Benji, Zax & the Alien Prince

"At last your highness, planet Earth" says Zax to prince Yubi. The cute little prince (Christopher Burton) descends his spaceship and sees Benji. Then in a flashback we see what has happened on Anthar, Yubi's home planet where a tyrant has overthrown his family: "This world is mine now. All my enemies are in prison, except for young prince Yubi who has escaped to a primitive planet called Earth. Go there and get him!" "Dog - a four-legged mammal indigenous only to this planet. Used for chasing balls, fetching newspapers and ... that" explains the droid Zax as Benji barks and licks Yubi's face. And so starts every episode of this super cult series from the mid-eighties. I was so delighted to see it is out on DVD. The story seems a bit flat now in twenty years and the costumes are so camp, but this series still has a special place in my heart. The special effects that once got me excited are a bit out-of-date now, but the moral lessons in the episodes are still valid and besides it is pure fun

In this Saturday morning series, Benji is befriended by an Alien Prince (whose name I can't remember) and his floating yellow robot named Zax. However, the Alien Prince is being chased by two evil aliens (one male and one female) and their evil black robot, therefore it is up to Benji to protect them. Most of the plot involved the two evil aliens chasing Benji around town in their black van. This isn't exactly the best show, you can almost see the wires that make the robots float. However, Dallas Miles does turn in a good performance as the evil alien.

This project feature the dog Benji was a different twist. It took Benji the animal star of many family tear-jerker movies and put in into a science fiction project for the kiddie set. Benji discovers an alien vessel that has come from a highly advanced civilization. The pilot is a young buy who's planet has fallen under a dictatorship and his family was on the wrong side of this dictator. However he managed to escape his planet and hide on Earth. However two of his own people have been sent to Earth to retive him. Benji along with the prince's robot body guard Zax do their very best to protect him.

It's was too bad it only lived one season. Their have not been enough sci-fi action and the like, but the stories were well written and showed that Benji had a heart of gold even for those from the great beyond.