Judge Dredd, eat your heart out.
You know I really had to scrub the ol' brain cells for this one. I'm honestly not sure what made me think of this. I was 9 when it came out and I do remember this show. I had the tapes, the action figures, and the ship lightgun. Well lets take an in-depth look at Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future!
"The year 2099. The place 'Volcania', center of the bionic universe." Stop laughing.
First of all, you have to see the trailer to believe it. This show existed!!!
Yeah I know, Its like Judge Dredd meets The Terminator meets C3P0. Captain Power and his team are masters of a bunch of incredibly obvious and unstealthy super suits that make them a "1 man attack force" (and probably the biggest target on the battlefield to boot). By the power of plastic,
The Soldiers of the Future are led by their brave leader, Max Power.....whoops sorry...rechecking notes here:
Ok so Captain Jonathan Power. He leads his team in rebellion against intelligent machines (insert Facebook Joke here) in the aftermath of the Metal Wars (which I believe Metallica won....checking....nope, Napster won).
They fight in the world of Volcania, because why not? Their entire universe is sitting atop Dr. Evil's hidden layer and they are fighting for the freedom to be burned alive by the next big magma flow.
Yes, someone wants absolute power over all of Volcania. Why? God knows. I figure you have a planet of pure fire and you might have 20 or so residents total to control..but hey dictators gotta dictate.
So the team fights against the evil hordes of Lord...Dread?
Bad news for TNG fans, Lord Dread wore it first. But who wore it better? Well lets just say they aren't trying to put together a Captain Power reboot...yet.
All I can remember is shooting at bright purple things while trying to avoid bright pink things, or visa-versa. Honestly its a little fuzzy.
Apparently they were called BioDreads. Hmm. Biological Machines. You know, I'm starting to think Star Trek: TNG got its inspiration for the Borg completely from this show...
You will be digitized...resistance is futile.
Side note: the effects are legendary. OK, so they aren't really great but I will remind you that this is 1987:
- The first year
The Simpsons aired - When Prozac was first distributed (the jokes write themselves)
- The year RoboCop made its debut
- And Dirty Dancing
- And Wall Street with Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen
- The year Michael Jackson released 'BAD'
- The year U2 released 'The Joshua Tree'
- The year Witney Houston released 'I Wanna Dance with Somebody'
- The year Alan Greenspan officially became the Federal Reserve Chairman
- The year Margaret Thatcher becomes UK Prime Minister
- The year Final Fantasy was released
Also, this was a low budget Canadian kids TV show. This generation has been spoiled by CGI. Back in my day we had to walk to school uphill both ways while watching special FX done with puppets and clay monsters
Ok, but the absolute best part was the show was interactive. You had a series of toys that would interact with the show allowing kids to play along and be a part of the action. Gotta admit, for the 80's, this was pretty cutting edge.
Captain Power is one of those rare 80's gems that encapsulates the feeling of the era, while simultaneously being about the future. And they had good news! Social Media is not a thing in 2099....in Volcania.
Yeah ok, I can't get over the name. It just doesn't read well:
In the Land of Volcania, in the fires of Mount Doom.See. It even makes Tolkien sound stupid. But enough about that. This show is definitely worth checking out. See it on YouTube in all its flashy glory!
