Space Sentinels

Produced by Filmthon (the people who brought us the 1970's anime of Tarzan and Star Trek) in 1977 and with a run of sadly only thirteen episodes this became my favorite (well one of at least) show of the time. "Hercules empowered with the strength of a hundred men..Astrea, able to assume any living form..Mercury , the amazing athlete who can match the speed of light...working together with me sentinal one and my maintenance robot , Mo" This is how the show began each week and each week and new and deadly foe would make the sentinals fly off from their lair inside a volcano (in which was hidden their space craft) to do battle , which they won and had the "team" laugh scene which everyone knows is the staple of all classic shows ! Somebody must release them soon, with the advent of DVD and the fact that each show was 20m mins long it would be easy to do but who would?

The Space Sentinels was a fun series which sadly only had a 13 episode run, a great pity as the episodes show plenty of imagination and the characters were a likable and for their time progressively diverse cast that I for one would have been happy to have seen more of. The series always felt like it had run for longer in the UK as most of the episodes were repeated a few times during the late 1970s.

The artwork is fine and generally richly coloured, and while people tend to get rather snooty about Filmation's work owing to their tendency to recycle their animation footage (albeit with whatever tweaking is required) this does lend their shows a consistency of style and character design (I've watched series by other studios where a perceptible change of artists jarringly makes familiar characters appear less so. Filmation doesn't have that problem at least).

The team comprises a trio of teenagers chosen from different parts of the world by a benign alien force and given super-powers to guard and help the rest of humanity. Astrea leads the team and has the power to transform into any creature she wishes. Hercules is a muscular blond Samson-type with super strength while the more slightly built Mercury has a more humorous edge and the ability of super speed. All three use belts which give them the ability of flight and normally reside in their space ship, hidden away inside a defunct volcano! They are watched over by Sentinel One, a huge holographic computerized head (representative of the alien force that empowered them and an impressively rendered visual). Maintenance robot MO is also on hand for lighter moments of interaction and comic relief.

The stories naturally belong mainly in the sci-fi / fantasy realm though occasionally featured antagonists from mythology and literature (Egyptian god Anubis, Norse god Loki and Jules Verne's Captain Nemo). The setting fluctuated between Earth and outer space with each episode having quite a distinct feel and theme, it was thus a shame we never got more of them.

This was perhaps my first ever favourite show as a young child in the late 1970s. The diverse casting of African, Asian and European main leads was a welcome change from other shows and progressive for its time, though this wasn't something we really thought about back then as we just accepted and liked the characters for who they were.

The release of the series on DVD was most welcome and enabled me to reconnect with all those cherished childhood memories of watching this show. The release features another series called Freedom Force (which I don't recall ever seeing) which also features Hercules from the Sentinels (though with a different voice actor and character) and slightly unfairly gets equal prominence on the DVD packaging despite only consisting of 5 episodes.

In summary, the Space Sentinels was a fun series that deserved a longer run and seems to have been almost forgotten in the US. Thanks to its more generous repeat airings in the UK it is perhaps better remembered by my generation here. Re-watching episodes from the series always makes me smile with nostalgia and gratitude that we had such fun and engaging shows when I was young.

I liked most of Filmation's stuff, but this one is near the top! Definitely one of my favorites of all time (along with 'Janna the jungle'! :D) I remember my cousins and I would play the parts in the cartoon right after we finished watching them on Saturday morning (and 2 of us would always fight over who got to play Hercules! As I was smaller than my cousin, I usually had to play the Mercury guy! LOL :D) I would also like to see this on DVD. With Rhino bringing out everything else, I don't see why this one wouldn't be possible. I would actually like to see Filmation's ENTIRE catalog on DVD! :) C'mon, Rhino (or Filmation or whomever) Hook us up!

The Space Sentinels, or The Young Sentinels, as it was originally named; was a fun series with flaws. Like much of Filmation's shows, it was done on the cheap, with repeated use of stock footage. The concept owed much to other sources, with the robot MO conjuring up Star Wars, and the Sentinels from different worlds, taken from Green Lantern (although, to be fair, Green Lantern borrowed it from the Lensmen saga). The voice acting was typical for Filmation, bland at times, but with some good moments. Still, the stories were imaginative, for the most part.

The Sentinels faced adversaries like Morpheus, a rogue Sentinel with all of their powers; Anubis, an alien being who was worshipped as a god by the ancient Egyptians; a sorceress; giant robots; and other menaces. Astrea was the leader, able to change shape into any animal form. Hercules was the strong man, and a bit of a dope. Mercury was the speedster and resident jokester; and MO, short for Maintenance Operator, was the comic relief and handy-robot. They were advised by Sentinel One, a sentient computer, which provided information and ran the functions of their ship. He appeared as a holographic projection of a head.

Filmation did have one feature that made them stand out from other studios: they were very socially progressive. There was a diverse racial mix within the group; Astrea was African,Mercury was Asian. Astrea was the leader, and clearly the most intelligent. This was still fairly radical in the 70's.

I have never seen the show in syndication and only a few episodes were released on video in the US. In fact, little of Filmation's catalogue has been released on any video format, except Star Trek. Hopefully, with DVD, we may see some of their better shows see the light of day.