- Pilot to Hawk on where Jon goes every year.
The date is June 14 2147. As he has done for the last fifteen years, Captain Power flies alone in the XT-7 to pay his respects to his father on the anniversary of his death. Beside a shimmering lake, under the shade of a tree, is a brass plague bearing the name - Stuart Gordon Power. Removing his helmet, Jonathan Power kneels down and places a flower on the plague, his mind recalling the events that took place 15 years ago.
Dr Stuart Power inspects the partially complete Power Base while his assistant fumes about the perceived excessive secrecy and informs Dr Power that the workmen are unhappy with the arrangement. Dr Power is unpreturbed and simply tells his assistant to pay the workmen more, pointing out that it won't be long before money will lose its value too.
In another part of the Base, a young Jonathan Power is getting a lesson in military tactics from Matt Masterson. As young Jonathan does a few practice chin ups, Matt is busy wiring up some robots to test his young charge. Dropping to the ground, Jonathan signals he's ready. Matt activates the jerry-rigged Bio-Mechs. A confident Jon proceeds to demolish the robots one by one while Matt and his father, who has just arrived, watch with paternal pride.
In Volcania, Lyman Taggart (he had not yet become Lord Dread) oversees the final work on Volcania and discusses with Overmind the creation of a new breed of robot warrior, the Bio-Dread. At the Power Base, Stuart Power and Matt Masterson discuss the long range teleportation system Dr Power has designed to facilitate speedy travel around the country.
Power reflects on his efforts and remarks to Matt that he hopes this will be the means to put to an end, once and for all, the conflict that has been raging all these years - since he and Lyman Taggart decided to go their separate ways. An angry Power berates himself, his arrogance, their arrogance in believing that they had found a way to end war. Dr Power recollects with bitterness how he should have perhaps known that the war with Taggart was coming - how he should have been alerted by Taggart hooking himself up to Overmind and letting the machine 'Touch his Mind'.
Meanwhile in Volcania, the moment has come. From the birthing chamber in Volcania, Soaron, the first generation of Bio-Dread warlords emerges. Immediately, Taggart sets him to work, wiping out pockets of resistance with his firepower and Digitizer.
At the Power Base, Dr Power intercepts a distress signal from a beleaguered platoon being overwhelmed by the fire power of the Bio-Dread. Anything if not familiar with the handiwork of his former collaborator Taggart and the computer they built together, Overmind, he knows immediately what the platoon has come up again and is aghast. The Bio-Dread, a living thinking machine, capable of independent thought and action with a organic component which enabled it to spontaneously regenerate.He watches in horror as Soaron decimates the entire platoon of soldiers and proceeds to digitize the last one
Immediately he orders his assistant to contact Jonathan, who is out on a supply run, with orders to return to the base immediately, and orders the entire base to be sealed off. Taggart it seems, has managed to keep one step ahead of him. Taggart meanwhile orders his men to monitor radio transmissions that will lead him to Power and the base that he knows Dr Power is building.
Dr Power is too late. Soaron discovers the supply run depot and immediately begins to attack. Jon valiantly attempts to fight off the Bio-Dread so that an assistant can warn his father but his blaster is no match for the superior firepower of the Bio-Dread. It is like no minion of Taggart's he has ever encountered. In minutes, Soaron neutralises young Power and prepares to digitize him. A watching Taggart stops him and orders him instead to bring Jonathan back to Volcania, where Taggart plans to use him to lure Stuart Power out into the open.
Dr Power is examining his secret pet project,codenamed the Phoenix Project, at the Power Base while dictating his log. The Power Suits, which are stored behind a vault, are new experimental technology, but technology he hopes will turn the tide definitively against Dread. In the midst of his dictation, he is interrupted by a message from Taggart informing him that he has Jonathan and is holding him prisoner at Volcania. Taggart issues an ultimatum: come to Volcania or Jon dies.Confronted with a choice of having his son die at the hands of his arch enemy or exposing himself, Stuart Power elects to go to Volcania to face off his former friend. But before he leaves, Stuart Power activates two programs pre-loaded onto the Power Base computer, the 'Final Word' and 'Mentor' programs, certain that he will not be returning.
At Volcania, Taggart attempts to justify his actions to Jonathan. But the young man refuses to listen and vows to hunt Taggart down for the rest of his life. The scene dissolves to the present day but we are now in Volcania. Courtesy of one of his EyeSpys,Lord Dread is watching Jonathan Power on his monitor screen, as he has for the last 15 years.Dread is unwilling to interfere in Power pilgrimmage, perhaps because a speck of humanity still remains in him, perhaps because this is his way of paying his respects to a old friend. But this does not go down well with Overmind and Lackki, who use the opportunity to taunt Dread about his human weakness. Goaded by the two, Dread finally takes action when Overmind demands he take advantage of Power's vulnerability. He boards the Dread Jet and heads to confront Power.
Click Here to read Part II.
Comments:
This episode, appropriately placed towards the center of the season, finally tells us how it all began. But it is just more than just history. It explains Power's connection with Dread and how he acquired the Power Suits, as well as explaining how Lord Dread came about. It is an exceedingly well written episode - but then, most of the Captain Power episodes were. The opening scene is one of the more moving moments of the series.This episode also gives us a little insight into Dread the Man, as opposed to Lord Dread the tyrant as we are used to seeing. Dread begins to flesh out beyond the two dimensional almost caricature that we have been exposed to up till this point and JMS begins to tap into the question of Dread's residual humanity. JMS also developes the Overmind-Lackki thread here, slowly showing us how the two work together to arguably manipulate Dread - the question of who is the Master; Dread or Overmind, begins to creep into the equation. With hindsight, we can see the cosiness between Lackki and Overmind belies something going on between the two though this does not become self evident until very much later.
The adult Jonathan Power doesn't feature much in this episode and its a good opportunity for Matt Masterson to take the forefront role. This episode showcases very clearly the relationship Matt had with the Powers and explains the closeness that is evident later between the adult Jonathan and Matt Masterson.
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