Friday, June 29, 2007

Power On

[Title Poster: Power On]
Written by Kal-El

Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future was a syndicated 1987 television series that ran for 22 episodes. During each episode there was a segment that included visual and audio material intended for the toys. Viewers could purchase the toys and then play a sort of video game interacting with the television program. Though billed primarily as a children's show, it gained more than its share of adult fans through its serious storyline, elaborate special-effects and combat themed action.

[Short lived Captain Power TV Series in the 80's]

The storyline was set on Earth in the 22nd century following the Metal Wars, a cybernetic revolt that had resulted in the subjugation of humanity by intelligent machines. Captain Jonathan Power and a small group of guerrilla fighters battle the machine forces that dominate a future Earth.

[Originally Retro: what a cool figure, with visor up though]

Captain Power attempted to appeal to both children and adult audiences. Ultimately, this became the shows undoing after coming under fire for being too violent for children (e.g. toys for shooting at the television, live-action violence) as well as driving away adult audiences with its more childish aspects (e.g. the shows title). Other major contributing factors included the higher cost of a childrens 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.

But as kid, i went straight to the old Yaohan and bought mine there, it was cool, the violence didn't matter to me, the toys were too awesome for me to worry enough about the violence.

[The XT-7 Jet: Shooting on your tv screens]

But Sadly, poor timeslot choices also contributed to the shows undoing - 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 shows demise. So until now, i am stuck watching season 1...guess we all have to live with it, Keep on reading true believers. Power on!!