Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Space Stars Episode #5 (October 10, 1981)

The omnibus space-age Super Friends knock-off Space Stars continues with this week’s stories.

In the Space Ghost story, “Eclipse Woman,” the “energy thief” known as Eclipse Woman attacks a primitive planet, draining it of all life…until the Phantom Cruiser and Space Ghost comes to the rescue.

Meanwhile, the Teen Force appears in “Decoy of Doom.”  The teen guardians detect a distress call originating from empty space. 

Actually, it’s a decoy by Uglor, who is testing a new weapon:  the Magnetron.  He captures the heroes in this magnetic “space net.”  Fortunately Kid Comet and the Astromites escape, and return to help their friends.

The Herculoids adventure this week is titled “The Energy Creature.” A “danger from the endless night of space” arrives on Quasar in a meteor: an energy creature that can alter its shape. The monster attacks Igoo and the other Herculoids, but Zandar tricks it into taking the form of a native plant that hibernates for a thousand years.

The second half of the hour kicks off with “Attack of the Space Sharks.”  

Vicious space sharks have been attacking the passenger ships on the regular space lanes. When Space Ghost and his friends investigate, they learn that the space-going sharks are actually starships controlled by the shark people of a water world.  Their leader, Remora -- who is dressed like Santa Claus for some reason -- has been collecting “souvenirs from the space lanes” in an attempt to take over the galaxy.

Apparently space magnets are the theme of the week since Astro and the Space Mutts, like the Teen Force story, involves them. 

In this case “Menace of the Magnet Maniac” involves Mario Magnetti, a magnet thief who attacks a “used rockets” lot. It’s Astro and Space Ace to the rescue.

The Space Stars finale is titled “Magnus,” and if features two grave threats for the Herculoids and Space Ghost to contend with.  

The first threat is a space criminal in an exo-skeleton suit, named Magnus.  

The second is a weird alien who is actually a child playing with strange, alien toys, not weapons.  

Magnus is defeated, and the alien’s parents arrive to take him home, in an ending straight out of Star Trek’s (1966-1969) “Squire of Gothos.”

The Space Magic interstitial this week finds Moleculad and Astromites performing a trick involving a one-step move to arrange coins in two rows of three. 

The Space Fact black-out stars the Herculoids and involves a discussion of gravity as it relates to Earth’s moon.  

The Space Mystery involves life on Quasar’s moon.  A warrior from that moon is a powerful enemy on his own planetoid, but on Quasar, the gravity differential renders him a weakling.  The Herculoids defeat him and send him home, where he can once more be a proud warrior.

Finally, there’s a numeric space code introduced by Space Ghost.