to make her understand Lord Dread's deception, especially after Lord Dread threatens to kill her friends. | |||||
| 07 | "The Mirror in Darkness" | Otta Hanus | Marc Scott Zicree, J. Michael Straczynski | October 25, 1987 | |
| A Captain Power impostor is on the prowl by searching human survivors for Soaron to digitize. It is up to the real Captain Power to shut him down and regain the humans' trust. | |||||
| 08 | "The Room[n 2]" | [n 2] | J. Michael Straczynski (story) Katherine Lawrence (teleplay) |
not aired | not produced[n 2] |
| The Power Team discovers entire areas devoid of human life but find leaflets offering promise of a well-stocked human settlement. Power decides to pose as a refugee to find out more, but the mission takes an unexpected turn. | |||||
| 09 | "The Ferryman" | Otta Hanus | J. Michael Straczynski | November 1, 1987 | |
| Captain Power obtains information about Charon, one element of Lord Dread's Project New Order designed to produce a new fleet of Bio Dreads. | |||||
| 10 | "And Study War No More" | Jorge Montesi | Michael Reaves | November 8, 1987 | |
| The Power Team traces strange transmissions to a place called Haven, where non-violence is a way of life. A closer look reveals that the citizens were coerced to work in another Project New Order element codenamed Styx. | |||||
| 11 | "The Intruder" | Jorge Montesi | Marc Scott Zicree (story) J. Michael Straczynski (story and teleplay) |
November 15, 1987 | |
| A former Earth Forces soldier infiltrates the Power Base to present himself as an additional candidate for the Power Team. However, his brazenness and the risk of compromising the base angers the group. | |||||
| 12 | "The Rose of Yesterday[n 2]" | [n 2] | Katherine Lawrence | not aired | not produced[n 2] |
| The Bio-Dread Empire orders the destruction of all books. The Power team scramble to save all literary artifacts, but Tank is wounded in an attempt to save a librarian and her collection of antique tomes. | |||||
| 13 | "Flame Street" | Otta Hanus | J. Michael Straczynski (story) Michael Reaves (teleplay) |
November 29, 1987 | |
| Captain Power plugs into the "web" to learn more information about Project New Order. However, Lord Dread is aware of his online presence and tries to stop him. | |||||
| 14 | "Gemini and Counting" | Otta Hanus | J. Michael Straczynski (story) Christy Marx (teleplay) |
January 10, 1988 | |
| Pilot infiltrates one of the BioDread Empire's medical laboratories to steal a vaccine under her old guise of a BioDread Youth. The mission is put at risk as she encounters another BioDread Youth who attacks her. | |||||
| 15 | "And Madness Shall Reign" | Jorge Montesi | Larry DiTillio | January 17, 1988 | |
| Tank goes berserk after he drinks water laced with a psychotic drug. Hawk is assigned to calm him down while the others trace the source of the drug. | |||||
| 16 | "Judgment" | Jorge Montesi | Larry DiTillio | January 31, 1988 | |
| Pilot and Power successfully fight off Soaron during a desert patrol, but Power's injuries prompts Pilot to leave him behind and seek medical help. A visit to a nearby town goes awry, as its residents recognize Pilot and put her on trial for atrocities she committed on the town during her service with the BioDread Youth. | |||||
| 17 | "A Summoning of Thunder, Part I" | Otta Hanus | J. Michael Straczynski | February 7, 1988 | |
| Captain Power visits his father's grave, where he remembers the origins of the Metal Wars and his father's role in it. Lord Dread, who was once a close friend of Power's father, goes out to find the younger Power. | |||||
| 18 | "A Summoning of Thunder, Part II" | Otta Hanus | J. Michael Straczynski | February 14, 1988 | |
| Lord Dread's race to find Power triggers his own memories of the Metal Wars and how he and Power's father parted ways. The origins of Soaron are also revealed. | |||||
| 19 | "The Eden Road" | Ken Girotti | J. Michael Straczynski | February 21, 1988 | |
| The Power Team head to Darktown to meet a courier from Eden II, a secret human refuge often derided as a myth. Determined to prove Eden II's existence, Power tries to coerce more information from the courier, who gives them an orange apparently grown at Eden II's natural gardens. | |||||
| 20 | "Freedom One" | Aiken Scherberger | J. Michael Straczynski (story) Christy Marx (teleplay) |
February 28, 1988 | |
| The East Coast Resistance organizes a meeting of top rebel leaders with the Power Team's help. A traitor puts everything in jeopardy. | |||||
| 21 | "New Order, Part I: The Sky Shall Swallow Them" | Otta Hanus | Larry DiTillio | March 6, 1988 | |
| Realizing that Lord Dread has completed the Icarus and Prometheus phases of Project New Order, the Power Team assaults the Icarus command station in Volcania and reprogram the satellite to crash on the place in the hope of destroying both programs. | |||||
| 22 | "New Order, Part II: The Land Shall Burn Them" | Otta Hanus | Larry DiTillio | March 13, 1988 | |
| Despite Soaron's best efforts to stop it, the Icarus satellite crashes into the main structure in Volcania causing massive damage to the base, but deflector shields minimize the damage to the Prometheus facilities. The Power Team heads back to Volcania to finish the job but Blastarr, a new BioDread Warlord, stands in the way. Power also has a short fight with Lord Dread. | |||||
| 23 | "Retribution, Part I" | Jorge Montesi | J. Michael Straczynski | March 20, 1988 | |
| Three weeks after the Power Team's disruption of Project New Order, Lord Dread launches a worldwide crackdown against all of humanity. The Soldiers of the Future combat Dread's troops at every possible hotspot and try to save as many people as they could. However, after being injured during one of the battles, Blastarr discovers the Power Team's warpgate capabilities, which satisfies Lord Dread. Activating his stealth camouflage, Soaron provides Lord Dread with the frequency of the Power Team's warp gate activation code. Concerned that OverMind is corrupting Lakki to watch over him, Lord Dread engineers an accident to dispose of the robot for good. | |||||
| 24 | "Retribution, Part II" | Jorge Montesi | J. Michael Straczynski | March 27, 1988 | |
| Emboldened with the information given by Soaron, Lord Dread sends Blastarr and a squad of soldiers to ambush the male members of the team as they exit the gate on a Christmas Day patrol and slip through to the Power Base, where Pilot has to fight off the invaders on her own. In a last act of defiance, she wires the base to self-destruct, but not before sending various equipment and key elements of Mentor (the Power Base's AI matrix, fashioned in the likeness of Power's father) out in a hoverbike for the rest of the team to recover. | |||||
| # | Title | Director | Writer | Original airdate | Production Code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | "Vendetta, Part I" | Larry DiTillio | not aired | not produced | |
| Power and his team are on the run after the Power Base is destroyed by Pilot. They take refuge in the Passages to lick their wounds, but Power is consumed by his desire for revenge on Locke, the man responsible for the death of Pilot. His plan ultimately brings him face to face with the new Lord Dread, a cyborg who is now far more machine than man. Also, a woman by the name of Chris "Ranger" O'Connor is comes into the picture.[9] | |||||
| 02 | "Vendetta, Part II" | Larry DiTillio | not aired | not produced | |
| Power attempts to find and activate a new Power Base, which had been created by his father somewhere within the Arctic Circle. But first they raid a Dread installation for supplies and fuel. Their mission is cut short when the JumpShip is severely damaged and crash lands in a densely forested area in northern Canada.[10] | |||||
| 03 | "The Archers, Part I: The Order of the Arrow" | Christy Marx | not aired | not produced | |
| Crashing in the Great Northern Forest, Power and his men are attacked by a phalanx of troopers and then captured by an armed group carrying high tech bows and arrows who call themselves "The Archers". Angry that the JumpShip's crash has destroyed a large amount of prime forest and fearful that the crash will draw Dread's forces into their land in greater numbers, the Archers threaten to kill Power and his team.[11] | |||||
| 04 | "The Archers, Part II: Visions in Ultraviolet" | Christy Marx | not aired | not produced | |
| While Power and the team are gaining the trust of the Archers, Dread seeks an alliance the "Baron", a tyrant who attempts to rule the forest people through hiss use of force. Learning of the unholy alliance, the Power team and the Archers mount a joint recon mission. But the Captain finds himself in great personal danger when his Power Suit runs out of juice as the "clickers" attack.[12] | |||||
| 05 | "The Archers, Part III: The Willow and the Oak" | Christy Marx | not aired | not produced | |
| Unable to find Jonathan after his fall from the cliff, the remaining team members go with the Archers to a meeting with a man they call the "Trader". But unbeknownst to his team, Power was rescued from the river by the Trader, who identifies him as being wanted by Dread. Dread sends his newest BioDreads, the "Hunter-Seekers" to attack the rebellious group, who find the new units nearly indestructible. The group manages to escape, but Dread orders them to surrender at once or he will create a plasma storm which will burn everything within a 1000 km radius.[13] | |||||
| 06 | "The Archers, Part IV: Plasma Storm Raging" | Christy Marx | not aired | not produced | |
| The Hunter-Seekers begin igniting a plasma storm as ordered while the Power team watches in horror from a distance. Dread vows to destroy the entire forest unless Power surrenders to him. Ignoring the Captain's orders, Hawk attempts to stop the BioDreads from spreading the holocaust, but when his suit's power begins to fail, he is shot out of the sky and falls into the middle of the raging plasma storm.[14] | |||||
| 07 | "The Archers, Part V: Death and Beyond" | Christy Marx | not aired | not produced | |
| After finding parts to repair the JumpShip in a raid of the Baron's warehouse, Hawk and Scout struggle to repair the ship while Tank, Chris and the Archers attempt to capture the Baron's laser cannon. Only the cannon has sufficient power to hold off the growing plasma storm. But Dread has too many forces protecting the cannon, so Captain Power draws attention away from it by challenging Dread to a fight to the death.[15] | |||||
| 14 | "The Blood Dimmed Tide, Part I: The Ceremony of Innocence" | Michael Reaves | not aired | not produced | |
| While attempting to gather more data on Project Rebirth, Captain Power, Tank and Ranger are marooned on a tropical island where the evil Dr Severius is carrying out horrific experiments for Lord Dread, experiments which have created a race of mutants with strange powers. While Jonathan strives to persuade the mutants to ally with the humans struggling for freedom, Hawk, Scout and TNT must hold out against Dread and his forces all by themselves. The title for this three part story arc comes from the poem The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats, which includes the lines "The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned."[16] | |||||
| 15 | "The Blood Dimmed Tide, Part II: Tyger, Tyger" | Michael Reaves | not aired | not produced | |
| While attempting to gather more data on Project Rebirth, Captain Power, Tank and Ranger are marooned on a tropical island where the evil Dr Severius is carrying out horrific experiments for Lord Dread, experiments which have created a race of mutants with strange powers. While Jonathan strives to persuade the mutants to ally with the humans struggling for freedom, Hawk, Scout and TNT must hold out against Dread and his forces all by themselves. The sub-title for the second part of the story arc is from the poem The Tyger by William Blake, which begins, "Tyger! Tyger! burning bright."[17] | |||||
| 16 | "The Blood Dimmed Tide, Part III: Ozymandias" | Michael Reaves | not aired | not produced | |
| While attempting to gather more data on Project Rebirth, Captain Power, Tank and Ranger are marooned on a tropical island where the evil Dr Severius is carrying out horrific experiments for Lord Dread, experiments which have created a race of mutants with strange powers. While Jonathan strives to persuade the mutants to ally with the humans struggling for freedom, Hawk, Scout and TNT must hold out against Dread and his forces all by themselves. The sub-title for the final chapter of this story arc comes from the poem Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley, which includes the line, "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"[18] | |||||
| ? | "Face of Darkness" | David Bennett Carren, J. Larry Carroll | not aired | not produced | |
| "The Power Team head to the old city of Toronto to try and save the human settlement there being threatened by Dread and his Bio-Dredds. During the rescue operation, Scout comes across a mysterious figure in the tunnels below the city, known only as 'Mindi 7'."[19] | |||||
| ? | "A Passion Forged in Steel" | Steve Gerber | not aired | not produced | |
| "The Power Team pick up a bunch of refugees after staving off a Dread attack on them. Power suspects a spy amongst the refugees and dispatches Scout to unveil the snitch.Steve Gerber's script introduces the mysterious operative Morgana and sets the tone for her relationship with Lord Dread (featuring the first ever cyber-sex scene in television history according to Larry DiTillio), with an unexpected twist for Captain Power."[20] | |||||
| ? | "The Observer" | Mark Cassutt | not aired | not produced | |
| "The story deals with a possibly alien race or humans in exile who escaped Earth and are sitting in judgment over what has transpired on Earth. One of these neutral observers of the battle between Power and Dread choses to align himself with the humans -- violating his non-interference directive."[21] | |||||
A promotional video produced months before the series aired featured a sixth "Soldiers of the Future" member, Col Nathan "Stingray" Johnson, a specialist in seaborne operations.[22]
The show also spurred a short-lived comic-book of the same name, published by Continuity Comics in 1988–1989, illustrated by Neal Adams with stories by J. Michael Straczynski, who was also the series story editor, writing half the episodes and providing stories or outlines for many more.
The official Captain Power page on Facebook announced on September 9th, 2011 that the complete series would be released on DVD on December 13th, 2011.