In
“Planet of the Lost,” Chapter 6 of the first season of Jason of Star Command
(1978-1980), Jason and Allegra find themselves trapped on another strange
planetoid. This one, alas, is inhabited
by a fearsome alien (rendered with stop-motion photography).
Jason
(Craig Littler), Nicole (Susan Pratt) and Allegra (Roseanne Katon) bicker over what to do, with
Allegra resenting Jason’s orders, and Jason angry at the princess’s imperious
nature.
They reconcile, however, when
Allegra is threatened by the monster, and Jason proves himself in a forgiving
mood. “We all make dumb moves from time to time…even little princesses,” he
says.
Meanwhile,
in space, Wiki is trapped by a drone interceptor tractor beam, but Star Command
intervenes and saves the droid.
Unfortunately, as Commander Canarvin (James Doohan) realizes, the base
is too weak to take on Dragos (Sid Haig) directly. Instead, Professor Parsafoot
(Charlie Dell) uses a new experiment to simulate an ion storm, and this tricks
Dragos into withdrawing from the field of battle.
Left
with some time to breather, Parsafoot heads to the planetoid to save Jason and
Allegra. But on the return voyage, Dragos returns and casts the star fire into
the limbo of the lost,” a universe of lost souls, in some ways like a cosmic
Bermuda Triangle.
Perhaps
more than any other story so far, “Planet of the Lost” is brimming with
action. In particular, Jason and Allegra
encounter a strange alien, and must battle it.
The creature looks great, in terms of stop-motion animation, and it is
always amazing to me that a series created so quickly and so cheaply could
feature such effects. It is amusing, however, that this monster has an electrically-charged tongue!
What
seems bafflig, perhaps, about this episode, is that Jason and Allegra -- who have
worked side-by-side together seamlessly in previous episodes -- suddenly start bickering and
sniping at one another.
One gets the
feeling that the writers were aiming for a Han Solo/Princess Leia vibe or rivalry here,
but it absolutely doesn’t work. Jason is
far more earnest than Solo, for one thing.
For another, Allegra has spent her last several months as a “monster,”
transformed by Dragos, and doesn’t really demonstrate many outbreaks of
attitude or haughtiness. She's not a spoiled brat princess, for sure.
As
a result, both Jason and Allegra seem woefully out of character in this
installment. And Jason’s response (excerpted above) to her bad behavior is paternalistic at best, and patronizing at
worst.
Next
week: “Marooned in Time.”
No comments:
Post a Comment