PAK
There originally weren't going to be subtitles for each Part, but Matt added them shortly before Part 1 was going to go up, because he thought they sounded cool.
BORN ON THE BAYOU
This episode was originally going to be called "HOW'S 'BOUT YOU", the phrase that Matt Slater said inspired the title "HOW'S BAYOU". However, I felt that most people wouldn't understand the episode title, so I changed it to the title of the song played on "HOW'S BAYOU".
For help on writing this episode, I consulted Chuck Taggart's excellent New Orleans online resource, The Gumbo Pages.
The dialogue between Billy and Mike about Loafer liking him is word-for-word the dialogue between Billy and Kevin in "HOW'S BAYOU".
Mike's line about moonshine comes from an online review of "The Adventures of Bayou Billy".
The song Lana plays in the car is the theme song from a 1984 series, which was a blend of live-action and animation, about four teenagers that have a music band called Kidd Video. It's one of my favorite cartoon series of all time. The scene is an homage to that series. Thanks to Lyndon Moore for deciphering the lyrics!
I had Ned give Billy the last name Johnson as a small homage to the movie "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure", where they give Socrates the last name Johnson when introducing Bill's stepmom to him.
Kevin's grandmother having the last name Annabelle is a reference to Billy's girlfriend in the video game.
I came up with Kristen's last name, Shallowayne, while outside raking leaves in the backyard, months before I began writing the episode. I asked Matt Slater whether to include the "y" or not. He said include it, so I did.
Lana's response, "What kind of stupid name is that?", is word-for-word Buford Tannen's question to Marty in "Back To The Future" Part III.
The reason Lana doesn't like seafood is because I don't like seafood.
The part where Kristen puts her arm around Lana and tells how long they've been together was inspired by the Roseanne episode where Roseanne says something similar about her and Jackie.
Steve Starlight is modelled off of Marvin Berry, of Marvin Berry and the Starlighters, from "Back To The Future" and Captain Benjamin Sisko (before he shaved his head) from "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine".
I chose to have Ned and Steve play Hummingbirds, because Jim Byrnes (of "Highlander: The Series") plays one.
The part where Kristen feels Lana's leg in bed, and her line, comes from a line spoken by Marcia's friend in "The Brady Bunch Movie".
Lana usually doesn't eat lunch because I usually don't eat lunch.
The part where Kristen tells Lana "Aaahhh, my hero" and kisses her on the cheek, and then Lana tells her "Oh, get down" and drops her comes a scene in the Beast Wars episode "THE AGENDA" [PART 3].
Mike's lines to the gator about bouncing him like a bad check come from Weird Al Yankovic's lines on "AL TV".
I considered having Lana, being too tired to argue, accept Kristen's offer of taking a shower together, but then I decided not to do it.
The last scene is very similar to the last scene of "HOW'S BAYOU".
WHAT A BLAST
This was originally going to be a two-part episode, but when I was HTMLizing PART 1 on Saturday to put it up, I realized it was too short. So was PART 2. So, I combined them into one episode.
A LINK TO THE PAST
This episode was originally going to be only one part, but I realized that all the storyline I had thought up wasn't going to fit in one part, so, two days before I put the episode up, I decided to turn it into a two-parter.
This episode has nothing to do with the Super Nintendo game of the same name.
King Harkinian's first name, Colin, comes from Colin Mallory, Quinn's brother on Sliders. Everyone's reaction to the name was Matt Slater's reaction when I first mentioned Colin Mallory to him.
Zelda's nickname, Pookie, comes from the name of Garfield's teddy bear.
Link and Zelda's first meeting is shown in this episode.
The names of Link's parents and birthplace come from the comic book stories.
The name of Link's horse comes from the TV episode, "THE WHITE KNIGHT". Thanks to Kelly Harris for pointing this out! (Actually, she pointed it out after I wrote in the horse's name. I originally got it from a comic book summary.)
Zelda and Spryte's first meeting is shown in this episode.
Zelda's reaction when she receives Link's picture is similar to Jon's reaction to receiving Garfield's picture in the "Garfield and Friends" episode, "HEATWAVE HOLIDAY".
This episode shows how Zelda got the clothes she wears on Captain N episodes.
The scene with Zelda's belt, with her initials sewn into it, and her father dying was inspired by a scene in "The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass" by Stephen King.
Lana being haunted by Zelda's scream was inspired by Frannie being haunted in "The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition" by Stephen King.
Link and Zelda's battle with Ganon's minions in the courtyard is similar to the battle in "THE MISSING LINK".
Various descriptions used in the courtyard battle are from Kelly Harris' novelization of "THE MISSING LINK".
Zelda apologizing to Link for punching him comes from "THE RINGER".
Ganon's line, "Your power is nothing compared to my magic!", is Dragon Lord's line from "THREE MEN AND A DRAGON".
Zelda's line, "Wanna bet?", was inspired by Starscream's line to Megatron in "The Transformers: The Movie".
The part of the Ancient Prophecy that Kevin recites comes from the beginning of "QUEST FOR THE POTION OF POWER".
Zelda refusing to tell Link of Ganon's first defeat is a prelude to Kelly Harris' "MEDIEVAL WISHES" episode.
The moblins that attack Zelda in the Throne room are the same ones that attack in the alley in "QUEST FOR THE POTION OF POWER".
This episode contains scenes from "QUEST FOR THE POTION OF POWER" and "HAVING A BALL".
I named Zelda's great-grandfather after Roland's father in "The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass".
The origin of the magical bond between Zelda, Hyrule, and the Triforce that was mentioned in "HAVING A BALL" is shown in this episode.
The part of the Ancient Prophecy that Zelda recites comes from the beginning of "HAVING A BALL".
The song Kevin and Lana dance to at the end is 'Video Romeo' by Kidd Video. It's another tribute to the cartoon series.
This episode required more research on my part than any other episode I have written up to this point. Not even "BORN ON THE BAYOU" comes close. The episodes I consulted were "THE RINGER", "QUEST FOR THE POTION OF POWER", and "HAVING A BALL". I also consulted "The Legend of Zelda" opening theme song, the comic book story called "The Adventurer LINK", the two NES Zelda instruction manuals, and Kelly Harris' "MEDIEVAL WISHES" episode.
SINS OF THE FATHER
Lana's dialogue about her "mind's eye" is a reference to the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "The Mind's Eye".
In the first draft of this episode, King Charles had sex with a prostitute, and Lana turned out to be only Lyle's half-sister. I changed it, because I wanted them to stay full-siblings.
Mike's line about being on the wrestling team comes from Captain Sisko's line on an episode of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" after fighting a Klingon.
This wasn't in the first draft, but I added similaries to the Clinton scandal in the final draft.
The scene where Lana punches a punching bag was inspired by a scene from the "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" episode, "For The Uniform", where Captain Sisko was punching a punching bag.
The scene where Lana plays blues was inspired by a scene from the "Highlander: The Series" episode, "Armageddon", where Joe Dawson plays blues. Lana plays the same song Joe did, too.
Lana referring to Christianity as "popular mythology" comes from Giles' line in the series premiere of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer".
There was originally going to be a subplot in this episode where Lana gets knocked off the road while driving by a member of the mysterious Star Bright Project, but I took it out because I felt it disrupted the main theme of the episode.
MEDIEVAL WISHES
This episode originated as an extra-credit assignment for Kelly Harris' video scriptwriting class. I liked it so much, I offered to put it in Season 5. She finished up Part 1, wrote Part 2, revised them, and there ya have it.
Why does the bottle darken in Zelda's grasp? Kelly's honest answer: I don't know. I just thought it would be a cool effect on film. But I suppose I could BS something up...um...She was invoking a kind of spell that would "activate" it so Link would live...yeah, that's the ticket.
Rick stealing, or maybe borrowing, some clothes for Link was inspired by the scene from the Star Trek episode, "The City on the Edge of Forever".
The original script didn't have any mention of Lana and Zelda's relationship in it, but Kelly decided to add it in after their relationship was revealed.
Kelly almost included a scene where Rick and Link would run into someone, and Link's ears would be exposed. Rick would then explain Link's ears away: "Well, you see, he's from China, and his ears got caught in a rice picker." Remember Kirk saying something like that to the cop in "The City on the Edge of Forever"?
The line from Shakespeare that Stacey quotes in Part 2 is from "Romeo and Juliet", where Romeo is wondering why Juliet's body isn't decomposing. After the episode went up, Kelly had an idea for a contest, which I announced on my site, where the first person to e-mail her the work the line is from, who says it, and who or what the speaking character is referring to, gets one of two prizes - 1) a Captain N or SquareSoft FanFic written by Kelly on the subject of their choice (must be in taste, and she must have played the game) or 2) a Captain N or SquareSoft FanFic picture drawn by Kelly on the subject of their choice (must be in taste, and she must have played the game, but it doesn't have to be from the game or from episode/fanfic). jajjmm@uswest.net answered correctly and won the contest.
SLEEP DEPRIVATION
This was originally going to be a Season 6 episode, but I asked Kelly if I could move it up to Season 5 because I wanted more Link and Zelda content, and more classic NES and Gameboy content, this season. She agreed.
The summary I had up until the day the story went up read simply "Based on 'Link's Awakening' for Gameboy." I then changed it to a more descriptive summary.
Link's brother is named after the main character in the '80s cartoon, "Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors".
Simon's line, "Not bad, not bad..." was inspired by his similar line in "THE TROJAN DRAGON".
Rick's 'Zelda Rap' comes from the commercial for Link's Awakening that aired in 1993.
THE CAYENNE PEPPERS
This episode wasn't listed until the day "MEDIEVAL WISHES" PART 2 went up. I had the idea for a few months prior to that, however. I decided to put it in where I did, because 1) I wanted Ned's birthday established, and 2) no episodes had arrived past "SLEEP DEPRIVATION" except for "CAPTAIN N: ROGUE SQUADRON", which would be the season finale, so I needed to add in some episodes after "SLEEP DEPRIVATION" to advance the date to December 25, 1993, which would be when "DAY OF THE TRIFORCE" takes place.
This episode was inspired by an episode of "Growing Pains".
Other names I had considered for the band: The Red Peppers, The Chili Peppers, The Hot Peppers. I finalled settled on The Cayenne Peppers.
I had to look at a container of the stuff and read the label to find out how to spell "Cayenne".
I started writing this episode on my 20th birthday, October 18.
I finished writing this episode and put it up on the day John Glenn went back into space.
Lana's line, "What is wrong with your dad?", was inspired by Melody's line, "What is wrong with Danny?", on an episode of "Hey Dude". The episode was about Danny's birthday, by the way.
Mike's line, "Note the time! Stacey understands something!", was inspired by the teacher's line about Sly in the Season 2 premiere of "California Dreams".
Central is the name of a high school mentioned on "California Dreams" and "Saved By The Bell: The New Class".
Biff Vincent is based on young Biff Tannen in the "Back To The Future" movies.
I learned about Computer Space from a story done on classic video games that ran on the local news a few months before.
The way Dan, Nathan, and Will stand up and yell "Surprise!" was inspired by the way Peter, Ray, and Winston did it in the Extreme Ghostbusters episode, "Back In The Saddle".
The howling at the end was inspired by the last scene in the "Quantum Leap" episode, "Good Morning, Peoria".
THE VIDEO BOYS
Matt Slater came up with the title. It was inspired by the title of the movie, "The Newton Boys".
This episode is based on the "Star Trek" (the original series) episode, "A Piece of the Action".
Kevin's line, "What does 'Oops' mean, Mike?", was inspired by Kirk Cameron's similar line in the movie, "Like Father, Like Son".
The way Mike says "Uh-oh" comes from the way Dave said it in an episode of "The Hogan Family", when he had locked Sandy in a magic box, and the key snapped in the lock.
The undercover names I had originally considered for Mike and Kevin were Jake Kong and Eddie Spencer, respectively.
Matt Slater had suggested Mike and Kevin's undercover names to me. They were to be Tony and Vinnie Video. ("When you think mobster, you think Italian.") He didn't specify who was to be who. I typed in Frankie instead of Vinnie. The name stuck in my mind, so I left it like that.
The names Acey, Johnny, and Snakes come from "Home Alone".
The name Mugsy is a stereotypical robber or mobster name. I'm not sure which it is.
The song Mike and Kevin play on the piano is the opening theme song to the 1975 Filmation series, "The Ghost Busters".
The name Mickey D comes from the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode, "The Royale".
Mike's line, "Nice move. Where'd you learn it?", was inspired by Link's similar line in "QUEST FOR THE POTION OF POWER".
The Model-T is a reference to the Ghost Busters' mode of transportation. The Ghost Buggy was a Model-T.
Mike's line, "Shtep on it", is Captain Picard's line in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode, "The Big Good-Bye".
SOME LIKE IT COLD
This episode was originally going to be a two-parter, but Mandi had so many ideas, she had to expand it into a three-parter.
The original summary I had up for Part 1 was: "When Wily sabotages an invention of Dr. Right's, Stacey gets accidentally warped into Star Tropics, with no idea how to get back. She gets a hand from Mike Jones, but there's a new problem: patches of the islands are becoming mysteriously frozen over. To make matters worse, Dr. Jones has gotten himself kidnapped again!"
The original summary I had up for Part 2 was: "Mike and Stacey find Dr. Jones, but his kidnapper escapes with a device capable of freezing entire video worlds. Dr. Jones has the disable codes, but it's up to Mike and Stacey to find a warp off of StarTropics and to warn the N Team before it's too late."
There are gratuitous Indiana Jones jokes through-out the story.
Stacey's guano comment was inspired by the running joke about bat guano in "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls".
The "waxed wiseass" line was borrowed from one of Christine Morgan's Gargoyles fan fictions.
Dr. J's project for cold storage in the tropics was Mandi's own idea, but, after she came up with it, she realized how similar it was to the premise of the film, "The Mosquito Coast," another Harrison Ford flick. It was too obscure for Mandi to get a decent in-joke to work, but it's still a funny coincidence.
Matt Slater provided most of Mike's explanation of why there aren't any warps to be found.
The description of the "warp-to-warp salesman" was derived slightly from Charlie Venkman on "The Real Ghostbusters". Ellen Brand supplied the idea for the in-joke when Mandi mentioned the salesman idea over e-mail, and Mark Moore suggested ghost repellers.
Yes, calling Kamek "Shorty" was an intentional in-joke to "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom".
PART 2 was delayed for 5 days due to Tripod's File Manager giving an Internal Server Error during upload.
The line, "I got a bad feeling about this", was spoken by Han Solo (Harrison Ford, Indiana Jones) in "Return of the Jedi".
PART 3 was delayed, because Mandi didn't have it done.
Wily's line "Push the button, Prank!" is a (fairly blatant) in-joke to Mystery Science Theater 3000. (Dr. Forrester: "Push the button, Frank!") Mandi couldn't resist.
The "I hate reruns" line was inspired by the episode "Ghost in the Machine", from the TV series "The Flash".
Mike Vincent is the Mike that says the "Uh-oh" line near the end of the story.
THE DAUGHTER'S VISIT
This episode wasn't listed until the day "THE CAYENNE PEPPERS" went up. But I had the idea for a few months before that.
Mandi Ohlin gave me the idea for this episode.
Special thanks to Mandi Ohlin for answering a lot of questions I had on why girls wear and do certain things.
A lot of the ranting Kristen and Lana do on the clothes girls wear, parents piercing their babies' ears, women altering their last names, and marriage are my personal beliefs, so I decided to add those beliefs to the characters.
Los Alamos High School really does exist.
Trinity-on-the-Hill Episcopal Church really exists in Los Alamos, but I have no clue if women are allowed to be rectors.
Kristen's experiences at church were based on my experiences when I attended a service at an Independent Baptist church for a school assignment in Comparative Religions on Sunday, July 19, 1998.
The Los Alamos National Scientific Research Laboratory really exists.
The term "happy books" comes from my long-time friend, Mike Rohm. He said it years before I wrote the episode.
Kristen's argument with her mom about religion was inspired by Armand's argument with his dad about homosexuals in "Memories", an episode of Cynthia Chan's Season 4.
The Tao Te Ching is the holy book of Taoism.
The Kojiki (the chronicle of ancient events) and the Nihongi (the chronicles of Japan) are the Shinto holy books. They were supposedly written in 712 AD and 720 AD, respectively.
The passages Kristen quotes are from the Good News Bible (Today's English Version).
The prayer Kristen says is a Tewa Pueblo prayer. I don't know what its proper use is. I just found it on the Web and used it.
As far as I know, the Latin Sign of the Cross is no longer used in Catholic services. I saw it used in Highlander (I) and thought it sounded cool, so I had Kristen say it.
To understand Kristen's dialogue about preselection and the lake of sulfur, read The Revelation To John, probably the weirdest book in the entire Bible.
THE QUEST FOR R.O.B.
This episode was originally supposed to be written by both me and Matt Slater. However, he didn't have enough time to write it, so I was put in charge of the entire episode.
This episode was originally going to be in Season 6, but I moved it up to Season 5 because 1) I couldn't wait to start writing it, and 2) I wanted a lot of original NES references in Season 5.
The episode was delayed for four days due to Tripod's File Manager not being able to upload the files.
Mike's scene with the Power Glove was inspired by Lucas' scene with it in the Nintendo movie, "The Wizard", starring Fred Savage and Christian Slater.
Lana referring to R.O.B. as "father of all that we are" is the Vulcans' view of Surak. See the original series Star Trek episode, "The Savage Curtain".
Lana's line, "R.O.B. Myth. R.O.B. Legend. R.O.B. the Beloved. R.O.B.", was inspired by the promo line for Mega Man 8.
The "Super Robot" is a small tribute to the episode, "A TALE OF TWO DOGS".
The reverence Lana has in her voice when she says "The...Book of R.O.B." was inspired by the line, "The...scrolls of Ardra", in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode, "Devil's Due".
Lana's line, "The Path to R.O.B. is not an easy one", was inspired by a line spoken by one of the Keepers of Power on Dragon's Den in "THREE MEN AND A DRAGON".
I wrote the masterpiece of a song, "The Quest For R.O.B.", and the final line, "Surely R.O.B. is there!", was inspired by a similar line in a hymn I sometimes hear played at church.
Lookout Mountain is a small tribute to "The Transformers: The Movie".
Mike's line, "Lana's gone bye-bye, Kevin", was inspired by Peter's similar line, "Ray's gone bye-bye, Egon", in Ghostbusters (I).
DAY OF THE TRIFORCE
The title and idea for this episode come from the similarly-titled comic book story "THE DAY OF THE TRIFORCE".
The first scene was inspired by (and is very similar to) the ball scene in "HAVING A BALL".
The way Mike is dressed and his line about going formal was inspired by a scene involving Jake in a Season 2 episode of "California Dreams".
The scene where Zelda talks to everyone about the Hylian religion and the Day of the Triforce was inspired by a scene in the Season 2 "Millennium" episode "Midnight of the Century".
The "Hylian Reckoning" comes from the timeline at the Zelda Headquarters.
The Book of Mudora comes from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
The creation story Zelda reads to Lana comes from the novelization of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
The bit where the moblins bring Ganon back to life using Link's blood comes from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
Zelda's explanation about Ganon comes from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
Lana's line, "Rather glad the magic works", comes from "Highlander 2: The Quickening".
The binding of Zelda to the Triforce mentioned in "HAVING A BALL" is broken here.
QUAKE
The waffles argument was inspired by a scene in Mandi Ohlin's story, "The N-Files", which was inspired by an argument on #captain_n on IRC, which was inspired by a line Riff spoke in "ROGUE SQUADRON" PART 3.
ROGUE SQUADRON
Matt originally told me that this episode would be called "Captain N: Rogue Squadron", which I didn't like. However, when editing the final draft, I noticed that Matt simply wrote down "Rogue Squadron". So, on the day PART 1 went up, I shortened the title to "ROGUE SQUADRON".
Part 2 was delayed for 3 days due to the difficulty I had in novelizing it.
Part 3 was delayed for 3 days due to the difficulty I had in novelizing it, plus the fact that the "KEVIN GOES TO HOLLYWOOD" trilogy in Season 4 had to be updated in order for "ROGUE SQUADRON" PARTS 3 & 4 to make sense.
The waffle joke began in PART 3 of this story.
The Black Hole Warp Zone is a reference to "METROID SWEET METROID".
EPISODES THAT DIDN'T MAKE IT IN
"DISCO INFERNO" by Mark Moore. I moved it to Season 6 to be closer to the time that Mega Man 7 was released.
Alison Hynes' Final Fantasy II episode. With school starting, and her new webpage that she's making, she didn't have time to write it for Season 5.
Aly H's Rick Episode. This was originally going to be a Season 4 episode, but Aly didn't have it done in time, so I moved it to Season 5. Then her hard drive went kaput, and the little that was written of the episode was lost. When school started, she didn't have enough time to rewrite the episode, so I canceled it. Aly didn't even tell me the plot of the two-part episode while it was listed, so, for both parts, I put the comment "Author doesn't want plot posted".
"DR. WILY'S REVENGE" by Mark Moore. I wanted me, Matt, and Mandi to appear in at least one episode per season. Since we appear in this episode, and we were not scheduled to appear in Season 6, I moved this episode to Season 6.
"STARDROIDS" by Mark Moore. Ditto.
"RETURN OF THE TENTACLE" by Adam Stout. He wanted it canceled, cuz he wasn't working on it. The summary I had up read: "Kid Icarus, feeling that he is not important to the N Team, goes out in search of a way to prove himself to be a real N Team member. He soon finds three teenagers that need help finding their friend in this weird mansion."
"THE QUEST FOR MANA" by Adam Stout. Ditto. The plot was unknown.
"REVENGE OF THE NERDS" by Steve Cronen. Steve didn't have it done in time for Season 5, so he asked me to move it to Season 6.
"DUKE'S DAY" by Michelle Sinnock. Michelle didn't have it done in time for Season 5, so I moved it to Season 6.
Torin Miller's F-Zero episode. Torin didn't have it done in time for Season 5, so I moved it to Season 6.