As production of the Commander Keen movie progressed, criticism arose both from outside sources and from those involved in the film. Particular attention was drawn to the steadily increasing budget of what started out as a modest Hollywood creation, but was now comparable to any contemporary blockbuster extravagance.


Another note of concern was made about Billy's insistence that he play the part of ten-year-old Commander Keen in the movie, despite himself being eighteen years of age. The movie's progress began to encounter major obstacles, such as substantial missing funds. Meanwhile, overstressed Billy began to eat more and more, until it was becoming clear that he had a noticeable weight problem.

These crises continued to grow and multiply, until Chuck Huffington reluctantly announced that the Commander Keen movie would have to be "put on hold until further financial assistance can be gained." It soon became clear that much of the money for the movie had been embezzled by noneother than Billy Blaze himself. A court case was to convict the teenage con-artist for fraud in December of 1999, only he had disappeared.
It was as if Billy Blaze had dropped right off the face of the Earth.
So where did Billy vanish to? An interview with another computer-game star, Lara Croft, uncovered a scandalous story:
"Billy Blaze? That no-good sonovabitch! He knocked me up and just walked out and left me to raise the kid on my own. Lousy good-for-nothing... He of all people should know there's no money in electronic entertainment for the actors - those greedy programmers get all the dosh. So how am I supposed to raise this kid alone? Huh? Make a movie? Christ, am I going to have to make a Tomb Raider movie just to make ends meet? It looks like it. I can't afford to raise a kid without the child support what he ain't paying me! And how am I supposed to keep starring in Tomb Raider if I can't keep my perfect figure, huh? I tell ya, it's damn hard to keep these breasts perfectly spherical to the nanometer when you've got a baby sucking on them all day long. Huh. Like father, like son..."

"Hey, Billy! Yeah, I'm talking to you, Billy Blaze, Captain Keen, whatever people are calling you these days. You're gonna start recognizing that this is your son here - his name is William - and you're gonna hafta pay your child support or else... or else I'll kick your sorry ass all the way to the Cave of the Descendents!"
It seemed that Billy's fame and popularity was for the first time greater than it was at the height of his fame in the early- to mid- 1990's. Having stolen an estimated US$7 million from Chuck Huffington's movie budget, there was much speculation into Billy's current whereabouts, with endless claims to these riches from people of all walks of life.
The only people who were more interested in Billy Blaze than his fame and money were his loving parents.

SUSAN: "When Billy went missing again, right at the end of the Millennium, we were greatly concerned. I mean, he's gone missing before, of course, but this time... When he took that money, ruined his own movie, it showed that he had lost all faith in Commander Keen, that he didn't want it to make a comeback after all."
ARTHUR: "The Billy Blaze that everyone likes to associate with Commander Keen has gone, and has been gone for many years. He isn't coming back, either. But people won't accept that, and our family have since been under lot of pressure from all of the Keen-mania that just won't go away."
SUSAN: "A lot of pressure. It's been hard on all of us, especially Bobby. The only thing we want is for everything to go back to normal. But that won't happen. So we're just living with it."


"No, I'm not resentful towards id Software or anything, I mean, they didn't corrupt my brother or anything, it was fame and celebrity that did that. id Software, or Pinball Realms or whatever they call themselves these days, they just did their best... and unfortunately they outdid themselves. Keen became too popular for a kid like Billy to have to deal with. I'm sure I would've done what he did if it'd happened to me. Not that I'd want it to happen to me, though. But it has affected me. And Bobby. Yeah, you'd think that with his parents in the TV industry Bobby'd be used to it but with all the media attention that got redirected to him, from Billy... Yeah. Bobby didn't take it too well."


"I didn't take it too well.
All the media attention took a toll on my performance on the sports field. But on the other hand, it was through that particular failure that I finally found my true self: Roberta. I sometimes wonder how many successful football players in this country may have missed out on discovering their true selves. But it's never too late, you know..."
But with the dawn of the New Millennium, time had all but run out for Billy Blaze. His secret lodgings were about to be dragged into the spotlight of media attention.
NEXT