Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Space Academy: "Johnny Sunseed" (December 17, 1977)

This week, on Space Academy, (in an episode directed by Ezra Stone and written by Don Heckman), a representative from the Federation is en route to investigate the Academy, a facility whose expenses are running high.

The representative, however, is a weird guy named Johnny Sunseed who wishes to free mankind from the technical domination of machines. He also happens to be Gampu's (Jonathan Harris) brother.

At the same time, a strange sickness is affected many of the students at the Academy. Cadets, (including Adrian) suffer from a "systemic imbalance" that causes "silliness...detachment" and "an inability to do your job correctly."

As the Academy nears the space farm (which has been providing food to the Academy commissary...), Paul also goes bonkers while piloting a Seeker. He strafes the Academy in the ship, buzzing between the towers of the Facility in some very nicely orchestrated miniature effects work.

Sunseed checks out the space farm with Peepo (whom he consistently calls Peppo) and proceeds to damage the computer-run gardening system, "overloading" power systems not just at the farm, but on the distant Academy planetoid!

As a result, the Academy drifts on a collision course towards the space farm, but Gampu dispatches Chris (Ric Carrott), Tee-Gar (Brian Tochi) and Adrian (Maggie Cooper) in Seekers 1, 4 and 5, which are equipped with "presser beams." 

The seekers keep the Academy from smashing into the space farm, while Gampu attempts a psychic link with his faraway brother. It works, and the space farm gets repaired.

Sunseed decides that nature and technology can exist hand-in-hand, and all's well that ends well, to quote a famous writer.

I enjoy watching this live-action Filmation show from the 1970s so much, even today, though sometimes have to laugh at the weird stories. For instance, it's a fairly lousy system that a computer on a planet far away could affect the Space Academy's propulsion and power systems. I mean, there's a ready-made sabotage plan, right there! If you can't attack the heavily armed/defended Academy, find the weak link on the space farm and incapacitate it from there. This reminds me of Return of the Jedi and the fact that the under-construction Death Star couldn't generate its own force field.

Also, it doesn't really seem plausible to me that Johnny Sunseed could be a high-ranking official in the Federation since he despises technology. He's more like a cranky environmental activist than a government official. And why does Johnny Sunseed boast a different name from Isaac Gampu if they are biological brothers? Did Sunseed just adopt his flamboyant-sounding name in adulthood, given his proclivities towards nature? That could have been explained better.

I hate to finish this review, because this is the final episode of Space Academy, a series that I really love, and despite flaws, among the best live-action Saturday morning series ever (behind only Land of the Lost.) I wish I had 16 more episodes to review.

I guess I’ll just have to revisit it in another ten years or so…

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Space Academy "Star Legend" (December 10, 1977)

This week on Filmation's 1977 Saturday morning space adventure, a Space Academy mission "marking the boundaries" of the Alderaan Triangle with "beacons," grows increasingly dangerous. Chris (Ric Carrott) and Paul's (Ty Henderson) Seeker experiences a mysterious power drain after going off course to avoid space junk.

The Seeker is miraculously rescued by a "strange old-fashioned laser beam," which pushes the craft out of the futuristic Bermuda Triangle.

On the view-screen, a strange disembodied head appears and warns the Seeker to stay away.

Meanwhile, back at the Academy, Commander Gampu (Jonathan Harris) comes to believe that the legendary Captain Rampo (Howard Morris), "the flying dutchman of outer space" may be responsible for the incident with the Seeker. 

Gampu describes the legend of how Rampo, captaining an early planetoid spacecraft not unlike the Academy, became lost in space, over a millennium ago. Believing the legend, Commander Gampu flies the Academy in to the Alderaan Triangle's lateral perimeter, and the Academy too is promptly drained of energy...

With the Academy frozen in the Triangle, Gampu takes Blue Team aboard a Seeker to Rampo's space craft, which resembles the Academy, but is lit green. Once on board, a strange specter warns them to "leave...or stay forever" and states that "all visitors here are doomed...doomed!"

Gampu and his cadets laser down a locked door and discover 1,603 year-old Captain Rampo, a funny old man dressed like a train conductor, circa 1910. 

Turns out he's been pulling a Balok strategy (from the classic Star Trek episode, "The Corbomite maneuver.") A thousand years ago, he was establishing a colony on a nearby planet when the sun went nova. A magnetic storm forced him to cross into the Alderaan Triangle, and he and his ship have remained trapped there, orbiting the space trap in an attempt to stop a "scourge of energy vapor" which drains ships of power. He's been pretending to be a fierce specter to keep other ships away...when in reality he's just a kindly old man. 

Gampu and the others decide to give the hungry energy vapor "indigestion." They lure it into the captain's quarters, then return to the Seeker and destroy Rampo's ship...thus ending the star legend, and freeing Rampo from his mission.

I love how "Star Legend" combines aspects of the Flying Dutchman legend with tales of the Bermuda Triangle (a regular 1970s obsession), and then reveals -- in glorious miniature -- a much earlier version of the Academy.  Rampo's "ship" glows green, inside and out, making it appear quite creepy. 

Still, you have to wonder how the builders of the ship could afford to lose it. Also, for being a thousand years old, Rampo's planetoid appears as advanced in terms of technology and production design as the Academy.

Next week: "Johnny Sunseed."

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Space Academy: "Space Hookey" (December 3, 1977)

This week on the 1977 Saturday morning, live-action, Filmation production Space Academy, space orphan Loki and his diminutive robot friend, Peepo (actually a "self-determining type-A manu-droid," according to this episode) decide to skip out on Commander Gampu's (Jonathan Harris) boring Astrography Class (in classroom 5), steal a Seeker, and go on a joy ride through space.

Alas, the Seeker is shadowed by a comet, and Peepo and Loki go to visit it. There, they discover two glowing amorphous life-forms who happen to be playing hookey too. 

One is a red glowing ball, the other a white one. These chipmunk-voiced aliens possess Loki, causing the boy to become schizophrenic. "It's crowded in here," they complain of his mind.

When Loki and Peepo get hauled back to the Academy for disciplinary action, one of the non-corporeal aliens takes over Commander Gampu (Jonathan Harris) and makes him mince around the control room counting numbers like a kindergarten student. "Onesie, Twosie, threesie, foursie" he says as he skips about merrily...

Then, Gampu begins acting as a space pirate, incarcerating those who resist his orders, and ordering them to walk the plank.  But then things become truly dangerous as Gampu orders a course for "Terazoid."  To reach that destination, the Academy planetoid will have to take short cut through hostile Denebian Territory. And that's against a space treaty! 

While Chris (Ric Carrott), Laura (Pamelyn Ferdin), Tee Gar (Brian Tochi) and Adrian (Maggie Cooper) attempt to figure out what to do, a menacing-looking Denebian "space drone" starts taking pot shots at the approaching Academy.

Finally, in a story resolution familiar from Star Trek's "Squire of Gothos," the glowing aliens get caught by their Daddy, a blue glowing light. He takes them home for punishment, but promises not to be too harsh. They are, after all, just kids...

"Your mother and I will deal with you when you get home!" he says. The aliens quickly vacate from Gampu, and also from Paul, who became possessed after Loki was freed.

"Space Hookey" is a really fun show, and it remind me of the heyday of Star Trek, Lost in Space, Space: 1999 and Buck Rogers.  

Those were days when not every single episode of a space adventure had to be life and death.  This story starts out innocently enough, but there is a threat when the characters possessed by the alien life-forms don't realize they have put the Academy and all its personnel into very grave jeopardy. The miniatures of the Denebian ships are fantastic too.

Also, I should note, "Space Hookey" looks ahead.  A first season episode of The Next Generation (1987 - 1994), called "Lonely Among Us," tells basically the same story.  In that case, another non-corporeal life-form takes over a commanding officer (Picard, rather than Gampu) and begins making him act strangely, and -- eventually -- dangerously too.  

Next week: "Star Legend."

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Space Academy: "My Favorite Marcia" (November 26, 1977)

This week's episode of the 1977-1978 Filmation, live-action Space Academy (1977) series is called "My Favorite Marcia," and it guest-stars Dena Dietrich as Marcia Giddings, a "rogue" space trader; one bound to make troubles for our regular characters. 

So in this case, think Harry Mudd, The Taybor, or The Outrageous Okana, to name a few such similar characters in cult-TV history.

In "My Favorite Marcia" stalwart Commander Gampu (Jonathan Harris) leads a cadet team to study a star going supernova, when he determines that a "galactic distress beacon" has been activated on the fourth planet in a nearby star system. 

He investigates the beacon and finds that his old "friend," space trader Marcia Giddings -- a woman "with the happy faculty of always being in the wrong place at the wrong time" -- is hunting diamonds on the planet surface, but that her spaceship's power has been neutralized by an evil robot.

And that evil robot is -- delightfully -- a re-dressed Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet (1956). In this episode, however, Robby has been given a new brain pan, a "dome," and glowing blue eyeball for Space Academy.  He's playing a "war machine" gone mad; one whom Peepo says "wants to harm everybody."

To prove his evil intentions, the robot traps Laura (Pamelyn Ferdin), Gampu, and Tee Gar (Brian Tochi) in a yellow "force shield" (which is accompanied by the bionic sound effects from The Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman).

Soon, Peepo manages to short-circuit Robby. The evil robot just vanishes into thin air without explanation, however. 

It is great to see Robby back in action in "My Favorite Marcia,", even in his altered form, though one disappointment of the episode is that Gampu seems more intent on sparring with Marcia than in dealing with the dangerous robot.  Also, it isn't entirely clear why the robot disappears.  Was he actually teleported away?

Still, in a weird way, this episode feels like a celebration of cult-TV history.  We get a funny title, based on My Favorite Martian, a familiar character-type (a distaff Harry Mudd), and an old friend from the genre: Robby.  

Next week: "Space Hookey."

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Space Academy: "The Cheat" (November 19, 1977)

Well, there's another crisis on the 1977 Saturday morning live-action, Filmation TV series Space Academy this week. An "energy distributor" on asteroid BX3 is leaking and could poison outer space for three parsecs, including an inhabited space colony.

But on the Academy, the cadets are embroiled in a crisis. Captain Chris Gentry (Ric Carrott) has ordered Cadet Matt Prentiss (John Berwick) called up on charges because he showed "flagrant disregard for procedure" on their last mission. Commander Gampu settles the crisis by suspending the hearing on the matter, and putting Matt Prentiss, a laser technician, in charge of the mission to seal the malfunctioning energy distributor.

The mission proves dangerous, and Matt orders the Seeker through an ion storm and - again - Chris reacts negatively to Matt's irresponsibility. 

But when Matt is injured during his attempt to seal the energy distributor, Chris takes over and saves the day, using the Seeker's bulldozer-like arms to push a small asteroid into the energy distributor, thereby creating a new "artificial" sun to provide energy to this part of the galaxy.

"The Cheat" is essentially the same story as the previous installment of Space Academy, "Life Begins at 300."

A pushy non-regular learns a valuable lesson about working with "the team" after initially being a hothead. This episode distinguishes itself primarily because Matt asks Laura (Pamelyn Ferdin) out on a date(!), and also because the episode features a funny slow-motion interlude wherein Tee Gar Soom uses his karate skills to break down a jammed engine room door on a Seeker.

Meanwhile, fans may remember that John Berwick's character, Matt Prentiss shows up in a first season episode of Jason of Star Command (1978-1980). In Chapter 10, "The Disappearing Man," it is reported that he has been missing for months. In truth, he has been a guinea pig for the invisibility experiments of Dragos (Sid Haig).  So Berwick's character represents a little cross-series continuity.

I do think that Space Academy missed a bet on teaching a good lesson to kids with stories like "The Cheat." In both this and the previous installment, our heroes were proven to be correct in their convictions all along, and it was the dangerous interloper who had to learn a lesson. 

All the good guys really had to do was express "forgiveness" for the trespassers. 

Wouldn't it have been nice had Chris or Gampu or one of "our" team been proven wrong in "The Cheat" instead? 

And Matt -- the guest star -- been proven correct? 

Sometimes, a good lesson for kids to learn is that it's okay to be wrong; and to be the one asking for forgiveness. Right? It seems that Chris reacts negatively to Matt's position of authority...maybe he was just threatened all the way along by someone as capable as he was...and again, that's something that kids should learn about: feelings of competition and jealousy and how to deal with them.
Otherwise, this episode introduces a new feature for the versatile Seeker.  Here, we see that the front section can extend arms, which prove useful in pushing an asteroid from its collision course.

Finally, the energy distributor is a nice new miniature for the series.  It is asteroid-based in terms of construction too, which marks it as being produced by the same culture that created the "planetoid" for Space Academy.

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Space Academy: "Life Begins at 300" (November 12, 1977)

In "Life Begins at 300," another segment of Space Academy (written by Jack Paritz), a haughty cadet from Yellow Squad, Gina Corey (actress Paula Wagner) warns Commander Gampu (Jonathan Harris) that he should abort a Seeker mission to collect the mineral Zolium from a distant planet. 

She thoughtfully quotes "Stanley Crane's paper on Zolium Distribution," but Gampu doesn't consider the mission particularly dangerous.

Unfortunately, he's proven wrong, and Paul's life support badge malfunctions while he's collecting the Zolium on the planet surface. 

Worse, Peepo malfunctions in the atmosphere when sent out to save the cadet (with, of all things, an inflatable raft...). 

Though Paul is finally saved, Gampu now has serious questions about his own leadership. Was Gina right?  Did he underestimate the danger?

"There's a very old saying: you can't teach old dogs new tricks," he bemoans. Then, Gampu tenders his resignation from the Academy and orders Gentry to transmit it to Earth.

But Gina, who has constructed a device called "an extractor" to collect Zolium, also fails her mission, and it's up to Gampu -- with his 300 year old wisdom and experience -- to save her. He does so, and his faith in himself and his capabilities is restored. 

"We all need the experience of age, which I have, and the exuberance of youth, which you have," he tells the thankful Gina.

The most interesting aspect of "Life Begins at 300" is that it's the first episode thus far to include Jonathan Harris (Gampu) in more than a supporting role. He does well in the role.  I like that he can be both stern and gentle, and that he is alwys driving the cadets to be better.  Gampu is a far cry from Dr. Smith on Lost in Space.  He is a great elder spokesman for the human race and its values, and I like that Harris was given an opportunity to reveal another side of his persona.

I also just have to note how "Life Begins at 300" fits into that wonderful sci-fi TV convention: the mineral hunt. 

In so many science fiction TV series of the 1960s and 1970s, the hunt for a rare mineral resource was the plot of the day. Dilithium was in short supply in Star Trek ("Mudd's Women,") along with Ritalin ("Requiem for Methuselah.") On Space:1999, the moonbase desperately needed titanium ("The Metamorph") and tiranium ("Catacombs of the Moon.") On Battlestar Galactica, it was the valuable substance "tylium" that had to be mined by the Ovions in "Saga of a Space World." Here, on Space Academy, Zolium is used to "regenerate life support badges."  That's an intriguing background note that helps us understand how the seemingly miraculous future world exists.

I suppose it makes abundant sense that sci-fi TV series would focus on this aspect of outer space: ideally, we hope it's a realm brimming with the resources we require to sustain ourselves. But that remains to be seen. So when do we start mining the asteroid belt (and move into Outland territory?) I hope it happens soon. 

Next week: "The Cheat."

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Space Academy: "Planet of Fire" (November 5, 1977)

This week on Space Academy, Tee-Gar Soom (Brian Tochi) experiments with a "cryotron," a device that will ultimately be able to "cool down hot planets."  He demonstrates it for his friends, and for Gampu (Jonathan Harris), and is pleased with his success.

But Tee Gar is also due for a vacation, so he leaves the Academy and doesn't learn that his experimental cryotron device --which looks like a ray gun with a back pack -- posseses a fatal flaw: the frozen objects become unstable and explode.

With Loki and Peepo, the oblivious Tee Gar heads to the asteroid of Daleus to perform further tests on the cryotron, only to see the potential weapon stolen by a strange, solitary giant named Dramon (Don Pedro Colley).

Dramon abducts and then freezes Peepo with the Cryotron, and then needs Tee Gar's help to restore the robot to normal. 

The only thing that can save the diminutive droid is "moist heat."  Fortunately, a hot spring on the planet surface gets the job donem and Peepo is saved.

At the end of the day, Peepo is back to being himself, and Dramon returns to the Academy as a new friend. 

Meanwhile, Tee-Gar promises to continue work on his freezing device.

"All great men have suffered disappointment," advises Commander Gampu "from Galileo to the Wright Brothers..."

"Planet of Fire" is a disappointment, I would assess. It's not that it is a terrible episode, it's that it is pitched a lot lower than earlier episodes.  "Countdown," "Survivors of Zalon" and "The Rocks of Janus" could largely pass muster on a prime time series like Star Trek (1966-1969) or Space:1999 (1975-1977).  The concepts are strong ones, and the execution is pretty good too.

But "Planet of Fire," is, in essence, about the cadets encountering a lonely giant who freezes their robot.  They make friends with him.

And that's it.

This isn't to say that the lesson about friendship is unworthy. It isn't. Dramon is confused that Peepo's buddies risked their lives to rescue him. "Maybe the way you act, you don't deserve them [friends]," Peepo suggests, and so Dramon reforms his anti-social ways.

There's also a lesson here about tenacity. Tee Gar has failed in his work, making the cryotron safe and functional, but one set-back cannot be the end for a scientist.  He must re-tool, and try again.  Otherwise, nothing of value will ever be invented right.  In some ways, Gampu's speech to Tee Gar about success is absolutely perfect.  It's something a good teacher would say. And it reminds me, absolutely, of moments between Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Wesley Crusher (Will Wheaton) in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994), particularly in shows such as "Coming of Age."

Still, these lessons for Tee Gar and Dramon feel a bit too preachy, and they are grounded in concepts that aren't that great.  A giant? A freeze ray?  Space Academy often aspires to be more than pulp-branded entertainment, and it's a bit sad to see "Planet of Fire" rely on such hoary ideas.

Next week: "Life Begins at 300."

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Space Academy: "The Phantom Planet" (October 29, 1977)

“The Phantom Planet” opens with Space Academy on high alert. 

"Chris, have you ever seen a ghost?" Commander Gampu (Jonathan Harris) urgently asks, before revealing on the main view screen how a strange world keeps materializing and de-materializing in space near the unstable asteroid, Proteus 9B.

Gampu sends the Blue Team in a Seeker to demolish the asteroid, despite the presence of the 'phantom planet' and Peepo is afraid. However, Loki is excited. "If you see a ghost," he tells Gentry, "let me know right away."

While Chris, Tee-Gar, and Paul set "tech-nite" charges to destroy the unstable asteroid, Laura, Adrian and Peepo are confronted by a strange ghost in a gray cloak. He beckons them to a cave, but the entrance is sealed.

Adrian blasts the cave open with a laser gun that looks like an office water dispenser jug, and inside the it, she and Laura discover a jeweled cavern. A group of golden eggs are ensconced there, and the ghost appears to be protective of them. Laura and Adrian take one at the ghost's urging, and return to the Academy with the others, beginning the countdown to the destruction of Proteus.

Back at the Academy, however, the alien contacts the cadets again.  It is decided that a séance should be held to determine what it wants.  The team soon learns that the eggs are memory "vessels” containing the ancient the wisdom of an alien civilization. They will "one day open and enrich the lives of people yet to be born," Gampu declares.

Since the asteroid is due to explode in any minute, the only way to safely retrieve the other golden eggs from it is for Laura and Chris to use their newly honed powers of "astro-portation." Thus they astral project themselves to the planet and retrieve all the eggs before the asteroid goes up in flames. Pleased, the Guardian now vanishes for all time, his mission accomplished.

“The Phantom Planet” is either a golden egg or a rotten one, depending on how you choose to look at it, I suppose.

Negatively, the alien guardian or ghost is a cheap, ridiculous-looking creation, like a refugee from a stage production of A Christmas Carol. Furthermore, his "howls" are obviously some actor standing off-stage bellowing like a kid trying to be "spooky" on Halloween night. The ghost sounds like something out of a Scooby Doo episode.

And then -- out of the blue -- Laura and Chris develop the power to astral project? It’s pretty convenient, right?

The story raises other questions too.  Why is the Academy intent on destroying the asteroid (even if it is unstable) once it's known a civilization once thrived there? Seems an archaeology professor somewhere would object to the demolition.  And why would the Academy – a school – be assigned a job in demolitions, especially a dangerous job in demolitions?

On the positive side, I must admit this kind of storytelling.  It has been done well on Star Trek many times, and can work in a science fiction setting. Basically, in plots of this type, space men (cadets or officers) encounters something apparently frightening -- at least on first blush -- only to learn that (to quote Space: 1999), we’re only aliens until we get to know one another. No shots are fired in anger.  

No one is killed.  Understanding is forged.  And a better future is made.

A story like this is about discovery, and overcoming the differences in people. The conflict comes not from anger, revenge, or malice, but from the unknown.

On that foundation, I would argue that “The Phantom Planet” is an entertaining and worthwhile story.  It just happens to be seriously hampered by that bad costume, and bad vocalizations of the “ghost.”

Also, I love the weird, unwieldly laser gun/drill that Adrian (Maggie Cooper) uses to blast open the cave entrance.

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Space Academy: "Monkey Business" (October 22, 1977)

I've been blogging Space Academy for some time now (at least six or seven weeks), and re-acquainting myself with this thirty-year old Saturday morning, live action show. It's been an enjoyable experience, mainly because I watched the series as a child and feel tremendous nostalgia for those bygone days of the 1970s. But also because the series features good special effects, and more importantly, nice, humanistic stories.

Much like Land of the Lost (1974-1977), Space Academy holds up to modern viewing assuming you make some concessions for context (like the idea that people will still be using the adjective "turkey" in the 30th century or so...).

But, every now and then, an episode of this Filmation series is just not very good. Still, a bad episode seems, at least at this juncture, the exception and not the rule.

"Monkey Business" is one of those bad ones.

As if an explanation is in order, just let me state, the episode involves a chimpanzee named Jake. 

You see, Adrian (Maggie Cooper) is working on an experiment involving chimpanzee/human communications. 

At around the same time, there's a disaster on a nearby asteroid mirror array, and Tee Gar (Brian Tochi) and Professor Bolt (Arnold Soboloff) are trapped on a planetoid as it freezes. 

As the temperature drops, both men are reduced to cowering underneath what appear to be tarps. This is actually an improvement, because the professor had been wearing what looks like a gold velour jogging outfit.

Anyway, Chris Gentry (Ric Carrott) and Paul (Ty Henderson) set out in a Seeker to help, but Loki  (Eric Greene) and Jake the ape have stowed away in the ship's rear compartment.

In attempting to repair the array, Chris must climb the scaffolding of a tower to reach a malfunctioning circuit board. But then he falls, and can't complete his mission.

So guess who has to fix the machinery? Yep, it's Jake the monkey, who just happens to be there on that mission. Exactly when he's needed. A perfectly convenient time to test human/chimp communication, right?

With the help of Adrian's experiment and Laura's psychic abilities, Jake proves successful.

Afterwards, Loki gets grounded for two weeks.

Well, what can I say? You can't have a "Countdown," a "Survivors of Zalon" or even a "Rocks of Janus" every time out the gate, right? 

 The problem with "Monkey Business" is that it doesn't really add anything new to our understanding of the cadets or their mission.  Another problem is that the story is obvious.

As much as I love Ark II (1976) -- another Filmation series -- I always hated that a talking chimpanzee, Adam, was part of the bargain.  Where did he come from? How could he talk?  The series never bothered to tell us, and so the character seemed like an attempt to pander to kids, and downplayed the series' overall (commendable) intelligence.  

Space Academy simply doesn't need a story featuring a monkey as a main character, especially a story that doesn't go in some exciting or fresh direction. 

I love chimpanzees, of course, and feel they are welcome in any cult-TV series if their presence arises from a good reason and not just a gimmick.  

But "Monkey Business" feels gimmicky to me.

That said, this episode features a nice miniature work and some good sets in terms of its depiction of the space array.

Next week: "The Phantom Planet."