Jason of Star Command

The 28 episodes of the Saturday morning sci-fi series "Jason of Star Command" were originally broadcast on CBS from 1978-1980. The first season's 16 episodes (15 minutes each) were the live action portion of "Tarzan and the Super 7". The 12 episodes from Season Two had their own thirty-minute time-slot.

The series was a "Space Academy" spin-off with a number of "Star Wars" features. It may remind contemporary viewers of the "Buck Rogers" series, or at least a low budget version targeted at pre-teen boys. Craig Littler plays the title character, a space pilot assigned to defend Star Command (a Division of Space Academy) from a "Ming the Merciless" type, the evil "Master of the Cosmos" Dragos (nicely overplayed by Sid Haig). Dragos commands a legion of mumbling creatures with moth heads, mostly they just sit around a table and listen to him rant about Jason. Littler is pretty much devoid of any real acting talent but at least knows enough to not look directly into the camera when speaking his lines.

Littler and Haig are about all that links the two seasons as the show was recast when it was renewed. You are unlikely to find a more extreme example of producers shooting themselves in the foot between seasons than what happened with this series. The show's original draws were James "Scotty" Doohan (who attracted to "Star Trek" fans) and Susan O'Hanlon (who filled out her costume so well that male viewers kept tuning in).

For Season Two Doohan was replaced by John "The Lawman" Russell, a decent actor who must have needed work very badly because he let them paint his face blue; although this make-up arrangement had no vital link to the storyline. O'Hanlon was replaced by Tamora "Cleopatra Jones" Dobson, who might actually have been a worse actor than Littler; which might account for the perception that his acting improved during the course of the series.

Also of note during Season Two was the three-episode appearance of an aging Francine York as Queen Medusa (a character probably based on her guest role as Queen Niolani ten years earlier on "Lost in Space"). Queen Medusa looked like my cub-scout den mother, but dressed in purple spandex and wearing way too much make-up.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Jason of Star Command is one of my favorite shows. As a young teenager, I had already enjoyed earlier related Filmation shows, Tarzan, and Space Academy both of which were great stuff. When Jason came out as part of the whole Tarzan and the Super 7 package, the whole 90 minutes worth of action just about blew me out of the water, and Jason was one of my favorite segments.

Jason was packed to the gills with great special effects produced on a shoestring budget. The whole production moved along at a brisk, sledgehammer pace, with solid stories, and reasonably good performances, in particular those of Charlie Dell (as Professor E.J. Parsafoot) and Sid Haig (Dragos), both of whom obviously had a great time filling their roles.

The whole thing was reminiscent of the old science fiction movie serials of the 40s, such as Undersea Kingdom and the Phantom Empire, as well as its contemporary serial like films Flesh Gordon and Starcrash.

The show (deservedly) earned its own half-hour time slot, but faded all to quickly, for my money.

Filmation did two other fine science fiction serials, both animated, in 1979, following Jason: Mighty Mouse: The Great Space Chase (as part of the New Adventures of Mighty Mouse, and later repackaged inaccurately for home video as Mighty Mouse's first "feature legnth movie") which was camped up to the hilt, and the beautifully animated (New Adventures of) Flash Gordon.

I remember this show as a throwback to the days of the serial. This did the cliff hanger bit at the end and while this isn't Shakespeare, I would rather watch it than any of today's Saturday morning kids fare or any of the things on Disney channel. As for it trying to capitalize on the Star Wars phenomena, things on television tend to go in cycles. During most of the 1950's, Westerns were hot just like during the 1970's,detective shows were the thing. It was great seeing James Doohan again. Sid Haig always was a great villain. It was fun seeing Julie Newmar on a kids show. It was supposed to be a fun Sci-Fi show and it delivered. Charlie Dell was a great choice to play the scientist, he character was unique.

I love cartoons. There, I admit it. Except for one thing. JOSC wasn't a cartoon. It was a spinoff of SA. According to the opening voice

over, Jason, last name unknown, worked out of a secret section of Space Academy. His superiors were Professor E.J. Parsafoot, and Space Academy's last two commanders. His enemy was

Dragos, a brutal dictator, who was the emperor of some unnamed empire. Jason of Star Command aired two years after Star Wars and was in the same vein. It was set some time in the far, distant future, when, exactly, we don't know. Watch both this, and Space Academy, they both do justice to each other.

I remember watching this Saturday morning kids show and being impressed with the special effects. Being a science fiction fan, any show about space, & stuff like, that I'd watch. This show had quite a large budget for being a Saturday morning "kids" show. I loved the asteroid that was "Star Command" and all the space ships. I was in my late 20's when this show aired, not really a kid, but I was when I watched. Wish I could find it again!!