From: gharlane@nextnet.csus.edu (Gharlane of Eddore)
Subject: Re: Captain Power - Sauron and Blastarr
Followup-To: alt.dev.null
Summary:  nice job, even if mail to you *does* bounce!
Keywords: Keep pro hockey players OUT of the S.A.G.
Organization: Evil Beings From Planet Eddore, Inc.
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 06:14:45 GMT

I notice my attempt at a mail reply bombed, so I'll just stuff it into
the newsgroup; apologies to non-fans of the show.
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Date: Mon, 18 Jan 93 22:39:46 PST
To: sidefx!mayerson

In <C129HJ.GLL@sidefx.uucp> you write:

> I'm interested to see references to Captain Power popping up in the
> discussions of Deep Space 9 and Space Rangers.  I'm amazed that
> anyone remembers the series and pleasantly surprised to see that
> anybody liked it.
>
> I was one of five computer animators who animated Sauron and Blastarr, 
> the two robot villains.  I'd be curious to hear people's opinions of them.
> Please, be honest.  I'd be the first to admit the many shortcomings of
> the animation and the series.
>
> If this thread goes anywhere, I'll jump back in with my perspective
> on the show.
>
> -Mark Mayerson

Sir.... my most earnest congratulations to  you and your cohorts.
The structure of the "CAPTAIN POWER" series so impressed me that I 
went to considerable trouble reverse-engineering the series format,
and writing scripts on "spec" to submit to Larry Otillio and Joe-Mike
Straczynski.   
I'd turned it on by accident, since it had been touted as a "kids'
show," and was immediately riveted by the computer animation.  I remember 
standing there, thinking, "There is *no* way they had enough budget,
not for a rotten half-hour toy-peddling show, to pay someone to do work
that good.  Someone actually cared about what they were doing, here!"
Sure, it left a lot to be desired, but someone was TRYING to make it
look good.
 
And then I started watching the scripts and the acting.   Several of 
the scripts were literate, imaginative, and incredibly good stories 
for the 22 minutes of air time available.  Only one regular actor
should have been shot, and his part didn't call for much thespian
capacity to start with. 
 
If you feel that the series lacked, you should probably consider that, 
when you watch it, YOU know where all the seams and short-cutting are;
all you see is the flaws.  You see the same piece of stock animation 
electronically matted into 93 different scenes, and it gravels because
you'd have liked to have done more, or been more imaginative; you miss
the fact that the series is so far above the norm for that period that
panicked parents' groups actually *campaigned* to get it off the air,
when they realized how devoted their kids were to it, and how 
effectively its cold-blooded purpose (to sell toys to impressionable
itty-bitty children) was being achieved.

Since the episodes were shown out of sequence here, we went to some 
little trouble constructing a chronological order, as part of analyzing
the series format.   One of the time-variant characteristics I noted
was that the glowing symbol on "Blastarr"'s chest was sometimes white,
sometimes red, and sometimes contained Lord Dread's sigil/symbol.
Was this something that you folks just did as the spirit moved you,
or did it change for some specific reason? 
 
I particularly liked the "regeneration" sequences whenever Sauron 
got his tailfeathers shot off; much appeared to be stock footage, 
since I saw it more than once, but it seemed that variations began
to creep in whenever production lead time allowed.
 
Thanks again for some of the best fun I had with TV during your
production years.
 
(Incidentally, I have two degrees in English, one in Electrical/Electronic
Engineering, one in Computer Science, and am currently chasing an MS in
CompSci.   Over the years, I've worked as a design engineer, an English
teacher, and seventeenth-assistant script retypist/coffeefetcher on a 
major TV series at Universal.   What I'm trying to say is, I don't think
of myself as a brain-damage case, and most of the kids AND grownups I 
know loved the heck out of "CAPTAIN POWER."   You guys did okay.)

I would, of course, love to know who was responsible for the fact that 
the chess moves Power and his old girlfriend recited did *not* match
the moves on the screen.........   and there's the Mysterious Mis-Matched
Death Date on Stuart Power's empty grave marker, but what's a few years, 
right? 
 
Good show, even if I *did* have to complete my collection by recording 
slop-dubbed episodes of "CAPITAN PODER" from the spanish-language station
in the Bay Area.

Xref: sparky rec.arts.sf.tv:7471 rec.arts.tv:26314