Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Space Stars: Episode 2 (September 19, 1981)

In Hanna Barbera’s Space Stars (1981) episode two, the hour begins with a Space Ghost story called “The Starfly.”

While Space Ghost s combating a star beast who has attacked transport ships Ulysses and Cosmos, Blip encounters a friendly alien star fly on Ghost Planet. The creature is suffering from a “radiation overdose.”

The star fly spins a cocoon and becomes a star beast too, but the monster remembers his friendship with Blip, and remains friendly. Space Ghost is impressed because “no one has ever tamed a star beast before.”

This episode is better than the previous Space Ghost installments since it at least seems to have a point.  A kindness given is not forgotten, even when one “grows up.”

The Teen Force episode “Death Ray,” meanwhile, explores Uglar’s latest attempt to destroy Black Hole X and forever lock his enemies out of our universe.

The second Space Ghost affair, “The Anti-Matter Man” involves a scientist, Dr. Conta, who is transformed into a Mr. Hyde-type anti-matter monster, and must be restored to normal.

Last week’s Herculoids story was about fire, this week it’s about ice. In “The Ice Monster,” a melting iceberg has a deadly secret inside a giant armored robot. This goliath attacks the Herculoids’ camp.

In Astro and the Space Mutts this week, the story is called “Reverso” and it involves a master computer stolen by a villain named Reverso, who can “reverserize” things.

The finale cross over, “Dimension of Doom” sees the return of Uglar. He uses a special weapon to transform Jan, Jace and even Space Ghost into hairy space mutants.  The Teen Force arrives to help, even as Space Ghost fights to control his transformations.

One of the omnibus “black outs” this week, “Space Mystery” involves Space Ace, Cosmo and Digger’s trip fishing when they attempt to resolve the mystery of sea monster whose foot prints have disappeared. 

The answer involves high tide, which washed away evidence of the monster’s presence.

This hour, like the first, is extremely juvenile in story-telling and science fiction. There’s lots of laser beams movement and monsters, but very little in terms of intriguing concepts.