Jason of STAR COMMAND

[RobertScorpio]

I Just got this series via NETFLIX and, so far, I like it. I barely remember it back in the 70s. Yes, it is aimed at kids, and my son is enjoying it.

Its fun to watch it, for me, to see the admittedly low production value, but then enjoying the attempt to make it on a shoe string budget. Jimmy Doohan, pretty much playing Scotty, is an added bonus. Samuel Peeples even wrote the first episode. I find my self cheering for the writing and FX even though its clear they are not the best...

Rob

 

[ManOnTheWave]

All I remember about this show was that it used the sets from Space Academy. And that every planet had that same damn tree on it.

 

[Christopher]

I was a big fan of this show back in the day, and I own the DVDs now. The FX were actually quite good for a Saturday morning TV show in the late '70s. On this and the show it was spun off from, Space Academy, Filmation was able to make use of some of the talent that had recently made a little movie called Star Wars, and the results were quite sophisticated for the day. The show was particularly praised for its stop-motion creature animation.

The Star Wars influence in Jason is pretty obvious. Jason is basically a more clean-cut Han Solo, Dragos owes as much to Darth Vader as Ming the Merciless, and the level of action and space combat is seriously ramped up from the wholesome, nonviolent stories of Space Academy (although the enemy ships are always robot drones so nobody gets hurt). Though the format of the first season is a tribute to the old adventure serials that inspired Star Wars -- it's a single, serialized story consisting of sixteen 12-minute chapters with cliffhanger endings.

When I saw this as a kid, though, I didn't appreciate just how hot Susan O'Hanlon was...

 

[RobertScorpio]

I was a big fan of this show back in the day, and I own the DVDs now. The FX were actually quite good for a Saturday morning TV show in the late '70s. On this and the show it was spun off from, Space Academy, Filmation was able to make use of some of the talent that had recently made a little movie called Star Wars, and the results were quite sophisticated for the day. The show was particularly praised for its stop-motion creature animation.

The Star Wars influence in Jason is pretty obvious. Jason is basically a more clean-cut Han Solo, Dragos owes as much to Darth Vader as Ming the Merciless, and the level of action and space combat is seriously ramped up from the wholesome, nonviolent stories of Space Academy (although the enemy ships are always robot drones so nobody gets hurt). Though the format of the first season is a tribute to the old adventure serials that inspired Star Wars -- it's a single, serialized story consisting of sixteen 12-minute chapters with cliffhanger endings.

When I saw this as a kid, though, I didn't appreciate just how hot Susan O'Hanlon was...

Thanks for the inside info...We just watched the first episode last night and Doohan was off on some world that looked like one of those fake worlds from TOS, so it had a TOS feel to it...

And yes, the FX are not too bad. And its non-sense filled fun. My son thought that it kind of felt like Buck Rogers. But if I'm not mistaken, this show predates Buck (Gil Girard version) by several years...

The voice of the bad guy's computer must be the same voice of the Batcomputer from the Norm Prescott Batman cartoon of the time..we have that on DVD as well...such good memories..

Rob

 

[Christopher]

My son thought that it kind of felt like Buck Rogers. But if I'm not mistaken, this show predates Buck (Gil Girard version) by several years...

Actually they overlapped. Jason was 1978-79, Buck was 1979-81.

The voice of the bad guy's computer must be the same voice of the Batcomputer from the Norm Prescott Batman cartoon of the time..

That was Lou Scheimer, who cofounded Filmation Associates with Norm Prescott and co-produced all their shows with him up until the '80s, when Prescott left. Filmation was a small company, and Scheimer did plenty of voice work on all its shows, usually as the narrator or as various supporting characters, though occasionally in a lead role (such as Dumb Donald on Fat Albert or Orko on He-Man). His family got into the act too; for instance, his daughter Erika often did voice work and contributed music to some of the '80s Filmation series.

 

[drychlick]

i love this show! wish they would make a update movie

 

[Alpha_Geek]

Even as a kid, my reaction was:

"My god, they stole the nose off of Ark II!!!!!"

 

[Christopher]

Even as a kid, my reaction was:

"My god, they stole the nose off of Ark II!!!!!"

That was the Seeker from Space Academy. JoSC had different ships, the Starfires, though the Seeker was used once or twice.

The Starfire interior set was, however, a redress of the Seeker interior set.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

Whichever show, whatever name, the nose was the removed nose of the Ark II full scale vehicle. Somewhere out there, there is a website that talks about the actual vehicle, and how the nose was removed when they actually moved the thing on the road between locations.

Here are some sites with information and photos... anything look familiar, O kids of a later generation?

http://www.angelfire.com/tv2/ark2/vehicles.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ark_II
http://www.70slivekidvid.com/ark.htm

 

[Peter the Younger]

I watched thi one as a kid, it was fun.

(The SW connection went full circle for me; when Brian Daley's Han Solo trilogy came out, I couldn't help picture Blue Max as Wiki.)

 

[Christopher]

^I may have done something similar, though I don't remember for sure.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

I have vague memories of this show even though I watched it faithfully. I of course remember Dragos and his eye piece. I also think I remember parts of Space Academy. Wasn't there a kid who had telekinesis and another who was really strong?

 

[Christopher]

More or less. Most of the students on Space Academy had superpowers. Brother and sister Chris and Laura Gentry could communicate telepathically and use telekinesis when they concentrated together. Tee Gar Soom, being Asian, had stereotypical martial-arts skills and superstrength. Paul Jerome was really smart. Loki the alien kid could teleport and see in infrared, and was super-annoying. Okay, that wasn't officially one of his powers, but it might as well have been.

Oh, and there was Adrian. I don't remember her having a power. I think she was the resident inventor, but she wasn't featured much.

 

[Mistral]

Whichever show, whatever name, the nose was the removed nose of the Ark II full scale vehicle. Somewhere out there, there is a website that talks about the actual vehicle, and how the nose was removed when they actually moved the thing on the road between locations.

Here are some sites with information and photos... anything look familiar, O kids of a later generation?

http://www.angelfire.com/tv2/ark2/vehicles.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ark_II
http://www.70slivekidvid.com/ark.htm

Fond memories of Jason and Ark II. THank you for bringing it up!