SPACE ACADEMY (1977) TV Guide Article

I have very distinct memories of seeing this TV Guide photo spread back in '77, showcasing the (still) impressive miniature location of Filmation's kidvid classic, Space Academy, and marveling at all the tiny details.

Even today, I remain impressed at the quality of the studio's in-house effects work, which, in my opinion, rivaled that of Space: 1999 and Battlestar Galactica, on a fraction of the budget. (I'm pretty sure that producer Lou Scheimer was inflating the numbers a bit in the article.)

News: JASON OF STAR COMMAND on Netflix

Fans of Filmation's Saturday morning sci-fi romp, Jason Of Star Command who haven't yet picked up or found a copy of the (rapidly becoming rarer) DVD set, might be interested to know that the series has just been added to Netflix's instant play service. There, it joins such other Space: 1970 favorites as Battlestar Galactica (the original), Buck Rogers In The 25th Century, The Incredible Hulk, Galactica: 1980 and Star Blazers for easy streaming on your computer or television. Hopefully, they'll add Space Academy and Ark II eventually (at the moment, they're both available only as DVD by mail rentals).

In tangentially-related news, Space: 1970 reader Tim Snider has informed me that the aforementioned Space Academy is currently airing on DISH Network's KTV channel as part of a block of vintage kid's television programming.

Filmation lives on....

SPACE ACADEMY: "My Favorite Marcia"

As I've said before, my Favorite Episodes are just that - my favorites. They're not necessarily the best episodes of the series in question; for that matter, they may not even be good ones, by most standards. But, for some reason or another, these are the ones that enjoy watching over and over, and somehow, never tire of them. One such favorite is the 1977 Space Academy episode, "My Favorite Marcia."

Set in the "star year 3732," the Saturday Morning series Space Academy, produced by Filmation Studios,  chronicled the lessons and adventures of "Blue Team," a group of young cadets stationed at the titular educational institution. Uniquely, the Academy was built on and into an asteroid, and was commanded by the 300 year-old Commander Isaac Gampu, portrayed by the great Jonathan Harris. Harris is best known to sci-fi fans for his role as Dr. Zachery Smith on the 60s Irwin Allen TV series Lost In Space. The year before Space Academy, he had made two guest appearances on Filmation's Ark II, and would follow up Academy by providing the voice of the charmingly snide Cylon cogitator Lucifer on Battlestar Galactica.

"My Favorite Marcia" is different from most of the other Academy episodes in that it is primarily a showcase for Harris, and his character, Isaac Gampu. In fact, it is in this episode that we actually learn the character's first name (no doubt a homage to science fiction author Isaac Asimov)... among other things.

As the episode begins, we find Commander Gampu and most of Blue Team aboard one of the Academy's Seeker shuttles, observing a white dwarf star that's due to go nova. While they are discussing the upcoming celestial light show, they receive a distress signal from one of the planets orbiting the doomed star. Being galactic good guys, they are obligated to investigate the signal and attempt to rescue the sender(s). They land on the unnamed world, and Gampu takes cadets Laura Gentry and Tee Gar (Pamelyn Ferdin and Brian Tochi - both of whom had appeared in the third season Star Trek episode, "And The Children Shall Lead") with him to search out the source of the signal, while ordering Paul (Ty Henderson), Loki (Eric Greene) and robot Peepo to stay aboard the shuttle and return to space, in order to scan the planet from orbit.

Of course, troublemakers Loki and Peepo sneak off the Seeker before it launches...

Gampu, Laura and Tee Gar find the distress beacon, and Gampu recognizes the name of the ship stenciled on its side - Sunbeam... commanded by one Marcia Giddings (Dena Dietrich), an independent space trader with whom the Commander has some history. "Dear Marcia always had the happy faculty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time..."

While searching for Captain Giddings, Gampu and the cadets encounter a large, ominous black robot (the legendary Robby the Robot with a more sinister cyclopean dome and a few other minor modifications), and are, rather embarrassingly, quickly ensnared in a force field (which Tee Gar hilariously attempts to kung fu his way out of!). Fortunately, Loki & Peepo have found Giddings, and with a little judicious rewiring of the Academy's robot mascot, are able to short circuit the force field and free the captive cadets and their commander. Needless to say, Gampu isn't happy about having had to be saved by Marcia (and Loki, one presumes)...

"Well, Marcia, we meet again."
 
"Hello, Captain."
 
"Commander."
 
"Sorry. Commander."
 
"I find you as I last saw you: on the brink of disaster. What havoc have you wrought this time?"

"Now, hold it, sonny..."
 
"I beg your pardon?"

"You've got your right shoe on your left foot again. It's you that's causing the trouble, not me."
 
"You haven't changed one iota!"
 
"Oh, yes, I have. I've come into the full flower of my womanhood."
 
"Albeit a bit wilted."
 
"You haven't changed either. Pity."

Turns out that Marcia had been mining for diamonds on the planet when the black robot appeared out of nowhere and destroyed her ship. Since then, she's been avoiding it and awaiting rescue. Gampu and company prepare to leave the planet, but unfortunately, there's still the hostile robot to deal with...

Using Peepo, they first communicate with the automaton, which is, according to Peepo, "...not a true robot, but a war machine." How this engine of destruction (which so far has only exhibited some decidedly non-lethal force field technology - amusingly accompanied by a "bionic" sound effect!) came to this otherwise uninhabited planet, is never explained. Anyway, Peepo determines the bot's control frequency, and using the Sunbeam's distress beacon to send a signal, they shut the brute down. Paul arrives in the Seeker, and they all escape the planet just in time to watch the sun go nova.

Back at the Academy, Gampu and Marcia exchange some bitingly sarcastic - but clearly affectionate - repartee before the Commander gifts her with a huge diamond that he happened to pick up back on the planet.

"You are a doll, Isaac."
 
"Never, never call me that."
 
"Three hundred years old and still acting like a baby over that name? It is yours, you know."
 
"Not by choice!"
 
"When, when, dear Gampu... when are you ever gonna loosen up?"
 
"Madam, I am as loose as I intend to be!"

That may be the most in-depth synopsis I've written for one of these essays yet, and it's funny, because this is an insanely simple plot, as befits a show aimed at ten-to-thirteen year-olds. And it's not even the story that makes this one of my favorite few episodes of Space Academy. No, what makes me enjoy it so much is the undeniable chemistry between Harris and Dietrich (who was familiar to me even in '77 from those margarine commercials where she played "Mother Nature"). The back-and-forth between these two old pros is just delightful (I particularly love it when she keeps referring to geezer Gampu as "sonny.") to watch & listen to.

Also, as a regular viewer then/fan now, it's a favorite because it hints of an intriguing history for the Gampu character beyond the established curmudgeonly grandfather/headmaster that we'd seen every other week. The idea that this ancient geezer had once been in love - and, clearly, it was a passionate, tempestuous relationship - showed a whole new side to the character. I probably didn't appreciate it when I was 13, but I do now.

Finally - and you knew this was coming - "My Favorite Marcia" ranks high with me because, well, Robby the Robot is in it. Sure, he's wearing a different head, but it's still my best 'bot Robby, playing the heavy for a change.

Yeah, it would be nice if there had been some more outer space/spaceship stuff (too bad they couldn't have afforded to build a miniature of Marcia's wrecked Sunbeam on the planet's surface), or if they'd managed to actually explain the existence of the warbot (perhaps a remnant from the "Vegan Wars" mentioned in an early episode?), or had a few more scenes with Maggie Cooper in her miniskirt... but it's still a pretty decent kid's adventure story, and the character stuff between Gampu and Marcia is great. And hey, I even get a smile out of the punny title.

M.I.S. - Jason Of Star Command

Once again, we delve into the unexplained mysteries of the Space: 1970 era - specifically, the mysteries of sci-fi shows of the Seventies. When I wrote one of these articles about Space: 1999 a few months ago, people kept bringing up stuff from novelizations and other non-canonical media to explain things away, but I'd rather try and figure things out using only the evidence presented on-air. The idea is to have some fun indulging in some fannish speculation and mining the shows themselves for clues. This time, we're looking at Filmation Studios' 1978-70 Saturday morning adventure serial, Jason of Star Command.

The first - and biggest - question, of course, is: what the hell is Star Command?

We're told that it operates "out of a secret section of the Space Academy," but what is never made clear is what exactly the relationship between Star Command - which certainly sounds like a vast galactic military, or at least, peacekeeping organization - and the Academy actually is. The mundane reality is that Filmation simply re-used the preexisting (and already paid for) sets, costumes, and many of the effects from the previous season's Space Academy series in order to reduce costs on the later show, allowing them to spend more of their Jason budget on new effects shots and sets (the interior of Dragos' Dragonship, for example). But what we're talking about here is the universe of the show, not real-world economics.

As a kid, I actually wondered about this stuff, trying to reconcile the storylines and characters of the two shows, and make sense of their shared universe.The creators may not have thought it was important, or just treated the two series as independent of each other, but I was 14-15 years old, and it was pretty damned clear to me that the shows were - or should have been - taking place in the same fictional "world." The appearance of Space Academy characters Matt Prentice and the robot Peepo in the later show, only reinforced that conviction.

So, was Star Command the authority under which the Space Academy operated? Were its cadets being trained to serve in the Command? And if so, who was in charge of the school facility itself? SC's Commander Carnarvin and/or his unnamed, blue-skinned successor? Or Commander Gampu? For that matter, was Gampu a Star Command officer? The uniform was the same... so I'd say "yes."

And if Star Command operated out of the Academy, was there more than one control room? Where was Gampu when the SC crew was running the show during Jason, flying that built-up asteroid all over the galaxy and engaging in battles with Dragos' drone ships?

Of course, we never saw very many adult Star Command officers stationed on the Academy asteroid. Just Canarvin (and his ill-tempered successor), Captain Nicole Davidoff (who wore a distinctively different uniform from that of the cadets that swarmed the Academy corridors), and Professor Parsafoot, who, like Jason (and later, Samantha), may have actually been a civilian only working with the Command.  This suggests that Star Command itself was a bigger organization based elsewhere, and that Canarvin's operation at the Academy was simply a small task force assigned there to protect the educational institution and monitor the sector of space in which the school was located.

If that was the case, then it may have been standard procedure for the Star Command contingent to take control of the institution during combat situations, and Gampu simply stepped aside (off camera) on those occasions.

Another big question - just who was Jason? It's clearly established that he is a civilian, and that, while trusted, he has a reputation for not following Star Command protocols. Being a kid's show, no backstory is provided for the character, nor is any personal history ever revealed or even hinted at.

Obviously, he's valued for his piloting abilities, and as a civilian, perhaps he has some use as a secret agent, operating in areas and/or situations where uniformed Star Command officers cannot. This may explain why Canarvin's azure successor was so distrustful of Jason and his loyalties when he assumed command of the operation in Season 2.

His outfit suggested a swashbuckling nature (and Han Solo, of course), so maybe he was a reformed space pirate? I'd like to think so; it would explain a lot.

Dragos is no mystery - he's portrayed as an ambitious galactic warlord. He's even shown building alliances with alien races (witness his council of aliens in S2) and other powerful leaders, like Queen Medusa. We're never told what his home planet is, but that's not really a big deal. He's clearly a threat to galactic peace and his motivations aren't very hard to determine. Greed and a thirst for power are pretty universal motives.

For once, there's no real narrative questions regarding second season cast changes, either. As Canarvin and Davidoff were both Star Command officers, it's logical to assume that they were given new assignments (in Canarvin's case, on the U.S.S. Enterprise) and transferred to other posts. Nicole was cute, and I missed her, but Samantha was a much stronger female regular. The actual name of Season 2's commander and his race are unexplained mysteries, but as neither question really impacts the narrative, I'm not particularly concerned. It's sloppy world-building, but not critical in this case.

In fact, the only other major question I have about the Space Academy/Jason of Star Command universe is how Tamara Dobson (Samantha) ever managed to get into those pants!

SPACE ACADEMY (1977)

Set in the "Star Year" 3732, the short-lived Space Academy Saturday morning kidvid series (it mutated into Jason of Star Command a year later) chronicled the adventures of a group of young space cadets led by handsome Chris Gentry (Ric Carrot, The Swinging Cheerleaders) and his telepathic sister Laura, (popular 60’s and 70’s child actress Pamelyn Ferdin). Other cadets include Brian Tochi, Ty Henderson, Eric Greene and the incredibly hot Maggie Cooper (An Eye For An Eye). Under the tutelage of their teacher/headmaster, Commander Isaac Gampu (Jonathan Harris of Lost in Space, with a bizarre haircut), the earnest young cadets learned important lessons about honor, duty and life while exploring the galaxy and unraveling the mysteries of the universe.

Shot on a very low budget (although still the most expensive children's show up to that time), Space Academy was Filmation Studios’ second live-action science fiction series, following the previous year’s post-Apocalyptic adventure, Ark II (which was sort of Damnation Alley for kids). Despite the budget, SA is surprisingly well crafted, with good production values, sets and costumes, not to mention high-quality, pre-CGI special effects that rival those produced for other 70’s sci-fi projects, including the vastly more expensive Space: 1999. Nowadays, it’s common to call such handcrafted, painstaking miniature work "cheesy," especially when compared to today’s hi-tech, computer-created effects, but that’s just insulting, ignorant and inaccurate. Space Academy boasts damned fine effects work and it adds immeasurably to the show’s charm. In fact, effects supervisor Chuck Comisky went on to supervise the effects on Roger Corman’s 1980 epic space opera, Battle Beyond the Stars, and some of his crew members worked on Star Wars and its sequels.

The model work is remarkably detailed and nicely-designed. The Seeker shuttles were designed specifically to resemble the Ark II vehicle so that the budget-conscious studio could reuse the expensive full-size prop. The Academy model itself is fascinating, as it depicts the space station as being built on and into an asteroid. It makes for a cool and unique visual.

Scripts are a mixed bag – ranging from some thought-provoking sci-fi and effective character studies to childish kid’s space adventures, but the cast is likeable and every half-hour episode is entertaining, each delivering the obligatory moral just before the end credits. Additionally, Maggie Cooper frequently wears a miniskirt. My favorite episode, though, is probably the one where the show’s obligatory cute robot, Peepo, had to battle an evil ‘bot portrayed by Bill Malone’s recreation of Robby The Robot from Forbidden Planet. (Robby also appeared in an episode of Filmation’s previous live action sci-fi show, Ark II.) Another favorite is "Star Legend," in which the cadets encounter a "Flying Dutchman"-styled ghost ship, which just happens to look exactly like the Academy – upside down!

BCI/Eclipse’s now out-of-print DVD set includes all 15 episodes of the single season on 4 discs, and is also available in a Filmation Sci-Fi box set with Ark II and Jason Of Star Command. The full frame transfers look very good for their age. BCI has also included plenty of nostalgic bonus features, including a half-hour documentary/cast reunion and two episode commentary tracks with producer Lou Scheimer, cast members Carrot, Tochi and Greene, and effects supervisor Comisky. There’s an extensive still gallery, all the episode scripts on DVD-ROM, commercial bumpers and more.

The only disappointment in this fine DVD set is that neither Pamelyn Ferdin (Laura) nor Maggie Cooper (Adrian) were involved in the reunion/documentary. It’s a shame, because Ferdin was one of the most prolific and familiar child actresses of the era and probably has some great stories, while Maggie Cooper was… well, an uber-babe.

• TRIVIA: Cadets Brian Tochi and Pamelyn Ferdin both appeared in the third season Star Trek episode, "And The Children Shall Lead."