In
Jason
of Star Command (1978-1980) Chapter 9, “Peepo’s Last Chance,” Dragos
(Sid Haig) has repaired his Dragonship and is scouring the universe for signs
of Jason.
On
Arcturon, Drago’s minions locate a couple of Star Command droids: Peepo and
Wiki. They are there conducting a
defense survey of the world, but Dragos orders them captured.
Jason
(Craig Littler) and Nicole (Susan O’Hanlon) take a Star Fire to the planet, but
in the mean-time
Peepo is connected to a dragon terminal and made to reveal top
secret information about Star Command and its technology.
Jason
manages to free his friends, but the day is not saved. Though Jason doesn’t know it, Peepo has been
brain-washed and now serves the evil Dragos.
“Peepo’s
Last Chance” is not much more than a runaround -- a show with little emotional
or narrative depth, concerning instead rescues, escapes, and chases. In this circumstance, Jason and Nicole must save
two diminutive robots, Peepo and Wiki from Dragos.
Wiki
spends a great deal of time on the top of Peepo’s computerized head this week,
and I could not help but think of Twiki and Dr. Theopolis from Buck
Rogers in the 25th Century.
But the real antecedents here?
R2-D2 and C3PO, the beloved droid duo
from Star
Wars (1977). Here, Peepo
considers Wiki an “annoying kid brother,” according to Jason, and that seems
like an attempt to recreate the relationship dynamic of the famous gold
protocol droid and his mischief-making astromech pal.
This
is the first episode on my re-watch wherein I first felt a sense of creeping sameness or routine. We’ve seen Dragos’ evil plan before, as well
as his capture of Star Command personnel.
We’ve even seen the spaghetti-monster minions and the wasteland
planetoid before. And, of course, we’ve seen rescues and escapes galore.
I
guess in a large multi-part “serial” like this one, some parts qualify as
filler. That’s certainly the case with “Peepo’s Last Chance,” though in
fairness the episode does set up, ably, the possibility of future
betrayal. Peepo has been turned!
Next
week: “The Disappearing Man.”
The spaghetti-monster minions design was prior seen episodes of Lost In Space.
ReplyDeleteSGB
I really liked this episode because it is the first chapter that strongly connects JOSC to its parent series Space Academy. Although Peepo is pretty lame, as I child I loved Peepo and was excited to see this character from the original program. I wish they has used more SA characters. The next episode is great too as it features the seeker and another character from SA.
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