Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future

TV series

Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future was a syndicated sci-fi TV series that aired one season, 22 episodes, in 1987. Telling the story of Captain Power and his group of renegade soldiers fighting the evil Lord Dread in 2147, the effects-heavy series was one of the first to make use of digital computer graphics and animation. Although the show with its fancy high-tech equipment and the trademark "Power-On!" slogan clearly aimed at a pre-teen audience, critics praise the unusually rich plot created by acclaimed writers like Babylon 5 mastermind J Michael Straczynski.

What makes the short-lived and little-known Captain Power series interesting is its strong tie-in with product merchandising. Produced by toy manufacturer Mattel for the specific reason of backing a new range of action figures, Captain Power was linked to toy sales from the beginning. Controversy erupted when Mattel introduced a novel kind of interactive toy -- the PowerJet XT-7, a spaceship-shaped light gun which allowed users to shoot at the TV screen while the show ran, which would then retaliate by triggering special effects on the toy ship. Anti-violence-groups strongly protested, criticizing not only the shooting but also the fact that viewers were forced to buy additional products to get the most out of the TV show. Apart from the plastic toys, the Captain Power series also spawned three VHS "Training Episodes" for use with the light gun, a computer game and several comic books.

Although program ratings were acceptable and a second season had already been planed, Captain Power was abandoned after the first season mainly due to Mattel's closing of its TV production branch. Several episode highlights were later cut together to become the TV feature film Captain Power: The Beginning (1989).

The Captain Power anthem "Digi-Digi-Digitize" can be found on on CaptainPower.com.