This
week’s Space Stars begins with the Space Ghost segment “City in Space.”
The Phantom Cruiser, moving along the inner
worlds of civilized space, encounter a floating city ship on a collision course
with the sun. The ship’s denizens have
forgotten that they are on a ship, and are ruled by a malfunctioning computer
that believes the new visitors are “demons.” Space Ghost and his friends must activate the city’s engines and avoid
total catastrophe.
“City
in Space” -- if you couldn’t tell from the synopsis above -- is a total
knock-off of The Starlost (1973). That series involved a city ship too,
Earthship Ark. It too was on a collision
course with a star, and its denizens, except for the protagonists, had lost all
knowledge of their ship. The mission of
the main characters was to find the engine room, activate the engines, and
avert disaster.
The domed metropolis in "City in Space" even looks like one of the dome habitats from Earthship Ark.
The
Teen Force story this week is called “Prison Planet” and it more in common with
Star
Wars (1977). The evil warlord Uglar
has captured the beautiful Princess Chrysa aboard his spaceship, and the Teen
Force must come to the rescue. The
heroes make a mistake, however, and believe she is being held on a “heavy
gravity” prison planet. They must engineer
their escape from the wardens, who resemble dwarf scarecrows, and rescue the
princess in time.
Intriguingly,
there are walking tanks in this episode that resemble Imperial AT-ATs, and one
must wonder why Uglar interferes with his own scheme when it seems to work so
perfectly. The Teen Force is decoyed to the inescapable prison and locked in a
cell. Why not just leave it there?
Instead, defying sense, Uglar has to get involved.
In
The Herculoids story this week, “The Snake Riders,” the Herculoids must contend
with other beings from Quasar. The Snake Riders live on the other side of the
planet, but are separated by an ocean. Now,
however, they have found an underground cavern and tunnel system, and use it to
attack the Herculoids’ valley.
Meanwhile
in the second Space Ghost segment, “The Toymaker,” Space Ghost sees his camping
trip with Jan, Jace and Blip interrupted by robots created by his nemesis. The Toymaker wishes to steal Space Ghost’s
power band and create an army of robot Space Ghosts to do his bidding.
“The
Education of Puglor” is the Astro and the Space Mutts selection of the
week. Puglar is Uglar’s nephew, and he
visits a planet called “Space Springs,” which he attempts to take over. This
episode has the audacity to recycle a Don Adams “would you believe?” joke.
The
Space
Stars finale, “Worlds in Collision,” sees a team up between Space Ghost
and the Herculoids. The evil Uglar has set Quasar and the Ghost planet on a
collision course. Both planets will be destroyed unless his plan can be foiled. Again, science is a stumbling block. Two planets are yanked out of their orbits
and sent hurtling into the void of space to collide, but certainly the very act
of leaving their original orbits would be destructive enough to assure Uglar’s
victory.
In
“Space Magic” this week, Space Ace demonstrates to Astro how to make his finger
look like an alien inside a box (hint: cut a hole in the bottom of the box and
insert your decorated digit…). Space
Mystery features the Herculoids and it shows how Doro knows not to trust an
alien stranger that arrives on Quasar.
“Space
Fact” also features the Herculoids and explains why stars shine. The Space Code of the week spells out Uglar’s
name.
“Adventures as big as the cosmos?” Not
exactly.
No comments:
Post a Comment