Earth, 2147. The legacy of the Metal Wars, where man fought machines—and machines won. Bio-Dreads — monstrous creations that hunt down human survivors... and digitize them!
In 1987, before he created Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski was a writer for
Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, a live-action sci-fi show for kids. 24 episodes were produced. Straczynski wrote or co-wrote 14 of them, including multi-episode plot arcs. A
line of interactive toys brought the battle into kids’ living rooms, and
Captain Power was also one of the very first shows on television to feature computer animation in every episode. But in an attempt to appeal to both children and the adults who watched with them, the campy show included some concepts and scenes critics deemed too violent for children and lasted only a single season in syndication.
The full run of the show has now been uploaded to Youtube. [more inside]
posted by zarq
on Apr 1, 2012 -
28 comments
Just over sixty years ago the
Reverend W. V. Awdry told his sick son a series of stories based on
real life incidents with trains,
which he later wrote up as the Railway Series. Now
Thomas the Tank Engine and
the other engines of the Isle of Sodor (somewhere
between Barrow-in-Furness and the Isle of Man) are a global phenomena, with
toys, books and of course the TV series - filmed using model trains on
more than 70 1:32 scale 16-by-20-foot sets, and voiced by the likes of Ringo Starr and Alec Baldwin. 2008 has been a rough year for Thomas: George Carlin, who voiced the series in the US up until 1998, passed away (
previously), as did
David Mitton, who had written and directed over 180 episodes (and who has previously worked on the special effects for
Thunderbirds). There's changes ahead for Thomas as well - this year saw the faces of the engines, which had previously been cast in silicone and attached with double sided tape, replaced by
CGI faces, and from 2009 onwards
Nitrogen studios in Canada will be taking over production with an
entirely CGI Thomas. Meanwhile a group of British students continues the tradition of model engine-based storytelling with their YouTube based
British Railway Series.
posted by Artw
on Dec 21, 2008 -
74 comments
