Jason of Star Command

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!!

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.

Perhaps the biggest budget 1970s Saturday morning series. And set in space.

Without Youtube, it is hard to find this series today, what was it like? Despite Star Trek's James Doohan being present in the first season, it is actually the second season (when he is gone) that the show really comes together.

The whole series is partly damaged by a constantly laughing villain - Sid Haig as "Dragos" - who acts like he is in a High School play. Thankfully, he seems to get less screen time in season two and we have newly introduced characters in the second year to focus on (blue faced John Russell as The Commander and "Samantha").

The second season also has the episodes expanded to 25 minutes but still in the serial format. You can totally follow year two without seeing year one, so if you don't wish to invest time into watching the whole series - I would just jump right into the second year.

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.

After watching all the tapes of Space Academy and the spin-off from the series, Jason of Star Command, I had some sad feelings. The idea that a 'secret' base (that all the bad guys KNEW was on the Space Academy asteroid) could have made this show truly unique as opposed to a predictable adventure show with hairy aliens and monsters. I realize that corporate backing and intent was more serialized-similar to the old cliff-hanger type shows, but either the writing did not allow for expansion or the 15 minute time factor stifled this series' growth. If FILMATION's idea was to copy the 1950's style of show, they accomplished their mission-perhaps, a little too well.

Unfortunately, with the real space program expanding along side while this show aired, there was no way it could live past the short time it was broadcast. There were one or two gadgets but none of the futuristic thinking that had made science fiction shows, even for the younger viewers, interesting. Dragos, the bad guy, had a ship that was hard to believe but, an energy-dragon from another dimension is just too ridiculous for me to accept. Let's not even talk about the reused sets from Space Academy series.

Even the name factor of James Doohan could not save it. With the talented Doohan and Mr. Russell, this was a valiant attempt on their part to raise the show to acceptable standards. Other than the lovely Samantha and the odd, Professor Parsafoot, (Charlie Dell is also a wonderful actor), the only other interesting 'person' was the "WIKI" robot. Lady, gentlemen, robot-you tried. Thank you.

Keeping Samantha, the only person of color on the show was noteworthy. Coloring Commander Stone in blue was another. There were some quirky twists that made it tolerable.

I do like this show. But I cannot take it seriously-and I wanted to! I shake my head because I liked the Jason character-to a point. Some of the space ships and fight scenes were the only interesting props we, as viewers, saw.

But the actors and technological attempts were not enough to save the show from being relegated as a 'campy' show. Two shows with the potential for excellence (think Star Trek: The Academy Years married to Mission Impossible) are now listed in media history books and in all likelihood will be forgotten.