In
“Attack of the Dragons,” Jason (Craig Littler’s) star fire is buffeted by
Dragos’ (Sid Haig) electron storm. He
determines that the ship can return to normal space only after the storm is
struck by laser cannons.
But
as Commander Canarvin (James Doohan) reports, Star Command is a sitting duck,
coming under attack by Dragos’ drone interceptors. Still, the Commander manages
to fire the lasers and free Jason.
Jason
returns the favor, launching a suicide run against Dragos’ Dragon ship and
forcing the villain to withdraw. He succeeds, and Dragos retreats.
For
Jason, Nicole (Susan O’Hanlon) and Professor Parsafoot (Charlie Dell) is a
home-coming long awaited.
But
Star Command has not yet heard the last of Dragos.
This
fifteen minute segment of Jason of Star Command (1978-1980) is
dominated by very strong Star Wars era visual effects. A Star
Fire escapes from an electron storm, and meanwhile, Star Command is buffeted by
an enemy squadron.
The
effects hold up nicely, with only one caveat.
There’s a lot of model incongruities or dis-connects, largely because of
one fact. Some episodes back, Princess Allegra returned to Star Command in a
pod, so Jason’s Star Fire is now pod-less, so-to-speak. However, many effects shots in this
installment show confusion over that fact. Some shots feature the pod; some
don’t.
Speaking
of Princess Allegra (Roseanne Katon), she and Captain Kidd (Brendan Dillon)
share the same fate after this show. They are not seen, heard from, or referred
to again. They are written out of the
story, going forward. Perhaps Princess
Allegra decided to return home, but what about Captain Kidd? He’s a man out of another time period all
together. Where will he go? How will he get there? What will he do?
Jason
of Star Command doesn’t answer any of those questions. Still, Captain Kidd has
a nice moment in this episode when he navigates Jason’s Star Fire using
nautical tools of a bygone era.
“Attack
of the Dragons” might be considered a kind of section break or pivot point in
the sixteen episode first season saga. Dragos is vanquished (temporarily), and
all the main characters -- Jason, Nicole, Canarvin, Parsafoot and Wiki -- are
back home.
Next
week, a regular character from Space Academy returns: Peepo! That’s in Chapter 9, “Peepo’s Last Chance.”
JASON OF STAR COMMAND Starfire model special effects battles rivaled anything in primetime on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA '78 or BUCK ROGERS '79.
ReplyDeleteFilmation always delivered for us children of the '70s.
SGB
The SFX in this episode were top notch. Also, loved the music cuts from the Filmation archives. But Commander Carnarvan is pretty pathetic in this episode. This is the commander and he's helpless as to what to do without Jason. Jason should have been promoted and gotten a pay raise!
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