"Danger hides in the stars. This is the world of Jason of Star Command, a space-age soldier of fortune determined to stop the most sinister force in the universe: Dragos, master of the cosmos. Aiding Jason in his battle against evil is a talented team of experts, all working together in the secret section of Space Academy. Jason of Star Command!""The time: the distant future. Man has reached the farthest stars, but has also uncovered dark and mysterious galaxies. And as Star Command heads into the unknown, danger lies in wait..."
-Opening Voice-Over Narrations from Jason of Star Command
Created by Arthur H. Nadel, Filmation's live-action venture Jason of Star Command is a sequel of sorts to the Saturday morning series, Space Academy, which ran on CBS in 1977 (and which I've blogged about; check down the page on the right...). Growing up, I was always more a Star Trek kid than a Star Wars kid, and it's funny how these twin Saturday morning, live-action productions from the disco decade reveal the influence of each franchise. Space Academy is a series about a group of cadets exploring the stars and making contact with alien beings. Those alien beings often start out as hostile, but differences are inevitably worked out peaceably. The various episodes are morality plays set against the background of space exploration. It's Star Trek for kids.
Whereas the later series, Jason of Star Command is more clearly influenced by the swashbuckling, action-packed tone of Star Wars. Here, a dashing hero, Jason (Craig Littler) and his compact robot, W1K1 (or "Wiki") battles an evil space tyrant, Dragos (Sid Haig), Jason wears a Han Solo-style black vest and many of Star Wars' bells and whistles are in evidence, meaning flashy laser beams and space explosions. Jason is described as a 'soldier of fortune,' just like Solo was called a 'mercenary,' yet Jason appears the most benevolent, stable and unselfish "soldier of fortune" in the cosmos. (He doesn't hire himself out to competing organizations, and as far as I can tell, doesn't take jobs for money either). But to an eleven year old kid, the handle "soldier of fortune" sounded really, really cool.
Watching the two opening chapters of Jason of Star Command, "Attack of the Dragonship" and "Prisoner of Dragos," it was also clear to me that the serial nature of Jason of Star Command (at least in the first season), as well as the cliffhanger-type climaxes featured there, actually granted the series something in common with an older genre antecedent: Flash Gordon. Even some of the characters are similar in type, the dashing, athletic hero (Jason/Flash), the evil tyrant (Dragos/Ming the Merciless), the scientist (Professor Parsafoot [Charlie Dell]/Dr. Zarkov). That's not to accuse Jason of being a rip-off or anything, only a notation that this Saturday morning series fits into a certain sci-fi tradition, which is more clearly derived from the Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon/Star Wars school than the Star Trek/Forbidden Planet school (which, honestly, I tend to prefer).
Jason of Star Command re-uses Space Academy sets (interiors of the Academy, including the command center), miniatures, and costumes too. The fanfare that accompanies the first appearance of a malevolent alien ship, bent on attacking the Academy, is culled from the Filmation stock library, and was utilized in episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series. These "stock" elements, when combined with new miniatures (like Dragos' impressive dragonship and Jason's Starfire fighters), new sets (Dragos' dungeon, the bridge of his ship, etc.) grant the impression of an elaborate and impressive production. That there are familiar, well-liked actors present in supporting roles (Sid Haig as Dragos, and the late James Doohan as Commander Canarvin) also adds an element of class to what was clearly designed to be a children's program, and an exciting one at that.
The story: Out of the darkness of space, Dragos - "master of the cosmos" - launches a surprise attack on Star Command, the one organization in the galaxy that he feels can prevent his plan for galactic domination. "Attack of the Dragonship" opens with an impressive shot of the Space Academy coming into the firing range of an alien ship. During the surprise attack, Captain Nicole Davidoff (Susan O'Hanlon) is trapped in one section of the Academy, and Jason and his new companion, the miniature droid W1K1, rescue her. He does so by first throwing himself through a doorway (in slow-motion), which - when it shatters - is disappointingly flimsy; looking to be made of balsa wood.
Unfortunately, the second attack from Dragos arrives in short order, and Commander Canarvin, on a planetary expedition, is captured. Jason launches a Star Fire fighter and uses Canarvin's ELS (Emergency Locator Signal) to retrieve him. After Canarvin is safely returned to base (a dangerous space operation utilizing life-support belts), Jason is captured by Dragos and learns that he has sent back not the Academy's beloved commander at all, but a deadly "energy clone" whose mission is to lower the Academy's defense shields, rendering it vulnerable to enemy attack. Worse, Dragos produces an energy clone of Jason, and plans to send him back to the Academy as well. Jason is able to get a message through to Nicole in the nick of time...
When confronted with Dragos, a maniacal, bearded despot sporting a gold helmet, a red cape, black gloves and shoulder pads, Jason is heroically defiant. "Never on all the planets of the galaxy has evil won out over decency and freedom," he declares. "It's a lesson that tyrants like you have yet to learn."
So basically, Jason of Star Command is the old "good vs. evil" in space, with colorful villains, interesting sidekicks like the wind-up toy W1K1, and a hero that we all wanted to be like when we grew up: heroic, decent, and able to pilot a really cool spaceship. There's much here by way of smoke effects, alien costumes (Dragos' minions), and outer space battles, and as a kid I absolutely loved it all. Today, I appreciate the production values (particularly the miniature effects), consider the school which this drama arises from (Flash Gordon), and wonder, truly, how much of this stuff is buried deep in my psyche. I remember watching this series religiously as a kid (I was nine when it aired). But, even back then, this Star Trek kid still preferred Space Academy. Still, I'm grateful to have this series on DVD now (like the recently released Isis and Space Academy, and Land of the Lost), because I will always believe that Saturday morning ventures like those of Filmation and the Kroffts represent the "gateway" to science fiction literature, and more adult films and television. My son Joel is ten months old, too young for any of these shows (and definitely too young for Veronica Mars, according to my wife...). But one day, I will pop these discs in the DVD player, and I hope that they will capture his imagination the way they did mine.
Also, as a friend pointed out to me not long ago, a lot of Jason of Star Command is rather interesting because it seems so much of it got re-purposed into Glen Larson's Buck Rogers in the 25th Century in 1979, a remake of that popular character. There, Buck worked as a secret agent (soldier of fortune?) for the Directorate, much how Jason operates out of Star Command. Both men had robot sidekicks, one named wiki and one named Twiki. Buck's enemy was the Draconian Empire, commanded by an Emperor named Dracos; Jason's enemy was the similarly named Dragos. Both men were accompanied by a competent female officer of high rank, one who could handle herself in a fight, and who wore tight, form-fitting costumes, whether it was Wilma Deering or Nicole Davidoff. Again, this is sort of the Flash Gordon brand, but it's fun to note the numerous similarities. Jason of Star Command and Buck Rogers: this is "where" sci-fi TV was in the late 1970s.
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