Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Space Stars Episode #7 (October 24, 1981)

In the seventh episode of Hanna Barbera’s Space Stars (1981), Space Ghost goes up against another space pirate. This one is named Krugar and looks like of Larry Niven’s Kzin.  

After Krugar is captured and held in a force field, the Phantom Cruiser passes through a radiation cloud.  The exposure to the cloud -- just like in The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) -- causes the crew to shrink.  An antidote is developed, and Krugar’s annihilator ray actually makes it more effective. “No matter how large or how small,” the narrator intones, “no evil can defeat…Space Ghost.”

“Uglor’s Power Play” is the Teen Force adventure of the week. Harnessing the brilliant minds of the scientists on the planet Centrix, Uglor gives himself the powers of all the Teen Force members. One of the scientists is a floating brain in a jar!

The Herculoids story this week features a space pirate too. “The Buccaneer” finds an alien visiting Quasar in search of buried treasure. Amusingly, the Herculoids seek the help of a group of subterranean people called “Sand People.”  They resemble not Tatooine’s Tusken Raiders, however, but rather the Jawas! They have the cloaks, and the glowing eyes.

The second Space Ghost story, “The Sorceress” involves a witch “who depends on machinery,” and the unrequited love she has for Space Ghost. Here, she captures him and takes his power bands, all while demanding his “heart.”

In “Rock Punk,” the Astro and the Space Mutts story, a mountainside sculpture of the Space Stars – “Mount SpaceMore” -- is stolen by the villain Rock Punk. His next theft involves the Earth’s moon.  Rock Punk, strangely, wears roller skates.  He also says things like “Can you dig it?”  At the end of the tale, he is captured and sent to Space-traz, instead of Alcatraz.

The final story, “The Olympians,” finds the Teen Force helping the Hercuoids to battle descendants of the mighty Greek Gods, including the children of Hercules, Mercury, Zeus and Medusa.

The Space Magic interlude this week stars Kid Comet and the Astromites and involves making a magic wand disappear.  Space Fact and Space Mystery both start Space Ghost and involve an explanation of life support systems.  The space code is SKCOR ('rocks' backwards), and features host Elektra of the Teen Force.