A Critical Analysis of the Captain N Fandom (Part 1)
Mark Moore
An Essay by Mark Moore
Saturday, March 16, 2002, 2:10 PM - Thursday, May 23, 2002, 9:05 PM
Introduction
Written: Saturday, March 16, 2002, 2:13 PM - 2:24 PM; Tuesday, May 14,
2002, 12:52 PM - 1:11 PM; Thursday, May 23, 2002, 12:48 AM - 12:53 AM,
12:54 AM - 12:57 AM
Hello, my name is Mark Moore. I'm 23 years old.. I was born in
Chicago, Illinois, and lived there until I was seven years old. I
currently live in Florida.
I am the creator and maintainer of The Unofficial Captain N Home Page,
a website devoted to "Captain N: The Game Master". You will find out
what that is shortly if you don't already know.
Usually, I write reviews of the Captain N TV episodes to post here,
but I'm doing something else this time around.
I've become greatly displeased with what the Captain N fandom has
developed into over the years. In this essay, I hope to, among other
accomplishments, tell you what Captain N is, how the fandom started,
where it's been, where it is now, where it's going, and my suggestions
for saving it from that fate.
While reading this essay, you will notice more quoted material in the
later chapters (1999 and 2001-2002) than the earlier chapters. It's
not due to lack of early documents (while I'll explain in a while).
It's because what happened in 1999 and 2001-2002 is more important and
the real reason that I wrote this essay.
You should consider this essay to be a constant work-in-progress for
as long as the Captain N fandom exists. As such, this essay will never
be truly complete - at least not for the foreseeable future. I will
add new sections and additions to existing sections whenever I feel
like it, so check back from time to time.
Even if you're not a Captain N fan, or even have never seen or heard
of Captain N, please read this essay. If something like this can
happen in one fandom, it can happen in another fandom, too.
Now, I'm going to get something to drink and explore the beginnings of
the Captain N fandom. So, go to the fridge, get a drink, and prepare
to read something really long.
The Beginning of the Fandom
Written: Saturday, March 16, 2002, 2:28 PM - 5:24 PM; Tuesday, May 14,
2002, 1:16 PM - 1:30 PM
Apple juice, two glasses, in case you were wondering.
Er, anyway, I guess I'll start by telling you what Captain N is.
"Captain N: The Game Master" was a Saturday morning cartoon series
that aired on NBC from 1989 to 1992 and in syndication until 1993. It
was produced by DiC Entertainment and was based on Nintendo game
characters and characters from third-party companies that created
games for play on the Nintendo Entertainment System.
The plot, basically, is that there's another universe called
Videoland, and, in that universe, the characters from our video games
really exist and live on "video worlds". Mother Brain, the main
villainess from the game Metroid, is trying to conquer Videoland, and
she has lackeys from other video games to do her dirty work for her.
Videoland's royalty lives in the Palace of Power (a reference to the
POWER button on the NES?). King Charles, the ruler of Videoland, is
missing, and his daughter, Princess Lana, is ruling in his absence.
Mother Brain's huge army has been laying siege on the Palace of Power
for the past seven years. Lana and her defenders - Simon Belmont from
CastleVania, Mega Man, and Kid Icarus - are waiting for the end to
come. Suddenly, an ancient prophecy is fulfilled, and a hero from
Earth is brought to Videoland to defeat Mother Brain. He is known as
Captain N: The Game Master. Captain N is Kevin Keene, a 15-year-old
kid from Northridge, California. He and his dog, Duke, are warped to
Videoland. The six of them are the N Team. Their duty is to protect
Videoland from Mother Brain.
That's basically it. If you're looking for more, you won't find much.
Sure, there's Lana's brother, Prince Lyle, who's seen / mentioned in
two episodes, and Lana's father, King Charles, appears in two
episodes. Still, my point is that there's not much that you need to
know to watch the show. In fact, you can watch the first episode, the
fourteenth episode, and then almost any other episode in the series,
and you won't be lost.
Let's break down the series by season. There were 34 episodes of
"Captain N: The Game Master" (henceforth known as "Captain N") plus
variations. 1 was a clips episode. There were 13 episodes in Season 1,
14 in Season 2 (including the clips episode), and 7 in Season 3.
Season 1 was written entirely by Jeffrey Scott. He's written episode
scripts for lots of cartoon series, including "The Muppet Babies".
Jeffrey Scott is the grandson of Moe of The Three Stooges.
Here is what he says about writing for Captain N, taken from an
interview that I did with him on Saturday, January 26, 2002:
"Interesting story. I had written several series for Andy Heyward at
DIC, and he asked me to write the Captain N series. It was my m.o. at
the time to write entire series. I had been doing this, on and off,
for about 13 years. So I agreed to do the series. But the Vice
President of Childrens Programming at NBC, Phyllis Tucker-Vinson,
somehow got the idea in her head that I wasn't that great of a writer.
She told Andy that all of my Muppet Babies scripts had to be
rewritten. I wanted to write the series, but more importantly, I
wanted to disabuse her of the idea that my Muppet Babies scripts were
heavily rewritten. So I called Jim Henson, who was shooting a movie in
London. It's a testament to the quality of Jim's character and
kindness that he took the time to actually call Phyllis and set her
straight about my contribution to Muppet Babies. The next day I got
the job."
While Season 1 was still airing (most likely entirely reruns by this
point), Valiant began producing Nintendo-based comic books. One of
these was a Captain N comic book series. The Captain N series lasted
until issue # 5, then it was canceled (despite an ad for issue # 6
with no month or year printed on it). Valiant could use only
Nintendo-created characters in the comic books. Therefore, Mega Man
(Capcom) and Simon Belmont (Konami) were gone, and, instead, Samus
Aran (the heroine of Metroid) was on the N Team.
The comic book stories were generally more serious than the episodes
of the TV series, which consisted mostly of juvenile, slapstick humor
similar to that of, well, The Three Stooges. =)
This was because the comic book writers could write more serious stuff
than was allowed on the TV series.
Season 2 was written entirely by other writers - nine of them, four of
which worked in pairs. It had basically the same types of stories that
Season 1 had, but it guest-starred a few more video game heroes and
villains (Season 1 guest-starred three, I believe). Also, Gameboy, a
computer that looks like a giant Nintendo Game Boy, was added to the N
Team purely as product placement (the Game Boy had debuted in 1989).
It did nothing to help the show. There was a clips episode with the
narrator and Simon Belmont offering some commentary. I don't know why
this was done. Perhaps the next episode wasn't ready yet, so they
slapped this thing together to give themselves an extra week?
Season 3 was written by six writers - three from Season 2 and three
new writers, two of which wrote one episode as a pair. At the
beginning of the first episode, you could already tell that there was
something seriously wrong. The animation quality was nowhere near as
good as the animation in Seasons 1 or 2 (not that Seasons 1 and 2 had
outstanding animation). Also, the episode time (including commercials)
had been reduced from thirty minutes to fifteen minutes. Even though
the Super NES had debuted in August of 1991 (around a month before
Season 3 started), Season 3 consisted of NES-based stories and trimmed
down or split episodes from Seasons 1 and 2.
NBC then got got rid of its Saturday morning cartoon line-up in favor
of live-action series.
Here are some quick stats:
Series premiere: September 9, 1989
Last completely original episode airs: October 26, 1991
Last filler episode airs: December 7, 1991
Last time Captain N airs on NBC: July 25, 1992
Captain N had a short life for a number of reasons. I'll try to list
as many as I can:
1) It debuted too late. The NES was out for four years already. In
less than two years, the Super NES would debut. NBC would axe its
Saturday morning cartoon line-up in three years. If the TV series had
debuted in, say, 1985 or 1986, it might have lasted longer.
2) Poor promotion. Nintendo did nothing, except for an article in
Nintendo Power, to promote the series. Perhaps it was due to the:
3) Inaccuracies. The TV series badly portrayed the video game
characters and their worlds. Simon Belmont, the heroic vampire hunter
of CastleVania, was an egotistical, vain jerk on the show. The
character designs were way off. The stories were way off.
4) Plot holes. A lot of things just didn't add up or were never
explained. The continuity was bad.
5) Magic Reset Button. At the end of every episode, neither side has
come any closer to victory. The series is about a war. Who's gonna
watch it if no one's gonna win? Yes, the N Team, did, technically, win
on the next-to-the-last episode, but it was dumb. Jeffrey Scott said
the Magic Reset Button was due to the potential of episodes airing out
of story order. Okay, if "X-Men: Evolution" and "Beast Wars:
Transformers" can have season-long story arcs, then why couldn't
Captain N? The fact that nearly every episode was stand-alone shows
the lack of effort on the parts of those involved.
6) Dumb heroes / villains. The only reason that the heroes won every
time is because the villains were just as dumb as they were. Most of
them got into petty bickering and just didn't think. A real-world
fighting force would've wiped out either side a few episodes into the
series at most. The comic book Samus Aran would've killed Mother
Brain.
7) Lack of diversity. No, I don't mean racial or ethnic or anything
like that (although the show was pretty white). I mean that not enough
video games were featured - 24 total games and 21 game series in 34
episodes.
8) Stupid plot devices. A magic lamp, a love arrow, hypnotic ink. Need
I go on?
9) Made-up worlds. There were episodes that took place on worlds that
weren't based on video games. Why'd they bother?
10) Rip-offs. "The Wizard of Oz", "Star Trek", and "Batman", to name a
few.
There you have it: the ten deadly sins of Captain N. It looks bad, but
don't worry. I might think up more sometime.
I could go into greater depth about the characters and problems of the
TV series, but that's not what this essay is about.
As bad as the series was, it made a few fans, and it got kids to get
their parents to buy video games. So, it was sort of a success, but
it's not a classic. I guess it would be best to call it an American
video game cartoon. All of those series have the same fans / types of
fans, and that's what this essay is about.
The TV series was syndicated from 1991 to August of 1993, then it went
off the air, not to be seen since.
But the Captain N saga is just beginning. It would be another 3 1/2
years, but Captain N would finally have new adventures - online.
The Online Fandom Begins
Written: Thursday, March 21, 2002, 10:30 AM - 1:21 PM; Tuesday, May
14, 2002, 1:50 PM - 1:54 PM
I first got Internet access in September of 1996. First, I did the
usual stuff. I went to my friend Michael Lee Rohm's page. I went to
the White House home page. I also looked up sites devoted to the NES.
I found sites dedicated to the UPN series, "Nowhere Man"; signed an
online petition for a new season; and saved a bunch of pics to my hard
drive.
Then I started looking for Captain N websites. I couldn't find any.
Some sites had small sections about Captain N, but that was it.
In late September or early October of 1996, I found a site called The
Mega Man Home Page, run by Mandi Paugh. She had written Mega Man
novels and included the Captain N characters in them. I was so
excited! I wrote to her, she wrote back, and we've been friends ever
since.
Her books inspired me to write my own book series based on Captain N.
I started writing Book 1: "The Ultimate Game Master" on Tuesday,
October 29, 1996, at 7:49 AM. I completed it on Thursday, January 9,
1997, at 9:58 AM. My original intention was for only Mandi to read
this series.
After my Montego Bay Online account expired in January of 1997, I was
already on another ISP. It was called The Night Ranger Online. It was
a BBS. I chatted a few times with the sysop, John Hambel. Sadly, I no
longer have these chat logs, since my hard drive crashed in late
September or early October of 1999. Well, I do still have the hard
drive, but, until the price comes down enough for me to pay someone to
retrieve the files, don't expect many quotes from early documents.
During a chat on Friday, February 21, 1997, John offered to create a
special section on the BBS for my Captain N stories. Then he offered
to move my personal home page from Montego to The Night Ranger Online.
Sometime between then and the 23rd, I decided that, instead of moving
my personal page to The Night Ranger, I'd create a Captain N page
instead! The page went up on Thursday, February 27, 1997, at night.
The URL was http://www.tnro.com/public/captain_n/index.htm.
On Thursday, July 10, 1997, at 6:58:35 PM, Eastern time, I held the
first Captain N online chat on IRC's DALnet server in the channel,
#Captain_N. The only participants were me and a friend that I had
recently made. He went by the name Nikolai Spade but claimed that his
name was Nicholas Pinto. He said that he was from Stamford,
Connecticut. He went by the nickname Dragonicus (from the Captain N
episode, "The Trojan Dragon") in chat. For simplicity's sake, I'll
refer to him as "Nick" from now on.
At some point, probably before my fifth story, I changed the stories
from books to a miniseries. The first five stories became known as The
"CHANGES" Miniseries. On Thursday, October 30, 1997 at 11:21 AM, I
finished Part 5: "New Beginnings". So, the entire story took me one
year and one day to complete.
When writing my early stories, I found that I couldn't (and didn't
want to) write within the confines of the TV series. So, I used some
swear words and dealt with topics such as death and murder. The
original five stories, two of which were co-written (one with Mike and
one with Nick) were considered a success and somewhat popular.
By this point, I was already planning on continuing my continuation of
the series. I decided to create a new season of Captain N - a
fan-written Season 4.
Expansion: Season 4
Written: Thursday, March 21, 2002, 1:35 PM - 3:49 PM; Tuesday, May 14,
2002, 2:50 PM - 2:54 PM, 3:00 PM - 3:01 PM, 3:17 PM - 3:20 PM
In order to create Season 4, I needed to get writers. So, I created a
section on my website about it. Some of the writers that signed up
were friends from the #Captain_N chat. Some were new to me. In total,
9 writers wrote 27 episodes for Season 4, including myself. Mandi
Paugh was one of the writers as well.
Season 4 authors: Mark Moore, Laurie Allison Kelley, Steve Cronen,
David Hartline, Alison "Shara" Hynes, Adam K. Roberts, Charley Smart,
Miranda "Mandi" Leigh Paugh, Aly Handman.
I was the one that wrote the season premiere. It was called "The
Weapon of Choice". It was a basic, simple episode that linked
"CHANGES" to Season 4. I started writing it on Saturday, November 15,
1997, at 8:00 PM. I finished the final draft on Thursday, January 8,
1998, at 9:52 PM. The first episode of Season 4 went online on
Saturday, January 9, 1998.
Most of the episodes went up on a Saturday, since the TV series had
aired on Saturday mornings. Sometimes, though, I didn't get the
episodes online in the morning.
Some fans had begun to be displeased about my episodes for some
reason. I don't know exactly what it was, but I have a feeling that it
had to do with Kristen, a homosexual character that I had created.
Kristen was introduced in "Changes" Part 3 as a hairstylist that cut
Princess Lana's hair. She wasn't meant to be a recurring character,
but then I brought her back in Part 5. Then she came back in Season 4
a few times. I guess the fans didn't like Lana and Kristen kissing
each other. Kristen would come on to Lana, Lana would resist her
advances and say that she had Kevin as a boyfriend, but then she'd
kiss Kristen anyway. I don't see what the problem is. Buffy and Spike
are doing pretty much the same thing in Season 6 of "Buffy The Vampire
Slayer", except they're having sex, Buffy physically hurts Spike, and
Buffy doesn't have a boyfriend. Oh, wait, Buffy fans don't like that.
Heh.
So, I wrote an episode, titled "Man's Best Friend", to try and appease
the fans. It starred Simon and Duke, two of the original N Team
members, on an adventure on Castlevania (my spelling for CastleVania
on my site). I wrote the episode to be similar in style and feel to a
TV series episode. No kissing, no swearing, just goofy fun. It went
online on Monday, March 9, 1998. And the fans didn't like it. Go
figure.
A thirteen-year-old Captain N fan named Webster Sterling Swenson
started coming to the Captain N chats around the time of "Changes" or
Season 4. He told me that he loved Kristen (since he's homosexual) and
even wrote Captain N fanfics that included her. His significance will
become clear later.
Before and during Season 4, my site moved a few times. Here's a list:
Thursday, February 27, 1997 - early June, 1997 -
http://www.tnro.com/public/captain_n/index.htm (hit count: 1900+)
Saturday, June 28, 1997, 9:27 PM - Thursday, September 25, 1997 -
http://www.montego.com/~captain_n/index.html
Thursday, September 25, 1997, 9:25 PM - Tuesday, February 10, 1998,
10:00 AM - http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Set/4389/index.html
(hit count: 5560)
Tuesday, February 10, 1998, 10:00 AM - Monday, February 23, 1998 -
http://thor.prohosting.com/~kiddv/index.html
Friday, February 27, 1998 - Tuesday, March 3, 1998 -
http://members.tripod.com/~captain_n/index.html (a Season 4 episode
only)
Tuesday, March 3, 1998 - [I'll give the last date later] -
http://members.tripod.com/~captain_n/index.html
There's a three-part episode in Season 4 that's significant in that it
involves my friends and I meeting the N Team and going to Videoland
with them. It's called "Kevin Goes to Hollywood". Parts 2 and 3 were
co-written by Mandi Paugh (just some of her lines / scenes). The group
that goes to Videoland is me, Mandi Paugh, Mike Rohm (my friend since
sixth grade), Matt Slater (a college friend), Nick, and Eric
Vartenian. Eric later pissed me off, so I went back and edited this
episode, replacing him with a later friend named Andres Thalheimer.
The three parts went online on Saturday, June 13, 20, and 27, 1998.
I'll explain why this episode is significant later.
The next-to-the-last episode, "John 20:25", was a Christmas episode
written by me. It went online on Saturday, July 4, 1998. I seem to
remember some people having a problem with this, but I don't remember
the specifics. Basically, it was made very clear that Lana wasn't a
Christian, and neither was Kevin.
On Tuesday, June 30, 1998, I got an account at x-pointcgi.com and
created a Captain N message board. I linked to it from my site and
made the first post. Mike, Webster Sterling Swenson, and another kid
named Chris Blair were both active on the message board.
Episode 27, "The First Videoland War", written by Aly Handman, was the
season finale. Season 4 ended on Saturday, July 11, 1998. I remember
that there was a call by one fan to end the series there, because the
TV series had ended well, with the characters having nothing more to
do, but we gave them something more to do. He thought it was unneeded.
Still, Season 4 was considered a success. The following Saturday, I
would upload the Captain N movie that I had been working on.
Gettin' Gritty: Apocalypse
Written: Sunday, March 24, 2002, 1:47 PM - 2:53 PM; Tuesday, May 14,
2002, 3:06 PM - 3:16 PM
I had the basic idea back in 1997, before Season 4 even went up. I
started planning out the scenes on Tuesday, March 31, 1998, at 7:00
AM. I began writing the story on Monday, May 4, 1998, at 3:00 PM. I
finished the first draft on Wednesday, June 24, 1998, at 10:43 PM. I
e-mailed it to Matt Slater for a critique. I got it from him the next
night, and he suggested I get a second critique, so I e-mailed it to
Mandi Paugh after asking her if she was up to it, since she's the Mega
Man expert. After a few e-mails back and forth, I made the corrections
she suggested, as well as changed and added some scenes. Thus, the
second draft was completed on Friday, July 17, 1998, at 6:51 PM. After
running a spell-check and fixing various errors, the final draft was
completed on Saturday, July 18, 1998, at 6:00 PM.
This long Captain N story, the development of which I have just
described, was something that I called a "movie". The title is
"Apocalypse: A Captain N Movie". It was based on Mega Man 6 for the
NES. Prior to uploading it, I had promoted the movie on my site and on
Usenet. Matt Slater created a title GIF for it. The tagline he
suggested was "The game to end all games.".
Did it? No. Was it some really big event that had major ramifications
for the people of Videoland? No. It was just a novelization of a video
game with an extra subplot of Kristen's mother trying to destroy
Videoland by creating a video game where the entire universe is
destroyed. Yeah. I guess you can consider it to be like the movie of
"The X-Files" - a long episode of the series. The fact that it was a
"movie" allowed me to give it a PG-13 rating and do stuff that I
restricted in the "TV" episodes. I had more violence and harsher
swearing.
I received mixed feedback from people saying that it was bad, okay,
and great. I don't recall which I received more of. Some fans felt
that the story wasn't "big enough" - some N Team members graduate from
high school, Mega Man 6, and Kristen kills her mom. People had
objections to Lana licking Zelda's ears and Kristen licking Lana's
face. They also had a problem with the swearing.
Now, let me explain the Lana / Kristen / Zelda thing. As far back as
when the TV series was still on, I thought that Lana and Stacey would
make a cute couple. When I started writing my continuation of the
series, I decided instead to make Lana and Stacey romantic rivals for
Kevin's affection. I added to this love triangle by having Kristen
have a crush on Lana (this can be seen as early as her first
appearance). One night, during chat, someone mentioned to me that
Princess Zelda had her hand on Princess Lana's breast in the TV
episode "Having a Ball". I checked the episode and confirmed it. Even
though it was probably the result of a mistake or the animators having
fun, I turned it into the basis for a Lana / Zelda romantic
relationship. Kelly Lea Harris, who I had met online earlier in the
year, decided to include a Lana / Zelda romance in her Season 5
two-part episode, "Medieval Wishes". I decided to include it in the
movie.
So, now, we had Kevin and Lana, Kevin and Stacey, Lana and Kristen
(sort of), and Lana and Zelda. Fans weren't happy with the Lana /
Kristen or Lana / Zelda relationships. They had the idea that, since
these fanfics were based on a children's cartoon series, I shouldn't
be able to turn the female characters into bisexuals. I shouldn't even
be allowed to create a homosexual character, such as Kristen, because
there weren't homosexuals on Captain N, and it was inappropriate for
children. What I kept telling them was that I wasn't writing these
stories for children. I was writing them for the people that grew up
watching Captain N on TV. These fans would be in their teens and
twenties in 1998. The youngest fan that I met was thirteen years old.
Still, the fans argued that children could watch copies of episodes
from their older siblings or parents, come across my site, and read my
stories.
I had put up the following warning for the movie:
"The story is rated PG-13, due to swearing and mildly erotic scenes.
So, if you're 12 or under and are reading this, it ain't my fault..."
I felt that I had done my part. Did this satisfy the fans? Nope. They
argued that, even if children did read my warning, they could still
click on the link and read the story anyway. So, the fans were
essentially telling me that I shouldn't write scenes in my fanfics
that couldn't have been done on the TV series, because the fans had no
discretion.
I sent Webster Sterling Swenson an MP3 of a Japanese version of the
tune "Vampire Killer", which is the name of the music from the first
stage of the NES game, CastleVania. The MP3 (which I had downloaded
and which had originally come from a Japanese CD) had a Japanese girl
singing to the orchestrated music. I asked Webster to try and
translate the lyrics, because I wanted Lana to sing them in the movie.
He did, and I credited him: "Finally, I wish to thank Webster Sterling
Swenson for deciphering the lyrics to Vampire Killer!"
I'll get back to Webster later. One week after I put the movie up,
Season 5 would premiere.
Breaking Barriers: Season 5
Written: Sunday, March 24, 2002, 3:13 PM - 5:59 PM; Tuesday, May 14,
2002, 7:00 PM - 8:58 PM; Wednesday, May 15, 2002, 10:20 AM - 10:55 AM;
11:12 AM - 11:24 AM; 11:50 AM - 11:51 AM
Season 5 consisted of 28 episodes - one more than Season 4 - written
by 6 writers.
Season 5 authors: Matt Slater, Mark Moore, Adam King, Laurie Allyson
Kelley, Kelly Lea Harris, Amanda "Mandi" Ohlin
Season 5 started with a four-part premiere, titled "Pak", written by
Matt Slater. It went up on Saturday, July 25, August 1, 8, and 15,
1998. It added backstory to the Captain N series and was well-received
by the fans.
My first episode of the season, "Born on the Bayou", went up on
Saturday, August 22, 1998. It was a sequel to the TV series episode,
"How's Bayou". I named it after the song by Creedence Clearwater
Revival. Chris Blair got upset at me, claiming that I stole the title
of his fanfic. I hadn't even seen his fanfic.
Chris Blair claimed a lot of stuff that wasn't true. When I had
written a crossover fanfic between Captain N and Filmation's
"Ghostbusters" and included links to WAVE files from the two TV
series, Chris claimed that I had ripped off his idea, which was him
recording WAVE files of himself and linking to them from his fanfics.
Yeah, real similar. Blair also claimed, after I had written in "Kevin
Goes to Hollywood" that members of the N Team go with me and my
friends to Central Florida Community College, that he had written that
the N Team went to CFCC in one of his fanfics first. Chris Blair
didn't even go to CFCC!
Here's the biggest lie that Chris Blair has told to the Captain N
fandom. He claimed that, on Tuesday, July 4, 1989, he had seen an
animated movie on NBC at night called "The Game Master" - a "movie of
the week". He said it was an "inspiration" for Captain N, but Kevin's
last name was Hayland, not Keene. He also said that Earth was called
"Reality". He gave me the names of the writers, voice actors, and the
company that produced it, Diamond Animation. I checked the Internet
Move Database. The movie, the writers, the actors, and the company had
no listings. This clued me in that Chris was lying to me and others.
How could a movie that aired on July 4 inspire a TV series that
premiered on September 9? There wasn't enough time - 2 months and 5
days.
Wouldn't NBC have been airing an Independence Day special at the time
rather than an animated movie based on video games?
Blair also said he saw the movie repeated on USA once. I told Blair
that I found no info about the movie, and he said it didn't matter if
I didn't believe him, because he knew he saw it. I asked Jeffrey Scott
(the writer of Season 1 of the TV series) and Michael Donovan (the
voice actor who voiced the Eggplant Wizard) about the movie. They
weren't aware of it. Blair said of course they weren't, because they
weren't involved with it. But consider this. The alleged movie
would've aired while Season 1 of Captain N was in production. How
could Jeffrey Scott, the man who was hired to write the entire first
season, not be made aware of the movie? Simple: the movie doesn't
exist. I flat-out told Chris Blair to stop misinforming the Captain N
fans. He refused. He even created a website, Game World, dedicated to
it and the TV series:
http://www.geocities.com/col_tridelan/
Chris Blair even ripped off the HTML code from my site, but he said it
was "inspired" by my site.
Check out Blair's legal notices on his site:
"Captain N: The Game Master™ is a registered trademark of
GameWorld IncŽ. The Game Master™ is a registered trademark of
Diamond AnimationŽ. Any unauthorized reproduction of this film will be
prosecuted to the full extent of CyberSpace Law"
He owns the trademark, Captain N: The Game Master? I don't think so.
The "film" he's refering to is a movie script that he'd written,
combining the TV series with the alleged movie. It was basically an
alteration of a few Season 1 episodes. He also created "The New
Adventures of Captain N", which were alterations of a few Season 1
episodes. After I had written a fanfic called "Captain N64", he wrote
a "movie" called "Captain N 64" and cast himself as the hero and me as
the villain:
http://www.geocities.com/col_tridelan/captn64/Captn64.htm
Chris Blair also created a series called "Reality Force". I forget
what that was about.
Chris Blair's "sister site", the MegaMan Movie Page, is actually a
"Transformers: Generation 3" page created by Blair:
http://www.geocities.com/captn_n/index.html
Another complaint about "Born on the Bayou" was that the heroes killed
alligators. The fans called it animal cruelty. The heroes were in
danger of been eaten! What were they supposed to do?!
Message board post (Impeach Mark Moore) by an unknown person:
Posted by Burito-X on August 26, 1998 at 22:52:35 in
dial85.ecicnet.org :
Ladies and gents, I say that it's time to impeach Mark Moore and put
someone else in charge of this site! My reasons, 1. Mark, sorry to say
buddy, but you can't write! 2. Everything has to be done by your lame
standards. 3. You continue to put off requests by visitors to your
site, such as adding story info for Mr. Piazza. Now, I may not be
familiar to you, but I have been observing this site for sometime. It
is time for this end. Here are my canidates for the new head of this
site: Imsparticus, Dragonicus, Simon B, Buff Piaza/DoritoMan, and me!
Ha ha!
My next Season 5 episodes went up on Thursday, September 17 and 24,
1998. It was a two-part episode called "A Link to the Past". It had
nothing to do with the Super NES game of the same name. Rather, it
filled in backstory and linked Captain N to the cartoon segments of
"The Legend of Zelda", which aired on Fridays in late 1989 as part of
"The Super Mario Bros. Super Show". Now, I had done a lot of research
for this story. I checked TV episodes and game instruction manuals. I
put a lot of effort into it. And the fans didn't like it because of
the Lana / Zelda romance. Also, since I wrote that Lana and Zelda were
a couple prior to the beginning of the TV series, fans accused me of
turning Lana into a cheater, since she'd have been cheating on Kevin
with Zelda. I had Lana apologize for that in the story itself.
Besides, it was just fanfic. What was the big deal?
As much as people disliked that story, it was nothing compared to the
flames I would receive for the story that I posted on Thursday,
October 1, 1998, "Sins of the Father".
In that episode, I had Lana discover a shocking family secret. Years
earlier, King Charles had gotten drunk and raped his wife, and Lana
was the result. Against the royal doctor's orders, King Charles had
refused to allow his wife to have an abortion, so she died in
childbirth. I wrote this episode, because I wanted to explore
something dark in the Captain N universe. Captain N is a great series
to write fanfic for, because 1) there are lots of video games to use
as sources, and 2) so little was established about the characters and
backstory, so you have lots of areas that you can fill in.
Well, the fans didn't like what I filled in. I so wish that I still
had the e-mails that I received. They provided lots of laughs. One fan
said that Princess Lana and King Charles were supposed to be
"flagbearers of honor", and he said that I had "raped Captain N".
Steve Cronen, the Season 4 writer, didn't appreciate my little joke
about Bill Clinton at the end of the episode, because he's "very
pro-Clinton".
Basically, the fans hated this fanfic! But I didn't care. I tried
something daring, and I got flamed for it. Oh, well. A lot of fans
lost respect for me. Again, I didn't care.
Message board post (Captain n 64) by Chris Blair:
Posted by Commander X on November 01, 1998 at 09:58:01 in
209.221.209.3:
People, due to mark moore not acknowledging it, I must take action
CHris BLair's "CAPTAIN N 64" is up!!
MArk, Please either post it on your site, or link to it in teh Fan
fics.
Message board post (Captain N 64 Summery) by Chris Blair:
Posted by Commander X on November 16, 1998 at 09:51:32 in
156.3.254.175:
Mark obviously does not wnat to bother with my material, so I'll give
the summery to Chris BLair's CAPTAIN N 64.
"When Earth of our universe is pulled into the universe of Captain N,
an evil man takes over with the aid of Mother Brain.
Now, ten months from that event, a young warior must rise to return
Earth to where it belongs and become the new Captain N."
That's the summery. No spoilers, no hints, just that.
ENJOY!!
On Thursday, December 3, 1998, I posted "The Daughter's Visit". I
filled in Kristen's backstory. Fans thought it was pointless that I
wrote an episode centered on a character that they hated.
Message board post by Ryoga MKN:
Posted by Ryoga MKN on December 03, 1998 at 20:32:19 in
152.200.81.161:
That's right Mark. You've got to stop with the episodes like THE
DAUGHTER'S VISIT, THE CAYENNE PEPPERS, and SINS OF THE FATHER:
Episodes that have no place in Captain N and also DESERVE TWO WORDS:
S*CK IT (quoting Degeneration X). That's the third "F" I've given your
stories this season.
Now I have respect for originality and new ideas in fanfiction, but
insulting people's intelligence is certainly wrong. It's why I pulled
the link to your site on my webpage. Maybe if you'd stop writing lame
episodes like THE DAUGHTER'S VISIT, THE CAYENNE PEPPERS, and SINS OF
THE FATHER, and write good episodes like A LINK TO THE PAST and THE
QUEST FOR ROB, then I'd have more respect for you. Your other writers
are saving the season. Cancel any more of your lame-@$$ stories that
are like those three I just mentioned: I just won't bother to read
them.
Until Next Time, C-ya Chere!
Ryoga MKN out.
Message board post by Chris Blair:
Posted by Chris BLair on December 06, 1998 at 18:03:00 in
209.221.209.3 :
Great news for people who liked Captain N 64.
GAMEWORLD IS NOW UP AND RUNNING!!!
The URL Is www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arena/9335.
I have te hpilots for Seasons 4 and 5 up, and unlike Mark, my seasons
are set up like an actually saturday morning series.
One episode will "air" per week, and there will be re-runs.
A lot of stuff isn't up yet, but seasons 4 and 5 are, as well as teh
sureys for those seasons. Wait till you've read all the episodes
before filling out hteh survey.
On Friday, January 22, 1999, I posted "Day of the Triforce". It was a
Christmas episode and dealt with the creation of Zelda's world. Again,
people didn't like the Lana / Zelda and Lana / Kristen romances.
On Friday, January 29, 1999, I posted "Quake", my last episode of
Season 5. It was about the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Most of it was
a novelization of news footage, but I couldn't think of anything else
to write. People kind of liked it.
Season 5 ended with a four-part finale by Matt Slater, titled "Rogue
Squadron", based on the "Star Wars" novels. It included me, Matt,
Mike, Mandi, Nick, and Andres. It was a hit. Season 5 ended on Friday,
February 26, 1999, a day shy of my site's two-year anniversary.
I wrote more episodes than I listed here, but there's not much to be
said about them, except that some fans thought they were dumb. Season
5, overall, was a success, I think. Next came Season 6.
The Calm Before The Storm: Season 6
Written: Saturday, April 13, 2002, 8:00 PM - 8:44 PM; Wednesday, May
15, 2002, 11:47 AM - 11:50 AM; 11:53 AM; Saturday, May 18, 2002, 8:48
AM - 8:49 AM
Season 6 consisted of 5 writers (including myself) writing 14
episodes.
Season 6 authors: Mark Moore, Laurie Allison Kelley, Adam King, Kelly
Lea Harris, Matt Slater.
On Friday, March 5, 1999, the Season 6 premiere went online. It was
called "GameSlide", and it involved the Sliders coming to Videoland. I
liked the TV series, "Sliders", so I thought that this would be a fun
thing to do. Plus, the warps and the Gateway look kind of similar. At
least one fan protested the anti-vegetarian message in my story.
Two weeks later, on Friday, March 19, 1999, I put up "Immaterial
Girls", a fun, cute story about Lana and Kristen hosting a TV special
on how girls can save money. Fans didn't like it because 1) it had
nothing to do with video games, 2) they claimed that some of my
information was wrong, and 3) they thought I was lecturing female
readers (which I was; I admit it).
On Friday, April 16, 1999, I uploaded "Disco Inferno", a songfic based
on the Super NES game, Mega Man 7. Most fans didn't like it, due to
all the disco lyrics. Personally, I thought it was pretty funny.
On Friday, April 23, 1999, I put up "Star-Crossed", which was a
dramedy and involved more Lana / Kristen romance. Most fans didn't
like it. Perhaps the scene where Lana killed a guy bothered them as
well.
On Wednesday, August 25, 1999, Season 6 resumed after over two months
and nineteen days (due to my summer vacation and lack of Internet
access) with "Wholly Crapimony", a story that I had co-written with
Laurie Kelley, where Simon Belmont and Li Shiroshi (a character that
Laurie had created back in Season 4) want to get married, but Li has
second thoughts about it as the wedding approaches. In the story, she
always goes to Lana for advice, and Lana always gives it. Most fans
didn't like it. This story also marked the debut of my new site, The
Captain N Fan Fiction Home Page, a site completely separate from The
Unofficial Captain N Home Page.
Season 6 ended with a three-part story, titled "The Machine Wars",
which was an adaptation of "The Transformers: The Movie" to Videoland.
Matt Slater was originally supposed to write it, but he pulled out and
gave the story to me. So, I finished Part 1, wrote Part 2, and then
wrote Part 3 due to having so many ideas. I used a transcript of "The
Transformers: The Movie" to write faster. I also included plots from
the Mega Man games for the Game Boy. This episode ended up including
me, Matt, and Mandi in it as well. I got mixed reviews. Some people
thought it was awesome, others thought that it was "Very Incomplete"
without Daniel and Spike, and others thought it felt patched together.
Part 1 went up on Wednesday, September 1, 1999. Part 2 went up on
Wednesday, September 8, 1999 - one day shy of the tenth anniversary of
the TV series and on the ninth anniversary of the original airing of
the Season 2 premiere episode, "Gameboy". Part 3 went online on
Monday, September 20, 1999.
Season 6 was over. My summer vacation contributed largely to the
shorterned season, but there was also a cancelation of a lot of
episodes, both by myself and other writers. If these cancelations
weren't done, Season 6 would have consisted of 38 episodes! Still, I
thought that 14 episodes were okay, and I considered Season 6 to be a
success.
Two days later, Season 7 would premiere, but a series of circumstances
created a disaster.
mhirtes
us now.
Arklier
wrote:
>A Critical Analysis of the Captain N Fandom
>
>
>An Essay by Mark Moore
Mark, no offense, but I've read some of your fanfics. As a fanfic
writer, you stink.
-
If you can't figure out my address, you need help.
mhirtes
Arklier wrote:
>
> On 23 May 2002 18:34:25 -0700, rory_ll...@hotmail.com (Mark Moore)
> wrote:
>
> >A Critical Analysis of the Captain N Fandom
> >
> >
> >An Essay by Mark Moore
>
> Mark, no offense, but I've read some of your fanfics. As a fanfic
> writer, you stink.
If he's using Captian N as his "inspiration", is it any wonder?