JASON OF STAR COMMAND (1978-79)

The third and final of Filmation’s live-action Saturday morning sci-fi kid’s shows (and last live-action show, period) was Jason of Star Command. A more action-oriented spin-off of the studio’s Space Academy, cost-effectively recycling many of the same expensive sets and models, but eschewing the previous show’s "educational" stories in favor of Star Wars-styled space opera, Jason was serialized sci-fi in Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers tradition, complete with cliffhangers, cute robots, and flamboyant villains in sweeping capes.

The gleefully nonsensical adventures pitted the titular hero (Craig Littler, Superbeast), a Han Solo-esque soldier of fortune attached to Star Command (a nebulously-defined organization that apparently ran the Space Academy and used it as their base), against the evil, would-be ruler of the universe, Dragos (the wonderful Sid Haig, Galaxy of Terror, Spider Baby, The Devil’s Rejects). Other cast members included Jimmy Doohan (Scotty from Star Trek –TOS) as Jason’s commanding officer, exotic Tamara Dobson – Cleopatra Jones herself! – in a recurring role as a mysterious alien babe with psi powers, and cute Susan O’Hanlon (All My Children) as a perky Star Command junior officer. Other regulars included Charlie Dell as an absent-minded professor and John Russell as a blue-skinned, hard-nosed Commander.

As mentioned, Jason was intended as more of an action-adventure than its predecessor. Unfortunately, this being 70's network kid's TV, Jason couldn't punch, trip, shoot, or even give a mean look to anybody. "Action" existed primarily in the form of endless running up and down corridors, soaring and swooping model spacecraft, and clearly-identified unmanned "drone" ships blowing up.

Still, there were entertainingly goofy rubber-and-faux-fur alien monster suits by a young John Carl Buechler (Ghoulies, Cellar Dweller) and some decidedly cool, memorable stop-motion monsters from many of the animation wizards who’d worked on the film Planet of Dinosaurs.

In fact, as impressed as I was with the miniatures and effects on Space Academy, the FX work on Jason, by the same team, shows a marked improvement, both in conception and execution. The sheer quantity of and variety of shots is impressive. Pretty amazing, considering their limited resources. For fans of old school special effects (guilty!), these episodes are something of a treasure trove of pre-computerized FX work.

The first season ran as a series of 15-minute segments of the Tarzan & The Super Seven anthology show, but in its second season, it graduated to its own half-hour berth. BCI’s out-of-print three-disc DVD set (Also available as part of the Filmation Sci-Fi box) includes all the episodes from both seasons.

The full-frame transfers are on a par with the Space Academy discs, a little soft, but light-years better than the bootlegs that floated around the comic book conventions for years.

The DVD’s retrospective documentary includes on-screen interviews with Craig Littler and Sid Haig. They're both obviously fond of the show and seem to have had fun making it. Littler is now the Gorton’s Fisherman in TV commercials, while Haig continues to appear in horror films and other supporting roles. Three commentary tracks are included, featuring Littler, Haig, Filmation chief Lou Scheimer and various FX artists. There’s also a special effects demo reel, image galleries, original scripts and promos for BCI’s other Filmation discs.

Filmation president Lou Scheimer was clearly a science fiction fan, and thanks to him, sci-fi addicted kids of the 70s were able to enjoy futuristic fun every weekend for most of the decade. Along with the live-action shows, Filmation also brought to the screen animated versions of Star Trek and Flash Gordon, and original creations like Space Sentinels and Blackstar. Other studios dabbled in the genre, but Filmation seemed to have a real love for it, and I, for one, am grateful. Thanks, Lou!

Only 24 shopping days...

In the mid-70s, Star Trek was enjoying its second life as a syndicated phenomenon. Along with this new success in reruns, came a huge merchandising push aimed at kids who were too young to have seen the show the first time around.

Every holiday season, I - and many other kids of my generation - eagerly awaited the annual Christmas "Wishbook" catalogs from the major chain retailers. These catalogs were full of colorful photographs of all the new toys (and old favorites) that would be in stock for the season.

I can't even begin to tell you how many hours I spent pouring over those pages, dreaming of getting every single Mego Star Trek and Planet of the Apes action figure under the Christmas tree... not to mention the Enterprise bridge playset! (Never got that, sadly.)

(Click on the image for a larger view.)

SPACE: 1999 Comics by Cuti & Staton

The first two issues of Charlton Comics' Space: 1999 series, based on the 1976-77 syndicated television show, were drawn by my pal and collaborator, Joe Staton, and written by Nicola Cuti, who was on staff at the Derby, CT publisher - and was/is a tremendous fan of space opera.

The first issue featured an abbreviated adaptation of the show's pilot episode "Breakaway," called "Moonless Night." Cuti and Staton manage to strip down the TV episode to fit the comic book format while still maintaining the suspense and most important action. Issue #2 is an original story, "Survival," which actually foreshadows author Barry Longyear's "Enemy Mine" (the basis of the 1985 Dennis Quaid/Louis Gossett film), as it has Commander Koenig and a hostile alien both stranded on a barren planet where they are forced to work together - and trust each other - in order to survive. Cuti's scripts are fast-paced and the characters are pretty much in character. Staton's art is (as always) cartoony, but appealing. His Eagles are a bit too rounded for my tastes, but overall he does a good job of capturing the 1999 universe.

Both issues are graced with marvelous watercolor cover paintings by Staton. Issue #1 features very nice likenesses of Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, while #2 is an effective action shot set against a blazing, red alien sky.

I'm pretty sure that Space: 1999 was the comic that made me a Staton fan, even though he only provided the art on the first two issues. John Byrne took over after that. At twelve, I was a huge fan of the show (still am) and I read and re-read my original copies of these issues until they fell apart. I think that helped me recognize Joe's name and style, so that when I discovered his work on E-Man (also in partnership with Cuti) and the 70's Justice Society and Green Lantern books from DC, I knew who he was.

Charlton's comic book of Space: 1999 ran a total of seven issues. I'll cover the later, John Byrne issues and it's black & white companion magazine (8 issues) in future posts.

Space Babe: Linda Harrison

Linda Harrison as the lovely Nova in the first two Planet of the Apes films. Though technically not a "Space Babe," she's definitely one of the few things in the Apes future worth living and fighting for.

I spent all day on Friday watching the five original Apes theatrical features and was once again struck by Miss Harrison's natural beauty and mute charisma. She may have got the part because she was producer Richard Zanuck's girlfriend (and later, wife), but she filled the role of the future's most lovely savage quite capably in both The Planet of the Apes and its immediate sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes.

Happy Life Day! (More or Less)

"If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every copy of that show and smash it."

- George Lucas

UFO (1970) Movie Poster Art

As with Battlestar Galactica and other science fiction shows, the home video boom of the Eighties led to various TV episodes being repackaged and distributed on VHS and syndicated to independent television stations as feature films. Gerry Anderson's groundbreaking live-action sci-fi series UFO was among those programs; in 1980 two episodes were edited together and released as Invasion: UFO. The art above was created for that release.

Earlier than that, though, in the 70s, several compilation features were derived from the series and released in Italy. The art above was used to promote one of these movies, UFO Prendeteli Vivi.

I don't know who the artists were who painted these illustrations, but as a fan of the series, it's fun seeing this artwork

STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL (1978)

Although Star Wars was a HUGE part of my childhood fascination with space opera and science fiction adventure, I probably won't be posting a lot about it. The one thing the internet has more of than porn is Star Wars. Besides, these days, the Star Wars universe is vast, with hundreds - maybe thousands - of books, comics, video games, etc. I long ago lost any ability or interest in trying to keep up with all.

Still, back in the day, there wasn't a lot of new Star Wars stuff to enjoy if you were one of those first-generation fans - there were the Marvel comic books, Kenner toys, and Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster. And before that - the legendary (and now officially disavowed) Star Wars Holiday Special.

A two-hour mix of wookiee domesticity, odd comedy sketches, strange musical numbers and stock footage, the Holiday Special aired on CBS television on November 17, 1978. Still, it was new Star Wars, and extremely exciting at the time.

It was, to be honest, pretty awful. But one bright spot in the otherwise ill-conceived television spectacular (well, aside from Carrie Fisher's off-key singing) was this 9-minute animated adventure from Canada's Nelvana Studio (Rock And Rule). With bizarre-yet-appealing character designs, wonky animation, the original cast providing voices, and the first-ever appearance of bounty hunter Boba Fett, the cartoon is an offbeat gem.

Enjoy.

ARK II (1976)

Even as a kid, I thought that Ark II was a surprisingly bleak and grim premise for a Saturday morning children’s television series.

Set in the 25th Century, after the world has been devastated by pollution and war, three multi-cultural young scientists (Terry Lester, Jean Marie Hon, and Jose Flores) and their talking chimp, Adam, roam the post-Apocalyptic wasteland in a super-advanced RV, bringing the benefits of science and good morals to the primitive remnants of humanity. That’s right – it’s Damnation Alley for adolescents!

Surprisingly, the show holds up pretty well. Despite the low budget, the production values are quite good, and the Ark and its accessories are pretty impressive gadgets, even today. Probably the most impressive gadget – besides the Ark itself – was a genuine Bell jetpack. Filmation secured the services of a jet-pack and pilot for an afternoon, dressed the guy up like Terry Lester, and shot as much footage of him zooming around as possible, footage they later reused repeatedly throughout the series. Still – it was cool and undeniably real, instead of an unconvincing bluescreen or rear-projection effect.

Shot on location at the old Fox Ranch, the producers managed to evoke a fairly convincing post-Apocalyptic world, even using some decrepit sets left over from the original Planet Of the Apes features! And, as I mentioned in my Space Academy review, Bill Malone’s Robby the Robot guest starred in an episode, which is always a plus for me. The earnest young cast manages to play their underwritten roles with conviction, and, thankfully, the chatty chimpanzee (voiced by frugal Filmation head Lou Schiemer) is never all that annoying.

Scripts range from quite good to insultingly bad, but are usually somewhere in the middle, and despite the grim setting, the stories all offer hope and a solid moral lesson. Fortunately, these "lessons" are not quite as heavy handed as in later Filmation shows, and are delivered without the usual sledgehammer tactics. Guest stars include Jonathan Harris, Malachi Throne, Geoffrey Lewis, Jim Backus and a teenaged Helen Hunt.

Like the other Filmation live-action sci-fi kidvid series Space Academy and Jason of Star Command, Ark II was released a few years ago on DVD by BCI. That original set is out of print – and BCI is out of business – but just before the company closed shop, it released all three series in one box set. Both editions are still available if you look around for them.

The Ark II set contains all 15 episodes on 4 discs. Unfortunately, the transfers are not very impressive. Presented in their original full-screen TV aspect ratio, the source material, originally shot on inexpensive 16mm film stock, is faded and grainy, although relatively free of damage or debris. Still, considering that the show is nearly 30 years old, and was probably shot on a budget of $100 bucks an episode, we’re probably lucky the episodes look as good as they do.

As with the company’s other Filmation releases, Ark II – The Complete Series comes with an bunch of bonus features, including audio commentaries on two episodes, a full-length "Making Of" documentary, several photo and art galleries, and all 15 scripts, plus the series bible, on DVD-ROM.

Ultimately, Ark II is good kid’s show with a still-timely environmental message and a relatively decent example of 70’s TV sci-fi, and I really enjoyed watching these episodes again. If it’s a fond memory from your childhood, you may want to pick it up, despite the less-than-reference-quality transfers.

Space Babe: Dorothy Stratten

Dorothy Stratten as the titular character from Galaxina. Since I wrote about the sci-fi spoof earlier this week, it seemed appropriate to spotlight its late star, the lovely Dorothy Stratten, as this week's "Space Babe." In addition to her role in the 1980 film, she also appeared on an episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century as a futuristic beauty queen.

Stratten was Playboy magazine's "Playmate of the Year" for 1980, and was just starting a career as a film actress when she was tragically murdered by her estranged husband shortly before the release of Galaxina. The story of her life and death was actually filmed twice, once as a TV movie starring Jamie Lee Curtis, and as a theatrical film starring Muriel Hemingway.

Dorothy Stratten Tribute site.

Frazetta's BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (1978)

Back in 1978, someone at either Universal or ABC actually had the smart idea of commissioning renowned fantasy illustrator Frank Frazetta to paint three pieces to be used in promoting their expensive new science fantasy epic, Battlestar Galactica. These three paintings were used as the basis for TV Guide ads promoting the first three episodes ("Saga of A Star World," "Lost Planet of the Gods, Part 1," and "Lost Planet of the Gods, Part 2."), although they were subsequently used on book covers, etc.

What I love about these pieces - even beyond the fact that they exist at all - is how Frazetta interpreted the universe of Galactica through his own sensibilities and style. Clearly, very little in these paintings accurately reflect the cast or production design of the actual series, yet, to me anyway, they capture the epic scale that Glen Larson and his crew were trying so hard to accomplish on their television budget.

STAR TREK (1973)

The new Star Trek movie came out on DVD and Blu-Ray yesterday, and that's cool, and all. I like it fine, but it's not the real Star Trek. Actually, to me, The Original Series really isn't, either. The 1973 Saturday morning cartoon version of Star Trek was probably the very first Trek I ever saw, and that's why it'll always be the real Trek for me. I was eight years old, and I don't believe I ever missed an episode.

Not only did this show spur a voracious appetite for more Star Trek (further fed by James Blish and Alan Dean Foster Trek prose adaptations in paperback, Gold Key comics and the Christmas gift of Bjo Trimble's Trek Concordance long before I ever saw the original live-action series), but it ignited a general fascination for spacebound science fiction and a life-long love of Filmation cartoons as well.

You know, I still really dig this theme music....

GALAXINA (1980)

I first read about the movie Galaxina – as with many others – in Starlog magazine when I was a teen, and ended up waiting 26 years to actually see it. The movie is known (by those who know of it at all) as being one of the very few film vehicles for actress Dorothy R. Stratten, the lovely Playboy Playmate and Bogdanovich protégé who was murdered by her husband shortly before the movie was released.

Unfortunately, Galaxina is terrible (even by my arguably undemanding standards); a remarkably unfunny comedy from William Sachs, the director of The Incredible Melting Man (another movie I only know about from old Starlogs) and good old Crown International Pictures.

Stratten portrays the title character, the shapely android pilot of the intergalactic police cruiser Infinity. While she’s both beautiful and competent at her job, the rest of the crew are neither. Captain Cornelius Butt (former Doritos pitchman Avery Schreiber, Caveman) is an idiot, and his officers Thor (Stephan Macht, The Monster Squad) and Buzz (J.D. Hinton) are almost as bad. But Galaxina and Thor nonetheless have feelings for one another, feelings they cannot act upon, because physical contact causes the android to short circuit. After a visit to an alien brothel, the crew of the Infinity is assigned to find a magical artifact, the Blue Star, and keep it out of the hands of the resident Darth Vader clone.

While there’s some potential in here, it’s almost completely squandered by director Sachs, who has no apparent sense of comedy timing whatsoever. The production values are low, the characters and humor are crude, the gags are cliché, and while Stratten is undeniably beautiful to look at, her role as a robot seems to stretch her limited emoting abilities. There are a couple of decent alien designs by Chris Walas (in particular, the "Rock Biter"), some of the spaceship sets are kinda cool, and there are a few jokes that almost work, but overall, the film remains notable only for its association with its tragic leading lady.

BCI’s classy 25th Anniversary Special Edition DVD from a few years ago treats the film like a comedy masterpiece, however, with a sharp, clean 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. There’s also a boatload of bonus features. There’s a commentary track by director Sachs and actor Stephen Macht (God love ‘em, they actually think this movie is funny!), another audio interview with Sachs, additional footage from the international version, the theatrical trailer, and four still galleries. DVD ROM features include the original script and shooting script, as well as pdf reprints of the above-mentioned Starlog articles. Finally, there’s a 6-page booklet with stills and a biography of Stratten.

Once again, we’ve got a bad movie in a fantastic DVD package. Recommended only for people interested in the late Dorothy Stratten… or fans of Avery Schreiber. If there are any.

• TRIVIA: Dorothy Stratten also appeared in the "Cruise Ship to the Stars" episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century the year before as "Miss Cosmos, the most genetically perfect woman in the universe."

Check out this 1980 Galaxina TV Spot: