Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future?
 

Anyone know if there's been any hint of this short-lived but great 80s series coming to DVD? There's been all sorts of obscure TV shows coming out lately, and when I read then announcement that He-Man is finally being released, well this was a natural thought for me personally...

I'd possibly get it if it came out.

During a convention a few years back, I stood up and asked J. Michael Straczynski (who was an associate producer on the series) if he'd ever be interested in bringing it to comic form. After laughing at my devotion towards a "silly show," he mentioned something about ownership issues. Not sure if that would affect a DVD release or not.

I was a huge fan of the show and actually drove 4 hours to the one Blockbuster in Michigan that still had a Captain Power tape. It didn't really hold up as well as I had hoped. The dialogue is super cheesy and the special effects are ridiculous. That said, the storylines themselves are awesome and would make a great film or new series (they actually tried to start a new show in the late 90s, but it never got off the ground). There's some cool promotional images out there of what the "new" Lord Dread would have looked like.

Anybody remember the music video for the Scorpions' song "Rhythm of Love"? It used an environment very similar to what was depicted in Captain Power.

So who owns this show now? Has Straczynski ever hinted at DVDs at all? And with Straczynski being a big guy now, they could use his name to promote better sales of Captain Power. I have all the episodes but in abysimally bad quality, and yet they're still greatly watchable. Great fun, and as BJacks said, very very good writing, for essentially the Power Rangers of the 80s. Having gotten some of my most long-awaited titles on DVD this past year, I still hold hope that Captain Power will blast onto DVD soon enough, with restored video and sound, commentaries and extras. Well, I can dream can't I.

I remember having the interactive gun which would make noise when you shot it at the bad guys on TV.

Didn't the TV shoot back at your toys? And your little guy would fly out of his ship if it got hit enough time?

I have a couple of pre record VHS tapes of this show laying around somewhere.

It wouldn't be the same unless the DVD came with a ship to shoot with. ;) Granted, I only ever had a Captain Power figure.

Wow, there are some memories this thread dug up. Captain Power was the Shizzznight!

It's got LaFors in it.

Exactly. I wonder if mine are still sitting in my Mom's basement. I might have to go searching for it the toys :lol:

How crazy! I just found one of my VHS of this series and was going to put it up on ebay. I had all the toys and loved em! Do people still care about this show? I had no idea.

This is a good site. Looks kinda chesy though..
But I wathced it as well. =)
http://www.captainpower.com/

I remember this show, I thought it was pretty awesome, don't know how I'd feel if I saw it now though.

I would totally love it if they put these onto DVD.

I lost my Captain Power action figure at the Homecoming bonfire when i was kid....it was a sad week....i never got another one.....Would love to see this on dvd....and yes it would have to come with a SE box set that included the ship/gun and action figure

I don't need any junk, just gimme the DVDs already!! :)

Personally I don't want the DVD's. After watching GI Joe, Transformers, He-Man and others nowadays I've come to one conclusion. They suck. From the animation to the story lines. But as a kid I loved them. Thats how I'd rather remember them.

Yeah I kinda feel the same way, I watched G-Force for the first time in years and was a bit disapointed.

I just rewatched most of the episodes of Captain Power. Crappy quality, but oh well. And while it's true that it's not perfect, it holds up extremely well.

Not that i'm promoting it...but when you can buy a 3 DVD bootleg with extras of the entire first season, I think this is getting a little crazy. Will the producers look to the bootleggers for inspiration? :)

The Toys usually pop up on Ebay still sealed all the time. They are not too expensive either, not that they are groundbreaking or anything.

This show was incredible when I was a kid. Blastarr used to scare the crap out of me.

The toys that shot at the TV were cool, but I never got much into Captain Power. I do still have the complete set of Bionic 6 action figures, though. Where's that one on DVD?

Re: Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future?
 

It's coming to DVD. They have a Facebook page up and under one of the photos confirms it. :up:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Cap...09863132428863

www.captainpowerreturns.net

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Re: Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future?
 

I'd really love for them to bring this show back. With the technology now, it would be amazing. Sort of Terminator mixed with Tron mixed with Matrix. It wouldn't necessarily have to have the interactive shooting toys, but maybe they could just throw that in for the fans. From the video, it really sounds like they'd like to bring it back to tv. Or at least, direct to dvd. I remember pausing the tapes so that I could shoot the glowing chests of the bad guys all I wanted !

Re: Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future?
 

The one character in the video looks just like the Borg from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Which came first?

Re: Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future?
 

I still have the 3 skill levels on VHS but the ship/gun is long since gone. -kd5-

Re: Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future?
 

http://tvshowsondvd.com/graphics/new...Complete_e.jpg

From TVShowsonDVD.com

In the 22nd century, war was waged with mechanized warriors. Man had finally found a way to make war with minimal loss of human life. It was a good concept, until the machines united and turned their fury on their creators. It is the year 2148...the METALWARS have ended...machines battled man, and the machines won. Out of the ashes of defeat came JONATHAN POWER, humanity's last hope of defeating the BIO-DREAD warriors that are led by the evil LORD DREAD. Captain Jonathan Power and a devoted band of freedom fighters are all that stands between Dread and the final destruction of mankind.

We've previously reported that Gary Goddard Entertainment is hard at work on a DVD release of Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future - The Complete Series, with a planned release date of December 13th. It turns out that our friends at Video Service Corp. (VSC) will be distributing this title to retailers, and they've sent us all the details about it! The 4-DVD set running approx. 500 minutes will be priced at $44.98 SRP. In addition to the show itself (which ran for 22 episodes), you'll also get these special features:

"Out of the Ashes: The Making of Captain Power" - Brand new feature length documentary that gives fans an inside look at the making of the series, its ground breaking computer effects, and the show's important impact on science fiction television production.
Cast and Crew Commentary featuring creator Gary Goddard
Captain Power Season 2 Declassified - a Featurette about the Show's Unproduced Second Season)
Captain Power: The Legend Begins - Feature-Length TV movie, never aired in the US!
Character Concept Art
And more!

Re: Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future?
 

Cant wait.

Re: Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future?
 

Did anyone see this in stores this week? Wont get mine from Amazon until next week.

Re: Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future?
 

I couldn't find in any stores, so had to order from Amazon.
I hope the video quality is somewhat improved from my VHS editions.

Re: Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future?
 

I really hate the case to this set. I'm having a hard time removing the discs as the top ones seem to be stuck on the hubs. Any tricks to it?

Re: Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future?
 

^Havent had the chance to open it yet, when it got here, it got wrapped and put under the tree.

Re: Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future?
 

The video does look better than the VHS tape versions. The sound was enhanced a lot for this release.
Anybody know why no Training videos on this set?

Re: Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future?
 

^ Because Mattel sucks.

Re: Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future?
 

I hadn't realized this set came out in December and just read the DVD Talk review. <strike>It lists two episodes, The Room and The Rose Of Yesterday, which to the best of my knowledge were never previously broadcast. Up until now, I'd assumed neither even made it past script stage. Would somebody confirm that these episodes are included? More likely, I think they are typos.</strike>

For anyone interested, Room was supposedly yanked because the Biodread Empire tactic it displayed for rounding up humans cut a bit too close to a Nazi tactic for rounding up Jews, and Rose supposedly because it relied too heavily on Sven-Ole Thorsen ("Tank"), whose English was not so good back then.

Edit: I just re-read the review. The DVD set includes 22 episodes, but 24 episode titles are listed, so I've just answered my own question. :)

Re: Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future?
 

I never heard of this show until today, when I read an interview with the show's creator, Gary Goddard, in Filmfax. I don't remember it being on in 1987, nor does my daughter, nor do any of my co-workers who would have been of an age to see it. I'm guessing it never played in New York.


Questions:

1) Did it ever play on TV in New York?

2) How similar is it to Japanese TV shows of that type?
Were any Japanese shows an influence on it? (That question never comes up in the magazine interview.)

The pictures in the article look like stills from any of a million Japanese "tokusatsu" shows I've seen, e.g. "Space Sheriff Gavan" from 1982. Every other show that's played on TV in the U.S. with that look used Japanese footage (e.g. Beetleborgs, Masked Rider, Power Rangers, etc.). This one didn't.

Thanks.

Re: Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future?
 

1. It was shown on a Fox affiliate, so maybe you guys missed it by watching ABC/CBS/NBC Saturday morning shows.
2. Possibly but I remember it being more of a show based around the toy line and with the interaction between the show and the ships, since you could shoot the guys on TV and they'd shoot back.

Re: Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future?
 

It was a syndicated show, which are easy to miss. I don't know if I ever saw it, but I do remember the toy commercials. Actually, I don't think I knew it was a show, because when I came across it years later I thought that it was just a VHS tape that came with the toys.

Re: Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future?
 

I think it aired on WPIX in the New York area, we got PIX up here in Boston and I remember being able to watch the show twice a week from our local syndicated station and the NY one.

It's not terribly Japanese influenced. It's more like one of those post-nuke episodes of "Monsters" and it kind of has the feel of other live action syndicated shows of that time, like "Superboy" (could just be me)