As Samantha and Jason seek out the beam’s source, Star Command nears destruction. The base’s power systems frozen, it lurches dangerously towards a dwarf star…
On the surface of the inhospitable planetoid, Jason and Samantha meet “Tehor,” a monstrous minion of Dragos who is responsible for controlling the freeze beam.
Realizing that she may be Star Command’s last chance for survival, Samantha pretends to be an ally to Tehor and Dragos, and betrays Jason. In reality, her actions are an excuse to get the duo into the base and to the all-important freeze beam control system.
Straight-forward
and to-the-point “Frozen in Space” by Margaret Armen is buttressed by some
outstanding special effects work, and a dramatic through-line that is actually
pretty impressive in terms of children’s television.
In the case of the former, “Frozen in Space” features some dynamic miniature shots of Star Command under the burning shadow of a giant dwarf star. There’s also a terrific composition here involving Jason’s Star Fire descending to the planetoid surface.
In the case of the former, “Frozen in Space” features some dynamic miniature shots of Star Command under the burning shadow of a giant dwarf star. There’s also a terrific composition here involving Jason’s Star Fire descending to the planetoid surface.
Jason’s encouraging reply suggests that she can be whom she chooses to be. In that answer, one can detect how a good message is being transmitted to the kiddies out there in TV land.
It’s not too heavy-handed, but Samantha’s plight reminds the viewer that people should be judged by the content of their character, not by stereotypes or other external factors which may not truly consider the measure of a man, or woman.
Samantha also claims this week to be a person from a race called “the Capillos.” I don’t remember if that moniker recurs or not in future episodes…
Other
than the nice character development about Samantha proving to herself she is
not evil in nature, “Frozen in Space” is a pretty rudimentary narrative affair with captures,
escapes, and more captures. My friend
Mateo Latosa, editor at Powys Media, calls this brand of story a
“run around.” The characters run lots of
places, rescue each other, get captured, and then defeat the villain…but not
much meaningful actually happens. The pure movement and busy-ness of the enterprise distracts you from the thematic emptiness. The original Dr. Who, in the early
years, did a lot of these “runaround” stories, and after a while they certainly
grow tiresome.
Here, Jason of Star Command seems more obsessed with action than interesting sci-fi storytelling: Jason smashes the freeze beam control panel by throwing a
chair at it! Not exactly a high-minded solution, though it certainly gets the job done.
Besides
the narrative’s general lack of ingenuity, “Frozen in Space” features quite
possibly the slowest, worst-aimed paralysis beam in TV history.
Samantha and Jason (and WiKi) all attempt to avoid the ray, yet somehow manage to outrun and pivot around the bloody thing. Dragos needs to upgrade his technology or something.
Samantha and Jason (and WiKi) all attempt to avoid the ray, yet somehow manage to outrun and pivot around the bloody thing. Dragos needs to upgrade his technology or something.
Probably
the biggest disappointment of the week is that Jason and Commander Stone don’t
get to interact, and continue their contentious process of coming to understand one
another. Stone is trapped on Star
Command with Parsafoot, and Jason is away on the planet, so there aren’t many
character fireworks.
But, of course, "Frozen in Space" is aimed at kids, not at adults seeking thematic complexity. Hopefully things get a little more fun and elaborate next week...
Next episode: "Web of the Star Witch!"
But, of course, "Frozen in Space" is aimed at kids, not at adults seeking thematic complexity. Hopefully things get a little more fun and elaborate next week...
Next episode: "Web of the Star Witch!"
In last week's review, you stated that you considered 'Jason' to be more 'Star Wars' than 'Star Trek'. Ironically, this episode was written by Margaret Armen who wrote 3 episodes of classic Trek as well as 2 episodes of animated Trek (and some 'Land of the Lost'). Some of this ep's plot seem to have been dictatated by the regulations for saturday morning tv. When Samantha is captured by Tehor's creatures, she puts up very little resistance. That seems to contradict the last week's episode where she showed such super strength. Was the writer told to avoid 'violent' fights between characters? Later, Samantha reveals that exercising that strength 'drains' her (so there could be some justification for her easy capture).
ReplyDeleteSome spectacular effects open the show. The back-lit animation 'freeze-ray' is especially impressive compared to the cheap video effects used in the live-action Krofft shows of the era. I had watched some of the Krofft shows (on the 'Sid and Marty Krofft Saturday Morning Hits' DVD) before looking at this ep of 'Jason'. Sid Haig appeared in an ep of 'Elektra Woman'. His acting in JOSC seems tasteful and understated compared to his outrageous and over the top acting in the Krofft show. In fact, almost all of the acting in 'Jason' is understated compared to the acting in some of the Krofft shows. Professor Parsafoot's 'goofiness' irritated me as a kid, but seems less irritating now.
Tehor and the other creatures are definately less impressive now. When the show first aired, they looked fairly cool (as did 'Dr Who's and 'Space:1999's year 2 creatures). I did have some appreciation for the effort put in to make them. The first issue of Fangoria magazine featured a nice article on the making of these JOSC creatures. The lighting in the sets for the the asteriod should have been more careful. The painted mountain flats cast very distracting shadows on the 'sky' background (this might have been unavoidable given the very small size of the sets).
In closing, this ep is a mixed bag. I'm really enjoying your weekly reviews for 'Jason' and 'Fantastic Journey'.
As always, John. Another excellent review of a classic science fiction saga. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDelete